Manowar co-founder and original guitarist Ross 'The Boss' Friedman has died at the age of 72.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of the Bronx’ own Ross ‘The Boss’, Friedman who died last night after battling ALS,” a statement posted to his official Instagram page reads.

“A legendary guitarist and beloved father, his music and spirit impacted fans around the world as much as you impacted him. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support you all have shown throughout his career and especially these last few months.”

“His music meant everything to him & his guitar was his life’s breath,” it continues. “This insidious disease took that away from him. His legacy with The Dictators, Manowar, Ross the Boss Band and other collabs will live on forever in our hearts and ears.”

The guitarist was a foundational figure in the New York punk scene in the 1970s, and while his band, The Dictators, was touring with Black Sabbath, he met bass player Joey DeMaio. Together, they formed Manowar, the beloved mythology and sorcery-laced American heavy metal band with whom he produced six studio albums.

He later played in Manitoba's Wild Kingdom and The Brain Surgeons, which also featured former Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard, as well as a raft of other projects. He also released four solo LPs, the last of which came out in 2020.

Born in The Bronx, New York, in 1954, Ross Friedman, who was often seen wielding a Gibson SG, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) just weeks before his passing. A GoFundMe page was established to help the guitarist's battle with the same degenerative disease that tragically cut Jason Becker's playing days short. Over $38,000 had been raised.

“It crushes me not to be able to play guitar,” he said of his diagnosis in February, which came after several months of seemingly unrelated symptoms, including weakness in his hands and knees.

Testament guitarist Alek Skolnick has led the tributes to Friedman, writing on Instagram, “Farewell Long Island legend Ross The Boss, who, in a very rare combination, brought tasty licks to both ‘70s punk and ‘80s bombastic metal, with The Dictators and Manowar.

“Before Marty Friedman, there was Ross Friedman (no relation). He and I didn’t agree politically (far from it), but still got along great and bonded over music/guitar.”

“So sad to hear of the passing of Ross The Boss,” Eddie Trunk writes on X. “I knew Ross, of course, from Manowar, but also as a great guy on the NY scene for decades.”

Respects have also been paid by Queensrÿche vocalist, Todd La Torre, thrash band Gamma Bomb, and Metal Allegiance bassist, Mark Menghi. Of course, there has also been an outpouring of love from his fanbase.

Friedman was inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame in 2017 alongside Randy Rhoads, Lemmy Kilmister, and ever-present keyboard maestro, Don Airey.

During a 2022 interview with Guitar World, The Boss underscored that, while he was key player in the same New York punk scene that gave birth to The Ramones, his guitar-playing ethos differed from his peers.

“There wasn’t an emphasis on musicianship,” he said. “It was like, ‘Hey, I can play sloppy, and it doesn’t matter.’ I was the opposite of that. I practiced while everybody else was partying.”

That quote is indicative of his unique mindset, which, as Skolnick says, led him to assert his talents in two very distinct music scenes across two huge decades of heavy music.

Just think of Neil Armstrong having steak, eggs and coffee for breakfast before the Apollo II mission took him to the moon using a “supercomputer” with 0.043 MHz of processing power and 2KB of RAM.

And here you are, eating Cheerios and scrolling Guitar World on a phone more powerful than the Apollo Guidance Computer by orders of magnitude. Okay, there’s no app for taking you to the moon, but your smartphone could be a whole studio in your pocket, thanks to the wealth of modern guitar apps.

Whether iPhone, Android or tablet, this abundant take-anywhere technology has changed how guitarists approach writing, recording and performance. Making his 2011 solo album, The Atlas Underground, Tom Morello famously tracked to his Voice Memos app. He told Guitar World that he just propped up his iPhone on a chair and hit ‘record’.

“My laptop’s open so I can have the BPMs in my ears or whatever, and the phone is balanced on the edge of the laptop on a chair facing the amp,” Morello said.

“But you know, there’s no manual that says ‘The voice memo of your iPhone needs to be 8.4 inches away from the top left speaker...’ I just set it up on a chair. And I’ve gotta tell you, the guitar sounded pretty freaking great.”

Morello is not alone. Tommy Emmanuel and Steve Lacey have spoken about how their phones have ingratiated themselves into their rigs. Alex Skolnick of Testament and the Alex Skolnick Trio is writing more because of it.

“There are those times when you pick up a guitar with no intention to compose, and all of a sudden, you find yourself playing a nice chord pattern, groove or other musical idea that feels worth capturing,” he says.

“My upcoming trio album, Prove You’re Not a Robot, has several compositions that began with Voice Memos on iPhone, further jammed upon with AmpliTube on the iPad before I made charts and worked out the songs with the live band.”

Keith Richards did something similar in 1965, recording the Satisfaction riff into a Philips cassette recorder, only now you can digitally export that riff into a DAW on your phone – Apple’s GarageBand led the way for iOS.

Fender’s 2021 acquisition of PreSonos allowed it to get in on the action with the Fender Studio app, offering multitrack recording via a single tap, plus virtual amps, effects and editing and production tools.

“Having all of the great technology that ProSonus provides, we were able to take all of that engine and then kind of Fenderize it into our three-knobs-and-the-truth kind of mentality,” says Max Gutnik, EVP and GM of PreSonus and Fender’s speciality brands Jackson, Charvel, Gretsch and EVH.

“Ease of use is so important because you don’t want the tech fatigue that often comes with this kind of stuff. That’s why the one-button recording was so important.

“It’s like if you just want to capture an idea, you should just be able to press one button and get exactly what you want, but get great tone doing it. You shouldn’t have to compromise how great you can sound in this environment.”

Gear companies have myriad options for expanding our smartphone setup. Blackstar’s Polar Go is a two-knob mobile guitar audio interface for studio-quality recording anytime, anywhere.

The list of apps is bewildering. Skolnick uses Pro Metronome and Inner Time for practice, ClearTune for tuning and NUX’s Mighty Amp app for managing his warmup amp’s presets. His iPad is where you’ll find AmpliTube – and LogicProX for deeper processing.

Gutnik believes the moment is nigh when a player’s first amp might be on their phone. Whatever you might think of that, he believes the phone is making players more at ease with performing.

“Today you’ll see people take one lesson and then immediately going on to Instagram or Facebook or Snapchat, and they’re playing their guitar and showing people that same lesson, barely able to play it, but everybody supporting them,” Gutnik says. “It’s a totally different kind of mindset.”

And this is not just about songwriting, recording or content creation; mobile technologies are supporting traditional performances. It’s how Shinedown can switch up their set each night during a massive arena tour.

“In Nashville, I threw 40 songs at these guys,” says guitarist Zach Myers. “We just sat there, and if we didn’t know them, or if we hadn’t played them since the studio, we’d go over to our tech worlds, we’d put on headphones, we’d grab an iPad, we’d learn it and come back, and I think it made our band better.”

We can talk about social media’s gamification of guitar playing another day. But unless you’ve been living on the moon, you’ll recognize that the phone is now fast becoming integral to the 21st-century guitarist’s rig.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Anthony Krizan has recorded with Mick Taylor, backed up Noel Redding and been a member of the Spin Doctors – but it’s his solo music that keeps him inspired. His latest album Cool Shade of Blue, is an example of where he’s at. “It’s a blues, rock and soul vibe,” he says. “Everything I do has the blues in it, but I like to write hooky songs that cross genres.”

He’s already working on his next record, among other things. “I have a lot of new music, and I have a line of pickups from Greenville, a father/son company out of Detroit,” he reports. “I’ve been working on a Strat pickup – we’ve got a line called Sonic Blue 60 Vintage Hot.”

In the late ‘80s you participated in a recording session with Mick Taylor.

“When I had my deal with Chrysalis Records, the management company had us go to LA and we’d get together with some writers. They were really kind of ‘80s pop. It wasn’t our bag. We’d made a record before the Black Crowes came out where we were going for a Stones-type thing.

“We met Greg Sutton, who played bass for Bob Dylan, and we just kind of hit it off. He said, ‘Let’s see if we can get Mick Taylor out.’ So, we paid Mick some money, and got some blow, because he liked coke, and we wrote a few songs.

“Every solo he did was on a tape machine. He’d be like, ‘Let me take it again,’ but I was like, ‘Man, that was unbelievable!’ We’d have to erase a few because we didn’t have enough tape – but every time he played, it was just amazing. It’s true: you get the tone out of your hands. And whatever he plugged into sounded great.”

Those recordings were never released. Where are they now?

“One was called Gospel, and that never made the record. It was a little bit like a Gimme Shelter vibe. We wrote two more – one has never been released and the other one was lost when somebody erased the reel, which I’m kind of pissed at. But getting to sit there and watch him for a whole day was pretty amazing.”

You were in Noel Redding’s band in the ‘90s. How did you get the gig?

“I made a pretty big-budget record with Chrysalis, but it got shelved. So we were being shopped around, and we ended up on Polygram, and our producer, Frankie LaRocka, approached Noel and said, ‘Would you want to do some gigs?’

“A lot of people don’t know this, but Noel Redding died broke because he signed his publishing away. When Noel started coming around, it was me and Frankie the first time, and then Earl Slick was on guitar. We had Jack Daley as a second bass player because we didn’t even know how Noel was playing at the time.

“We’d have Noel come over every few months; we’d book gigs and play colleges and bars, and we’d give Noel the lion’s share of the money.”

Is it true that Noel used your gear?

“Every time Noel came over he’d use my ’71 Fender Jazz Bass. It’s my favorite bass. He’d use that even though Fender reissued the Noel Redding bass! We played for 10 years on and off, and we did a live record in Prague that’s out there somewhere, which is pretty cool.”

Did Noel ever ask you to play like Jimi Hendrix?

“He was so loose – he’d always get a kick out of the fact that it was unrehearsed, and anything could happen. Sometimes he’d forget certain songs, or we’d mess up, but he wouldn’t care.

“I was nervous at first because with some of the Hendrix stuff, I could play just like it, but there’s other stuff that you want to kind of take off and do your own thing. We kind of stuck to the vibe of the records, but during the jam sections we’d do our own thing.”

What was your biggest takeaway from playing with Noel?

“One thing I still try to work on is not overplaying. You want to build solos, but I used to try and rip out of the gate. But getting to look over and see Noel playing just like the records with his attack and stuff was a surreal experience.”

How did you hook up with the Spin Doctors in the mid ‘90s?

“I got the gig because I was playing with Noel. Frankie and I were at the Wetlands when the Spin Doctors were pretty much at their peak. They were at the side of the stage watching me play with Noel, and when it came time to audition guitar players they kind of remembered me.”

What was the audition like?

“Alex Skolnick and Kenny Withrow went before me. I’ve always had a good work ethic and was prepared for that gig. I think I copped the vibe of what Eric Schenkman did when he was in the band, which was definitely cool stuff – and not easy. He came from a jazz background, and I’m not really a jazz guy, but I got the gig.”

Alex Skolnick, while known for playing mostly metal, is phenomenal. Did you actually see his audition?

“Yeah – I was right outside the door. Alex was more of a heavy metal shredder, but he was amazing. Kenny was great too, but I don’t think they fit the vibe. There also wasn’t much time to work with a new guy, and they wanted somebody who could fit the sound so that most people wouldn’t notice Eric wasn’t there. I’m sure if it wasn’t such a rush job, they’d have auditioned more guys.”

You made one record with the Spin Doctors, You’ve Got to Believe in Something. How do you look back on that?

“Even though that record wasn’t a huge success, it was still something cool, and some good stuff came out of it. Playing with the Spin Doctors as a three-piece, you have to cover, and it’s kind of nice. You have freedom; but rhythmically you have to fill spots, and do solos with chordal stuff to fill out the rhythm.”

• Cool Shade of Blue is on sale now.

A lot of people have played guitar with Ozzy Osbourne. They are not all here. In the interests of keeping this list shorter than a book, we’ve restricted it to people who were hired, however briefly, for Osbourne’s solo band.

That means there’s no Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath’s towering God of Riff. Nor are any of the superstars who guested on Ozzy's last two studio albums: Slash, Tom Morello, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Mike McCready are all guitar giants in their own right, but only footnotes in the Osbourne story.

There are three guitarists who also missed out on being here by the narrowest of margins. Robert Sarzo, brother of Ozzy bassist Rudy, was hired by Ozzy and Sharon to replace Randy Rhoads. Unfortunately for Sarzo, Sharon’s dad and Ozzy’s label boss, Don Arden, had already offered the gig to Bernie Tormé.

Dokken guitarist George Lynch was hired in 1982 and got as far as traveling with the band and performing at soundchecks. He was unceremoniously dumped in front of Jake E. Lee.

Steve Vai, meanwhile, was hired in 1995 to co-write one song. He ended up getting on so well with Ozzy that the two schemed to make a full record, making an album’s worth of demos that were ultimately shelved.

These, then, are the guitarists who wrote and played on Ozzy’s classic albums and took part in his legendary tours.

Randy Rhoads – (1979–1982)

In just two albums, 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz and 1981’s Diary of a Madman, plus the posthumous live album Tribute (1987), Randy Rhoads set the bar for every subsequent Ozzy guitarist.

His combination of two-hand tapping, blazing legato, savage pinched harmonics, and demonic blues licks became essential vocabulary for shredders. He took the classic rock combo of a Les Paul and Marshall into the 80s, boosting it with the new MXR Distortion+ pedal, and modding the amp with cascading gain stages.

Rhoads’ last days with Ozzy were fraught. He was allegedly vehemently opposed to plans to record the live Sabbath covers album Speak of the Devil.

Ozzy drank heavily, and tensions became so bad that Rhoads had allegedly made plans to leave the band once the album was released. Whether this rift between Osbourne and his guitarist would have been healed can never be known. A plane crash ended Randy’s life on March 19, 1982. He was 25.

In a Guitar World interview conducted shortly before his death, Rhoads said that he felt his guitar journey was far from complete, opining, “For me, it's just flash that impresses the kids. I'm trying to make a name for myself as fast as I can.

“I wish I could take time and come up with something that nobody else has done. But that's gonna take a few years yet.”

In his brief career, though, Rhoads exerted a towering influence on metal guitar, neo-classical guitar, and on Osbourne’s sound. Alongside Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads defined the sound of metal guitar for the 1980s.

Bernie Tormé – (1982)

While Ozzy and Sharon were making plans with Robert Sarzo, Don Arden (Ozzy’s former manager and owner of Jet Records, Ozzy’s label; also Sharon Osbourne’s father) had offered the gig to Gillan guitarist Bernie Tormé.

Quite why Arden’s choice overruled Ozzy’s is unclear. Perhaps inevitably, this was a brief union.

According to Rudy Sarzo’s memoir, Off the Rails, Tormé announced after a handful of shows that he would be returning to England to work on his solo album.

While Tormé’s tenure in the band was brief, it was impactful. A 15-year-old Zakk Wylde witnessed Ozzy with Tormé at Madison Square Garden. Of that experience, Wylde later wrote, “I told him how amazing his playing was that night and how he made everybody in the building feel as if Randy’s presence was with all of us.”

After Ozzy, Tormé formed a solo band, and went on to collaborate with Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider in Desperado. Tormé died in 2019, aged 66.

Brad Gillis – (1982)

Under pressure to find a replacement, Ozzy auditioned Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis in a hotel room and enlisted him to complete the Diary of a Madman tour.

“I first met Ozzy in the master suite at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York,” Gillis told Guitar World in a 2021 interview. “I had my red Strat, no amp, and played him Flying High Again.

“How surreal to be sitting at the edge of his bed, with him cross-legged on the floor singing up to me while I played the song! Once I got through the solo he jumped up, gave me a big hug, and said, ‘Brad, I love you. Pull me through.’”

Gillis shadowed Tormé on the tour until he was ready to take over. His performances on the tour were recorded for Speak of the Devil (released as Talk of the Devil in the UK), a live album released under duress and consisting entirely of old Black Sabbath material.

Despite its unpromising origins, Speak of the Devil won Gillis a lot of fans. He put his own stamp on the songs with an impressive tone from a stereo chorus and a pair of Mesa/Boogie Mark IIB amps.

After the tour, Gillis returned to Night Ranger, with whom he's released 13 studio albums to date.

Jake E. Lee – (1982–1987)

Lee was a former member of Ratt and Rough Cutt, as well as a glam metal band with possibly the most on-the-nose name of all time, Sexist. He had also auditioned unsuccessfully to join Dio when former Ozzy bassist Dana Strum recommended him to audition for Osbourne’s band.

Lee has said that Ozzy was unhappy with George Lynch’s performances in rehearsals, and Lee pipped him to the gig.

Lee recorded two albums, Bark at the Moon (1983) and The Ultimate Sin (1986), with Osbourne. The former's title track was Lee’s standout Ozzy performance, with its jet-fuelled riff and fearsome alternate-picked solo.

Lee claimed he had written much of the album and was unfairly denied songwriting credits. He refused to work on The Ultimate Sin until he had a contract guaranteeing him songwriting royalties.

Of Lee’s dismissal in 1987, Osbourne told Stereogum in a 2022 interview: “The way it went was, Randy Castillo, my old drummer, had started to turn me against him. It was very sad because I had no qualms with the guy. He was a great guitar player.”

Lee, meanwhile, said in a 2018 interview that bassist Phil Soussan was “partly instrumental in getting me fired,” claiming that Soussan wanted to be Ozzy’s main songwriter, at Lee’s expense.

“I didn’t see it coming at all,” Lee told Guitar World in 2013. “In fact, it was my roommate, who was my tech at the time, who told me I was out of the band.

“He came back from the Rainbow [in Los Angeles] one night and he said, ‘Everybody’s talking about how you just got fired,’ So I called up Sharon [Osbourne], and I was like, ‘I just heard the weirdest rumor.’ She said, ‘Oh, my god. It’s true, it’s true.’ I went, ‘I’m fired?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ My whole world got turned upside down.”

Lee went on to form Badlands. Since then, he has only sporadically released music with his bands Wicked Alliance and Red Dragon Cartel, whose last album dropped in 2018.

He has recently suffered from a complete lack of cartilage in his right hand, which has limited his ability to play. In October 2024, he said he was playing again and wanted to tour. Just days later, however, he was shot multiple times while walking his dog.

Though Lee is recovering well, understandably, there has not been much talk of new music from him.

Zakk Wylde – (1987–1993, 2001–2009, 2017–present)

Although Randy Rhoads is usually considered the greatest Osbourne guitarist, Zakk Wylde is in many ways the definitive one.

Wylde has spent so many years with Ozzy that his unmistakable sound has become the one audiences expect from Osbourne’s band. And though many capable players have tried to fill his shoes, his larger than life persona and continued visibility on the metal scene has tended to overshadow his replacements.

Wylde’s initial run produced No Rest for the Wicked and No More Tears. These albums marked a strong return to form for Ozzy, earning multi-platinum awards and that mark of any great metal album, one-star reviews in Rolling Stone.

Speaking about how he was selected for the much-coveted role, Wylde told Guitar World in 1989, “When [Ozzy] auditioned guitar players, his big gripe was that most everyone played like Yngwie Malmsteen on acid, and that wasn’t what he wanted.”

After the live album Live & Loud, Wylde left to pursue solo projects Pride & Glory and Black Label Society. Wylde was never fully gone though, as he played the guitars on Ozzmosis, the one studio album Ozzy wrote and released between his first two stints in his band.

Alex Skolnick – (1995)

Skolnick managed a whopping one (1) concert with Ozzy during his tenure, making him the shortest-lived touring guitarist Ozzy ever had. Still, that’s one better than Robert Sarzo, George Lynch, or Steve Vai managed.

Skolnick had already left Bay Area thrashers Testament when he got the Ozzy audition. His Ozzy gig was an intimate one at the legendary Rock City club in Nottingham, England. Geezer Butler was the bassist.

“It was really cool,” Skolnick recounted to Guitar World in 2012. “It was one of these periods where Ozzy and Zakk Wylde had temporarily parted ways. He tried out a few different people, and I think I was the only one who made it as far as doing an unannounced show with him in England, and he told me I was hired.

“But, I later found out from Sharon Osbourne that they had also been looking at another guy, Joe Holmes, who ended up doing the tour. Then they brought Zakk back.”

After joining the elite group of musicians to have been fired over the telephone by Sharon Osbourne, Skolnick then formed a successful jazz trio and later rejoined Testament.

Joe Holmes – (1995–2001)

Holmes had experience filling big shoes. His first gig had been replacing Jason Becker in David Lee Roth’s touring band after Becker’s diagnosis with ALS. Prior to that, he had played with LA shock rockers Lizzy Borden.

Although Holmes never recorded an album with Ozzy, his stint with the band coincided with the rise of Ozzy’s mammoth Ozzfest tours. As a result, he has probably performed to more people with Ozzy than any guitarist besides Zakk Wylde and Tony Iommi.

Despite appearing in the video for Perry Mason, he did not perform on the original recording. Still, his punishing delivery of that song for the Ozzfest 1996 live video is a testament to his fiery playing.

Holmes’ only Ozzy studio recording is the 1996 single Walk on Water, from the Beavis and Butthead Do America soundtrack. He co-wrote three tracks on the 2001 album Down to Earth, but the returning Zakk Wylde recorded them.

Since leaving Ozzy, Holmes has been relatively quiet, releasing only one album with his band Farmikos, in 2015. Still, he dropped a video for a new solo song, The Deadfall, in January 2025, so we may be seeing much more of him in future. The recording features his former Ozzy bandmates Mike Bordin and Robert Trujillo.

Gus G – (2009–2017)

Much fanfare greeted the arrival of then-29-year-old Gus G in Ozzy’s band. The hype was that Ozzy had discovered yet another young talent comparable to Randy Rhoads or Zakk Wylde.

In fact, Gus was hardly unknown, having released 13 albums with four different bands, and temporarily replaced Michael Amott in Arch Enemy for Ozzfest 2005.

Reflecting on his audition for Ozzy in a 2015 interview with Guitar World, Gus said, “We did six songs – six of the ‘must haves’ on his setlist. Ozzy came in the room and we played them all back to back with no breaks. The second that one song ended he would just call out the next one. It was like ‘Oh, shit!’ But it was cool.

“At the end of it he turned around and said, ‘You’re fuckin’ great!’ Then they all went into a room next door for a few minutes, and I was sitting there all alone like, ‘What’s going on now?’ Finally everybody came back in and they were all smiling. They asked if I wanted to come play a gig.”

The hype never quite materialized, largely because Gus never got the chance to write with Ozzy. Although he played on 2010’s Scream, Gus never quite put his stamp on the Osbourne sound like Rhoads, Lee, or Wylde had. That’s not to say he wasn’t good: Let Me Hear You Scream remains a big solo.

“I’m really proud of that,” he said in a recent interview. It was the one solo on the album he was asked to re-do.

