At War With Self is a progressive rock/jazz fusion endeavour with Marco Minnemann and Glenn Snelwar. At first, it makes me think of the Pitts Minnemann project’s 2L82B Normal, probably because Marco’s drumming is really a signature sound. There is a lot of work put into this album, and it truly pays off, for your listening pleasure

Marco Minnemann is widely regarded as one beast of a drummer, after all he was pretty much close second on Dream Theater’s drum auditions, and he’s participated in a vastitude of musical projects: Paul Gilbert, Necrophagist, The Aristocrats, and multiple other ones. Glenn Snelwar, for his part, is known for playing guitar on the Gordian Knot debut album, but he’s a multi-instrumentalist, and the one who plays and writes everything on Circadian Rhythm Disorder, everything besides the drums, of course. Speaking of which, the drums track is a one-take, 51 minute drum solo made by Marco for his Normalizer 2 project. Glenn took it as a framework, a foundation to write music onto, and turned it into an epic, almost hour-long concept album, going through various phases brilliantly separated by different instrumentation and mood, from synth-heavy fusion prog to some more acoustic, laid-back moments.

The album shows how capable of a player is Glenn, and demonstrates once again how Marco Minnemann is an absolute monster. It’s a great instrumental album that will surely satiate your fusion prog hunger.