Like many guitarists of his generation, the guitar playing of Polyphia’s Scott LePage has been heavily impacted by video game music. “The original Starcraft might be the single most influential soundtrack to me,” he says. “Man, it takes you on a journey.”

Appearing on the rebooted soundtrack for the Cult of the Lamb video game, then, satisfies a lifelong dream. It doesn’t hurt that he features alongside Matt Heafy (Trivium), Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders/Mestis), Josh Baines (Malevolence) and Sean Long (While She Sleeps).

The game certainly has a metal backstory, revolving around a lamb who must repay a debt to a god-like stranger dubbed “The One Who Waits” by creating a cult in its name – and, naturally, defeating anyone who goes against it. It’s what video game fans would term a roguelike game, rooted in fantasy epics.

Producer Sam George (aka Pick Up Goliath) says the musical side of the project had a strange birth. An unnamed drummer “from a big American metal band” had contacted the Mammoth Sound Studio operator with the concept of giving the game’s music a more metallic garb. “Then,” says George, “they ghosted me.”

Determined not to let the idea fizzle out, he tapped up Monuments drummer Mike Malyan to help build the instrumental foundation before hand-picking an elite team of riff-slingers to bring it to life. Guitar World spoke to its all-star cast of guitarists.

What appealed to you about this project, and how did you approach it?

Matt Heafy: “Scoring video games is something I've always wanted to do since I played Doom when I was 11. Ashes from Ember to Inferno was inspired by Chrono Trigger; I wanted it to feel like I was in the star realm.

“I was able to look at the visuals, read some lore, hear the music, and then everything was pretty instantaneous, which was awesome. When true inspiration sparks on a collaboration, like it did on Chaos, it's magic.”

Sean Long: “Games hold a very deep place in my subconscious from when I was a child. I have a huge love for the influence they have on us. Any chance to be part of that experience, I’m in!”

Javier Reyes: “It was a fun opportunity to work on something outside my personal projects, put on a different creative hat and add my sound to the songs. The parts I was presented with had basic power chords with a melody going over it. I basically replaced the parts by combining the parts.

“I added a thumping riff that basically mimicked the melody and power chord parts simultaneously. I stayed within the rhythmic themes of each section; the selective picking part was me replaying the galloped guitar parts with selective picking. I don’t consider myself a very fast picker – selective picking is an excellent way of disguising my lack of speed.”

Josh Baines: “I’m so used to writing my own stuff from scratch; creating something new from a pre-existing composition was a challenge.”

Scott LePage: “I loved the idea of doing a remix album with a bunch of other artists, and this seemed a really fun way to get a feel for writing for video games. I really just wanted to express the main themes in a way I could perform them.

“In Cult, those melodies are so cool; I wanted to have them in whatever I wrote for it. A lot of this was making sure I kept the parts of the songs that people already loved, and redesigning them in my own way, so they could hear them in a new light.”

What are your thoughts on the other players on the EP?

Long: “I think what makes people great is the desire to do what they want, not what the crowd wants. When they do it with integrity you can hear it in their playing. Josh from Malevolence is making his style of playing into his own – he excites me because he has that fire within him that's going to take his band to the top.

“He has an original riff style that has been prominent even since we were kids playing barns together. For me, the more you someone sounds, the better.”

Baines: “I’d said yes before I even knew who else was involved, so it came as a massive surprise. It feels really good to be part of something with such high-caliber players… it’s like it was a mistake that I got asked!

“I grew up listening to Matt’s playing because Trivium was a gateway for me into the heavier stuff, and Javier’s creativity and technical ability is off the scale. I’m good friends with Sean – we’re from the same city. He’s developed a really cool signature style using Whammy pedals to create a synth sound with his guitar. Each and every player brings their own flavour; they’re the kind of players that boggle my mind.”

Reyes: “I didn’t get to directly work with Matt on Pestilence, but he’s a stellar player. I hear he’s a black belt in jiu jitsu so I’m gonna give him a 10 out of 10!”

How did the writing process compare to your parent bands?

LePage: “The songs were already written, so all I had to do was come up with a way to re-imagine the already awesome themes. When I’m writing for Polyphia, I like to try and fill as many elements; there’s a lot more freedom to take the song to a place you might not expect it to go.

“Plus I have three other dudes to write with, and we throw ideas around and rewrite each other’s parts all the time, so there are always tons of ideas on the board to grab from.”

Baines: “One of the main challenges was working with time signatures and keys I’m not as familiar with. Being forced to change up lick patterns and create new paths to unsuspecting chord changes made this project really fun and gave me a great sense of achievement.”

Reyes: “With AAL and Mestis, I’m trying to write complex riffs and use more abstract harmony; whereas with Pestilence, I just focused on adding a bit of my style to the existing music. I was really stoked about being able to work on a riff that worked well with the song and focused on what I believed the song needed.”

What gear did you use?

Long: “I used a profiled EVH Icon head, my Charvel San Dimas signature with EMG 57/66s, and a [Digitech] Whammy. EVH has taken the spot for my favourite riff amp these days so it’s a no-brainer for me.”

Baines: “I’m lucky enough to have gotten my first Ibanez LA Custom Shop. It was a huge deal to be recognised by Ibanez, so I want to use it and show it off as much as possible. I also used my MKH Epiphone Les Paul seven-string that was gifted to me by Matt last year, which I’m eternally grateful for.

“And I used a lot of the tones from my Heavy Artillery Quad Cortex tone pack and some Neural plugins too, mainly Gojira and Tim Henson.”

LePage: “I used my Ibanez KRYS10 and SLM10 for lead work, which are my two go-to guitars for bridge pickup leads and rhythms. For the heavy lower-tuned stuff I used the Meshuggah M80M beast of a guitar – that thing is always fun to play low stuff on.

“I used my Axe-Fx for the mega low-tuned stuff and a Quad Cortex for the leads, and Whammy. The Quad has a really good pitch block that automates pretty nicely and the Axe is really good at replicating what an amp should feel like in a panned hard left/right mix, if you can believe it!

“I went intentionally dark for the tones on Famine. There’s some more Whammy, a bunch of chorus-infused wah action, and tons of reverb and delay to create a nice dark atmosphere. I also used some post-EQ automation in the intro, which kinda makes it sound like a cat meowing.”

Scott and Sean, you both use a lot of Whammy pedal tricks in your songs.

Long: “Even though I never really planned or consciously tried to make the Whammy my sound, it just somehow is now. And when you hear me bend it in a particular way, it’s recognisable as me – which is pretty cool. Riffs can be written by anyone; so on Death I wanted a chance to try get some lead in to express myself and feel truly original.”

LePage: “I got my first Whammy pedal around the time I started working on Cult, so there was a lot experimenting that got infused with these songs. I’m using the Whammy to create a rhythm with the notes that get thrown up an octave when you activate it, but at weird spots, and keeping the pedal in toe position for some of those notes before I bring it back down to heel position.”

If you could have any of the other guys’ signature guitars, which one would you pick?

Reyes: “I’m pretty stoked about my ESP LTD JRV-8. It’s essentially a giant Strat-style guitar so the tone it creates is ideal for thumping and selective picking. For those, I generally run my pickup in the split position that gives it a sort of scooped tone along with a very slice-y top end that really helps to hear the string and fret sounds.”

Long: “I don’t care for guitars in that way – my love of the material side of it has subsided. Any guitar will do. Just let me make some music!”

Baines: “I’m an Ibanez guy so Scott LePage’s signature would be cool. But I just love playing and trying new guitars so I’d love to try them all. I’m envious of them all having a signature! Hint hint, Ibanez…”

• Cult of the Lamb: Hymn of the Unholy is streaming now. Vinyl and merch can be found at Devolver.

Many things can go wrong when you’re in a band. However, one of the worst, hands down, has to be finishing an entire record only to realize that all your guitar parts are slightly out of tune… meaning you have to re-record everything. This is exactly what happened to Trivium’s Matt Heafy during the recording of the band’s landmark album Ascendancy.

“We recorded and finished the entire record in drop D flat tuning,” Heafy tells Metal Hammer. “I remember coming to the studio and Jason [Suecof, producer] just had his head in his hands and he was like, ‘Oh no, no, no!’

“The whole record was slightly out of tune because that guitar wasn’t holding its pitch. So, we actually deleted everything, tuned the guitar up half a step, and redid the whole album again.”

Thankfully, their perseverance paid off. While Ascendency peaked at a modest No. 79 on the UK album charts when it was released in 2005, it topped the UK Rock & Metal Albums and even broke into the US Billboard 200.

Furthermore, it immediately received widespread critical acclaim, with singles Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr and Dying In Your Arms becoming instant classics.

“I’d got a copy of Ascendancy before it came out and we loved it,” Bullet For My Valentine's Matt Tuck, who also took part in Metal Hammer's interview, chimes in.

“It was fucking wild, for a bunch of kids to write that? Mad respect. I think I did a photoshoot with a Trivium t-shirt on, too. I like to think I played my part in sharing the word!”

The new issue of Metal Hammer is available now from Magazines Direct.

Matthew Kiichi Heafy is a giant of modern metal. He has been the frontman of Trivium for over 20 years, releasing 10 albums and headlining tours and festivals all over the world.

He also has a black metal side project called Ibaraki, and has made numerous guest appearances with other bands. This year, though, he has taken a completely new career step, releasing his debut masterclass through JTC Guitar.

In Modern Metal Masterclass, Matt shares the knowledge, skills and experience that he has built up over his long career. There are exercises, licks, stylistic demonstrations and plenty of long lessons. He even provides an in-depth warm-up and practice regime for metal vocals. Go on, guitar fans, have a go!

Heafy doesn’t consider himself a specialist lead player, describing his lead style as “neo-classical dad solos”. But he still covers a lot of musical ground, freely mixing rhythmically complex metal riffs with spicy chords, melody lines and a tasty bit of shred. We’ve selected three examples to give you a taste of modern metal, Heafy style.

Example 1

A fundamental aspect of the Heafy style (and modern metal in general) is downpicking. While alternate picking is the most efficient use of energy, there’s always a difference in tone and dynamics; downstrokes are more powerful, so it’s worth building your downpicking speed and agility as you gain so much extra impact.

Example 2

In common with many other 21st-century metal players, MKH occupies an interesting middle ground where riffs, rhythm and melodies blur together organically, sharing a lot of the same techniques.

This neoclassical flavoured pattern in drop D tuning using two D strings could be a solo excerpt or a sequencer-like riff.

Example 3

This riff straddles the rhythm and lead worlds. Take care with the first half of each phrase, because we’re switching quickly between eighth and 32nd notes. Use downstrokes for the powerchords and alternate picking for the quick blasts.

Hello, and welcome to Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist…

Unprocessed – Thrash

“The ultimate composite of everything Unprocessed has ever created,” and “a moment for modern guitar playing and the innovation of new playing styles” are just some of the phrases that have been attached to Thrash, the newest single from boundary-pushing German prog metal outfit, Unprocessed. 

The band talks the talk, but can they walk the walk? Well… yes, they most definitely can. Manuel Gardner Fernandes’ percussive slap-esque style, which is part Tim Henson and part Ichika Nito, somehow reaches new heights with a jaw-dropping display of sheer technicality. That whole palm-muted clean thrash passage from 2:10 onwards needs to be heard to be believed. (MO)

Wargasm – Bang Ya Head feat. Fred Durst

Whether you like it or not, the noughties are very much back – and after receiving praise from “nu metal daddies” like Jonathan Davis and Limp Bizkit, London duo Wargasm have secured a guest spot from Fred Durst himself. The fist-pumping chorus riff is pure RATM fury, but given the band’s ethos that “genre is dead”, there are plenty of electronic elements at play, too. It’s nu metal brought bang up to date. (MAB)

Big Thief – Born for Loving You 

Born For Loving You, the second standalone single from indie favorites Big Thief in 2023, is a somewhat restrained offering from the band, channelling late-’60s/early-’70s Dylan with a breezy country/folk gait. Both of the band’s guitarists, Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek, are capable of shredding like no one’s business, but here, the money’s in the melody, with a gorgeous lead refrain that swoons as much as the lovestruck Lenker does in the song’s lyrics. (JM)

'68 – Removed Their Hats

Forget your Black Keys, your White Stripes, your Royal Blood: ’68 are the heaviest blues-rock duo to ever plug in an octave pedal. Well, we say blues-rock, but while these riffs are indebted to the pentatonic scale, they’re delivered with all the frenzied energy of post-hardcore, and a sonic nastiness that goes far beyond vintage Fender amps – which makes them all the more exhilarating. (MAB)

Meet Me @ the Altar – Strangers 

Meet Me @ the Altar guitarist Téa Campbell told Guitar World earlier this year that she's a frequent user of “Dave Grohl’s Kemper tone” and, indeed, Strangers’ dynamite riffs have the same catchy simplicity and steamrolling energy of the Foo Fighters’ best offerings in that category. With one of the band’s trademark bulls-eye mall-punk choruses, Strangers is another gem from one of punk’s most talented up-and-coming groups. (JM)

Ryujin – Raijin & Fujin (feat. Matthew K. Heafy)

First there was pirate metal. Now, of course, there is samurai metal. Blending traditional Japanese instrumentation and melodic themes, Ryujin channel the kind of power-metal precision you might hear in your typical DragonForce track – thank you to that tapped and alternate-picked sky-rocket of a solo – but with added Shamisen, Dragon Flute, Erhu and Taiko… oh, and some epic Matt Heafy guest vocals. (MAB)

Joel Culpepper - Free (feat. Tom Misch)

Tom Misch has been preoccupied with his dance side-project Supershy in recent months, but he’s dusted off the Fender Stratocaster for a super-sultry guest spot on the new single from R&B singer-songwriter Joel Culpepper. Misch’s effortless grooves are out in full force on this one, which has done absolutely nothing to tame our impatient desires for his next solo album. It must be coming soon, surely?! (MO)

Smut – 18 Tons

18 Tons, a new track from Chicago alt-rockers Smut, is truly one of those songs you can get lost in. There are textures aplenty to be found here, but it’s those chiming, U2-like guitar layers we keep coming back to – especially the ringing, sliiightly overdriven echoes that lead the song out. (JM)

While She Sleeps – Self Hell

You might remember While She Sleeps’ guitarist Sean Long having something of a viral moment with his awe-inspiring double Whammy pedal technique earlier this year – not to mention his eye-popping signature Charvels. Well, Long proves all the attention is well deserved, with a mind-bending chorus riff that makes use of his dextrous fretboard and treadle skills, bookended by some of this year’s most crushing breakdowns. (MAB)

Derek Smalls – Must Crush Barbie

Following a summer of hype, the Barbie era is set to enter its next stage as the move hits streaming platforms – and Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls has apparently had enough, returning with “a much-needed antidote to the ubiquitous pinkness that has spilled out of movie theaters this summer”. The antidote (aka Must Crush Barbie) is quintessential Smalls – loud, loaded with bass and entirely unapologetic. (MO)

Also on this week’s playlist...

• TesseracT – Legion
• DragonForce – Doomsday Party
• L7 – Cooler Than Mars
• Erja Lyytinen – Diamonds on the Road
• Polar Son – Youth
• The Cadillac Three – Young & Hungry
• Micki Free – We Are One
• Cherry Glazerr – Sugar
• Larkin Poe – Bad Spell (Acoustic)
• Jesse Dayton – Talkin' Country Man Blues
• Chris Shiflett – Overboard
• Wilco – Cousin

Sophie Lloyd has joined forces with Trivium frontman Matt Heafy for her latest heavy-riffing single, Fall of Man, which is lifted from her upcoming debut studio album, Imposter Syndrome.

The track was first teased way back in February last year, when Lloyd revealed she had spent some time recording a music video with Matt Heafy – a music video that will officially arrive next week.

Last November, Lloyd – who recently went on tour with Machine Gun Kelly – announced she’d be releasing her first-ever studio record of original material later this year, with the electric guitar titan previewing the effort by dropping its fiery lead single, Do or Die.

Fall of Man continues the heavy-riffing precedent set by Do or Die with an unwavering energy, dialing in oversized progressions that are decorated with the same mind-melting shred chops that made Lloyd a household name back when she started cutting her teeth with her YouTube covers.

Lloyd, who says working with Heafy was a “dream come true”, once again shows that she is as adept at writing songs as she is covering them, with her blistering electric guitar passages culminating in the form of a hypnotic guitar solo that doubles as an exploration of her Kiesel’s fretboard.

“Trivium have been one of my favorite bands since I was a kid,” Lloyd said of Heafy’s involvement in Fall of Man. “I used to dye my own Trivium T-shirts and wear them every day.”

Heafy finds himself plenty busy throughout the track as well, flexing his vocal prowess and serving up the parts that he wrote and recorded while streaming live on Twitch in front of fans, who were able to provide real-time feedback.

“Sophie Lloyd is an immensely talented force of a musician and songwriter,” Heafy reflected. “I recall first seeing Sophie’s guitar playing online and being truly blown away – so having been a fan of Sophie’s for several years, I was honored when asked to guest on an upcoming track. 

“When I learned that Trivium had been a long-time favorite band of Sophie’s, I was humbled and appreciative.” 

As for the song itself, Lloyd noted that – with the help of drummer and co-writer Christopher Painter – she took the opportunity to experiment with unfamiliar time signatures and scales that she doesn’t usually use in her everyday playing.

She added, “Also Matt writing and recording the song on Twitch was really cool as we got real-time feedback from fans on what they want to hear. He really elevated the song into a metal masterpiece and I’m so excited for people to hear it!”

It’s the second time in as many tracks that Lloyd has tapped a member of the hard rock/metal ranks for their support, having recruited Inglorious frontman Nathan James for Do or Die.

Imposter Syndrome has been in the works since before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and marks the first entry into Lloyd’s solo studio discography, after the Kiesel endorsee honed her craft delivering shred heavy versions of popular tracks via her YouTube channel.

There’s still no official release date for Imposter Syndrome, but it’s been confirmed the record will arrive later this year via Lloyd’s own Autumn Records label.