“This is gonna be the first song that people will hear you on,” Sharon reportedly told him. “You're gonna be the new guy and people will be checking you out on that one. I just think you can do better.” Gus raised his game, and the solo smoked.

Gus was somewhat pushed aside in favor of a returning Zakk Wylde in 2017. Gus, who had kept his band Firewind active between commitments with Osbourne, simply returned to business as usual with Firewind and his solo work.

Thrash and jazz shredder Alex Skolnick has opened up on his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spell as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist that lasted just one impromptu show.

Since Randy Rhoads’ explosive talents helped launch Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career in the early ‘80s, the role of the Prince of Darkness’ chief shredder has been one of metal guitar’s most coveted jobs.

Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde, and Gus G have all since assumed the position, be it for a single album or several decades. Meanwhile, plenty of big hitters – from Marty Friedman to Vito Bratta and neoclassical hotshot Chris Impellitteri – have either auditioned or been touted for the role when it has become vacant at various points over the last 40-something years. Very few have made the cut.

However, Alex Skolnick’s short-lived tenure in the band has become a footnote in the band’s history that many seem to forget about. He may have only lasted one gig – an unannounced show at Rock City in Nottingham, England in 1995 – but it came at a vital moment in his career.

“I don’t know why their separation happened, but I guess Zakk [Wylde] was doing other stuff and there was this search for a new Ozzy Osbourne guitarist,” he tells Metal Hammer during a new, career-spanning chat. “I was just honored to be in the running because I’d heard about some pretty well-known players that never got past the audition phase.”

Zakk Wylde was very much a permanent fixture in Ozzy’s band and was some seven years into the job by this point. However, one of the singer’s many attempts at retiring – the upcoming blockbuster Sabbath show promises to actually be his last – had seen the guitarist form a new project, Pride & Glory, to fill the void.

Ozzy’s return was unexpected, and with Wylde already committed to plans with his new band, the Prince of Darkness was forced to find a replacement. Skolnick had left Testament, an outfit he said his academic parents were “not thrilled” about him joining in 1985, three years prior. He was still looking for a venture, and a shot at being Ozzy’s band, and reviving his career, felt opportune.

“I actually got to the point of doing a show and Ozzy hired me – he said he wanted me to do the gig,” he reminisces.

“It was an unannounced show at Nottingham Rock City and it was great. I didn’t get the role full-time, which I think was a management decision, but it was a great motivation at a time when I didn’t really know what to do next.”

He gave more clues to the context behind the “management decision” when speaking to Loudwire in 2016. It doesn’t seem that the decision to look elsewhere was entirely musical.

“[After the show] there was one person who didn’t congratulate me,” he says. “A lot of hints had been dropped – things like, ‘Maybe you could lower the guitar,’ or ‘Maybe you could stand like this.’ I realized, ‘Oh, I think she wants me to be Zakk Wylde.”

He was quickly replaced by former David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes, with Wylde eventually rejoining the fold and featuring, alongside Steve Vai, on his new album Ozzmosis, later that year.

Dispute Skolnick having had the briefest of stints in the band, he’s thankful for the shot in the arm it gave him.

“That was when I enrolled in the university called The New School in New York, and studied with these greats like [jazz musicians] Cecil McBee and Reggie Workman,” he concludes. His studies led to the formation of the Alex Skolnick Trio, which has released five albums to date.

Skolnick rejoined Testament in 2005 and is currently readying his fifth album of his second spell with the band.

A recording of Crazy Train, the last song Skolnick played on that fateful night in 1995, stands as one of the few souvenirs from his reign. The rest is left to fantasy and thoughts of what could have been.

Maya Neelakantan has had quite a year. From appearing on America's Got Talent to stunning audiences with her metal-meets-sitar interpretation of Metallica’s Master of Puppets, she is quickly establishing herself as a masterful shredder despite her young age.

This past week, Neelakantan further cemented her rising star status with a surprise appearance at a Testament concert, where she performed Curse of the Legions of Death [from 1987's The Legacy] alongside the band at their House of Blues concert in Las Vegas last Friday (September 13).

“Once my AGT finished, now that I was free, I was able to go to the Testament concert in Las Vegas! I’ve never been to a heavy metal concert so I thought it’ll be a great opportunity! I texted Eric Peterson [Testament's rhythm guitarist] and we thought it would be really fun if I could jam a song together with the band,” Neelakantan recounts.

“He picked a really fast old-school thrash metal song Curse of the Legions of Death for me and he even showed me the riffs and taught me his solo so I can play that together with Alex Skolnick on stage.”

The young shredder goes on to say that the song features the fastest alternate picking she has ever played. She tackled the challenge head-on, as evidenced by her electrifying performance, wielding her Gibson Dave Mustaine Flying V EXP. Testament frontman Chuck Billy even called her “the future of heavy metal”.

Over the past two years, Neelakantan has caught the attention of many metal and prog rock heavyweights. In addition to Testament’s endorsement, she has recently hung out with Slayer and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, received a nod of approval from Tool guitarist Adam Jones – who gifted her one of his signature Gibson Les Pauls – and was given the rare go-ahead by Metallica to cover one of their biggest songs on America's Got Talent.

The title track of Savatage’s 1993 album, Edge of Thorns, is a tale of deception. Its lyrics – written by the band’s late producer, Paul O’Neill – see the protagonist reflecting on a past flame and trying to convince himself that he’s moved on (“But I don’t think about you anymore,” the chorus’ final line states in faux defiance), while the truth is anything but.

Fittingly, the song’s music video – filmed in the swamps of Florida – is similarly deceptive, at least regarding the instrument used by the band’s late guitarist, Criss Oliva. 

On the surface, it appears to be a Jackson, the brand that endorsed Savatage for many years; in reality, it’s a custom ESP Mirage featuring an airbrushed headstock that helped keep Oliva in good graces with his primary electric guitar supplier.

The body of the guitar – which featured a bolt-on maple neck and Bartolini pickups at the neck (single-coil) and bridge (humbucker) positions – was also airbrushed.

On it, Gary Smith – who contributed the cover artwork for four Savatage albums between 1987 and 1994, as well as the back cover for a fifth – painted several elements from the cover of 1989’s Gutter Ballet. 

Oliva used the Gargoyle extensively in the studio and on tour until his 1993 death at the hands of a drunk driver. After his passing, the guitar continued to be featured on albums by Savatage (and later, Trans-Siberian Orchestra) as a means of not only honoring Oliva’s memory, but also his sound.

When Alex Skolnick joined Savatage at Tampa’s famed Morrisound Recording to contribute solos to 1994’s Handful of Rain (the band’s first release following Oliva’s death), he was given the opportunity to play the Gargoyle. 

“That’s one of those guitars that just had the right sound,” he says. “It had this extra quality that’s hard to describe technically – it’d be hard to describe the frequencies – but it sounded very warm and very thick, even though it’s not a Les Paul or a ‘classic’ guitar. It’s a super-Strat – one of those two-cutaway, post-Van Halen guitars – but it really had this tone that was unmistakable, much like other iconic guitars.”

Skolnick compares the Gargoyle to Billy Gibbons’ famed 1959 Les Paul, Pearly Gates. “I’ve had the pleasure of playing it; I happened to be visiting the Gibson showroom when [Gibbons] was there, and even with the really thin strings he uses, not even plugged in, it’s like, ‘OK, there it is – there’s that sound.’ The Gargoyle just has its own specific sound that was unmatchable by any other instrument.”

Skolnick would like to see the Gargoyle – which was played by Oliva’s brother, Jon, when the band toured in support of Handful of Rain (the last show of which was recorded for a live album, Japan Live ’94, that was recently released on vinyl for the first time), and more recently by Chris Caffery when Savatage reunited in 2015 to perform at Germany’s Wacken Open Air metal festival – officially cloned to capture its unique sound.

“They really should replicate that, because it just has some magic,” Skolnick says.

In the spring of 1990, Bay Area thrashers Testament – considered by many metal fans to be the leading contender if the “Big 4” were to ever expand by one – spent seven weeks touring across America in support of their recently released third studio album, Practice What You Preach.

The trek also featured another band who were on the rise at the time – the Tampa, Florida-based Savatage, whose lead guitarist, Criss Oliva, turned 27 on the tour’s 12th stop.

Oliva’s counterpart in Testament was former Joe Satriani student Alex Skolnick, who joined the group – then called Legacy – in 1984 at the tender age of 16. Despite his youth, Skolnick had achieved international recognition in the metal guitar community for his blistering solos on his band’s first three albums, records for which he co-wrote the majority of the music and even a handful of lyrics.

In 1992, however, Skolnick decided to leave Testament. “I felt like I wanted new experiences, musically and personally, and I just felt limited at the time,” he says, noting that he was only 23 when he gave notice. (He would rejoin in 2005.) “I wasn’t able to be in the band without feeling those limitations.”

Approximately one year later, Skolnick – who remained active in the Bay Area music scene after separating from Testament – was in the crowd at a local concert, where he struck up a conversation with an industry acquaintance. Oliva, he was told, had been killed by a drunk driver.

“It was much like when I heard about the passing of [Metallica bassist] Cliff Burton – just word-of-mouth, and musicians were talking about it,” Skolnick says. “I was kind of in shock – like, ‘Wow, oh my God.’ It was just unthinkable.”

Prior to touring together, Skolnick had admired Savatage from afar, even trading tapes of the band’s early recordings as a high schooler before joining Testament. He cites the title track of the group’s 1983 debut, Sirens, as particularly notable in his development as a player.

“I had started getting into the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, who used octaves,” he says. “I’d heard about him from Joe Satriani, and I realized, ‘This is somebody you should listen to.’

“Then I heard a few examples of octaves in metal, and I think the first one was Breaking the Chains by Dokken. It was very well-played but very commercial. Then when I heard Savatage, I realized, ‘Oh, you can actually do that and make it dark and heavy.’ It was definitely Sirens that led to that inspiration.”

As he watched Savatage perform in 1990, Skolnick learned that Oliva had even more to offer. “The playing on Sirens was great,” he says, “but when I saw them live when we were touring together, Criss was just burning all over the fretboard and had broken through any barriers that might have been there on Sirens. He’d grown by leaps and bounds as a player, as touring and dedication will do.”

Skolnick says that Testament and Savatage got along famously during the Practice What You Preach tour, and the band’s two lead guitarists were no exception (“I remember us tossing the guitar around one time,” Skolnick says). In a time before email, cell phones and social media, though, it was much easier to lose touch, and Skolnick doesn’t recall crossing paths with Oliva again after the tour concluded.

He was therefore surprised to receive a phone call in early 1994 from Oliva’s brother Jon, Savatage’s original vocalist. (While he’d officially left the band two years prior, Jon remained a key figure in the Savatage ecosystem.)

Soon after Criss’s passing, Jon and his primary songwriting partner, Paul O’Neill, composed a tribute song for the late guitarist, which they initially planned to release as Savatage’s final recording. O’Neill subsequently encouraged Jon to continue writing as a means of navigating the grieving process, and soon enough, the pair had a full album’s worth of material on their hands. What they didn’t have, however, was a guitarist.

Skolnick initially said he was flattered to be asked to contribute, but that he was not ready to commit to another band after what he described as a “brutal separation” from Testament.

“We had an explosion like you see on all those Behind the Music documentaries,” he says. “It’s almost like your marriage splits up, and suddenly the girl from high school that you’ve always liked and probably would have connected with instantly under other circumstances comes around, but you’re just not ready for another relationship.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to jump into that band; it’s that I didn’t want to jump into any band. If Dave Mustaine called me the same week, it would have been the same thing.”

Jon proceeded to say that his brother admired Skolnick’s playing and that no long-term commitment was required, as Savatage’s future was anything but certain.

“If they were just asking around, ‘Hey, we need a fill-in player’ or ‘We need a guy fast,’ then my thought was, ‘I’m terribly, terribly sorry for what happened, but there’s plenty of guitar players around,’” Skolnick says. “But when Jon reached out, I realized it really did mean something to them and to him.”

Skolnick subsequently agreed to play lead guitar on the Savatage record that would ultimately be released in late 1994 under the title Handful of Rain. It was tracked at the legendary Morrisound Recording studio in Tampa, where many of death metal’s landmark albums were put to tape.

“I didn’t even realize until years later that, ‘Oh, yeah – this is the studio where all that is happening,’” Skolnick says. “I did meet a bunch of key players at that time, though. I remember the band Cynic came in just to pick up a rough mix or something. The current bassist of Testament, Steve Di Giorgio, was commuting to Florida at the time, and he was a big part of the Florida death metal scene; essential albums by Death, for example.”

Surprisingly, Skolnick says the vibe at Morrisound wasn’t at all morose as Handful of Rain was being recorded. And while many would likely wilt under the pressure of stepping into someone else’s shoes as his surviving brother watched on, Skolnick performed his role admirably, even though he was just 25 at the time.

“I felt mostly good about it, just because Jon and Paul made me feel good about it,” he says. “If you know Jon and Paul, it’s impossible not to have moments of levity and jest. That’s just their nature – a lot of funny stories and jokes, even when talking about Criss.”

Musically, Handful of Rain, which saw Savatage continue to explore theatrical, symphonic hard rock, marked a departure from the blazing thrash on which Skolnick had built his reputation.

“It felt like a wide-open road,” he says. “There were a lot of the types of parts that I’d been lobbying for with some of my Testament solos – I guess what we’d call modal chord progressions, and not just riffs that sounded great and heavy for vocals, but harmonically were really tough for guitar, unless you just kind of wail over it.

“I’m a big fan of melody, and I heard a lot of opportunities to do melody with these modal chord progressions and chords that were held instead of chugging the whole time. It was refreshing, because I was used to playing songs that were so fast in tempo, and it was a nice change to work with tempos that I associated more with rock ’n’ roll like Deep Purple and Ozzy and Dio. It really gave me a chance to play some more expressive stuff.”

Many songs on Handful of Rain also prominently featured keyboards, which was “exciting” to Skolnick. “Keep in mind, all I had done professionally at that point was the two-guitar/bass/drums/vocal format. I hadn’t played with keyboards at all,” he says. “With Savatage, there was very cool keyboard and piano stuff. A lot of us [in metal], we’re sort of trained not to like keyboards.

“I totally appreciate [Van Halen’s] Jump as a song now, but when it came out, I was ready to riot. But a few years later, I’d grown so much as a musician, and I was listening to a lot of fusion and jazz pianists and keyboardists. Hearing the stuff that those guys were working on, with piano, I was really digging it.”

At the time Handful of Rain was recorded, Skolnick was endorsed by Ibanez, and he recalls using a Ghostrider during the album’s sessions. “It was a really cool guitar,” he says. “The shape was a little closer to a Telecaster, and it sounded good. There was also a purple Ibanez, but I don’t remember if it was a Satriani model or if it was just similar, sort of a stock model that the Satriani one was based on.”

Another guitar would feature prominently on the album as well – Oliva’s “Gargoyle,” an ESP Mirage that featured a custom paint job by Gary Smith, a Tampa artist who was responsible for Savatage’s best-known album covers.

“That guitar just had the magic,” Skolnick says. “It had a presence that was just so identified with Savatage, and it was hard not to feel Criss’s presence and the weight of the whole thing once that guitar was taken out of the case and set on a stand.”

In 1994, hard rock and heavy metal were in something of an existential crisis. Virtuosity was out; grunge was in. Skolnick remembers the time well.

“The biggest thing in radio at that point is still Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction,” he says. “I liked a lot of that music, but the industry was very strange; suddenly, it became much more difficult if you weren’t [playing] that type of music.

“There was just a sense that groups like Savatage, and even Testament to a certain extent, all got kind of lumped in with what was being rebelled against, which really had nothing to do with what any of our bands were doing.”

Much like Handful of Rain made little effort to mimic the popular guitar rock of the era, Skolnick opted for originality when composing his solos for the album, especially on songs like the progressive rock-influenced Chance and the bluesy Stare into the Sun.

He says he wasn’t concerned about alienating Testament fans who came along for the ride.

“I learned this lesson more and more later, but the less I cared about getting anyone’s approval, the better it was,” he says. “I knew some people weren’t going to get it, but it was not my responsibility for them to like it; it was my responsibility to do my best, to do a good job and to make it as good as possible for Savatage.”

That same mentality prevailed when Skolnick agreed to embark on a short tour in support of Handful of Rain in late 1994, which saw Savatage traverse America for four weeks before performing four shows in Japan. (The final show of the tour was recorded for a live album, Japan Live ’94, which was recently released on vinyl for the first time in conjunction with its pearl anniversary.)

The tour saw Skolnick perform material from not only Handful of Rain, but also Savatage classics such as Hall of the Mountain King, Edge of Thorns and Sirens.

“I definitely heard some criticism that I didn’t play the parts enough like Criss, but I didn’t want to just go in there and try to be a clone of him,” he says. “I understand that’s what some fans expect, and I totally understand that with the riffs and the melodies – the main parts of the songs – but part of who I am is that I’m an improviser.

“Even with Testament, I sneak in improvisations. It’s not always obvious because I play the landmark parts of the solos, but I like to sneak things in. Obviously, I meant no disrespect by changing anything around, but I did have my own identity as a player.”

Skolnick also drew inspiration from his experience touring alongside Oliva four years prior.

“I saw the band a bunch of times, and I knew some of the early Savatage work, and Criss didn’t play it exactly like it was [on the record],” he says.

“He was stretching out quite a bit. I remember Sirens having all these fills that weren’t there before, and the solo was different than he had done originally. Maybe it had some of the [same] hooks, but I just thought I was approaching it like he would approach it.”

On the U.S. dates of the tour, Skolnick performed double-duty, as he also played with openers Exhibit-A, a band he launched soon after leaving Testament. 30 years later, Skolnick describes the group – which might be best described as alternative metal – as “directionless.”

“I was really in a period of experimentation,” he says. “I was so young, and I had no experience leading a band. I wanted to do my own thing, but I didn’t feel quite ready to do my thing. I learned not to plan too much, but to go with something when there’s momentum and when a project or a circumstance just happens naturally. You can nurture that and go with it, but you can’t try to force things to happen.”

By the time the tour reached Japan, Skolnick says he’d developed a strong bond with Jon, who toured with Savatage as a rhythm guitarist and keyboardist, and who introduced Skolnick to several Deep Purple records with which he was unfamiliar.

While it seemed unlikely a few months prior that Savatage would be able to continue after Criss’s passing, the positive overseas reception to Handful of Rain led to talk about the future, and Skolnick found himself reconsidering his “no commitments” mindset.

“I felt like we were planting seeds to work on the next record together, and I was definitely open to see where things went,” he says. “I knew whatever I was involved with next, I wanted more creative input than I had with Testament. Even though it was great to play the solos with Savatage, and the band was terrific, I still felt like I wanted to at least contribute to the songwriting.

“I contributed to some of the best-known Testament songs, and I was a major writer on many of them. Obviously, I wouldn’t try to do the same type of parts [with Savatage] – I recognized it was different – but I could imagine being part of the writing team and writing a new Savatage record, giving it more edge, making it work for the ’90s [with] some of that ’70s Deep Purple influence.”

A few weeks after returning from Japan, though, Skolnick received a call from O’Neill, Savatage’s longtime producer and primary lyricist.

“Paul told me that he and Jon got inspired and wrote the whole [next] record,” Skolnick says. “There was poetry involved, and Paul’s reading it to me over the phone, and I can’t get a word in edgewise. [Laughs] I just knew right then, ‘OK, this isn’t what I’m going to do right now.’

“I thought I made it clear that I needed to at least have the creative voice I had in Testament, and hopefully a little more – but as Paul was reading me the poetry, I knew, ‘If I do this, it’s not going to be the creative situation I want.’”

The album O’Neill described to Skolnick, the 1995 rock opera Dead Winter Dead, would prove to be the most important release of Savatage’s career. It included a holiday-themed instrumental, Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24), which would ultimately become a gigantic hit the following year when it was re-released by a sister group founded by O’Neill and Jon Oliva called Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Still, Dead Winter Dead, which featured the guitar team of Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery, who would both go on to play key roles with TSO, might never have gotten off the ground without the foundation laid by Skolnick, whose contributions to Savatage in the studio and on tour helped to stabilize a band that was reeling.

Ironically, even though he passed up the opportunity to play on the studio recording of Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24), Skolnick would end up performing the song several hundred times between 2000 and 2009, when he served as lead guitarist for TSO’s “east” troupe during their annual winter tour.

“It ended up becoming a major part of my life,” Skolnick says. “I’d been defined by Testament, and if I’d stayed with Savatage, I would have been defined by Savatage; but with TSO, it was something I could step into and step out of, and I did for a long time.”

In a way, TSO even aided Skolnick’s eventual return to Testament. “Playing for TSO, you become an arena musician, and you learn how to play for the back rafters,” he says.

“Paul was really a motivational coach when it comes to performing, and I’d never had that before. I might have had a little bit of resistance to it at first – ‘What do I need to do this crazy performance stuff for?’ – but then I did it, and I think it helped the music be heard.

“My guitar parts seemed to be noticed more, because I was performing better. When you’re doing TSO, you’re sharing the stage with video screens, attractive female singers that are doing this dance, fire that’s coming out of nowhere.

“So much stuff is happening, you can’t phone it in; you have to give it your all. After a number of years of that, when I came back to Testament, I think they were shocked because my performance skills and confidence were so much higher.”

While Savatage remains on indefinite hiatus today, some of the songs Skolnick recorded with the band live on with TSO, which continues to incorporate Savatage material into its repertoire. The title track from Handful of Rain was performed during the group’s tours in 2012, 2014 and 2019, and Chance has been played live dozens of times as well.

Although Skolnick never had the opportunity to perform either song with TSO, he says he was “psyched” when the group started playing them. “It was great to see those songs done live, and they did them really well,” he says. “Al’s a fantastic player, and I liked how he approached them. I got to hear somebody approach my stuff!”

Born in Berkeley California in 1968, Alex Skolnick was a key player in the Bay Area thrash metal scene alongside bands like Exodus and Metallica. Alex originally joined a band named Legacy, but they soon after changed the name to Testament, reserving The Legacy as their 1984 debut album title.

Alex’s lead guitar playing style was always seen as more cerebral than his thrash contemporaries. His note choices, use of scales and arpeggios, harmonics and classy vibrato was a perfect recipe for his metal guitar legend status.

Our first example looks at how Alex might navigate the neck using legato. The concept here is to take one octave of a seven-note scale and play it across two strings. Play four notes on the lower string and three on the higher one.

For the four-note fragment, use your first finger to shift between the first two notes, then use the remaining digits to hammer-on within the scale position before moving up a string for the three-note fragment.

This is a repeatable shape, so once you can play the notes in this octave, you can transfer them across the strings. This allows the hand to ascend the fretboard smoothly and quickly. Keep your fingers relaxed and as close to the strings as possible, in order to build up speed and maintain control.

