DC Slater – Decisions

New Jersey guitarist DC Slater has come a long way from his Seattle Grunge influences. In fact, the most prominent influences that I hear are Satch and a mild dose of EVH. Don’t get me wrong – the grunge influence is still very alive in Slater’s choice of rhythm tone. Though these tones are essentially heavy sounding, his rhythms are tight which manages to add a certain drive to almost every tune on Decisions.

DC Slater has a great knack for speaking with his guitar. Between beautifully thought out melodic passages and some slight variation into the exotic, Slater gives each composition personality. It makes for a magnificent contrast to the heavy backdrop of guitars he has set up.

Decisions opens with Indigo and already Mr. Slater is telling his story. By the time the second track, Outlaw, had been spinning for about thirty seconds I knew this whole CD was going to be great. The song Southbound really made me start to miss my Wah Wah Pedal. Great sound!

The final three songs define this CD. The guitars just sound huge. Pledge opens with a very Alice in Chains meets Staind chord change and the song is filled with Satch meets Framton blues until we get to the breakdown. I swear! I thought I went to Scotland for a couple measures. Very cool!

Long Way Home and Open Road give me the feeling of exactly that:

the longing for home and the scenery along the way. Great numbers – very vivid. It definitely left me with a feeling of completion yet wanting to hear more.

DC Slater is a former student of Berklee College of Music and participates in the SoundAid project to fight hunger. Aside from writing and producing his own music, he is also involved in engineering and producing other artists.