Others that came to mind:
Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country: kinda shocked by the amount of play this got, and it had a solo leading into a harmonized guitar part, which is pretty textbook “guitar heavy song”.
Orianthi - According to You: she’s obviously a pro guitarist and got producers to write her a hit.
Alterbridge - Open Your Eyes: riding on the popularity of Creed helped, and Mark always seemed to want to improve on his playing, which was obvious in this song.
I’d thought of that one the other day…then totally forgot to post here about it. And you’re right, pretty surprising that was deemed an ok song for radio (I loved it though!!! I <3 A7x even though they seem to be the Nickelback of heavy rock)
That was absolutely the first time a whole generation heard sweeps too cause that’s when TRL still existed.
Wow, what an interesting song! It charted very well, and while I definitely don’t consider it very heavy, they jammed in lots of guitar! Well played, Avenged Sevenfold!
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Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country
Okay so we’ll all meet at the hot topic, mull around for 4 hours. Share a number 6 combo at Panda Express and then slink back and watch spike TV a bloated farting mess. That’s what that reminds me of.
So I’m gonna rant just a bit. That solo structure and the tone of it as well is the norm for modern “shred”type solo composition up to this day. chops aside it’s kind of annoying. Alright rant over.
Actual shred is toxic to sales, regular people view it as masturbation and vastly prefer something else. However, it is interesting to see bands chart with at least some guitar.
It wasn’t really meant to be in reference to common practice in the mainstream music industry, mostly just modern guitar shred composition in general.
I think one thing that distinguishes grunge from rock stuff that preceded and followed is how the genre used time. This was different than hair metal that it displaced with its simple chugging and requisite guitar solo singing about girls girls girls. And its different than how you remind me.
This hair metal 80’s music format immediately sounded stale and boring - musically uninteresting and pretenttious/corny with the arrival of grunge. Suddenly you realized you had the musical taste of a 5 year old (I still do lol).
Grunge was often nasty with warbly time pushing and bending with often realistic although sometimes doomy and angry lyrics … more related to black sabbath than guitar masturbation vehicles or three chord rock.
Even a poppy song like Smells like teen spirt features a somewhat funky rap/disco beat with interesting note choices with a dreamy sad but angry and bitter vocal delivery. With an epic and overall angry feel.
This was revolutionary back them. And I think even if you liked guitar and guitar solos, this still caught your ear and made you appreciate a form even if different than music you might sometimes want to play.
Added:
Interesting video (imo) about that song:
Oh don’t get me started on how Soundgarden and Alice in Chains (both of whom I consider to be borderline metal bands) are basically prog adjacent with shifting or unorthodox time signatures and such.
Two of my favorite examples. Both in 6/4.
Them Bones is also great I could write a dissertation on how genius Cantrell is for creating such morbid claustrophobia by doing to time what he does in that riff. Shifting from 7/8 back to 4/4 it’s like audial waterboarding.
I think stuff like this really primed the public’s ears for a band like Tool come the mid 90s.
Im really glad Beato talks about this stuff cause it’s a big reason I’ve liked the bands I’ve liked and I could never put it into words well.
Iommi could have written that one. Very Sabbathian.
Brings up a reason I don’t listen to 80s hair shred bands as much as 90s stuff. A lot of the riffs are boring. To me Thrash was the best combo. Especially from like 86-93. Pantera kept that fusion alive afterwards, killer riffs, killer solos. Then it went dormant with nu metal for a while. Here’s a great one. Simple riff but awesome and a winding solo.
I seem to recall that Troy had a cracking the code video that briefly mentions the solo in this song as an example of how more technical playing was making its way into even top 10 commercial pop hits. Basically saying how like everybody had technique and how were they doing it. I could be wrong but for some reason I remember that from a long time ago. One of those videos. Maybe it was a different song. I knew the song back then and embarrasingly admit i liked it even without the solo with her kind of raw singing and the songs dramatic pauses and sort of vengeful lyrics.
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Here is a grunge tune with a little bit of a shredsy solo
Soundgarden - Gun
Here is Kurt Cobain “shredding” for a few seconds:
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I remember I was in Brazil in '93 and during my time there there was the Rock in Rio festival with a lot of bands including a Brazilian band called Dr Sin with a bona fide shredder. I forget his name.