Examples 2 and 3 deal with alternate picking, a technique at which Alex is extremely adept. Alternate picking in metal often requires a lighter touch than you’d expect from such an aggressive form. For clean articulation and good string-to-string motion, use just the tip of the guitar pick to glide across one string to the next.

Angle the pick so the edge strikes the string rather than the flat part for a more crisp attack, but always experiment with the exact pick angle until you are happy with the tone you are creating.

For a controlled picking motion hold the pick with your thumb and first finger and move your hand from the wrist in small rotational motions; this allows the pick to progress in an arc so its tip can traverse the strings cleanly.

Alex makes great use of all the various harmonics types, including natural, pinched, and tapped harmonics. Example 1 features a cool cluster of natural harmonics which are played with a light touch of the fretting-hand fingers over the fretwire. As soon as you pick the string, lift off your fretting finger from the node point to produce the harmonic.

Examples 2 and 5 finish with pinched harmonics which are fretted as normal, but this time the side of your picking thumb momentarily touches the string as part of the downstroke motion. The resulting harmonic pitch will vary depending on the exact point of the string you are picking, but the sometimes random nature of this is what makes it so appealing.

Example 4 features a tapped harmonic, in which your picking hand’s tapping finger quickly strikes the string against the fretwire exactly 12 frets higher than the fretted note. Play each example slowly, focusing on accuracy, timing and economy of motion before gradually increasing the tempo until you can comfortably play up to speed.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 3, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 1

Alex uses his ESP signature guitar with Seymour Duncan JB and 59 humbucking pickups. The classic Testament tone is a boosted Marshall. A boost pedal such as a Tube Screamer tightens the low end for more focused riffing, plus it provide extra saturation and sustain for lead playing. You could also add a stereo delay pedal to help the notes blend together.

Example 1

Start this F# Aeolian lick (F#-G#-A-B-C#-D-E) with some first-finger vibrato, then shift up to the 4th-fret legato passage.

Repeat this opening phrase in octaves on each pair of strings, then finish with ringing natural harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets respectively, adding some subtle vibrato with your whammy bar.

Example 2

This lick is based in A Phrygian mode (A-Bb-C-D-E-F-G) and begins with an alternate-picked sequence of four through the scale, phrased using a triplet feel.

For bar 2, use legato to ascend the strings before finishing with a sweep-picked A minor arpeggio. Play the final note as a pinched harmonic.

Example 3

Use pull-offs and alternate picking to play this C harmonic minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B) based lick. Bring the lick to life by palm muting the picked notes and lifting the palm mute off for the pull-off, in order to give those notes more emphasis.

Example 4

This lick is in A Dorian with an added b5 note to give it a bluesy flavour (A-B-C-D-Eb-E-F#-G). Repeat each six-note pattern slowly in isolation before linking them together for the full lick.

Finish by using your picking-hand’s tapping finger to touch the string over the 17th fret to produce the harmonic.

Example 5

This lick makes use of F# diminished scale (F#-G#-A-B-C-D-Eb-E#). The first bar is based in the diminished arpeggio shape with minor 3rd spacings between the notes. Starting in bar 2, we have a series of descending whole-tone pull-offs followed by a final pinched harmonic.

What was your first guitar? 

“It was a classical guitar that I got very cheap at a garage sale. It was very difficult and challenging to play. I was about 10 when I got it, and it lasted about two years. Then I got an electric guitar that looked like an imitation of a Teisco Del Rey, and which was so thin, you could probably break it with one hand!”

What was the first song you learned to play on the guitar?

“The first full song I learned was Act Naturally by the Beatles, as sung by Ringo Starr, which is almost a country song. Before that, the first thing I learned on a guitar was the riff to Day Tripper, also by the Beatles. I learned how to play the notes by figuring out how to play it down by the bridge of the guitar, which gave it that surf quality.

“That was one of the first experiences that gave me the confidence to think that playing guitar was something I could do and potentially be good at. But at the time, I still didn’t know the chords to Day Tripper.”

What was your first gig?

“I did my first gig with a band I still play with today, Testament, though the band was called Legacy back then. They already had a show booked at a venue that’s become pretty legendary – Ruthie’s Inn in Berkeley.

“At the time, though, we thought it was a place nobody was going to remember in 10 or 20 years, yet it went on to become a storied venue. The show was already on the calendar and the original guitar player had left the group, so there was a lot of pressure on me. But it was a very good incentive to improve my playing skills very quickly.”

Ever had an embarrassing moment on stage?

“There was one time in the late ’80s, during one of the first tours with Testament. We were doing an open solo segment where I’d play for a few minutes by myself. One night as I was playing, there was suddenly no sound!

“Usually when that happens, the first thing you do is check the cable and the amp, but everything was working. Eventually, we found the problem; the pickup had shorted out.

“Here I was there on stage all on my own, not knowing what to do. And this was a heavy metal concert, so the crowd was getting antsy and starting to chant and boo. The band came back on, we switched guitars and moved on – but at the time it was really, really embarrassing.”

 What’s your current favorite piece of gear?

“My 1976 Gibson L-5. I don’t gig with it because it’s one-of-a-kind and has a lot of sentimental value. But I’ve written a lot of songs on that guitar, songs I never expected I’d write. I normally think of it as something to play and to practice jazz on.

“The guitar is from a time where the quality was really strong, so you can just play it as is; it has a great tone too. It’s been with me through thick and thin, through several years of my life and through different musical projects.”

The building is burning down. What single guitar from your collection would you save?

“It would be that L-5. It’s interesting because I’m better known for solidbody electrics, but you know what? Those feel more replaceable somehow, while that guitar feels very irreplaceable.

“There’s also another guitar I got about a year ago, a 1935 Gibson L-00 parlor guitar. It’s just amazing. I almost always come up with a song idea on that guitar. Having said that, I’d probably grab both guitars – one in the case, and one in my hand.”

When was the last time you practiced? 

“Last night, to prepare for all the shows I’ll be doing this year, focusing particularly for a show of instrumental music I’ll be doing with Stu Hamm and Chad Wackerman. It is clearly the most challenging show this year, so I was going over a song called Katahdin, which was originally on a recording with Stu, Steve Smith and Frank Gambale [The Light Beyond, 2000].”

What aspect of the guitar would you like to be better at?

“One thing I’m working on a lot lately is playing unaccompanied. In the whole first period of my professional experience, I was playing with a band, and I got used to the idea that there was always going to be a drummer.

”Then, as I got more interested in improvisation, I discovered more players who had a strong enough sense of rhythm and harmony to play unaccompanied while still [keeping] the music listenable. It’s taken a while, but it’s something I work on often, and there’s been a noticeable improvement.”

What guitar-centric advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance?

“Don’t stress, don’t try to keep up with anybody else, and don’t try to sound too much like anybody else. It’s a lesson you can’t learn early enough.”

“I play many styles, so I need a 'board that serves many purposes. My current board has plenty of tone options, flexibility and the potential to add on without losing quality. It’s nothing crazy – primarily standard effects – but I have some weird, oddball sounds if needed. 

“This ’board has come through for me during countless gigs and sessions for hire. It could be tidier, but it’s been through some changes of late, so I guess you could say – as is always the case – it’s a work in progress.

“Starting with my off-board effects at the front, I’ve got my TC Electronic Polytune 3 Noir and my JAM Pedals Wahcko [wah pedal].

“Once we get to my on-board stuff, I’ve got a [JAM Pedals] TubeDreamer 88 [overdrive pedal], which goes into my J. Rockett [Audio Designs] Blue Note Overdrive. That leads into this unnamed custom boost pedal by Moollon. From there, I’ve got an MXR Phase 95 Mini, and an EHX [Analog Guitar] MicroSynth.”

“The MicroSynth goes into my JAM Pedals Waterfall Chorus, and after that, I’ve got my Crazy Tube Circuits Splash Reverb. The last two onboard pedals are my TC Electronic Flashback Delay and a technically out-of-line Seymour Duncan Andromeda Dynamic Digital Delay. Then we go offboard again with my EHX POG and my Jim Dunlop volume pedal.”

If I had to choose one pedal for an entire show...

“It would probably be the MXR Phase 95. This is a strange choice since I don’t always keep it on, and phaser stuff is far from essential. But it’s inspiring, and with a decent amp, I could get ’70s-sounding vibes like Tommy Bolin and Eddie Van Halen.”

• Testament's landmark debut and sophomore albums, The Legacy and The New Order are out now on special edition splatter vinyl via Nuclear Blast.

When Guitar World is offered an exclusive interview with virtual band The Shredderz – a group who say they exist in The Shredderverse as ‘a Web3 native, community-driven entity with dynamic NFTs’ – we’re presented with some, shall we say, rather interesting facts.

For starters, their founding guitarist and de-facto leader Weezel insists he’s the lovechild of Metallica frontman James Hetfield. According to his representatives, he’s a heavy metal delinquent who has spent the majority of his life couch-surfing, learning the riffs of every Bay Area thrash band while chain-smoking blunts and bumming beer money from anyone unlucky enough to cross his path.

As well as essentially being a cartoon character, we’re also reliably informed he stopped maturing mentally at the age of 15, so you could say today’s interviewee will be a little different to the others you’ll find on this site.

And while this all sounds a bit tongue-in-cheek, there’s nothing at all whimsical about the heavy metal tornado that blasts out of our speakers after firing up a digital link to the band’s self-titled debut album, its 11 tracks containing an onslaught of furious alternate picking and sweep arpeggios over razor-sharp riffing and pounding drums. 

The list of guest collaborators is also quite remarkable, too – with Testament veteran Alex Skolnick, Dokken hero George Lynch, Revocation’s Dave Davidson, The Black Dahlia Murder’s Brandon Ellis and both Jéssica Di Falchi and Tainá Bergamaschi from Brazilian death metal band Crypta lending their formidable fret-burning talents. So who exactly are The Shredderz, and what are they here to achieve?

“Our goal is to put out the straightforward, hard-shredding ’80s style heavy metal that we all grew up with, and throw our modern influences into the mix,” Weezel tells GW. “We love great hooks, big dynamics and, of course, blazing solos. The first incarnation was a band called Leather Sword. It featured myself, Vincent Barlow on guitar and Donny Deckman on drums. We did that for a few years before the three of us left and started The Shredderz.

“Before that, I’d only messed around in a couple of garage bands that really never made it to the point where we had a name. But I’ve always been a huge fan of the great metal guitar duos like Tipton/Downing from Judas Priest or Shremann/Denner from Mercyful Fate, so that’s kinda where we’re coming from musically. As it turns out, many of the guests on the record are actually players I grew up listening to…

“Though after working with some of the younger players on this record, I have to say, I was really blown away. Jéssica Di Falchi and Tainá Bergamaschi from Crypta really killed it on their tracks, while Brandon Ellis and Dave Davidson are just incredible shredders.”

When did you realize this was going to be a new project and how were you going to make it different?

“For the last year or so of Leather Sword, most of us in the band felt it was time for a big change. We were very unhappy with the direction that our singer wanted to take the band and we felt that he was holding the songs back.

“So when we were able to find a new singer with more dynamics and attitude, it was obvious that we had to move on from the old name. And with the addition of a new bass player, we knew that The Shredderz was something that had to happen.” 

How exactly do all the different characters within the band fit together?

“Well, the way we look at ourselves as a band is pretty simple. We’re just five guys that love playing heavy metal. But individually, we all bring our own flavor and style to what we are doing. Vincent, our other guitarist, is more of a classical guitar-influenced player.

“So he brings that to the table with his writing and solo work. Donny, our drummer, was raised on some of the greats – Mickey Dee, Nicko McBrain and John Bonham. So, although he loves to get technical, he’s still ‘metal and potatoes’ and hits his drums like they owe him money or something [laughs]. Our newest member, Nigel Barrymore on bass, actually grew up on ’70s/’80s punk. At first we weren’t sure if that was going to jive with our sound, but he brings an extra rock flair to what we are doing. Sometimes he seems like John Entwistle on speed!

“And, as for myself, I grew up with a steady diet of mostly Bay Area thrash and branched out from there. Visually, we all bring our own personalities to the mix. I’ve been wearing the same jean vest since I was 15. We leave most of the aesthetics to our singer, Raz… we don’t have a band stylist just yet.”  

Some of the alternate picking runs on the album are ambitious, to say the least. What kind of exercises helped you get up to those speeds?

“There is no secret. I think the key is to learning songs that will better your speed. For me, I learned Paul Gilbert songs to help improve my skills, stuff like Technical Difficulties by Racer X. Playing scales up and down is dumb… this isn’t a fucking recital! It’s all about context.

“The more time you spend jamming, the better you will be. I always dug deep and learned as much as I could. I don’t play video games; I play fucking guitar in a band. That’s what I do.”

And how about those ultra-fluid sweep arpeggios… can you detail your journey from a technical standpoint?

“I’d say the best way to learn that stuff is start with two-string triads, then introduce a third string and so on. Your muting technique is super-important when it comes to sweep picking. You have to use both hands to help mute other strings while you sweep the strings that are intended to be played. 

“Oh, and don’t use a stupid string dampener. This is rock and roll [laughs]! Play loud and learn how to control your sound with less gain, and then you will have no issues getting your notes to sound clean enough.”

The tones on the album are as uncompromising in their monstrosity. Let’s get specific – what are we hearing?

“We used an early 1992 Peavey 5150 and a Marshall Jubilee. For pedals I use a JHS distortion, Ibanez Tube Screamer, a TC Electronic Sentry noise gate and a Dunlop wah. It’s a simple setup. 

“I was using a Line 6 HX Stomp pedal for a while to try out new technology. I used it for leads on the album, but the fucker died mid-set at a big festival. What a piece of shit [laughs]! It sounded good, though…

“But at least with a tube amp, I know how to fix it. All of this computer shit goes over my head. As for guitars, I use all kinds of Flying Vs with DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups.”

So what would you say is the ultimate thrash metal tone and who do you think set the benchmark?

“For me, it’s hands down Metallica on Kill 'Em All. That’s the ideal metal tone. They had the fuckin’ mids growling, it was all loud as fuck and huge-sounding. I know thrash tone eventually turned in to this solid-state scooped mids thing, which is cool too, but ideally I like a 100-watt Marshall blasting my fucking face off on 10.

“I want my shit loud as fuck and I want it to cut through. I’m in a band with another guitar player so I need to be heard. My Marshalls are EQ’d perfectly for tunings like E and Eb.”

You have some rather esteemed guests joining you on this album. Alex Skolnick and George Lynch, for example, are terrifically talented lead players. What did they bring to these songs?

“All of those dudes not only shred but they write great songs. And furthermore they know how to shred to the song. That’s why Alex Skolnick is the ultimate shredder! I definitely wanted him to do the main solo section in the middle of Shredderz because I felt he fit the best for that one. 

“George Lynch also writes fucking killer songs. He took blues guitar in a shred direction – he’s so fucking raw, I love it. He doesn’t give a fuck about making sure notes are 100 percent on the grid but he’s always super-articulate, and his feel is off the charts. What a monster! 

“He’s always had this true rock and roll attitude. Iron Storm is kind of a burner but I felt like his style took it into another dimension. Another player would have made it too power metal-sounding. George gives it mass feel.”

Then there’s Gary Holt, Brandon Ellis and Dave Davidson... you’re clearly in good company here!

“Anyone who jammed with [legendary Exodus singer] Paul Baloff knows everything thing they need to know about thrash. There can be no doubt over this – Gary Holt is one of the ultimate godfathers of thrash guitar. 

“What I like about Brandon Ellis is that he’s fast as fuck but has the feel of every ’80s guitarist. He is like John Sykes on speed [laughs]! I’d like to hear more from him on future Shredderz albums. And I’ve had my eye on Dave Davidson for a while. I appreciate lead guitarists who are also lead singers.”

Finally, what would you say is the hardest riff or solo you played on the album and why?

“The playing is not the issue; it’s getting the songs right and getting the solos to work well with the songs. We took a lot of time recording versions of the songs and getting the demos right. Thunderpack started out sounding undesirable but once we reworked the lyrics and vocals, it became way better!

“This album wasn’t difficult to make because we are very well-versed in this sound. But I suppose the most technical solo for me would be at the beginning of Shredderz. But once I demoed it and learned it in pre-production, I knocked it out in one take in the studio… I didn’t fucking punch shit in [laughs]!”

• The Shredderz is out now.

Alex Skolnick has revealed that his former guitar teacher, Joe Satriani, once warned him off trying to sound too much like Yngwie Malmsteen.

The Testament guitarist famously studied under Satch when the latter was a (somewhat revered) teacher at Berklee in the early-’80s. 

Now, in a new interview with our pals at Guitar Player, Skolnick says the principles the electric guitar master taught him were not solely limited to technique. 

“I remember when I was taking lessons from Joe Satriani,” Skolnick begins.

“At the time, everybody was going crazy about Yngwie Malmsteen, and I liked what he was doing, too. Joe kind of told me, ‘That’s fine, but don’t get too into him. Don’t try to sound like him, because in a few years there will be somebody else who’s the hot guy.’”

As Skolnick relates, Satriani’s wise words were not intended as a slight on Malmsteen. Indeed, Satch has nothing against Malmsteen – as proved when the two virtuosos joined forces on the 2003 G3 tour. 

Instead, his intention was to point out a more general truism of guitar playing – that you can only do you. That said, the advice proved more pertinent than even Satriani expected.

“It’s funny,” notes Skolnick. “Because a few years later Joe was the guy everybody was talking about. People were learning everything on Surfing With the Alien, but I tried to keep my distance, because I remembered what Joe had told me.

“It was kind of funny, really. Joe was a great teacher and a huge influence on me, but I knew I shouldn’t try to sound like him. He was doing his thing, but it wasn’t supposed to be my thing.”

Head to Guitar Player to read Skolnick’s full interview, where he shares his top five tips for guitarists.

In the meantime, if you’re in the mood for some jaw-dropping fretboard theatrics from Skolnick’s old tutor, then good news! Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson are reuniting for a G3 reunion tour next year.

Seymour Duncan made a big splash at the 2023 NAMM show in April with the unveiling of its impressive HyperSwitch – an app-controlled selector switch that lets you create custom pickup wiring configurations via Bluetooth. 

You'd forgive the California firm for resting on its laurels for a while after that, but today, it's kicked off its summer in style with the unveiling of not one, not two, not three, but four new electric guitar pickup sets. 

The new batch is comprised of two signature p'ups – a bridge humbucker for hair metal electric guitar hero Warren DeMartini and a set for thrash (and jazz) guitar titan Alex Skolnick – one new humbucker, and an Eddie Van Halen-inspired single-coil set.

We'll take you through each below.

Warren DeMartini RTM

First up is a signature bridge humbucker for Warren DeMartini, who's most famous for his electrifying guitar work with Ratt.

As you might expect, the 'bucker is of the high-output variety, with an Alnico 2 magnet, and is designed produce "aggressive and balanced tones."

Also available with Gold or Nickel covers – and in Zebra, White, or Reverse-Zebra finishes – the Seymour Duncan Warren DeMartini RTM humbucker retails for $139.

Alex Skolnick Signature Humbuckers

Designed in tandem with Skolnick, this set aims to capture both ends of the eclectic guitarist's tone.

The bridge 'bucker is wound hot, and aims to highlight more midrange frequencies. The vintage-voiced neck 'bucker, in turn, looks to counterbalance the punch of its counterpart at the bridge.

Available to purchase individually as a bridge, neck or trembucker – or as a full set – the Skolnick signature humbucker can be bought with Gold or Nickel covers, or in Black, Zebra, White, or Reverse-Zebra finishes, when bought individually. When purchased as a set, the options are Black or Zebra finishes, with a Nickel cover. 

Individually, the Skolnick signature humbuckers ring up at $139, with a full set going for $278.

Little '78

Though not an Eddie Van Halen signature product, per se, the Little '78 single-coil pickup was certainly inspired by the guitar legend.

In 1978, Seymour Duncan says, EVH gave the firm a P.A.F. pickup to experiment with, along with instructions to rewind it for some extra “juice” and enhanced artificial harmonics.

With a magnet and output combination that's said to lend itself well to "biting leads and overtone-laden tapped runs" (we're wondering whose guitar style they could possibly be talking about...), the Little '78 single-coil pickup can be purchased individually as a neck/middle or bridge pickup for $129, or as a full set for $387.

Both individual Little '78s, and the full set, can be bought with Black, Cream, Parchment, or White covers.

Exciter

Last on the list is the glam-minded Exciter humbucker, which boasts a high-output ceramic magnet designed to help the pickup deliver "powerful dimensions, bold harmonics, and firepower," with a more transparent tone with the volume rolled back.

Available as a bridge or trembucker, the Exciter also comes in Gold or Nickel covers – and in Black, Zebra, White, or Reverse-Zebra finishes – and sells for $139.

For more info on all four new pickups, visit Seymour Duncan.

Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick has compared Phil Demmel to Harvey Keitel’s iconic Pulp Fiction fixer, Winston Wolf – describing him as “the guy you call when you’re in a pinch.”

Skolnick recently informed fans that due to a family emergency he would be forced to sit out Testament’s forthcoming European tour dates. While Skolnick goes to pains to point out the support he’s had from his bandmates and their wider touring operation, he says he’s keen the shows still go ahead.

Fortunately, says Skolnick, “there’s a protocol for this” and the band immediately turned to metal’s go-to guitarist, Demmel. As Skolnick points out, the former Machine Head man now has one of the most enviable resumes in heavy music. 

“If bands are families, he is our ‘Cousin Phil’,” says Skolnick on social media. “We have shared stages at NAMM and the with Metal Allegiance and he and Chuck [Billy, Testament vocalist] go back to their early youth. 

“In recent years, Phil has become like Winston Wolf (from Pulp Fiction),the guy you call in a pinch, whether you're Slayer, Lamb Of God (for guitar or bass), Overkill and even vocals in Journey – OK, that's not true (but there is a funny meme about that).”

The guitarist also notes that Testament’s rhythm man Eric Peterson will be taking on some of his sections, too. 

“Having played with both, I just know these guys will sound fantastic together,” says Skolnick. “Like a thrash ’Maiden. Will it sound like me? No and it shouldn't… Think of these shows as unique, one-of-kind and worth going out of the way for. I'm looking forward to watching clips online.”

For his part Demmel, still has some dates with his own band – the reinvigorated Vio-lence, who are playing dates in support of 2022 EP Let The World Burn, but says he intends to honor both commitments, including the imminent Milwaukee MetalFest this weekend (May 26-28).

“I WILL be playing the @mkemetalfest Preparty AND the @vio_lence_band set on Friday night,” wrote Demmel on social media. 

“Then straight from the stage to Chicago to make a flight that will get me into Germany in time for the Rock Hard Festival. We [are] all with Alex and [send] his family the best. I’ve done my homework, see some of you soon.”

