STEVENJAIMZ HUNNITON "Rock Out"

by jenny heying

Billed as a metal guitarist, you’d expect StevenJaimz Hunniton to step on the pedal when he steps on a stage. This night at the 5th Dimension, Steven said he was doing things backwards and led off with an original tune “Hollow”. It began kind of mellow and then the pedal did hit the metal as he thrashed his guitar through riff after riff. It was a wild way to start and his guitar playing was nothing short of spectacular. Not to mention for a self penned tune, it was pretty good even though I wouldn’t call myself a metal fan. The song and guitar changed tempos numerous times and ended in a flurry.

Following with “Struggle”, StevenJaimz never let his axe off easy. His guitar led us crazily through the song with strong licks and incredible runs. He plays like a madman, and that’s meant as a compliment. He’s an adequate singer, but really, are you here to hear him sing? I think not. You come for some crazy guitar playing and that’s exactly what he serves you. He’s in a zone and the zone is in a frenzy.


I could use a number of adjectives to describe StevenJaimz, but wild might be the best one. That’s how he is on stage and I’m not sure if he’s the wild one or his guitar. But no matter, you don’t really care who leads who.

Covering Tears For Fears “Shout” really showed what StevenJaimz can do. Playing to backing tracks of the original, Steven forcefully threw his guitar out front throughout the song and made it into something Tears For Fears probably wish they had done. Although using tracks, he made it original and you know what, it was pretty damn good.

His show is all about his guitar. It’s what he does best and he doesn’t try to hide that fact. His guitar is front and center throughout each song whether it’s a solo or thrashing away to the tracks. I bet he can take almost any song and turn it into a driving force.

I didn’t come across any head bangers in the crowd, but in real life, I could imagine the stage stormed and crowded with heads thrashing about. I even felt like doing it.

Steven loves to rock, but he can be mellow too. His axe led us solely into a heavily guitar influenced version of “Imagine” complete with amazing riffs and licks. He incredibly followed that with a guitar solo cover of “Heaven”. You certainly get the impression he loves playing and could probably play all night. I could listen all night.

And incredible as he may be when he mellows out and on his originals, where he really shines is on rock covers like “Sweet Child Of Mine”. Here he shows off his guitar talent and throws in a little vocal talent for good measure. It’s really his forte. You bob and sway and thrash along with him. You can’t help but rock along with him.

With all the musicians in Second Life®, I don’t remember coming across any that play metal. Most are acoustic and most don’t rock out. But StevenJaimz does. He’s a rarity in Second Life® and hopefully we’ll hear more of it.

StevenJaimz rocked us through an hour of heavy metal influenced tunes including “Blood Stain”, “Deliverance” and “I Scream Alone”.

There’s only one thing I could imagine that would be better than seeing StevenJaimz Hunniton “Live” in Second Life® and that would be to see him “LIVE” in real life. Maybe someday.