Late last year, Jared Dines put guitar fans on high alert when he announced the preliminary lineup for the fifth installment of his “biggest shred collab song in the world” YouTube series – an event that, on paper, looked like it would be the most star-studded shred-a-thon of all time.

On December 26, Dines’ mammoth festival of electric guitar greatness finally arrived in all its glory, and though there were some notable absences from the initial announcement, the 37-minute masterclass still turned out to be one of the greatest shred guitar collabs ever.

When Dines revealed the first wave of players he had approached for the event on social media, legends like Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, John Petrucci, Yvette Young, Tim Henson and Synyster Gates were all named as potential participants.

Alas, none of the above made it on to the final roster, but their omissions did not dampen the level of elite six-string action that was ultimately served up by the likes of Matt Heafy, Nita Strauss, Michael Angelo Batio, Herman Li, Hedras and countless others.

In total, 70 electric guitar and acoustic guitar heroes took part in Dines’ video, making it quite literally the biggest shred collab song in the world. To put that into perspective, the previous edition only featured 27 artists.

In just the first five minutes, Mike Dawes, Jason Richardson, Gus G, Nita Strauss, Herman Li and Manuel Gardner Fernandes are all given the opportunity to flex their six-string chops, while players such as Ichika Nito, Marcin, Angel Vivaldi, Kiki Wong and TheDooo help cap off a staggering opening 10 minutes.

The next phase is equally impressive: Hedras, Cole Rolland and FM Guitars founder Felix Martin all deliver their trademark prog and double-fretboard antics aplenty, with Elizabeth Cannon, Bernth, Annie Shred, I Built the Sky and Dines himself following suit.

In the final 16 minutes, the spotlight is given to Ola Englund, Michael Angelo Batio, Matt Heafy, Courtney Cox, Nik Nocturnal, Sophie Burrell, Rabea Massaad, Dre Dimura, Max Ostro, Charlie Parra Del Riego and Alan Gogoll, who help close out the shred-a-thon in style.

Highlights – of which there are too many to count – include Herman Li’s hands-free effort, which is fueled by the DragonForce maestro’s Hot Hand wah ring controller, Marcin’s furious fretboard frolick – delivered via the fingerboard of his Ibanez signature guitar – and Lari Basilio’s tasteful-as-ever contribution that gives viewers another glimpse of her new-look Ibanez LB1.

Honorable mentions must also go to Fernandes – who uses both a six-string and a golden eight-string – as well as Strauss, who makes light work of some spectrum-spanning legato and two-hand tapping licks.

Truth be told, we could spend all day unpacking the 37-minute masterclass, so it’s probably best you check out the video above for yourselves.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Maya Delilah – Pretty Face 

What is it? The latest single from 22-year-old British singer-songwriter Maya Delilah, who – after amassing a huge following via Instagram and TikTok thanks to her soulful six-string chops – releases Pretty Face to celebrate her new partnership with Blue Note/Capitol Records. It’s a perfect intro into the sonic universe of Delilah, which sees her emotive vocals orbit around a mixture of elite phrasing, impeccable feel and irresistible tone.

Standout guitar moment: Though Deliliah spends most of the track strumming away, she gives herself the opportunity to let loose on the fretboard around the 2:00 mark, breaking free from the shackles of rhythm guitar to belt out a blues-y, bend-heavy solo that literally oozes soul.

For fans of: John Mayer, David Ryan Harris, Madison Cunningham

– Matt Owen

Yo La Tengo – Fallout

What is it? The lead single from This Stupid World, the beloved Hoboken, New Jersey indie trio’s first new non-instrumental album in five years. Few bands have aged as gracefully into their fifth decade as Yo La Tengo, and Fallout, quite simply, is everything that’s so damn good about them in a four-and-a-half-minute package – snarling layers of distorted riffing that cleverly disguise sweet-as-candy pop songwriting.

Standout guitar moment: Ever the Neil Young fan, guitarist/singer Ira Kaplan – perhaps unconsciously – tips his cap to one of his heroes by stabbing a single chord over and over and over again at around 2:50. On first listen, you might expect those to be the opening bars of one of Kaplan’s trademark bizarro fretboard freakouts, but after all these years, he doesn’t need to race frantically up and down the fretboard to offer that same cathartic release.

For fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground

– Jackson Maxwell

Kiichi Chaos – Metality (The Vitality Anthem)

What is it? A modern-day renaissance man, Matt Heafy is apparently never settled unless he’s putting out new music. After Trivium put out their latest album, In the Court of the Dragon last year, Heafy turned his sights to Ibaraki, a black metal side project, under which he released his first album, Rashomon, earlier this year.

And now, in the relative downtime from both projects, Heafy has released a new single under a new moniker: Kiichi Chaos. This time, Heafy – a keen gamer himself – lends his formidable song writing talents to Team Vitality, a French esports organization who play first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS:GO, competitively.

“Metal and gaming are two constants in my life that I hold near and dear,” Heafy states. “I've always found that gaming and metal go so well together... it's as if they belong together.”

Standout guitar moment: The riff that kicks in from the 0:47 mark following a melodic choral section is Trivium-esque, with galloping palm-muted chugs and ever-so-heavy arpeggiated low-string runs.

For fans of: Trivium, All That Remains, Killswitch Engage

– Sam Roche

David Knudson – No Ways No Means (feat. Tim Kasher of Cursive)

What is it? 2022 has become one of the most prolific years in David Knudson’s career. Four years on from the demise of Minus the Bear, the sonically inventive guitarist released his debut album, unveiled a new song with Botch, and even announced live shows with the mathcore heroes.

As if that weren’t enough, he’s now releasing a new EP, Undo / Redo, and No Ways No Means, which features the vocal talents of Cursive’s Tim Kasher, is the first single: a fuzzed-up hard-rock stomper that will have MTB fans bopping in an angular fashion.

Standout guitar moment: That main riff has something of a Morello feel to it, but check that octave-up solo with wild whammy (or Whammy?) bends: there aren’t loadsa notes, but the delivery is perfection.

For fans of: Minus the Bear, Cursive, Sparta

– Michael Astley-Brown

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Pretty Boy (feat. Johnny Marr) 

What is it? Manchester, England, has produced some of the biggest bands – and in turn, some of the biggest guitar players – of all time, boasting alumni such as Oasis and The Smiths. Now, two of those Mancunian guitar gods, Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr, have teamed up for a new single, released under the former’s High Flying Birds name. It’s a perfect combination of the pair’s respective playing styles, filled with jangly leads, punchy rhythms and some acoustic layering for good measure.

Standout guitar moment: The acoustic and bass both do a grand job of holding down the fort for the first few minutes, but what follows the breakdown at the 2:30 mark is especially tasty – a wall of rhythm riffs that play host to an infectious lick.

For fans of: Oasis, The Smiths, Sam Fender

– Matt Owen

Buffalo Nichols – Meet Me In The Bottom

What is it? Side A of his new two-sided single, Meet Me In The Bottom is a thrilling expansion of the Milwaukee bluesman’s sound. Punctuated by a fuzz-blasted bass line and dramatic punches of feedback, the song – a re-working of a blues classic – is a magnificent roller-coaster ride that grabs you from the first bar and never lets go. 

Standout guitar moment: While distantly related to the blues, Nichols’ thrilling lead breaks – especially the second one – more readily recall the mind-expanding sounds of the psychedelic ‘60s, with their droning, almost sitar-like melodies and quick-fire pickin’.

For fans of: The Black Keys, The Doors, The White Stripes

– Jackson Maxwell

Iggy Pop – Frenzy 

What is it? A standalone single from the Godfather of Punk, who has tapped Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith for three-minutes of raw riffage. With production hero Andrew Watt behind the desk, the one-time-only supergroup smash speakers left right and center, serving up one of the most raucous 180 seconds we’ve heard in quite some time.

Standout guitar moment: We can’t think of a track title that would better describe Frenzy, with the single-note stabs and warbling riffs exploding into an off-the-chain, wah-loaded throwdown for the outro.

For fans of: The Stooges, Guns N’ Roses

– Matt Owen 

Vended – Overall

What is it? With the potent blood of metal royalty coursing through their veins, it’s no surprise that budding five-piece Vended have a sound that’s undeniably Slipknot-esque, with drop-tuned, distorted guitars, pummeling rhythm sections and spine-tingling sound design elements.

But for the stylistic cues the group have taken from their metal titan fathers, vocalist Griffin Taylor and drummer Simon Crahan – along with guitarists Cole Espeland and Connor Grodzicki, and bassist Jeremiah Pugh sure are paving their own path.

And another brick in that road is laid with the band’s ferocious new single, Overall, a dynamically varied metalcore cut peppered with enough weighty riffs to get any pit spinning.

Standout guitar moment: Lead guitar is generally abstained from to leave more room for straightforward riff brutality, and no riff hits quite as hard as the one in the breakdown from the 2:21 mark.

For fans of: Slipknot, Tallah, Tetrarch

– Sam Roche

Longheads – Glossolaila

What is it? Throw King Gizzard, the Doors and Black Sabbath into a melting pot, add a dash of desert rock and you get UK four-piece Longheads, who dropped new EP Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore this week. The whole thing is a tripped-out journey that oozes atmosphere from every note, but Glossolalia is a relatively succinct summary of the band’s groove-heavy psychedelic approach.

Standout guitar moment: The second that solo kicks in against a backdrop of phaser-set-to-stun rhythms is a trip in itself.

For fans of: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, All Them Witches, Black Mountain

– Michael Astley-Brown

Samia – Mad At Me

What is it? The rising singer/songwriter’s first collaboration with pop mastermind (and ex-Vampire Weekend guitarist) Rostam Batmanglij, Mad At Me is the most outwardly accessible song of Samia’s career so far. Loaded with bubbling synths and packing an effortless chorus, the second single from Samia’s forthcoming album, Honey, signifies that she might not be an ‘under-the-radar’ talent much longer. 

Standout guitar moment: There’s not a whole lot of guitar on this tune, but what little there is – particularly that heavily-processed, feedback-coated lead after the first chorus – sure makes its mark. 

For fans of: MUNA, Vampire Weekend, Phoebe Bridgers

– Jackson Maxwell

Voice Of Baceprot – PMS

What is it? A hard-riffing, melodic new single from Indonesian trio, Voice of Baceprot. Short for perempuan merdeka seutuhnya (“completely independent woman”), PMS celebrates women who are breaking stereotypes and boundaries in all forms.

Impressively dynamic and varied, the track flips consistently between hard-rock riffing and more melodic chorus sections, even carving out a section from the 2:04 mark for bassist Widi to do a spot of noodling.

Standout guitar moment: Guitarist and frontwoman Marsya lets loose with a solo from the 1:37 mark, crafted with simple-but-effective melodic runs and occasional spurts of alternate picking.

For fans of: Burgerkill, DeadSquad

– Sam Roche

For what now seems like forever, the popular music domain has been dominated by two songs: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and Metallica’s Master of Puppets. Why? Well, thanks to their roles in Stranger Things season four, the two songs have undergone stratospheric resurgences in recent months.

Running Up That Hill ended up as the de facto anthem for the whole season, while Master of Puppets was used during an epic finale that saw character Eddie Munson riff through the track in an act of heroism with the help of a Stranger Things B.C. Rich Warlock.

However, in an effort to go one step further and concoct the most Stranger Things-sounding sonic creation of all time, YouTuber Anthony Vincent has reimagined Kate Bush’s track in the style of Master of Puppets.

What’s more, he’s recruited Trivium frontman Matt Heafy on electric guitar to help him do it.

Swapping serene synths for urgent, unrelenting riffs, Heafy and his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop provide a suitable foundation for Vincent’s Hetfield-esque vocals, which transform Bush’s own wistful lyrical flow into a visceral Metallica-inspired alternative,

Heafy gets in on the vocal action, too, providing some borderline-screamo action before letting loose on a guitar solo at the 3:00 mark. It’s a stellar effort, with a slight hint of Kirk Hammett-style wah pedal and plenty of fretboard acrobatics.

Now we just need Master of Puppets in the style of Running Up That Hill, but something tells us that might not hit quite as hard.

It’s the latest example of the Master of Puppets / Running Up That Hill hysteria that has gripped the internet since the release of Stranger Things 4 Volume 2. 

After it was confirmed that the much-discussed trailer clip did indeed show Munson shredding Master of Puppets, the song’s popularity spiked. According to Yousician, it became the number one song aspiring guitarists want to learn, while downloads for the track on Spotify increased by 17.5 million a mere week after the series’ final installment aired.

It had a more direct impact on the wider guitar world, too. As per online gear retailer Reverb, searches for Stranger Things increased by 202 per cent – no doubt a result of those looking to find out what guitar Munson was playing. As such, searches for the B.C. Rich Warlock also increased 33 per cent in the aftermath of the show.

That B.C. Warlock in question was later seen in action in a behind-the-scenes clip of Joseph Quinn, the actor who played Eddie Munson, rehearsing for the scene – a video that Metallica themselves dueted with on TikTok.

While Quinn did most of the guitar work himself during the scene – save the more complex soloing passages – he didn’t feature on the actual recording. Instead, Robert Trujillio’s son Tye was recruited to provide additional guitar for the Stranger Things version of the track. 

“The way the Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include Master of Puppets in the show, but to have such a pivotal scene built around it,” the band wrote in response to the track’s scene-stealing role.

“We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away,” they continued. “It’s so extremely well done, so much so, that some folks were able to guess the song just by seeing a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hands in the trailer – how crazy cool is that?”

“It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the other amazing artists featured in the show.”

Matt Heafy's been plenty busy with non-Trivium endeavors lately. 

Just this year, he released the debut album from his black-metal side project, Ibaraki, and released new signature gear with Epiphone – in the form of the MKH Les Paul Custom Origins Collection – and KHDK Electronics (the In Waves clean boost pedal).

Today though, he announced that he'll be hitting the road with his Trivium brothers once again this fall. 

Beginning October 2 with a show in Boise, Idaho, the 'Deadmen and Dragons' tour will take the veteran metal outfit across North America, before concluding with a November 10 gig in Los Angeles. Between the Buried and Me, Whitechapel and Khemmis will serve as the openers for the tour's full duration.

"Between the Buried and Me are the pioneers of mixing genres well before anyone else had," Heafy said of his tourmates in a statement. "BTBAM back in 2002 – on the impeccable self titled album – showed that they were unapologetically ready to mix elements of death metal, melodic death metal, grindcore, power metal, prog [and] ethereal – at times beautiful – passages of melody. 

"Their self-titled record was a massive influence on me; I was captivated by the immense mixture of so many styles. Through their combining of a vast range of sonics and soundscapes, they created a sound that is truly their own." 

"We're excited to have Whitechapel be a part of this amazing bill," added Trivium electric guitar player Corey Beaulieu. "It's been over 10 years since we toured together on the Shogun tour and seeing how the band has progressed over the years and added a killer melodic element to their brutal sound just makes it a perfect time to share the stage once again." 

"Khemmis is one of my favorite new bands of the last few years, and when we were putting the tour together, I heavily advocated for having them on the bill," added Trivium's bass guitar player, Paolo Gregoletto. 

"I think it's always a testament to a band's sound when you have trouble pinning a label to it – doom, melodic metal, thrash, death metal. With Khemmis, it's all in there and rocks hard. They are a 10/10 live band and did a great cover of Rainbow in the Dark, so do not miss their set!"

You can check out the full Deadmen and Dragons tour itinerary below. For tickets and more info, visit Trivium's website.

Trivium 2022 North American Tour

10/2: Boise, ID — Revolution Concert House + Event Center
10/3: Portland, OR — Roseland
10/4: Vancouver, BC — Vogue
10/6: Calgary, AB — MacHall
10/8: Winnipeg, MB — Burton Cummings
10/9: St. Paul, MN — MYTH
10/11: Madison, WI — The Sylvee
10/12: Chicago, IL — Radius
10/14: Nashville, TN — Marathon Music Hall
10/15: Atlanta, GA — Buckhead Theatre
10/16: Orlando, FL — House of Blues
10/18: Norfolk, VA — The Norva*
10/19: Philadelphia, PA — Franklin Music Hall*
10/21: Cincinnati, OH — The Andrew J Brady Music Center
10/22: Cleveland, OH — House of Blues
10/23: Detroit, MI — The Fillmore
10/25: Toronto, ON — Rebel*
10/26: Montreal, QC — MTELUS
10/28: Boston, MA — House of Blues
10/29: New York, NY — Palladium Times Square
10/30: Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore
10/31: Charlotte, NC — The Fillmore
11/2: St. Louis, MO — The Pageant
11/4: Houston, TX — House of Blues
11/5: San Antonio, TX — The Aztec Theatre
11/6: Dallas, TX — South Side Ballroom
11/8: Albuquerque, NM — Sunshine Theater
11/9: Phoenix, AZ — The Van Buren
11/10: Los Angeles, CA — The Wiltern

Matt Heafy’s Epiphone MKH Les Paul Custom Origins Collection launched last month – adding both six- and seven-strings in left- and right-handed configurations to the Trivium guitarist’s ever-expanding range of signature guitars.

But as the guitarist explains in a new interview with Guitar World, he and Gibson – Epiphone’s parent company – have already held discussions regarding new signature models.

While he remains rather tight-lipped about such endeavors – probably as they’re nothing more than conceptual at this stage – Heafy says “there’s talk of some MKH Kramers down the line”, in theory in both six- and seven-string setups, and even some headless Steinbergers. 

“Because why not when Gibson owns the company who started the headless guitar!” Heafy exclaims.

He adds that he’s even joked with Gibson about the possibility of a nine-string signature model, though admits that such an idea is “probably very niche”. 

A nine-string would be quite the jump for Gibson, which to this day has never outfitted an electric guitar with more than seven strings.

Matt Heafy is somewhat of a modern-day renaissance man, constantly working on new projects pertaining to Twitch streaming, black metal, gear design and everything in between.