Keep an eye on Alex Skonick’s Instagram for further updates.

Joe Satriani has announced the lineup for the star-studded 2023 G4 V6.0 Experience, which will take place early next year at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.

Satch has enlisted a wealth of electric guitar A-listers, encompassing a huge range of heritage names and more contemporary players.

Chief among them are Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather and Steve Morse, who will be on hand to offer instruction, share their knowledge with attendees, and provide intimate advice in a series of classes and workshops.

Joining them will be players of all styles, including Alex Skolnick, Eric Gales, John 5, Mateus Asato, Cory Wong and Nili Brosh, all of whom will partake in a variety of clinics, jams and intimate breakout sessions.

Satch will also be hosting nightly live performances with his longtime backing band – comprising drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist/vocalist Rai Thistlethwayte – for which he will be joined by his guests.

The four-day event takes place on January 3-7 2023, and will see guest tutors address a range of topics, from songwriting and soloing to gigging, gear and more.

Of the G4’s inception, Satch said, “When I first put together the G3 concerts, it was to create a camaraderie that is often missing in the general day-to-day competition of the music industry.

“From there we came up with the concept of the G4 Experience,” he added. “I didn’t want to do a traditional clinic, just getting up in front of people and giving impersonal lessons to a room full of people – I thought, what can we do that will truly reflect my values as a teacher? 

“With the G4 Experience, we create an interactive community where I’m joined by these other stars that have been making amazing music and pushing the art form of guitar forward for decades. From all stylistic approaches and musical walks of life.”

He continued, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map. They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently.”

According to the website, all backline gear is provided, meaning attendees just need to bring their guitars. They will also have access to accommodation, food, and meet and greet sessions with their guitar heroes.

“The G4 Experience is all about the community,” Satriani went on to say. “I can’t state that enough. Everyone is not only there to enjoy the music, they’re trying to learn everything they can. 

“There’s a lot of information stored up in this head that I want to give to the fans and I’m very much looking forward to sharing it with everyone who attends.”

To find out more, head over to G4 Experience.

When Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick discovered his band were operating right next door to Toto while preparing for their recent set at Germany’s RockHarz festival, he wasted no time in heading over to have a glance at Steve Lukather’s current guitar rig.

Toto’s crew were prepping gear for the commencement of the European leg of the band’s Dogz of Oz tour, and while Luke himself wasn’t present, his guitar tech Jon Gosnell was on hand to show Skolnick around.

“I had a fun time being shown around the rig of the great Steve Lukather,” Skolnick says in a new Instagram post, in which he can be seen playing the Toto guitarist’s Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar, the Luke III.

The rig is completed by a pair of Bogner Helios guitar amps, mic’d using a pair of Shure SM57 dynamic microphones, and a fully-stocked pedalboard housing an MXR Phase 95, TC Electronic Flashback delay and a Jam Pedals Wahcko wah pedal – all also featured on Skolnick’s current rig – among other Lukather staples such as a Strymon Lex rotary speaker sim, a TC Electronic SCF Gold, and a Tim Jauernig Bombastortion.

Lukather also stocks a Strymon BlueSky reverb pedal, an MXR Smart Gate, an MXR Uni-Vibe, a pair of DigiTech Hardwire delay/loopers, a Boss FV-500L volume pedal, his signature Rodenberg Gas 789 overdrive pedal, and the Gurus Echosex, which typically Lukather likes to leave on all the time. 

And no 'board would be complete without a guitar tuner. Here, Lukather uses a DigiTech HT-6 polychromatic tuner.

Skolnick mentions that playing Lukather’s rig marked the first time he played Bogner amps, adding that he “approves” of them.

The Testament guitarist includes two videos of him playing the rig: one in which he plays the solo for Toto’s Hold the Line – which he also played in an episode of metal-themed YouTube chat show Two Minutes to Late Night in August last year – and another of him jamming Jeff Beck’s The Pump.

“Luke’s super-responsive tone brought to mind a fine tune by Jeff Beck, from 1980 (a time long before his name was all over the tabloids due to a certain celebrity buddy’s divorce trial and the timing of their recent tour),” Skolnick writes.

“The first time I’d heard it, it was covered live and completely nailed by Stef Burns, shortly before his (1991 – 1995) Alice Cooper stint.”

Skolnick concludes the post: “Thanks to Luke (from afar) and especially tech wizard and fellow guitarist Jon Gosnell for showing me around. [I] had a blast!”

In other Skolnick news, the Testament guitarist joined Steve Stevens, Richard Fortus and others back in April to perform Yes’s Starship Trooper in an epic all-star ensemble for Roadie Relief.

A 17-musician ensemble comprising guitarists Steve Stevens, Alex Skolnick, Richard Fortus and more has performed an epic cover of Yes’s prog-rock masterpiece Starship Trooper in its entirety to support Roadie Relief.

A classic of the quarantine jam genre, conducted across Zoom, this performance of Starship Trooper was brought to us by Mick Squires of Duff McKagan’s Loaded, who adroitly edited the performance into one coherent video, broadcast on his YouTube channel Couch Riffs. 

The performance is delivered in four acts, as opposed to the original’s three, each with its own cast of musical talent. Part one sees Jeff Pilson of Dokken, Dio and Foreigner fame on bass, Greg Gilmore of Mother Love Bone on drums, with Kurt Bloch of Fastbacks on guitar, Crobot’s Brandon Yeagley on vocals, and Ty Bailie of Ego Band USA / Katy Perry on keys.

We then transition to a duet between Steve Stevens on acoustic guitar and Amanda Hardy (aka Bexley) on vocals. Part three brings Skolnick aboard with Kirk Douglas on vocals – no sign of his signature guitar, that particularly handsome Gibson SG. Douglas and Skolnick are joined by Janet Weiss of Quasi (formerly Sleater-Kinney) on drums, Mos Generator’s Tony Reed on bass guitar, and the Per Wiberg (ex-Opeth) on keys.

Finally, Squires picks up the guitar himself to finish the jam alongside Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel, the Who’s keys player Loren Gold, with Don Gunn pulling double shifts on drums and having the unenviable task of producing and mixing the song.

But it all came together. And now it has, it’s the public’s turn to get involved and support the road crew and touring support staff who fell into hard times during the pandemic, with Squires encouraging donations to Roadie Relief. 

Furthermore, get in touch with him through Couch Riffs and you can donate your way onto the video, subbing in for any of the musicians onscreen. You’ll get a copy of the video and a .wav file. Working knowledge of Starship Trooper is advisable. And it ain’t easy. Written by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe and Chris Squire, Starship Trooper was released in 1971 on The Yes Album and has remained one of the English prog institution’s signature tunes. 

But you have come to the right place. Steve Howe was good enough to record a video lesson for Guitar World, which you can check out below.

One of the most prolific shredders and fusion virtuosos around, Alex Skolnick has showcased a mastery of multiple genres, from heavy metal to jazz, with the likes of Testament, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Metal Allegiance and The Alex Skolnick Trio.

For his latest outing, however, Skolnick has ventured into new territory, reuniting with his trusted trio – bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski – for his first-ever fully fledged blues track, Florida Man Blues.

It’s a stark contrast to anything we’ve heard the electric guitar titan deliver to date. Unlike his previous efforts this year – such as his mind-bending collab with Lost Symphony, Marty Friedman and Nuno Bettencourt – Skolnick ditches gargantuan gains for crystal cleans in a demonstration of his versatile chops.

It’s a first for Skolnick in the vocal department as well, who pairs his new-found penchant for out-and-out blues with a taste for the lead singer role.

Wielding a number of blues guitars in the accompanying music video – peep that pink Squier Stratocaster – Skolnick treats listeners to an extended opening bout of improvisation, with single-coil snaps and flurrying pentatonic frills.

Paying homage to the energetic soloing of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Florida Man Blues offers just the right amount of laid-back nonchalant noodling and a thirst-quenching quantity of decorative licks, which precede an irresistible gain-tinged fretboard exploration.

As the track progresses, so too does Skolnick’s playing, which is later treated to a touch more gain and a healthy dose of wah.

Accompanying the track is a music video directed by Adam Dubin, whose credits include the video for Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, which recently topped one billion views on YouTube.

“The blues has always been a big component of my playing, across genres,” reflected Skolnick. “In high school, B.B. King was on my turntable as much as Van Halen. And I’ve always loved the lyrical humor of folks like Junior Brown, Frank Zappa and early Tom Waits. 

“Florida Man Blues presented an opportunity to fully display these influences for the first time on a recording.”

Of the track, which was originally penned back in 2019, the axe slinger added, “It gives me great pleasure to finally release this video. In the two years since we tracked this tune, so much has happened."

In contrast to the social commentaries Skolnick has shared throughout the past two years, Florida Man Blues casts such issues aside and instead adopts one goal: to provide a song that is “non-partisanly entertaining”.

“We can all use a good dose of solid blues and good humor during these times. I’m grateful to everyone involved, from tracking to filming, especially Adam Dubin, who believed in this song and felt it deserved a video as big as, well… Florida.”

Lost Symphony have released the music video for Acceptance, taken from the classical metal outfit's latest album, Chapter III.

The track – or more accurately, soaring electric guitar concerto – features a star-studded guest lineup of Angel Vivaldi, Testament's Alex Skolnick and Cradle of Filth's Richard Shaw, with each offering up a bountiful supply of fretboard fireworks in their respective styles. 

Learning towards his jazzier chops as opposed to his high-gain style with Testament, Skolnick opts for a cleaner, more intricate series of licks for Acceptance. Shaw dazzles with a series of tastefully arranged, yet equally jaw-dropping sweeps, while Vivaldi's section is a masterclass in feel, as he uses the whammy bar on his signature DK24-7 NOVA to add further flavor to an already uplifting set of licks. Check out the video below.

“I was instantly moved when I first heard this song,” explains Vivaldi. “The solo came out almost instantly and with much ease thanks to the uplifting, melodic nature of the arrangement. It's a stunning piece of music and I'm quite grateful to have been able to contribute to it!”

Adds Skolnick: “After becoming familiar with the Lost Symphony gang and working on Take Another Piece [another track on Chapter III], I was more than happy to jump in for an additional guest spot on Acceptance.

“This tune has a flavor that is different from the first one and it was nice to get the chance to bring in some other elements. It's been great to see the response to Take Another Piece and I'm sure all those listeners will appreciate this one as well.”

“It was truly an honor to be asked to perform on Acceptance,” says Shaw. “Having worked with Lost Symphony on a couple of other songs, I chomped at the bit to work with them again; especially when I was told the other players would be Alex and Angel, both of whom I've admired for a long time.

“When I was sent the track, I loved that it had a different feel to the other songs I had contributed solos to. Acceptance was a little more Andrew Lloyd Webber, and allowed for more grand melodic statements alongside the shred that Lost Symphony are known for.

“It's hard not to smile when I listen back. It's a great composition and I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of it.”

Chapter III – which arrived July 9 via XOFF Records – plays host to an impressive guestlist, including Marty Friedman, Jeff Loomis, Nuno Bettencourt, Jimi Bell and more. It also features some of the final recordings of late All That Remains guitarist Oli Herbert, who passed away back in 2018.

Lost Symphony was founded by brothers Benny and Brian Goodman, and also features bassist/guitarist Cory Paza, guitarist Kelly Kereliuk, drummer Paul Lorenco and violinist Siobhán Cronin.

Check out the tracklisting for Chapter III below.

1. Denial of Anger (feat. Marty Friedman, David Ellefson, Jimi Bell and Matt LaPierre)
2. Bargaining Depression (feat. Marty Friedman, David Ellefson, Joey Concepcion and Jimi Bell)
3. Acceptance (feat. Alex Skolnick, Angel Vivaldi and Richard Shaw)
4. Decomposing Composers (feat. Jeff Loomis, Jimi Bell, Matt LaPierre and Joey Concepcion)
5. Take Another Piece (feat. Marty Friedman, Nuno Bettencourt, Alex Skolnick and Richard Shaw)
6. My Last Goodbye (feat. Oli Herbert, Matt LaPierre and Ryan Formato)

Classical metal ensemble Lost Symphony have unleashed an impressively star-studded and virtuosic new single, Take Another Piece.

Featuring a “quadruple guitar attack” from Marty Friedman, Nuno Bettencourt, Alex Skolnick and Cradle of Filth's Richard Shaw, the track bears no shortage of gravity-defying shred, with winding wah-soaked leads and searing alternate picking runs permeating its near-eight-minute runtime. Listen to the track below:

Take Another Piece is the first single from the group's forthcoming third studio album, Chapter III, which arrives July 9.

In addition to Friedman, Bettencourt, Skolnick and Shaw, the record will feature Angel Vivaldi – who recently unveiled his new Charvel signature model, the Pro-Mod DK24-6 NOVA – as well as Jimi Bell, Joey Concepcion and Ryan Formato, to name a few.

The release will also feature posthumous contributions from former All That Remains guitarist Oli Herbert, who passed away in October 2018.

“When I first heard Lost Symphony, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” says Skolnick. “I knew there’d be strong technical skills but was pleasantly surprised to hear how much else was going on: melodic development, dynamics, compositional creativity and other elements not always present in music with this high a level of chops. 

“The music may sound serious, but the players have a serious sense of humor, which adds to the overall quality.”

“The folks in the Lost Symphony project have a deep love for guitar,” adds Friedman. “Let me rephrase that: they are dangerously obsessed with it! Take Another Piece, may be my favorite of all the LS songs I've been a part of. There are some really unorthodox things going on.”

Lost Symphony was founded by brothers Benny and Brian Goodman – who assume production and arrangement roles, respectively – and features bassist/guitarist Cory Paza, guitarist Kelly Kereliuk, drummer Paul Lourenco and violinist Siobhán Cronin.

Chapter III is available now for pre-order. Check out its tracklisting below:

1. Denial of Anger (feat. Marty Friedman, David Ellefson, Jimi Bell and Matt LaPierre)
2. Bargaining Depression (feat. Marty Friedman, David Ellefson, Joey Concepcion and Jimi Bell)
3. Acceptance (feat. Alex Skolnick, Angel Vivaldi and Richard Shaw)
4. Decomposing Composers (feat. Jeff Loomis, Jimi Bell, Matt LaPierre and Joey Concepcion)
5. Take Another Piece (feat. Marty Friedman, Nuno Bettencourt, Alex Skolnick and Richard Shaw)
6. My Last Goodbye (feat. Oli Herbert, Matt LaPierre and Ryan Formato)

Over the past year we’ve seen some incredible virtual jams, both together and separate, from Testament/Metal Allegiance electric guitar master Alex Skolnick and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante.

Now, the two monster metal musicians are back with another jam sure to impress –and also surprise – fans, tackling the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers classic, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.

In addition to Skolnick on lead guitar and Benante on drums, the cover features Jennifer Cella (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on vocals, Randy McStine (McStine & Minnemann) on vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Menghi (Metal Allegiance & BPMD) on bass and Harry Waters (McNally Waters & Roger Waters) on keyboards.

As Menghi explains, “Here is our take on the Stevie Nicks classic (which also features Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (originally released by Stevie on her debut solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981).

“Alex, Charlie, Jen, Randy and myself had such a blast working on Rhiannon that we wanted to continue the momentum... I honestly don't remember how we settled on this tune, it kinda just happened where someone mentioned it and before we knew it, drum tracks were recorded. 

“However, this time around we added the amazing Harry Waters of McNally Waters on Keyboards (getting that B3 Hammond organ sound). Harry has also toured in his father's band, Roger Waters, for the last 15 years, for The Wall and the Dark Side of the Moon tours, and most recently Desert Trip alongside the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

“It was a lot of fun recording my bass for this tune... after a little research (and right before I hit the record button), I learned that the original Heartbreakers bassist did NOT record on the original recording, in his place (for this one tune only) was the legendary Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn. 

"I'm a huge fan of Booker T & The M.G.'s, all of Duck's recorded work with the Stax label and of course his stint as the bassist in the Blues Brothers. Not sure how I didn't know this, but sure glad I learned about it. All in all, another different avenue for me as a bassist and once again having some fun with some amazing friends and musicians.”

You can check out Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around above.

Tributes have been pouring in for Eddie Van Halen since the electric guitar great passed away on October 6 at age 65. But one artist who apparently has a different take on the legacy of EVH is David Crosby – and fans and peers aren’t happy.

On October 10, a fan tweeted at the Crosby, Stills & Nash singer and guitarist, writing, “I know you’re not into metal David, but what’s your opinion on Eddie Van Halen?”

To which Crosby replied simply, “Meh…”

This, not surprisingly, raised the ire of plenty of other Twitter-ites, among them Testament’s Alex Skolnick, L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider.

“I appreciate @thedavidcrosby too much for this to get in the way, but a much better answer would have been: 'I know he meant a lot to so many but his sound & style just weren't my thing,'" wrote Skolnick, who also pointed out that punk poetess Patti Smith, who hardly traveled in the same circles as Van Halen, posted an emotional tribute to the guitarist.

Wrote Guns: “Wrong answer as fuck and rude as fuck!!! There are better ways to say you don't care for someone's music. That was very disrespectful. And yes straight out fuck you and your smug answer."

Following the outpouring, Crosby took to Twitter to clarify his statement… and didn’t do himself any favors with his critics.

“Hendrix changed the world of guitar,” he wrote. “Nobody else really. Look I get it: many of you loved Van Halen… and the one time I met he was nice… and he was talented.”

“[M]eh to me means I don’t care that much… and I don’t. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t good, he was but not for me.”

Which, of course, led to even more reaction in the Twitter-sphere.

FU-Tone, home of the EVH D-Tuna, tweeted: "I never get involved in negative shit online. Today I will make an exception. Fuck off @thedavidcrosby."

And wrote guitarist Pete Thorn: “David, there were two electric guitar game changers. The first was Hendrix, the second was Eddie Van Halen.

“Just because you weren’t tuned into it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It totally fucking happened. For millions upon millions of us.”

Amen, Pete. Amen.

Dozens of guitar players and musicians took part in the Six String Salute virtual concert on September 17, a two-hour-plus event designed to raise money for Crew Nation, a global relief fund for live music crews.

The concert streamed live on Live Nation’s YouTube channel and Live From Home platform, with 100% of net proceeds benefitting Crew Nation.

Among the many artists appearing on the stream were Nita Strauss, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie from the Alice Cooper Band, who played a guitar trio version of Cooper’s The Black Widow; Steve Vai, who performed an acoustic guitar and vocal rendition of The Moon and I; Joe Satriani, who led a guitar giveaway; Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra, who played Deep Purple’s Stormbringer, and many more.

Additionally, Frank Hannon performed acoustic versions of Tesla’s Love Song and What You Give, Jesse Dayton offered a white-hot country-blues take on AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger played an unplugged The Silence and Testament’s Alex Skolnick whipped out a Gibson Custom L-5 archtop for a chord-melody arrangement of Billie Eilish’s When the Party’s Over.

“The party may be over right now in terms of live music,” Skolnick said, “but it will come back. We will resume and we will get back to work with our friends and road crews everywhere.”

You can watch the concert in full above, and to donate to Crew Nation or pick up official merch to help raise funds, head to Six String Salute.

2020 started off well enough, but it unraveled seemingly overnight – by early spring, we found ourselves crushed under the weight of unprecedented distress and uncertainty, trapped in a world fraught with as much disease as dis-ease.

By the time April came limping into view, there wasn't much anyone could put their faith into – that is, unless you are a fan of classic American thrash metal. When Testament unleashed its 13th studio album, Titans of Creation, on April 3rd, it gave Gen-X metalheads a reason to rejoice – a reason to celebrate during a time of great discomfort.

It also served as a bludgeoning reminder that Testament is still at the top of its game 33 years after the release of its debut album, Legacy. And that’s really what the metal community has come to expect from Testament through all these years – that the thrash veterans from Berkeley, California, will be there when they need it most, no matter what. 

Since first emerging from the Bay Area in the mid-'80s, Testament have been through an abundance of turmoil and disruption, including a dizzying number of lineup changes and singer Chuck Billy’s bout with cancer in 2001 – yet here in 2020, the band sounds better than ever.

“Our dark times were definitely dark,” says guitarist Eric Peterson, “but through ruin comes creation. Somehow we’ve always been able to keep it going.”

Titans of Creation is the sound of a band in peak form. Songs like the album opener “Children of the Next Level,” “Night of the Witch” and “Code of Hammurabi,” one of two tracks written by lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, showcase the immense talents of each member of Testament.

Peterson’s riffage is relentless and inspired, Skolnick’s soloing is majestic and soaring, Gene Hoglan’s drumming is everything you’d expect from the legendary skinsman, Billy’s vocals have a refreshingly classic quality and bassist Steve DiGiorgio takes advantage of a few moments in the spotlight to remind everyone why he has been considered one of the best in the business since his turn-of- the-Nineties days with Sadus, Autopsy and Death.

Skolnick attributes the high level of quality achieved on Titans of Creation to the fact that the band took its time putting the album’s pieces together. “The previous record [2016’s Brotherhood of the Snake] I feel was a very rushed process,” says the guitarist.

“With that record, it was like we were in the middle of touring, then all of a sudden there was a sense that we were really behind in terms of making a new record. Like all of a sudden, it was crunch time. This time, we talked about it while we were on tour and said, let’s not have that happen again – let’s at least discuss a rough game plan for the record. 

“We made sure that we had more time together to play and for all of us to make suggestions, because on the last record Eric became more of the decision-maker and there just wasn’t enough time for everyone else to weigh in.”

As Titans of Creation was making its way into the hands and hearts of clamoring, quarantined Testament fans all over the world, Guitar World caught up with Skolnick and Peterson to discuss the making of the record and look back at some of the pivotal moments in the group’s stormy yet successful 33-year history.

In the 33 years since Testament released its debut album, The Legacy, the band’s sound has undergone some fairly dramatic changes in tone and style, creating a distinct difference between, so to speak, old Testament and new Testament. When you look back at the group’s evolution, where would you say that shift began to take place?

ERIC PETERSON: “I would say it was after our fifth record, The Ritual [1992].  We did five records in five years, and I think by our fourth album, Souls of Black, there was some good stuff on there, but it wasn’t groundbreaking like the first three. And a lot of our fans were starting to turn their backs on us because music was changing, we were changing, grunge had come in and just sideswiped metal and alternative was getting big.

“With The Ritual, I think we were trying to be more heavy metal as opposed to thrash, and I wasn’t that happy going in that direction. Songs like Electric Crown and Return to Serenity are great songs, but we couldn’t get any stronger than that – it just felt like our feet were in the mud. 

“Around that time in the early '90s you had albums like Sepultura’s Arise and Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power, and I was like, 'That’s where I want to be,' but it didn’t happen with The Ritual. After Alex left in 1992, we came out with Low [1994], and that was more like it – that was like a new beginning for us. 

