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- RADIO
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- GUESTBOOK
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- KAT BIO
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- CLASSICAL COMPOSERS
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- "BEETHOVEN'S GUITAR SHRED" DVD
REVIEW IN MICHAEL'S MOVIE MAYHEM
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The Great Kat: Beethoven’s Guitar Shred
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The Great Kat – Who Shall Not Be Denied!
The Great Kat: Beethoven’s Guitar Shred (2009, TPR
Music, Distributed by Music Video Distributors)
… And after viewing her latest DVD, Beethoven’s Guitar Shred, how would
I dare deny her anything?
The Great Kat (nee Katherine Thomas) has been showered as one of the top
10 fastest shredders of all time (Guitar One Magazine) and one of the 50
fastest guitarists of all times (Guitar World Magazine). She herself
doesn’t shrink from decreeing herself as the “Shred Goddess” and the
“reincarnation of Beethoven”. For prime evidence of these claims, we
have her latest DVD offering from TPR Music, Beethoven’s Guitar Shred.
As a notable alumnus of The Juilliard School (diploma for Violin) she
shares this honor with Van Cliburn, Yo Yo Ma, John Williams, Steve
Reich, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Philip Glass and David Bryan of Bon
Jovi. Of these notables, believe it or not, she is more closely tied to
Van Cliburn and Yo Yo Ma than David Bryan. While her roots are solidly
based in the masters of classical composition (Beethoven, Bach, Wagner
and Paganini), she branches with the wild influences of Ozzy Osbourne,
Judas Priest and Jimi Hendrix. In her goal to bring the great classics
to the masses, The Great Kat transcribes the great composers’ scores
note-by-note transcending them into shred violin/guitar scores infused
with heavy metal. Not to be denied, she flourishes these works with
performances that make Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper pale in
comparison.
The latter is where her video collections (Beethoven’s Guitar Shred and
Extreme Guitar Shred) hit the masses on their backside and with an
occasional slap to the side of the head. When asked why her stage
presence centers around images of S&M, blood, gore and torture, she
replied, “That’s the whole purpose of art and music -- to wake people up
with extreme music and images and get them out of their lethargic,
pathetic lives!”
Her latest DVD release amps this up beyond Spinal Tap’s famous 11!
Paganini’s Caprice #24 video is staged as a bloody black magic
production. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony finds the Great Kat as a metal
studded dominatrix along with her blind-folded Kat Slaves. Bach’s
Brandenburg Concerto #3 is a Ken Russell meets Victoria’s Secrets period
piece. While Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee almost appears
tame, yet for the leather & fish-net stockings dominatrix outfit. Aside
from the shredded classical music selections, we are presented with some
self-composed pieces, Torture Techniques (with the Great Kat
administering torture in her dungeon of pain), Blood (with more buckets
of blood than we saw in Carrie) to Islamofacists (with images befitting
web videos aired on al-Jazeera).
While the videos may be shocking and offensive to some, they are a
convincing validation toThe Great Kat’s claim to be the “high priestess
of guitar shred’s virtuosity”. The classical music selections highlight
not only her shred virtuosity on the guitar, but violin as well.
Beethoven’s Guitar Shred DVD presents a greater evidence of The Great
Kat’s skill than her previous offering (Extreme Guitar Shred). On the
latest DVD, the audio mix of her guitar/violin is more present and the
viewer is given ample opportunities to witness her lightning speed and
blinding virtuosity. While she is indeed quick and nimble on the
strings, she plays with a clarity and exactness that belies her
swiftness.
The Great Kat’s own compositions on the disc are not up to those written
by the masters, but even then, her ability to dazzle you with her speed
and skill are not to be missed. In addition to the 7 shred videos, the
disc includes a Kat Kartoon featuring our High Priestess of Shred doing
the Flight of the Bumble-Bee and 4 short bonus features with more Great
Kat music. Overall, I give Beethoven’s Guitar Shred 1-1/2 more shredded
bow-strings than her 2005 DVD Extreme Guitar Shred. Be forewarned, this
DVD carries a Parental Advisory- Explicit Content sticker – and rightly
so!
Trailer and other Great Kat info at
GreatKat.com
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Running Time: approx. 20 mins
Audio: Stereo
Video: 4:3
Contents:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Torture Techniques
Paganini: Caprice #24
Blood
Beethoven: 5th Symphony
Islamofacists
Bach’s: Brandenburg Concerto #3
4 Bonus Features:
Hot Shred 2
Shred Geniuses
Metal Fugue: Bach’s The Art of the Fugue
Shred Credits
Kat Kartoon: The Flight of the Bumble-Bee
- The contents of all music, photos, graphics, text, audio and videos are
protected by copyright
and may not be used or reproduced without prior express written authorization from the
publisher.
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