Elsewhere in the interview, he reveals he’s been working with renowned Swedish producer Jens Bogren on a new digital amp suite.

“[It’s] something people had been saying they wanted,” he explains. “I love Jens, he’s one of the greatest producers/mixers of all time. We should have something together in about a year or so, aimed at people who don’t want to spend money on an amp head or pedal – those who prefer connecting their guitar to their computer.

“We’re not the biggest band in the world but we know our supporters better than most bands do. We listen to what they want and what they need.”

Be sure to check out our full interview with Matt Heafy, in which he talks in depth about his new Epiphone MKH Les Paul Custom Origins Collection, and discusses the inspirations behind his black metal project, Ibaraki, how Ihsahn inspired him to take the genre somewhere new, and how he got MCR frontman Gerard Way to guest on the record.

When Guitar World connects with Matt Heafy, it would be fair to say it’s a slightly different set-up to your typical interview. 

Instead of a crackly phone line connecting two people many miles away from each other, we’re going out live on the Trivium singer/guitarist’s Twitch video channel, where hundreds of thousands of fans subscribe for their daily dose of the metal legend working behind the scenes, whether that be practicing and gaming at home or warming up and performing on tour. 

As he’s explained in the past, it’s an incredibly forward-thinking way of interacting and engaging with fans, and also a strong income source for creative independence.

Today’s stream celebrates the launch of his Epiphone Les Paul Custom Origins series, which features six and seven-string models in Ebony and Bone White fitted with Heafy’s signature Fishman Fluence humbuckers, available in both left and right-handed versions. 

Straight off the bat, he’s keen to stress that these are no budget models inspired by other higher-end guitars he secretly prefers – these are the actual instruments he chooses to swear by in the studio and on the road…

“For basically a thousand dollars, you can get the exact same guitar I play,” explains the Trivium leader. “The one I use comes from the same factory. There’s nothing special, nothing different, it’s straight off the line. I remember that feeling of being a kid in a music store and seeing your favorite guitarist’s signature model on the wall for $800, but then also seeing the $6000 model they actually played. 

“It was a bit deflating for me, because the cheaper guitar was rarely actually used by the artist. I love the price point of the new Origins collection and the fact they’re all so affordable… but they had to be exactly what I use live and on the records. That goes back to the values I’ve always had, no-one is above anyone else in this world. There are these grander, existential feelings that I have about the various things I do.”

Of which, we have to point out, there are many – at least when it comes to signature gear. The guitarist currently has his name attached to guitars, electric guitar pickups, pedals, guitar picks, fretwraps, straps and probably a whole lot more. 

He jokes that while he does “feel a bit like a mini-Kiss at times” he only works with the best engineers and companies in the game. Given his success rate of these varying tonal endeavors, it’s hard not to believe him.

“A lot of people rip on my dual strap, but it’s actually been a lifesaver when my shoulder is a mess from jujutsu,” shrugs Heafy, before giving us a taste of what to expect next. “Recently I’ve been working with Jens Bogren on a digital amp suite, which is something people had been saying they wanted. If we’re doing it, we have to do it correct. I love Jens, he’s one of the greatest producers/mixers of all-time. 

“We should have something together in about a year or so, aimed at people who don’t want to spend money on an amp head or pedal – those who prefer connecting their guitar to their computer. We’re not the biggest band in the world but we know our supporters better than most bands do. We listen to what they want and what they need.”

When was the exact moment you decided Les Paul Customs would end up being your main weapon of choice?

“Amazingly, this story goes back before I was born. Before my dad even had a son, he knew he wanted his son to play a Les Paul Custom, or at least some sort of Les Paul-shaped body. So it was predetermined genetically that I’d want to play a Les Paul. 

“At 11 years old, before I got into metal, I tried out for a pop-punk band called Freshly Squeezed from Florida. I thought I was going to get the gig but didn’t get the call back and got super depressed, thinking I was done with guitar. I played a song by Blink-182 and thought I’d played it well but apparently not! 

“I just had a starter guitar at that point, it was not a Gibson. I started getting into metal because of the Black album by Metallica. Someone had lent it to me and I took it into my room and realized that basically this was the music I was supposed to play. 

“So I just started practicing all the time to emulate those sounds… unaware of the fact that I was practicing! I just wanted to play along until I could do it well. 

“I didn’t realize that doing something like that was how you practiced in order to get good. So I started expressing that kind of musical interest. I played No Leaf Clover by Metallica at my eighth grade talent show and then got asked by the sister of the frontman of a local band called Trivium to try out for them.”

Well, you could say that one worked out okay in the end…

“I think they’d been around for two weeks and had never jammed at that point! It was funny they’d already lost their guitar player before even getting into the practice room. 

“I remember showing up to [ex-drummer] Travis Smith’s house and he was the only kid I knew that smoked cigarettes and had a neck tattoo! I was only 13 years old and he would have been 16 or 17. 

“They all looked at me as if to say ‘What’s this kid gonna be able to do?’ I played For Whom The Bell Tolls perfectly. Their look changed and they said ‘Alright, you’re in!’ I also played the high school battle of the bands. We opened with (sic) by Slipknot, then played For Whom The Bell Tolls, an early Trivium original called Thrust from one of the early demos and maybe Stinkfist by Tool. The rest was history! 

“When I started expressing a true interest in being in a band, my Dad got me my first real guitar which was a Les Paul Custom. I was a very lucky 13 year-old because they are the pinnacle of good guitars. Luckily, my dad’s investment into his child was correct! I kept going and it’s the same guitar I sent to Epiphone in 2012 to start making the first signature happen.”

And you’ve used those Epiphones pretty much exclusively ever since…

“I told them to make it exactly like my one in terms of weight, sound and feel, or as close as they could through Epiphone. They sent me the first couple of prototypes and those guitars are actually what I used for the early tracking on the Ibaraki record, on the tracks Kagutsuchi and Ibaraki-Dōji. 

“I went on tour with them for a year, tooling around with them and figuring out what I liked and didn’t like, with extensive notes before we’d ever released anything. After a couple of revisions, we finally nailed the ones that have been out over the last few years.

“Initially they said ‘Let’s see how you do and we’ll make a 1000 for the next five years!’ And those all sold out in a couple of months so they kept going and going. It became the most successful Epiphone they’d made in the 135 years of Epiphone… which is pretty amazing. 

“There were a couple of years off where there was no product, obviously, but that allowed us to tool what would become the Origins. It became the fastest-selling launch date Epiphone had ever had, which is pretty amazing.”

What do you look for in a Les Paul – say you’re in a guitar shop and trying out various Customs, which ones speak to you most and are they lighter in weight or brighter in tone, or perhaps vice-versa?

“If you’d asked me two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have known because it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a guitar store or tried a bunch that aren’t mine. But I recently went to lunch with Cesar Gueikian from Gibson, who took me back to his place and said we should try a bunch of guitars. And he has the most insane collection I’ve ever seen, all the 50s, 60s and 70s golden age Gibsons. He just has all of them. 

“So we ended up trying 15 different 1958s, some of which there are only 4 in the world of or 15 in the world of. And these are all original 57s, 58s and 59s! It was truly ridiculous. I even tried a guitar that Adam Jones from Tool had fallen in love with and taken some inspiration from for his new models…

And which guitars ended up being your favorites?

“After trying a ton of stuff, I figured out that my favorite was this Goldtop that was supposed to be a burst. You can actually see the cracking of the burst below the Goldtop. It looks really weird, like a Goldtop that’s been crinkled like a candy wrapper or something! I believe that was a 58 or 59 – Cesar will kill me for not remembering [laughs] – and it crushed everything. 

“We played it through one of his home rigs and got one of the sickest tones I’ve ever heard within minutes. I didn’t know if the amp he had would translate well for my kind of tone but it was absurd. That guy is a mastermind when it comes to knowing what gear is great, what guitars are great. Him and James ‘JC’ Curleigh have turned Gibson into the greatest company it’s ever been over the last three or four years. 

“But what is it that I love? I used to love the super heavy guitars. When I made my original MKH Snofall, the black one, I wanted it to be heavy. I liked the idea of heavy feel and heavy tone at the time! Nowadays I needed something a little more ergonomic, maybe because I’m getting old and everything hurts [laughs]…”

You still have all those old guitars around, if you ever need them…

“Yeah, all of my old Customs are heavy and I still love them. I’ve got a VOS 57 Standard and a VOS 59 Goldtop, those are two of the best guitars in my collection and actually top all of the Customs! They just have that inexplicable thing. 

“If a guitar makes me play great parts or write great riffs on the spot because the tone is great, then I love it. I used to overanalyze it a lot more, wondering whether it was something to do with weight, color or feel. Now if I pick it up and start playing like myself, I’ll know it’s the right guitar.”

So what’s the first riff or solo you play to test a guitar out?

“You’re supposed to play something you know inside out. But for me it’s also really important to play something new. If I’m in standard, I might play new stuff in the style of Ember to Inferno but not actual riffs from that record. It all goes back to what my practice ethic is. 

“I like to make sure the right brain side is taken care of. All the mechanical preparations that go behind being a good guitar player are there first, like all the right hand stuff. So when it’s time to play, the left side of the brain can kick in and it’s all about creativity and improvisation. That’s what I like to do when trying out new guitars. 

“If I’m in drop-D, I’ll play riffs that sound like Ascendancy riffs but aren’t necessarily Ascendancy riffs, just to see what might come out. I actually wrote a really cool riff on that original 50s Goldtop which will probably become a new song. That’s always the best sign. If I can write something brand new, something that I really love, and know that it will make the cut for Trivium… that’s a good sign!”

The new Origins models feature your signature Fishman Fluence pickups. How are they different to the Moderns you were initially using?

“When I find something I like enough to put my name on, like a signature item or custom shop thing, I always want it to work well whether you know Trivium, love Trivium or hate Trivium. Know me, love me or hate me, you will still want this instrument regardless of the fact it has my name on it or you might not even know who we are. Like my Les Paul Customs, it was all about subtle tweaks to the Fluence Moderns… because it really was a perfect pickup for me. 

“The first thing I noticed was the zero latency when playing. There would be downpicked parts that need to be precise, clean and still aggressive. And I kept noticing I was going off-tempo. 

“As soon as I switched to the Moderns, it felt dead-on. It’s like with software amps or plug-ins, and I do like some of them, but if you’re trying to play live in the moment you will notice some slight millisecond latency. The Fishmans feel very instant. 

“That’s also why we went back to using real heads live, because we wanted our tones to be more instantaneous and rhythmic. The pickups were pretty much perfect so I kept the Modern voice pretty much unchanged. There’s also the Passive voice, and I also added in a third single-coil voice. 

“We haven’t actually used that voicing much in Trivium or Ibaraki. I love to record with my Epiphones. Everything from Vengeance Falls to In the Court of the Dragon is all Epiphone, originally with the old pickups and I switched to Fishmans on What the Dead Men Say.”

Do you think you’ll be using the single-coil mode more in the future?

“I’ll definitely be doing that. It’s really trippy to be playing a Les Paul and make it sound like a Strat. It’s going to open up different ideas for me and whoever else ends up using them. It’s more and more tone, because you get three voices in the bridge, three in the neck and then different combinations in the middle.

“I found that even the subtlest changes in tone can help you come up with different riffs or create a different mood or venture off into new territories without even having to switch guitars. The versatility was a big thing for me, to make it have all these different colorful textures.”

The scale length for the new seven-string is also different to your previous signature…

“We’ve always been 24.75 for all my guitars, both sixes and sevens. It felt perfect and I didn’t want to mess with things too much. This time round, the six-string is the same at 24.75 with 22 frets. I’ve never really used 24-fret guitars. It’s just about what feels comfortable to me. If I need those extra two notes, I’ll just bend up. 

“But this time, the seven-string is now 25.5, which is the first time for a Les Paul in Gibson or Epiphone history. They’ve never made a Les Paul of that scale length. It really does sound beefier, you can hear the difference and it’s amazing. I’ve got some crazy scale lengths, there’s a Red Layer nine-string that’s one of a kind and it’s more like bass scale. It goes down to a low B flat, like a five-string bass! 

“It all depends on what kind of guitar we’re making. There’s talk of some of MKH Kramer’s down the line as well, that I assume will be 25.5 for the six and higher for the seven! And then we’re even talking about doing Steinbergers a year from now… because why not when Gibson owns the company who started the headless guitar. I joked about a nine-string at one point but that’s probably very niche.”

Then, of course, there’s the Trivium KHDK pedals – last year’s Ascendancy overdrive and this year’s In Waves clean boost…

“There was a while where I wanted my amp rig to be about as big as my phone. I didn’t want any pedals or amps. Then one day, I think we were recording What the Dead Men Say, Corey told me to come play through some cab. I thought ‘Whatever, it’s just going to sound pretty much the same as the modeling stuff!’ 

“And it took me back to being 16, playing that Les Paul Custom at my parent’s house and feeling that true impulse response right there in the room. There’s this rhythmic staccato feeling that made me play more like myself. It made me think, ‘Okay, maybe I was wrong!’ 

“So then I started thinking about overdrive pedals, because they’re essential in modern metal. Having more gain on the head is just not the same, there’s something about two separate things working together that sounds better.”

You’ve told us in the past that it tends to be TS9s in front of your amps when recording. What other pedals did you take influence from?

“I’d collected all the different Ibanez Tube Screamers, plus other stuff by Maxon, Airis and random boutique companies. We started talking to David Karon from KHDK because we knew his stuff was truly amazing. I said ‘Here’s everything I love, here’s what we are looking for… what can we do?’ Because I can describe the things I love but I don’t necessarily know all the components and parts. 

“We worked on a bunch of prototypes for a year or so for the Ascendancy drive and finally found the one that had everything I was looking for. We don’t tend to crank the gain in modern metal, as you will know – it tends to be gain at zero, tone in the middle and level just a little past the middle. The 333 pedals we made sold out in a day.

“When it came to the next one, I wanted to make sure it was another limited drop - another pedal we’ll never do again. Sure, the circuits and sounds may be similar, but the artwork and designs can’t be repeated. That’s when we decided to do a clean boost, which is something a lot of newer guitar players might overlook, even though overdrives can often be used more like a boost.

“I was able to find a few TC Electronic Integrated Preamps, which is good because apparently Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah had bought all of them on the planet and now owns them. But I got a couple, which needed strange power supplies but sounded freakin’ awesome.”

In what kinds of applications? 

“They don’t seem to sound as well on modern heads for some odd reason, but if you put one in front of an old head like an original block letter 5150, it will sound amazing. Put the TC in front of a 5150 III and it won’t sound right, but an overdrive will… I don’t know why that is. 

“So we made a small amount of clean boosts because we knew it was a bit more niche and sold them out. Not in a day this time, because the world had changed a lot in a couple of years. We decided to do another small batch, and when they’re done they’re done. 

“The artwork is going to make a little monster man eventually, when you have all the different Trivium pedals together. It will be like this little figure, which will be cool for people to set up and use as an art piece.”

After a long period of writing and recording, you finally released the debut Ibaraki album a few months ago. Did it feel any different in terms of scales or techniques?

“What’s amazing is that in both Trivium and Ibaraki, there are no real confines. There are no rules on what it should or shouldn’t be, but at the same time all of us in Trivium know we’re not going to write a country song. We don’t even need to say it because we know it’s not in the band’s DNA. 

“Ibaraki took me 12 years to write and record, like I mentioned some of those tracks were done as far back as 2010 or 2011. Rōnin and Susanoo No Mikoto were from 2017. 

“Ihsahn felt that the attitude across those different years should be represented on the record so we never re-recorded any of those parts, which is pretty nuts. I wanted no boundaries whatsoever, in terms of techniques, keys or scales. Relearning it all has been a nightmare…”

From a technical standpoint?

“Trying to play and sing it is kinda impossible, because I wrote it all separately. If someone out there can sing and play Rōnin, I congratulate you, because it’s really freaking difficult. It’s in a strange time signature and in a strange key. 

“On this album I kept tuning higher, which a lot of people tend not to do. Susanoo No Mikoto was capo’d on the seventh fret of a six-string. It turned the guitar into a strange thing, almost like a music box, which is not something you hear or see much in metal. 

“Other stuff is in double drop tunings, it’s something I learned from Jason Suecof who I did that tech-death Capharnaum record with, plus some of the early Trivium stuff. The riffs end up sounding crazy because you don’t have to shift around much to find different scales.

“You could just play the seventh, eighth and eleventh frets on the bottom four strings and it will sound very musical, like you’re going up the fretboard when you’re not. It’s something I highly recommend because it’s so fun. Rōnin is capo’d on the fourth fret on a six-string in some weird time signature.” 

Do you ever sit down and make note of the chords or time signatures in your music?

“I don’t actually know the chords or timing. I don’t go out seeking to write things that are odd or technical, but if it ends up that way, that’s great. A friend of mine tabbed out the Ibaraki record from all the DIs, coming up with all the chord names to see what was actually happening on this album. And it was all very strange stuff I could never have planned. 

“This album was a blast to make but tough to relearn, especially when there’s parts with four different parts. Now me and Ihsahn are talking about where we can take it next. 

“The two main directions are me singing in Japanese and writing old school-sounding songs or going with what the intro and outro teased, which is this intense, theatrical and elfen thing that’s Eastern European with occasional Japanese vibes. We could go in any of those directions and anywhere in between.”

You’ve worked with Ihsahn a lot in the past and share management with Behemoth. Gerard Way, however, is arguably a guest few would have expected on your black metal debut…

“I knew Gerard would blow people’s minds… it’s the concept of the guy from Trivium and the guy from My Chemical Romance doing a black metal track together. It would break the elitist mindset of what black metal can be. 

“I loved the genre growing up, I’ve always talked about it, even though I was wearing an Emperor shirt that was much too small and wearing eyeliner. It didn’t make sense to some people, who felt I couldn’t look like that, be in a band that was commercially successful and still like black metal.

