Review of the Album Out of Nowhere by American Rock Guitarist Vinnie Moore

Out of Nowhere is the 1996 instrumental guitar album by American rock guitarist Vinnie Moore. After a very successful decade starting around 1986 and creating for himself a sort of musical creativity with album such as Time Odyssey and Meltdown, I am sure fans were wondering how good his next album would be. Five years is a while for any artist to go without releasing a new album but Vinnie really hit his peak around 1988 through 1991. It was Valentine's Day in the United States when I first began composing this review so let’s give some appreciation and love for an American musical artist.

“Echoes” is just a simple but good structured blues rock song. Even if initially we don’t discover any amazing songs out of the first few of this album, we know that Vinnie Moore has the potential to surprise and or excite us with his creativity. “Thunderball” is such a heavy song that it may as well have been from a Fates Warning album because it has that heavy sort of progressive metal feel. It is not heavy or fast enough to be put into the category of thrash metal but this song is still good in its own way.

I also sense that the song has this sort of metal feel to it more like what we heard on the album The World Needs a Hero. That album would not be released until 2001 but Thunderball might have been a song that Dave Mustaine heard and then he was influenced by it.

Vinman’s Brew” is a song that indicates that the blues influence is alive and well. “With the Flow” is the song that starts off this album and at first, it feels like Vinnie is just playing around with the guitar but then, not long after this, he shows his Yngwie J. Malmsteen like skills.

Once again, I’d like to emphasize that American rock and metal is not dead. It has just gone through an evolution of sorts. Back in 1996 as certain American metal bands were redefining themselves and changing their style and approach, Vinnie Moore stuck to his style for the most part. Let’s put the focus back on the song Thunderball again because this is a song that you wouldn’t quite expect to be from an artist like Vinnie Moore though the previous album Meltdown did have a sort of heavy start to it in the beginning. The riffing also gives me the feeling that Vinnie could have had other musical influences in his mind like maybe some of the heavier metal bands. “From Now On” is a song that slows down dramatically from the last one and this one has a feeling of Joe Satriani era music as well. “Time Traveler” goes back to the same blues influenced style and by this point in the album it is obvious to those of us that have listened to Vinnie’s work over the years that this album is a notch down from Meltdown or Time Odyssey. Even so, the instrumentation is passable and Vinnie clearly knows how to play good enough solos. She’s Only Sleeping is a softer song once again and Vinnie Moore though he can play extremely fast and make it sound good, his slower songs are good as well. Then comes Am I Only Dreaming? In the beginning it kind of sounds like Pretty Penny but then the blue style lead guitars kick in and you know this is all about Vinnie Moore. 770 Days is a song that in terms of its style wants to show that slow heavy groove that Vinnie pretty much turned into a winning formula on 1991’s Meltdown and this song is similar to the first song on that album. Once again, due to the versatility of Vinnie Moore, Move That Thang is a totally different song from the previous one because it has got this sort of picking feel before the lead guitars kick in.

Out of Nowhere also shows us that even if the album is a notch below his two previous ones that Vinnie still has variety in his guitar play. He can play blues, jazz, heavy picking music and other styles. Winter Sun is the song that ends this album and it has a country/jazz style feel to it as it slows down but the production is very good for a 1996 album. The best songs in Out of Nowhere are Thunderball and 770 Days.