“We brought in James Murphy on guitar for that record, and it was great to have someone who could play like Alex but who also loved that kind of music – the truth is, Alex was never really into the heavier stuff like that; things like Cannibal Corpse and Death and other bands like that at the time. 

“He just needed to get out and do his own thing. So it was around that time that we took on this new sound, and that went from Low into Demonic [1997] into The Gathering [1999]. 

“By the time The Gathering came around we had already been through a bunch of lineup changes and we had gotten stronger because of it. The years leading up to that had been so weird with all the changes in the band and changes in the music scene, and by the time we did The Gathering we had built ourselves back up again and people were getting excited about our music again.”

Eric, you’ve been the musical leader of this band since the very beginning. What would you say was perhaps the darkest period for Testament?

PETERSON: “It was probably around the time of The Ritual. I remember Atlantic Records telling us that we had only sold around 250,000 records that year – which would be amazing now [Laughs] – and we were down about that. 

“We lost our management around that time, Alex told us that this was going to be his last tour with Testament, and Lou [drummer Louie Clemente] left – so everything was kind of falling apart around then, but we were still hopeful. 

“So we changed some things around, changed how we did business and formed our own record company and things like that – and just when it seemed that we had gotten a hold of things again, that was when Chuck got sick [In 2001, lead singer Chuck Billy was diagnosed with a cancerous condition known as germ cell seminoma].

“But even after all that, we kept it going, and we got heavy again, and I think that was the start of the new Testament. We developed a more modern sound and had more of a black and death metal influence, even though we were still very much a thrash band. We just weren’t trying to be politically correct with our lyrics and all that – I mean, come on, we put out a record called Demonic. [Laughs]

“By that point, we had gone through a couple of different guitar players, a lot of drummers, we were having problems with our original bass player [Greg Christian] – and we weren’t really sure what we were going to do. So we ended up doing a record called First Strike Still Deadly [2001], which contained re-recorded versions of some of our older songs.

“When I go back and listen to The Legacy or The New Order [1988], I’m not blown away by the production, but the songs sound modern when we play them today – they sound great, and that was what we were going for with First Strike Still Deadly.”

Titans of Creation is the band’s 12th studio album of new material. When did the record first begin to take shape?

PETERSON: “It always happens that we’ll be touring and touring, and Chuck – being the business-minded person that he is – will bring it up, like 'We have to get a record out.' And he’ll usually tell the press and the label that we’re gonna have a new album out in a few months, which just isn’t realistic at all, and then I have to be the one to tell everyone that, no, it’s not going to happen. [Laughs]

“With that being said, I’ll try to get in there and find something, some kind of riff or whatever, just to get it started… And then once the new album gets started and everybody likes a couple of songs, things will just start to pop out after that. 

“Some of the better songs came to us last this time round. Once you get over that hump, like five songs in, some really clever stuff starts coming out. One of those was Night of the Witch. That song is different for us; it’s modern, but it’s got this almost Slayer, Captor of Sin kind of vibe with all this crazy riffing.”

ALEX SKOLNICK: “There are so many steps to the process, and it always takes longer than you think it will. One reason is because of the touring. As a band, it’s just very hard to focus on an album when you have a show to do that night. 

“Regardless of how many people bought tickets to the show for that evening – whether it’s a few thousand at one of our own shows or tens of thousands at some kind of festival we’re playing – they’re all expecting something, and you have to be up to standard. 

“If your focus is on coming up with a new part for a song, then it won’t be on the performance that people are expecting. There’s a certain concentration that’s required for putting on a good performance. So things for this record started happening while we were out on tour, and I had some ideas that I would develop and send over, and Eric would have some ideas that he would send over. 

“This was around 2018. By early 2019, we were meeting up, and Eric was meeting up with Gene and going over stuff – basically just doing the preliminary get-togethers. By the summer of last year we were actually finally recording.”

What were your initial thoughts when you first started hearing what you guys were working on?

SKOLNICK: “To be honest, you never know where a record is going to end up when you first start working on it. But I knew early on that it was going to sound like a Testament record. And because we had more time to play together and work out ideas on this record, I ended up with two full songs: Symptoms and Code of Hammurabi. 

“Both of those were songs that I demoed from start to finish. With Code of Hammurabi, I wrote the main riffs of that on my bass. A long time ago, with a song called Souls of Black, the same thing happened, and that ended up having a bass intro too. 

“Plus now we have this monster bass player in Steve DiGiorgio, so why not give him a little bass intro to play and some bass breaks in the songs. So a lot of Code of Hammurabi was written on bass, but then what I’ll do is I’ll switch to guitar and I’ll find a sound that I think will work for Testament. 

“And if I’m recording at home, it’s just so much more practical to use a plug-in or a modeler – so I’ll either use my Kemper Profiler, which is the same thing we’ll use live, or I’ll use one of the patches that I like with AmpliTube by IK Multimedia. Sometimes I’ll do a blend of the two. 

“Chuck and I wrote the lyrics for Code of Hammurabi together, and Symptoms was something that Eric and I worked on together in terms of the lyrical concept.”

Symptoms is a song about depression and other mental health issues. What served as the inspiration for that?

SKOLNICK: “We lost so many people to depression recently. Anthony Bourdain, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Jill Janus from Huntress… I lost a cousin as well as a neighbor of mine who was a very successful young writer. Just so many people you would never expect that to happen to.

“People who seem to have it all – like they’re the last people you would ever expect to be victims of depression. So that was part of the inspiration… it was also inspired by people we knew who were in relationships with people that had disorders.”

With everyone living in different locations and sometimes working on other projects, it must be increasingly more difficult to get everyone together these days to write and record an album.

PETERSON: “Chuck likes to press the envelope in terms of trying to get everybody out here to jam, but thinking about it like that just going to be able to write a record in five days when we’re all together. All the good ideas will start coming around the fifth day, which will be when everyone has to leave for the airport.

“It’s cool because I can usually make a rough mix of something and then WhatsApp it to everyone. I’ll usually send things to Steve first to see what he thinks, and most of the time he’ll say, 'It’s killer!' Then I’ll send it to Chuck and he’ll be like, 'I don’t like it.' [Laughs] He’s a tough cookie – he hates everything. 

“But the truth is that that’s really just what’s in my brain after all these years of working with him, because as soon as I send him something and think he’s gonna hate it, he loves it. Some of our most famous songs are the ones that Chuck said he hated. Return to Serenity, Dark Roots of Earth, True Believer… just a lot of songs where he initially said, 'I don’t hear anything there.'”

Do you make changes until he approves, or does he eventually come around?

PETERSON: “I just don’t argue with him, and then I write something else that he does like, then bring back the other song that he didn’t like and sneak it in there I guess. Because here’s the thing: for everything else in my life that I may be a fuck-up with, I know how to do this. 

“I’m super picky, so if I like it, then it’s got to be good. I let him get mad and do the yelling – I don’t ever get mad at him. I just try to make it work. And he recognizes that. I’ve heard him say things like, 'I don’t know how Eric puts up with my shit.' But he’s more on the business end of things, so it evens out.“

It’s been unavoidable lately, but do you find the technological aspect of writing and recording at home enjoyable?

SKOLNICK: “I think so, and partially it’s out of necessity. It’s pretty much a job requirement at this point. But it can also be fun, especially if you make it fun. And you’re always going to get stuck at some point along the way: you should be on Input 1 when you’re on Input 2, and you can’t figure it out and need to find someone to help, or the whole thing crashes. 

“But this happens even in professional studios. So it definitely helps to have friends you can call to troubleshoot it when something like that happens, or at least have a good tech support number. And there’s so much help available online too – you can just Google a problem when it happens.

“Recording at home is definitely more of a solitary activity, which I don’t mind at all because I am a bit introverted and like being in solitude – you can have a nice evening at home with these gadgets and create some sounds that you like. I’ve learned to enjoy that process.“

Does having instant access to all these sounds keep you from wanting to find new guitars and amps?

SKOLNICK: “Maybe, but I’m still a junkie when it comes to new equipment. Especially when I’m doing something outside of Testament, like a one-guitar situation. There I’ll use more pedals, because I love pedals; they’re so much fun. I certainly don’t need more guitars, but it seems like every year I’ll find a guitar that I need. 

“A few months ago I found this old Gibson ES-347 – just a beautiful guitar, like a variation of a 335. Certainly not a cheap guitar, and it’s like one of those instruments that just plays itself. I saw it, thought about it, and decided I had to have it. [Laughs] And that seems to happen every year or so. 

“Then there’s the equipment I get from manufacturers. My signature guitar is made by ESP. For hollowbodies I love to play Godin. In the studio for my last Alex Skolnick Trio album I had a couple of acoustic songs, and Taylor had sent me a great guitar that got me really excited about acoustics again. 

“So I really haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm for gear. And I tend to make a deal with myself when it comes to new gear: if I get something new, I have to use it. If it just sits around and I don’t touch it, then I make myself get rid of it.“

When I first called you for this interview, Alex, you had to call me back because you were in the middle of a session – what were you working on?

SKOLNICK: “I’m always up to something. Right now I’m recording with a piano player, believe it or not. His name is Randy Klein, and it’s his project – it’s kind of a piano-guitar duo. He did an album of duets and he also has a record label called Jazz Heads. 

“He’s around 70 and is just a very nice piano player – not one of these crazily technical piano players. Just nice compositions and really nice playing to listen to. I was on one of his duo records a few years ago, and he reached out about revisiting some of those songs and doing some new songs. 

“We’re also looking at doing some live performances at some point. So that’s where I was when you called. If you had called me last week, who knows where I would have been. [Laughs]“

You need musical variety in your life.

SKOLNICK: “I think that’s an understatement. [Laughs] I feel like I never fit into any one scene, even though the most visible and longest-lasting project I’ve been involved with has been Testament. It’s what I am most identified with, but I have a whole world outside of that. 

“And a lot of the people who know me from other projects might know that I’m also in Testament, but they don’t even know what Testament sounds like. But I do think that I’ve been able to find a strange niche and a balance of all these different projects, and I’m certainly not done yet. There’s some music forthcoming that may surprise some people.“

Testament fans must be more accepting of your side projects now than in the past.

SKOLNICK: “That’s exactly right. Especially in the '90s when I was kind of keeping a low profile. I had a few short-lived bands that I would bounce in and out of. There was a period of time, once the internet started taking off and everyone was getting connected online, where I could tell that there was just this… hostility… toward me because of what I was doing outside of Testament. I never let it affect me though. These days, however, there’s much more support out there for what I am doing with my career.“

What was your gear setup on the new album?

PETERSON: “I always use my black Les Paul with 81/85 EMGs, and I used both the American and Korean versions of my signature Dean Old Skull guitar. For solos I used this new Dean [USA Patents Pending ML Classic Black], which is a replica of a guitar they put out in the '70s. Strings are also very important to me. I’m with D’Addario, but I ended up going back to Ernie Ball. .010–.052 seems to work really well, even considering the downtuning. 

“When Andy Sneap was mixing the record, I was like, 'Dude, the guitars are kinda… I don’t want to say generic… but kinda safe.' So I told him I want to use EVH, because I love the EVH guitar tone, and I have a 50-watt that I’m really digging right now. And he said, 'I’m gonna put it through the new [5150IIIS 100- watt head] Stealth.' 

“The way to explain it is that it’s got this kind of saturated feel, but with a nice midrange. Almost like a '70s, hard-rock midrange where it cuts through, but it’s got this nice warmth. The EVH amps are just awesome, I love ’em.

“For effects, the only thing I would turn on once in a while was my MXR Micro Chorus – there’s no Chorus that competes with that. It’s like Frank Marino’s Chorus tone or Zakk Wylde’s – the Micro Chorus is just the shit. Randy Rhoads too – all those cats used the Micro Chorus. And my Vox Wah. I used a Theremin on this record too, which was something different for me.

“It’s on the end of Night of the Witch – I was trying to get some creepy sounds for the fade-out. When Chuck first got the mix and heard it, he was like, 'What is that at the end? I don’t fucking like that.' He said it wasn’t creepy and was just real mad about the whole thing, and then he said he didn’t like the mix anymore. I think he was just having a bad day because everything just stayed the way it was. [Laughs]“

What was the inspiration for using the Theremin?

PETERSON: “It was Joe Bonamassa, and a song of his called The Ballad of John Henry. It’s one of his tuned-down, darker songs. He also did that song with his other band, Black Country Communion, and I actually like that version better. It’s a more hard rock version. 

“So I really dug the Theremin, and I ended up buying one about five years ago, and I’ve just been having fun with it; it’s kind of like the go-to thing when my daughter has a sleepover and all the girls want to try it out.“

Alex, what was your main guitar on the new album?

SKOLNICK: “My Lemon Burst ESP Alex Skolnick model is pretty much my go-to instrument when I record with Testament. I haven’t changed my string type in a long time. I’ve been with D’Addario for many years and they’ve always worked well for me. 

“When they came out with the NYXL line, that was exciting. I thought that that was a big development, and I can really feel the difference in those strings. So I’m still using those, gauges .011–.049.

“My first electric guitar when I was in high school was a Les Paul. But as I got more into technical playing and listening to players like Yngwie Malmsteen, who mainly plays a Strat, or Randy Rhoads with his Jackson, I started getting more into different guitars. The Les Paul just didn’t have a place in my life at that time. But as I got older and became more of an all-around player, I rediscovered the Les Paul. 

“When I hooked up with ESP, which was maybe a few years after the Formation of Damnation album came out in 2008, I had been getting back into classic guitars, and they offered to make me an instrument that would be pretty much whatever I wanted. 

“I wanted the tone of a classic Les Paul, but with more playability – something that would allow for more technical playing like an Ibanez or Jackson. And maybe my signature model doesn’t play that easily, but it’s not like a log either. 

“Plus it’s not some rare, vintage instrument that I have to worry about. We’re not in a position where we can buy a seat for the instrument on a plane or fly a private jet.“

• Testament's new album, Titans of Creation, is out now via Nuclear Blast.

As one decade passes into the next, you may be reflecting on how much you’ve managed to improve as a player during that time – or, just maybe, feeling a little guilty if you’ve fallen short of where you hoped to be. 

Don’t despair, though: even pros don’t improve as fast as they’d like. To help you turbo-charge your own playing skills, we spoke to some of the biggest names in guitar to ask how they feel they could have improved faster…

Joe Bonamassa

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“Legato: I have absolutely no capacity to play anything using the legato technique. Eric Johnson blends legato and picking perfectly in my opinion. I am an Al Di Meola school player, especially when it comes to faster playing. I pick literally every note unless I’m on stage playing pretend rock star. 

"I’ve tried to incorporate legato a little, but as my tech – who is extremely good at it and a huge Allan Holdsworth fan – glares over with the look of, ‘You are embarrassing yourself, Bonamassa,’ I decided it was not in my best interest to pursue that avenue.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“One of my strengths and weaknesses is that I have a very limited knowledge of theory. Strength: it makes me more fearless as a musician. I don’t care if what I’m doing is in the book; it just sounds good to me. 

“You use that intra-barometer in all facets of your playing and life. I don’t want the numbers or the rulebook swirling in my head. Weakness: some people ask me if I want a chart for the song. I laugh and say, ‘Play the demo and save a tree.’”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“One of the reasons I do not collect celebrity instruments is because they will not write those iconic songs for you. Right now, I am in Abbey Road Studios making a new album. The Hey Jude piano is in eyesight. If I went over and played it, it’s not gonna write a song of that calibre for me. It’s gonna sound like a hack piano player playing in the key of G. In hindsight, I would trade some of my playing ability for songwriting ability without hesitation.”

Martin Barre

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“Nobody mentioned alternate picking in 1960 when I bought my first guitar. Many years later, I pay the price for having a hybrid picking technique! There are some things I struggle to play picked and resort to a legato style to bridge the danger areas; I’m frustrated when I can see the obvious method but have to take a bypass. 

“I construct musical passages that, in theory, have no barrier in executing them. It is a challenge that I can meet, but only if I had worked on alternate picking. That said, playing mandolin helps my picking technique – a great instrument to explore.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“Music has a habit of taking us on a journey. At no point on this fabulous trip is there something that is not a pleasure to discover and examine. So the rules are written in stone yet I would rather discover them with an ear for music than to transcribe them or download a video. Self-discovery makes music a very personal journey and gives the player a unique ‘personality’.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I have no regrets with my music career. I savour the good times and learn from the bad. If anything, I should have had a business ‘head’ earlier on. In the late 60s and early 70s it was all about the music and very little attention to finances. 

“This enabled a lot a bad deals from a handful of dubious music execs. The mindset was to make business appear too complex for the average rock musician. Nowadays, we can run our own band, record and market our own music – we do a better job

Paul Gilbert

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I had all kinds of strange technical ‘mistakes’, but they all turned out to be beneficial. The first two years I played guitar, I only did upstrokes. But I got really good at upstrokes! I also held the pick with too many fingers and at a backwards angle. This turned out to give me a larger palette of tones and textures I still use all the time. 

“My fingering for an open G chord is also really odd. I didn’t know I was doing it ‘wrong’ until a few years ago. I may switch to the world-standard G chord, as it’s a little easier on my wrist, but my old weird one sounds good for a lot of things!”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“Melodies often drop from the root, directly to the lower 5th, without playing the 6th or 7th. This can be a bit of tangle to do on the guitar, especially if you’ve trained your hand to play every note of the scale… which I certainly did! My recent experiments in leaving these notes out has been such a great melodic discovery. I certainly wish I had left out the ‘Crazy Train note’ [the b6] a bit earlier.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“When I set up my monitors on stage these days, I just need to hear my guitar, my voice and some snare drum. I used to want all kinds of things like ride cymbals and hi-hats and a pretty blend of everyone’s voices. That made for some long and ultimately impractical soundchecks. The Beatles didn’t have any monitors when then played stadiums in the 60s. Simpler is often better. And always wear earplugs!”

John McLaughlin

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I could have had either a drum kit and teacher, or the possibility to learn and be able to articulate the fundamentals of rhythm. In improvised music, 99 per cent of the time we play with drummers, and to fully understand what they are playing is essential in this world.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“The harmonic foundation that is used in contemporary jazz for the past 60 years is founded upon the music of Ravel, Satie, Fauré, Scriabin and others such as Bartok and Stravinsky. It would have been extremely useful to have had an opportunity to learn the harmonic techniques of these composers.”

3) One thing related to music I wish I had done earlier

“I should have taken singing lessons!”

Mike Stern

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I always knew guitar came first, but I wish I had learned at least one other instrument. Sometimes when you learn another instrument, it can help your guitar playing. When I was a kid I took some piano lessons, but then I let that go when I started playing guitar. But no real regrets, there is so much to learn on guitar; it’s endless. It’s always a challenge and it’s always kicking my ass!”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had studied a bit more classical music when I was younger. I do it now. I read and try to learn some Bach pieces, but I do it with a guitar pick. I wish I had learned more fingerstyle classical technique at the beginning.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I got into drugs and alcohol when I was younger. I’ve been sober for over 30 years now. The guitar may have enabled my drinking and drugging, but it also had a lot to do with saving my life. Music is such a positive force.”

Tommy Emmanuel

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had learned to read music. I could have learned a lot more and perhaps had a better understanding of the fretboard. I was busy trying to earn a living and support my family by playing and teaching guitar. I tried once, but I found it impossible, so I just carried on as I do today and followed my instincts.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“I learned later in life to be more adventurous and unafraid when going for a solo. When you are young and inexperienced you tend to play it safe and stay close to the melody. But when you’ve had some time to grow as a musician you feel the freedom to step outside the comfort zone and see what’s possible to make a bolder statement and have fun with music.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier 

“I wish I’d have been more aware of time when I was younger. I was too busy trying to impress people enough so I had plenty of work. What I now feel is that I would have been a much better musician if I’d started working with a metronome, every day! 

“Time, feel and groove: these are the elements that put bums on seats and cause people to run out and buy concert tickets. So I suggest getting to work on training your mind to understand time and groove. When you’ve spent enough time with a metronome, that thing will set you free!”

John Etheridge

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I wish there had been a good theory of picking. Like everyone else my age, I developed my own erratic methods. Actually, this has worked okay and helped to give my generation of players individual approaches. When I see a lot of young players, particularly the Gypsy guys, their picking hands look so beautifully efficient.”

2 ) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“Reading music. I’m very slow and this has cost me energy, nerves and given me a sense of inadequacy when playing with other musicians who tend to read better. I wish someone had forced me to do this at age 13 to 15. It’s boring but is so helpful, time saving and opens up so much music to you. And more money could have been made from playing sessions!”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I always practise with a metronome or drum programme nowadays. For years I practised all my scales just tapping my foot. I was a terrible ‘racer’ as I always wanted to play like John Coltrane. Cramming more notes in does, in an undisciplined player, lead to speeding up. For people playing with you, this is infuriating. I think I’ve got over this now, although as a result of years of bad practice, it can creep in. Good time is the best ingredient a player can have.”

Andy Timmons

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“The whole idea and application of economy picking and sweeping has largely eluded me for most of my playing career, even though some of my lines do include some of these techniques – it must have happened naturally. 

“There is now much more awareness and instruction available for working on developing these techniques that I wish would have been around in my early years of learning. But as they say, ‘It’s never too late!’ I’m now working on these techniques daily as part of a practice regimen, so I will see if any of it works its way into my playing.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“Learning by ear is most assuredly the best way to obtain and retain music. I feel fortunate to a degree that there wasn’t an abundance of didactic material when I was growing up. I eventually took lessons, but I was largely self-taught from the age of five to 16. Someone showed me barre chords and the A minor pentatonic scale and off I went. 

“I had my guitar and a record player. Occasionally, you’d see someone on TV – I loved Roy Clark on Hee Haw! – but I had to ‘earn it’, meaning figure out by ear what was on the recording.

“This realisation was fortified years later – if I would learn a song first by the chart, I would be reliant on the paper as opposed to when I took the time to learn it by ear. It internalised aurally instead of visually – and isn’t music largely an aural experience? Of course, some music may be more complicated than your ear is capable of ‘figuring out’, but always make an effort to get as much as you can, then check out the video or transcription.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I wish I’d have been a more ardent and disciplined practiser. I played all the time, but I wasn’t always practising. Big difference! Playing all the time is essential, of course, but also pushing yourself to learn new things consistently while also fortifying what you already know is a way to grow rapidly. I’m only now – at the age of 55! – becoming a good practiser. I’ll keep you posted how it goes.”

Alex Skolnick

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“The main technique that I wished I’d learned earlier is mental: achieving focus and clarity, or what is often referred to today as ‘mindfulness’. I was already in my late 20s when I discovered a great book by jazz pianist Kenny Werner – one of the best, in my book – Effortless Mastery, which deals with these concepts for musicians. That led to other enlightening materials, with care taken to avoid anything pseudoscientific or ‘culty’. 

