Written by: Alex Green

“This was a labor of love,” Jeff Kalmbach said as he handed me his new album a few weeks ago.

After several spins I could hear no labor.

But, to quote ‘Zeppelin, I heard a whole lotta love.

A fluid and wildly inventive player, Kalmbach is the kind of guitarist who would have been equally at home playing with Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart or maybe even Slayer. This Is Not Here is Kalmbach’s new instrumental EP and it’s quite a find. Filled with soaring solos, muscular grooves and the kind of dexterous riffs that veer towards classical music, This Is Not Here is an impressive and fluid effort that announces Kalmbach as a major force in the guitar world.

The crunchy metal of “(Adj.) (N.)” opens the proceedings and it’s an infectious number that deftly sets the pace here. “No Pace Dantz” is a pulse-quickening grinder; “Singens For Jurks” is an irresistible blast of hard rock stomp  and the title track is a dramatic blend of cooly played metal that rises and falls with a kind of battered glory that, by song’s end, is a sheer sonic triumph.

Fabulous work.

You can order This Is Not Here right here: