When the Electric Guitar Met Its Long-Lost Acoustic Cousin: A Tale of Two Six-String Wizards, One Who Forgot What Plugs Into What, and the Most Unexpected Duo Since Peanut Butter Met Pickles 🎸✨
In a musical twist so unexpected it makes a saxophone solo in a death metal song look predictable, TESTAMENT’s very own shredding savant Alex Skolnick has teamed up with STRUNZ & FARAH’s acoustic ninja Ardeshir Farah to create two jazz-rock bangers titled “Eddie’s Madness” and “171 Mph”. Yes, you read that right—171 miles per hour. That’s faster than your Wi-Fi on a good day and slower than your ex’s response time to a “hey.” 🚗💨
Now, for those of you who don’t know, Farah has spent the last 45 years making acoustic guitars do things they probably didn’t consent to—think flamenco, world music, and sounds so exotic they might require a passport. But in a plot twist worthy of a telenovela, he picked up an electric guitar again. That’s right. After 45 years of whispering sweet nothings to nylon strings, he plugged in. The electric guitar was reportedly confused but flattered. 🔌😳
“I haven’t played electric since the days when ‘electric’ meant ‘has a cord and also occasionally shocks you during solos,’” Farah allegedly didn’t say, but probably thought. Instead, he told journalist Bryan Reesman that he wanted Alex on board because, let’s be honest, if you’re going to make a grand electric return after five decades, you don’t want to do it alone. That’s just sad. It’s like showing up to your high school reunion with no date and a PowerPoint about your stamp collection. 📽️💔
Enter Alex Skolnick, the man, the myth, the guy who can play “The Ecstasy of Gold” on a kazoo and still make it sound like a symphony. Alex is known for blending thrash metal with jazz like a culinary masterchef who puts sriracha on crème brûlée and somehow makes it work. “I always think it’s more interesting when two guitarists have different patterns,” he said, probably while sipping tea made from rare orchids grown only on the slopes of Mount Musicianship. “If this was Zakk Wylde and Kirk Hammett, we’d just have 45 minutes of pentatonic scales and headbanging. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But we’re here to confuse your ears in a pleasant way.” 🤹♂️🎧
The collaboration was recorded in just two hours, which is faster than most people take to decide what to watch on Netflix. “We brought different influences and different patterns,” Alex explained, “and by ‘patterns,’ I mean not just scale runs, but also our fashion choices. Arde wears scarves. I wear band tees from the ‘80s that still have headbanger sweat embedded in the fabric.” 👕🕰️
When asked if he’d consider a second PLANETARY COALITION album—his world music side quest where he explores sounds from places that don’t even have Spotify—Alex said, “I would love to. It’s just a big undertaking. I barely squeezed out this TRIO album, ‘Prove You’re Not A Robot’. But now that that’s done, maybe I can finally explore my inner Yanni without judgment.” 🌍🎹
Meanwhile, Farah, in a move that shocked absolutely no one who’s ever seen him play, revealed that he actually enjoys modern metal. Not just enjoys—*appreciates*. He once watched four death metal bands open for Marty Friedman at the Whisky A Go Go and didn’t run screaming. In fact, he was impressed. “The guitar players were amazing,” he said. “They had the picking technique down. Very impressive. Also, one of them had 17 fingers, which is cheating, but still.” 💀🤘
Now, let’s talk about the Baked Potato. No, not the side dish. The legendary L.A. music venue where legends go to jam and mortals go to feel inadequate. That’s where Alex and Farah first locked eyes over a wah pedal and knew something beautiful was about to happen. “It’s a real musician scene,” Alex said. “I played with Stu Hamm, Chuck Rainey showed up—guy’s a STEELY DAN legend—Rhonda Smith was there, and once, Steve Vai sat in the corner watching me. That was… uh… fun. By ‘fun,’ I mean ‘I nearly vomited from nerves.’” 🥔🎼
But here’s the real tea: these two cats are planning to record again. Yes, the electric-acoustic love story continues. Will there be more jazz-rock fusion? Absolutely. Will there be more genre-bending so wild it defies classification? You bet. Will someone finally explain why “171 Mph” isn’t a racing game soundtrack? Probably not. But we’ll take the riffs and ask no questions. 🏎️💨
So raise your lighters (or phone flashlights, you modern heathens) to Alex Skolnick and Ardeshir Farah—the odd couple of guitar gods who proved that when you mix thrash, jazz, world music, and a dash of chaos, you don’t get confusion. You get magic. 🔥🎸✨
And if you listen closely to “Eddie’s Madness”, you might just hear the sound of musical boundaries being politely asked to leave.
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
