Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of June, and noted our personal highlights – the playing, tones, and songwriting that most set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Said highlights include a slice of Sexy Djent from UK metallers Loathe, Dance Djent from Polyphia, a gorgeous display of musical companionship from Hermanos Gutiérrez, a thrilling new collaborative rocker from Weezer, and a cinematic guitar landscape from Rodrigo y Gabriela.

All of that and much more can be heard in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Track of the month: Loathe – Fangs

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the era of Sexy Djent, and UK metallers Loathe just oiled up and laid down one of the slinkiest, nastiest riffs of the Sleep Token-led movement. Every time that gut-busting hook rears its head, it has a gnarlier fuzz tone, which is exactly the kind of attention to detail that makes me want to buy more pedals. Fangs a lot, gents.

Also playing:

• Mastodon – Your Ghost Again
• Jack White – Dollar Bill
• Every Hell – Bane of The Bear

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Track of the month: Hermanos Gutiérrez – Canto Andino

Not to make this a guitarist's lonely hearts ad, but in 25 years of playing, I’ve never experienced a playing relationship anywhere near the instinctive harmony and musical companionship of Ecuadorian-Swiss siblings Hermanos Gutiérrez.

Canto Andino (literally: ‘Andes song’) is strung throughout with nylon acoustics, subtle wah lines, and the dynamic rise and fall of the landscape that inspired it. We have to wait until September for the full album, but in the meantime… if you’re a guitarist who enjoys looking melancholy against a mountainous backdrop, gurning at tape recordings, and long walks in the Andes, call me.

Also playing:

• Paerish – Wait For Dark
• Emma Ruth Rundle – Powerless
• Chelsea Wolfe – Death Is Not The End

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

This might be a hot take, but I've been quite frustrated with Weezer for a number of years. I've felt that over and over again they've gone for shtick and irony in lieu of making something more focused; something great. Not that shtick and irony haven't always been a huge part of their whole thing, but their recent material has gone a bit too far in that direction for my taste.

Perhaps the presence of Karly Hartzman, the singer, songwriter, and leader of Wednesday, one of the most vital alt-rock bands around, is what gave them the kick to produce something as ripping as We Might As Well Be Strangers. The lead single of the band's latest self-titled ‘color’ album (it's gold, fittingly), it finds Rivers Cuomo in brilliant form. His riff is mega, his little solo is crooked-letter-font perfection, and god, that chorus – a master at work.

Also playing:

• Blondshell – Violins
• Ibibio Sound Machine – Concept of Love
• Radiator Hospital – Wall Between Us

Matt Owen – News Editor

Track of the month: Polyphia – Can You Feel It

I’ve been impatiently waiting for Polyphia 5 for quite some time now, and though I don’t play any sort of progressive metal personally, I am incredibly fond of Tim Henson, Scott LePage, and how they keep finding new ways to elevate guitar playing.

And, with all the talk of ultra-heavy riffs and eight-string prototypes, there was reason to be extra excited about Polyphia’s next album. And if CAN YOU FEEL IT is anything to go by, Henson and co are about to make good on all their promises of it being perhaps their heaviest record to date. Dance djent is now a thing. I am obsessed with rave riffs. Bring on Polyphia 5.

Also playing:

• Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Boys
• Keith Urban – Guitar Man (ft. John Mayer)
• Slow Pulp – Better Man

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Track of the month: Rodrigo y Gabriela – Monster

Rodrigo y Gabriela’s flowers are long overdue. With their upcoming album, OurHome, the virtuosic duo continues to expand their palette, this time incorporating subtle (and not-so-subtle) Japanese influences both musically and visually – as evidenced by their latest single, Monster, and its accompanying animated music video, crafted by legendary manga artist Naoki Urasawa. Oh, and the duo even recorded (and self-produced) the album in Tokyo.

Monster takes listeners on a veritable journey, with contrasting guitar parts conjuring a narrative-driven tension that feels cinematic in scope. Across its 6-minute, 2-second runtime, melancholy and, dare I say, apprehension – driven by the interplay of two acoustic guitars – gradually give way to an overdriven, rock-infused climax, where Sánchez’s Rolodex of Strats battles it out with Quintero’s custom Yamaha nylon-string acoustic (based on the brand’s NTX series), leaving you breathless in the best possible way.

BRB, adding it to my running playlist.

Also playing:

• Arab Strap – Fighting for You
• Rossann – Isa Binti
• Boards of Canada – Prophecy at 1420 MHz

You’ve probably heard by now, but Polyphia are officially back. That’s right: one of the most influential bands in modern prog metal released their first single in four years yesterday (11 June) – and what a return it was.

It feels like ever since the release of Remember That You Will Die in 2022, the band’s resident electric guitar virtuoso Tim Henson has been teasing what we can expect from Polyphia 5. Not only has he been getting familiar with an Ibanez eight-string prototype, Henson also told Guitar World that the new record would be heavier and more energetic than anything before it.

Well, Tim wasn’t lying. CAN YOU FEEL IT is pretty darn heavy and energetic, and makes good use of those guitars that Henson and co. designed specifically just so they could explore uncharted territory in their songwriting.

The result is a rave-riffing romp that ushers in a new genre of dance-djent. It’s heavy; it makes you want to headbang. But it’s also a bop that wouldn’t feel out of place at a house/disco/dance rave. This writer, personally, is all for it.

But what do you think? Polyphia have always pushed the boat out in guitar music, and their experimental approach to reinventing the space has both fans and naysayers. It is unsurprising, then, that social media is awash with hot takes.

So, what are your thoughts on CAN YOU FEEL IT? Are you a fan of this new Polyphia direction? Are you looking forward to the new record? What are you hoping to hear when it finally lands?

Leave all your thoughts and then some below…

Polyphia have dropped a surprise new single as the hype for their highly anticipated fifth record begins – and CAN YOU FEEL IT is everything Tim Henson promised it would be.

By now, you don’t need us to tell you just how impactful Polyphia have been on the prog scene. It runs the risk of reading all-too-familiar, but it’s not our fault. Time and time again, Henson and co have found a way to raise the bar to all-new heights.

With every new release – from their debut, Muse, in 2014 all the way to 2022’s Remember That You Will Die – the band have brought something new to the scene, be it reinventing the harmonic tapping game with 2018’s G.O.A.T., or reimagining the humble nylon-string as a weapon for prog metal with Playing God.

Well, they’ve somehow managed to do it again, making good on their year-long promise of branching into new sonic territory with a song that might just have given rise to a new genre: dance-djent.

Last year, Henson teased he was designing new guitars that didn’t exist with the sole purpose to write new material with them. At the same time, he’s been seen championing an eight-string prototype Ibanez, and told Guitar World readers they should brace themselves for something heavy.

“It’s heavy,” Henson told us at NAMM 2025. “That’s exciting for us, and I think last year was really eye-opening for us in terms of how we should start composing for the live performance.

“It made us realize, like, ‘Hey, we should start composing for it to work in these situations of 80,000-plus people.’ And so we’re trying to, obviously, bring more energy by making it heavier.”

If one word can be used to describe CAN YOU FEEL IT, “heavy” is probably the most apt. Those eight-string chugs are absolutely bone-crushing. Industrial beatdowns and pulverizing riffs are the name of the game here.

But this is Polyphia, so of course there’s a twist. You can never expect what you’ll get from Polyphia, but even so: a djent mash up over a house/club/dance rave beat certainly wasn’t on our bingo card.

And, Henson may have said he’d dial down the technicality on Polyphia 5, but there’s still an abundance on display, with liquid gold legato runs weaving through the riffs.

Produced by RJ Pasin – himself a guitarist-producer powerhouse – CAN YOU FEEL IT is a riotous re-entry into the Polyphia world. Since this is but merely the first single from the new album, there’s no telling where this new album will go. Expect more heaviness. Batten down the hatches, people.

There’s been no word on when the new album will be released as of yet, but expect news to fall in thick and fast following this new drop.

Three-time Emmy-winning composer Bear McCreary is merging guitars and orchestra on his new solo album, and he’s got help from Slash, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan, and Steve Vai.

McCreary has scored some huge films, including Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Paws of Fury, and, having enlisted Serj Tankian for his 2024 hard rock record, The Singularity, he’s going bigger and bolder with its follow-up, The Singularity: Ekleipsis.