Anyway, the concert also included Alice in Chains and Nirvana and I forget who else. Maybe RHCP. I was curious about Nirvana and they were a little messy that night but definitely grungy on tunes like heart shaped box (which I thought sounded much better live then studio version - almost like a different song with the accents in the studio) and also scentless apprentice etc. Flea from Red hot chilli peppers got up and did the smells like teen spirit solo with a trumpet. Kurt was insulting the audience, spitting on the cameras and flashing the audience.
But I was very impressed wtih alice in chains. I thought they were incredible… so heavy always playing with time… bending, slowing down etc
I’ve read that EVH and Jerry Cantrell (Of Alice in Chains) were good friends. I know EVH liked JC’s playing.
I watched the concert on TV… it was shown free. I wasn’t in Rio.
Chirs Cornell from Soundgarden was a great singer:
Fell on black days
Chris is probably the only celebrity I’ve cried over the death of. I remember exactly where I was when I heard. What a loss. I couldn’t listen to any of his stuff for like a year or two without almost breaking down.
Also…
Like a stone - AudioSlave
Scar on the sky - acoustic live
Black hole sun - acoustic live
Oh all the Chris Cornell talk reminded me of another one!
Audioslave - Doesn’t Remind Me
I’ve read that Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins is a huge Yngwie fan.
He used to practice Yngwie stuff before he fell into the 90’s seattle sound - alternative rock style.
There’s a Beato interview with him and near the very end he mentions Yngwie but Beato doesn’t take it anywhere. But I’ve heard him talk about Yngwie many times.
I’ve never been the hugest fan of SP but the double album Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness is a great album. Quirky with different kinds of styles.
Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness
To Forgive:
Gallapagos
By Starlight
XYU
Just a random “ShoeGaze” song by Lush
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I recall reading that Dave Grohl (NIrvana Drummer) and friends ran into Yngwie in a bar and approached him saying how much they liked him and respected him for his virtuosity stating we totally suck. I read that Yngwie was surprised they knew of him and liked him and he enjoyed the encounter and thought they were cool.
Added:
A rap icon (Ice-T)'s metal band (Body Count) cover of a Slayer track
This should give you a clue of how massive of a Billy/SP fan I am. To say that Siamese Dream is my favorite guitar oriented rock album of all time is probably an understatement.
I’ve never agreed with SP being grunge adjacent (unless having a relationship with Courtney Love automatically makes you grunge, hahahaha). Fun fact “Violet” by Hole is about Billy and Courtney claims she put a hex on him and all his hair fell out when they broke up).
Billy’s influences are more myriad, lots of shoegaze influence from bands like My Bloody Valentine Billy talks about it in the Beato interview and of course 80s metal.
This is on the same album as 1979 and Tonight, Tonight. Never fails to amuse me straight thrash riffing. Must have been like the people that bought Extreme II for “More than Words”
Rivers Cuomo from Weezer has a similar path pre fame very into 80s shred stuff. Here’s Billy in the 80s.
Billy’s an Uli Jon Roth fan too. Uli played with SP once.
Here’s some favorites from a guitar perspective.
Glad you brought up Ice-T in addition to playing the longest running male live action character in TV history he’s a huge metal fan. The Sabbath fans will know where the riffs in these came from
Ernie C. (Body Count’s lead guitarist) can shred his ass off. Somewhere in storage I have their debut album with “Cop Killer” on it before it was pulled. If memory serves in the liner notes they thank a lot of the thrash guys like Mustaine. It always cracks me up how the media called Body Count a “rap group” during the controversy, nah this is crossover thrash plain and simple. One of my favorites to crank up in the car driving. Only Body Count could write a ballad about crackheads
I used to llke this Weezer song:
This is kind of a simple nice song by SP. I think it was one of the first songs they recorded and it’s not on any their normally released albums if I’m not mistaken.
Bleed
I’ll just leave this here
It’s funny cause Metallica themselves lifted the Sweet Home Alabama riff for the bridge of Four Horseman and a later riff in Sanitarium sounds a lot like Rush’s Tom Sawyer.
Apparently the Sweet Home Alabama thing started as a joke by Mustaine when Lars wanted a slower part and he played the riff as a joke and Lars didn’t know Skynyrd so it was left in.
I don’t know how high this version charted but it is a famous song and it has a couple of shreddy runs in the beginning
This Chicago song which was their first single release (only charted as high as number 24) has some quick playing in the beginning (bass sounds prominent on that)
Terry Kath was amazing. What a tragic loss.
I’m the same, Siamese Dream and MCATIS are likely my favourite rock albums. They still get regular listens decades later