“I’ve always loved living in spots where you aren’t supposed to mix things up, like in Trivium where we love satanic black metal and Christian metalcore at the same time! I love that hard balance and rebellion against itself. 

“I met Gerard in 2006 at Big Day Out. We ended up talking about comics, Final Fantasy and food, as well as things like vocal range because The Black Parade had just come out and I wanted to pick his brain on the notes he was hitting. We stayed pen pals for years. Some years we chatted a lot, others we didn’t. One day he messaged me on Instagram asking if I could explain how to tremolo pick black metal riffs.”

And, naturally, you obliged…

“I said, ‘Of course!’ because it was something I felt I knew pretty well so I shot him something and sent it over just for him. When he thanked me, I took the opportunity to say I’d been working on this black metal record for about seven or eight years and asked if he’d be up for screaming on it. 

“I’d never heard him scream but I just knew it would work. Just from talking, I knew he was into the genre. We’d discuss things we liked or disliked about the genre, and things we’d change if we could. That’s why this record has so many things that are philosophically un-black metal. 

“The goal of tapping into Japanese culture is not to just show it like the Norwegians did with their culture, but also help open people’s minds to other stories from Chinese or Korean traditions and beyond. 

“My hopes for this record is that I want it to bring an open-mindedness to everyone we share this planet with… which is the exact opposite of black metal, where you are only allowed to listen to this, this and this from the most extreme style of music. I wanted to break those rules. I didn’t know I could break those rules until I befriended Ihsahn.”

Well, he is one of the most influential figures in extreme metal… what kind of advice did he give you?

“I was telling him about the things I thought I had to do and he told me, ‘No, that’s not what black metal’s about – it’s about breaking the rules and attitude!’ You don’t have to sound like this or that or burn down any churches… it’s about writing what you feel is right and making music from the soul. I learned so much from him, especially when it comes to this record. Gerard and I felt like outsiders looking into this genre, because Nergal and Ihsahn are like the torchbearers of the genre. 

“And, actually, both of them have done things that are very un-black metal at times too, which I think is so cool. Like Nergal’s other band, Me And That Man. Or Ihsahn’s Eremita record, which changed the way I hear music just as much as Anthems To The Welken At Dusk because of its jazz chords, clean singing and saxophone solos. It had all these bizarre arrangements of timings and tunings that technically shouldn’t be in black metal. 

“So that gave me the confidence to say to Gerard, ‘Hey, let’s do this thing!’ When we got his parts back, it was insane. Ihsahn, Nergal and I were all blown away. These are three people I’ve looked up to in my life who are all very well-read and eloquent. They aren’t trying to be anything but themselves.”

• Ibaraki is out now via Nuclear Blast.
• The Matt Heafy Les Paul Custom Origins Series is out now. See Epiphone for more details.

In just the past 12 months alone, Matt Heafy has released a new album with Trivium, teamed up with Behemoth's Nergal, MCR's Gerard Way and Emperor's Ihsahn for his black metal side project, Ibaraki, collaborated with KHDK on the In Waves boost pedal, and launched a new range of signature guitars with Epiphone, the MKH Les Paul Custom Origins Collection.

Oh, and in April he also showed an altogether different side to his creative disposition when he announced the release of his children's book based on Japanese folklore, Ibaraki and Friends. Yes, Heafy's quest for global domination is going swimmingly. 

But such productivity can't be sustained without easing off the gas pedal from time to time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, even Heafy's relative downtime is spent guitar in hand, entertaining his sizeable YouTube and Twitch audiences.

In his latest YouTube video, Heafy picks up the acoustic guitar to deliver a faithful cover of Johnny Cash's 2002 version of Hurt, which was written by Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails' seminal 1994 album The Downward Spiral. Most appropriate for a Monday.

Armed with a Gibson SJ-300 – which he's been on record calling “arguably the greatest acoustic guitar that exists” – Heafy shackles his world-beating riffing chops in place of some subtle chord strums and crystalline arpeggios, which sit underneath a vocal performance faithful to Cash's recording. Check it out above.

While most in the metal community know Matt Heafy as the man at the helm of one of the most thrashing metal outfits in the game, he possesses quite the aptitude for softer styles, too.

Other examples of when he's eased off the distortion include his transformative 2018 cover of Killswitch Engage's My Curse, and the time he turned DragonForce's legendary power-metal anthem Through the Fire and Flames into a tender ballad. 

After teasing his new Epiphone signature guitar, the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom last year – and subsequently revealing its seven-string counterpart would feature a 25.5 scale length, metal's modern-day renaissance man Matt Heafy has officially launched the MKH Custom Origins Collection.

The result of close work between Heafy and Epiphone luthiers, guitars in the Origins Collection are “made for metal”.

The collection comprises a Les Paul Custom spec'd to Heafy's requests, available in both six- and seven-string versions, Ebony and Bone White finishes and both left- and right-handed configurations. In terms of specs beyond these variations, all guitars in the collection are identical.

They feature a maple-capped mahogany body with modern weight relief for “hours of comfortable play”, a mahogany neck with a SpeedTaper D profile for playing comfort and a contoured heel for easy upper fret access, as well as gold hardware, locking Grover Rotomatic tuners with Tulip buttons, and classic Les Paul Custom cosmetics.

“With my approach to design and my approach to aesthetics, I always try to put just as much care in visuals – even though I'm not a visual artist – as I would the auditory art,” Heafy says. “It's typically always been things that I can't make are the things that inspire me the most: food [and] art. And in turn that helps feed the musical inspiration for me.”

The guitars come loaded with a pair of the Trivium frontman's Fishman Fluence Custom Series signature humbucking pickups, which serve up three distinct sounds: two standard Modern voices and one single coil-style tone. These options are accessible via push/pull volume and tone pots.

As revealed by Heafy late last year, seven-string iterations of the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom boast 25.5" scale lengths, a notably longer scale for a Les Paul, which generally lends itself to better tuning stability and fewer intonation problems– perfect for tackling the drop-tuned riffs of Heafy's black metal side project, Ibaraki.

The six-string MKH Origins Les Paul Custom is available now for $1,099, while its seven-string counterpart retails at $1,199. For more info, head to Epiphone.

It remains to be seen whether Heafy has used one of his new MKH Origins Les Paul Customs on Ibaraki's debut album, Rashomon. But while we wait to found out, you can check out some of the material released under the Ibaraki banner, including an epic single featuring Gerard Way, titled Rōnin.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Standards – Smile

What is it? Fresh off its live debut during the band’s recent UK tour, Smile sees Aristides-toting two-hand tapping wizard Marcos Mena and drummer Cam Mitchell, erm, tap into the poppier side of their progressive repertoire. Consistent with the rest of Standards’ output, it’s hooky as hell – and we’re always down for virtuosity you can dance to.

Standout guitar moment: Mena’s nifty over-the-fretboard chord hammer-on and pull-offs, freeing up his right hand to tap out that irresistable chorus melody.

For fans of: Hikes, Covet, Giraffes? Giraffes!

– Michael Astley-Brown

Larkin Poe – Bad Spell

What is it? The swaggering lead single from Blood Harmony, the sixth studio album from the always-exciting Nashville-based blues-rock duo featuring sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell. A “female response” to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You, Bad Spell simply explodes out of the speakers.

Standout guitar moment: Armed with one of her beloved HSS Stratocasters and a dimed-out fuzz pedal, Rebecca Lovell delivers a catchy, instant-impact sledgehammer of a blues-rock riff that never wears out its welcome. It’s the sort of unstoppable refrain that’s taken plenty of other groups in the genre from clubs and small theaters to arenas, and listening to it, we can’t help but wonder if Larkin Poe will be next to make that jump…  

For fans of: The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Tedeschi Trucks Band

– Jackson Maxwell

Thrice – Dead Wake

What is it? Devastating fresh material from the California alt-rock innovators following last year’s Horizons/East. A song of two halves, Dead Wake starts as a Vheissu-flavored post-hardcore anthem, traverses a brief keyboard interlude and ends up a slice of altogether apocalyptic alt-rock. Although Dead Wake is being billed as a standalone release, the band told us a Horizons/West companion record was in the works, so we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more in the coming months…

Standout guitar moment: The way Dustin Kensrue’s climactic chiming overdriven sounds play off against Teppei Teranishi’s raw unison bends is magic.

For fans of: Touché Amoré, Circa Survive, Radiohead

– Michael Astley-Brown

Malevolence – Salvation (feat. Matthew K. Heafy)

What is it? A standout track on the Sheffield, UK metalcore stalwarts’ new album, Malicious Intent. A masterclass in unbridled sonic ferocity, Salvation is brimming with pummeling mid-tempo guitar riffs, texture-laden melodic chorus sections and both a solo and some guest vocals from Trivium leader Matt Heafy.

Standout guitar moment: Heafy never misses with his leads, and this one is no exception. From the 1:42 mark, the Trivium man offers up a bounty of winding melodies and two-handed tapping wizardry, proving once again that he’s one of the best in the biz.

For fans of: Trivium, Stray From the Path, Venom Prison

– Sam Roche

Foals – 2001 

What is it? A funk-fueled, disco-charged bop from veteran hit-makers Foals, who are gearing up to release their new album, Life Is Yours, later this year. It’s everything you’d expect from a Foals track but more, with the band fully embracing their evolution into a disco guitar group by decking out space-y synths with gargling low-ends, snappy guitar licks and arguably the funkiest guitar drone of their whole repertoire.

Standout guitar moment: That infectious intro guitar riff is an absolute joy to listen to, and sounds as though it’s emanated straight from the fretboard of funk king Cory Wong himself.

For fans of: Royal Blood, Bloc Party, Cory Wong

– Matt Owen 

Roosevelt feat. Nile Rodgers – Passion

What is it? By enlisting the talents of a certain Mr. Nile Rodgers, German synth-pop maestro Roosevelt fulfills a longtime dream on this floor-filling new single. The result is, unsurprisingly, a disco-infused pop banger that proves Rodgers’ eternal midas touch.

Standout guitar moment: While Nile’s unmistakable syncopated Hitmaker strums drive Passion’s monster chorus, that cheeky palm-muted middle eight gives a glimpse at his underrated riff chops, too.

For fans of: Chic, Cory Wong, Daft Punk

– Michael Astley-Brown

Horsegirl – Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)

What is it? We’ve had our eyes on this Chicago trio – whose members are barely out of high school – for awhile now. They make twisty, catchy and angular guitar-driven songs that have folks who grew up in alt-rock’s heyday going ‘well, thank god some kids these days make real music.' Unlike other buzzy young bands that have merely served as a vehicle for boomer/early millennial nostalgia and projection though, Horsegirl have talent and vision to go along with the hype, as a listen to their new single, Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty), proves in spades.

Standout guitar moment: The song’s main chord progression is highlighted by woozy bends that add a ton of color and personality to this quietly charming rocker.

For fans of: Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Pavement

– Jackson Maxwell

Coheed and Cambria – Comatose

What is it? The fourth single from Coheed and Cambria’s highly-anticipated 10th album, Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind. Like previously released singles The Liars Club and Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord), Comatose boasts a light rock feel, driven by an instantly infectious major-key guitar riff.

Standout guitar moment: The track features an abundance of harmonized leads, which weave themselves around one another underneath Claudio Sanchez’s ever-catchy vocal hooks.

For fans of: Dance Gavin Dance, Billy Talent

– Sam Roche

Everything Everything – Kevin’s Car  

What is it? A track lifted from UK art rock group Everything Everything’s new album, Raw Data Feel, which dropped today (May 20). Kevin’s Car is quintessential Everything Everything, and arrives from a band whose sound is deeply rooted in unorthodox six-string sonic experimentation. It’s a textural tapestry of the highest order, from the glass-like intro guitars and electro-tinged verse stabs to the extended chorus melody that pins the mix together.

Standout guitar moment: Multiple listens will reveal more and more nuanced guitar activity, but the vocal-mirroring line of the chorus is the best of the bunch, effortlessly gluing the entire track together and bringing it to life.

For fans of: Alt-J, Radiohead, Dutch Uncles 

– Matt Owen

The Fierce & the Dead – Wonderful

What is it? A fresh psych-fuzz freakout from one of the UK’s trickiest-to-pin-down instrumental rockers – except their first new music in four years isn’t actually instrumental, featuring vocal contributions from Kevin Feazey for the first time. It doesn’t dilute the band’s serrated prog edge, however, and the addition of saxophone among the sludge lends the track a certain King Crimson esoterica.

Standout guitar moment: That peak grunge-channeling chorus riff, which takes equal billing with the verse’s shoegaze-worthy washed-out chords.

For fans of: King Crimson, Haken, Steven Wilson

– Michael Astley-Brown

Def Leppard – Fire It Up

What is it? A bouncy new number from the veteran English rock outfit’s forthcoming album, Diamond Star Halos. Fire It Up finds guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell in fine form, as they serve up a bounty of swaggering and feel-good guitar riffs, and a selection of tasty leads, to boot.

Standout guitar moment: The solo from the 2:28 mark is a textbook passage of classic rock-inspired shred, featuring sky-high bends and tastefully placed alternate picking blitzes.

For fans of: Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Scorpions

– Sam Roche

Caius – Care for Me (Iamalex & Felty remix) 

What is it? The latest laid-back remix from Horace Bray’s lo-fi side project, which sees him treat producer Caius' sultry beats to his smooth six-string soundscapes. Harnessing every ounce of his formal jazz education, Bray brings his A-game, souping-up the beat with some aquatic progressions, sizzling improv lines and tasty chromatic embellishments.

Standout guitar moment: A host of extended chords build up to the subtle, easy-listening solo at the 1:21 mark, which is littered with jazzy slides, colorful turnarounds and some upper-fret harmonies.

For fans of: Horace Bray, Tom Misch, Charlie Allen

– Matt Owen

Today (May 6), Trivium’s Matt Heafy released Rashomon, the highly-anticipated debut album from his black-metal side project, Ibaraki. 

Though Ibaraki has likely taken up a lot of Heafy’s focus lately, the electric guitar great still found some time recently to sit down with Gibson for an episode of the company’s Riff Lords YouTube series.

The new episode – which you can see below – features Heafy teaching viewers the ins and outs of Trivium's most diabolical riffs, and offering some helpful general tips along the way.

Wielding the six-string version of his signature Epiphone Les Paul Custom, Heafy first dives into the title track of the band’s first album, 2003's Ember to Inferno. At that time, Heafy notes, Trivium was a three-piece, so he was looking to marry rhythm and melody within his guitar parts. 

With that blending of lead and rhythm guitar styles in mind, Heafy also highlights his use of vibrato in the riff. “Vibrato’s an incredibly useful thing to have, especially in leads,” Heafy says, “but to have it in rhythm as well is important.”

Next, Heafy tackles the complex inner rhythmic workings of the machine-gun like Suffocating Sight – from 2005’s Ascendancy – before moving on to Incineration: The Broken World, off of 2013's Vengeance Falls.

Incineration's fierce riff contains more vibrato wiggles, plus a bevy of high-speed hammer-ons and pull-offs. Those accentuations, Heafy explains, are crucial to its power, a point he makes quite effectively by killing his guitar's volume entirely and playing it without amplification.

Heafy then swaps out his six-string signature Epiphone for his seven-string signature Epi, and teaches Into the Mouth of Hell We March, from 2008’s Shogun. During the tutorial, Heafy reveals that after he broke his pinky in high school, it healed in a way that helps him with some of that riff’s (and those of other riffs of course) gnarlier stretches. 

Elsewhere in the video, the Trivium guitarist offers viewers an up-close look at intense passages from Betrayer (2017’s The Sin and the Sentence), the title track of 2020’s What the Dead Men Say and, finally, the title track from the band’s most recent effort, 2021’s In the Court of the Dragon.

Heafy says that guitarists can “flourish” after learning these riffs, and incorporating some of their many technical elements into their own playing. We’re certainly inclined to agree. 

To pick up a copy of Ibaraki’s Rashomon, visit the project’s website. 

Matt Heafy has teamed up with My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way for the third single from his Ibaraki solo side-project, Rōnin. It arrives ahead of debut album, Rashomon.

The track – like previously released singles Tamashii No Houkai and Akumu – features contributions from Emperor guitarist Ihsahn, and sees Heafy take the project in a softer direction, at least for the first minute and a half. After this point, Heafy exercises his penchant for all things heavy, offering doom-y electric guitar lines over an unrelenting blast beat while Way serves up some black metal-style screams.

Rōnin evolves hugely over the course of its nine-minute-13-second runtime, switching from high-octane metal arrangements to more melodic-driven lead passages to an acoustic guitar-tinged section from the six-minute mark. Check it out below.

“A rōnin is a masterless warrior,” Heafy says. “The final two full compositions on Rashomon see a significant shift musically. The album as a whole – with the exception of the intro and outro – is actually presented in chronological order of earliest written to latter-most. The actual guitar and bass tracks are a time-capsule of sorts in that their parts – on the final album – are actually from the year they were tracked.

“One can begin to see the shifts as the years went on for the writing of the album. Kagutsuchi/Ibaraki-doji being written and tracked in 2010/2011, all the way up to Rōnin/Susanoo No Mikoto being written and tracked in 2016/2017.”

On how he came to collaborate with the MCR vocalist on the track, Heafy continues: “Gerard Way has been a long-time inspiration for me – I have looked to Gerard as a constant source of motivation to be creative. 

“While Gerard and I may be from different genres than where Ibaraki and black metal stem from – outsiders of sorts – the spirit and intent of our performances is what unites our passion for pushing boundaries.”

Rashomon arrives May 6 via Nuclear Blast. Check out its track list below.

1. Hakanaki Hitsuzen
2. Kagutsuchi
3. Ibaraki-Dōji
4. Jigoku Dayū
5. Tamashii No Houkai
6. Akumu (Feat. Nergal)
7. Komorebi
8. Rōnin (Feat. Gerard Way)
9. Susanoo No Mikoto (Feat. Ihsahn)
10. Kaizoku

Rashomon, the debut album of Matt Heafy's black-metal side project, Ibaraki, is set to arrive May 6 via Nuclear Blast.