A concept record that picks up where its predecessor left off, it explores themes of disillusionment and perseverance in the face of struggle. Cool Kids, its lead single, pairs Guns N’ Roses stalwarts Slash and Duff McKagan with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and his vocalist brother, Brendan McCreary.

“Cool Kids was born when Duff McKagan sent me a voice memo of a riff he was messing around with,” McCreary details. “My ears perked up instantly – his riff was undeniable! So Duff and I went into the studio the next week with my brother, vocalist Brendan McCreary, and Chad Smith to write the song together.

“When Slash got back into town, he added his signature screaming guitar parts, and there it was,” he adds. “It’s a song about all of us being proudly who we are, but I wouldn’t blame anybody for assuming the title was inspired by the fact that Brendan and I got to create this song with the coolest kids in rock and roll.”

Slash’s scorching blues rock licks are instantly recognizable, with a warm tone that plays off McCreary’s lush orchestrations for an effective double act.

Equally, Black Box, which has dropped simultaneously, hinges on grinding guitars straight out of the Duplantier playbook on a song with a heavy, anthemic edge.

Elsewhere on the tracklist, Steve Vai and Tim Henson double up on the track Blueshift, with Henson also tag teaming with Coheed & Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez on Sweet Misery.

Guthrie Govan (Alexandria), Gojira’s ESP artist Joe Duplantier (Black Box), and Alissa White-Gluz (Our Kingdom) – the latter of whom is fresh from launching her shred-laden new band, Blue Medusa, and joining DragonForce – also feature. It’s quite the lineup.

McCreary will take the album on the road, with dates in the UK and Europe in July and August, before hitting the US and Canada in September.

See Bear McCreary for more.

Mastodon have released their first single since the passing of former guitarist, Brent Hinds, and it finds the band grieving his death in a powerful manner.

Last year was a tumultuous period for the Atlanta Grammy winners, with Hinds’ tragic death coming just months after Mastodon parted ways with the band’s co-founder after 25 years.

Your Ghost Again, is the lead single from their forthcoming ninth album, Poisonous Weapons, and the first to feature their new guitarist, Nick Johnston.

The track is Mastodon at their best, hurtling through breakneck time signature changes with violent vivacity while exorcising heavy, cathartic emotions. Hinds isn’t physically on the track, but his memory is present and his spirit echoes through it.

“I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye in the studio, where he would normally be with his guitar,” drummer Brann Dailor explains in a video posted to social media. “It kept catching me off guard, you know?Your Ghost Again is about how your mind plays tricks on you, especially soon after someone dies, and you’re in the places where they always were.”

Mastodon addressed Hind’s untimely passing after their first show since his death, but otherwise the band has remained largely quiet on the subject. They have their reasons.

“[This song] means a lot to me, and so I hope that that can translate to the fans that are grieving Brent,” Dailor says. “I understand that, from a fan’s perspective, we never really addressed it. We just couldn’t; it was too much.

“I know Brent’s not there, and I know it’s weird, and it’s hard, and some people might be like, ‘Well, I don’t want to listen to it because Brent’s not there, and I’m hurting about that,’ but we are too. I’m still unpacking it.”

Following a one-show stand-in from YouTuber and Mastodon superfan Ben Eller, the band recruited prog fusion ace Nick Johnston for the position.

Guitarist Bill Kelliher had previously confirmed that Johnston will feature on the new album and that the pair have been writing like crazy. Touring keyboardist João Nogueira is also part of a new-look lineup.

Mastodon will also tour the US with support from Deafheaven and Alcest later this year, with dates in September and October culminating on October 24 at Sick New World, Dallas.

See Mastodon for more.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of May, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

This month's guitar greatness spanned many generations of players. The Rolling Stones – unbelievably – are still rolling (as is their contemporary, Paul McCartney); Julian Lage has continued to cement himself as one of the smoothest, most virtuosic players not only in jazz, but in any genre; Tamikrest have emerged as one of the most exciting Tuareg rock acts in Africa; and the Warning have established themselves as the future of hard rock.

All of their thrilling new tunes and much more can be heard on our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

When Alissa White-Gluz was announced as the new frontwoman for DragonForce, we weren’t sure what was going to happen to her own project, Blue Medusa, which features trailblazing shredders Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia. Thankfully, they’re not going anywhere, and new single Flying Monkey is one of the best blockbuster metal tracks we’ve heard in some time. The riffs are precision-engineered steel. The whiplash solos deliver mind-melting dexterity in the vein of classic-era Megadeth. And it’s catchy as hell, too.

Mexican rock juggernauts The Warning are all about swag. But even by their own standards, Ego is an outrageously slick piece of riffery. Sisters Villarreal Vélez tap into some serious grooves that smash nu metal, djent, and Spanish-language R&B vocal hooks into a supercollider. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of hard rock.

Nashville punk-by-way-of-whammy-dives Winona Fighter have been on my radar for a while now. They showcase what’s so great about today’s lack of genre boundaries by pulling guitar tricks from every alt-rock genre: the unbridled energy of punk, monolithic post-hardcore riffs, huge pop-punk choruses and, courtesy of lead guitarist Dan Fuson, melodic solos that could come straight from the ’80s rock charts. And Bombs Away is the most irresistible example of their magpie sound yet. Can’t. Get. That. Chorus. Hook. Out. Of. My. Head.

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

An all-time highlight of my 9-ish years on the job so far – I think it might be the highlight, to be honest – came earlier this month, when I attended the Brooklyn launch event of the Rolling Stones' forthcoming 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues. It was hard not to be awestruck in the physical presence of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood – the larger-than-life ‘60s and ‘70s survivors, the guys who pretty much defined what it meant to be a “rock star”.

Simultaneously with the album's ritzy launch came the release of its first pair of singles, the better of which is the soaring In the Stars. It's got a big hook that the ever-ageless Jagger just nails, and finds Keef and Ronnie in fine form.

I mean, do I really have to explain what the two of them do? It's what they call “the ancient form of weaving” – rhythm and lead blending into one; blues, country, and rockabilly all seamlessly rolled together; the sort of overlapping riffs that have inspired millions of guitarists the world over. It's incredible that they're still this vital.

I'm a proud Garden State native, and a huge Bruce Springsteen fan (the two often go hand in hand), so when Jersey guy and Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon released two new solo singles – one of which is called Not Bad for New Jersey – I got some playful teasing from my colleagues: “Gee, you think Jackson'll like this??”

Yes, I do. The jangling riff, gutsy vocal delivery, and the fist-in-the-air chorus of its companion song, Better Before, will be music to the ears of any Springsteen aficionado, but his leads are a masterclass in stinging vibrato, pure guitar hero stuff.

Finally, I must commit the cardinal sin of highlighting a tune by a band one of my colleagues is also writing about.

Scroll down and you'll find that Janelle has much more eloquent things to say about Assikel, the sublime new album from Malian band Tamikrest, but I did pick out a highlight of my own. Closing track Adounia blends the band's droning tishoumaren guitar style (pioneered by the Tuareg people of the Sahara desert), with the sort of shining bluesy acoustic slide work you'd hear from the Stones in their golden era. It's stunning stuff.

Matt Owen – News Editor

I was very, very, very fortunate enough to sit down and interview Julian Lage a few weeks ago, and I’ll tell you this for free: it was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had on the job. For the sake of #content, we asked Julian to improvise for two minutes – and what he played was simply breathtaking. I had a big smile on my face throughout.

Why tell you this? Well, a) that interview will be coming out soon, and b) Julian Lage has been featured in Joe Lovano's collaborative album with a slew of fellow jazz virtuosos, and it’s been essential listening for me. First Song is especially excellent, dripping with Lage’s silky solos, dynamic phrasing, and sublime melodies.

Away from jazz, I’ve been leaning big back into the folk/indie/rock world of Hovvdy, the Texas-based duo who’s gearing up to release their new album this year. Try Try Try catapulted its way up into my top five favorite Hovvdy tunes upon first listen. That galloping bass, cantering guitar riff, and breezy vibe make for a potent concoction, and that slinky acoustic guitar hook in the post-chorus is *chef’s kiss*. A superb example of keeping things stripped back while making a song sound huge.

There are a few other shoutouts I want to give – not least to Charli xcx’s Rock Music, which actually does kinda rock; and Mark Lettieri’s 9,000 Miles, which is an amazingly addictive left-field turn from the funk virtuoso – but I’ll reserve this final spot for Paul McCartney’s As You Lie There.

