Neogenesis, the second instrumental guitar album by Basel, Switzerland-based guitarist and composer Marco Puglisi, or more accurately his alter ego, Syndrone, is a sprawling nearly-70-minute opus loaded with just about everything in a modern-day shredder’s arsenal.
Take Doomsday Apocalypse, for example: a gargantuan eight-and-a-half-minute offering that finds the 2019 Guitarist of the Year finalist shredding to the high heavens amid an arrangement which evokes a sense of desolate grandeur. Or the rather shorter Entering the Oblivion Sphere, which brings both tempo and runtime down a notch, allowing Puglisi to flex his more melodic, feel-driven lead guitar chops.
One of the record’s highlights, though, has to be Android God Revolution, which features not only Puglisi’s stellar playing, but also that of British multi-instrumentalist, Andy Gillion.
Following three-and-a-half minutes of seven-string flexing on Puglisi’s part, Gillion enters the fray, first harmonizing with his Swiss-based counterpart before setting off on his own face-melting trajectory, featuring lightning-quick alternate-picking runs aplenty. And in this new playthrough, premiered exclusively at Guitar World, the pair put their respective parts on full display.
“I have been following Andy for quite some time and I have always loved his music, arrangements, riffs and melodies,” Puglisi says, reflecting on how Gillion came to have a guest spot on the track.
“What I look for in a guest guitar player is advanced guitar technique, for sure, because my music is definitely more in the technical realm of metal, but I always prefer players who can contribute to the track and come up with guitar lines that make sense. And Andy did exactly that!”
Gear-wise, Puglisi plays a custom-made Waghorn Corax seven-string guitar loaded with a Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat humbucker in the bridge position and a single-coil in the neck, through a custom-made boost pedal and an Axe-Fx III amp modeler. Gillion, on the other hand, plays his trademark Daemoness Cimmerian six-string electric guitar.
“To me, Android God Revolution is a very melodic and diverse track,” says Puglisi. “I usually try to choose melody over technical shredding and I think this track has a really good balance between these two aspects of modern metal guitar playing.”
