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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 in 1982 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
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