The legendary Beatle dropped his latest solo album on Friday (May 29) and with it we finally got an answer to that mystery chord that apparently inspired the whole album. It’s the very first chord of As You Lie There, and it’s certainly… interesting. If anyone could take that chord and build an album around it, you best believe Macca – one of the greatest songwriters to ever live – certainly could.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

I cannot start this month’s editors’ picks without giving a massive shout-out to Liv Thompson and Pauly Murray, who held down the low-end and six-string duties, respectively, during genre-blending British star Raye’s concert at the O2 Arena in London, and frankly, dazzled audiences (and me!) with their work.

Armed with her standout F-Bass BN5, and, in Murray’s case, a veritable buffet of guitars, the two truly showed how integral touring and session musicians are to big artists’ success.

Moving on to this month’s picks, apologies in advance for my never-ending rave about Tamikrest’s latest album, Assikel. I must admit I’m a little bit biased as I’m a big fan of tishoumaren, the genre better known as desert blues. However, I can confidently say that Assikel takes you on a veritable journey across eight tracks that explore the very depths of the untranslatable Tamasheq word assouf, which roughly translates to “the pain that is not physical.”

The cyclical guitar part in Iman Derhan Nasn puts the listener in a meditative trance that encapsulates the story conveyed in the lyrics – one of nostalgia, reflection, faith, hope, and resilience. The acoustic guitar-driven cycle continues, juxtaposed at times with wailing guitars that add an element of disquiet and eeriness to the track.

Next up on my list is the excellent Ibeyi – made up of French-Cuban twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz – and their latest track, Aset, off their upcoming album, Offering.

In typical Ibeyi fashion, the track harks back to their heritage, both musically and lyrically, while telling the story of Isis, the goddess who, in ancient Egyptian religion, resurrected Osiris. The guitar’s simplicity anchors the track as the artists traverse different languages, percussion, and synths, paired with a palette of traditional Caribbean rhythms and sounds.

May also marks the return of Gilla Band, who, in their typical experimental fashion, deliver a sonic tapestry that’s as left-field as ever (and definitely not for the faint of heart!).

Angular guitars battle it out with the synths, all while the bass tries to hold everything together. What this four-minute-something push-and-pull does is heighten the tension, culminating in an extended outro that wouldn’t be out of place at Berghain.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of April, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

It's been one of the those months where the sheer volume of stellar guitar work has been borderline overwhelming. We've been spoiled rotten. We're talking Muse, Foo Fighters, Arlo Parks, Ed O'Brien, Emily Wolfe ... *breathes in* ... Jared James Nichols, Peter Frampton, mgk, Periphery, and many more.

And you can listen to it all in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Muse are one of the reasons I picked up the guitar in the first place. But it’s been a quarter of a century since Origin of Symmetry (God, I’m old). Since then, Matt Bellamy has infused his playing with everything from out-and-out classicalism to sci-fi synth pop and dubstep. Judging from new single Cryogen, his latest obsession is Turnstile – the hardcore riff that brings the track to a close borders on pastiche. Which is a bit of a distraction from the rest of the song, which is a fun, funky take on Muse’s classic Tom Morello-meets-Radiohead formula.

If you’ll forgive me more nostalgia for the early noughties, mgk’s collaboration with Fred ‘Limp Bizkit’ Durst is such a nu metal throwback it might as well come with a pair of oversized jeans, a wallet chain and style-your-own-cornrows kit. Say what you like about mgk, but the guy knows a head-bobbing riff when he hears it.

Onto more tasteful pastures, I cannot get enough of Failure’s chord voicings on their new collaboration with super-fan Hayley Williams. Those fingerpicked chords tell such a story, and that’s before the A-list vocals even come in. It taps into both my grunge and midwest emo sensibilities. This is my musical happy place.

Finally, I have to doff my hat to Snarky Puppy maestro Mark Lettieri for his magnificent collaboration with sitar master Purbayan Chatterjee. This is breathtaking fusion – rooted in traditional instrumentation with modern production and next-level musicianship. It’s surprisingly hooky, too. If you dig Steve Vai’s forays into sitar land, this will be right up your alley.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Not to be all British about the weather, but at several points in the last couple of weeks, I have been literally dazzled by the sunshine. Subsequently, I have been indulging in a host of deliciously mellow, effects-laden indie earworms that are bringing new meaning to the term ‘Spring reverb’.

First up, the formidably excellent, yet almost horizontally laid-back Widowspeak’s No Driver. It creeps up on you before erupting into a proper spiky Neil Young solo from guitarist Robert Earl Thomas that pitchily rattles, wails, and whips itself into a crescendo for a full minute before ending in a bunch of scrappy pick scraping. It’s going to piss off anyone drilling their sweep picking, but it’s brittle and human and alive in a way that I adore.

Zzzahara track Chinese Tobacco and sundayclub’s Camera Shy are both bringing in the shoegaze vibes. The former with a sort of drunk Cocteau Twins chime, the latter with a '90s rock sparkle, both of which tug at various heartstrings.

The chamber pop shimmer of Georgian’s Crackled Grounds has me excited for their June EP. It neatly melds Southern Gothic touchstones with Beach House’s spacious echoes, and a vocal that recalls First Aid Kit. I also hear a bit of the barreling melancholy and mournful, reverberating bends of Pale Seas (a UK group I still hold a candle for). It is beautifully put together.

When in the mood for something more unsettling, I’ve taken to David Torn’s 5.11 guitar instrumental, It’s Own Dimension. An experimental player who’s as renowned for his soundtrack work as his work with a wild array of names – among them David Bowie, Tori Amos, Madonna, and Tony Levin – Torn is one of those sonic architects who can create monolithic structures from layers of distorted rumble and feedback.

Finally, a frosty snowcone to Mermaid Island, whose punk earworm Ice Cream is laced with nice little leads and opens by documenting a sweary argument with god, then mutters the immortal lines: “Why is everything broken? Nothing works like it should. Can’t get anything done, but fuck I wish I could.” Which really feels like the anthem of our times rn.

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

Professionally, the highlight of April (and 2026 so far, tbh) for me was getting to chat with Ben Gibbard and Dave Depper of Death Cab for Cutie, a band I’ve adored and looked up to since my early teens. The subject at hand was their upcoming album, I Built You A Tower. Marking their return to an indie label after two decades of major label smashes, the album… well, I can’t tell you too much about it (yet).

What I can talk about is the latest preview of the record, Punching the Flowers. It’s spiky, it’s urgent, it’s got that stomping fuzz riff (is that what you were expecting from a new Death Cab song? Huh?), Gibbard’s twinkling offset work in the chorus, and a feverish, dissonant break from Depper. Almost 30 years into their career, there’s a fire under the band, a fearlessness – that’s pretty damn rare.

Another record I’m psyched as hell for is Probable Claws, the upcoming fourth LP from Chicago punks Sincere Engineer. New single Twist My Tongue is pure freneticism; buzzsaw, pick-up-and-play riffs – and a bite-size, surfy, sing-along solo – as the vehicle for bulls-eye pop-punk hooks. It’s the crowded genre distilled into its most potent form – you’d have to be a real Scrooge to dismiss it.

Elsewhere, after being admittedly unmoved by most of their scant output over the last 15 or so years, I’ve been amazed by the pair of EPs U2 have put out this spring. On those previous releases, it seemed like the Edge was almost hiding behind luxurious, imposing production jobs. He’s gloriously re-emerged on the band’s new material, with Resurrection Song – from this month’s Easter Lily – in particular shining a light on the six-string textures, atmosphere, and kinetic energy he brings to the band.

Blah blah blah ‘a few notes and a delay pedal’ – listen to what a picture he paints with those notes! There’s a reason he’s counted among the greats, and it’s a joy to hear him shine again.

Matt Owen – News Editor

I have a few gigs coming up next week – and we’ve got plenty of new material for them – so I have spent the past two weeks listening and re-listening to our rehearsal recordings on an endless loop in an effort to internalise everything.

That said, I’ve found plenty of sensational inspiration in the wider music world to get me geared up for the shows. Arlo Parks’ Blue Disco, for example, is already a shoo-in for my end-of-year Spotify Wrapped playlist. It’s one of those songs I wish I wrote – simple, yet devastatingly effective; a masterclass in arrangement and instrumentation.

The synth chord pads swell underneath the most irresistible sub-y, fuzz-y bass tone I’ve ever heard. By the end, Parks – who burst onto the scene as one of the guitar world’s most exciting talents a few years ago – is ripping a solo, which is tone goals: it’s bitey, cuts through the mix, and is drenched in reverb. It’s an awesome expansion of the Arlo Parks sound.

