Band: The Great Kat
Album title: Extreme Guitar Shred
Label: TPR Music
Distributor: TPR Music
Release date: June 2009
Release: DVD

What do you get when you put Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) and Wagner (classical composer) in a blender? You’ll get the Great Kat.

The Great Kat is the stage name of Katherine Thomas, an English-born, Long Island NY raised, musician notorious for her metal interpretations of well-known pieces of classical music. Doing this, she invented a new music genre (called shred/classical music).
It all started with playing the violin and later on she switched to electric guitar and it didn’t take long for her to start shredding.

Most feature her using the electric guitar, but she still has her on violin. As you will notice on the dvd. Thomas is in fact a classically-trained violinist, graduating from the Juilliard School and touring for a time playing conventional classical music before crossing over to metal.
And when she made the switch, she got voted “top 10 fastest shredders of all time” (Guitar One Magazine) and “top 50 fastest guitarists of all time” (Guitar world magazine).

Her first dvd ever (called extreme guitar shred) honors its name. It contains 6 songs (+ 3 bonus features) with subjects like torture (torture chamber), war (war) and bondage (dominatrix). What always makes a good theme for a metal song.
My personal opinion about the dvd is that this is one cool gizmo you got to have to show your buddies on a party or similar. This is one of the few women that can actually play and prove that metal isn’t just a “guy thing”.
But all good things have a bad side and unfortunately, its also counts for this one. The thing that disappoints me the most is that Kat didn’t include a tutorial to show you how to play the classical songs (for all you guitar players out there), not even tips on how to play faster. Another turnoff is that the most of the songs contain themes not suited for the younger audience and can be offensive. Except for those 2 reasons, this is worth buying.

92/100

Jeroen.

Band: The great Kat
Album title: Beethoven’s Guitar Shred
Label: TPR Music
Distributor: TPR Music
Release date: Out now
Release: DVD

Born in 1966, Katherine Thomas Long Island, NY) dreamed of a carrier in music. She started playing violin. Later on she attended to the Juilliard School where she graduated and started to tour for a time playing conventional classical music.
After a while she picked up an electric guitar and hasn’t putted in down since then (except for her violin). At this point she created a new music genre called shred/classical music and changed her artist name to “The Great Kat”. Under this name she earned a lot of prizes and titles like “top 10 fastest shredders of all time” (guitar one magazine) and “top 50 fastest guitarists of all time” (Guitar world magazine).

She shocked the world with the release of her first dvd (Extreme Guitar Shred) and is about to unleash a second hell spawn on the world called Beethoven’s Guitar Shred. The dvd contains 7 songs and 4 bonus features with a duration of around 20 minutes but Kate makes it up with the songs she has chosen.
On her first dvd, there were more songs of her own witch could be offensive interpetraited as offensive. This dvd still has a few songs of her own witch are unfortunately still offensive
(like Islamofascist), but this time there are more (genius) covers like The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

This dvd shows that The Great Kat has grown as a musician since last time and that she could easily be one of the fastest, fiercest heavy metal guitar shredders around.
Downside to this gem is that this time, the guitar players get left out again. Still no tutorial or tips on how to play the songs or how to play faster. Besides that this dvd is better in every aspect then the previous.
Shred for Satan (or Beethoven in this case)

95/100

Jeroen.