Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:04 pm Posts: 39920 Gender: Male
André Olbrich
From Blind Guardians humble beggings in mind numbingly fast melodic speed metal to their present-day bombastic masterpieces Andre has kicked all forms of ass. On the earlier Guardian albums he worked more off amazing speed, but as time went along with Nightfall In Middle-Earth and especially their (in my mind) swan-song A Night At The Opera he reallied more on the melody and feeling of his solos and leads.
Yngwie Malmsteen
The true godfather of neoclassical metal, undoubtedly the first master of his instrument. He said fuck you to the decaying degrading world of rock guitar and fused the fury of masters like Bach and Paganini into his electric guitar style. Using that classical originality and progression combined with the furious speed and surgical precision Yngwie has proved to all doubters that he is unstoppable.
Timo Tolkki
Lesser known but by no means a lesser player, Tolkki is a hell of a guy no doubt. He reallies more on the actual song than his personal instrument but don’t let it fool you, the man is a master of the melodic thrashing solo. He formed the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius in the 80’s and got big in Japan for a few albums, then eventually in Europe. Timo also released a couple solo albums of mostly instrumental guitar tracks, which are amazing in themselves.
Alex Lifeson
If you don’t know who Lifeson is you most likely don’t know anyone else on this list, leave now. Now I personally don’t hail Alex as a guitar god persay but because of the huge influence he had on our modern day prog-metal guitarists he deserves a spot. Any band that can pull off a song like 2112 deserves to be spoken about. Lifeson did change the way that a lot of guitarists thought about their playing, and indeed he helped things progress along.
Andy La Rocque
This is a guy who is so often overlooked it’s scary (I’m guilty of this as well.) Andy is one of the lead guitarists for King Diamond, and is an amazing player in his own right. King Diamond will basically right a finger breaking prog-riff and Andy will learn it with ease. His leads and melodies should also be noted, and the guy can straight kick ass like no ones business.
Luca Turilli
Italy's power metal virtuoso, Luca plays in the Italian power metal band Rhapsody and has also but out a number of solo albums (all following the same sci-fi storyline if memory serves me correctly.) He actually makes me think back to Timo Tolkki for a few reasons, while his melodies and solos are stronger than almost everyones he is more about the whole of the song. He is really an amazing rhythm player as much as he can right a melodic catchy solo on his guitar.
Kai Hansen
Neither the fastest or the best player, Kai is still probably the most influential musician in European metal, to this day. For the reason alone that he played on the undeniable greatest two classic power metal albums ever made, with his first band Helloween (Keepers Of The Seven Keys; Part 1 and Part 2.) Then he went on to form one of my favorite bands, Gamma Ray, who play in the style of that classical Helloween way, but with more emphasis on Kai. Also I’d like to mention that his lyrics (like Stratovarius’) are really uplifting and inspiring.
John Petrucci
Now the finally guitarist I’d like to talk about is one that you probably have heard before. If you don’t know he plays guitar in the prog-metal band Dream Theater, and kicks much ass in the process. I’d say John really has a little bit of everything that makes him such an incredible player, he has speed, the progness to make DT’s song so awesome, the melody and harmony in his leads that don’t leave a bad taste in your mouth like so many other American guitarists. And he has a great attitude too, he’s just an all around good guy and incredible musician.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:52 pm Posts: 1727 Location: Earth Gender: Male
- McCready -
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_________________ "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." -Noam Chomsky
Good thread.
I would like to add some that I'm sure you would agree with:
Michael Amott:
Michael, for the most part, pioneered melodic death with his work in Carcass and later with his brother Chris in Arch Enemy. (Obviously I am not including Maiden but I wouldn't consider them melodic death) I wouldn't recommend his later work with AE as it has diminished in intensity but his work in Carcass and the first 3 AE albums are great examples of Sweedish melodic death.
Chuck Schuldiner:
What can you say about Chuck? He single handedly created technical Death Metal. He was fucking brilliant.
Anders Bjorler:
Every US metal (or wannabe) band wants to be this guy. And all the guys from In Flames lick the sweat off his nutscack. At The Gates and The Haunted display his riffery over several albums. ATG's Slaughter of the Soul and The Haunted S/T are basic lessons in melodic thrash. Go study!
Ihsahn & Samoth (or Zamoth)
Emperor's dual guitars mixed blistering black metal ferocity with beautiful classical harmonized melodies. This band will live on as one of my personal favourites.
_________________ i was dreaming through the howzlife yawning car black when she told me "mad and meaningless as ever" and a song came on my radio like a cemetery rhyme for a million crying corpses in their tragedy of respectable existence
young neil goes on my list as well, i just got bored with looking for pictures
_________________ i was dreaming through the howzlife yawning car black when she told me "mad and meaningless as ever" and a song came on my radio like a cemetery rhyme for a million crying corpses in their tragedy of respectable existence
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:01 am Posts: 19477 Location: Brooklyn NY
Page owns all
_________________
LittleWing sometime in July 2007 wrote:
Unfortunately, it's so elementary, and the big time investors behind the drive in the stock market aren't so stupid. This isn't the false economy of 2000.
i like punching people in the neck when they go, "oh, but he's so sloppy"
_________________ i was dreaming through the howzlife yawning car black when she told me "mad and meaningless as ever" and a song came on my radio like a cemetery rhyme for a million crying corpses in their tragedy of respectable existence
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