Some other stand-out indie cuts for me this month include Sweet Hallelujah by Royel Otis. I, unfortunately, am tied up when they visit my local city later this summer, but all of my mates are going and I am definitely not at all jealous. Their breakout track, Oysters in My Pocket, is a modern, Smiths-y classic. Sweet Hallelujah is an equally infectious earworm, slightly more whimsical and laid back but big on the sprawling acoustics and anthemic layering.

And then there’s American Football, whose new single No Feeling – a collab with Turnstile singer Brendan Yates – gives me all the feelings. It’s suitably off-kilter, hop-skip-and-jumping through counterpart guitar parts. It doesn’t take cues from any of Turnstile’s more high-octane sensibilities, but it’s a match made in heaven. That new AF record can’t come soon enough.

I also want to give a shoutout to Korn, who recently dropped Reward the Scars, a totemic riff-fest released for the new Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred game. Jackson has also released a Kelly to celebrate the launch. It seems the Diablo franchise is Pretty Hot Stuff in the metal world.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Visiting the picturesque island of Mallorca last week for a show with my own band led to the discovery of an underground (and underrated) scene that mostly goes unnoticed internationally. If you’re in the mood to unearth some gems, check out the roster of the DIY label Espora Records, which shines a spotlight on quite a few deserving bands and artists from this Balearic paradise.

From undiscovered artists to, well, more mainstream ones, it seems like Olivia Rodrigo is back with her quintessential razor-sharp songwriting on her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, as showcased by the first single from this upcoming offering, Drop Dead.

The synth-heavy track has inflections of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era The Cure (Rodrigo counts Robert Smith among her associates), referenced in the lyrics, “You know all the words to Just Like Heaven,” and is a swooping, atmospheric, and cinematic slice of peak girlhood that culminates in a power-pop, ballad-esque guitar solo that’s just *chef’s kiss.*

Moving on to (much) more off-kilter musings with South Korean indie band Leenalchi. This adventurous outfit features (wait for it) two bassists, drums, keys, and four singers – and draws inspiration from pansori, a traditional Korean style of musical storytelling often compared to opera.

Their latest offering, Here Comes That Crow, is the epitome of experimentation-meets-cross-cultural funk – and left me scrambling to find live footage of the band on YouTube. So, if you’re looking for something else to scratch the itch for angular music after watching Angine de Poitrine’s KEXP session for the hundredth time, well… you’re welcome.

My final pick of the month is the flamenco virtuoso Yerai Cortés, who’s been grafting at bringing the genre to a whole new generation for years now, including through the documentary La Guitarra Flamenca de Yerai Cortés, directed by Spanish Grammy award-winning rapper C. Tangana.

Cortés’ Popular is the perfect introduction to the artist, especially for those uninitiated to flamenco, as the avant-garde and conceptual meet the traditional, encapsulated in a name that hints at both flamenco’s humble origins as a traditional genre and the artist’s rise to fame – all without sacrificing his six-string mastery.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of March, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

It's been a hell of a month for great guitar playing 'cross the board. We've seen collaborative instrumental greatness from six-string aces new (Jack Gardiner and Matteo Mancuso) and old (SatchVai), bossa nova guitar bliss from Mei Semones, sublime slide work from Duane Betts, swashbuckling 12 bar blues from Kirk Fletcher, and soothing, meditative guitar soundscapes from Atabasca... And that's not even the half of it. Not even close.

Hear it all in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

March has been a great month for extraordinary guitar playing. It kicked off with the unlikely combo of samba and shred in SatchVai’s Dancing, which finds the two sparring partners kicking their heels with smoking modal licks. It shouldn’t work but it kinda does. Or at least I want to keep listening until it clicks in my brain.

Jack Gardiner’s long-awaited debut album finally arrived this month, and with it perhaps the highest-profile collaboration on the record: the Matteo Mancuso-guesting The Snow Job. Gardiner sought to test Mancuso with the most synth-heavy ’80s composition he could muster, but the Italian shred stallion did not falter for one second, matching his Liverpudlian counterpart lick for lick. This is breathtaking stuff, folks.

Then, just as March came to an end, Plini popped his head up from down under to announce his third album, An Unnameable Desire.

This is as far from a widdle-fest as you can get while still carrying the virtuoso tag – the album’s title track lives up to the Aussie wunderkind’s desire to “play the bare minimum amount of guitar that I can while also being a guitarist”. It’s all big, wide-open ambient spaces, crunching rhythm riffs that spit and chug, while leads are kept to longing, shimmering bends.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

The big news for me this month is that Duane Betts has signed to the legendary Sun label and accompanied the announcement with the suitably beaming first single, Down To Houston. It’s a thoroughly vintage rocker, full of whip-smart playing and soaring, colorful slide work punctuated by Betts’ own Stones-y lead licks. If you’re looking for a musical shot of Vitamin D as the winter finally gives way to spring, well, line this up on the, er… musical bar.

In contrast, the rest of my standouts this month are essentially creatures of darkness. Northern Irish duo Chalk’s latest single, Longer, is a brooding, industrial slog with a sledgehammer riff. At the risk of being reductive, it sounds like the kind of thing that grows on warehouse walls in the gaps between NIN and Fontaines DC – but you can dance to it.

I’m also pleased to see Sub Pop-signed French heavy psych-rock/metal types SLIFT make their return. They’re a group that have forged something that is theirs alone, sweeping from psych-drone territory into Tool-like mechanical riffage, hardcore vocals, and full-on space rock jams. A Storm Of Wings is the first sample of the forthcoming album Fantasia (which is shaping up to be a lot less boring than the disappointing Disney film of the same name).

Finally, one of GW’s own, Dan Bradley, has a new album on the way (Tranquil Void, due June 5) with his group, Urzah. First single Infernal Star I is a barreling rager that channels the majestic blood and thunder of Mastodon and adds a serrated edge of post-hardcore. Turns out some of us do actually know what we’re doing here…

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

Oh, rejoice, for spring has arrived. New York City has come alive with the fading away of a brutal winter, and with it my playlists have become altogether more upbeat, less emo (not the genre. Okay, some of the genre). Case in point is the prevalence of bossa nova – a genre I’ve been trying to get into more (my recent viewing of the terrific, Oscar-nominated Brazilian film The Secret Agent gave this exploration a hefty push) – in my ears of late.

Few are doing more with the genre than my fellow Brooklynite Mei Semones. Her dazzling new collaboration with singer/songwriter John Roseboro (the two previously teamed up to cover the bossa nova standard Waters of March) finds Semones dropping her usual PRS for a nylon-string, and putting on an absolute clinic. Be absolutely sure to stay for the whole ride – the jaw-dropping lick she closes the tune with is worth the price of admission alone.

Elsewhere, I was delighted by the return of Modest Mouse, a band I've adored since I was... 11? 12? Look How Far... shows that even decades of chart-topping albums and five-figure crowds have thankfully not tamed Isaac Brock's eccentricities. Those who came for the man's trademark freak-funk riffage won't be disappointed, but the amount of left-field guitar textures (ping-ponging skronk, random fuzz interjections) he also manages to squeezes into this sub-two-minute track is incredible.

Finally, I must give a shout to Iceage, who deliver post-punk par excellence on new single, Star. Interlocking chordal work that'll be candy to the ears of any Strokes or Interpol aficionado, and Thin Lizzy-by-way-of-the-gutter dual leads at one point – it's all glorious.

Matt Owen – News Editor

I have just finished writing a piece on how a blues guitar hero revolutionized my playing when he showed me how to hold a guitar pick, and it forced me to take a trip down memory lane and re-listen to some of the blues cats that first inspired me to pick up the instrument. As chance would have it, it’d line up nicely with a new single from Kirk Fletcher – another hero of mine who this month released Cold Cold Feeling with Erica Baier.

Anyone looking to level up their chops or pinch a few new box-breaking licks need to have Fletcher on regular rotation. His ability to keep the pentatonic scale sounding fresh – and the ways in which he manages to play in subtle fusion flavors to make them even more interesting – is a marvel to behold. Cold Cold Feeling is a swashbuckling 12 bar blues that gives him ample room to strut his stuff as sole accompaniment, merging rhythm and lead, and it’s as tasteful as it gets.