“Today there are great apps for your smartphone, such as Waking Up App by Sam Harris.  John McLaughlin really set an example with his embrace of meditation and Eastern philosophy in the 70s, which I dove into and appreciated more as I got older. But as a young guitarist, I just wanted to rock! Ironically, the rock is the perfect metaphor for stillness, tranquillity, inner calm and strength.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“My hindsight theory relates to music theory itself and if written as an equation, it would be this: Music > Theory. In other words, music determines music theory, not the other way around. 

“History is full of music theory taboos that later became acceptable to our ears, from a minor 3rd rubbing up against a chord with a major 3rd, a staple of the blues, to the tritone interval, once thought to be sacrilegious. The earliest musicians – probably cave-dwellers who discovered sound-making in a manner similar to Kubrick’s apes in the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey – were not thinking, ‘Wait! The book says we can’t use this note in that scale!’

“Yes, music theory is quite useful and recommended for some; I wouldn’t play the way I do without it. But that doesn’t mean it’s required for everyone. Whatever your musical trajectory, it’s most important to focus on sound first and theory later, if so inclined.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“What I wish I’d done earlier is pursuing additional instruments, particularly piano. I did get a piano about 15 years back and just love getting lost in music separate from the familiarity of the guitar, as well as figuring out piano parts from recordings – film and TV soundtracks, classic tunes I grew up with, manageable classical and jazz pieces. 

“I also have some percussion instruments and know some very basic drum beats, but, again, I wish I’d started much earlier. It took a while to figure out, but so many of my favourite guitarists play other instruments, too, from Pat Metheny composing on the piano, to Al DiMeola getting behind the timbales in concert, to Stevie Ray Vaughan playing drums occasionally, to Eddie Van Halen’s keyboard skills – drums, too – to the all-time master multi-instrumentalist, Prince.

“Though I wish I’d started sooner, having incorporated piano and percussion into my practice in more recent years has helped develop my playing, timing and composing invaluably. Better late than never!”

Steve Lukather

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had practised more!”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had started learning to read music when I started as a kid of seven or eight years old. I started to learn and study at 14. Wish it was day one, but… rock ’n’ roll hit! I can’t tell you how much it has helped me, but sight-reading takes time. No way around it.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“Watch my money and I wish I’d never let ‘the party’ get in the way. It was okay as a kid, but when I got older, not good. So I quit all that 10 years ago. I wish it was 20. Sorry. It creeped up, ended bad, but I am okay now, thank God. I was 18, thrown into a room with 20-, 30- 40-year-old people and it was 1976 to ’77 to the early 80s, the most insane times in rock ’n’ roll. Fun as some of it may have been, a waste of time and money and life.”

Joe Satriani

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had found my most comfortable ‘right-hand position’ at the start. I’ve gone through three radical shifts in how I anchor or float my picking hand. At first it was resting my palm right above the bridge, at the muting spot. Then I tried no anchoring, but dropped that after many trials and tribulations. Next was resting my fingers on the pickguard area – good for some stuff but not everything. So now I use all three whenever they seem appropriate. I’m still searching!”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“All theories are equally golden and dangerous. It’s good to remember that in music there are no rules, only cause and effect. The key to embracing this approach is to learn all the cause and effect situations, remember them and apply accordingly. If you want people to sing along with your melody, don’t make it complicated. If you want people to get up and dance to your song, don’t make it dreadfully slow or painfully fast. Theories get dangerous when they stifle creativity and lead you down the path of mediocrity. Free your mind, your guitar will follow.”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I wish I’d pursued learning recording studio techniques. Perhaps a job at a local studio would’ve been the right move when I was in my teens. I can’t help thinking it would have opened my eyes and ears to the wonders of the recording studio. However, my path led me to the stage, which helped me build my live performance chops. After answering these three questions I’m reminded of an old Scottish proverb: ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’ So true!”

Rusty Cooley

1) A technique-based ‘I wish’.

“I wish I had developed my eight-finger tapping and hybrid picking all the way through, the way I did many other techniques. I see a lot of value in it now and the added creativity that it can bring to your playing.”

2) A theory-based ‘I wish’

“I wish I had kept up my sight-reading. There was a time when I could read really well, but as the old saying goes, ‘Use it or lose it’!”

3) One music-related thing I wish I had done earlier

“I would have done anything to have gone to GIT [Guitar Institute Of Technology] right after high school. It just wasn’t in the budget. Being in LA at that time would have been amazing. All things aside, it’s never too late for anything and I still have lots of things I want to accomplish as a musician and plan on continuing to work on it each and every day.”

We recently reported on an all-star quarantine video jam featuring Brian May, Alex Skolnick, Stu Hamm and others taking on Queen’s Hammer to Fall.

Now Skolnick has joined up with a new crew consisting of Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, Suicidal Tendencies bassist Roberto "Ra" Diaz and Crobot vocalist Brandon Yeagley to take on Rush’s classic Freewill, with Skolnick handling the impressive Alex Lifeson electric guitar solo with ease.

This is not the first Rush song Benante, Diaz and Skolnick have covered while quarantined - the three also previously tackled YYZ and La Villa Strangiato.

Regarding their latest clip, Benante wrote in a message: “Freewill is about thinking for yourself, accepting difficult truths and avoiding superstition, magical thinking and herd mentality (most pertinent during these times).

“We now have a Rush trilogy. When we ‘made a choice’ (as the song says) to take on this tune, we had a new challenge on our hands: Our previous two (YYZ and  La Villa Strangiato) are both instrumental and doing this one would require a vocalist who is up to the task (sadly that excludes the three of us). Fortunately, we know just the guy. On vocals, we proudly present Brandon Yeagley.

"In addition to Neil Peart (the great Rush drummer and composer of these lyrics, whom we lost in January), this song is dedicated to John Horton Conway, genius mathematician who recently left us due to Covid-19, whose influence extended beyond mathematical circles, including artists (such as musician/producer Brian Eno), software developers, game makers etc. and whose achievements include a personal favorite entitled Free Will Theorem.”

As for what song the makeshift group might tackle next, may we use this space as an opportunity to put in a request for 2112?

As we’ve been happily reporting, Brian May has been a busy man during his self-quarantine, giving lessons on how to play the Bohemian Rhapsody solo, posting “microconcerts” that show the electric guitar player performing Queen classics like Tie Your Mother Down and We Will Rock You and, most recently, “challenging” fans to jam along with him on the 1984 Queen classic Hammer to Fall.

Now that challenge has been accepted once again, and this time by a monster lineup of top-notch musicians, including Alex Skolnick, Bumblefoot, Stu Hamm, Kenny Aronoff and many more.

The all-star Hammer to Fall jam was conceived by Jason McNamara, who runs the LSwFF (Live Stream with Famous Friends) YouTube page. McNamara directed, edited and produced – and also performs in – the clip.

“I had the weirdest dream last night,” jokes McNamara in the video following the epic jam. “They were all there and it was so bizarre.”

The full line up for the all-star Hammer to Fall challenge is Cameron Brown, Bumblefoot and Alex Skolnick on guitars, Stu Hamm on bass, Kenny Aronoff and Marco Minnemann on drums, Debby Holiday, Jeff Scott Soto and Justin Murphy on vocals and James LoMenzo on backing vocals.

And, of course, Mr. Brian May himself adding some riffs on his Red Special.

And a special shout-out to Halestorm drummer and “class clown” Arejay Hale, who can be seen banging along on the garbage cans.

For more information on LSwFF, head to McNamara’s official YouTube channel.

BackStory Events and Guitar World invite you to join us for the live stream of our exclusive interview with famed multi-genre guitarist, Alex Skolnick. The interview will take place at 7:00 p.m. EST this Sunday, September 29, live from The Cutting Room in New York City.

We’ll dig into the Alex Skolnick Trio’s latest jazz album, Conundrum, plus behind-the-scenes stories from his years on the road with metal legends Testament. It’s Skolnick's birthday, too, so we’ll help him celebrate in style. The event includes a long form interview, audience Q&A, and a special short performance from The Alex Skolnick Trio.

Skolnick will be interviewed by author and journalist Brad Tolinski. The interview is part of the BackStory Events online series and will be live streamed by Guitar World magazine.

For more, head over to alexskolinick.com or backstoryevents.com.

The video will appear below once we go live.

This month, I’d like to talk about using fourth intervals as a building block for both chords and solos.

Although this lesson leans more on the jazz side of things, this topic can be quite useful for better fretboard understanding even if jazz guitar isn’t your main thing.

Quartal harmony - chords voiced in stacked fourth intervals, are a familiar sound in jazz accompaniment, popularized by pianists (perhaps most notably, McCoy Tyner, well known for his work with John Coltrane) and adopted by modern improvising guitarists as well.

By stacking fourth upon fourth, we’re able to create a group of fairly easy-to-grasp relative chord shapes that can be moved through a mode. The result is an accessible group of choices for accompaniment (referred to in jazz street lingo as 'comping'). FIGURE 1 shows a Dm7sus4 chord built from stacked fourths based on the D Dorian mode (D E F G A B C). FIGURE 2 shows the chord in use with a line reminiscent of Miles Davis’ classic tune So What.

In FIGURE 3, I add another note on the first string, resulting in a chord of stacked fourths, topped by a major third. Three-string chords are excellent for quick 'stabs' and/or quickly bouncing off of each other, as demonstrated in FIGURE 4. The same is true with inside four-string chords, as shown in FIGURE 5. Once you begin to get these shapes under your fingers, you’ll be ready to put them to use by playing over a bass line, either by recording yourself, looping or, ideally, jamming with a real bassist.

There are also many books and play-along recordings to help with bass grooves. (I learned how to play bass lines with the help of one such book by bassist Rufus Reid, which is part of the Jamey Aebersold series of instructional resources, which I highly recommend!) FIGURE 6 offers one possible bass line, which incorporates some chromatic passing tones, followed by an improvised accompaniment of fourth voicings in FIGURE 7.

Now let's look at some melodic lines created by quartal voicings in combination with nearby scale tones. As FIGURE 8 demonstrates, there are numerous possibilities. This approach can help you break free from the habit of following patterns, such as the pentatonic scale, which we guitarists all too often tend to become overly dependent on. Finally, let’s look at a set of modal chords up and down the fretboard, which can be reduced to any number of strings.

We’re going to stay with five strings for now, utilizing diatonic stacked fourths exclusively, as shown in FIGURE 9. This is essentially the D Dorian mode played up and down multiple strings simultaneously. As always, go slow at first, don’t try to absorb too much at once, and listen to the sound of these concepts in action. Hopefully the video that accompanies this text will prove helpful in this regard.

Continuing our look at moving “outside” the tonal center In my last column, I delved into the concept of incorporating an “outside” sound, which, quite literally, means interspersing licks that move beyond the tonal parameters of the established key center.

For example, with a song in the key of Bb, I demonstrated a few ways to move from licks based in Bb to licks one half step higher, in the key of B, which serve as a departure point into a somewhat atonal sound. I then return to licks in Bb and resolve back to the home key.

To some, this will sound “wrong,” but I love the sound of moving up or down a half step out of the home key as a means of creating tension, or “color,” in a solo.

This is certainly not a sound heard often in rock, and when you do hear it, it’s always a bit of a shock. But if you develop a taste for it, as I have, it can provide a very cool expansion of your musical vocabulary.

This month, let’s apply the “outside” concept to a blues shuffle in the key of C. Our first example, illustrated in FIGURE 1, is derived from the playing of the late, great saxophonist Bob Berg, who worked a lot with jazz guitarist Mike Stern. The chord progression alluded to here is C7-Bb7-C7-Db7, as the melodic phrases move down a whole step from C to Bb, and then up one half step from C to Db. The part of this lick I would like to focus on is the phrase in bar 4 that begins in Db but quickly resolves back to C.

In FIGURE 2, I set up a one-chord C7 vamp, and across the ensuing improvisation, I repeatedly move from C up a half step to Db then resolve the improvised melody back to C. Part of the concept here is that I do not shift my fret hand up a fret when moving from C to Db licks; I remain in eighth position, which changes my way of visualizing the phrases on the fretboard in a very useful and effective way. For example, the Gb note on the third string’s 11th fret serves as the flatted fifth of C and also the fourth of Db.

In this way, I’m maintaining a wider view of what’s happening harmonically when I move between the two keys. FIGURE 3 offers a 17-bar improvisation, wherein the line continually shifts between the two keys in a bar-by-bar fashion: bar 1 illustrates a phrase in C based on a C7 arpeggio, built from the notes C E G Bb; bar 2 represents a shift up a half step, with a phrase built from a Db7 arpeggio: Db F Ab Cb (B). In bar 4, I begin in Db and then resolve the phrase to C by the end of bar 5.

As you continue through this solo, be sure to analyze each phrase while also taking notice of the variety of ways in which I’m trying to move seamlessly between the two keys, making the most of the “outside” notes as they come along.

There’s a common thread that unites 20th-century jazz icons, such as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong, and the numerous influential improvisers, including guitarists ranging from Charlie Christian to Pat Metheny, who’ve built upon their work. Like a genetic trait, this link is shared with American rock music from the Fifties (Chuck Berry, Elvis and Little Richard), Sixties British Invasion groups (the Beatles, Rolling Stones), psychedelic rock of the Seventies (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin), early hard rock (Cream and Jimi Hendrix) and even pioneers of metal (Black Sabbath and AC/DC).

Like a shared gene, it’s sometimes obvious, sometimes not, yet always present.

Question: What could such divergent sounds possibly have in common? Answer: the blues.

As guitarists, we’re often introduced to blues playing via two-notes-per-string patterns, such as the C minor pentatonic scale (C Eb F G Bb) illustrated in FIGURE 1. Not to underestimate the importance of this basic shape (after all, it is the source position of so many of our instrument’s most enduring licks, from Robert Johnson to Randy Rhoads), but in terms of playing an expressive solo with a blues flavor, this is a tiny component. Blues is based on a dominant seven chord. Things get more colorful (“blue”) when you emphasize a chord’s third and/or seventh with the minor third approaching the major third, either ascending or descending.

FIGURES 2 to 4 offer a few examples that accentuate the half-step move from minor to major third, akin to Quincy Jones’ “Theme from Sanford & Son,” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and a great hard bop melody, Horace Silver’s “Sister Sadie,” respectively. An example from rock that comes to mind is the single-note riff from the Beatles’ “Day Tripper.”

Blues rhythm guitar is often introduced to us via the types of blues-rock vamps heard in hard rock (like AC/DC’s “The Jack,”), classic rock (the Rolling Stones’ “Midnight Rambler”) and even punk (i.e. the Ramones’ “Rock ’n’ Roll High School”). As with lead playing, things become much more colorful when you emphasize the third and seventh. A nice blues vamp can be played with root-third-seventh shapes, what are known as “shell voicings,” that are approached from a half step below, as illustrated in FIGURE 5. Keep pumping the low bass notes of each chord to solidify the groove.

Your assignment now is in two parts:

1. Learn this vamp.

2. Learn the melodic line shown in FIGURE 6, which emphasizes the “color tones” of each chord (always approaching the major third from the minor third). If you feel adventurous, transpose these ideas to other keys. Listen for similar sounds on blues and jazz recordings. Most importantly, have fun!

Alex Skolnick photos from lesson video by Tom Couture | www.tomcouture.com

When he’s not playing alongside Duff McKagan in the Guns N’ Roses bassist’s band, Loaded, guitarist Mike Squires likes to sit on his couch in his Brooklyn apartment and jam out to some of his favorite songs. Sometimes, he even invites other musicians, like McKagan or Testament’s Alex Skolnick (who you can check out playing Devo’s “Whip It,” above) to join him. The result is Couch Riffs, one of the more unusual, and also pretty awesome, new guitar series to hit the web.

Below, Squires chats with Guitar World (probably while sitting on his couch) about how Couch Riffs came to be.

How did you come up with the idea for Couch Riffs?

About a year ago I applied for a position with a well-known musical instrument company, and they asked for a video of me casually playing some specific riffs commonly heard in guitar stores. I think I took the “casual” part a little too far (unshowered, shoeless and in sweatpants) and I never heard back from them. But, I had fun making the videos so at the encouragement of my wife, who was being driven a little nuts by my pacing and unfocused energy at the time, I just kept making these videos but with songs that I wanted to play. It slowly developed to having guests and now there’s even a podcast. I really feel like Couch Riffs is still in its infancy and has tons of potential. But, above all, it’s fun for me to do. 

How do you structure each episode?

Well, Couch Riffs is a first take performance video series, period. I push record on the camera and that first take is what gets posted. I try to nudge guests toward a song that I hope is interesting and unexpected to their fans. That’s fun for me, and for the most part my guests are into it, too. Lastly, I try to create a situation where it’s only the two of us in the room for the performance and video/podcast recording to maintain a very casual and personal vibe. I think it works!

Tell us a bit about your background and experience as a professional guitarist.

I moved to Seattle in the early Nineties, when people were going bananas there. I played in lots of club bands before landing in some touring acts like Harvey Danger, Alien Crime Syndicate, the Long Winters and, lastly, with Duff McKagan’s Loaded. I did all the rock ‘n roll stuff I dreamed about doing when I was a kid, you know? It was amazing and I feel so happy for those experiences. I played big shows and met lots of folks that I grew up idolizing and have even maintained friendships with some of them. It doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me to sustain a career as a touring musician. But, who knows? Maybe I’ll get a Couch Tour!

Who are some of the musicians you’ve had on your couch, and how do you choose the songs that you perform together?

It’s been a mix of folks that I’ve known previously and people that I’ve reached out to, blindly cold-calling them because I think it would be cool to play together and hear their stories. I have lots of exciting folks already committed to shooting future Couch Riffs episodes when their touring brings them near, as well. I’m really very happy and excited about it. So far I’ve had both well- and lesser-known music folks like Duff McKagan, Matt Sweeney, Alex Skolnick, Dave Rude, Brad Houser, Timo Ellis, Acey Slade and Shane Enholm on the couch. My heart is set on having a very diverse set of guests in the future, which means stepping outside the straight-white-male set when I’m able to, and also including musicians from other career backgrounds like athletes, actors and anyone with a killer story and some level of skill to play music, as well as a great attitude for fun. For all I know the Fire Chief at my local volunteer hall is a shredding guitarist with some great stories about a former life as a merchant marine. I want that guest, too!

As for the songs, sometimes I have a specific idea that I really push, sometimes we go back and forth to pick one together, and sometimes it is spontaneous and we pick it right before we learn it and film it. It’s a little bit different each time. 

Guitar World readers can check out the Couch Riffs episode with Alex Skolnick above. How did that one come together?

I was pretty nervous at first because he’s an absolute legend. I met him for about 15 seconds a couple months earlier and our mutual friend, comedian Derek Sheen, helped connect us. At the time Alex lived a short walk away from me in Brooklyn and he came over and filmed right after my shoot with Matt Sweeney. Alex was so cool from our very first communications, and when I gently pitched the idea of picking a “fun and unexpected” song he started throwing out ones that were oddballs and popular when he was in school. He actually suggested “Whip It” and I was immediately for it. Alex was super-easy, fun and a humble and humorous guy. My type of person, for sure! And, holy crap, he’s a player! 

Where can people go to watch more Couch Riffs?

I post videos almost every week on Instagram, IGTV, Facebook and YouTube. The IG video is a bit shorter, of course, but it’s easy enough to click over and see a full performance/vlog episode there with IGTV now. I’m launching a podcast from the unedited conversation recordings, as well. You can find them on all of your favorite podcast platforms like Apple, Spotify, and Google. I may diversify to having podcast episodes that aren’t tied to performance guests, as well. That would open things up quite a bit for me.

For more information, head over to CouchRiffs.com.

The diminished scale is a highly useful resource for adding spice to solos, creating unique licks and formulating modernist note sequences.

Confusion often stems from the misunderstanding of the term, as it is often misused to describe the type of licks found in FIGURE 1. This arrangement of notes, which fall in minor third intervals, represents a diminished seven arpeggio, which consists of four different notes.

The diminished scale is an eight-note entity, as shown in FIGURE 2. Unlike the modes, the diminished scale is built from a continuously symmetrical intervallic sequence as each four-note group progresses. It’s formula follows an alternating pattern of whole steps and half steps—whole, half, whole, half—that repeats up to the octave root note, as illustrated in FIGURE 3. Meanwhile, any variation of notes within the diminished scale is movable up and down the neck in minor-third intervals (equal to a three-fret shift on a single string).

The diminished scale is often referred to as “whole-half diminished,” which is how I first learned it, in a scale appendix of the highly recommended Jamey Aebersold jazz play-along series of books and audio recordings. By starting with a half step, followed by alternating whole steps and half steps, we get the sole “mode” of the scale, referred to as “half-whole diminished,” as shown in FIGURES 4 and 5.

Here’s where things get interesting: within the rather sinister-sounding B half-whole diminished scale (B C D D# F F# G# A) lives a rather happy-sounding B major triad (B Ds F#). By blending triadic sounds with other notes from the scale, some very modern and “outside”-sounding patterns can be created. FIGURE 6 offers a relatively simple example, which can be moved up and down the neck in minor thirds. Again, any inherent patterns, whether triads, whole steps, half steps, or any combination thereof, can be sequenced up or down in minor thirds.

FIGURE 7 is an interesting example of such a pattern, played in one position, seventh, and FIGURE 8 is a similar idea that moves up and down the fretboard in minor thirds. Since all of these patterns are movable in minor thirds, this means three more major triads—D, F and Ab—also live within the same B half-whole scale. And since each triad has its own inversions (root position, first and second inversion) the possibilities for melodic invention are immense!

Although I tend to use diminished-scale ideas primarily in improvisational settings, I occasionally sneak one into a metal solo (such as in Testament’s “More Than Meets the Eye” [hear it below]). These types of ideas, by the way, first got my attention via the work of saxophonist Michael Brecker and guitarist John Scofield, both of whom influenced guitarist Jimmy Herring, another big proponent of diminished patterns. Check out their work, keep an ear out for cool-sounding diminished ideas and have fun exploring these concepts on your own.

Alex Skolnick photos from lesson video by Tom Couture | www.tomcouture.com

The Alex Skolnick Trio—comprised of Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski—have announced Conundrum, their first album since 2011. 

Set for a September 7 release via Palmetto/MRI, Conundrum features six original compositions by Skolnick, one apiece by bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski and an interpretation of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1.” You can hear the album's first single, "Culture Shock," below.

"It represents the sense of confusion many of us are feeling in the midst of the strangest sociopolitical upheavals of our lifetimes,” Skolnick said of the album, and its name. “This album captures many styles in an effort to channel that angst into art and inspire others to do likewise.”

