Apocrypha were an 80's metal band showcasing Mike Varney protege and 17 year old guitar whizzzkid Tony Fredianelli. Fredianelli had only been playing guitar for four years {though he already was a proficient classical pianist} when the band released their debut album, 'The Forgotten Scroll' in 1987. The music I thought was similar to Cacophony in sound i.e quite heavy with guitarist Fredianelli leaning heavily on the neoclassic style with flurries of arpeggios in nearly every song. Marty Friedman produced their second album and one more studio album followed before Apocrypha's disbandment after a brief but very entertaining {IMO} musical journey. Tony Fredianelli went on to record an instrumental shred album before {bemusingly} joining 'Third Eye Blind' which seen him adopt a completely different musical style. You can Download the three Apocrypha albums and the aforementioned insrumental album for free at Tony Fredianelli.com Is there anybody else out there into this amazing outfit?

Apocrypha's "The Eyes of Time" was one of my favorite albums when it came out. I thought "Wow! Tony Fredianelli sounds just like Marty Friedman on this!" I just couldn't get enough of it. When I saw that Marty Friedman was the producer, I knew it was no coincidence that Fredianelli suddenly sounded just like him.

When Apocrypha's next album, Area 51, came out, I was ready for more of neo-classical shredding and Friedman-esque exotic voicings. However, Tony's playing was completely different. He switched to a bluesier type metal playing. I remember a fusion style instrumental on this. I still liked the album because the songs were good.

I was sooooooo excited when I saw Fredianelli had a solo album, "Breakneck Speed". However, there was no breakneck speedy playing... no real neo-classical playing... His style changed again. This time... Grunge *gasp*. A whole album of instrumental grunge. What a disappointment.

I thought he completely disappeared... I didn't know he was in Third Eye Blind for years.

I still think it's quite odd how his playing was so different on every single album up to the Third Eye Blind era (didn't listen to much of this). In my opinion, Eyes of Time is faaaar superior than any of his other playing. It's actually on of my favorite guitar albums ever. But, just like Cacophony, it's hard to listen to the vocals nowadays.

Great man! You are the only person I've ever known that is in to Apocrypha. They were and still are a very obscure act and all the shredders I've spoken to have been ignorant of thier existence.
As mentioned in my comment you can download the albums for free at TonyFredialnelli.com if you fancy atrip dowm memory lane. :)

I am afraid I am one of those ignorant of their existence... but not for long! I love hearing/getting as much music as possible, so I am off to download those albums, sounds good...

Nice one Devon. Let us know what you think. :)

IbanezDaemon: Yea... it's like nobody has ever heard of Apocrypha. Such a shame! hahaha Yea.. a found Tony Friedianelli had all those MP3s on his site a couple years ago... I was like "SCORE!!!" Thought I'd give Breakneck Speed another chance, but still didn't like it much.

Devon: Hope you enjoy. Let me know if you think The Eyes of Time sounds mysteriously like Marty Friedman.

I checked out the site, but I couldn't download the albums, I could only play them (bad quality too). Maybe, you can send me it? If you have MSN messenger or an instant messenger account, it should not take more than 5 minutes per album. :)

That's a shame Devon. I am not online myself but I use my girlfriends computer so I will have to check with her and see if I can install MSN and I'll get those songs to you otherwise I can burn them on to cd for you and post them to you if you like. Anyway I'll get back to you on it my man. ;)

Xuelong, you are right on that score. Breakneck came as a bit of a shock to me. I was hoping that his playing would be akin to the material on the first two Apocrypha albums. I was quite shocked when I heard it and it's a strange one that album. it's like an industrial instrumental album.

I'm gonna get the material to Devon shortly and see what he makes of it.

