TOP 10 GUITAR PLAYERS

Despite being the guitar my favourite musical instrument, I have developed with time a certain fondness for a few others (mostly the drums), but the guitar is still the measuring stick by which the music I usually listen to lives and dies, and the main factor to eventually know whether I like an album or not. There are many great albums filled with very good or even great songs and an stellar guitar work, but with a sub-par overall sound (BLIZZARD OF OZZ, I'm pointing at you), but I guess I'd have a hard time trying to find the exact opposite example. And besides, my knowledge about other instruments is even lesser and less enthusiast than that of the guitar, for me to make a similar list with them.

Neither am I an expert on the subject (I won't talk about the technic and the tricks the guitarrists display, mostly because I'm ignorant about them, and for the same reason I will not delve into their gear), but it has always been something closer to me, and which has drawn my attention more than anything else music-related. That's why this list is based on my personal taste and whether I enjoy what I listen to or not. My point is that the guitarist's songwriting skills, if any, are pivotal to me, because everyone knows that sometimes you can find a great deal of technical virtuosity on songs which tend go nowhere. I choose quality over quantity. And of course, I take into account the kind of music the guitar player plays, and if their playing fits in it. In this regard you can miss some big names here and be puzzled about some others on the list, but it doesn't matter to me how technically good a guitar player might be; if I don't enjoy the music they play I lose interest. As simple as that. That's why my favourite guitarrists use to be those who play in my favourite bands, and that's all that there is to it. In the end this is all about my personal top, not a list about the best guitar players ever.

This is a current list and I guess it might change some time, but not very much. It has no particular order, and neither does it go from the best to the least good one, nor the other way around. They are just the ten guitar players who, for some reason, I usually enjoy the most. And as with previous posts I'll learn something new myself while reading about their lives, because this is not only about my opinion on the guitarist at hand, but also about their own personal stories.










Let's do this.




BILL STEER





Bill Steer





William Geoffrey Steer (03-12-1969) is an english musician (Stockton-On-Tees) mostly known for being the guitarist and founding member of the legendary CARCASS. This ace, who never seems to get old and, who while declaring himself a devoted MICHAEL SCHENKER fan, confesses that one of his favourite albums is UFO's NO PLACE TO RUN (their first one without Schenker in their ranks, of all their albums) is an artist of many talents whose skills go beyond the guitar and who has covered, always within the boundaries of rock music, styles in principle as removed between each other as blues rock and death metal.

But as I've said before, his name always goes hand in hand with the legends from Liverpool, Carcass, whose creation Steer combined with his tenure with the also english NAPALM DEATH, with whom he recorded the first two albums of this band (SCUM, in 1987, and FROM ENSLAVEMENT TO OBLITERATION, the next year). But it's been KEN OWEN and JEFF WALKER, his (almost) inseparable partners in Carcass, the ones he's gained fame with, either as a trio in their beginnings, when their music was the sonic equivalent of a dental drill (on albums like REEK OF PUTREFACTION and SYMPHONIES OF SICKNESS, from 1988 and 1989 respectively), as a foursome soon after, when MICHAEL AMOTT joined the band and they tamed their sound a bit to, according to many, pioneer what is known today as melodic death metal (I disagree) with a masterpiece such as HEARTWORK (1993), or when Amott left and was replaced by CARLO REGADAS on second guitar and they had their farewell, still very young, with the aptly titled SWANSONG (1996), an underrated death & roll album on which their sound had little in common with their goregrind and deathgrind (you name it) beginnings. Not in vain have Carcass been very often said to be one of those bands who never do the same album twice, and during those first years they did that statement justice.

I have already mentioned that Bill's talent is not restricted to the guitar, because he also contributed his growl to the sonic torment unleashed by the band, and when the century was about to end he led FIREBIRD, a british hard blues rock combo he released some albums with before their disbanding in 2012, singing and playing the harmonica, as well as the guitar, that goes without saying. This band means unfinished work to me because I've barely listened to anything from them. This is one of the good things about certain hobbies, that there's always some task ahead of yourself.

On top of that, he's helped or joined some other lesser known acts, he's founded (together with Walker) a music label and he's been the editor of a fanzine in his teens. A true whirlwind, and for all the good reasons.

Carcass came back to life some years ago, Owen-less though (the drummer suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1999 and, although recovered, he cannot face the demanding levels of playing with Carcass), to play some shows here and there, and afterwards with their comeback album SURGICAL STEEL in 2013. To the joy of their fans, Carcass are current now with the release of their newest album TORN ARTERIES (2021). Even if it's true what I stated before, regarding the stylistic variety of their youth, these last two albums are a melting-pot of what they themselves created, mostly between 1991 and 1996, something I have no issues with. Sounds good to me.

It has always been noteworthy to me, mostly on all Carcass albums but Swansong (because this one might be the musical equivalent of a beefed-up THIN LIZZY and their classic dual guitar melodies, trying their take on extreme metal, something which further adds to what I'm saying), how Steer mixes the sheer musical aggression when it comes to rhythm guitar riffing and what a band like this demands, with a classic rock influence when facing his solo parts. His good taste is notorious in this regard and a very good example of it can be found in the beginning of a song like HEARTWORK.

Bill is, by the way, the youngest of them all on this list (food for thought, ain't it?).





No love lost





And now with the expected extras about the man:




















WOLF HOFFMANN





Wolf Hoffmann




Born on the 10th of December, 1959, in Mainz (Western Germany), Wolf Hoffmann is mostly known for being the lead guitar player and, nowadays, the only original member left in the glorious ACCEPT, another one of Germany's big contributions to the world of heavy metal, capitalized in this case, because Accept, with their break-ups (some longer than others), reconciliations and changes of personnel, have been active since as long as 1976, and they are a big name when it comes to talk about their influence on subgenres like speed and thrash metal. On the other hand, Hoffmann, as expected, is the sole member in the band's history to have taken part on all of their albums, from ACCEPT (1979) to the very current TOO MEAN TO DIE (2021).

Hoffmann is an odd case, because someone who's been involved in music as long as he has, usually has some other side projects or even a long solo career (as is the case with the famed UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER, Accept's original singer), and while Hoffmann has done his fair share of stuff outside the band (he even has a couple of solo albums on which he pours all his classical influences onto his guitar playing), truth is he's been really loyal to his core band, and given what I've read, he seems to be the only reason why the band is still alive and kicking after the departure of his inseparable PETER BALTES (bass player and casual singer), the other musician in Accept who has been with the band since its very beginnings, having recorded all of their albums but the last one. It's very likely that the main reason why Wolf has focused mainly on Accept, is his career as a photographer, something which began as a hobby and ended up becoming his second career (among his works we can find the cover of what was Accept's first comeback album and a personal favourite of mine, OBJECTION OVERRULED, from 1993).

Although I'm no expert in the whole of their discography, there are barely a couple of albums of theirs which I haven't listened closely to (mainly their, according to most reviewers, lowest point with EAT THE HEAT, in 1989, and PREDATOR, in 1996) and is one of the bands I follow and I am fond of the most, mainly because they are a very consistent (and quite constant) source of fun and classic metal, with some touches of other genres I also like. Accordingly, I'll play it safe when highlighting (and who wouldn't?) the astonishing streak of the band between 1981 and 1985, when they released BREAKER, RESTLESS & WILD, BALLS TO THE WALLS and METAL HEART in a row, and Hoffmann (along with JÖRG FISCHER and HERMAN FRANK, depending on the album) devotes himself to put his stamp on the band's biggest and best known hits. Unforgettable songs such as BALLS TO THE WALLS or PRINCESS OF THE DAWN, or a deep cut like GUARDIAN OF THE NIGHT, which may have his very best guitar solo, where the german axeman almost sets his guitar on fire, literally. This great period peaked on the live album STAYING A LIFE, which although having been released in 1990, was recorded in Osaka in 1985, while supporting Metal Heart.

On an instrumental level, in every respect, and only to get a small glimpse of what this man is capable of, I cannot recommend enough a song like JUST BY MY OWN, from the aforementioned Objection Overruled.

And I would not like to leave aside the current period of the band (since 2010) either, with the american screamer MARK TORNILLO, in which they have released albums as good as Too Mean To Die, BLOOD OF THE NATIONS (2010) or the great STALINGRAD: BROTHERS IN DEATH (2012), which get regular spins at home and in the car. I've been lucky enough to see them on stage some years ago, at the beginning of 2017, and they are fit as a fiddle.