On returning to jazz with his trio for the first time in a number of years, the Testament guitarist noted; “These days I still love playing screaming, loud guitar and heavy metal, though I don’t think I’m going to be one of these guys who’s past social-security age and in a rock band and touring. But I can see myself doing these songs with the trio for many years to come.” 

To preorder Conundrum, step right this way.

For more on Alex Skolnick and his music, head on over to alexskolnick.com.

Back in the April 2017 issue, my column focused on fourths when creating rhythm parts and solos.

The use of a combination of notes that are fourths apart, known as “stacked fourths” or “quartal voicings,” is a common sound in jazz.

On the guitar, stacked fourths are generally very easy to achieve, as all the pairs of adjacent strings, with the exception of the G and B, are a fourth apart, meaning that if you sound the open low E and A, the open A and D, or open D and G string together, the relationship between the two notes is that of a fourth. The same is true when you sound the B and high E strings. The G and B strings are a major third apart.

This month, I’d like to apply the use of fourths to what is often referred to as “outside” playing. As the term implies, “outside” licks include notes that reside outside the established key and intentionally sound “wrong,” though, to me, they work! In fact, licks like these never sound wrong to me—they sound right by taking you into some other territory, musically speaking, that the listener is not expecting.

A song that represents one of my first exposures to “outside” sounds is a song called “Freedom Jazz Dance,” written by Eddie Harris and famously recorded by Miles Davis, among other jazz artists. The majority of the melody is based on stacked fourths, but here I would like to focus on the very last part of it, as it starts in key but then drifts in and out momentarily, creating a compelling feeling of tension and release.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a two-bar vamp based on Bb7#9, and in FIGURE 2 I approximate the type of stacked-fourths melody I’m referencing: the phrase begins in Bb, but by beat two I’ve moved my melodic tonal center up a half step to B, move briefly back to Bb on beat three and then back to B and remain there until the downbeat of bar 2 with a return to Bb. This next phrase begins with use of Bb minor pentatonic, as shown in FIGURE 3, but the phrase then repeats the use of fourths one half step higher.

If we play around with this concept, we get lines such as those shown in FIGURE 4, as I move freely back and fourth between Bb and B licks built from fourth intervals. Another tune that utilizes fourths in this way is “Itsbynne Reel,” by tenor sax great Michael Brecker. At one point in the tune, he plays FIGURE 5, which incorporates fourth patterns that move up and down chromatically.

Playing over the rhythm part shown in FIGURE 6, in FIGURE 7 I demonstrate how to bring that type of phrase into play, referencing “Freedom Jazz Dance” first, in bars 1–3, and then moving to a Brecker-type lick in bars 5–7. Now that you have the idea, try devising your own fourths-based licks that weave in and out of the key in this manner.

Alex Skolnick photos from lesson video by Tom Couture | www.tomcouture.com

Last month, we took steps toward developing a deeper understanding of blues and how it informs both jazz and rock.

By practicing playing over standard blues changes with single-octave patterns, used as miniature “road maps,” we were able to incorporate the more colorful chord tones into melodic phrases and expand beyond the basic pentatonic shapes we all learn early on.

This month, we’ll begin with descending versions of such patterns. Previously, I had mentioned some famous examples of the “minor third into major third” melody. One of them was a great TV show theme I grew up hearing: Quincy Jones’ “Theme from Sanford & Son.”

The first bar of FIGURE 1 is a major pentatonic-based lick in the key of C that’s similar to this melody. It’s entirely descending, except for the ascending minor-to-major third (Eb to E). The remainder of FIGURE 1 moves the lick through the I, IV and V chords of a basic blues in C—C7, F7 and G7, respectively.

The intent here is to form a road map in order to establish a familiarity with the colorful notes, absorbing them as a source of vocabulary in practice, but not to force yourself to play them in live situations. They can also be blended with more standard minor pentatonic licks, as demonstrated in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 3 is a blues vamp incorporating dominant seventh chords. Whereas the last lesson featured a slow “Red House”–style blues, this one is more of a mid-tempo swinging “Now’s The Time”/“Everyday I Have the Blues”–style groove. This figure features a “quick IV,” with a move to the IV chord, F7, in bar 2, followed by a return to the I chord, C7, in bars 3 and 4.

FIGURE 4 is an improvised solo played over these changes. The first lick is straight out of our previous lesson, an all-ascending pattern with the minor third into the major third. This is followed by the reverse, which follows the changes, just as described in FIGURE 1. The next few licks are in fact the ascending pattern with a few extra notes added, before reverting back to today’s descending pattern.

A brief critique of my own playing in the video example: The first 12-bar chorus feels rather forced. Normally, I would make it less obvious that these patterns are lurking behind my improvisations, but the purpose here is to demonstrate the examples. Fortunately, the second time around it lightens up a bit, as I begin to break away from the rigidity of sticking closely to one type of pattern, with a few minor pentatonic licks thrown in to add flavor.

Finally, in the third chorus, things begin to feel more natural. The patterns are still in the background as guides, but the playing is more open, allowing whatever comes to mind to happen. By gaining a better understanding of standard blues changes beyond the simplified rock vamps many of us learn early on—tools that can be both highly useful and severely limiting—we can strengthen our foundations as guitarists, no matter what styles we choose to play. Soon, we’ll expand beyond blues into chromaticism and other more complex tools to add to your improvisational palette.

Alex Skolnick photos from lesson video by Tom Couture | www.tomcouture.com

“This is like a musician fishing trip,” says Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson on the final day of the Winery Dogs Camp.

Ellefson and Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick were hired as guest instructors for the event, now in its second year.

Prior to coming out, the two prepared lessons for students of various skill levels, and between classes everyone hung out with camp CEO Mike Portnoy and his Winery Dogs bandmates, vocalist and guitarist Richie Kotzen and bassist Billy Sheehan.

As much as recruiting Skolnick and Ellefson was a great way to get some thrash veterans to diversify the curriculum, it provided the perfect live testing ground for the musicians’ supergroup with Portnoy, Metal Allegiance.

While the three rockers and their business coordinator/songwriter Mark Menghi form the core of the band, there were numerous guest vocalists and guitarists on its self-titled debut album, and Metal Allegiance have signed up a string of understudies to fill in at a moment’s notice, should any of the main members find themselves on tour with their other bands.

“There’s already one show booked where three of us won’t be able to make it,” says Skolnick over a Skype line he’s sharing with Ellefson. “But the cool thing is the original four of us get to decide on our own subs.”

Late last year, Skolnick and Ellefson convened at Portnoy’s home studio in remote Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, and wrote all of the songs for Metal Allegiance’s self-titled first album. A jubilant celebration of metal from the early Seventies to the present, the record includes doom, prog, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, alt-metal, New American Metal and a whole lotta thrash, from classic to contemporary.

Performing on the third campfire jam night as the Metal Allegiance Trio, the band’s classic metal and thrash covers set is capped by an instrumental version of the Metal Allegiance song “Can’t Kill the Devil,” a barreling, full-fisted number that normally features Testament vocalist Chucky Billy.

“It was the first time we ever played that song onstage and it was frickin’ rocking,” Ellefson exclaims, beaming like a kid who has just learned the solo to “Crazy Train.” “Even without the vocals it was awesome. Spread your knees, start headbanging and downpicking.”

That type of spirit epitomizes Metal Allegiance, a band empowered by the sheer love for metal to write and play songs in the style of some of their favorite bands. “Can’t Kill the Devil” is naturally reminiscent of the riff and vocal structures of Testament. On a parallel path, “Let Darkness Fall,” which features vocals by Mastodon’s Troy Sanders, is epic and psychedelic; “Gift of Pain,” helmed by Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, could have been an outtake from VII: Sturm Und Drang; and the Phil Anselmo vehicle “Dying Song” sounds like Down performing Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates.”

“We wanted to wear our influences on our sleeves, only without being too derivative,” Skolnick says. “We were happy to write songs that had the vibe of other bands, whether it was Sabbath sludge, Iron Maiden harmonies or driving Priest-type rhythms.”

Metal Allegiance wrote their eponymous album during two one-week sessions in the winter of 2015. Some numbers, like “Pledge of Allegiance” and “Scars,” were as simple and comfortable as a well-worn pair of Converse, while the angular Iron-Maiden-Meets-Rush instrumental “Triangulum – I. Creation, II. Evolution, III. Destruction” and the Shinedown-crossed-with-Slayer maleficence of “Wait Until Tomorrow” were more challenging. “Every day we woke up with a mission,” says Skolnick. “Dave and I would grab our coffee, pick up our instruments and start bouncing ideas off one another.”

Once Metal Allegiance had a batch of songs ready, they put together a dream list of guest soloists and singers, and Skolnick took on the role of executive producer, working with the vocalists and guitarists to create passages that complimented the songs. The result is a collaboration album that sounds neither rushed nor cobbled together from recycled riffs. Leads from Holt (Exodus), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Andreas Kisser (Sepultura), Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Ben Weinman (Dillinger Escape Plan) and Misha Mansoor (Periphery), don’t just fill space, they enhance the songs, as do vocals by Blythe, Sanders, Anselmo, Osegueda, Matt Heafy (Trivium), Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) and others.

A couple hours before checking out of Winery Dogs Camp, Skolnick and Ellefson explain the history of Metal Allegiance, discuss their own metal backgrounds and share some poignant moments they experienced with Dave Mustaine, Pantera and Taylor Swift’s backing band.

GUITAR WORLD: What was the first metal band to make an impression on you?

DAVE ELLEFSON The definitive metal record for me was Judas Priest’s Unleashed in the East. I was 15 years old. It looked dangerous, it felt scary. I turned it down when my parents were in the room and I turned it up when they left, which is always a pretty good qualifier. If your parents hate it, it’s probably awesome.

ALEX SKOLNICK I found a used British punk rock compilation album featuring bands like Generation X. But for some reason the record also had a song by Motörhead. I noticed they sounded completely different from all the others and I liked the power and intensity of it.

Motörhead were the one of the most important—if not the most important—bands for the development of thrash.

SKOLNICK I liked them, but then I heard Accept’s “Fast as a Shark.” And I think that one song had more impact on thrash metal than many songs by bands more aligned with the scene. “Fast as a Shark” influenced everybody. Until I heard that song, I didn’t realize you could play something with Motörhead’s energy and the virtuosic guitar work of Randy Rhoads. Then when I started going to club shows in the Bay Area I discovered Exodus, who played out a lot, and were even heavier. One night they had a band on the bill called Slayer. They did what Motörhead did, but it was darker. The San Francisco gig they did with Exodus was legendary. Slayer had makeup on, and Gary Holt said, “You guys are awesome, but the makeup’s gotta go.” The next time they came through town they were more like the Slayer we know today.

Did you see Exodus and Slayer before you heard Metallica?

SKOLNICK Yes. Metallica was just another one of these bands. I had heard their name, but there were so many groups around at the time. The first time I saw them was on the Kill ’Em All tour at The Stone, and I thought, Wow, this band must be a big deal because this is the most crowded I have ever seen this place.

Dave, what was your first exposure to thrash?

ELLEFSON When I first met Dave Mustaine in L.A. in June 1983, two months after Metallica parted ways with him. He lived right up above me. We met and started Megadeth later that month. The defining moment came when he played me Metallica’s No Life Til Leather demo that he was on.

Everyone from Gene Simmons to Lemmy says they started playing in a band to score chicks. Did you share that motivation?

ELLEFSON I was too young to know about girls. I got my bass at 11. Girls scared me. I think my first girlfriend broke up with me in sixth grade because I wouldn’t kiss her. Fast forward a little bit, and I did notice as a teenager that when girls started coming into their own and blossoming they instinctively gravitated toward the danger of rock and roll and musicians—not all girls, but the bad girls, for sure. And then I started to believe that sometimes the best girl is the bad girl. So my eyes got opened to that and there were certainly plenty of bad girls around in the early days. But eventually you realize that tomorrow when you’re gone they’ll find other guys in other bands. That’s when you re-evaluate what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with.

SKOLNICK I was really young too when I started playing. I was 10 years old and very introverted. Even if girls were around I couldn’t talk to them. I was literally in my twenties before I could have a functional conversation with a pretty female. I was never into the groupie thing. I pretty much kept to myself.

The roots of Metal Allegiance date back to April 2011 at Sam Ash Music when many musicians were in California for the first U.S. Big 4 concert.

ELLEFSON Back then the band was called Metal Masters. Mark Menghi used to work at Hartke/Sampson and he said to me, “I want you and [Anthrax bassist] Frank Bello to do some clinics together.” Then Mark said, “Let’s bring in Charlie Benante and Mike Portnoy before the Indio Big 4 show and everyone can jam.” That was the first Metal Masters. It’s nice that Charlie plays guitar, and that’s why we made sure he played guitar on the record. From there, we did shows on an annual basis. Then in July of last year Mark called me up and said, “I was just talking to Portnoy about some future plans.” And I said, “Dude, the one thing we shouldn’t let go of is Metal Masters.” Two days later Mark called me back and said, “I just trademarked the name Metal Allegiance. We’re ready to go.” Suddenly, Megadeth pulled off the Motörboat cruise [because Dave Mustaine needed time to recover from back surgery] and since all these musicians were going to be on the boat anyway, I said, “Look, if we can put a Metal Allegiance show together, we can have a fun event that metal fans can enjoy.” Alex, you played a huge role in creating the Metal Allegiance album but you were actually a latecomer to the project.SKOLNICK I’m still sort of taking it in. I knew about Metal Masters, but I was always out of town when they played so I was never able to be part of the shows until Motörboat, which was less than a year ago. The whole thing is a happy accident. ELLEFSON The second night of the cruise we wanted to change up the set and Alex was sitting about two feet away from me. Someone said, “Hey dude, we don’t want to leave you out. You wanna join in?” We basically did side one of Van Halen. It was me, Alex, Portnoy and Bello, Benante and Scott Ian from Anthrax. We walked up and just winged it. The response from fans was, “God, it’s fun to see you guys being fans, too.” A couple songs on Metal Allegiance recall Pantera, who held the metal torch aloft throughout the Nineties. When did you first meet them?ELLEFSON It was 1988. A girl I was going out with at the time was from Dallas and she introduced us. We went out drinking. And right as we were getting ready to wrap it up for the night, Dime stops, looks me in the eye and says, “Dude, I just want to tell you Peace Sells changed my life.” I still get goosebumps thinking about that. The next night they played this bar and did half covers and half originals. And they had me come up onstage with them and play “Peace Sells.” Fast-forward a few months; we were looking for a guitarist and I said to Dave, “What about Diamond Darrell.” So Dave reached out to Dime and Dime says, “Look, with me comes my brother Vinnie. We’re a team.” Chuck Behler was our drummer at the time and we weren’t looking to replace him. So that didn’t work out. But that’s fine because we did great and look what happened to Pantera.SKOLNICK I saw them at that same club around the same time. Testament were making our second record and we heard about this local band. They were very familiar with us and knew all our songs. We jammed with them and it was a lot of fun. A couple years later I was listening to the radio and I went, “Hey, that sounds like that bar band that was really good.” The rest is history.ELLEFSON For Dime to tell me Peace Sells changed his life, that’s a perfect example of a musician being influenced by Megadeth and then going on and doing his own thing that didn’t sound like a Megadeth rip-off. SKOLNICK I experienced that with Lamb of God. I wrote a lot of the single-note stuff for Testament, like “Into the Pit.” Lamb of God took the riff from “Into the Pit” and did their own thing with it [on “Laid to Rest.”] I can hear the influence, but what they did is so different and I love it.ELLEFSON Some say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. To me the greatest form of flattery is when somebody is influenced by our music and then they go and do something completely different with it. I met these musicians in church who play liturgical songs, and they told me they grew up on Megadeth and Metallica. I was blown away.SKOLNICK At this last NAMM show I had two very clean-cut guys who looked like they could be in a men’s catalog come up to me and say, “Can we get pictures with you? We’re huge fans.” I said, “Sure, what do you guys do?” And they said, “Oh, we play for Taylor Swift.” They were her guitarist and bassist.Did you know from the start that Metal Allegiance would have a great writing chemistry?ELLEFSON We didn’t have any idea what it was going to be like because none of us had ever written together before. We had a prog dude, an uber-shred dude and a thrash metal bass dude and Mark Menghi, who was the first one to light us up if we deviated from all things metal. SKOLNICK It was cool because we turned all these ideas we came up with into real songs that we love. There are all these guys online writing in the gutter of the comment section of metal web sites: “This is gonna suck. These guys don’t know how to write songs.” No, we actually do. You have no idea what you’re talking about and you’re about to find out.ELLEFSON We pushed out “You Can’t Kill the Devil” to get some excitement brewing for the record. And when that got out there a lot of the haters got real quiet. You are all still in other bands. Does that make it difficult to book gigs for Metal Allegiance?ELLEFSON One thing we decided early on is that no one can cling to Metal Allegiance as their band. Metal Allegiance is designed to bring the metal community together. And when people start to get too invested in leaving their claw marks on stuff things sometimes get destroyed. Our whole philosophy is hold on loose and enjoy the ride and be a part of it when you can. If you can’t, don’t sweat it. We’ve got a sub. We’re two and three deep on the bench in every position. Metal Allegiance is greater than the sum of its parts. And I think that’s how it will continue to grow.Metal Allegiance AxologyALEX SKOLNICK
GUITARS ESP Alex Skolnick in Silver Sunburst, Gibson Les Paul 1960 Gold Top
PICKUPS Seymour Duncan Custom Pickups
STRINGS D'Addario NYXL .011–.052
PICKS Dunlop
AMPS Budda Amplification AS Preceptor, '68 Marshall Plexi
EFFECTS ToneConcepts Distillery, Jam Pedals TubeDreamer 88DAVE ELLEFSON
BASSES Modulus Quantum 5 with EMG pickups, early Nineties Fender Precision Bass with rosewood fingerboard and EMG PJ pickups, ESP four-string bass with maple fingerboard
STRINGS SIT Power Wound Nickel
PICKS Dunlop Tortex .88
AMPS Ampeg B15 flip-top with 15-inch speaker
EFFECTS Morley Wah pedal, Peterson and Planet Waves bass tuners

BackStory, a series of curated live, feature-length interviews with iconic artists and musicians, announces metal heavyweights David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogs), Alex Skolnick (Testament) and Mark Menghi of Metal Allegiance as upcoming guests for an exclusive live interview focusing on the band’s self-titled debut album, and much more.

The interview will take place on the album’s launch date, September 18 at AOL studios in New York City. Tickets are now available for purchase.

Metal Allegiance’s upcoming self-titled album is as pulverizing, energetic, atmospheric, and awe-inspiring as fans of the jaw-dropping list of associated bands should expect. Metal Allegiance contains appearances by Philip H. Anselmo, Charlie Benante, Chuck Billy, D. Randall Blythe, Rex Brown, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Phil Demmel, David Ellefson, Alissa White-Gluz, Matthew K. Heafy, Gary Holt, Jamey Jasta, Chris Jericho, Andreas Kisser, Misha Mansoor, Mark Osegueda, Tim “Ripper” Owens, dUg Pinnick, Mike Portnoy, Troy Sanders, Cristina Scabbia, Alex Skolnick, Steve “Zetro” Souza and Ben Weinman.

Founder Mark Menghi describes his relationship with Ellefson, Portnoy and Skolnick in terms of brotherhood – and it was those four who buckled down to write the first batch of original, all-new material for the Metal Allegiance album. More about Metal Allegiance at metalallegiance.com.

Hosted by legendary music journalist Brad Tolinski, the BackStory event on September 18 will allow guests to enjoy a seat at an exclusive, career-spanning live interview. Each ticket includes a seat in the studio audience, the new Metal Allegiance CD, a meet-and-greet with the four core members, and complementary beverages.

BackStory kicked off in mid-June with guitar and production mastermind Nile Rodgers, who discussed his two-day, all-star event, FreakOut! Let’s Dance Festival, and continued with guitar icon Joe Satriani in July, who talked about his latest release, Shockwave Supernova. Upcoming events include launches with The Zombies, Timbaland and more.

The BackStory live interview series is produced by Tolinski and Laura B. Whitmore. Best known as the editor-in-chief of Guitar World Magazine for 25 years, Tolinski is a respected journalist and the author of Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page. Throughout his career, Tolinski has skillfully interviewed hundreds of musicians and plays guitar, violin and mandolin himself. Whitmore is a respected music industry marketer, the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, a journalist and editor and a singer/songwriter.

To find out more or purchase tickets to BackStory events, go to backstoryevents.com.

Simply put, howcast.com is a website that shows you how to do things.

If you visit its homepage right now, you'll find stories on "How to Use Coupons," "How to Take Care of Small & Exotic Pets" and our favorite, "How to Do Popular Club Dancing Moves."

And yes, the site also hosts videos on "How to Shred" (That's shredding on the guitar as opposed to your summer internship shredding paper in your uncle's accounting office). Testament guitarist and Guitar World friend Alex Skolnick stars in the site's "How to Shred" clip, which was posted earlier this summer, so we thought we'd share it below.

Hey, good advice is good advice!

Note: It seems there isn't any tab associated with the video.

For more information, head here or here.

"Alex, take us out!"

And so begins one of Alex Skolnick's shred showcases on last weekend's edition of That Metal Show.

You can check out Skolnick's solo in the video below.

As we reported earlier, Season 14 of That Metal Show consists of (a total of) 12 episodes and are being shot at New York City's Metropolis Studios Tuesday nights for broadcast the following Saturday on VH1 Classic. Tickets for upcoming tapings are available via Gotham Casting.

More guests will be announced in the near future!

Season 14 marks the return of several fun segments, including “Metal Modem,” “TMS Top 5,” “Rank” and “Take It or Leave It.” The “Stump the Trunk” segment, where audience members go out of their way to test host Eddie Trunk’s knowledge, is also returning for the new season.

Fans can watch previous episodes and bonus clips at ThatMetalShow.VH1.com and on the new VH1 app.

For more information about That Metal Show, visit vh1.com and follow That Metal Show on Facebook.

Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen of the Winery Dogs have announced Dog Camp 2015, their second-annual immersive program for aspiring musicians of all ages and levels. It's set for July 27 to 31 at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York.

This year's Dog Camp also will feature bassist Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) and guitarist Alex Skolnick (Testament, Rodrigo Y Gabriela).

Here are comments from the Winery Dogs and their Dog Camp guests:

Alex Skolnick: "I'm greatly looking forward to appearing as a guest instructor for my friends the Winery Dogs, guys who prove that serious players of their instruments can rock as hard as anyone. Having co-hosted a camp at Full Moon in the past, I know firsthand that it's a perfect location for combining the focus of a learning intensive with the fun of a vacation.”

