BEST FIRST RELEASE 2009 Award Winner! 
Runner-Up: Abandon (Searchlights).
Honorable Mentions: Chris And Conrad (Chris And Conrad), Dreampilots (Comedown).
Brad Noah is well known as the original guitarist of Disciple (and while he no longer tours with the band, thankfully he is still an active writing and recording member 
). Back In The Day is his first solo release, and— as expected— it shows his talent well. Indeed, Brad’s guitarwork has always been superb, and it’s great to hear a full instrumental album of it.
Musically, this digital release is similar to his work in Disciple: Out of its 15 tracks, only one is completely acoustic-guitar-driven and only a couple are softer Rock; the rest feature Hard Rock (all backed by drums and bass).
From song-structured tracks like “Cut Me Off”, “Not Today”, and “Better Half” to straight-up jams like “Blisters” and “I Digress” to everything in between, Back In The Day is just about everything you could want out of an Instrumental Hard Rock record— and, of course, that’s exactly what you’d expect from one of the best guitar players around.
In all, this record is excellent, and it’s definitely worthy of Best First Release.
Our rating for Back In The Day: 5 & 1/3 Stars. 