Metal Heart












Zakk Wylde





It's kind of difficult for me now to write about Zakk Wylde, because, out of all the guitar players who have made it onto the list, he might be the one I listen to the least nowadays. Little did I know some years ago that it would end up this way! Born as JEFFREY PHILLIP WEILANDT in Bayonne (New Jersey), on the 14th of January, 1967, Zakk has been one of my oldest and most beloved musical idols, but I realize that, somehow, I've been neglecting him during the last years. Do not get me wrong, his chops as a musician are beyond doubt (and not only on guitar) and I keep on listening to him quite often on some of his older projects. To put it mildly, it's been a long time since I began reckoning his work as a songwriter in his most current and longest-lived band, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, has not been on par with his musical skills, something which is paramount to me, and that's why I don't listen to this band as much as it could have been expected a few years ago. The way some of his albums sound is not my cup of tea (specially the oldest ones), and the musical style BLS play is not my favourite either, even if I like it anyway. Also I must admit I felt a little bit dissapointed when I learnt his real name wasn't Zakk Wylde. But I can forgive him almost anything, and as a matter of fact, during the last ten years or so, since I've lost interest in them, they have been showing signs of improvement with every album they release. And I keep that in mind. More on this below.


Better to start from square one.

Although BLS have been active for longer than twenty years and they are about to release their eleventh studio album  before the end of 2021, Zakk is better known for being the fifth and longest-lived OZZY OSBOURNE's axeman (the third one to record a studio album with the Madman), who recruited him when Zakk was still in his teens to replace JAKE E. LEE, when the guitarrist left Ozzy's band (or maybe he was fired, I don't remember now). Zakk began his tenure with the singer on the right footing, due to his more robust sound and the rapport between each other, and he took part on NO REST FOR THE WICKED (1988) and NO MORE TEARS (1991), which are, in my opinion, his best and most famous albums with the english singer, on which he also had songwriting credits. He worked with Ozzy on three more studio albums (if memory serves) and some live stuff, but in 1993, after the announcement that Ozzy would put his musical career on hold during two or three years, Zakk decided he did not want to be jobless that long and he put together the southern metal trio PRIDE & GLORY.

It is during this period that I first knew about him, and I still remember the first picture of his that I saw (on stage with Ozzy) and how impressed I got. For a sixteen-year old, a guy with those looks was more than striking. The long hair, that LES PAUL with concentric circles, the way he held it... and the bigger impact of the whole picture when you saw him playing on video, with those divisive pinch harmonics that have since become his trademark. When the next year their first songs and clips began to surface I was turned into a fan of his, his band and also Ozzy's (who led me to RANDY RHOADS, of all people, but that's another story). With Pride & Glory, more than with anything he's done before or since, the american hits bull's eye in every sense, in my opinion. Their music (an hybrid between LYNYRD SKYNYRD and BLACK SABBATH, I once read) was different than that of Ozzy or what he has later played with BLS, although Zakk has always kept that country and southern flavour when playing the guitar, mostly while soloing. But Zakk seemed more focused than ever, being his own boss, and the outcome is very special, to say the least, even if this album is an acquired taste and not for everyone, because besides the metal riffs and some instrumental parts on which he shreds like crazy, there are also some acoustic, piano and even string bits (how could anybody forget about the enormous THE CHOSEN ONE?), without forgetting the distinctly southern side of the whole thing, the rural cover and the way the three musicians looked. A completely countryside affair.

Although they toured during a couple of years, the band was short-lived and after the release of the unsuccesful Ozzy album OZZMOSIS, in 1995, Zakk unleashed his more intimate side with another gem called BOOK OF SHADOWS, a very private and personal album which delved deeper into the semi-acoustic side shown on P&G, with no shortage of Zakk's killer solos. One of those albums which trascend music itself. Unfortunately, Zakk had the terrible idea of releasing, long after (2016), an album of the same kind which was called BOOK OF SHADOWS II. Why terrible? Because while he's free to release something like that if he feels like it (leaving aside the motivations behind it, which led him to release the first one twenty years prior), I don't see the need to ruin the first album's legacy with something which is called the same way and, given what I've listened to so far, cannot hold a candle to the original effort, in terms of quality. Even more when BLS released in 2004 HANGOVER MUSIC VOL. VI, an album of the same kind which, while not as good as the first Book Of Shadows, is far superior on all fronts than the second one. What can I say?

Zakk toured as a solo artist in support of those songs (and P&G's) with a more intimate format, and as I've said before, he would be in and out of Ozzy's band afterwards, besides working with him in studio on rather forgettable albums, as was DOWN TO EARTH (2001), which also was the last one I put some interest in. That's why the most important stuff left are BLS, who debuted in 1999 with SONIC BREW. Their career is a long and storied one (they will release DOOM CREW INC. in November, 2021) and I won't talk about it in deep detail. Music-wise they could be labeled as a cross between Zakk's usual southern influences and, somehow, what PANTERA were doing at the time (I don't know if this definition is accurate but is what first comes to mind, and I guess it has something to do with the friendship that Zakk shared with the late DIMEBAG DARRELL, guitarrist in the texan combo).

As I've said before, not everything has run smoothly between BLS and I, although I followed them devotedly back in the day. After all, I saw them on stage in Madrid during the spring of 2005, while touring in support of MAFIA (released in that very same year), together with my buddy EWING
(supreme leader of the famed traveling ensemble of comedians, LOS EWING) and one girl whose name I don't remember, and I enjoyed the show thoroughly. There were moments when I could feel the foundations of the venue trembling due to the insanely loud volume, and I also remember Zakk surrounded by countless plastic glasses of beer, how he did an acoustic tribute to Randy Rhoads, together with the usual one to Dimebag with IN THIS RIVER, how something failed for a while and in the meantime the bass player (JAMES LOMENZO, nothing less, partner of his in P&G) and the drummer jammed along some ZEPPELIN and SABBATH, and also that opening for them were MELDRUM, led by the deceased wife of the swedish axeman JOHN NORUM, of EUROPE fame.

My current problem with this band is that I don't think some of the songs are good enough, and I realize many of them have gone from blowing my mind in the past to leaving me unimpressed. Furthermore, Zakk has always had a penchant for navel-gazing when playing, when he was a kid and when he's grown older (endless guitar solos while playing live, for his own personal ostentation), and I think this has permeated his songwriting patterns (him, his guitar, his voice and little more), but for all the wrong reasons. And truth is, I am fed up of his semi-acoustic ballads with piano which he, for the most part, excelled at in the past, when he did them moderately, but which have become boring and repetitive, in addition to being a stark contrast with the band's usual sound. It' also true that, given what I've listened to from them since 2010 with ORDER OF THE BLACK, some of this issues are getting sorted out, due to taking longer between albums, more variety on them (just a little bit), giving more space to the rest of the musicians and a much better production  (of which there were some hints on Mafia), more modern and heavier sounding. Their last single, SET YOU FREE, sounds pretty good.

He also has his side project, ZAKK SABBATH, where he plays Sabbath stuff and which I recommend. The album VERTIGO saw the light in 2020 and is a rendition of the first Sabbath album from beginning to end, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

And little more. He's much more than a guitar player and a singer, because he also plays the piano and the harmonica, he's performed as an actor, played on countless albums as a guest star and is well known his devotion and loyalty to some guitarrists he adores, whose names he's used to partially give name to his children. He had a serious health issue a few years back, which he's happily over and done with, he quit booze for good or that I've heard, and nowadays he happens to be a cross between Thor and your everyday viking. He's also written a book called BRINGING METAL TO THE CHILDREN: THE COMPLETE BERSERKER'S GUIDE TO WORLD TOUR DOMINATION, released in 2012 and which I haven't read yet.


A true character.





Miracle man






























GLENN TIPTON





Glenn Tipton





Good old Glenn (25-10-1947, Blackheath, England) has created, together with K.K. DOWNING, what might be the most famous and influential guitar duo in all metal, due to their time together in JUDAS PRIEST, whom I consider the genre's most important band ever. At present he suffers from the Parkinson's disease and cannot contribute his usual twenty per cent to the band when it comes to touring, although he remains involved with Priest, and I'm not willing to talk about the reasons why Downing is not with them anymore, but truth is they both have made history together thanks to a partnership which spans many years (from 1974 to 2009, roughly), and which has left its mark on nothing less than sixteen studio albums, out of which half of them at least are legendary and a cornerstone of the genre. It's dozens of great songs and many hours of joy we're talking about here, and it has to be a very tall order trying to find two guitarrists as influential, as imitated, and whose songs have meant as significant a boost to the creation of many new bands as Tipton and Downing have been, not to mention their contribution to defining a whole musical genre which was giving its first steps in the seventies, and to the creation of more extreme subgenres.

Out of the two it has always been Glenn the one I've looked up to the most, because even if they have shared solos (many times in the same song) and songwriting duties during their time together, Tipton has always been ahead on both fronts. And also, what the hell, I've always found him more likeable, although I couldn't tell you why.

