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Roger Staffelbach is a Swiss guitarist who is notable for the band Artension and some guest work with Vivaldi Metal Project, along with a few lesser-known bands. Given his proclivity for playing with progressive acts, it isn't really surprising the material on his solo album, The Quest, leans that way as well. This is not a rip-it-up, shred album like those classic Shrapnel Records releases from the '80s. The songwriting is more introspective and purposeful. I hear a lot of guitarists like Alex Lifeson (the acoustic guitar in "Overture 2023") and Joe Satriani ("Summer Moods") in Staffelbach's playing. Some of the songs are upbeat and move along well, but others are perhaps tracks that may appeal more to guitarists interested in technique, for instance the slow, plodding "Air on the G String," which I find dull. Songs like "Summer Presto" and "Thinking of You," the latter sounding like something from Yngwie Malmsteen's debut, have a classical tinge, then we're back into some Joe Satriani "Summer Song" kind of music with "Enemy Within." I don't want to gainsay Staffelbach's playing, considering I'm maybe one rung above "can't play at all" as a guitarist, but that won't change the fact that the music on The Quest, while expertly played, probably has more appeal to guitar players and not so much to metal fans in general.