First of all, I really like many of the things Lenny and his band are doing with their all-instrumental album Fool's Gate, and any struggling Joe with a lot of heart trying to break through with a self-funded Discmakers offering automatically gets extra Vibe points in my book. My somewhat low numbers above are meant as a comparison to the "big boys." Sure, the production on this homebrew is going to be flaccid compared to what, say, Terry Brown would concoct for his lofty price tag, but not everyone with a voice has a megaphone that big. My only real complaints for production, then, would be for obviously too-quiet drums throughout the disc, an inherent "thin-ness" which could have been helped with some simple sonic maximizing, and some badly handled samples.

Musically, Lenny struggles on the bass a bit. Drummer Paul Higgins is competent but is never showcased. Lenny's guitar work ranges from messy to astounding, but I gave it an average Shred factor of 6 since it's more often good than it is not-so-good.

Talented young struggling musicians with no budget really can make a halfway-decent CD in their basement nowadays. This release is proof of that, and credit is given here to that extent with emphatic praise. Lenny and pal Adam Puchalski did it all themselves, and I tip my hat.

Just looking at the pictures in this funny little CD make you like Lenny right away. He's the cool friend you had in high school ten or fifteen years ago with the ballsiest band, who made magic with his axe that dropped everyone's jaws at the Battle of the Bands, and made all the mall chicks swoon. Lenny Supera's band is just one of countless thousands of other squirming projects across America that have no other purpose than to make their parents proud, to make some decent beer money on weekends, funding their local music stores by perfecting their live rig, and to have a hell of a lot of fun the whole time. If you're surfing this site, chances are you've been in a few projects like this yourself, and can relate.

Lenny covers his Fates Warning base right away with the first track, "Grit." Ho-hum; a bad first impression of the soloing due to inherent "going for it" sloppiness. Things get a little more interesting (with the exception of some really poor harmonica work) with my shred pick, "The Flood," and then I am legitimately impressed with a groove found buried inside "Coffee Club." Perhaps the best example of production and songwriting comes from unlikely surf-rock tune, "Surfin' Saucer." "Can You Not See" is a fantastic shred-free progressive tapestry with an epic feel and wider range of motifs, compared with something like "Skydive," which is more like the aforementioned high school rockers' fare. Finally, "Gate Variations" is a mishmash of unfinished pieces that got strung together for ha-ha's, serving to finish up your tour through the band's brains with a journey that starts down a country road, screeches into Racer-X or something, flops 180 degrees into a lounge act, shifts into frivolous Casio-powered vaudeville shtick, grinds to a halt with some weird samples, and flimsily handles the ending dissonance with some imperceptible studio conversation. Hmm.

I encourage Lenny Supera to keep plugging away for his local audience, whom I'm sure he'll have no trouble winning over with his fun wankish style and sense of humor. I would love to see these guys live and get drunk with them or something. Too bad I live 2,500 miles from Reno, since their live performances are probably when they're at their best.

Shred pick -- "The Flood" (2:49)

Reviewed by David C. Lovelace