And following last month's single, Tamashii No Houkai – which, like other tracks on the album, sees creative contributions from Emperor's Insahn – Heafy has offered up another track, Akumu, this time calling for assistance from Behemoth frontman Nergal.

Sprawling and grandiose, the track once again provides Heafy a chance to explore the scope of his creativity, as he injects rapid-fire alternate picking riffs over blast beats, and pounding palm-muted lines over groovier rhythmic arrangements. The riff at the 3:17 mark is perhaps one of Heafy's best. Check it out below.

“‘Akumu’ translates to ‘nightmare’,” Heafy explains, “and with this piece, I encourage the listener to work to find their interpretations of what they feel from the lyrics, music, and the haunting visuals of the music video.

“I have always been fascinated by Sagazan's ‘Transfiguration’, and for years, I have wanted to pay homage to his works with a performance art piece; to finally be able to immerse myself in his style was an intense experience.”

He adds: “Having Nergal guest in this Insahn co-written piece allowed me to combine many of my long-time influences; and when I presented with Nergal the challenge of translating my lyrics into Polish, it brought the song to another level.”

Heafy is, of course, no stranger to the world of heavy metal, having fronted Orlando mainstays Trivium since 2000. And while Ibaraki marks his first official foray into the black-metal realm, he's clearly embracing this new musical direction, as the material is some of most exciting metal music of the year so far.

Rashomon is available to preorder now – check out the full tracklisting below.

1. Hakanaki Hitsuzen
2. Kagutsuchi
3. Ibaraki-Dōji
4. Jigoku Dayū
5. Tamashii No Houkai
6. Akumu (Feat. Nergal)
7. Komorebi
8. Rōnin (Feat. Gerard Way)
9. Susanoo No Mikoto (Feat. Ihsahn)
10. Kaizoku

Sophie Lloyd has taken to social media to tease her upcoming collaborative project, for which she’s recruited Trivium’s Matt Heafy.

In an Instagram post, Lloyd – who has amassed a huge following thanks to her shred-heavy covers – dropped the bombshell that she had been busy behind the scenes recording a music video with Heafy.

“No Metal Monday cover today,” wrote Lloyd, “but I think this counts instead! Spent the day filming a music video with Matt Heafy. Watch this space.”

And, naturally, where there is a music video, there is a song.

Heafy responded to the post by commenting, “Thank you so much for having me on this amazing tune!”

Not only was Lloyd’s own response an expression of her gratitude for having Heafy on the track, it also served as a small teaser, with the online six-string slinger announcing that Heafy had “smashed it” in the studio.

There’s been no official word regarding what the release will be called – nor when it will be unveiled – but Heafy posted a sneak peek of the video on his Twitter account shortly after Lloyd broke the news.

Acknowledging his lack of Les Paul in the clip, he wrote, “Matt with no guitar makes me feel: ________________ I can’t wait for y’all to see this Sophie x Kiichi tune coming up!”

Heafy also took the opportunity to congratulate Lloyd on her online following during their Instagram exchange, saying, “It’s been awesome watching you grow your empire – and I can’t wait to see how it all grows from here.”

“Empire” is perhaps an appropriate term to describe Lloyd’s online presence, which currently comprises over half-a-million Instagram followers and 665,000 YouTube subscribers – and her loyal following comes as no surprise.

In recent times, Lloyd has impressed with a series of online covers, turning Britney Spears’ Toxic into a certified shred-a-thon, as well as teaming up with Cole Rolland for a heavy reinvention of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

To keep up to date with Lloyd, visit Sophie Lloyd’s Instagram account.

Trivium electric guitar ace Matt Heafy has unveiled Tamashii No Houkai, the first single from his long-awaited Ibaraki project.

Topped off with a blistering solo from Emperor guitarist Ihsahn – who, according to a press release from the Heafy camp, has also taken on a role as Ibaraki's producer – the song is a relentless, mutli-faceted black metal epic that shows Heafy wholeheartedly embracing a new musical direction.

You can check the song – and its beautifully-shot, black-and-white music video – out below.

"Tamashii No Houkai means 'the breaking of the soul' or 'soul collapse,'" Heafy explained in a press release. "It's a Japanese term that didn't exist before, but one we forged to reflect the song's meaning."

"Tamashii No Houkai is co-written by Ihsahn – the legend behind Emperor and a musician who has been a longtime influence and mentor to so much that I do in music," he continued. "The writing of this song was the turning point for Ibaraki – it summarized everything from the past, present, and future of what I thought black metal was, is, and could be."

"Tamashii No Houkai is the perfect summary and representation of everything that Ibaraki is, and will be," Heafy concluded.

If we were betting on it, we'd say that Tamashii No Houkai is probably the lead single of an as-yet-unannounced Ibaraki album, but as of press time no further details on such an album – name, release date or cover – have been made public.

Keep your eyes on Ibaraki's website though, for more info and updates on the project.

Trivium guitarists Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu are no strangers to finger-twisting riffs that snake around the fretboard and lightning-fast leads used to great effect. 

But on the Florida quartet’s 10th album, In The Court Of The Dragon, they’re really going for gold. The album is widely acclaimed as the finest work of their career. It’s also by far their shreddiest to date. And for that, Matt pays tribute to his fellow guitarist... 

“The stuff that Corey’s playing on this record is insane,” Matt says. “When I first heard the solo for the title track I was wondering how the hell he played it! He’s incredibly talented. We’ve always told him to go nuts and he’s always kinda held back, I don’t know why. 

“But he decided to let go... And he’s a monster on this record. That’s why I felt even more comfortable playing ‘dad rock’ solos with more doublestop bends and pentatonics!” 

Corey explains it very simply: “These songs had the foundation for some crazy shit, so I figured I’d go balls out! On other records, I might have stayed away from really fast runs because it would be seen as easier to go there instead of being more melodic. But this time, a lot of parts wouldn’t have made sense without some shred! So I just said, ‘All right, fire me up!’ 

“The Shadow Of The Abattoir is probably the most intense solo... There’s a lot of picking in that one! I’ve used a lot of the techniques on our previous records, like diminished arpeggios, but in smaller bursts. But this album was done in a different way. 

“Though there wasn’t anything technique-wise in terms of tricks up my sleeve to try, the solos were all written at home by myself, which made a difference. And then I tracked 70 per cent of the solos in a couple of hours at the studio. The songs just seemed to call for some shred... So I let them have it!”

For the recording of In The Court Of The Dragon, the band worked again with producer Josh Wilbur at the recording facility inside Florida’s Full Sail University, where the guitarists stuck with a fairly simplified signal path for the sessions. 

The list of gear used was “pretty bare” according to Corey – who cites an EVH 5150 III Stealth as the main weapon for the record, along with his signature Jackson King V and Matt’s signature Epiphone Les Paul. For a lot of the melodies and solos, Corey used a Soldano SLO-100, reasoning “it wasn’t cheap so I had to use it somewhere”. 

The only pedals involved were an MXR 10 Band EQ, an Airis Cloud Drive for a mid-boost, a Boss NS-2 noise gate, a DigiTech Whammy and a Maxon OD808 on certain solos. 

For extra colouration during his leads, Corey also utilized the Soundtoys MicroShift plug-in, which he describes as the “secret sauce” he’s been using for the last decade or so, adding the same kind of effect the Eventide H3000 was famous for in the '80s. 

“This time we went back to quad-tracking,” adds Matt. “Some we’ve done left and right each, but this one had two left and two right, like we did on Ember To Inferno, Ascendancy, Shogun and In Waves. The 5150 was fed into a Mesa cab with V30s that belonged to Josh. Amazingly, he just used a single [Shure] SM57. All delay, reverb, phaser or wah was added afterwards.”

While gear is important, Matt also appreciates how much tone can come from the player’s hands alone. Heavy metal should be played with aggression, regardless of what instruments you use, the size of your pedalboard or how much gain you have on tap. There’s a lot to be said for attitude... “We talk about tone all the time,” he says. “We’re all chasing tone. I’ve got this insane collection of gear, but so much of the tone comes from my attack. 

“I’m not saying people have to play uneconomically or with overexertion, but on this record you can really hear how hard I’m picking. That’s why I like using the EverTune bridge, because it allows me to hit and bend harder. You really hear the attack just through my guitar unplugged.” 

That sense of power extends through the 10 tracks that make up In The Court Of The Dragon. Even the rhythm parts at its very core are incredibly detailed and layered, involving some wide stretches, quick climbs and fast gallops. Truth be told, some of the riffs are as challenging as the leads themselves...

“I appreciate you saying that,” Matt smiles, explaining that while there’s no shortage of unbelievable shredders out there in the world right now, rhythm is still often overlooked. 

“Every time you open Instagram there’s some new super-freak who can do the craziest stuff that most of us cannot do. But I feel like the concept of rhythm guitar has been lost a little bit, especially in modern metal. I think A Crisis Of Revelation will be a difficult one for people to learn. It involves this weird style of picking I learned from Chuck Schuldiner from Death and Daniel Mongrain of Martyr. 

“They were the first to use this bizarre technique that wasn’t just alternate or down-picking. It’s down, down and then down, up, down – sounding like dun-dun-dadadun. While making our debut, [producer] Jason Suecof told us that if we learned every song from Martyr’s Warp Zone, we’d become the best players in the world. 

“Daniel Mongrain is one of the greatest – he’s classically trained in jazz, so he sounds like Marty Friedman and Allan Holdsworth mixed together. I didn’t invent it, but I’m one of the few players to use it.”

Similarly, for Corey, it was also a case of playing to his strengths – particularly when it comes to machine gun alternate picking and effortlessly smooth sweeping. He’d never been much of a legato player, he reasons, pointing back his teenage years spent riffing along to Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth in his bedroom. 

How active pickups define Trivium’s wall of noise

Both Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu rely on high-output active pickups for their thick and saturated metallic tones – though, interestingly, made by two different companies. 

Having sworn by the EMG 81/85 set for many years, Matt now sticks with Fishman Fluence Moderns, and has some exciting plans afoot with the brand... “I love the Moderns,” he admits. “I’m about to release my own custom set, which has the active, passive and an extra split-coil mode. 

“I don’t use splits or taps in Trivium but I am obsessed with those tones. They work so well with Corey’s Seymour Duncan Blackouts. His have less mids and more highs, while mine are more mid-forward. Having the two together gave us the ferocity we wanted. We actually tried quad-tracking using only my Epiphones with Fishmans and it sounded good, but almost too perfect, like we were missing something.” 

“The Blackouts I use have a ridiculously high output,” adds Corey. “I feel like they might have a little more low end and more of a dark sound, which works really well because Matt’s sound is more mid-range-y and has that cut. That’s why they work so well together, living in different places in the EQ range that don’t quite step on each other as much.”

When he discovered death metal not long after, he noticed the musicians were taking burst picking to Olympic extremes. “When I first started, my teacher gave me a lot of exercises – simple stuff but all about accuracy,” he recalls. “And I still use them. I will sit there before a show and play scales to warm up, starting slow to get everything synched up. 

“I might just take two strings and play a pattern over and over again. You can use them to gauge how loose your fingers are and get them moving pretty quickly. 

“I got into sweeping through Michael Angelo Batio’s Speed Kills video. I never liked the arpeggios where you have to barre a finger and roll it up and down, so I don’t use those much. For three-string sweeps I tend to pick each string on the way down but coming back I’ll just hammer on. It lessens the motion and gives me time to get back to the starting point. 

“I think Matt does it too, it’s our weird little arpeggio hack, but it works because it doesn’t sound like you’re missing any notes.” 

Returning to the question of how his band managed to surpass all expectation this time round, delivering something far grander than what you’d normally expect from a metal group on album number 10, Matt uses the term “organic improvisation” as the main distinguishable writing tool for this record. 

It was a more collaborative effort than the typical Trivium album, with both guitarists – as well as bassist Paolo Gregoletto – splicing their riffs together from the same room, instead of demoing separately. 

“We wanted to capture lightning in the bottle rather than plan too much,” Matt explains. “There were no constraints, limitations or boundaries. We went back to the mindset of four people putting together their first band and making their first batch of songs. But it’s not nostalgia. All that mattered, selfishly, was, ‘Do we love it?’ 

“Trying new things for genuine reasons is fine, but trying to grab some other fanbase doesn’t work. We call it the fictitious boardroom fans – ‘we need these people into our band!’ – like it’s a sharehold or something. That’s when things fall apart and come off the rails...” He stops for a second and laughs. 

“You know, when I hear the phrase ‘organic improvisation’, I picture jam rock riffs, raw recordings, Orange amps and single-coil pickups. But when you have four religious practitioners of their instruments – who are also four students of all the sub-genres of metal – walk in and improvise after they’ve been staying on peak training form, you get the results of this record.”

• Trivium's new album In The Court Of The Dragon is out now via Roadrunner Records.

Stuck on what to get your loved ones for Christmas this year? Is the guitarist in your family already kitted out with all the gear they need? Then why not get them a personalized video message from one of their musical heroes.

Over at Cameo, you can request a short video message from a huge range of guitarists spanning a host of different genres, from metal to blues to rock, so whatever the occasion – be it Christmas, a birthday or a new job celebration – it's sure to be unforgettable.

If metal's your loved one's poison, you can request a clip from the likes of Dave Mustaine, Kiko Loureiro, Matt Heafy, Mark Morton or Scott Ian, to name a few. If they're savvy with the new wave of guitar-slinging content creators on the web, you can request a video from YouTube riff master and meme lord Nik Nocturnal or shredder Sophie Lloyd.

And if they're more into the rock side of things, Richie Kotzen and Tyler Bryant and Alice in Chains' William DuVall are just waiting to wish them a happy season's greetings.

Of course, there's also tons of musicians on Cameo outside of the guitar sphere, including Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe, Arch Enemy leader Alissa White-Gluz and Motörhead's Mikkey Dee.

All you need to do is head to Cameo, find your celebrity of choice, fill out the form on their page and your message will be with the recipient within seven days. Make sure you give the celebrity as much info as possible so they can make your personalized video message the best it can be.

Following the reveal of his newest signature model – the Epiphone MKH Origins Les Paul Custom – earlier this year, Matt Heafy has confirmed its seven-string version will feature an extended-range-friendly scale length.

Taking to social media over the weekend, the Trivium frontman shared a photo with two MKH Origins Les Paul Custom models, with the caption: “Which model of the MKH Origins are you gonna get?” The caption then reveals the seven-string model's scale length to be 25.5".

Seven-string Les Pauls are nothing new – Gibson announced an extended-range Les Paul Classic back in 2014, and Heafy himself has had seven-string signature models in the past  – but these have all featured standard 24.75" scale lengths, a spec many seven-string guitar players have critiqued due to string tension and tuning instability problems.

But guitarists looking to play Trivium's down-tuned riffs on the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom should run into fewer issues. 

The guitars in the photo are also seen to sport black and gold Fishman Custom MKH Fluence Modern 3 Voice pickups, which Heafy promised would replace the silver humbuckers seen in his reveal video for the signature model back in January.

To refresh your memory, the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom's specs include an ebony fingerboard with block inlays, Epiphone's updated headstock with Matt Heafy's signature on the back, and a shallower neck heel for easier upper-fret access.

Fans will likely see the Trivium main man wielding either a six or seven-string version of the guitar on the band's upcoming European tour, which was postponed until 2023 last month.

“Unfortunately with the uncertainty of cross-border travel and restrictions it’s become impossible for these dates to proceed as planned,” the band said. “We can assure you we were doing everything up until the last minute to figure out a way to do the shows and it wasn’t a decision we made lightly.

“We appreciate this is a way off, but we promise to make it worth the wait and we have two new albums’ worth of material we haven’t toured yet to bring to you.”

The two albums the band mention are 2020's What the Dead Men Say and In the Court of the Dragon, which dropped in October.

Trivium have announced their 10th studio album, In the Court of the Dragon, and shared its second single, the quintessentially Trivium Feast of Fire.

The track – which follows the album's title track, released last month – contains everything you'd expect from the Orlando quartet, including ultra-catchy vocal hooks, a guitar solo that strikes the perfect balance between melodic and show-stopping, and a riff with enough power to move mountains. Honestly, we challenge you not to headbang to this one.

“There's always that one song you aren't expecting when you begin writing a new album,” says bassist Paolo Gregoletto. “It could be a riff written on the spot in the rehearsal space, a lyric that pairs just right with a melody, or in the case of Feast of Fire, sitting right there in front of us in the middle of a demo that Corey brought in.

“We were well into pre-production at [recording studio] Full Sail when we all decided that something about the demo we had tracked was good but could be even better. Our producer Josh Wilbur even had in his notes: ‘Bridge is special, maybe so special it needs its own song.’ We tore the song apart and began again on the spot.”

He continues: “We went into this album knowing we had time to consider everything and anything that came about during this period, and if need be, we could start again if it didn't feel right given that no touring was on the horizon.”

“I had the words ‘Feast of Fire’ written in my running list of notes for lyric ideas that I try to amass before we record. Something about the phrase stuck out to me. It felt like the missing piece of the story we were trying to tell with this album, a climactic moment and a real centerpiece for the narrative.

“After all these years, I'm still blown away at how a song can really appear out of thin air and take the album to a place you weren't expecting. Those are the moments we are always looking for when making a record.”

As frontman Matt Heafy explains, the album's cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres.

“While the music of In the Court of the Dragon was taking shape, we knew we needed epic artwork of the type that you might see on the wall of an important museum from a long-dead renaissance master,” he says.

“After extensive research, we found one of the few living artists who is capable of creating artwork like Caravaggio and Gentileschi – painter Mathieu Nozieres.

“Mathieu took our song title and created an original oil painting on canvas unlike anything we could have ever imagined. It's so staggeringly breathtaking and epic and it looks like what the song and album sounds like.”

In the Court of the Dragon arrives October 8 via Roadrunner Records. Check out its tracklisting below.