On Third Eye Blind I think Tony formed this band at school and after his Apocrypha days went on to ressurect it. Such a change in playing style. If I was a guitarist of his calibre I couldn't stand playing jangly boring strumming stuff in an IMO mundane band. I'd be like Ah sod this!....widdly widdly widdly...cue TEB fans running for the exit...widdly widdly...cue band members trying in vain to stop me.... widdly widdly widdly....cue the men in white coats! :P

I've loved 'The Eyes of Time' since I bought the LP in the late 80's. I particularly like the intro/outro solo on 'The man who saw tomorrow', but every song is great in my opinion. It definately sounds like Friedman guitar playing wise - but that's cool as Dragon's Kiss is one of my favourite guitar records too!

Cool. That's two people I now know who are into Apocrypha. What other music/guitarists are you into? :)

George Lynch is definitely one of my faves in the metal genre. His phrasing is amazing in my opinion. Dokken as a band did some pretty good songs IMO - like on Back for the Attack - but I was always listeninng for the guitar playing, not the songwriting.

I've always been into Gilbert, but only just aquired Racer X album Technical Difficulties, which blows me away!

I also dabble in a bit of Jazz - my favorite player being George Benson, as he's technically astounding as well having great phrasing and being a really well rounded player.

Classical wise I love Sibelius, but haven't worked out how to convert any of that into similar sounding stuff on the old guitar yet.....that's a project for the future!

How bout you Daemon? And what Ibanez have you got? I've got a heavily modified RG550 and an AS103nt (not really a shred machine!)

Cheers

Rob

I have been a Dokken fan since my big hair days back in the '80's, lol. Always loved George Lynch. I have a fair bit of his solo stuff now which is way cool.

Paul Gilbert is my fave guitarist and yes the Technical Difficulties album is rockin'! Check out Paul playing the song Metal Dog from that album on youtube. It's a slightly different but way better version with an incredible guitar solo. I'm foremost into all the neoclassical players {I am a complete guitar addict} and like most of your standard metal bands.

I have just got back into guitar playing recently after a long bout of tendonitis {8 or 9 years!} :( during which I sold all my gear. I wanted to see if I could get back into playing but didn't want to go and buy an expensive guitar just in case it didn't work out. I bought an ex demo RG370DX which the shop in Liverpool had set up to perfection. I am slowly but surely getting back into it and I'm looking to purchase a Jackson DKMGT in the very near future. That Ibanez you have is a great guitar, I've played one or two of them in my time. What modifications have you done to it?
Thanx.

I swapped the pickups for two Seymours and a Dimarzio which improved the tone nicely as well as swapping the pickup selector to a multipole so I could have the stacked humbucker in the middle position. I also stripped all of the finish off the guitar as it was pink - pink guitars were cool in 1991 when I bought it. :unsure:
That was definetely the most time consuming job - It took me about 2 months on and off. After it was stripped I put a new logo on the headstock and clearcoated it, so its a natural wood finish. The frets were also levelled - but I left that to an expert.

It's nice to have an individual guitar even if there were times when I felt like burning the bloody thing!

Hope your recovery from the dreaded tendonitis goes well Daemon - not too many demi-semiquavers for a bit eh! ;) However, how will you be able to resist once you've got that Jackson in your hands? :D

That sounds like it was quite an undertaking especially with the paint. I used to have an advert I cut out of the American mag Guitar Player that had Paul Gilbert with a pink 550 I think, it had sharktooth inlays on the fretboard. I had just bought the first Racer X album {1986 I think} and as you say pink was cool back then.

I'll see how things go with my playing and the Jackson {though given the finances I would love to hold off for a while and invest in a Caparison but they are well pricey}

Thanx for the well wishes Rob! :)

IbanezDaemon! I just got back from Europe so I will be on msn, have you added my account? Can't wait to hear these albums. BTW thats why I have been away from the forum for so long.

Yeah I have added you and hopefully will chat with you soon. I read somewhere online that people had difficulties transferring files using msn but sure we''ll see how it goes. If this doesn't work I'll burn you the cds and post them to you. :)