Anwar, Faraz - Abstract Point Of View

Year of Release: 2004
Label: Lion Music
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 45:20:00

When I heard the first solo album of Faraz Anwar, I was pleasantly surprised, as he did not follow the clichés of most instrumental guitar albums, but recorded an album that can almost compete with many progressive rock bands. A little search on Google, brought me to his own website and there I learned he is from Pakistan! And he did not really have a musical background, but for some reason developed a love for neo classical, classical and metal music and starts to play guitar. Interestingly enough, he joins the band Dusk and records two albums with them. Now we can witness his excellent compositions and play on his debut album: Abstract Point Of View.

Already the first song is a true prog song: "Through The Passage Of Time," clocking over 12 minutes and full of turns, twists, melody changes, heavy riffs, soft piano stroke and just plain virtuoso guitar play. In "Maze", he shows his dark, heavy side, with pounding riffs and crunchy play, although in the second half the sound gets a little lighter. Anwar plays all instruments used, with exception of "Last Summer," where Fahad Kahn plays drums and Meekal Hasan plays bass.

"Prophet" opens very atmospheric, and builds up to a song with a heavy "wall of guitars," but I have to say, this is more what you expect on an album such as this. Still, I think it is way above average! The earlier mentioned "Last Summer" is very Satriani like, a "happy" song, nice up-tempo, but I'm not too ecstatic about the drums/bass sound in the mix here, a bit too sharp. Closing song "Why?" lifts everything up again, to a higher level. If vocals would have been added, this would have been a great song!

Faraz Anwar is truly a new discovery for me, and a very nice one. Excellent guitar player and great composer and no doubt this album will do a lot of good for him. Any fan of any guitar player should definitely also listen to Faraz Anwar! You'll love it!

[This review originally appeared August 2004 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]
Tracklisting:
Through The Passage of Time (12:44) / Maze (4:53) / Prophet (6:56) / Don't Ever Let Your Spirit Die (5:30) / Last Summer (4:46) / Why? (10:28)

Musicians:
Faraz Anwar ? guitars
Fahad Kahn - drums (5) Meekal Hasan - bass (5)

Discography:
Abstract Point Of View (2001/2004)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin PK

Added: November 26th 2004
Reviewer: Marcel Haster
Score:
Artist website: www.farazanwar.com
Hits: 2076
Language: english