1. X
2. In The Court Of The Dragon
3. Like A Sword Over Damocles
4. Feast Of Fire
5. A Crisis Of Revelation
6. The Shadow Of The Abattoir
7. No Way Back Just Through
8. Fall Into Your Hands
9. From Dawn To Decadence
10. The Phalanx

Orlando metal heavyweights Trivium have unleashed a brand-new single, In The Court Of The Dragon.

Available now on all DSPs, the track bears everything a Trivium fan – or any metal fan, for that matter – could ever desire: a monolithic main riff that generates more energy than the Large Hadron Collider, a breakdown that'll see you moshing on your own in your living room and plenty of searing lead guitar work from Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu. 

Watch the track's killer accompanying music video – directed by Ryan Mackfall – below.

The new cut was first conceived in 2020 during the height of lockdown. “We started putting together the riffs for what would become In the Court of the Dragon last year with no touring on the horizon,” explains bassist Paolo Gregoletto.

“We decided to use the uncertainty to our advantage and to create without any of the limitations and commitments that would normally be eating away at our time in the jam room.”

And as Gregoletto reveals, the track's meaning was also spawned from Covid. “The title of the song came from a short story by Robert W. Chambers,” he says.

“The story is filled with dread and uncertainty, and that felt fitting for the times we've all been living in for the last year. Rather than a direct re-telling, we decided to go a different route and build our own narrative around the music that we were creating.

He continues, “Similar to some of our past songs and albums, this song began with lyrics rooted in mythology. but unlike the past, we decided to create our own myth to fit the music.

“Being free to create the story and write the music without a deadline, due to a one-in-a-lifetime event, really led to one of the most rewarding writing and recording experiences we have ever had. We hope it lives up to your expectations.”

Trivium are currently working on their 10th studio album and followup to 2020's What the Dead Men Say. Whether In the Court of the Dragon will appear on the upcoming full-length remains to be seen.

In other news, Matt Heafy recently revealed that he now makes more money from Twitch than from all of Trivium's digital streaming revenue combined.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, the frontman revealed that his popular Twitch channel generated just shy of $10,000 per month in 2019, compared to the $11,000 per month earned – but shared – from Trivium's streaming revenue.

While a large proportion of an artist's audience comes by way of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, payouts are often minuscule, so it's no wonder they're resorting to less conventional methods to generate cash.

Take Matt Heafy, for example: he's the frontman of Trivium, one of the most successful metal bands in the world, yet he earns more money from livestreaming on Twitch than he does from the band's music on all streaming platforms combined.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Heafy reveals that his Twitch channel generated just shy of $10,000 per month in 2019 and 2020, while Trivium collectively receive around $11,000 per month from all other on-demand streaming services.

For reference, Heafy's Twitch channel currently has over 220,000 followers, while Trivium's Spotify page boasts around 1.8 million monthly listeners.

Based on these figures, Twitch streaming could be seen as the more lucrative endeavor, but for Heafy, it's pretty much a full-time job.

The Trivium main man engages with his audience six hours a day, five days a week, streaming content from guitar clinics, light-hearted covers and video gameplay to AMA-style Q&A sessions with fans.

“Even if I don't feel like practicing, I know people are going to be there who want to hear a couple hours of their favorite Trivium songs,” he explains. “So I make sure I'm there to make their day good.”

And when Trivium see a return to live touring post-Covid, Heafy has no intentions of abandoning his Twitch audience.

“I'm going to keep it to the same exact thing – 9AM and 3PM – Monday through Friday,” he says. “Every show, every soundcheck, every vocal warm-up; every day off, me playing games in the hotel room.”

“I look at it as part of my life now," he said. “And I want to keep doing this for as long as I can.”

Hear ye, hear ye. As we do every Thursday, we’ve assembled some of the guitar’s greatest innovators and practitioners to display their latest creations. A weekly World’s Fair of new guitar music, if you like.

In one corner, we have a refreshing bit of fingerpickin’ pop bliss from Lindsey Buckingham, in another we have some euphoric, captivating post-rock from Deafheaven. 

Look further, and you’ll see a decidedly out-of-left-field, metal-heavy reimagining of the pop classic Right Here Waiting from Matt Heafy and Richard Marx, and a scrappy power-pop gem from The Front Bottoms.

Explore all that and more in our roundup below.

The Pretty Reckless - Only Love Can Save Me Now (Feat. Matt Cameron & Kim Thayil)

Taylor Momsen has made no secret of her love for Soundgarden, but this collaboration with two of the architects of the Seattle sound must have exceeded even her expectations.

Kim Thayil – whose beard has only grown more resplendent over lockdown – has said Only Love Can Save Me Now’s riff wouldn’t feel out of place on Louder Than Love, and he ain’t wrong: a writhing 7/4 juggernaut, it bears all the hallmarks of classic Soundgarden, but in actual fact originated from Pretty Reckless lead guitarist Ben Phillips.

Thayil makes the track his own, however, when it comes to his searing wah solo, which lasts for nigh-on a full minute – surely second only to Like Suicide as his longest lead on record. What’s more, his off-the-cuff licks take an altogether thrashier turn as the track hurtles into a breakneck double-time passage.

Throw in Taylor Momsen’s Chris Cornell-aping howls and you’ve got the closest thing to new Soundgarden music we’re likely to hear this side of the ongoing legal tussle over Cornell’s final recordings. (MAB)

Lindsey Buckingham – I Don’t Mind 

Given that he was forced to undergo life-saving open heart surgery in 2019, it’s wonderful to see Lindsey Buckingham making music again. 

If I Don’t Mind, the lead single from his upcoming self-titled solo album, is any indication of Buckingham’s form, the man hasn’t lost a single step, even as his career enters its sixth decade. 

Buckingham is one of the great chorus specialists of ours or any age, and the one he crafts for I Don’t Mind hits like a laser, buoyed by perfect hooks and some oh-so Buckingham-esque studio trickery.

All these years later, there’s still no guitarist on earth who plays quite like the Fleetwood Mac legend – that restless, circular acoustic-electric fingerpicking so rich in melody, emotional expression and rhythmic drive. It’s made his tunes stand out on the radio for almost 50 years now, and will do the same for I Don’t Mind when it inevitably begins making rounds on the airwaves. (JM)

Matthew K. Heafy – Right Here Waiting (feat. Richard Marx)

Trivium head honcho and YouTube/Twitch extraordinaire Matt Heafy is no stranger to collaboration. From guest vocals on DragonForce’s 2014 album Maximum Overload to his 5-track 2020 EP with Jared Dines, his list of musical credits beyond the realm of Trivium is far-reaching and rarely has us surprised. 

The news of his latest partnership, however, was enough to make us spit out our coffee and do a double take.

Yes, Matt Heafy – the man who sings In Waves, A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation, Shogun and a host of other metal bangers – has teamed up with pop icon Richard Marx for a reimagining of his 1989 classic, Right Here Waiting.

Trivium purists, stand at ease: Heafy’s metal influence has gotten the better of Marx on this occasion. The track’s once serene strings, synth pads and shakers have been booted in place of machine gun-esque kick drums and a cornucopia of riffs and overdriven shred. It has our stamp of approval. (SR)

Flea & John Frusciante - Not Great Men

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have a lot of history with late post-punk legend Andy Gill. Not only were Gang of Four a formative influence for the LA funk outfit, but Gill also produced the band’s 1984 self-titled debut.

So you really couldn’t ask for a more perfect pair of players to lend their talents to the just-released Gill tribute album, The Problem of Leisure, than Flea – who played on the aforementioned debut – and returning Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante.

Not Great Men marks the pair’s first recording together in over a decade. Listening now, Gang of Four’s 1979 original already sounds like proto-RHCP, but Flea and Frusciante nudge it over the line with the funk-punk fusion they moulded during the band’s early years.

Naturally, Flea slaps and pops his way through the original’s angular bassline, but it’s Frusciante’s staccato, lightly overdriven tone that really gets the nostalgia kicking. Whether this old-school approach is a sign of things to come from RHCP’s forthcoming album or not, it’s a fitting tribute not only to Gill but the legacy he leaves behind. (MAB)

Laura Stevenson – State

State, the opening cut and first single from Laura Stevenson’s upcoming self-titled album – her sixth solo effort to date – hits like one of the baseball bats used to great effect in the song’s music video. 

As a creeping riff sets the tone in the song’s intro, eerie strings dance in unsettling arcs around the song’s perimeter in a way that recalls John Cale’s discordant viola work with the Velvet Underground. 

That is, of course, before State explodes into a bludgeoning chorus where finding the beautifully composed, tension-building guitar leads amidst the tornado of distorted rhythm work becomes a wonderful easter egg hunt that’ll keep you coming back for further listens.

Written about a loved one who was hurt and nearly killed by someone – and Stevenson’s subsequent rage about what occurred – State seethes beautifully before pouncing when you least expect it. (JM) 

Deafheaven – Great Mass of Color

Great Mass of Color could be a fitting title for just about all of Deafheaven’s material. A band never afraid to color outside the lines – occasionally to the chagrin of genre purists – each new release paints heavy music in their own distinctive, and often unpredictable, palette.

The first single to be taken from forthcoming fifth album Infinite Granite is no exception, although its euphoric post-rock stylings are more laser-focused than previous efforts – and the appearance of uber-producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen can likely account for the band’s more direct approach.

Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra are masters of expansive guitar tones – whether lathered in delay feedback or not – and they take their craft to new heights here, with spacious phased lines and some gorgeous interweaving arpeggios, before a colossal tremolo-picked outro brings proceedings to a thunderous conclusion. (MAB)

Jared James Nichols – Skin ‘n Bone

Jared James Nichols has to be up there with the busiest blues artists of the past year. In the space of 12 months, the six-string ace has launched a brand-new Goldtop version of his Epiphone “Old Glory” signature model – cleverly dubbed “Gold Glory” – appeared on this year’s Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation’s stream-a-thon, and even set out to restore one of the first Gibson Les Pauls ever made.

And he’s not stopping just yet, as he’s just announced a brand-new EP – Shadow Dancer – and shared its gritty debut single, Skin ‘n Bone.

In typical JJN fashion, the fresh cut features a brooding array of tastefully dialed, brilliantly delivered overdriven guitar lines, with low-register riffs and upper-fretboard noodles receiving equal amounts of the blues-rocker’s attention.

Fans of the guitarist’s lead work will be pleased: there’s a superbly executed, quintessentially bluesy guitar solo to be enjoyed around the 2:07 mark, in which Nichols lets rip with a flurry of howling, bend-heavy licks. (SR)

The Front Bottoms – Voodoo Magic (Feat. Matt Skiba)

Enlisting the help of Blink-182 guitar hero Matt Skiba, The Front Bottoms’ latest punk-fueled single is everything you could ever want and more, and boasts the same effortless charm that populates the majority – if not all – of the duo’s discography.

Favoring a rollercoaster-like sense of temporal urgency distilled by way of a three-beats-and-we’re-off intro, Voodoo Magic takes you on a two-and-a-half-minute ride, layering on gain-drenched powerchords, fuzzy lead lines and supporting acoustic strums that are panned to the sweet spot so you can just about hear the pick as it races across the strings.

Skiba’s six-string influences are all over Voodoo Magic, too, in both its composition and execution. Decorating the track with tasty vocal-shadowing single-string phrases and punctuating it with precise strumming patterns, the ensemble put on a show that will have you reaching for the replay button before it's even finished.

A punk pairing made in heaven? Quite possibly. The result? A fitting pre-weekend romp that deserves to be played full-blast as the working week comes to a close. (MO)

Crypta – Dark Night of the Soul

The third single from forthcoming debut studio album Echoes of the Soul, Crypta’s Dark Night of the Soul plays host to about as much tremolo picking as anyone can withstand in one five-minute sitting.

Guitarists Sonia Anubis and Tainá Bergamaschi serve up a plentiful supply of death-style six-string lines, underpinned by the thunderous stickwork of drummer Luana Dametto and the furious vocals of Fernanda Lira.

The track follows previously released singles Starvation and From the Ashes, which both see the guitar work of Anubis and Bergamaschi placed center stage. One thing’s for sure: the album’s sure to be one of the most exciting death-metal LPs of the year. (SR)

Over the years, we here at Guitar World have seen our fair share of cross-genre collaborations – Joe Satriani’s project with orchestral composer Kitt Wakeley springs to mind – and so it takes something suitably surprising to have us truly taken aback.

Yet nothing could quite prepare us for what Trivium frontman Matt Heafy and pop icon Richard Marx had in store when they released a super-heavy reimagining of Marx’s 1989 classic, Right Here Waiting.

Gone are the synth pads, strings, ethereal keys, subtle shakers and warbling basslines. Instead, Heafy kits the ballad out with everything you’d expect from a Trivium-tweaked track. Riotous, chugging guitar parts? Yep. High-octane, rapid-fire kick drums? You betcha. A healthy helping of shredding? Oh, absolutely.

For good measure, Marx’s serene voice is propped up by Heafy’s guttural, bordering-on-screamo backing vocals, which transform the track from a sultry heart-string tugger into a monstrous metal power anthem.

Enough words trying to describe it, take a listen for yourself in the video below.

While Marx helped out in the vocal department, Heafy recorded all of the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum parts himself. 

Of the totally unexpected but incredibly welcome crossover, Heafy commented, “Richard is one of the greatest songwriters of our time and an incredible human being, so it’s unreal that we were able to create this metal version of his mega-hit together.”

During an interview on the Bringin’ It Backwards podcast, Heafy elaborated on the origins of the project, saying (via Blabbermouth), “I saw [Richard Marx’s] son wearing a Trivium shirt, so I hit him up on social media.

“[He’s a] super-amazing guy. We stayed in touch. One day, I [wrote to him], ‘Hey, let’s do a song together.' Then he texted me, ‘Let’s do it.’”

“The crazy talented Matt Heafy of Trivium came up with an amazing metal version of my song,” wrote Marx on Twitter. “We did vocals together and it’s out today! Check it out!”

Okay, now we really are prepared for whatever comes next. Nothing will surprise us now. Surely this is as crazy as it gets, right? Right?!

KHDK Electronics has released a bountiful supply of pedals in the past year, including the LCFR overdrive/boost – developed with Behemoth's Nergal – the SGT D boost/preamp – made in partnership with Anthrax shredder Scott Ian – and the NSFW My Big Fatt Rawk distortion.

Now, the company adds to its line of artist signature pedals with the Ascendency, a new overdrive designed with Trivium's Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu.

Designed by engineer Antonin Salva and hand-built and tested at KHDK's EU workshop, the pedal enables players to recreate both Heafy and Beaulieu's tones, with Drive, Volume and Tone knobs and Tight, Headroom and Mid Range toggles.

The pedal also sports rather funky, robot- and Japanese mask-inspired artwork by “maniacal artist” Dan Kurz. This design superseded the look of its prototype: a monochrome image of Heafy's arm, which can be seen below.

“I'm really blown away,” Heafy says. “I am a gear addict, so I like to think I've collection a bit of everything that's legendary. This OD smashes all the legendary ODs across the board.”

Explains KHDK: “This beast does 3 things: Matthew’s tone, Corey’s tone, and whatever the F else you want it to! It’s versatile as hell. I love it, Trivium guys love it, you will love it, your roommate will hate it.”

With only 333 units up for grabs, the Ascendency is available from Friday June 3 for $249. For more information, and to read the full story behind the production of the pedal, head to KHDK Electronics.

Gruv Gear has partnered with Matt Heafy once again for a new FretWrap, the MKH “Empire Edition”.

Following the company's existing FretWrap with the Trivium frontman – which was released in 2019 – the new design sports a 3D metallic gold 'Kiichi' Kanji logo embossed on a brushed matte strap, and an upgraded elastic band and hook-and-loop fastener.

The previous edition – the Matt Heafy Signature FretWrap – features red-trimmed black fabric with the 'Kiichi' logo embroidered in white.

“When you play metal that requires the utmost proficiency, accuracy, and definition – you need to ensure you’re cleaning up and getting rid of any excess variables that could be interfering with your sound,” Heafy says. 

“I use Gruv Gear FretWraps as a vital part of my gear and tone to tighten up even more so – the tight and enunciated tone that I use.”

“Matt has the best fans!” adds Jay Baldemor, President of Gruv Gear. “Not only does he hold the prestige of being one of the most viewed creators on Twitch, he is very intentional on growing his brand as an artist. His signature MKH FretWrap was a huge hit, and we believe every one of his guitarist fans will want to rock this killer new 'Empire Edition' model!”

MKH “Empire Edition” FretWraps are available in three sizes, Small, Medium and Large, fitting 6-, 7- and 8-string guitars, respectively. Each size is priced at $15.

For more information, head to Gruv Gear.

We’ve followed the Tik Tok sea shanty challenge closely here at Guitar World, reporting on versions by the likes of social media shredhead Andre Antunes and even Queen legend and greatest rock guitarist of all time Brian May.

Now the tune at the center of the viral phenomenon, the 19th century sea shanty The Wellerman, has been tackled by Trivium singer and guitarist Matt Heafy.

And because Heafy always does it extra, he has released a three-track Wellerman bundle, featuring three versions of the whaling song with guest vocals from Livia Zita.

The bundle is available on all streaming platforms in standard, folk and a cappella versions.

Said Heafy, "I didn't pick Wellerman as a cover to do something 'viral.’ It was one of those songs – when you hear it, it sounds like something Matt Heafy would cover. It was suggested by a close pal who thought exactly that."

To listen to Heafy’s Wellerman, head here.

Heavy metal man Matt Heafy has temporarily put down his new Epiphone MKH Epiphone signature electric guitar and picked up his acoustic guitar, with the Trivium frontman sharing an acoustic reworking of the band's Ascendancy album in the form of a new EP.

Consisting of four tracks, the new Ascendancy EP features acoustic reimaginings of songs from Trivium's 2005 album of the same name, with Heafy sharing the new collection on his YouTube channel.

