Reedy vocals and vicious electric blues guitar. And nothing else. Alex Gomez continues to impress as he winds his way down a decidedly unusual path. Think Jon Spencer, completely unfiltered, and you might begin to get a clue. This is guitar playing at its most expressive.

Who the Heck is this guy!!! Where did he come from !!! Forgive me for being sophmoric but this album is AWESOME!!! The guitar is amazing. I bet you anything that Jimmy Page would make alex gomez his favorite musician if he heard this album!!!

I still love ALEX GOMEZ'S last album ("Always Never" from 2004) and play it regularly. This second self-released collection of songs "Metallic Blue Electric" is a purified and sharper version of the same elemental blues howl. Where I could hear the echoes of classic blues tunes and riffs in "Always Never", for "Metallic Blue Electric" GOMEZ has boiled away every last drop of sentimental attachment to luxury or comfort. The album is a hard-coiled spring of relentless and angry pain. Listening two or three times all through I feel bruised and silent. I need to say now – do go and find it. If you have a passion for authentic blues that makes no concessions, and you can stand up drink for drink and punch for punch against someone who makes JON SPENCER look like a club singer, then go for it. GEORGE THOROGOOD would be another name to think about in the "people GOMEZ is tougher than" category. To recap, the line up is one electric guitar with a bottleneck slide, one kick drum and one over-revving concrete mixer of a voice. The pattern is call and response, switching between guitar and voice, alternating with overdriven guitar-smothered verses. The basic units are a bar or two long, repeated as necessary like rivets on the side of a tank. The songs shudder. Lyrically we have male rage, frustration and fantasy: "I said wham, bam, thank you Mam. I don’t really give a damn" is sung with such ferocity that it couldn't be a pose. The titles slam home the message "Cock-a-Doodle", "Pink Rose", Emily", "Sticky Icky", "Natalie", Crystal", "Satan's Daughter", "Can’t I Go On?", "You Can’t Own Me" and "I Believe". If this is a concept album, it’s a basic concept with a very singular object. This isn't playing at demons, these are demons. "I believe" he screams on that final track, allowing himself just one short chunk of sweeter guitar virtuosity to sing through the slurred vocal delivery. But I don't think he believes at all. I think he knows.

I've been listening to Gomez for a while now, and I've always kinda liked his stuff. His guitar playing relied a bit too much on rock and roll licks for my taste--though I've always thought his playing was first rate--but his voice is one wonderful blues instrument. Turns out it wasn't his guitar that was too rock and roll. It was the band. So here Gomez sits down with his electric guitar and wails the blues. There may be some bass drum work in here, but that also might be the sound of his feet pounding the floor (amplified, of course). Otherwise, we're talking about electric guitar and voice and nothing else. And damned if it isn't the most arresting, invigorating blues album I've heard in ages. There's no reason why more people don't play this way, but in the last decade or so I've only heard a couple of folks attempt it--and that was live. Jon Spencer came close often enough, and that's not a bad reference point at all. Gomez shreds the blues here, and it's about time. Sometimes less is more, especially when you're talking about the blues. Gomez strips down without letting up on the throttle one inch, and the result is one of the best white-knuckle blues albums around.