Artist: Joop Wolters Album: Out Of Order Label: Lion Music Website: http://www.myspace.com/joopwolters Reviewer: Paulo André

Track List: 01. Broke 02. American Dance 03. Anthem 04. Cardiac 05. Dropout 06. Harmonic Spheres 07. Divide & Conquer 08. Kindering Spirits 09. Heartline 10. Tied Knots 11. Bleed 12. Tjabala 13. Fried Call 14. When Little Angels 15. Sceptic Desire 16. Aragon Dutch guitar virtuoso Joop Wolters is a prolific musician, judging by his already huge discography under different monikers and "Out of Order" is his third album as... well... Joop Wolters. Following three years after the oddly titled "Speed, Traffic and Guitar Accidents", this is a very mixed bag, shall we say a huge melting pot of influences, ranging from pure progressive metal ("Broke","Heartline"), to spanish influences ("Harmonic Spheres"), to fusion ("Cardiac", "Dropout") to a lot of different stuff in between. When it gets heavier, Wolters's sound reminds me a bit of John Petrucci's solo album, "Suspended Animation". The difference is that the Dutch's spectrum seems to be much wider, with all the aforementioned mix of styles. "Out of Order" is completely instrumental, not surprising in the guitar virtuoso domain, yet running over 60 minutes in length, the album can become quite a daunting task to get through. Not because any of the songs are crap - they're not, at all - but because it gets a little too much of the same sound and formula, regardless of the changes in style, when you get to the end. Given that same trait of mixing everything under the sun, it seems to me this could be easily split in two shorter albums. Wolters' fans reading this are probably cursing at me this very second. No matter. This is a good album and there is something I need to highlight. Joop Wolters seems to be a god programming drums. You can tell these are electronic drums, but only if you really pay attention. The patterns are intricate, they fit the guitars perfectly and generally work really well. Regardless of that, the guy can also brag he's had drum hero Virgil Donati playing in one of his tracks, in this case "Tied Knots". Yeah... there's a difference. So, when all is said and done, "Out of Order" is certainly a strong candidate to get in your stereo when you're in the mood for an hour of instrumental guitar virtuoso leaning towards progressive metal but not afraid to step into foreign territory. If you're of the open mind type, don't mind or actually enjoy a lot of shredding with some good melodies here and there, "Out of Order" should have your approval. If not, there should still be a couple of different tracks for everyone in here. Band: Joop Wolters: Composition, arrangements, production, guitar, bass, some keys, drum programming Patrick Eijdems: Drums (9) Virgil Donati: Drums (10) Alex Argento: First keyboard lead on the song "Drop Out" Mike Roeloefs: Keys on the song "Drop Out", keyboard lead in the song "Cardiac"