Glenn has taken part in everything Priest have released so far (the only one of the, let's say, historic members in doing so, apart from bassist IAN HILL), but he was not an original member of the band himself, whose lineup went through some changes until it remained almost unaltered (leaving the drummer aside), with the release of ROCKA ROLLA in 1974, their first album. In fact, he was far from been a precocious player, because according to Wikipedia he began playing the guitar when he was nineteen (???), something which is quite striking, and he was in several short-lived bands before joining Priest, during the recording of said debut album.

During those first three years of recording career, the band released two remarkable albums (SAD WINGS OF DESTINY, in 1975, and SIN AFTER SIN, in 1977) and they hardened their sound from one album to another, but there was still some psychedelic flavour to them (something inherent to the decade), something which was left behind for good with the release of the amazing STAINED CLASS and KILLING MACHINE, both in 1978, and the live album UNLEASHED IN THE EAST (1979), most likely the live album I've listened to the most, and for the same reason, I guess I have to say my favourite one. They began using double bass drumming on Sin After Sin and this came to the fore with the addition of drummer LES BINKS on the next three aforementioned albums.

A special mention deserve the wonderful covers they did in this second half of the seventies: DIAMONDS & RUST (JOAN BAEZ) and THE GREEN MANALISHI (FLEETWOOD MAC).

This tendency broadened in the eighties, when the overall heavier sound (with the classic and archetypical studs and leather looks) was greeted with a more commercial songwriting approach, focused on reaching a wider audience, which was a big success if we look at the bigger picture, although the musical outcome wasn't always ideal (personal opinion, of course). They released three masterpieces such as BRITISH STEEL (1980), SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE (1982) and DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH (1984). On the other hand, the divisive TURBO, released in 1986, is still one of their three most forgettable albums (again, my opinion). During the eighties their lineup remained unchanged, with the same musicians (I forgot to mention vocalist and main songwriter, along with Tipton, ROB HALFORD, the ultimate metal singer), barring drummer DAVE HOLLAND, who replaced Les Binks. Tipton and Downing's guitar duels stand out more than ever, in songs like EAT ME ALIVE or  RAM IT DOWN. I believe, in fact, there are many bands with many years of career behind them, which could not write something like THE SENTINEL, to give just one example.

In 1990 they updated their sound, making it more extreme, keeping in mind thay they have to catch up with the new metal trends which were blooming by the dawn of the new decade, and they released that beast which PAINKILLER is, an album that needs no introduction or comment about. After the tour, Halford quit the band to start some musical adventures which did not fit within the Priest frame (he took then new Priest drummer SCOTT TRAVIS with him in the first one of them, FIGHT. Travis had replaced Holland and has been with the band ever since). The band was inactive for a few years and Tipton found some time to write music of his own, releasing BAPTIZM OF FIRE in 1997 (surrounded by an incredible bunch of musicians and singing on it), which I enjoyed and still listen to quite often, even if it hasn't aged that well. He also recorded some songs together with the legendary late musicians JOHN ENTWISTLE (bass) and COZY POWELL (drums), who also took part on Baptizm Of Fire, but those songs did not make it onto the album because they were different to those on the album, and eventually saw the light of day in 2006, with the release of EDGE OF THE WORLD, on which Tipton sang again.

Priest returned to action in 1997, with the american singer TIM OWENS, and the release of JUGULATOR, most likely their heaviest album ever, where the band sharpened its sound to be a match for the Panteras and MACHINE HEADs of the day. I loved it at first (I went to San Sebastián to see the band during that tour), but as happened with Tipton's album, it hasn't aged as it would have been desirable. Very good album though, and even more if we keep in mind that the next one, DEMOLITION (2001), would be their most dissapointing album to date. To add further insult to injury, it was produced by Tipton. I don't even want to talk about it.

Halford would return to the fold in 2005, with ANGEL OF RETRIBUTION, and the band has been relevant ever since, releasing some more, overall, good albums, although a tad inconsistent, touring very often and producing news as shocking as Downing leaving the band (replaced by the young englishman RICHIE FAULKNER in 2011). Until today, because they released FIREPOWER in 2018, their best album since 1990, no less, and Tipton's disease became public knowledge (he knew about his condition while touring in support of REDEEMER OF SOULS, back in 2014, and let their bandmates know about it as well, but somehow he overcame the difficulties and finished the tour). He's been replaced on tour by co-producer ANDY SNEAP, right after finishing the recording of the album, although he's had some occasional starring appearances on stage, playing a few less technically demanding songs. So the stage has been set for the play and Priest are touring without any of their two historic axemen, with all the controversy and polarization it involves. The band seems to pay no attention to that though, and after the pandemic and with a little bit of delay, they have begun touring to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Also in 2018, Priest launched the GLENN TIPTON'S PARKINSON foundation, honouring the guitarrist, who will still be involved with the band. This is really emotional stuff and only time will tell about what's to come. The song NO SURRENDER, taken from Firepower, has become the motif behind all this, and T-shirts with this sentence, Tipton's picture and Priest's logo, are sold by the foundation as part of its initiatives to raise funds on the fight against Parkinson's.

I will not say anything about his technic, mainly because I read too much about it and I understand too little, but it has always been said that, in contrast to Downing, Tipton has tended to be a more traditional player (with a more melodic approach) than his partner in crime. But nothing like listening to their work and get the picture by ourselves. Be it as it may, besides some other rather usual and customary influences among the guitarrists of the genre (HENDRIX, Zeppelin), Tipton has stated that his most important influence is the irish guitarrist RORY GALLAGHER. 






Living after midnight































ANDY SNEAP





Andy Sneap





Andy's career (18-07-1969, Belper, Derbyshire, England) has already been told in detail on the lengthy post about SABBAT, so there is no point in going over it again here. I refer to that entry. I'll just say that Andy might be the least gifted musician of the whole lot, but I don't care, because being involved in an album like DREAMWEAVER is more than enough for me to put him on the list. On the other hand, I don't see the need to explain that, in order to play what's on that album (let alone writing it), and also to be part of Judas Priest, you need to be a very accomplished guitarrist, no matter what.

And besides, Andy may be one or two steps below all their colleagues on this list, but he has replaced, produced, helped or played with many of them, something which speaks volumes about him and his many talents beyond being a guitar player and a performer.

Oddly enough, he's the fourth guitarrist in a row, out of all the ones that I've mentioned so far, who I've been lucky to see on stage, and unfortunately, the last one for now.





Advent of insanity














ALEX SKOLNICK






Alex Skolnick




Considered as one of the fastest and most accomplished shredders ever, the guitarrist with the white strand, Alexander Nathan Skolnick, was born on the 29th of September, 1968, in Berkeley (California), and is mostly known for being a member of the great american thrash metal combo TESTAMENT.

A strikingly precocious musician, he began playing the guitar at the age of nine (aparently he was JOE SATRIANI's pupil), and he joined LEGACY, soon-to-be Testament, when he was fifteen. That band gave name to Testament's debut album, which Alex recorded when he was only eighteen years old. He was in Testament until 1992, recording four more classic albums: THE NEW ORDER, PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, SOULS OF BLACK and THE RITUAL.

Alex grew a little bit tired of playing thrash metal and quit the band, to enrol himself in some other numerous and assorted musical ventures, like playing with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, ANTHRAX, SAVATAGE, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, his jazz band (a style he devoted himself earnestly to by the end of the previous century), the ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO (playing jazz covers of classic metal and hard rock songs), a funk band called SKOL-PATROL, or one of his most current adventures with the thrash and groove metal all-star ensemble, METAL ALLEGIANCE, with whom he's already released a couple of albums since 2015.

Out of all these side projects outside Testament stands out PLANETARY COALITION (2014), some kind of world music album, with many musicians involved, turned into a mixture of political, ecological, artistic and social concerns.

And I meant outside Testament because Alex returned to the fold some years ago. Firstly, for a brief period of time, to take part on FIRST STRIKE STILL DEADLY (2001), an album consisting in new versions of early Testament classics, and to play on the THRASH OF THE TITANS tour, and later permanently in 2005, releasing four new studio records with the band (and a very good ones, by the way), among some other stuff, including TITANS OF CREATION (2021), the newest one. In these two periods with Testament he's shared guitar duties with the perennial ERIC PETERSON, who, along with singer CHUCK BILLY, makes Testament's backbone and old guard.

Alex is a pretty active person on social media, or at least on Twitter, where he expresses himself quite often about whatever comes to his mind and against Donald Trump (not that often lately, for obvious reasons), and where I've been lucky enough to interact with him a few times, including a happy birthday wish (on his birthday, not mine, that goes without saying), and a brief argument having THE BEATLES as the background, although the blood did not reach the river (just friends stuff, you know).