Outside the blues realm, I’ve been spinning Bleachers' new single dirty wedding dress. The Jack Antonoff-fronted group is poised to release a new record, and I’m very much looking forward to it. I loved Antonoff’s work on The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language, and think he’s a stellar songwriter in his own right. Oh, and his Gretsch signature guitar is my favorite signature of recent years. That helps.

I’d like to give honorable mention to the grunge-y, rough and ready riffs of MOULD’s Lists – which are anthemic, crushing, brutal, and relentless all at the same time – as well as the pristine cleans of The Aces Can’t Wait – for me, the highlight of their excellent new Gold Star Baby: After Hours deluxe release. Modern pop guitar music doesn’t get better than this.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

I’m one of those people who obsesses over albums I really, really gravitate toward (sue me). The last ones were Rosalía’s Lux and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos – and now, genre-blending maestro Raye is joining that holy trinity with her cinematic new album, This Album May Contain Hope.

While I’m highlighting the soulful slice of heartbreak that is Goodbye Henry because (a) it’s a collaboration with “The Last of the Great Soul Singers,” Al Green, and (b) it features the tasteful, jazz-inflected musings of guitarist Paul Murray alongside Liv Thompson’s phat, soul-through-and-through bassline, the entire 17-song record is worth a listen from top to bottom. And while it may feel maximalist to some, it’s definitely a breath of fresh air in an era that prioritizes 30-second hooks over fully realized songs.

Rant aside, another standout track this month comes by way of the French multi-hyphenate artist Jehnny Beth, whose visceral show I recently had the pleasure of witnessing live. Featuring prolific Faith No More and Mr. Bungle lead vocalist Mike Patton, Look At Me continues in the same industrial vein as her 2025 album, You Heartbreaker, You, with guitars that spice up the palette with grunge and noise textures.

And before I bid farewell, my third pick is Dune by Atabasca, a trio I just discovered this morning. It’s a dreamlike, four-minute instrumental piece that interweaves soothing, meditative guitars with a nostalgia-laden melody passed back and forth between a whistle (very much à la Scorpions’ Wind of Change) and the bass. Definitely a band to slot somewhere alongside the likes of Khruangbin, Imarhan, and Altın Gün in your playlists.

Jimmy Page has shared the original homemade demo of Led Zeppelin's Ten Years Gone, presenting the classic in a raw, unfiltered format.

The English guitar legend uploaded the track to his YouTube channel over the weekend (on March 29) as a “footnote” to a track that featured on 1975's expansive and experimental LP, Physical Graffiti.

It was recorded by Page at his Elizabethan manor house, Plumpton Place in East Sussex, England, ahead of the band convening at Headley Grange to work on what would become their sixth studio album.

The demo features several layers of edge-of-breakup guitars, with some tracks clipping, giving them a more distorted menace. It's free of drums or vocals, but shows quite clearly why Page often saw his guitar parts as orchestrations. You can also hear the beginnings of the tracks' lead lines, though those licks later underwent some refinement.

“I presented this rough mix to the band at Headley Grange in order to do this for real,” Page writes in the video’s caption. “Robert Plant came up with some lyrics for my music that were extraordinary, and then we arrived at the song Ten Years Gone.”

The song, of course, would go on to be a Led Zeppelin classic, with the brooding rock ballad delivered with a subtle snarl and edge.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, super producer Rick Rubin once said he was floored by the song.

“[It’s] a deep, reflective piece with hypnotic, interweaving riffs,” he said. “Light and dark, shadow and glare. It sounds like nature coming through the speakers.”

Several unreleased Physical Graffiti tracks were sold at auction in 2014, with the album getting an anniversary remaster the following year. But this is the first time one of the record's tracks, as embryonic as this, has become available for public consumption.

In related news, Dweezil Zappa is eyeing Jimmy Page for his mega-shred instrumental project. Paul Reed Smith has also claimed that Page played one of his guitars, and the display he put on was one of the best he's ever seen.

Paul Gilbert’s completely unplanned Jimi Hendrix tribute set – which he performed in 1991 after a gig with Albert Collins fell through – is set to be released digitally for the first time.

It’s been described by a press release as “the album that almost never was, or never should have been”. An accidental blessing that, had things panned out slightly differently, may never have existed.

As the story goes, Gilbert – flying high on a Mr. Big Lean Into It wave at the time – was invited to trade solos with blues icon Collins at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany. Gilbert, who was on tour in Europe at the time, said yes.

Unfortunately, the Gilbert/Collins collab never came to be, after Collins suffered health issues that rendered him unable to perform. The festival organisers were scrambling. They needed someone to fill the headline slot.

Gilbert was the obvious choice. But he had come alone. He had no band, no material, no idea what to play. He and the promoters had to salvage something at the last minute. Naturally, Gilbert was up for the challenge.

“The promoter was panicking and asked me to be the headlining act instead,” Gilbert remembers. “I didn't have a band with me. And I didn't have any solo material prepared.”

With the help of the promoters, Gilbert assembled a backing band comprising the bassist and drummer from the Alvin Lee-led Ten Years After. Then it was just a question of figuring out what to play.

“The only thing I could think to do was to quickly rehearse some Jimi Hendrix songs, and make the solos long enough to fill up a whole set. I told the promoter, "We only have time to learn 5 songs, so I'm going to have to play REALLY LONG SOLOS.”

Really long solos at a jazz festival? The promoters were sold. A few hours of rehearsals alter, and Gilbert and his makeshift band were hurtling through fiery renditions of Red House, Hey Joe, Highway Chile, Midnight and Purple Haze – all with suitably lengthy leads to fill the slot time.

“It turned out great,” Gilbert says. “I don't think I've ever played such long solos in my life!”

It was not only an excellent exercise in the discipline of improvising, adapting, and overcoming, but also a suitable opportunity for Gilbert to honor one of his heroes.

He continues, “Jimi’s songs are such great vehicles for jamming. His writing invites musicians to play with each other and listen to each other. The songs are flexible enough to allow musicians to keep their own style and still make the song work.

“In the end, the pressure of pulling everything together quickly in front of an audience – and being worry-free about endless guitar jamming – may actually have brought me closer to Hendrix’s spirit than if I had planned everything while sitting in a chair.”

Tribute To Jimi Hendrix will be released on June 12 to celebrate the set's 25th anniversary, marking the album’s first digital release. The first track, that scorching cover of Purple Haze, is available now.

Paul McCartney has announced his first solo album in five years, The Boys of Dungeon Lane – which was inspired by a mysterious guitar chord and a cup of tea with Andrew Watt.

Super-producer Watt, who has slowly been adding a who’s who of music royalty to his resumé, has worked with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Ozzy Osbourne over the past few years.

Now, he’s added the legendary Beatle to his list of A-list credits, and it turns out he had a formative influence on his new record's creation.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane promises to be an introspective collection of “rare and revealing memories never-before-shared” by Macca, as well as some newly inspired love songs. It will see McCartney revisit some milestone moments, charting both the story of his life and the foundation of modern popular music.

It’s been dubbed Macca’s most personal record to date – and its origins can be traced back to a mysterious guitar chord he stumbled upon while having a cup of tea with Watt.

According to a press release, The Boys of Dungeon Lane was first discussed five years ago when McCartney and Watt met for an exchange of ideas. Macca was playing the guitar at the time, and was mystified by a new chord shape.

“While playing around on the guitar during the meeting, Paul happened upon a chord that even he – the world’s most successful living songwriter – didn’t recognize,” a blurb for the record says.

“Undeterred and driven by his experimental nature, Paul carried on changing one note, then another, until he had a three-chord sequence – which Watt suggested they should record.”

From that chord came the album’s opening track, As You Lie There, which has yet to receive a release.

A lead single has been shared, though, in the form of Days We Left Behind – a floating acoustic guitar piece that opens with a delicate fingerpicking pattern that channels a Blackbird feel, before blooming into a more fleshed out piano ballad.

“This is very much a memory song for me,” McCartney says of the single. “The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.

“It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”

The record was pieced together over a five-year period in between legs of a global tour and a packed schedule, alternating between Los Angeles and Sussex, England. The result is said to be an eclectic collection that offers everything from Wings-style rock to Beatles-style harmonies and everything in between.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is available to pre-order now ahead of its arrival on May 29.

Peter Frampton has announced his first new album in 16 years.