Mike Portnoy: "We’ve all done clinics over the years, but it’s always been something that’s primarily centered around one instrument that each of us has typically done on an individual basis. Dog Camp is the first time any of us have hosted or participated in a true band camp. As a result of that, we’ve got some incredible surprises in store for everybody attending.”

Richie Kotzen: “What's interesting is to talk about music, concepts, objectives, reasons why you're playing the instrument, what you want to achieve, and how to get to that point, rather than talking about major versus minor scales. I love that feeling of sharing concepts with people. In The Winery Dogs, we all have various experiences that a lot of other people don't have. It's an opportunity to share that and grow; the feeling of moving forward and learning and experiencing something new. That's what excites me about Dog Camp. It's the creative process and creativity that make me want to do music, and I want to share that."

Billy Sheehan: "I want to emphasize that players should keep an eye on what we're doing and why during the performances. In between songs or mid-song, I want to stop to make a point about what's going on and why. The expertise of being able to play ensemble is a bit of a lost art with kids today. They don't do what we did when we were growing up. Right away, we just got in a band whether we could play or not. Now, kids want to get up to a level of expertise and then join a band."

You can check out Dave Ellefson's comments in the top video below.

Produced by Dreamcatcher Events, this vacation experience offers the opportunity to get up close and personal with music legends as campers attend instrument-specific clinics, learn songwriting mechanics and enjoy intimate performances and jam sessions.

Look for the daily itinerary for Dog Camp to be announced in the coming weeks. Registrations for Dog Camp are on sale now at winerydogcamp.com.

Fans of Alex Skolnick’s shredding in Testament might be shocked by his new album, Planetary Coalition, a collaborative world-music project driven by Skolnick’s crystalline, beatific acoustic guitar and assimilationist composing skills.

But it’s not a case of a metal jaguar changing his spots; Skolnick is simply displaying all of them for the first time.

“With respect to all other projects I’ve been involved in, this album best represents who I am as an individual artist,” he says. “Sure, I love playing heavy electric guitar, but this is me directing, composing, producing and playing acoustic guitar on every one of these 14 tracks. I’ve always had a strong relationship with the acoustic guitar; it’s just not the instrument I’ve had a high profile with.”

Even while taking lessons with Joe Satriani in his teens, Skolnick was falling under the spell of acoustic guitar in a world-music context. Sources included the recordings of John McLaughlin’s Anglo-Indian supergroup Shakti and tracks like the Al Di Meola/Paco de Lucia duet “Mediterranean Sundance,” from Di Meola’s influential 1977 album, Elegant Gypsy, as well as Eddie Van Halen’s “Spanish Fly.”

But starting in 1985, when Skolnick joined Testament at age 16, his investment in metal yielded dividends. Testament’s casual fans might not know that after Skolnick left the band in 1993 and performed with Savatage and Ozzy Osbourne, he relocated from his native Berkley, California, to New York City to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Besides forming the jazz-rooted Alex Skolnick Trio and reuniting with Testament in 2005, he’s worked as a sideman. His gigs have included tours with vocalist Ishtar, of the French-based band Alabina, as well as Egyptian artist Nader Sadek and Jewish folksinger Debbie Friedman. Skolnick also pasted down a solo for guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela’s 2009 smash album, 11:11.

Living in Brooklyn’s cultural melting pot helped, too. For one thing, Skolnick’s collection of music from Turkey, Greece, Spain, Cuba, China, France and elsewhere grew, which in turn provided inspiration for the music on Planetary Coalition. At the same time, the city provided him with greater access to musicians from those climes.

In 2012, Skolnick debuted a performing version of his Planetary Coalition band at the annual Make Music New York Festival, sponsored by Guitar World. But recording the Planetary Coalition album was more complicated. Most of the songs were cut live at Spin Studios in Long Island City, which required Herculean scheduling.

“I wanted to capture the energy that happens when musicians play together, and real performances are an inherent part of the traditional cultures the music on this album represents,” Skolnick explains. “The biggest obstacles were being able to write in all the styles represented convincingly—each form required many hours of dedicated study so I could compose authentically—and getting 26 musicians from around the world into the studio.”

There were lucky breaks, like when Rodrigo y Gabriela got a day off after appearing on Letterman and joined Skolnick to record the furious “Playa La Ropa,” which pits his flamenco-fired steel-string Martin JC-16 against their nylon strings.

Dropbox did the rest, even helping Skolnick cross a war zone by allowing Palestinian oudist Adnan Jouban to collaborate digitally with Skolnick on the richly textured “Rock of Ramallah,” which features Skolnick’s only ripping outburst of electric guitar, followed by “Negev Desert Sunset,” which features Israeli percussionist Gadi Seri. At the opposite end of the sonic spectrum is the gently hypnotic “Alla La K’e,” where Skolnick and vocalist/kora master Yocouba Sissoka spin gorgeously swirling lines around a traditional Malian melody.

“I’m not doing this for any reason other than to create something that’s beautiful,” Skolnick says. “All of these musicians are wonderful people and great collaborators, and they’re proof that boundaries—musical or otherwise—don’t need to exist.”

AXOLOGY
GUITARS Yamaha NCX200R, Martin JC-16, Yamaha LJX26C, ESP Alex Skolnick Signature Model, Godin Inuk 11-string
AMP Budda AS Preceptor Signature Model
EFFECT Tone Concepts Distillery
STRINGS/PICKS D’Addario EXP26 steel acoustic (.011–.053), Pro Arté nylon (.028–.043), NYXL electrics (.011–.049), Dunlop Ultex picks

Photo: Javier Villegas

What do you like? Something rockin’? Sweet or introspective? Masterful or mournful?

Whatever your preference, 2014 delivered.

We’ve listened to a huge amount of music throughout the year, and picking favorites is hard.

But we owe it to you to steer you toward some that stuck with us.

Wanna hear some good stuff…read, and listen, on!

John Butler Trio - Flesh and Blood

I’m not gonna lie. I am strongly biased when it comes to John Butler. His 2014 release Flesh and Blood maybe just be the perfect album.

Masterfully written, and even more amazingly performed, Flesh and Blood showcases the unlimited potential of this fun-loving guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Flesh & Blood is the John Butler Trio's sixth studio album, and you should listen. Really.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Butler and of seeing him play live. Not only did he and the trio blow me away, they were just so incredibly in the moment, and willing to stick their necks out to go in new directions.

More at http://johnbutlertrio.com

Beck - Morning Phase

12 years ago Beck released his breakup opus with Sea Change.

A set of heartrending songs written after ending a relationship up with his longtime girlfriend, the album is viewed as a classic in the Beck repertoire, and I wouldn’t be the first to call it the breakup album of the 00’s.

This year, Beck gave us Morning Phase, the 2014 companion piece to Sea Change. Like its predecessor, Morning Phase hits hard emotionally, mixing dusty acoustic guitars with moody orchestral arrangements (contributed by Beck’s father, David Campbell).

Having a bad day? It’s the perfect record to soak in at full volume while sinking into your couch. 12 albums in, and Beck’s output is as creative and honest as ever.

More at www.beck.com

The Belle Brigade - Just Because

I was first introduced to The Belle Brigade through the track “Losers,” which if you haven’t heard, is a true anthem among anthems.

A Simon & Garfunkel-tinged folk/pop release, the band’s self-titled album was great, but their 2014 offering Just Because shows the breadth of this brother/sister duo’s ability to pen great pop songs and present them in sonically fascinating ways.

A standout on Just Because is “Likely To Use Something,” a track that should be raking in the licensing dough for this band (I can imagine hearing it on pretty much any TV drama or movie these days).

Simply put, Just Because is the sound of a band with intention. Every detail—from a chord change, to a distorted bass line, to a random percussion sound—is placed with the utmost thought and care.

More at www.thebellebrigade.com

Richard Thompson - Acoustic Classics

Richard Thompson’s studio-recorded Acoustic Classics offers a wholesome compilation of newly recorded songs, which were carefully selected from Thompson’s 40-year repertoire to reflect the intimate nature of his live shows.

• The album features 14 tracks (all but one written by Thompson), with lilting guitar,
• a soothing sense of nostalgia, and songwriting that tugs at the heartstrings – all in true Thompson fashion.

Acoustic Classics is laden with gems, but tracks that stand out include “When the Spell Is Broken,” “Beeswing,” and “I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight.” Plus, how cool is that album cover?

More at www.richardthompson-music.com

Rodrigo y Gabriela - 9 Dead Alive

Rodrigo y Gabriela’s 9 Dead Alive is a well-thought-out masterpiece with nine tracks that each pay homage to a figure in history who has died, but whose legacy lives on in the 21st century (hence the name 9 Dead Alive).

That concept alone is fantastic, and when you listen to the music it only gets better.

Packed with a punch, the album celebrates the lives of people like Spanish guitarist Antonio de Torres Jurado with track “The Soundmaker;” Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky with “The Russian Messenger;” and even animals and nature with “Torito.”

This album is the perfect convergence of history and music, and certainly deserves a spot in your playlist – especially if you like rock-focused nylon string guitar.

More at http://www.rodgab.com

Ed Sheeran - X

Armed with tender vocals and his trusty Martin Guitar, British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran offers nothing but raw talent in his second studio album X (read as multiply).

Throughout the 12 tracks, Sheeran takes listeners through a wide range of styles including heartfelt ballads like “Photograph” and “One;” groovy hip-hop in “Sing” and “The Man;” and straight-out pop in “I’m a Mess” and “Tenerife Sea.”

It’s truly like a box of chocolates because each song brings a pleasant an unexpected surprise and shift in styles.

In X, not only does Sheeran display extreme dexterity on the guitar, but also a refreshing talent as a singer-songwriter - which goes to show he’s extraordinarily versatile and a veritable bad-ass worthy of all the recognition he can get.

More at http://edsheeran.com

LP - Forever For Now

Okay, so Forever For Now is not technically fully acoustic but since LP’s main instrument is ukulele, I say it counts.

The petite LP is so full of talent and power, so smartly artistic, that you can’t help but be inspired.

Her melodic direction is unique. And truthfully her monster range makes it hard to sing along, but so what! Plus, she throws in a tuneful whistle riff throughout. What can this woman not do?!

Favorite cuts include “Night Like This,” “Into The Wild,” and the grand “Tokyo Sunrise.”

Can’t wait to see where this artist goes next…

More at www.iamlp.com

Alex Skolnick - Planetary Coalition

You might have heard of Skolnick from his escapades with the metal band Testament and later with his jazz trio.

Now Skolnick has gone in a new and exciting direction with his acoustic-focused project, Planetary Coalition. The collective’s first release, simply named Planetary Coalition, includes an impressive array of 27 musicians from around the world.

Multi-cultural and incredibly musical, Skolnick has somehow brought together a variety of musical influences, interesting instrumentation and intricate rhythms for a wholly enjoyable experience.

If you have a chance to see the Coalition live, grab it!

More at http://planetarycoalition.com

David Gray - Mutineers

Somehow David Gray’s Mutineers made it into the iTunes library on my iPhone. When I plug into my car charger, his “As The Crow Flies” kicks off due to its alphabetical advantage. Masterfully written, this album is packed chock-full of original ideas interpreted in memorable ways.

Gray seems to be comfortable reinventing himself and Mutineers is a worthy fruit of his disruptive methods. Smart and singable, what more could you want?

From the ebullient single “Back in the World Again,” to the esoteric and gritty “Gulls” and far beyond, this well-rounded album is a worthy listen.

More at http://www.davidgray.com/

Better Than Ezra - All Together Now

The single, “Crazy Lucky” off of Better Than Ezra’s release All Together Now was one of my favorite songs of the year and maybe of all time! Intelligently written, catchy as hell, and expertly executed.

All Together Now is the band’s eighth studio album that was produced by Grammy nominated mixer/producer Tony Hoffer (Fitz and the Tantrums, M83, Beck, Silversun Pickups).

Themed around chance, the album spins out from the serendipity-marveling “Crazy Lucky” into reflective, if relatable, fare such as the vibratory, folk-inflected “Insane,” the falsetto-kissed “One Heart Beating,” and the more sprawling “The Great Unknown.”

This video was constructed from fan submissions relating to their craziest and luckiest moments. Super cool all around.

More at www.betterthanezra.com

In this brand-new video, Guitar World's Paul Riario — armed with a Charvel Jake E. Lee signature model guitar — hits the gritty streets of New York City with D'Addario's new NYXL strings.

The goal? To put NYXL strings into the hands of New Yorkers (and a superhero or two) to see if the strings really do "allow you to strum harder, stay in tune better and bend further."

Several guest stars — from Testament's Alex Skolnick to the Naked Cowboy to Spiderman to guitarist Wayne Krantz — seem to agree the strings hold up to the test!

For more information about D'Addario's NYXL strings, visit nyxlstory.com.

Alex Skolnick is among a few guitarists who have achieved multigenre success and acclaim, first as a wild young gun with the iconic metal thrash band Testament, and then as a tasteful and technically impressive jazzbo with the Alex Skolnick Trio.

In recent years, he has become something of a vintage guitar enthusiast. So when ESP approached him about building a signature guitar with his name on it, Skolnick was skeptical that a modern company could create a guitar capable of matching the refined sounds of aged classics.

ESP met this lofty challenge and, after rigorous testing by the man himself, is now offering the Alex Skolnick signature model. I tested the budget-friendly AS-1FM LB, which differs in some details to the high-end version but otherwise offers the same bold response, unblemished build quality and significant tonal versatility.

Features: Make no mistake, the Skolnick signature plank is absolutely a modern-built vintage guitar. Forget about weight-relieving contours and thin necks—this is a thick guitar. Elements of ESP’s Eclipse model are evident in the styling, but its design otherwise harkens back to the roots of great guitar building, demonstrating why it’s so hard to beat the tonal matchup of a thick, single-cut mahogany body topped with flamed maple and married to a beefy but oh-so-comfortable U-shaped mahogany neck.

Contemporary performance-enhancing elements include a TonePros locking Tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece, precise Grover tuners, Dunlop Straploks and extra-jumbo frets. The Seymour Duncan SH-4 (bridge) and SH-1 (neck) humbuckers have dedicated volume knobs but share the master tone pot, which can be pulled to coil split the neck pickup.

Performance: If handed the ESP Skolnick guitar while blindfolded, I might easily assume it to be a true vintage piece, not just for the Fifties-style neck shape and overall weight but also because of its immediacy and loud acoustic response, which brings to my mind the last few chord blasts from the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” It delivers equally powerful spikes in the low and high mids rather than the centered-midrange focus that makes so many all-mahogany guitars sound similar. This opens the top end beyond mahogany’s typically mellow range, making it highly capable of screaming treble harmonics, pick chirps and serious punch.

Both Duncan pickups are well matched to the Skolnick’s tone, offering enhanced lows and searing treble from the bridge bucker and clear but warm neutrality from the neck pickup. Single-coil tones from the tapped neck pickup are surprisingly snappy and sparkling, yet sound almost like a smooth semihollow when the tone is rolled off.

List Price: $1,356
Manufacturer: The ESP Guitar Company, espguitars.com

Cheat Sheet:
The chunky 24 3/4–inch-scale mahogany neck is deep but not wide in the hand, with enough mass to transfer rich blasts of volume and resonance into the loud-ringing mahogany body.

Pulling the tone pot taps the neck pickup into single-coil mode, ideal for blues, classic rock and old-time jazz tonalities.

The Bottom Line: Mirroring Alex Skolnick’s vast musical range and evolved taste, the economical ESP’s LTD AS-1FM LB signature guitar is a true multi-genre instrument that’s capable of delivering world-class acoustic response, impressive volume and versatility.

Guitar World’s Acoustic Nation is excited to announce the performance acts for this year’s Make Music NY Mass Appeal: Guitars event.

Taking place on June 21, 2014 in Union Square Park from 4pm to 7pm, this FREE event is also co-hosted by the NYC Guitar School and sponsored by Martin Guitars and Tech 21.

Mass Appeal: Guitars begins at 4:00pm with check in and run-throughs of the play-along songs.

Guests can also sign up for a chance to win a Martin D-28 guitar, which will be given away on site at the close of the event.

The winner must be present.

The first featured performance begins at 4:45pm with Alex Skolnick and his world music act, Planetary Coalition, including some special surprise guests! Perhaps best known for his role in the celebrated metal band Testament, this project shows another side of this masterful player. Planetary Coalition is an ethnically flavored collective of diverse musicians that is funded through ArtistShare and features musicians and musical influences from all over the world. More at AlexSkolnick.com and http://artistshare.com/v4/Projects/Experience/325/439/1

Then at 5:30pm the play-along begins with songs ranging from Imagine Dragon’s “Radioactive” to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and many more. The songs will be lead by local players such as Acoustic Nation editor Laura B. Whitmore, Jay Moran from VH1, NYC artist Dorit, NYC Guitar School instructors and more. Bring your guitar and play along! Full details and song information can be found at http://www.meetup.com/mass-appeal-guitars/events/183148802/

The final featured performance will get underway at 6:00pm featuring Wise Girl. Wise Girl’s sound combines indie and pop with a touch of folk for a sound that draws influences from classic ’60s pop groups like The Drifters and The Supremes, both favorites of frontwoman Abby Weitz. The band is about to release their forthcoming sophomore EP Sing Me To Sleep on July 1. Find out more about this exciting and energetic act at http://www.wisegirlmusic.com

The event will conclude with the announcement of the Martin Guitar winner and a final rousing play along lead by Wise Girl!

Grab your guitar and join us for this FREE event on June 21. More at http://www.meetup.com/mass-appeal-guitars/events/183148802/

Mass Appeal: Guitars is supported by Martin Guitars and Tech 21 with special thanks to Hal Leonard, Guitar Center and NAMM.

Earlier this week, D’Addario introduced its NYXL electric guitar strings — what the company considers the next generation of strings.

To celebrate the occasion, D’Addario hosted a star-studded launch party May 1 at the Carle Place Guitar Center in Long Island, New York.

The event featured performances by Vernon Reid, Robben Ford, Oz Noy, Earl Slick, Alex Skolnick and Guthrie Trapp — and you can check out a video from the event below. Attendees got the chance to meet the artists, hear from Jim D’Addario, win prizes, re-string their guitars and more.

“There have been only two meaningful generations of round wound electric guitar strings,” D’Addario says. “The original formula, originating in the 1950s, used pure nickel, creating a characteristically mellow sound. In the early sixties, my father, John D’Addario Sr., introduced a brighter-sounding, second-generation nickel-plated steel string, which became the industry standard for the next five decades. Today, 80 percent of all electric guitar strings are based on his formula.”

From the company:

D’Addario NYXL electric guitar strings have been re-engineered from the ball end up. No string has ever offered this level of stability. Torture tests prove that NYXL strings stay in tune 131 percent better, so guitar players don’t waste time tuning and can start playing sooner.

Starting with the selection of new high-carbon steel alloys, D’Addario engineers completely re-imagined the wire drawing process and revolutionized the corrosion-resistant tin coating application. The result is unprecedented strength and pitch stability.

In addition, these strings have been designed to bend farther and sing louder. The reformulated nickel-plated steel alloy boosts amplitude, modernizing the overall tone without losing that well-loved nickel-plated steel feel. With 6 percent more magnetic permeability for higher output, NXYL electric guitar strings offer more punch, crunch, and bite.

“The name of these strings, NYXL, is also an important distinction for us; our family and company have a rich history in New York,” adds Mr. D’Addario. “Our new steel wire has been formulated, created, crafted, and perfected here in the Empire State. We are proud of our New York legacy, and even prouder that all of our strings originate at our Long Island home.”

For more information, visit nyxlstory.com. And, of course, check out the three videos below!

Videos, from top to bottom:

• Video from the May 1 NYXL launch event featuring guitarists Vernon Reid, Robben Ford, Oz Noy, Earl Slick, Alex Skolnick and Guthrie Trapp.

• D’Addario's official product video about NYXL strings

• Jim D’Addario is interviewed on Bloomberg TV.

The Guitar World crew visited the ESP Guitars room at the 2014 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

We were introduced to several new guitars from the company, including the new Alex Skolnick models from both ESP and LTD, plus the brand-new ESP USA series, which includes the Eclipse, Horizon and other models.

From ESP:

The ESP Guitar Company has announced the opening of its first-ever USA-based factory. The new ESP USA factory is in North Hollywood, California, a short distance from the company’s USA headquarters.

“This is a significant milestone for ESP,” says Matt Masciandaro, ESP president. “For years there has been a demand for a domestic factory, allowing us to create guitars that are 100 percent made in the U.S. We’re very excited about the new opportunities for ESP dealers and new choices for our customers.”

For more information, visit espguitars.com — and check out GuitarWorld.com's feature on the new ESP USA Series.

[[ Guitar World at NAMM 2014: Gear updates, photo galleries, videos and more! ]]

Some of ESP’s most high-profile endorsees have helped create new ESP, E-II and LTD Signature Series guitars and basses, all of which are making their debut at the 2014 Winter NAMM Show.

“ESP’s artist endorsees are among the most respected and influential musicians in contemporary music, and our Signature Series models offer the look, feel and sound that they specify in their own instruments,” says Matt Maciandaro, ESP president.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated new Signature Series model for 2014 is the James Hetfield (Metallica) Iron Cross in Snow White finish, available as both an ESP model and a more budget-conscious LTD version.

Metallica’s other guitarist, Kirk Hammett, along with ESP and Lugosi Enterprises, adds his name to the LTD KH-WZ White Zombie, a new limited-edition addition to the LTD Graphic Series.

Acclaimed multi-genre virtuoso guitarist Alex Skolnick (Testament, AST) has helped design the ESP Alex Skolnick and LTD AS-1 guitars, making their debut at NAMM. Both guitars are available in Silver Sunburst finish, while the LTD version is also available in Lemon Drop with a flamed maple top.

ESP is now offering the signature guitar of legendary Rolling Stones/Faces guitarist Ron Wood in an affordable LTD version for the first time with the LTD Ron Wood, available in 3-Tone Burst and Black finishes.

Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman gets his first LTD Signature model for 2014 with the BW-1, a semi-hollow guitar with a flamed maple top and an EverTune bridge. An EverTune bridge is also on the 7-string LTD signature model of Ken Susi (Unearth), the KS-7.

ESP player Will Adler (Lamb of God) has had updates to the finishes of his signature models, the ESP Will Adler Warbird and the LTD SE Warbird, and Frédéric Leclercq of DragonForce has a new signature bass, the FL-204.

ESP’s new E-II brand is coming out of the shoot with new Signature models. Bassist Doris Yeh and guitarist Jesse Liu of Chthonic have new signature models with the E-II DYD-5 and the E-II JL-7 respectively. Elias Viljanen (Sonata Arctica) also has an E-II signature model, the 7-string EV-7.

Information on the 20 new LTD guitar models is available on ESP’s website, espguitars.com.