I just made a Joe Stump station on Pandora and loving it. Not one vocal - all shred and virtuoso …I love it!!!
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file this away for reference lol
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Wow HOW have I not heard of him???
he was never in a famous band and his first album came out in 93 which was really bad market timing. a lot of people see him only as an Yngwie clone etc. great player and teacher though!
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Can’t leave out Gus G and Michael Romeo, 2 of the best modern players and both very aggressive
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Gus G reminds me of a guy I can’t believe I didn’t think of earlier, since they’d toured together - Angel Vivaldi definitely deserves a nod as far as aggressive, extremely technically accomplished modern players go:
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I love Gus G. Saw him last year at a local club, he was incredible. Amazing chops, but also a ballsy, aggressive style.
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Can’t forget dimebag, he’s regarded as one of the only players to emerge in the 90s.
Is this true? I just started reading the riffer madness book.
Such a shame the way he died.
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No. Pantera started in the 80s with Darrell Abbott and Vinnie Abbott, toured, released albums etc.
Also, come to think of it, he’s not known as a virtuoso, exactly, but I’ve always really dug Billy Corgan’s playing. One of the best mainstream 90s guitarists, anyway, and his lead breaks on stuff like “Rhinoceros” and “Cherub Rock” are pretty damned cool, too.
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Pantera released albums in the 80s but didn’t come to mainstream public attention until the release of Cowboys from Hell in 1990. Many casual fans, myself included, had no idea about their previous four albums and thought CFH was their first release. The 80s material was more in the glam-metal style, and much less distinct. With that in mind, it makes sense that Dimebag for all general intents and purposes would be thought of as a “90s” player.
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The statement however, was regarding when he “emerged.” Having already gotten your chops together, having created a distinctive lead style, releasing multiple albums, getting airplay, and playing hundreds of shows within a large geographic area - one with a radius of hundreds of miles are a good indicator that a player has “emerged.”
If you asked me when did he become a big rock star I’d say the answer is 1990 - when Cowboys From Hell was released. It was their fifth album and their second album with Phil Anselmo. Adding Anselmo to the band was the key in transcending from an independent label heavy metal band with a cult following to becoming a major label metal band with a worldwide following. They needed Anselmo to make that progression and Anselmo needed them every bit as much. Neither the Abbott brothers without Anselmo nor Anselmo without the Abbott brothers ever had big time success. That being said, as far as his guitar skills were concerned, it was evident in the four albums Pantera released in the 80s that Darrell Abbott had emerged as a force to be reckoned with.
Pantera never sounded like glam metal band to me - they sounded lot more like Judas Priest than Ratt. Some people go mainly by appearances and figure if the band used hairspray, they must have been a glam band. These are people who generally speaking are either very casual fans making a mistake the equivalent of judging a book by its cover, and/or they weren’t old enough or interested enough yet to be supporting the 1980s hard rock/heavy metal scene in their area. For those who were still young children back in 1984, I wouldn’t expect them to know that hairspray was ubiquitous among heavy metal musicians then and even more in the late 80s. Hell, Ozzy used it! It was the 1980s and that was just the style of the time.
This is the first song of theirs I heard on the radio - a song titled “Heavy Metal Rules” from their second album named “Projects In The Jungle” and released in 1984 - quite a ways off from the 90s, huh?
Decide for yourselves if it sounds more like Priest or Bon Jovi
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Let’s clarify our terms, as we’re getting into semantics here. What I meant in my statement was indeed that Dimebag and Pantera “emerged” into the national scene and became know to the general public with the CFH release. Yes, they had releases prior to that and were known in Texas. But as someone who was playing in the metal scene in New York in the late 80s, I absolutely never heard of Pantera or Dimebag until CFH. Were local bands in my area covering their songs? No. Were people trading their cassettes in the local scene? No. Were DD interviews and transcriptions showing up in the major guitar magazines of the era before CFH? No. I’ll stand by the idea that DD is generally known and remembered for the work he did in the 90s with Pantera. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have chops, releases or a style before that, but as far as the mainstream metal consumer goes, Pantera didn’t really exist until 1990 and that was my point. There were plenty of great players and bands who had their own styles, released albums, and had a devoted local following that many of us have never heard of. These players were not generally known outside of their local area, and thus had not emerged or come to the attention of the national market. They were still finding their sound and look, it’s all good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amq9It9dRjs
Closer to Priest or BonJovi/Ratt/Motley Crue? You decide. Still great guitar playing, just different stylings.
Well we clearly have a difference of opinion on what constitutes “aggressive” playing, but our differences are what make the world go ‘round, right?
I think Eddie Van Halen’s playing is unbelievably “aggressive” on the entire ‘Fair Warning’ LP and perhaps most “aggressive” of all is the album closer “One Foot Out The Door”…
Is this aggressive enough?
I’m not sure that anyone would disagree about EVH being one of the most aggressive rock players early in his career. Awesome stuff
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Oh also this one
The licks around 2:52 have some pick attack in them.
Speedball… such a great tune!
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The solos in “Soma”, “Geek USA”, and “United States” are nothing short of incredible. Crogan is a fan of shredders like Uli Jon Roth as well. The guy can play his ass off. Probably why a lot of his musical peers turned their noses up at him.
Always been a fan of Jerry Cantrell as well, lots of Iommi and EVH influence in his style. Great melodic lead player and great riff writer. But like Billy I feel these guys held back a lot to serve the song when guitar technics became looked down upon.
As for licks and solos the whole Judas Priest Painkiller album is full of them KK’s solo in the title track (the second solo) is killer with all those savage pinch harmonics. The guitar tone that Chris Tsangarides helped produce is biting. Metal Meltdown is a great contender that intro dual solo is just an all out attack.
Deep Purple Child in Time. The year is 1970 outside of jazz no one is playing guitar like this and Blackmore just unleashes an audial description of nuclear devastation on the solo. It’s a prefect build from such a subdued ballad type song. These may be some of the first triad style sweeps on a rock album as well at the end of the solo doubling the organ.
Ok thrash time
You can pretty much pick any Mustaine solo as his entire lead style is pure aggression.
My guitar buddy when I was learning in high school was the Metallica guy and I was the Megadeth guy. He used to joke that Dave’s solos sound like he channeled all his aggression and anger at having been fired from Metallica into his solos on the first batch of Megadeth albums because he just attacks the guitar. In My Darkest Hour (3:55) and Holy Wars (final solo at 5:00) are my picks. The Conjuring is a runner up as well as My Last Words.
There are few solos that terrify me but when guitarists start emulate things that are more idiomatic to keyboardists I get scared. Michael Romeo’s multi string tapping bit in Sea of Lies (2:35) is scary as well as the overall precision of the rest of the song.
Sweep tap galore in this one. (3:23)
Speaking of tech death “well we already ripped your head off so now we will interpolate Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights” Such a shame these dudes stopped making albums. Although Obscura fills the void a bit.
Forgot to mention Wintersun, there are so many great aggressive lead parts (Winter Madness and Death and the Healing come to mind) on the self titled album but I adore this short sweep bit in the opening track.
I’m the One, Hang Em High, Loss of Control, any of the real fast songs.
Gotta add Domination by Pantera. Dime does a similar thing that KK did Metal Meltdown with the one string tremolo picked wide interval apreggio lick during the breakdown except it’s harmonized. Absolutely vicious lick. around 4:15.