Well it would appear as though James Murphy is a busy man these days. Not only is he well known for his prior work as guitarist for renowned bay area thrashers, Testament, he's also developed quite a following as columnist for Guitar Player Magazine as well as producing one of Shrapnel's previous best sellers, his first solo offering "Convergence." Incidentally, whoever packaged this bio in with the disc must have had that record in mind.

"Feeding the Machine," Murphy's latest, possesses those bombastic rhythms that recent releases from Testament have been known to produce, Murphy's taken those thick riffs along with him for his latest ride and made proper use of his six string talents to produce a bona-fide winner that could well turn out to be Shrapnel's biggest seller. "Feeding the Machine" as it's "deconstructed" if you will, features a bevy of talented musicians all lending their skills to this latest project. The core of performers features, surprise, surprise, James Murphy doing the guitar work, plus Steve Digiorgo, known for his bass bashing with the likes of heavy hitters Sadus and Death, and well known veteran drummer Deen Castronovo. Fans of both Murphy and Testament will be psyched to hear Chuck Billy's unmistakable growls fronting "No One Can Tell You," while current label-mates, singer John West and keyboard wizard Vitali Kuprij lend their respective talents to "Visitors" and "Feeding the Machine," the opening song.

If you expected to hear one of those endlessly technical, instrumentally overwhelming records that gives you the yawns before it's halfway through, think again. While there's no denying the advanced workmanship that's brought about on "Feeding the Machine," this is without question a heavy metal record, the key word being "heavy," complemented by the combined efforts of Murphy's lengthy list of guests. Keep in mind, as good a guitarist as he is, serving time with the likes of Death, Obituary and Testament, isn't likely to rub off so quickly where he'll polish off and lighten up and do something beyond recognition-which he fittingly has not. But fans will surely find a number of surprises mixed in with the outer-lying barrage of guitar particularly with the closing track "In Lingua Mortua" and a dazzling cover of "Race with Devil on Spanish Highway," that if I'm not mistaken first turned up on an early Riot album. Anyway, Murphy's second "solo" effort is a great album for guitar virtuosos but also a great album for musician minded fans and metal heads alike, so dig into your pockets and feed the machine