Joe Stump's Dark Gifts
"Rare and Unreleased Tracks"

Track #1 Neoclassical Shredfest #1-The first really intense instrumental that I ever composed. I wanted it to have that epic feel similiar to Malmsteen's "Far Beyond The Sun." The original title for this tune was "Night of the Living Shred" but I obviously stole that title from myself for the second record. The intro is one of my early attempts at layering multiple guitar tracks in harmony.

Track #2 Bullet Train-This tune originally titled "Thrill of the Chase" another title that I stole from myself for the third track on the Rapid Fire Rondo cd. I wrote this tune back when I was still playing in Trash Broadway and the band used to perform it live. My first fast up tempo, double bass composition. Little did I know that in the future I'd write a billion tunes with this drum groove.

Track #3 Joey's Blues-Recorded for the live side of the Guitar Dominance demo , just firing up some hotrodded blues live in the tradition of my heroes-Hendrix, Blackmore, and Gary Moore.

Track #4 I Like That-This song was first recorded for my self-released demo cassette Joe Stump's Guitar Dominance back in 1992. Some of the tracks on this demo would later be relelased on my first Leviathan cd (Guitar Dominanace). At the time I was mixing neo-classical influences along with some hot rodded blues playing.

Track #5 Crack The Whip-A live recording of a tune obviously heavily influenced by Yngwie's classic "Black Star". It's also heavily influenced by David T. Chastain's " The Oracle Within" from his Instrumental Variations record. The first Rising Force album and Instrumental Variations being two of my most influential cd's both playing and composition-wise... also two of my favorite all-time instrumental cd's.

Track #6 Shredded Into Submission-One half of the original Guitar Dominance cassette was a studio recording and the other side was live. This is from the live side. I believe it was recorded at the Channel-a very cool old school big ass rock club that of course is no longer in existance. It's a shame that there aren't many of those venues anymore.

Track #7 Dave's Slacks-A cool departure from what I normally do, the track has a Frank Marino, Robin Trower-ish type of feel. It gets kind of psychedelic in spots and some of the vibrato arm work is kind of Jeff Beck-like.

Track #8 Boy Wonder-A cool mainstream user friendly track- the bridge melody and main theme are really nice and melodic. I remember writing the melody and being very pleased with the end result. Almost like something Joe Satriani would do even though he had no influence on this track.

Track #9 Blues Hell-an obvious nod to Jimi and Stevie Ray, I wanted to make it sound like two guys sitting in a room just jamming some blues.

Track #10 The Haunting-a epic masterpiece or so I thought at the time. I think I used every cool phrigian melody and chord groove idea I knew then, but, even so I think my playing still stands up on this one today. It was also the first time I used the octave box in the recording studio to emphasize that sinister melody.

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