Doing some reading about him I've learnt that he's written his memoirs, GEEK TO GUITAR HERO, which were published back in 2013 (a book I'd love to read), and he also has a blog (SKOLNOTES), besides all his regular contributions to GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE.

What I said at the beginning about his reputation as a guitar player is no coincidence, and Testament's career (mostly with him in the ranks) is filled with tons of classics of their own. But I cannot help mentioning what he did in the amazing cover of the IRON MAIDEN classic, POWERSLAVE, which Testament recorded in 2012, and that in my opinion is even better than the original. Below I'll leave you a link to it, together with some others.


And I hope I can go see Testament one day, at least once, for is a band I follow and love.





Practice what you preach






















JIMMY PAGE




Jimmy Page





James Patrick Page (09-01-1944, Heston, Middlesex, England) is, in all likelihood, the most famous and important guitar player on the list, and also one of the best and most influential ever, no matter the musical style (not in vain, he's been inducted into the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME no less than twice: the first time in 1992, as a member of the YARDBIRDS, and the second in 1995, because of what you all are thinking about. I believe this feat has only been achieved, apart from him, by GEORGE HARRISON, JEFF BECK and ERIC CLAPTON, the latter two also members of The Yardbirds back in the day as well).

There have been some others of his contemporary fellow guitarrists, and even a few previous ones, who have played their part concerning the creation and development of what soon would be known as heavy metal, but to me he is, more than any other, the architect of hard rock music, thanks to that monster which was (and still is) LED ZEPPELIN, whom I deem the most important outfit in the history of music. Period. In fact, I was about to say that Page deserves that honor because of being LZ's heart and soul, but it does not matter. LZ were a band with such chemistry among the four members, that the moment one of them was missing (JOHN BONHAM died in 1980) the band ceased to exist, because, according to the remaining members, despite having thought about a replacement, the band could never go on existing as such. Page and ROBERT PLANT, and this is no secret, may be the best known faces within the band, but truth is that, besides what I've just said about Bonham's demise (most likely the most famous and influential hard rock drummer ever himself), JOHN PAUL JONES is someone who needs no introduction and completely pivotal to the band's cohesion in every sense. I won't say much about Plant. Well, I will. I can't resist saying that in my opinion he's the genre's best singer ever.

So, yes, Page is equal to Led Zeppelin, but as much as the other three were, and still are.


It is difficult writing about Page's achievements and shenanigans without jeopardizing the flow of the narration, due to tons of details, because his career does not come down to just LZ, or his role to the guitar. We're talking about a multi-instrumentalist, producer (ahead of his time concerning amplification and recording techniques) and songwriter who has also taken part in several musical (or not) adventures which, as expected, haven't left anyone indifferent.

I'll try to compose an overview worthy of his greatness.


In the sixties he was a very active and busy musician, to the point of being one of the most sought after session musicians in all Great Britain, besides playing live with many different acts. Mid-decade he rejected replacing Clapton (out of loyalty to his friend) in the Yardbirds, and when Clapton eventually left, he was offered the job again, recommending Beck this time, with whom he recorded BECK'S BOLERO in 1966. John Entwistle (bass player - see Glenn Tipton) and KEITH MOON (drums), of THE WHO fame, took part in this recording, and Page thought about teaming up with them, but this did not come to fruition because of the lack of a reliable singer. During this time, as some kind of joint joke between Entwistle and Moon (this is gonna go over like a lead zeppelin), the name Led Zeppelin was mentioned for the first time.

Page eventually joined The Yardbirds (first as the bassist), with whom he recorded their fourth album (LITTLE GAMES) in 1967, after Beck's departure, but things did not go well and after some of the members fled in 1968, Page reshaped the band with his three most famous henchmen, so they could at least fulfill some agreed live dates in Scandinavia. This meant the start of LZ, at first as THE NEW YARDBIRDS, until Page remembered that previous joke (with a little finishing touch) and the rest is history.

I will not elaborate further on LZ's career because that would be pointless. I'll just say it is a band which is paramount in the advent of hard rock and heavy metal, but which never shied away from being experimental and trying different styles, doing just what they wanted and when they wanted to, helped by their famed manager and fifth member PETER GRANT. Their stories and anecdotes about their behaviour off the stage are legendary, but not as much as their music (for the most part) is, which has made them one of the best-selling acts in all music's history. Their aura, their lengthy shows, their refusal to release singles (in a time when that was the rule and not the exception), in order to have people buying their records, their debauchery and above all, their music, in a decade so prone to everything already mentioned, which fitted them like hand in glove, made LZ the aforementioned juggernaut.

Many of the ideas that Page learnt during his previous stay with The Yardbirds, in terms of experimentation and instrumental improvisation, were taken to a higher level with LZ, and the band ended up being an amalgam of blues music, hard rock and a lot of acoustic passages, something which was unprecedented at the time. Copied by most, matched by no one and influential as very few, LZ owe much of their brutal impact to Page, who knew from the get go what he wanted.

Below I'll leave some links to some of their songs, but I don't think is smart neither commenting an state-of-the-art discography (again, with very few exceptions, such as the unclassifiable IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR, from 1979), known and dissected as few, nor stories about their habits off the stage. Their reputation precedes them and as I've already said, there is something different about the band (that aura) which surrounds everything related to them and which went from taking them to the wildest of successes in the past, to making them legends, once Bonham died.



The eighties went by for Page among difficulties for him to cope with his friend's death, the sudden quiet that fact and the band's end brought, his ongoing involvement with drugs and several projects which included collaborations (in the studio and on the stage), soundtracks (DEATH WISH II, 1982), his solo album OUTRIDER (1988), his band THE FIRM (together with singer PAUL RODGERS, with whom he released a couple of albums) and some LZ reunion shows (with special guest on drums, needless to say), such as LIVE AID, in 1985, or ATLANTIC RECORDS' 40th anniversary in 1988.

Also CODA, LZ's posthumous album, which consisted of some unused material, saw the light in 1982.

In the nineties, LZ were current again (as expected), thanks to Page and Plant, who joined forces first on stage, at the famous KNEBWORTH concert (1990), where Page played on three LZ tunes, and released the albums NO QUARTER: JIMMY PAGE & ROBERT PLANT UNLEDDED (1994) and WALKING INTO CLARKSDALE (1998) afterwards, in addition to the corresponding tours. Incidentally they won a Grammy award for the best hard rock performance with MOST HIGH, from the latter album. In addition, Page was really busy remastering the whole of LZ's body of work.

During this decade he also released what in my opinion is his best effort outside Zeppelin: his album with DAVID COVERDALE (WHITESNAKE, DEEP PURPLE) in 1993, COVERDALE & PAGE, where Page showed his heaviest side.

The century ended with more collaborations (Hollywood included) and charity work, which had Page awarded the Order Of The British Empire in 2005 and an honorary citizenship of Río De Janeiro. On the 10th of December, 2007, LZ came back to life again for just one day, with JASON BONHAM (Bonham's son) on drums, for a one-off show in London who would be released in 2012 as CELEBRATION DAY, and they took advantage of it to set a world record for the biggest online tickets request ever, because around twenty million of them were requested. Insane. LZ  are more alive than ever and Page even represented his country at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The following years have seen more collaborations, endless awards (another Grammy for Celebration Day, among other accolades) and recognitions (on both individual and collective levels), controversies, accusations and lawsuits due to LZ's old habit of using (which would be the most appropiate word here?) someone else's melodies and lyrics at the beginning of their career to create their own songs (something too usual at the time and which LZ used to their advantage by beefing up that stuff and putting it together with theirs) without always giving the authors their due credit, and everything concerning the buzz of the umpteenth LZ comeback and Plant's refusal to it.

As much as this piece about Page may become the longest of them all, and the most difficult to summarize, I'd like to have my say in this subject. In my opinion, LZ were over back in the day and never came back (leaving aside some isolated charity shows which took place many years or even decades apart from one another), and they should never come back. And even more, this should have ceased being an option many years ago. And I'll explain myself. As far as I am concerned, collaborations among the remaining members, which usually mean that LZ's music comes to the fore, if is not the main purpose of it, are more than fine with me, and going on with everything the band means is ok. But without the band itself. LZ disbanded in 1980 and between Bonham's death and the final announcement of the end, some options were considered. Had the band gone on with any of them, without breaking up and with no gaps in between their history, we could be talking otherwise, for better or worse. But that did not happen and it's been a long time since they rock & roll (I could not help it). People (I, for one) have in mind the LZ of the seventies (there are barely any other, barring the late sixties) and this means some young and hungry musicians with that wild and excessive side to them. Going from that to a sexagenarian (or even more) LZ, many years after, with the understandable difficulties to tour and perform, and with no middle ground between this and that, would mean a very big contrast and something very likely to dissapoint everybody. Not to mention the fire and the magic they once had, which would be very difficult to get back.

