Chris Caffery is one of the most established and versatile guitarists in the world of heavy rock and metal today. He started out his career in the band Heaven in 1984 and went on to join metal legends Savatage. In between times he recorded albums with Big Mouth and Dirty Looks, as well as forming the band Witchdoctor with his brother Phil in 1990. He has written songs with the late  (and great) Ray Gillen for Sun Red Sun and also created the metal classic Doctor Butcher in 1994 which he recorded with Savatage mastermind Jon Oliva.

In 2004 Caffery released his first solo album “Faces” which was quickly followed by “W.A.R.P.E.D” in 2005.Both those releases had Caffery taking lead vocals for the first time. Now in 2007 we have the third solo outing from Caffery entitled “Pins And Needles”. Joining him on this dark and sometimes twisted metal outing is Paul Morris (Rainbow, Doro) on keyboards, Jeff Plate (Savatage, Metal Church) and Yael (Fireball, Ministry) on drums and Dave Zon on bass guitars.

The first thing that strikes you about this album is that it sounds thoroughly modern thanks in no small part to Caffery embracing and experimenting with sound effects and textures. The heart of the album still has Caffery's crunching and meaty guitar playing with which he gives us an endless assault of fat and fruity riffs and finger twisting solos.

The album opens in fine style with the title track “Pins And Needles” which has a glorious modern metal riff and a cracking chorus, which is, controlled aggression personified and the icing on the cake is a series of full blown shredding solos. “Sixty Six” quickly follows which again has some superb muscular riffing and more dazzling guitar work. “Torment” is a great brutal metal workout. It has a really quirky arrangement and one could imagine if the devil has an I-pod this is the sort of music he would be listening to.

“Walls” for this reviewer is a real highlight on the album. It has great riff, which twists and turns and locks in tight with superb double bass drumming. The vocal delivery deserves special mention. Caffery combines a spoken like conversational quality alongside the main vocals sung in the traditional manner. It gives the track a menacing and schizophrenic quality and if your listening on headphones you’ll really feel like your hearing voices. The last time a track gave me a buzz like this was after hearing Alex Lifeson (Rush) on the track Victor from the album of the same name.

“YGBFKM” stands for “you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me” and it stomps along with attitude. The riffing on this track is tight and very focused and Caffery puts in a cool vocal. “It’s Sad” is a very dark and aggressive track. Depending on your way of thinking it could be a journey into metal heaven or hell as it goes from metal to thrash on the turn of a guitar pick. Alex Skolnik (Testament) puts in a superb guest guitar solo on the playout. “Chained” is a great metal romp and it bounces along thanks to a super tapped main riff. It is possibly the most accessible track on the album and if the album needed to produce a single this track would be an obvious choice.

“Worms” is a great dark and funky number, which you could see the local zombies dancing to down at the disco. It has super cool solo, which could be described as Nuno Bettencourt having a metal trip. Caffery even gives us some saxophone on this track!

“Crossed” is mean and heavy with a main riff that pins you to the floor. It’s a metal assault thanks to furious drumming from Yael. It also has nightmarish feel to it and thanks to great layering of guitar parts it sounds massive. As the song progresses all the riffs that appear in the song seem to collide and mesh near the end and it sounds fantastically insane. “The Time” is a song with some really cleverly arranged parts .It has riffs a plenty, a rocking solo, a choir and has a real sense of drama. As the title implies “Metal East” has an exotic feel using some nice Arabian style melodies. If heavy metal loving nomads could plug in their guitars down at the oasis maybe their jam sessions might give us a song like this. “Qualdio” is a stunning guitar instrumental .The electric guitar is put to one side and an acoustic is wielded with stunning results. “The Temple” is the final track on the album and it’s a mini epic which ebbs and flows in an almost cinematic fashion.

With his latest solo release Caffery has shown us he has a rich and possibly endless imagination. There is a “no fear” approach all over these musical creations and fluid and skilful guitar playing throughout. At times the music has a tongue in cheek menace to it and at other times it’s downright scary. Quiete an achievement. All in all this a release from a true hard rock and metal master who has managed to stay true to his roots and his fans but at the same time has given us all something fresh and more than a little different but most of all thoroughly entertaining.

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Track List

Pins and Needles
66
Reach Out And Torment Again
Walls
Y.G.B.F.K.M
It's S-A-D
Chained
WORMS
The Sign Of The Crossed
The Time
Mettle Eastern
In The Midst
Quaaludio
The Temple
Once Upon A Time