Alex Skolnick is a guitar player I remember marveling about back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Back in those days he was a bright shining star in the world of thrash metal, leading Testament to early success in the wake of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. He burst onto the scene in 1987 with The Legacy, but it was the pair of albums Practice What You Preach and Souls of Black, in 1989 and 1990 respectively, that caught my attention.

The guy was amazing, he was fast, technical, and precise. In 1993 he parted ways with the band, going on to play with Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, among others. During that time, he also got into jazz and formed the Alex Skolnick Trio, releasing their first album in 2002. Here we are, five years removed from that album, and I am getting my first taste of Skolnick's jazz, Last Day in Paradise.

If you have read my music reviews in the past, you will know that I am a metal guy, through and through. I will make the occasional foray into other genres, but more often than not I am out of my element in writing about them, a fact that will not dissuade me from making the occasional attempt to expand my horizons. That said, I know very little about jazz and what makes some good and others bad, but I can say that I know what I like. What I like is this album.

What I find intriguing is the deftness with which Alex has shifted genres. I know that many players can play different styles, but never have I heard a guitarist leave one genre for another and create such great music in both. If I had been handed this cold, not knowin who Skolnick was, I would have liked it, probably as much as I do now, but knowing that this is a band led by a guitar player from a premiere thrash band from my youth? Well, that is a different story. This is a completely different Alex Skolnick than the one I listened to so long ago, or even the Alex Skolnick I saw during 2005's Testament reunion tour.