That's why Plant's refusal is, all things considered, reasonable. Zeppelin, unfortunately, belong in the past.

Furthermore, Page is said to be eager to go on tour and who knows, maybe there is some new studio material on the cards? We'll see.


And little more. I won't begin neither with his addictions nor with his private life, for this is no time for it and I could go on forever, but I will not overlook his storied fascination with the occult and its relationship with LZ (the famous four symbols and more). Is notorious his admiration for ALEISTER CROWLEY (whose manor, Boleskine House, was bought by him at one point, and which can be seen on LZ's doculmentary film THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME, shot in 1973 and released in 1976) and he owned a shop and a publishing house about this subject in London, during the seventies (THE EQUINOX BOOKSELLERS). He also composed the soundtrack to the short film LUCIFER RISING (1972), by underground filmmaker and Crowley devotee, KENNETH ANGER.


And who doesn't have in mind Page's image with the violin bow while playing DAZED & CONFUSED or think of Iron Maiden's gallop when listening to ACHILLES LAST STAND?

A true legend.





Rock & Roll

























And we only have left the three guitar players who, unfortunately, are no longer with us:






CHUCK SCHULDINER



Chuck Schuldiner




Charles Michael Schuldiner was born in Long Island, New York, on the 13th of May, 1967, and was a guitarrist, singer and songwriter about whom there is a big consensus about considering him the father, godfather, you name it, of a whole musical genre, as death metal is. As simple as that. His name will always go hand in hand with that of his band and vehicle for all his ideas, both sonic and lyrical: the absolutely essential DEATH, who in turn are acknowledged as death metal's founding band, or who released the genre's first album. I know people talk about other bands and albums concerning this matter but that is really not important, because Chuck is unanimously (at least as far as I know) considered as one of the biggest names in all extreme metal's history and its development, and one of the most important in the history of metal overall. Regarding that, good old Chuck (there is also an agreement about the extreme modesty of the guy) rejected any credit for his role in all this, saying that he was unworthy of it and he was just a guy in a band.

While it's true that his life was ridiculously short, something which is tragic in its own right, he was no stranger to tragedy himself while he was alive, because an older brother of his died at sixteen when Chuck was only nine. So the story goes that his parents got him a guitar with the idea that it would be a good way for Chuck to overcome his grief. So he was another precocious guitar player.

In the beginning, he was into traditional metal and other bands like KISS (I see he named the french band SORTILÈGE as his favourite band very often, something I did not know. Neither knew I that band), while adding more extreme influences to his playing and his songwriting, and in 1983 (he was only sixteen) he created MANTAS, precursor to Death, which in one year would change his name to that of the band we all know and love. I need to point out the fact that despite talking about a band and not a solo artist, Death went from being a proper band to being Chuck's own personal project, because the ongoing personnel changes led to his being the sole constant (barring an early demo, out of the many they did, that KAM LEE, the band's first drummer, released under Death's moniker while Chuck was moving to San Francisco in 1985. Be it as it may, this demo is mostly considered MASSACRE's stuff, Lee's following band) on all of Death's releases.

Chuck even joined for a very short while (while again moving, this time to Toronto) the canadian thrash combo SLAUGHTER (FUCK OF DEATH, a 2004 compilation, features fragments of a rehearsal with Chuck), but he soon went on with Death, who released their debut in 1987, under the name of  SCREAM BLOODY GORE (to many, death metal's first proper album, an honour it usually shares with POSSESSED's SEVEN CHURCHES, released in 1985; if you asked me I'd say Death's album gets the prize, because, even if I'm no expert, given what I've listened to from Seven Churches makes me think that album is a little bit more extreme take on what early SLAYER were doing at the time, and that's why I deem Scream Bloody Gore as the real deal to me; something different and game-changing; but as I've said before, this is completely irrelevant and trivial), on which he took care of everything but the drums, recorded by CHRIS REIFERT.


Death did not only experience multiple lineup changes (both unknown musicians to whom Death was some kind of stepping stone to their subsequent careers, and luminaries such as GENE HOGLAN, ANDY LAROCQUE, JAMES MURPHY or STEVE DI GIORGIO), but also as time went by, their music was polished, so to speak, going from the old school death metal of their beginnings to a more techincal, progressive or even thrashier approach, without venturing away from the boundaries of extreme metal. Chuck's lyrics and concerns also evolved, from the gore and somehow comical contents of the beginning, to little philosophical examinations on the human mind. That's why, if we take their first album and we compare it to the great THE SOUND OF PERSEVERANCE (1998), their last one, we can notice a drastic (if the word applies, because it means a tad less brutal, but brutal anyway) change. However, if we go from one album to the next one, the changes look tiny and well-calculated, and by the wayside fall gems like LEPROSY (1988), SPIRITUAL HEALING (1990) or SYMBOLIC (1995), most likely my three favourite albums of theirs, without disrespecting any of the remaining ones, because all of them are masterpieces in their own right.

And what to say about songs such as PULL THE PLUG, LIVING MONSTROSITY, IN HUMAN FORM, EMPTY WORDS or EVIL DEAD?

Chuck's singing evolved as well, always within the confines of, let's say, guttural singing, and he admitted it was going to be really difficult for him to keep that kind of singing on a long-term basis, mostly while touring, without changing it a little bit. Chuck was an stellar guitarrist, and a really innovative one (for the most part, self-taught, and on top of it, he played right-handed when he actually was a lefty, so what about that Rafa Nadal?), but as I said about MARTIN VAN DRUNEN (see NECROCEROS), his voice is one of those to stand out and be remembered within extreme metal, because even if it is uncomfortable and perhaps an acquired taste for the untrained ear, it has nothing to do with that of many singers who wander around only focusing on growling for the sake of it.

On the other hand, the also evolving and well-known Death logo, was his creation as well.

Before releasing The Sound Of Perseverance, Chuck began a side project called CONTROL DENIED, in a more progressive vein and with some musicians who later went on to play on said Death's last album. In fact, some of Control Denied's early demos included songs which later would make it onto Death's album, like SPIRIT CRUSHER. With this band he released THE FRAGILE ART OF EXISTENCE in 1999, an album that in my opinion would have benefited from another different kind of singer, for the more melodic approach shown by TIM AYMAR feels kinda weird. I've read from time to time that this album could be The Sound Of Perseverance but with another singer, something I completely disagree with. You can tell Chuck is the mastermind behind all this, and also that both releases are just one year apart, but Death's is much more extreme, and not only for having Chuck's pipes in action on it.


Unfortunately, this would become Chuck's last musical chapter, because he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1999. From that moment on, both optimism and despair ensued, with a succesful surgery and its subsequent relapse, together with several initiatives from fans and fellow musicians to support the family and face the huge medical expenses. I do not feel like telling it in detail, to tell you the truth, and in 2001 the disease came back to never leave. Despite some new efforts to get money for the treatment (plus stupid and futile fights with insurance companies in between), chemo weakened Chuck even more, and he developed a pneumonia which eventually would take him from us. He passed away on the 13th of December, 2001, in Altamonte Springs, Florida. His mortal remains were cremated, according to his own wishes, and no resting place has been indicated.

It's funny, because VOICE OF THE SOUL, a song included on The Sound Of Perseverance, always feels to me like some kind of farewell on Chuck's behalf. I know this does not make any sense, because nobody has a crystal ball to foresee the future, and Chuck hadn't been diagnosed yet when this album was released, but the song's title and above all, the fact that its sombre mood is a complete departure from anything Death had done in the past (I believe it may be the only time an acoustic guitar appears on any of their seven albums), makes me think that somehow Chuck knew and he wanted to say goodbye, even if, again, this is talking nonsense chronologically speaking. In any case, below I'll leave a link to it, for is another beauty worthy of checking out.


Besides these two bands of his, Chuck also took part in some other projects, like the aforementioned Slaughter thing, NAPHOBIA's album OF HELL, or VOODOOCULT's first album (JESUS KILLING MACHINE, 1994). This band was an unsuccessful all-star affair.

All the tributes (past and present), recollections and memories of his fans and all those lucky enough to having met him while alive, speak volumes about his persona and the magnitude of the character.


Thanks for everything Chuck.





Evil Chuck











Randy Rhoads





As if it wasn't difficult enough to talk about Chuck Schuldiner and do him enough justice, the guitarrist who now takes centre stage means a really tall order, beacuse american guitar player, Randall William Rhoads (06-12-1956, Santa Monica, California), might be, despite being slight in build and his scarce musical legacy (in terms of his discography and due to his short life), the best and most technically gifted of them all on this list.

