Review by Rexorcist for Marty Friedman - Dragon's Kiss (1988)

Fun fact: This is the album that convinced Megadeth to hire him.  And it worked out.

Other fun fact: At the day of writing this review, the album turns 35.

So it should be noted that, first and foremost, this is a “riffs” album, one where that's the primary focus, much like Yngwie Malmsteen's debut, Rising Force.  Malmsteen made a smart decision to make his songs more radio friendly so that the heavy metal can compliment the classical riffs and vise-versa.  And as a result, we have a lot of “riff” albums with no other purpose in life, which is reflected in that music.  But with Friedman's debut, the rest of the band is there to compliment his riffs.  The drums are heavy and they carry the various vibes of Friedman's riffs perfectly.  I mean, just listen to the work done on Anvils.  Half of that track is the drum job and not Friedman's finger duties.

I mean, sure, there are some weaker songs that are mostly there for some cool solos, like Dragon's Kiss, or Namida's Kiss which didn't live up to its full potential as a magical folksy midtro, but there are also some interesting unpredictable compositions here.  There's a weird mysticism that goes into the intro of Evil Thrill before we're kicked off into a ferocious speed metal tune.  Even though the production needs some improvement, you hear what's going on just fine, and lemme tell you: the flawed production gives us enough of that atmos and reverb to make out everything just fine.  The drums are loud and hard, the guitar and bass work together well, and the riffs are monstrous.

Unfortunately, he needs some work on softer tracks.  The first half of Jewel, for example, is kinda boring.  But the proggy magic happens once the tone picks up.  And I love soft music as much as metal, being a huge Paul Simon fan.  So it's very clear that not every song will be a five-star.  Thankfully, the softer intro of the eight-minute prog epic Forbidden City has a good intro that builds up to the neoclassical parts.  And I was flat-out blown away by this epic.  Thunder March is a weird case.  It has both guitars making fine rhythms, but they're not molded well due to the production.  Also, the drums aren't quite as heavy as they should be for this marching example of "epica."

I have a little of a personal touch with this album, but I;m not gonna let that alter my rating.  Basically, what I want to say is simple: it's obvious that this album's guitar tone and melodies had a major say in the soundtrack to F-Zero GX, and its Guitar Arrange version.  Of course, that also makes it easy to compare this album, despite being a different type of metal.  This is a fine example of the genre-bending balance that a great metal album needs, and handles that aspect perfectly.  Unfortunately, a few songs need some re-evaluations in the compositions department, but there are a few 9's and 10's on this album and I'd easily recommend it for the effort and the historical relevancy.