Violencia

French guitarist Cyril Achard is back in an aggressive power trio format for 'Violencia', an album which boasts just one guitar with no overdubs working with a grooving rhythm section. 'Violencia' signals Achard's intention to produce driving rock once again some seven years away from the scene. During the time away Cyril has been working in a jazz format building up a strong following around the world with his jazz trio who released the acclaimed 'Trace' CD/DVD dual pack on Lion Music in 2007. Reuniting with Cyril once again to form his backing band are the highly esteemed musicians, bassist Franck Hermanny and drummer Eric Lebailly. Best known for being members of France's biggest metal band Adagio, the rhythm section also have previous recording history with Achard on the '...In Inconstancia Constans' release (2001 Lion Music). 'Violencia' marks Achard's most metal and aggressive of all his electric guitar releases to date. The style of the album could be viewed as a cross between Steve Lukather-ish instrumentals whilst the driving power of album comes as an influence from Metallica, which, whilst not in the same musical ballpark, the metal legends raw power provided Achard with the inspiration to make more powerful tunes again, 'St Hetfield' is such a nod to this. Generally 'Violencia' can be considered a simple, straight rock instrumental CD. Achard comments, "In the past people only talked about the complexity of my compositions with no mention of my melodies and song writing and I guess I was thinking I hadn't finished the job of what songs are about. So "Violencia" is out to show that I can compose 4 minute tunes with definite intros, verses, choruses and solo sections woven into instrumental frameworks". 'Violencia' proves itself to be an accessible instrumental offering with Achard's best playing to date in a rock setting.