Rain, Dying In Your Arms, Suffocating Sight and Departure all got a fresh lick of acoustic paint in the new release, with Heafy teasing the imminent arrival of more like-minded EPs, tweeting: "Weekly acoustic EPs of Trivium only on YouTube.com/matthewkheafy!" 

Heafy had previously released three acoustic versions of songs from Trivium's 2003 debut album Ember to Inferno, and plans to follow up the latest release with regular reworked renditions of songs from each Trivium album.

Trivium's 2020 offering, What the Dead Men Say, will be the only album that doesn't receive an acoustic-inspired makeover.

If Heafy continues to follow this pattern, we can expect to see The Crusade up next, so keep an eye on his YouTube channel for the regular releases.

Matt Heafy has once again partnered with Epiphone for his latest signature model, the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom.

The follow-up to the Trivium frontman's current MKH signature electric guitar, the new model swaps out its EMG pickups for a pair of black-and-gold Fishman Fluence humbuckers. Controls include two volume and two tone knobs, with each featuring push-pull functionality.

Available in either a black or white finish – and in either six- or seven-string configurations – the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom features an ebony fingerboard with block inlays, as well as Epiphone's updated headstock with Heafy's signature on the back. 

Other features include a guitar strap, strap locks and a shallower neck heel for easier upper-fret access.

While no price or release date has been announced as of yet, you can check out some of the tones the MKH Origins Les Paul Custom can conjure in Heafy's reveal video above.

YouTube sensation Jared Dines has joined forces with Trivium main man Matt Heafy for the Dines x Heafy EP, which is available today on all streaming platforms.

The five-track melodic metal EP sees Dines handle guitars, bass and drums in Washington, while Heafy tracked vocals and select guitar solos in Florida.

Dines and Heafy first collaborated on Dines’ Shred Wars YouTube series back in 2017, which eventually led to Dines filling in for Heafy during Trivium’s 2018 tour.

It was during this time that Dines shared a folder of ideas that would become the blueprint for the new EP.

“Matt was pre-internet in the way he launched his career, releasing records, playing shows, and signing to a label,” says Dines.

“I’m post-internet in the way I launched my career by using YouTube, Facebook, and all of these other video apps. It is interesting to see the crossover though. Matt has done everything traditionally. At the same time, he embraced new technologies instead of shutting them out. By doing this together, we get to be in both worlds.

“The EP was recorded in a raw and real manner. So, it has a different element. It would be cool to show everyone it does not matter if you are a guitarist from Instagram or you are in a big band, you can do things together. At the end of the day, the goal is simple – we’re just trying to write good songs and create some cool shit.”

“Streaming actually helped me improve as a singer and as a guitarist, because I’m practicing all day in front of people,” adds Heafy.

“The culture is very regimented. However, I have always had that mentality, because my mom is Japanese, and my dad was a marine. Now, it is a combination of three things: streaming, training, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

“Those practices made me better at what I do and prepared me to jump into something new. I took a very different approach to Dines x Heafy. It all came very organically without any planning.”

Dines x Heafy is available to stream across all platforms now, and a video for Dear Anxiety is due to drop later today. The full tracklisting is as follows:

1. Dear Anxiety
2. Can We Turn Back Yesterday
3. Dying At The Sight Of The Rain
4. To Save Me From Myself
5. We Lost It All

Submissions for Guitarist of the Year 2020 are coming in droves, and we're seeing some fantastic entries all round. This year's categories include Acoustic Guitarist, Electric Guitarist, Bassist, Young Guitarist (17 and under) and Guitar Teacher of the Year.

Guitarist of the Year is the search for the top guitar talent on the planet, hosted by Guitar World, Guitar Player and Bass Player, and sponsored by PRS Guitars.

Today, we're super-excited to announce that judging your entries for the Young Guitarist category will be Animals as Leaders visionary Tosin Abasi, Trivium frontman and Twitch god Matt Heafy and Halestorm leader Lzzy Hale.

Winners will receive high-ticket prizes from PRS, and they'll be featured in Guitar World and Guitar Player. So if you're a guitarist under the age of 18, this might be your chance to make your mark and get some serious exposure.

Each category has a $30 entry fee, apart from Guitar Teacher of the Year, which is free to enter. Part of this fee will be donated to the NAMM Foundation, which helps support music education and music making for people of all ages and abilities. We're accepting submissions for all categories between September 1 and October 31, so enter now if you think you have what it takes.

To enter the paid-entry categories, entrants must film and upload a video (no longer than three minutes) of themselves playing to YouTube or Vimeo, and fill out a brief nomination form. For Guitar Teacher of the Year, students must nominate their teachers, and the teachers with the most nominations will be featured and judged.

To enter now, head to Guitarist of the Year Awards.

Tosin Abasi

Tosin Abasi is one of today’s foremost virtuosos, whether writing mind-bending prog-metal with Animals as Leaders, or performing alongside the likes of Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen with Generation Axe. 

In recent years, Abasi has wowed the guitar market with his own Abasi Concepts designs.

Matt Heafy

Besides fronting one of the biggest metal bands of his generation, the Les Paul-toting Trivium leader has also made a name for himself as one of Twitch’s hottest guitar streaming talents. His prowess in both fields makes him the perfect judge for this competition.

Lzzy Hale

Lzzy Hale fronts hard-rock behemoths Halestorm, a role that has seen her deliver some of the biggest riffs of the past two decades, and tour the world countless times over. 

Hale is a Gibson signature artist, and her Alpine White model is one of the most sought-after Explorers on the market.

We’re always game for a story that combines guitars and feel-good vibes, and this one’s got plenty of both. Gibson recently brought together Trivium singer and guitarist Matt Heafy, and actress – and now talk show host – Drew Barrymore to gift a Les Paul Classic electric guitar to deserving “community hero” Hector Velasco.

Velasco, who works as a UPS delivery man, gave a four-year-old named Langston – who since the pandemic began has been cooped up at home – a special surprise. Langston would ask Hector every day if he had a package for him, and one day he did – Hector put together a special delivery of toys and candy and gave it to the boy.

As a thank you, Langston’s parents, in conjunction with Gibson and Heafy, put together a special delivery for Velasco.

“I know that you love music Hector and you love a band called Trivium, right?,” Barrymore asked Velasco on an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show. 

“We did our research and we heard you were a fan of Matt Heafy, and we have a little surprise for you.”

With that, Heafy presented Velasco with the ebony Les Paul Classic. “This is the one I use – I hope you love it as much as I do. Thanks for being a local community hero, my friend.”

D'awww. You can check out the heartwarming exchange above.

AC/DC’s Back in Black album turned 40 on July 25, and to pay tribute to the landmark record on its birthday, Consequence of Sound and Gibson gathered electric guitar players and other musicians from across the music world for Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration.

The stream ran live on Consequence of Sound’s social media, YouTube and Twitch channels.

Among the many artists who appeared for the virtual event included Slash, who testified to the importance of Back in Black in his own development as a guitarist.

 “The first time I ever heard it was at my friend's house,” he said. “This was 1980 and this was a crucial point in rock ’n’ roll at that time, because all my favorite bands had either disbanded or members had died.

“And there was a lot of new music, but nothing really turned me on that much. I was familiar with Highway to Hell and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and I was into those two records. But I didn't know Bon Scott had died, I didn't know they had a new singer.

“Then all of a sudden Back In Black came out, and it was like a battle cry for rock ’n’ roll and heavy metal at that time. It was a killer record from start to finish."

Slash continued, “I think one of my favorite songs on the record was Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution. And then even to this day one of my favorite guitar solos of all time is in Hells Bells. So that particular record, it was pivotal for me. I just started to play guitar and it was the first really great rock ‘n’ roll band to come along in a while.”

The stream also featured artists ranging from Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and Sebastian Bach to REO Speedwagon's Dave Amato and Alice In Chains’ William DuVall.

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy performed a solo acoustic version of Hells Bells, while guitarist Emily Wolfe demonstrated why she loves Angus Young’s lead work in Let Me Put My Love Into You.

“Every phrase is a response to the previous phrase,” she said while playing the solo. “To me it’s like watching a movie.”

Among the other highlights included Airbourne’s Joel O’Keefe teaching how to play Shoot to Thrill, a Jared James Nichols guitar tutorial and a Twitch cover of You Shook Me All Night Long.

Said Lamb of God’s Mark Morton, “Back in Black is testimony to how much you can do with just a few chords. Because those songs are classics and they’re great but they don’t need all those notes and that flash. There’s just that groove and those chord progressions and that voice.”

You can check out Back in Black 40th Anniversary: A Virtual Celebration in full above.

The 1984 album This Is Spinal Tap was the soundtrack to the mockumentary of the same name and contained full parodies of metal songs with titles like Big Bottom, Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight and Sex Farm.

The album, which featured an all-black cover like the controversial Smell the Glove record in the movie, was the perfect accompaniment to the film - positioned so much like a real metal album that it kept the nagging “Are they or aren’t they?” question alive in the heads of fans who saw the movie and thought there just might really be a British band called Spinal Tap. 

All of the misfortune the band experiences throughout This Is Spinal Tap, including malfunctioning stage props, disastrous promotional appearances and mid-tour lineup shifts are both funny and entirely plausible.

Clearly, co-writer and director Rob Reiner is not only familiar with the traditional music documentaries he parodies, but he’s also familiar with the lifestyles of musicians and bands and many of the predicaments they encounter on endless international tours.

Reiner chose a perfect cast of actor/comedians and encouraged his actors - Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel), Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls), David Kaff (Viv Savage) and Ric Parnell (Mick Shrimpton) - to improvise dialog to fit the absurdity of the scenes. 

Had the actors turned their noses up at the music that their imaginary band was supposed to be celebrating, the movie wouldn’t have worked. Instead, the entire cast embraced their characters and treated all the ridiculous antics and circumstances as realistic situations, which, in the world of metal, they are.

Granted, it’s unlikely that any metal drummers have spontaneously combusted, but countless bands have gotten lost underneath the stage, stood slack-jawed as record label promoters and publicists proposed one inane idea after another and dealt with inadequate hotel and backstage accommodations. Ask any metal musician if he or she can relate to This Is Spinal Tap and many will tell you it’s the story of their lives.

What is a Spinal Tap moment?

We’re pretty sure that - by now - everyone out there knows what a Spinal Tap moment is. But, just in case, let’s just call it an unplanned, unfortunate, embarrassing and (obviously) comical rock ‘n’ roll happening. 

Two years ago, we asked Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls if he found the term offensive. “No, it’s a tribute,” he said. “Look, mate, any time they say your name, it should be - if you don’t have someone like [former manager] Ian Faith running the cash register - a cha-ching, shouldn’t it? 

"So please, have some more Spinal Tap moments, or some Derek Smalls moments - on me! If somebody says they’re having a 10cc moment, you wouldn’t know what that meant. But if they say it’s a Spinal Tap moment, you know exactly what they mean."

Rex Brown (Pantera, ex-Down, ex-Crowbar, Kill Devil Hill)

"Let me put it this way. [Pantera drummer] Vinnie Paul, God rest his soul, thought This Is Spinal Tap was an actual movie, not a satire, until I said, 'Vince, it’s a joke. It’s a spoof.' He thought it was about a real band. But you can understand why. 

"Everything that happened in that movie is based on shit that happened or easily could have happened to any touring band. We were a professional touring machine and Spinal Tap shit happened to us every day."

Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest)

"We used to go to this pub that happened to be in the center of the Hells Angels chapter. They were having a festival not too far from the studio where we were recording so we got to know them a bit. We’d talk to them and they invited us over to their headquarters. 

"When we got there, I saw the leader had this incredible chopper. The forks on it just went on forever. I was looking at it and he said, 'Oh, you’ve got songs like Hell Bent for Leather and Leather Rebel. You must be able to drive a bike.”

“Yeah, I can drive a bike,” I said without thinking. I have got what we call track bikes, which go through forests. But I’m not a road-bike man. The guy threw his keys at me and said, “Feel free.” I couldn’t very well step down from that. I’d gotten myself into trouble and dug a bit of a hole.

"I thought, 'It can’t be too difficult.' So I started it up. Fortunately, it was a key start, not a kick start. I put it in first gear and went across this field, and halfway across was a great big mound of rubbish. I managed to turn around it a little bit because I could turn the machine left okay but I really couldn’t turn it right. I realized I was in over my head so I drove the bike just far enough to be out of view. 

"'Okay, I’ll put it in neutral and then I’ll do a three-point turn until I face the other way and I’ll go back as if I’ve driven all the way around the field,” I thought. As I was turning it around, it fell over on my leg and the exhaust pipe started burning through my trousers and burned my leg.

"I was trapped underneath. I managed to get up. I was covered in mud. But fortunately, as I picked the bike back up it turned around a little bit and it was still running. So I got back on it, put it back into first and pulled back up to the bikers. It had been quite a long time since I’d vanished, so it appeared as though I’d driven all the way around the field. 

"When I got back to the guy, I accelerated a bit and I did a little bit of a skid to come to a stop and quickly put the rest down. I got off the bike and gave the keys back. One of the other Hells Angels came up and said, 'Hey, dude.'

"'Yeah, what?' I asked.

“'I had a guy just this morning who couldn’t fuckin’ turn the thing right,' he said. That was an experienced Hells Angel who had a bike himself. So that was a real test that I came through with flying colors even though it was falsely achieved. Honestly, I’m lucky I didn’t kill myself on the thing."

Richard Christy (Charred Walls of the Damned, ex-Death, ex-Iced Earth, ex-Public Assassin)

"With Iced Earth, we had an amazing Spinal Tap moment in Greece in 2002 on our last show of the tour. Some of the road crew had a tiny Stonehenge monument, which they lowered down to the stage in the middle of our last song just like in the movie. We were all dying laughing. It was hilarious. 

"I don’t know if This Is Spinal Tap is that popular in Greece because our singer Matt Barlow had to explain to the crowd why we were dying laughing and why we could barely finish the song. A lot of people in the crowd just looked confused."

Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe, Methods of Mayhem)

"For our farewell shows, we built this Crüecifly rollercoaster that I was strapped into. Every day, I looked forward to getting into the thing. That was my time to fly over everybody’s head and get an insanely awesome bird’s eye view of the arena. I’d high-five the scoreboard on the way out and on the way back. I loved that shit, dude. We knew we wanted to make a movie of the concerts, so we filmed all three nights.

"And on the last night it broke down! I was hanging there upside-down and had to be rescued. We were talking about not using that footage of the thing breaking down and using the shots from another night. And I said, 'Hell, no. That was New Year’s Eve and that’s how it went down.' I actually think it was fuckin’ hilarious. It was totally Spinal Tap. And it’s definitely in true Mötley style. If it can go wrong, it’ll go wrong."

Willie Adler (Lamb of God)

"There was a really important show we played at L’Amour in Brooklyn. Before we went on, we were all like, 'Okay, we gotta put on the greatest show ever.” We had labels that were checking us out, including Nuclear Blast. And within 30 seconds of the first song, [vocalist] Randy [Blythe] knocked himself out.

"He stage-dove and kind of tripped. The next thing I knew, he was out like a light and he was being carried out. I thought, 'What is going on? Of all the shows for this to happen!' But the crowd was totally cool about it. Without any planning, this dude from the audience came up onstage and sang the whole set and he killed it. 

"And in an interesting twist of irony, the people from Epic Records asked us to dinner. When we were there, they said it was by far the most dangerous thing they’d ever seen and they needed to sign us immediately."

Will Carroll (Death Angel, ex-Machine Head, ex-Vicious Rumors)

"When I was in Vicious Rumors, we played the Wacken Festival in 2002. I had just seen Candlemass and I walked over to the other stage to watch Destruction. On the way, I saw [guitarist] Rick Hunolt from Exodus, who were playing that year. We walked over together. It had been raining all weekend and all morning so there was mud everywhere but there were still thousands of people in the crowd. Rick’s not that tall and I’m kind of short so we couldn’t really see the stage. 

"'Fuck, this sucks, man. I can’t see shit,” he said. Then I noticed right in front of us was a mound of mud. 'Dude, how come no one’s utilizing that? C’mon!' I said. We both stepped up on this mound and we were a couple feet higher than everyone else. We highfived each other, started watching Destruction and all of a sudden - BAM! - someone shoved us off of the mound from behind. 

"I turned around and it was some woman and she was screaming at us in German. She pointed at the mound. We were confused for a second so we looked back at the mound and someone rolled it over. The mound turned out to be a fat guy with no shirt on and mud all over him. We had been standing on him watching the show!"

Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer)

"We left [Drummer] Tom Hunting at a Midwestern Roy Rogers truck stop for 18 hours in around 1987 when we were touring for Pleasures of the Flesh. We stopped there to get some food and this was before the era of cellphones so there was no way to communicate with the bus. 

"Everyone got off at this Roy Rogers, including Tom’s drum tech, Todd, who was also blonde. And for some stupid fucking reason, Todd crawled into Tom’s bunk. The tour manager did a headcount and counted Todd before he got into Tom’s bunk. And then the tour manager opened the curtain, saw what he thought was the back of Tom’s head and counted him again. So he thought everyone was there and we left. 

"We didn’t realize Tom wasn’t with us until we got to the next venue. He used a pay phone and called management to tell them that he was not on the bus. He was sitting at this truck stop with no money and no jacket. Some people fed him out of the kindness of their heart. We had to cancel the show and go back and get him."

Matt Heafy (Trivium)

"We were playing on a really crappy old stage in Rochester, New York, and all of a sudden my entire leg fell through it. I didn’t get hurt. I was just scuffed up a little bit. But I couldn’t get out by myself. So [guitarist] Corey [Beaulieu] grabbed my arm and helped to pull me out, which was more than a little bit embarrassing."

Michael Sweet (Stryper)

"We did a gig and there were tons of people in the crowd. There was also a pit bull roaming loose. My brother [drummer] Robert [Sweet] had feathers on his legs and the dog came onstage and started to attack my brother’s feathers. 