Funnily enough, his surname is very often spelt as Rhodes. I always thought it was a ridiculous mistake, but after noticing it happened so often I began thinking maybe it wasn't such thing. Apaprently, Rhoads might be english for the german Rhodes, and maybe the family used them both, to the point there is a picture of Ozzy and Randy's mum DELORES, from 2004, holding a tribute nameplate on which says Rhodes, and I don't think that's a mistake. But it stays as Rhoads here, no matter what, because that is what I first saw, what's on the albums, what's is mainly used and because I like it better.

Randy's family was a very musical one, and his mother opened a music school called MUSONIA, in San Fernando Valley (California), to meet the demands of her fatherless three children, because Randy's father went away very early and never came back. That's why Randy began playing the piano and classical guitar, which together with his growing interest in heavy metal music, meant somehow that, despite some obvious differences, he would end up being a forerunner of what was later known as neoclassical metal. Always attentive on the subject and with an enormous interest in this regard, Randy would soon out-teach his first guitar teacher, in the very own Musonia, and this teacher had nothing to do but to face the fact, telling Randy's mother that he could no longer teach her son, because the most convenient thing was for the matter to be the other way around.

He met KELLY GARNI at school, and they both shared a huge friendship, with Randy even teaching Kelly to play bass guitar. They were together in some short-lived bands, while Randy improved his solo guitar chops, and this is when Randy discovered ALICE COOPER, whose guitarrist GLEN BUXTON left him speechless during a show of Alice's band our friend attended in 1971. Randy went on with his studies (which he finished earlier than expected), while teaching guitar at Musonia during the morning and playing live at night, until he founded, together with Garni, the band LITTLE WOMEN (???), when he was only sixteen, and which soon became QUIET RIOT, after recruiting KEVIN DUBROW and DREW FORSYTH (vocals and drums, respectively).

The band was huge within the LA area, and Randy's dotted bow-tie got very popular among their fans, becoming their symbol somehow. But in spite of the popularity, the albums they released in 1977 and 1978 (QUIET RIOT and QUIET RIOT II) were only published in Japan. The relationship among them got damaged and Garni was shown the out door, being replaced by RUDY SARZO. Their music had little in common with what Randy would soon play with Ozzy, but there were some ideas of his that were already there and would bear fruit with the english singer. This can be noticed when listening to the highly advisable compilation THE RANDY RHOADS YEARS (1995), which included, among some other rarities, songs like FORCE OF HABIT (you can listen to SUICIDE SOLUTION's main riff) or the live solo LAUGHING GAS, where you can find some things that would be later listened on Randy's solos.


In 1979, Randy reluctanly agreed to audition for Ozzy, because the singer was in LA trying to put together a new band after his departure from Black Sabbath. About this audition contradictory stories abound, mostly concerning Ozzy's point of view and his usual inebriated state during that time. It remains unclear whether Ozzy met Randy on the day of the audition, or the next one, or even if Randy actually played something for him and Ozzy lost his mind about it, or he did not play at all, because Ozzy might have been so drunk that maybe he hired Randy out of sheer boredom. But in the end it was Randy who landed the job, in spite of Ozzy beginning to rehearse with another guitarrist (who did not meet the singer's expectations) once he was back in England (???). Needless to say, this is just one little tall tale, between the absurd and the funny, among all of them the singer piled up during his most excessive periods.

Randy consulted this with his mum anyway, because on one hand he surely had a hard time having to leave his band and his friends behind, but on the other, Quiet Riot had proven themselves incapable to land a recording contract in the US, while the Ozzy thing looked promising.

Apparently, Randy spent one night in an english jail because, when he was summoned by Ozzy in England, he could not enter the country due to him lacking the needed paperwork, and they sent him back to the US (I laugh my ass off). Ozzy apologised and made sure that everything was in order for a second trip, which ended up being successful.

The new band (THE BLIZZARD OF OZZ for a while) was completed with bassist BOB DAISLEY and drummer LEE KERSLAKE, and all together released the aforementioned (at the beginning of the post) Blizzard Of Ozz, in 1980, and Randy's work was greeted by an inmediate enthusiasm of the fans, something which helped deeply to relaunch Ozzy's career.

As I usually do (or better, don't do), I'll spare you from reading stuff about songs as glorious and well known as Suicide Solution, I DON'T KNOW, MR. CROWLEY or the ubiquitous CRAZY TRAIN. The artistic result is wonderful (barring GOODBYE TO ROMANCE) and the album also contained a little instrumental acoustic piece which Randy dedicated to his mother and which was called DEE, but as I've said before, the overall sound was nothing to write home about. The album was produced by the band, by the way.

They toured the UK, Randy won several awards and accolades, and the next year DIARY OF A MADMAN, Randy's last album and in my opinion the best by far in the whole of Ozzy's solo career, got completed and was ready to be released. Randy and Ozzy only helped in the production this time around, which was handled by MAX NORMAN, and it shows, for the better. The album is a masterpiece and it summarizes Randy's endless bag of tricks, with his dive bombs, his tapping and all his guitar acrobatics, something which would have amounted to nothing hadn't the album had a brilliant set of songs, such as the speedy OVER THE MOUNTAIN (Ozzy's best song, in my opinion), the dark BELIEVER, or that enormous musical coven which the title track is (with its obvious nods to CARL ORFF and his O FORTUNA, off CARMINA BURANA), something impossible to put into words.

Although the album was also recorded by Daisley and Kerslake, these two were abruptly fired before its release, something Randy wasn't happy at all with, and replaced by former Quiet Riot's bassist Rudy Sarzo, and TOMMY ALDRIDGE, who also did the photo session. There have been legal issues concerning all this, which also have taken longer than desired, and which have led the environment of the singer to do some really stupid moves, as were those reissues of both albums with Daisley's and Kerslake's parts removed and replaced by other musicians. At least there has been a happy ending to it, before Kerslake's demise.

During this time, soon before Randy's death, the guitarrist would have made up his mind about leaving Ozzy and heavy metal music, at least for a while, to devote himself to get a degree in classical guitar from the University Of California. Ozzy's excesses and his overall demeanor as a result, together with the unpredictability that usually came with them, also played their part in Randy's decision, because he got fed up with the whole thing. To enhance the contrast between the two of them, Randy wasn't only a quiet guy only worried about his guitar, but he had no vices either, leaving heavy smoking aside, and he barely drank alcohol. While Ozzy was... well, himself. On top of it, there was the announcement that the band would record a live album with only Sabbath's covers on it, something Randy and Aldridge were not in the mood to do, because they wanted to focus on releasing stuff of their own. Ozzy took this as a betrayal, tensions got sky-high and word is that Randy eventually agreed to do it in exchange of being able to leave the band once his contractual duties were over. His untimely death prevented all this to happen, and that album ended up being SPEAK OF THE DEVIL (1982, with BRAD GILLIS on guitar), but that is another story. It's funny because Ozzy has always spoken wonders of Randy, of the time they spent together and of their friendship, but maybe things did not go as smoothly as they look. In any case, they both had a good relationship, and given what's been told, any tensions between the two of them were only due to the unpredictable and over the top behaviour of the singer, who was at his very worst at the time. I'm pretty sure that Ozzy has spent all this time since Randy's death regretting anything he could have done or said which could have led to ruin their friendship. After all, he was the one who, many years later, admitted in his autobiography that he could not understand why someone as talented as Randy would want to get involved with a bloated alcoholic wreck like himself.


I've read several times about Randy's (and two more people) death, and is difficult to do so without shivering, due to its terrible and bizarre nature. I will not tell about it in detail. I will just say that Randy died on the 19th of March, 1982, in an area belonging to Leesburg (Florida), in an strange plane crash as a consequence of an stupid senseless flight which never should have happened. He was twenty-five. The odd thing about it is how Ozzy recalls that the last conversation he had with Randy, the previous night, was about the singer's wild relationship whith booze, and which the last thing Randy said to him was that if Ozzy continued like this he would end up killing himself.

Randy is buried at Mountain View cemetery, in San Bernardino, California, with an inscription on his tomb which says an inspiration for all young people.

Exactly five years after his death, the live album TRIBUTE, recorded mainly in 1981 (although it seems like two of the songs were recorded in England, in 1980, still with Kerslake and Daisley in Ozzy's ranks), was released, as an essential look to Randy's work on stage and as a summation of his time with Ozzy (included a triumphant rendition of Sabbath's CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE, with a guitar solo of his which is second to none), although if I was asked about it, I'd be prompted to say that the live album which came as bonus with the reissue of Diary Of A Madman (also from 1981) in 2011, is even better. As the cover for Tribute, the iconic picture of Ozzy holding Randy in the air, was used. It was taken by PAUL NATKIN in a Rosemont show on the 24th of January, 1982.