Carry the Light was co-written with his son, Julian, and features an intriguing cast of guest musicians, including H.E.R., Tom Morello, and Sheryl Crow.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is continuing in spite of his inclusion body myositis (IBM) diagnosis in 2015. That's seen him adapt his playing style to counter the generative disease's effects, while (semi) recent live showings shredding the Beatles with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio, and soloing with Pearl Jam in Nashville, prove that the Les Paul-toting legend still has plenty of licks in him yet.

Consequently, Carry the Light extends that sentiment, and Frampton hopes it can usher in a new era for him.

“It was one of my most enjoyable projects ever,” he says. “I got to work with my son Julian – writing and producing together. A first of many for us, I’m sure.”

Its lead single, Buried Treasure, is a tribute to the late Tom Petty, with the song’s lyrics littered with references to the singer-songwriter, and it even features Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont. It’s a driving song, but laid back all the same, with ample space for Frampton’s tasteful lead lines to weave in and around his rasping, thankful vocals.

But Benmount isn’t the only guest on the album. Tom Morello, fresh from working with Måneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi, Fender signature artist H.E.R., Sheryl Crow, Graham Nash, and saxophonist Bill Evans have all heeded Frampton’s call for extra firepower.

“This may be the best album Peter’s ever made,” claims engineer, co-producer, and longtime Mark Knopfler collaborator Chuck Ainlay. “The songs are just so poignant, and his voice has matured in a way that really delivers what he's trying to get across.”

The 10-track album releases on May 15 via UMG Recordings in a host of formats, including 180-gram yellow vinyl and in hi-res, Dolby Atmos audio.

Recently, Frampton has been busy celebrating 50 years since the release of his seminal live album, Frampton Comes Alive! by revealing that, not only did Kiss’ Alive! take inspiration from its name, but it also features a raft of his equipment.

Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has released his new album, Guitarmageddon, and it’s priced at $2,000,000.

Vincent's short stint in the band, between 1982 and 1984, saw him play on two Kiss albums, Creatures of the Night and Lick It Up, and receive songwriting credits on Revenge. It seems he's using the might of his Kiss years, and a little of Gene Simmons' business acumen, to power this next era of his career.

In January, he raised eyebrows by launching CDs of Guitarmageddon's first single, Ride the Serpent, at up to $300 apiece, and threatened to shelve the album if fans didn’t, err, ride the serpent.

He compared the track, “a nearly 8-minute, intense guitar power drive,” to caviar and fine art, with Guitar World estimating it at around $40 per minute of electric guitar extravagance.

The announcement of Guitarmageddon's 10-track release at $2m, then, actually makes Ride the Serpent feel like a real bargain, because the album itself cooks up a value of $200,000 per track. That might not sweeten the deal for all. But there’s more…

“I am very proud of this very special album,” Vincent purrs. “The entire album will be offered in master format only for $2,000,000. This includes 10 songs mixed in master, final product format, all the master files of the artwork, related posters, and 10 separate vinyl and CD packaging art for each individual song, should the buyer choose to release the album on a per-song basis.

“The buyer can choose to release the entire album in any format they desire; vinyl, CD, or any other configuration, in whole or in part, at their discretion. All marketing plans and ideas require approval by Vinnie Vincent. The price does not include any right, title, or interest in the copyrights and/or trademarks related to Vinnie Vincent or the product itself.

“If the buyer wishes to purchase any associated rights in the compositions, a separate agreement can be arranged and negotiated,” he adds. “The price will also include a perpetual license to use the brand name, ‘Vinnie Vincent Invasion’ and ‘Vinnie Vincent’ for the life of the album.”

Individual tracks, meanwhile, can be bought for $200,000 a pop with the same benefits, with files shipped on a hard drive within two weeks of payment via PayPal.

Fans are advised to proceed with caution as there are no refunds, but surely that’s okay, because Vincent reckons it’s “one of the greatest rock albums of all time.”

Vincent's guitar talents were once described by Gene Simmons as “Yngwie Malmsteen on crack,” so maybe there's actually something in that. Maybe.

Still, considering how much some guitars sold for at the recent auction of Jim Irsay's staggering guitar collection, Vincent might yet find a few buyers. Its price puts it on a par with Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-one CD, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which sold for $2m in 2015 to become the world's most expensive album.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has announced details of his grunge-inspired rock opera, which has been 20 years in the making.

The record, Farewell to Seasons, which has been given an October 7 release date, arrives with a companion graphic novel and weaves through an alternate history of grunge in early ‘90s Seattle.

The main character is a fictional musician called David Williams, and he’s expected to be put in the heart of a scene that defined a generation with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains – alongside Pearl Jam, of course.

“It's a story I've been developing for many years, inspired by the creativity, community, and chaos of the Seattle music scene,” McCready explains. “Farewell to Seasons is a historical fantasy set in that world, and alongside the graphic novel, there will also be a ‘lost’ rock opera connected to the story, featuring original music written from the perspective of David Williams, one of the main characters.

“I've had a great time bringing this project to life with Z2 Comics, and I hope people enjoy the journey as much as I did creating it.”

The title may also be a nod to the Chris Cornell acoustic track Seasons, which grunge supergroup Temple of the Dog – formed as a tribute to Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone – performed during their 2016 reunion tour. This is just speculation, but it could be viewed as a partial tribute to the Seattle musicians who we’ve sadly lost over the years.

It's currently unconfirmed who else features on the record, but it wouldn't be outrageous to expect a fellow grunge alumnus or two.

After moving to Seattle from Washington, the Fender signature artist would find his permanent home in Pearl Jam, with Ten going down as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

Yet, while he wishes he could re-record the Even Flow solo all these years later, Gene Simmons has revealed the hilarious theft triangle that his Alive solo put him in. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam's recent tours have been strewn with some epic guest solos, including impressive displays from super-producer Andrew Watt and rock legend Peter Frampton.

Coca-Cola has enlisted Steve Vai to reimagine the Van Halen classic, Jump, as an anthem for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – and yes, it's got shredding galore.

One of the world’s biggest sporting competitions, the 48-team soccer tournament is being hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico this summer. To celebrate, Vai has lent his virtuosic hands for a lead-laden version of the track.

Vai’s licks pepper the song like confetti, with whammy bar wails, luscious harmonies, and a flash of tapping – in a nod to the song’s co-writer, Eddie Van Halen – characterizing its tasteful but impressive guitar solo.

“I never know what might come across my desk as an inquiry, but this was a taker,” he says of the wild reworking of the track, which also features Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, Colombian vocalist J Balvin, and American singer-songwriter Amber Mark.

It also continues Coca-Cola’s tradition of reworking a classic track in honor of the World Cup, having been an official sponsor of the competition since 1978.

Van Halen released Jump in December 1983, and it became the band’s first and only song to top the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was also nominated at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards, losing out on Best Rock Performance to Prince’s Purple Rain.

Despite its success, Eddie initially had to work hard in order to convince the band to put it on the record.

“When I first played Jump for the band, nobody wanted to have anything to do with it,” EVH told Guitar World in 2014. “Dave said that I was a guitar hero and I shouldn’t be playing keyboards. My response was that if I want to play a tuba or Bavarian cheese whistle, I will do it.”

The track has been covered countless times, including a percussive acoustic version by Mike Dawes and an all-star live performance by Billy Idol, Steve Stevens, and Derek Sherinian.

Meanwhile, Alex Van Halen says a new Van Halen record was virtually finished before Eddie passed away. The project, which includes Steve Lukather, is now looking for a vocalist after Paul Rodgers turned them down.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of February, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

The guitar greatness we've seen this month has buoyed the spirits of our team, who've all been experiencing dreary or nasty winters, and it's been all over the map.

Two hugely influential guitar heroes of different generations joined forces, Avengers-style, one of the instrument's most buzzed-about names finally released his solo debut, the kings of Midwest Emo guitar returned in fine form, and Angine de Poitrine... well, you're just gonna have to scroll down for that – has to be seen and heard to be believed.

All that and a lot more in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Steve Vai once hailed Matteo Mancuso as “the evolution of guitar”, and now, perhaps inevitably, he’s found his way onto the Sicilian shredder’s new album. Solar Wind finds Mancuso pulling back on the fireworks and tapping into his Jeff Beck fandom with some aching whammy bends on his Yamaha Pacifica. It leaves Vai to pick up the shred with otherworldly harmonized leads that use the whammy bar in a far more bombastic way.