"He stopped playing drums and sat down. The dog left. So we started playing again and the dog came back. This went on for 20 minutes. Nobody could get this dog under control."

Ben Weinman (The Dillinger Escape Plan)

"At this crazy show in Sydney, Australia, people in the crowd were throwing garbage cans all over the place. Some people were bleeding from the violence in the pit and we were going nuts onstage. After the show, all these young girls ran up to me and asked for autographs like I was a rock star. 

"I started signing stuff like I’m David Lee Roth, and more kids showed up. I slowly backed up as I signed shit. Then, SHTOOMP. I literally fell into a garbage can full of water and was stuck in it. It was like my ass was suctioned to the sides. A security guard came over and had to help pry me out. 

"It was like, man, I can’t savor just one moment of glory. No matter what it is, the world just won’t let me have it. So eventually I got out of the trash with a soaking-wet ass and I just kind of shuffled away from the crowd."

Buzz Osborne (Melvins)

"We opened for Nirvana on their very last round of touring. It was literally within three or four shows of them being completely finished. Their crew was not being particularly nice to us on that tour and the Nirvana guys were oblivious to it. Kurt [Cobain] was certainly oblivious as a result of what his lifestyle was like at that point. 

"We weren’t getting paid a lot of money and the crew said if we wanted lights for the show, we had to pay their light person. 'Well then fuckin’ turn them on and leave them on,' I said. 'We don’t need a light person.' They said no. It wasn’t the Nirvana guys; it was the people working for them. 'Great, we have to pay some fucking asshole to do lights. I can’t believe you guys are extorting money from us to do this as well as having us pay to use the monitors.'

"They wouldn’t just leave the monitors off and let us play without them either. Our set was supposed to go from 8 p.m. to 8:40 because Nirvana were starting at 9 sharp. We were all ready to play and the house lights went off. We were there at the side of the stage ready to go on. The audience was cheering. No lights… No lights… No lights. 

"Suddenly, the audience was no longer cheering, they were murmuring. We sat there for 15 fucking minutes in the dark because this girl forgot that she had to do lights for us. Finally, someone reminded her. The lights came on and we got to do a 15-minute set. Did we get our money back? No. We didn’t even get an apology."

Kyle Shutt (The Sword)

"The Sword were playing with Metallica in the spring of 2008. We were flying from Saint Petersburg to Riga, Latvia. [Pantera vocalist] Phil Anselmo was on our plane, which was so cool to me since I was such a huge Pantera fan when I was younger. 

"He always seemed like a ferocious bad-ass. So, the flight lands and there was a luggage mix-up, but the only people that lost their bags were me, [the Sword frontman] J.D. [Cronise] and Phil. 

"The three of us were stuck in the baggage area filling out these forms ’cause there was nothing else we could do. Phil had a cut-off-sleeve shirt, cut-off cargo shorts, and he was wearing crocs. To a young me at the time, that was pretty hilarious. I didn’t think this was where I’d be 10 years after first seeing the Pantera video for “Five Minutes Alone” on MTV. And I definitely wouldn’t have pictured him wearing crocs."

Dino Cazares (Fear Factory, Brujeria, Asesino, Divine Heresy)

"We played this show in Hollywood as part of Foundation Forum. There was no water backstage in our dressing room, so when we were done I was thirsty as hell. There was a plastic tray full of melted ice in our dressing room that had held drinks, but they were all gone. 

"So I thought, 'Fuck it, I’m gonna drink the melted ice.' I picked up the tray and put my mouth up to it. And [vocalist] Burt [C. Bell] yelled, 'What are you doing?!' and pushed the tray out of my mouth. 'Dude, I was getting a drink. I’m thirsty!' I said.

'I just washed my feet in there!' Burt said.

Dave Ellefson (Megadeth)

"The album cover for [Megadeth’s 1985 debut album] Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! was absolutely embarrassing. Dave [Mustaine] did a cool drawing of a skull with its eyes covered, its mouth bolted tight and metal plugs over his ears. 

"It was supposed to symbolize the old saying, 'Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.' He sent the drawing to Combat Records and said, 'We want the cover to look like this, but better.' 

"Fast forward many months. We had a P.O. box since we were homeless at the time. We were so excited to see the finished artwork. Dave and I went to the box one day and opened it up and we see a vinyl copy of Killing Is My Business, and we were like, 'What in the world is this?!' It looked absolutely nothing like what Dave gave them. It was a picture of this cheap-looking plastic skull with metal hooks keeping his mouth closed and this shitty tin can visor over his eyes - totally low budget.

"There were chains next to the skull and a knife sticking into the ground and a lit candle. It was awful. We immediately called Combat and they had their excuses and their reasons they did such a bad job… 'We have our own artist who does all of our artwork and the costs would have been exorbitant to do it the way Dave drew it.” They didn’t even use the right logo. They just used some Gothic font. So basically, they just disregarded everything we wanted."

This is an excerpt from Raising Hell: Backstage Tales from the Lives of Metal Legends by Jon Wiederhorn, available now from Amazon.

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy recently recorded an acoustic cover of Killswitch Engage’s “My Curse” as part of his KiichiKaraoke series on his Twitch channel.

The cover comes following former Killswitch Engage vocalist’s Howard Jones’ stint filling in for Heafy on Trivium’s recent North American headlining tour, after Heafy left the outing to be at home with his pregnant wife.

Said Heafy in a posting on his official Twitter account:

“There are not enough words to express the eternal gratitude that I have for Howard Jones for helping my family, my band, and our countless supporters in North America. To see one of my all-time heroes so happy to be performing with our band—a band that wouldn’t exist without his influence—means the world to me. Mia and Akira love you Uncle Hojo! (The guitar is the LEAST I can do to thank you).” 

Trivium have shared the official video for "The Wretchedness Inside." The song hails from the band’s most recent album, 2017’s The Sin and the Sentence. You can watch the clip above.

The newest leg of Trivium’s tour in support of The Sin and the Sentence begins October 3 in Tampa, Florida. Also on the bill is Avatar and Light the Torch. All tour dates can be found below.

The band said in a statement: "North America! The last North American and European runs were the greatest Trivium tours we had ever experienced. Now how do we top it? We follow up with more songs from our extensive eight-record catalogue, a massive production and setlist, and two more of our favorite bands on earth: Avatar and Light the Torch. See you all soon."

Trivium North American tour dates:

·       10/3 — Tampa, FL — The Ritz Ybor

·       10/4 — Atlanta, GA — Buckhead Theater

·       10/5 — Raleigh, NC — The Ritz

·       10/6 — Norfolk, VA — The Norva

·       10/8 — Cincinnati, OH — Bogarts

·       10/9 — Nashville, TN — Cannery Ballroom

·       10/11 — Baltimore, MD — Rams Head Live

·       10/12 — Huntington, NY — The Paramount

·       10/13 — Philadelphia, PA — Electric Factory

·       10/14 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium

·       10/16 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues

·       10/17 — Royal Oak, MI — Royal Oak Music Theatre

·       10/19 — Oklahoma City, OK — Diamond Ballroom

·       10/20 — Sauget, IL — Pop's Nightclub

·       10/21 — Chicago, IL — House of Blues

·       10/22 — St. Paul, MN — Myth Live

·       10/23 — Fargo, ND — Sanctuary

·       10/25 — Edmonton, AB — The Ranch Roadhouse

·       10/26 — Calgary, AB — The Palace Theater

·       10/28 — Vancouver, BC — Commodore Ballroom

·       10/29 — Seattle, WA — Showbox SODO

·       10/30 — Portland, OR — Crystal Ballroom

·       10/31 — Spokane, WA — Knitting Factory

·       11/2 — Anaheim, CA — House of Blues

·       11/3 — Berkeley, CA — UC Theatre

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has had a busy if somewhat bizarre few months, posting videos of his covers of everything from Britney Spears’ “...Baby One More Time” and *NSYNC’s “Tearin’ Up My Heart” to “Toto’s “Africa” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

Now he’s tackled a song from a band that is at least in the same musical world as Trivium—British power metal act Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flame.” Only this time, he’s twisted the shred-tastic original into a cleanly-strummed, earnestly-crooned ballad. And the results are surprisingly awesome.

Check out Heafy’s Dragonforce cover (as well as a few of his other performances) below:

Trivium have announced a North American tour. For the trek—which will take the band across the continent from early October through early November—the band will be joined by Light the Torch and Avatar

"North America! The last North American and European runs were the greatest Trivium tours we had ever experienced," the band said in a press release. "Now how do we top it? We follow up with more songs from our extensive eight-record catalogue, a massive production and setlist, and two more of our favorite bands on earth: Avatar and Light the Torch. See you all soon."

You can check out the group's full itinerary below.

Last summer, Trivium stopped by Guitar World's New York offices, where they shot a blistering playthrough video for their song, "The Sin and the Sentence." If the curiosity strikes you, you can check out that playthrough below.

For more on Trivium, stop by trivium.org.

Trivium Tour Dates:

• 10/3 — Tampa, FL — The Ritz Ybor
• 10/4 — Atlanta, GA — Buckhead Theater
• 10/5 — Raleigh, NC — The Ritz
• 10/6 — Norfolk, VA — The Norva
• 10/8 — Cincinnati, OH — Bogarts
• 10/9 — Nashville, TN — Cannery Ballroom
• 10/11 — Baltimore, MD — Rams Head Live
• 10/12 — Huntington, NY — The Paramount
• 10/13 — Philadelphia, PA — Electric Factory
• 10/14 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium
• 10/16 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues
• 10/17 — Royal Oak, MI — Royal Oak Music Theatre
• 10/19 — Oklahoma City, OK — Diamond Ballroom
• 10/20 — Sauget, IL — Pop's Nightclub
• 10/21 — Chicago, IL — House of Blues
• 10/22 — St. Paul, MN — Myth Live
• 10/23 — Fargo, ND — Sanctuary
• 10/25 — Edmonton, AB — The Ranch Roadhouse
• 10/26 — Calgary, AB — The Palace Theater
• 10/28 — Vancouver, BC — Commodore Ballroom
• 10/29 — Seattle, WA — Showbox SODO
• 10/30 — Portland, OR — Crystal Ballroom
• 10/31 — Spokane, WA — Knitting Factory
• 11/2 — Anaheim, CA — House of Blues
• 11/3 — Berkeley, CA — UC Theatre

In this clip, Trivium frontman Matt Heafy gives us the lowdown on his rig of choice, the Kemper Profiler. Watch the video above.

With the Kemper Profiler, players are able to extract the exact tone and feel from any amp in their collection. A profile doesn't only capture the amp itself, but every aspect of the cabinet and microphone configuration as well. The Profiler also ships with hundreds of amps and rigs already installed.

“The less stuff between my fingers and the listeners’ ears, the better,” Heafy says. “What’s the point of having a massive, double refrigerator rig when you’re just sticking a mic in front of it and having it in the PA. This way, [with the Kemper Profiler], your rig and your tone is the PA.”

To find out more, visit kemper-amps.com.

Trivium have premiered the music video for their latest single, "Endless Night." You can check it out above.

The video for the song—which is taken from their latest album, 2017's The Sin and the Sentence—was shot in Orlando by director John Deeb and produced by Deeb Studios.

Last summer, the band stopped by Guitar World's New York offices, where they shot a blistering playthrough video for their song, "The Sin and the Sentence." If the curiosity strikes you, you can check out that playthrough below.

For more on Trivium, stop by trivium.org.

Back in August, Florida metal band Trivium premiered a new song called "The Sin and the Sentence." The band's first recording with new drummer Alex Bent, it was our first taste of the album of the same name, which is out today—October 20—via Roadrunner.

Earlier this week, the band dropped by Guitar World's New York offices to record a playthrough of "The Sin and the Sentence."

In the video, Trivium guitarists Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu take you through the song's bulldozing guitar parts from beginning to end. You can watch it below.

To pick up The Sin and the Sentence and learn more about Trivium, stop by their website.

In this new feature from the August 2014 issue of Guitar World, the guitarists of Avenged Sevenfold, Morbid Angel, Trivium and other metal acts tell how they'll beat the heat and tame the crowds on the season's biggest tours.

TODAY: Trivium Guitarist Matt Heafy — MAYHEM FEST

Tips for playing in extreme heat?

Luckily, since our band is from Florida, we’re never really hot.

One item you’ll carry with you at all times this summer?

Me and some of our crew guys have trained and learned jiu-jitsu. So my 10-by-10 jiu-jitsu mats, my gi and my yoga mat—those are the essentials.

Considerations when playing an outdoor show versus an indoor show?

As far as set lists go, I believe there is a certain threshold of speed and technicality that doesn’t translate well live under any circumstances. There is an extreme side of music to our band, and if you play very fast and very brutal, it does literally get lost in the air.

Primary gear you’ll be playing this summer?

It’s just my [Epiphone Les Paul Custom] signature guitars. There’s just no purpose for refrigerators of stacked gear or pedal boards upon pedal boards. I cut all that out and our tone is clearer, and it’s the most powerful it’s ever been right now. I’ve always believed that the less space between my fingers and the listeners’ ears, the better.

Tips for winning over a tough crowd?

I believe that there’s a fine line between berating and being strong and encouraging. I’ve seen a lot of frontmen get very angry at a crowd when they’re not getting their way. They stomp their feet, yell at the crowd and demean them. That’s one way to lose a crowd even further. I find that if you come out with a unified feeling, allowing the crowd to be a part of you, you can still be aggressive and empowering.

Highlight of your band’s set list?

Usually when we play “Strife,” people get into it. It’s cool to see the power of a single. If not, then definitely “In Waves” gets reaction.

Advice for a band just starting to play live?

Practice your instruments. I’m always shocked at how many guitarists out there are terrible but still get accolades. Hopefully they know who they are, and hopefully they start practicing and practicing what they preach. Anything any great guitar player has ever done is possible for any other guitar player. Anything you see, you can do; it just takes time, practice and dedication. That goes for singers as well. Too many of them rely on backing tracks live.

We were signed to a major label at 18 years old, and we’ve made every mistake you can make being in a band. I’m happy we did those things early. You have to make mistakes to know how to fix them. You have to have guitars break and go through technical difficulties. I wouldn’t change any of those things. I would rather hear a singer struggle to hit a note and have emotion versus hearing it though a computer.

Also, you have to take care of yourself. Part of being in a band that tours and plays every night is you need to perform at 100 percent as a live musician. Sure, there are people that can live unhealthy and be drug addicts and alcoholics and still play well, but I’m not one of those people, and I think a majority of human beings are not those kinds of people. So on the road I’m very strict with myself: no caffeine or alcohol on show days. On days off, I’ll allow myself a coffee or a beer or two, but aside from that it’s very healthy living. It’s about performing at the maximum capacity for the people who are there to see you do what you do.

Watch the video for "Strife" here:

Photo: Jesse Wild/Total Guitar Magazine/Getty Images

This video is bonus content related to the April 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at our online store.

When Epiphone approached Trivium guitarist Matt Heafy to collaborate on his signature guitar, he had two requests: the guitar had to play, feel and sound like the Les Paul Custom that he’s played for these many years, and it had to be reasonably priced—Heafy rejects the trend of offering signature guitars in either price-prohibitive or performance-compromised versions.

Through their close collaboration, Epiphone and Heafy were able to reproduce every specification of his original LP Custom and build it to a price point that’s not out of the average player’s reach. Heafy further challenged Epiphone for this seven-string version, asking that it be just as easy to finger as the six-string and almost identically proportioned. The resulting signature Matt Heafy Les Paul Custom-7 is the actual guitar that he now shreds onstage and in the studio, and it’s one of the most playable seven-strings you can buy. The resulting signature Matt Heafy Les Paul Custom-7 is the actual guitar that he now shreds onstage and in the studio, and it’s one of the most playable seven-strings you can buy.

Features

Although it looks like a standard gloss-black LP, there are many inconspicuous details that differentiate the Heafy LP Custom-7 from its brethren. Weight was a serious consideration in creating this Epiphone. It had to be light, but not to the point of creating sterile-sounding lows. Epiphone started with a mahogany body, then added a thin maple top to impart tonal clarity without adding perceptible weight. The neck is carved with Epiphone’s Sixties SlimTaper and a D-shaped profile, achieving its superlative comfort with heavily rolled shoulders and tighter-than-average string spacing. It truly feels only slightly wider than the average six-string’s neck. An Axcess neck-heel taper removes any barrier to the upper frets, allowing you to slide your fretting hand directly behind the top registers.

The EMG active pickups include a 707 in the neck and an 81-7 in the bridge. These are wired to individual tone and volume pots in a traditional LP configuration but with the added twist of the neck pickup’s tone pot serving as a kill switch. Known as a “kill pot,” tapping this spring-loaded pot interrupts the signal no matter which pickup is selected, creating the stutter effect made so popular by Randy Rhoads and other LP notables.

Performance

You only have to play one note on the Heafy LP Custom to know that this is a shredder’s guitar. The action is low and flat across the 12-inch-radius board, and the top-to-bottom note volume is very even. Sweeps are executed as easily on the Heafy Custom-7 as with any conventional six-string, particularly due to the slightly tighter string spacing. You can certainly achieve brutal tones with the ceramic-based bridge bucker, but it really excels at producing iron-fist punch and clarifying notes through high-gain rigs, all while remaining highly musical and rich. Neck pickup response is very quick and bright enough to deliver expressive solos on the low strings.

List Price $1,332

Manufacturer Epiphone Guitar Corp., epiphone.com

Cheat Sheet
Electronics include active EMG-707 neck and EMG-81-7 bridge pickups and a spring-loaded kill pot that momentarily interrupts the signal when tapped.

The tapered Axcess neck heel makes it possible to play in the topmost frets, while the neck’s rolled shoulders help the Custom-7 feel akin to a six-string’s neck width.

The Bottom Line
If you’ve struggled to transfer your six-string shredder skills to a seven-string, the Epiphone Matt Heafy signature Les Paul Custom-7’s narrow and slim neck is the ax that can help you reach that next level.