Paul Natkin's famous photo




Randy's influence on the whole guitar community, past and present, is huge, and he's is widely considered to be one of the finest guitar players ever, even if this wasn't always like that while he was alive, and his tug-of-war and comparisons with another one of the very best, EDDIE VAN HALEN, are well known.

In 2011, CRAZY TRAIN: THE HIGH LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF RANDY RHOADS, the essential first biography of the guitarrist, saw the light of day. Written by JOEL MCIVER, includes a foreword by Zakk Wylde and an epilogue by YNGWIE MALMSTEEN. His mum Delores, recently deceased, launched a yearly scholarship in the name of her son, which is granted to guitar students, and Randy was inducted in 2017 into the HALL OF HEAVY METAL HISTORY, because of helping define solo guitar in heavy metal. And also, as recent as the 30th of October, 2021, he's been inducted into the famed Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.


Unforgettable.






Flying high again











Rory Gallagher





The guitarrist who is the most removed from my usual musical tastes also happens to be, oddly enough, one of the most missed ones and also one of those I'm the most fond of. William Rory Gallagher, the great irish guitar-hero, was born on the 2nd of March, 1948, in Ballyshannon, and few people may have ever existed who have made an instrument suffer on stage as much as the unbeatable and remembered blues rock monster Rory has made his guitar suffer.

And not only that, because as happens with some remarkable cases such as Eric Clapton and a few others, the awesome work of the irish genius on the guitar outshined his talent as a singer, because (I may be biased, or perhaps it was that everything fitted perfectly within the music he performed) his voice was just amazing, something he proved both as a solo artist and with his previous band TASTE. On top of it, as his career went by, he learnt to play the harmonica, sax and mandolin, among others.

Like some of his partners on the list, he was a precocious musician, due to some extent to the musical atmosphere of his home, because his mum was an actress and a singer, and Rory and his siblings were introduced into the subject at a very early age. He got his first guitar when he was nine and from then on he learnt all by himself, having the american blues and folk he listened to on the radio as his compass, and considering people like MUDDY WATERS or WOODY GUTHRIE his biggest influences.

Still in his teens, Rory joined a few bands, and one of them called FONTANA (which soon became THE IMPACT) even brought him to Spain, until the band disbanded and Rory decided to form his own, Taste (THE TASTE for a little while). After the departure of the two first musicians who Rory had recruited, the band ended up being made up of bassist RICHARD MCCRACKEN and drummer JOHN WILSON.

Taste did not last very long (although there have been some reincarnations of the band many years after its disbanding, once Rory had died) and they released a couple of studio albums plus a live one, and a second live album, released after they ceased existing (LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT, 1971). Both studio albums, TASTE and ON THE BOARDS were recorded in 1968, but released in 1969 and 1970 respectively, and together with performaces with giants of the time like CREAM were, they helped cementing Rory's reputation. The second one is more diversified and has some jazz influences, standing out a song like the very good WHAT'S GOING ON?, while the first one is more hard rocking sounding and has songs like the wild BLISTER ON THE MOON and CATFISH, their rendition of a traditional song, which brought me Black Sabbath to mind the first time I listened to it, only they did not exist yet. I remember reading once that Zeppelin's Dazed & Confused, was the heaviest song of them all at the moment, until the first Sabbath album came along soon after, something which makes sense, but it surprises me that I have never seen songs like these mentioned when it comes to discuss about the origins of heavy metal.


Internal disputes over management, and the other two longing for being on the same terms as Rory, when he was the sole songwriter, led to the band's disbanding, and they gave their last show in Belfast, on the new year's eve of 1970. That marks the starting point of Rory's famed solo career, and his partnership with his long-time bassist, the likeable GERRY MCAVOY, who was with him until 1991 and with whom he recorded all his studio albums. There were a few drummers during his career, being TED MCKENNA the most remarkable one, and there were times when there was also a keyboardist. After 1991 his band changed drastically but there would not be more studio material.

I will not explain his long solo career in detail, because that is not the intention of the post. And I'm no expert either, for I focus mainly on his more hard rock oriented era, by the end of the seventies, with albums like PHOTO-FINISH (1978), TOP PRIORITY (1979) and the great live album STAGE STRUCK (1980), and I don't know the rest of his albums in depth. It does not matter. Not only the person, his technique and his career are more than enough for him to be on this list, but I also know a lot of his songs from the rest of his albums, with many more to come. He released almost ten albums (leaving Taste aside) in the seventies alone, as great and influential as TATTOO (1973), IRISH TOUR (1974) or CALLING CARD (1976), and besides, who could resist dozens of songs as wonderful as the great ballad I FALL APART (with its final proto-heavy metal outburst), A MILLION MILES AWAY, TATTOO'D LADY, CALLING CARD, JUST HIT TOWN, CREST OF A WAVE, WALK ON HOT COALS, BRUTE FORCE & IGNORANCE (could there ever be a cooler name for a song?) or MOONCHILD, among many others?

Of course, there are also many posthumous compilations and live albums, among which WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS (2003) and NOTES FROM SAN FRANCISCO (2011) stand out.

Rory was a beast on stage (later you'll find a link to a video on which him and his band play the unforgettable SHADOW PLAY, and where you can get a small taste of what this person was like on the boards) but also a very shy person, little prone to draw the attention to himself once he was off the stage (he might have shared some traits of his personality with Randy and Chuck), and perhaps that's why he, in order to ease that shyness, was a very heavy drinker, something that damaged his liver in the long run. He gave his last show in January of 1995, and soon after he was admitted in a London hospital, where the doctors concluded that he needed a new liver. The transplat was successful, apparently, until he developed an infection which ended his life in that very city, on the 14th of June, 1995, when he was only forty-seven years old. He is buried at Saint's Oliver's Cemetery, in a town called Ballincollig, very close to Cork, where Rory was raised.

His legacy lives on thanks to his brother Dónal (and also Rory's nephew, Daniel, Dónal's son), who manages everything related to the work of the great guitarrist.


I'd like to tell some stories about Rory, which may explain somehow the absolute devotion of his fans and why his persona is so appealing. Because Rory (this trait might be also shared with the other two deceased guitarrists on the list) has been one of the most atypical stars to ever grace a stage. Do not get me wrong either, for Rory was a true rock star (however little his status showed this fact sometimes) who won awards, prestige and worldwide fame, got the recognition of his peers, and who also managed to sell more than thirty million records (yes, those many), and there have been a lot of tributes, prizes, nameplates and statues which have been dedicated to him after his death, but he was far from considering himself a star of any kind or behaving as such. He was a very humble, close and friendly person, known for buying albums as a regular fan does, and for standing in the queue to get tickets for a concert, even though is safe to say that given his status, he could easily afford to spare himself from such mundane nuisances. You could begin to tell about this only by the way he dressed and looked.

His influence on other musicians is inmense (he was a very accomplished acoustic guitarrist too) and the one and only BRIAN MAY himself, recounts how, still as an aspirant guitarrist, he managed to get close to Rory once, to ask him where he got his sound from. We all know that in most cases an encounter like that, between star and fan, simply could not happen, for safety reasons, etc, but if we leave that fact aside, most artists would have overlooked both person and question. Instead, Rory sat down with May and his friend and told them what they wanted to know.

Rory collaborated with several artists back in the day, and his fame even took him to be shortlisted to replace RITCHIE BLACKMORE in DEEP PURPLE, nothing less, and MICK TAYLOR in THE ROLLING STONES. Rory always turned those offers down, happy as he was with his own solo career.

And there's more. Rory always wanted to tour Ireland and Northern Ireland at least once a year, during the worst years of The Troubles, despite the obvious danger that it meant and all the warnings against it. This drew to him the affection and admiration of countless fans, who saw this as a chance to forget about everything during such miserable times. Regarding this matter I cannot resist to leave here what a local journo wrote about one of his shows in Belfast, the day after as many as ten different bombs would have been detonated in several spots across the city, and everybody was expecting Rory to cancel, something which he did not:

I've never seen anything quite so wonderful, so stirring, so uplifting, so joyous as when Gallagher and the band walked on stage. The whole place erupted, they all stood and they cheered and they yelled, and screamed, and they put their arms up, and they embraced. Then as one unit they put their arms into the air and gave peace signs. Without being silly, or overemotional, it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It all meant something, it meant more than just rock & roll, it was something bigger, something more valid than just that.

All this is related to the film IRISH TOUR '74, directed by TONY PALMER, to which the aforementioned live album served as soundtrack. I believe it was not released on DVD until 2011, and I'd love to see it.

Despite his success and his obvious ability and confidence on stage, he was a perfectionist and a person filled with doubts about his own skills, something which got bigger as his career went by, and which is going to show that nobody is safe from certain problems, no matter how good they may be at their craft.

Rory was a big fan of stories about spies and he was fascinated with what we know as outsiders. Maybe the word misfit fits in here. This inspired a song like the wonderful PHILBY, about the double agent for the Soviet Union of the same name.