In the MAB household, any new release from influential – yet criminally undersung – ’90s alt-rock soundscapists Failure is cause for celebration, and The Air’s On Fire lives up to their usual lofty standards: uneasy chord progressions, gloriously modulated leads, and a production worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

And on a very different alt-rock note, I’d like to give British ragers HAWXX a shoutout for Macho Bullshit, which, as you might expect, gets right to the point. It’s like a no-holds-barred riff throwdown between nu-metal and grunge. It. Does. Not. Let. Up.

Oh yeah, and no biggie: there’s a new Converge album, and a reminder that, yes, Kurt Ballou is responsible for the most unique guitar tones in heavy metal. At a hair over 30 minutes, Love Is Not Enough is one of the tightest records we’ve heard from the Massachusetts mathcore stalwarts. It’s wall-to-wall chug that’s a world away from amp modelers and plugins. It sounds less like amps being cranked and more like amps freaking exploding.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Anna Calvi is one of those guitarists who appears to exist as an independent entity, free of a lot of the cultural baggage (the good and, er, not so good) that surround the six-string. When she wants to unleash it, she is an inspiring and dynamic lead player, but is more often found exploring the instrument’s textural possibilities.

We’ve had two tasters from new EP Is This All There Is? (due March 20) – with God’s Lonely Man featuring a great cameo from Iggy Pop that reminds me of his early solo era, while Calvi warps and bends her Tele in siren-like howls around his haggard baritone vocal. The contrast works brilliantly.

The prior single, I See A Darkness, has Calvi partnering with Perfume Genius for a sparse, soft-stepping, almost whispered, nighttime number that showcases some of the incredible tonal range she has at her fingertips.

Another Brit (full disclosure, I am one) I’m continually bowled over by is Debbie Gough, guitarist of metal band Heriot. They dropped Master Of Deceit this month, having closed out 2025 on tour in the US with Trivium and Jinjer. The closer of their album Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell devotes most of its last minute to Gough’s typically face-grabbing solo work.

I love the way she eschews dull shred and leans confidently into bends and whammy work with her leads – and never seems hurried with it, despite the often frantic backing. Here she takes her time, porting in a solo that oozes classic thrash, but at a sort of half-speed setting – and sounds way stronger for it.

The Black Keys are back (back again). But You Got To Lose hits me differently, with a more immediate, angular riffage that suggests a band that have long nailed the ‘how to sound good’ conundrum suddenly being snapped out of their dotage. It feels more vital than pretty much anything I’ve heard from them since Brothers.

Finally, happy release month to the excellent Ratboys – their latest, Penny In The Lake, is just a litany of indie guitar loveliness, all clang and chime, with a chunky knit of wrangly melodies that makes me want to don it like a sweater.

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

As someone who's had nought but perfect mental health their entire life, of course I was excited to hear that American Football were back with their fourth album, and their first in seven years. First single Bad Moons shows the Midwest Emo GOATs taking no prisoners, with frontman/guitarist Mike Kinsella as ever cracking open the darkest pages of his diary for the world – “I've been so many boys in this trench coat/Ask my ex-wife/She met Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide” is particularly crazy work (complimentary, in the highest sense).

Musically, it's a dazzling eight minutes. For those unfamiliar with Kinsella and guitarist Steve Holmes' hypnotic six-string interplay, get lost in this. There are ethereal arpeggios, beautiful leads that play off walls of cinematic tremolo picking... there's so much more to these two than memed riffs.

It's been a brutal winter here in New York City, and a miserably gray one for my co-workers 'cross the Atlantic, and Tedeschi Trucks Band's new tune, Who Am I, has been my means of mentally escaping into a summer road trip fantasy when I look out at the mountains of snow outside my window.

What can you even say about Derek Trucks as a soloist at this point? Just every cliché, I guess. The solo that rounds out Who Am I checks all the boxes: Paints a detailed picture; is singable; transports you to another place; takes the song to another level. If that sounds like a dismissal, it's not – he just makes it sound so maddeningly easy.

On the more avant-garde side of things, I don't recall ever having blabbed on about Alan Sparhawk (formerly of Low) on this site before – there's a first time for everything! The man has simply brought sounds out of the guitar that I've never heard it make, and beyond that, he can traverse any stylistic grounds he wants.

One of his new tunes, JCMF, is a fire-breathing examination of faith driven by ragged, Neil Young-like riffing. It's the guitar as a weapon, the pointed end of a spear – mind-blowing stuff.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Here in the UK, it has rained virtually every single day of 2026 so far. Which means I’ve had little else to do except sit inside, listen to music, play guitar, and try my best to learn more Robben Ford licks – a mind-expanding task that I gave more attention to this month thanks to Perfect Illusion.

Perfect Illusion is, ahem, the perfect song to listen to if you’re looking to broaden your blues and jazz-y lead chops – like most Ford songs. It’s heavy on the piano to start with, and it’s got a nice ballad-y vibe to it, but there’s still room for plenty of Robben-isms in there. A neat demonstration on what it means to ‘serve the song’.

February 2026 will also go down in the guitar history books as the month Mateus Asato finally released his debut solo record. Fans have been asking for it for years, and after years of cementing his name as one of the most tasteful players of his generation, Asato has well and truly delivered the goods.

It continues to amaze me how Asato can keep his chops feeling and sounding so fresh. If I try and do my best Asato impression, I last about five minutes (if that) before I start retracing my steps. Each track here offers something different – take Kawaii, for instance. It’s got all the Asato-isms you know and love (double-stop slides, uber-dynamic swells, chromatic runs) but they never feel tired or overly familiar. The melody work here is top notch. A feat for a 15-track instrumental album.

Other highly anticipated releases this month include the new U2 EP, Days of Ash. Released ahead of a fully fledged album slated for later this year, it features perhaps the band’s most politically charged material to date.

For me, Song of the Future is the standout track. A tribute to Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh, who lost her life during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran in 2022, the track tells her story through a slinky solo, anthemic acoustics, and an irresistible, razor sharp riff.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

I have to admit, Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance got me spinning his latest record, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, on repeat. As highlighted by the larger-than-life show, the guitar-like cuatro – Puerto Rico's national instrument – features at several points throughout the album, and Bad Bunny's very own cuatrista, José Eduardo Santana, recently gave us more insight into the instrument that brought Puerto Rican folk music to one of the world's biggest stages…

And, speaking of memorable live performances, I’ve recently come across the live KEXP sessions of three acts that have particularly stood out: the London-based Hindustani psychedelic rock band Karma Sheen, who have recently made fans of Jimmy Page and Matt Bellamy, Italy’s La Niña, a singer-songwriter who is bringing traditional Neapolitan music to a new generation, and Montreal’s Angine de Poitrine, the Buckethead-like act that may or may not have popped up on your TikTok For You page after their KEXP session went viral.

The best way to describe Angine de Poitrine's latest single, Fabienk, is angular – fully brought to life during the KEXP session. The masked Khn de Poitrine (it's a pseudonym, of course) plays bass and guitar simultaneously, à la a Gibson EDS-1275, which makes for a very entertaining watch.

Fans on Reddit have also gone to great lengths to identify the cacophony of pedals on the guitarist/bassist's board, which lend themselves well to the microtonal quality of the sound, or what the band aptly describes as “Dada-Pythago-Cubist Mantra-rock.”

The ’board – allegedly – includes a Boss RC-500 Loop Station, an MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe, a Mad Professor Supreme Overdrive, a Boss DD-8 Digital Delay, and a Fender Engager Boost. I guess we have to ask them ourselves to find out!

Another exciting, fast-rising act is Mei Semones, and Koneko, a collaboration with Liana Flores, forms part of a collection of material written during her tour stops. As we've come to expect from Semones, it's jazz-inflected through and through, with dashes of bossa nova reflected in both the instrumentation – particularly her virtuosic guitar work – and Semones and Flores' playful vocals.

My final pick for this month is The Last Dinner Party's Let's Do It Again, part of the collaborative album HELP (2) in support of War Child's vital work.

It’s a track that will definitely go down well with fans of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era and Queen's repertoire – complete with a glam-rock-esque solo delivered by the excellent Emily Roberts that perfectly complements frontwoman Abigail Morris' theatrical vocals and the swirling instrumentation, which almost makes you feel like you're on a carousel. Listen to it, and you'll see what I mean.

Stage Tour, the de facto spiritual successor to the Guitar Hero video game, is coming – and it’s got the backing of Gibson.

The game is being developed by a cluster of creators from Guitar Hero’s RedOctane – now operating under RedOctane Games, founded last summer. It is set to reprise its rhythmic-focussed gameplay, while promising “modern twists” to the all-time classic.