There was a massive petition a few years ago, which apparently did not come to fruition, to rename Cork's airport with Rory's name. Something which usually happens to everybody, right?

And many more stories, although none as significant as the one in which one Jimi Hendrix, of all people, was involved, and which illustrates like no other the absolute greatness of the irishman: apparently, Hendrix (another prime example of modesty) was once asked about what it felt like to be the best guitar player in the world, and he replied I don't know, go ask Rory Gallagher.


A couple of months ago, during a weekend in which in Palma there were some gigs (thanks BAY CITY KILLERS!), together with a record fair, I bought the latest of Rory's compilations, which came out in 2020 and which has an amazing repertoire (even if there are no live tracks, and everybody knows that Rory on stage was something different), including four Taste numbers and a previously unreleased cover of The Rolling Stones' SATISFACTION, which he recorded in 1973 with JERRY LEE LEWIS. And still I can't believe myself how I only paid eight euros for it (around thirty songs!). To me, driving to the beach with this album playing loud in my car and myself screamig those songs like a hooligan means happiness.


Too much happiness for too little, to be honest.







Shadow play











And now some honorable mentions in recognition of very important and accomplished guitar players who could not make it on the list:



- GUILLERMO IZQUIERDO and DAVID ÁLVAREZ, both in that bulldozer which the spanish thrash combo ÁNGELUS APÁTRIDA is.












- PAUL BAAYENS, guitarist in Asphyx (among others), a band I've recently got interested in. It's noteworthy the sheer destruction he achieves with his riffing, but with a relatively simple approach.










- TONY IOMMI. Needs no introduction. Guitar god.










- ANDRÉ OLBRICH and MARCUS SIEPEN: the guitarists in BLIND GUARDIAN have provided me with much joy in the past although right now, in my opinion, the band is just a shadow of its former glorious self.













- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: the singer, the accomplished performer and the absolute world-class rock star, outshine a proficient guitar player who knows his limitations and who is always a team player at the service of the songs. His glorious streak between 1975 and 1987 alone, makes him deserving of an spot here.










- TOMMY VETTERLI, CORONER's axeman. In a league of his own.










- MARK KNOPFLER. Because of the memories, some glorious songs and his enormous category.










- LEE ALTUS, lead guitar in HEATHEN (and more), whose scarce and highly regarded discography makes them even more special.










- KAI HANSEN and MICHAEL WEIKATH. Classic HELLOWEEN anybody? You get the picture, right?












- JON SCHAFFER, whose perseverance and exceptional right wrist have created a bunch of amazing albums with ICED EARTH.










- DAVE MURRAY and ADRIAN SMITH: the most traditional guitar players in Iron Maiden. No more needs to be said. And I guess is only fair to include JANICK GERS after all these years.















- K.K. DOWNING, who's already been talked about, as everything concerning Judas Priest has, in Glenn Tipton's post, and also RICHIE FAULKNER, his replacement in the legendary english band.









- ROSENDO MERCADO: another one of the rare national contributions to the list. He'll always be someone noteworthy to me, mainly because of his time with the glorious LEÑO. A Rory Gallagher's fan, as if everything was not enough, and as likeable and close a person as the next guy, he also has a very long solo career, which is also fine, even if I think it has been with Leño where his skills as a guitar player have taken centre stage in a more distinctive manner.










- DAVE MUSTAINE. I don't like everything he's done, but when MEGADETH's charismatic leader has been focused, he's done pretty well.










- CHRIS BRODERICK. I cannot leave this beast out, Mustaine's right hand in Megadeth once and currently with his own band, ACT OF DEFIANCE. To cut a much longer career short.











- MIKE OLDFIELD, exceptional guitarist and songwriter. He strikes a chord with me for many more reasons.











- EDDIE CLARKE (RIP 10-01-2018): guitarist of the most classic MOTÖRHEAD's lineup. As simple as that.










- BOBBY GUSTAFSON and DAVE LINSK, the two most important guitar players of my beloved OVERKILL, each one in different eras of the band.













- PATRICK MAMELI: The heart and soul of PESTILENCE, as of late, one of the bands I listen to the most.










- DAVID GILMOUR. I'm nowhere near close to being a PINK FLOYD's connoisseur, but I enjoy many of their songs and the talent and excellent taste of this man are unquestionable. Nice voice too.










- MANNI SCHMIDT: RAGE's most classic guitarist left his mark on a bunch of awesome albums and his playing reminds me that of Zakk Wylde during the american's early years with Ozzy.











- ROLF KASPAREK: the man behind the wonderful RUNNING WILD. Nuff said.










- KERRY KING and JEFF HANNEMAN (RIP 02-05-2013). With SLAYER's first five albums it was more than enough for them to be on the list.












- AXEL KATZMANN, ANDY BOULGAROPOULOS and ANDY GUTJAHR. All three guitar players to have ever recorded with TANKARD, one of the most incredible bands ever.



Katzmann, second from the left; Boulgaropoulos,
first from the right











- ERIC PETERSON, Alex Skolnick's partner in crime in the aforementioned Testament.







- BILLY DUFFY: his work on THE CULT's first five albums is amazing. Period.










- LUKE MORLEY. THUNDER's likeable guitarist and songwriter has to be one of the guitar players on this post who I've been listening to the longest.










- BIEL GAYÁ: TRALLERY's shredder worths several guitarists in one. A beast, a very humble and likeable guy whom I've been lucky enough to having talked to some time here and there, and who is by far, out of all the guitarists on the list, the one that I've seen the most times on stage.










- DAVID DISANTO. VEKTOR play in a league of their own, mainly because of this person. His partner ERIK NELSON has also been on all Vektor's albums. A high-end pair.













- DENNIS D'AMOUR (PIGGY) (RIP 26-08-2005) and DANIEL MONGRAIN (CHEWY): The deceased axeman of the legendary VOIVOD, and his more than worthy replacement (also in MARTYR) are simply otherworldly.
















- Better late than never, I make up my mind about mentioning (very late, taking into account when this piece was first written and when I'm writing this) the late, sadly missed, american axeman DIMEBAG DARRELL (RIP 08-12-2004). Perhaps it's been the fact that, although his main band, Pantera, has provided me with so much joy in the past (not that I dislike it now, not by any means) I barely listen to it anymore, or maybe the fact that the only album he released, in 2004, with his last vehicle, DAMAGEPLAN, might be one of the albums which I've forgotten about the soonest, out of all of those I've purchased, but somehow I had forgotten him, when I've always thought he was an amazing guitar wizard (and very much related to some of the guitarists who appear in this piece of writing) and a very likeable guy. Nostalgia always plays its part and is only fair that Darrell has his place here, even more so when I think of the absurd way he had to leave this mortal coil. May these words serve as a tribute to his brutal southern-tinged guitar playing and as a remembrance to his also late and inseparable older brother and drummer VINNIE PAUL, and why not, as an excuse to listen once again to the unbeatable cover that Pantera did of PLANET CARAVAN in 1994, and which the one and only GEEZER BUTLER himself, bassist and founder of Black Sabbath, named back in the day as the best cover anybody had ever done of one of the songs of the legendary english band.












- I did not want to finish the post without mentioning someone like the so much missed EDDIE VAN HALEN (RIP 06-10-2020), at least in passing. As I've said at the beginning, this list is all about my personal preferences and I admit there have to be some notorious omissions. In the end, how on a list of guitar players could ever appear someone like Rosendo or Springsteen (unsuccessful guitar hero himself, in his own words), this said with the utmost respect, but not the very same Edward himself? I've answered that question already. Because it is my list. And I listen to the music of those artists much more than I do Van Halen's, what can I do? Van Halen have never been one of my favourites, not by a long shot, and I don't usually listen to them, although I love their first album. But I wanted to make an exception, because the character at issue is such a big name that is a tad embarrassing for me to leave him out. Same goes for the Hendrixes, Claptons, etc, of this world, without whom none of all this could ever be understood.










- And finally someone very special: JASON BECKER. My complete admiration for this person does not come as much for his guitar skills (they are undeniable, he's a genius and is widely considered to be one of the best gitarists ever), because I'm no expert in his work (more pending housework), as for his absolute example as a person in every sense. I wanted to mention him, even if it was only because of that (although not only). Anybody who doesn't know everything Jason has gone through has here some reading about it. I also want to mention that picture of his, when still in his teens, kissing his guitar, which might be the most beautiful guitar-related pic I can think of. And his song IMAGES, together with MARTY FRIEDMAN (another beast) on GO OFF! (1988), CACOPHONY's second album, which is one of the most amazing songs ever. May them both have their place here as a tribute to the guitar and to all those who can and indeed make it talk.
















See you soon!




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