Guitar Hero, first launched across gaming platforms in 2005, was a cultural revelation. Arriving with a guitar-like controller and soundtrack packed with iconic guitar moments, it inspired many to learn how to play a proper guitar and helped break bands like DragonForce in the process.

The partnership with Gibson, like Fortnite’s Fender collab, means that Gibson electric guitars will be included in the game as unlockable items as part of a swathe of personalization options.

That includes players building their band from a range of characters “to create a lineup that feels uniquely yours.” My pick is the vampiric George Harrison avatar, which can be spotted in the game reveal, wielding a blue Gibson Les Paul.

The controller itself has also had a glow-up. It might look like a Cherry Red Fender Strat, but it's actually a Kramer, a brand owned by Gibson. The controller comes complete with colored buttons on the fretboard and a whammy bar, like the classic controllers of the past.

“With new instruments and deep charting systems, we’re raising the bar on what we believe a rhythm game can be, while also catering to those wishing to simply enjoy a casual experience and have a good time,” says RedOctane Games.

Closed alpha testing for the game is expected to kickstart in the summer, and there’s an “experienced group of community fans from the rhythm gaming community” on board to provide feedback and help finesse the game.

There isn’t on any word on the song licensing, but if it is anything like its predecessors, it’s set to be chock full of universally admired guitar anthems.

The game is expected to be available on a range of platforms, including PC.

Speaking to Guitar World last month, Stray Kids guitarist Garrett Jones spoke about the video game's impact on his playing journey, and neo-soul singer-songwriter Steve Lacy credits the game for helping him fall in love with the instrument.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of January, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Looking at this month's offerings, it seems clear that 2026 is set to be one hell of a year for the guitar.

An onslaught of leviathan power chords from Sunn O))), a bruiser of a blues rock romp from Jared James Nichols, a beautiful, heartfelt slice of desert blues from Imarhan, a genre-obliterating piece of twisty guitar genius from Tim Henson, and a whole lot more lie within our playlist – so give it a spin! For the guitar is alive and well.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Ever the master marketeer, Polyphia shred provocateur Tim Henson lined up the launch of his two new high-end TOD100 nylon-strings with the release of a solo single that highlights their tasty new Fishman acoustic preamp.

Original Sin features flamenco-inspired triplets, big trap beats, and – wait – is that a wah solo? Rarely have we encountered a song that spans so many generations of guitar playing in three minutes.

It’s been nearly 13 years since Aussie progsters Karnivool dropped an album – something that has further fueled the Tool comparisons that have followed them throughout their career – but it’s hard to complain about a long wait when the music is this breathtaking.

Latest single Animation is a hypnotic ode to the big-budget alt-rock of the noughties: wrecking-ball riffs swirl with cinematic textures and melodic leads worthy of Billy Howerdel.

Ever-unpredictable, Paul Gilbert has followed up his Dio instrumental covers album with a record themed around – what else – George Washington's Rules of Civility, which the PR reliably informs me is an etiquette guide dating back to the late 1500s.

Show Not Yourself Glad (At The Misfortune of Another) is a bonkers punk-meets prog meltdown with some of Gilbert’s most soulful soloing in recent years. You simply cannot listen to a Paul Gilbert song and not come out the other end smiling. This is no exception.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

White Denim are a thunderous, unpredictable force for good in rock music. They get labelled eccentric and – yeah they are – but they’ve never been ‘quirky’ in the whole ’00s freak folk, put-your-gin-in-a-mason jar sort of way. They’re just originals, and people don’t always know what to do with that.

Guitarist/frontman James Petralli – who gamely pulls from all manner of jazz, funk, soul, and experimental influences – is, for my money, one of the great underrated rock guitarists of the last two decades.

I’m a huge fan of their new single (God Created) Lock and Key, which captures their wild blend of Dr John, Zappa, and funky math entanglement, without ever losing sight of that fundamental need to nod your head to an unhinged blues riff.

Elsewhere, January is supposed to feel like the calm after the chaos. This January has been the chaos after the chaos, though, so I’m gaining some inner peace from Tenderness’ tune Salt Flats, taken from her new album True (due in March). There are some really warm hollowbody tones floating across the mix, and while she hails from London, it has an underpinning of simple pedal steel, too, that mellows me right out.

On the opposite end of mellow is the new single from Guitar World’s own Mike Astley-Brown, the excellent Brain Paint. Mike was too proper to pitch Maebe (his nom de plume) for inclusion, but fortunately, his PR was less backward. Me? Well, my initial response was “Get this shit off my desk!”

However, upon listening, it is – like a lot of things Mike does – annoyingly good. Expect a colorful guitar smorgasbord, with hints of Marnie Stern, Intervals, Alpha Male Tea Party (guitarist Tom Peters mixed Brain Paint), and Norwegian noiseniks Aiming For Enrike, to be detected. A melodic, euphoric six-string meltdown, it’s quite the window into Mike’s brain, tbh…

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

The ball dropped, we got new calendars, and, most importantly, NAMM brought us an absolute deluge of new gear. It is January indeed. For me, the ample bounty of new singles and album announcements have been a very welcome distraction from the icebox weather that has enveloped my home of New York City – and I’ll start by highlighting, well, we could call it the “biggest” of them all. And by “biggest”, I mean the largest wall of guitars that I’ve ever heard at least.

I don’t know exactly how many guitar tracks are on drone-metal kings Sunn O)))’s colossal comeback single, Glory Black, but the number is 130 at the absolute least. Yeah yeah pull up the drone metal memes and jokes, but I’m willing to bet that every last person who’s ever picked up a guitar – even the absolute snootiest of classical or jazz players – has at some point wanted to plug in and just play nothing but leviathan power chords through the mountain of amps that gave the duo their name. Cue parts 1 and 3 of Glory Black. Come on, it’s awesome, admit it – surrender to your most base desires as guitar players, and let it wash over you.

What was I saying about jazz? The maestro Julian Lage’s terrific new album, Scenes From Above, came out last week, and a particular highlight is the nimble Talking Drum. Lage really shows his funky side, letting his air-tight sidemen take the spotlight, before he takes his turn at around the two-and-a-half-minute mark. He makes it sound so easy, man – the twisty leads are so cool and melodically inventive, but his dynamics are impeccably controlled. He’s having his moment in the song, but has no interest in overshadowing it, or the irresistible groove – that’s real confidence.

In the more alt-rock vein, I was psyched to hear the latest offering from one of the greatest alt-rockers of all time. Kim Gordon has made it clear since the breakup of Sonic Youth – the pioneering band she co-led for 30 years – in 2011, that she couldn't give less of a shit about giving the people what they want as far as her solo career goes, and her music's been all the better for it. Confrontational, bold, and experimental, her solo records (and post-Youth collaborations) have been essential listening.

That said, longtime Sonic Youth fans (like yours truly) will be delighted to see Gordon (literally) flinging her Jazzmaster around in the video for new single, Not Today. That storm cloud of omnipresent offset breakup is just music to my ears.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Forgive me, for I am still shaking off the NAMMthrax that seems to have struck me down right at the last minute. More recovery time spent vertically reclined, though, simply means more time to really listen to some new music – and this month has started my year off with a corker.

The biggest new release for me is, hands down, the return of Tom Misch – the soul/jazz singer-guitarist from the UK, who singlehandedly shaped the very fabric of the bedroom producer movement with SoundCloud mixtapes and an acclaimed debut EP, Geography.

Since the record's release in 2018, Misch has busied himself with a jam album with Yussef Dayes and building up his disco alter ego, Supershy. There were a few singles late last year, but now Misch – who recently announced his return after a spell out of the limelight to focus on his mental health – has put his singular guitar chops back in the spotlight with the announcement of his sophomore album, Full Circle.

Sisters with Me is Misch all over. There is just such an effortless groove, carried by an airy progression and punchy bassline. No solo, though – I could listen to an entire album of Tom Misch solos. His feel is that good. Let’s hope he cracks out the Q-Tron on another track.

Jared James Nichols quenched my solo thirst, though, with his new track. I’m still gutted I didn’t bump into him at NAMM this year, but I’ll just, ahem, Pretend that I wasn’t too upset. Geddit? Well, Pretend is the song title (sloppy pun soz) and it’s an absolute bruiser of a blues rock romp, with a suitably crushing riff and wailing solo that had me reaching for my Les Paul.

Finally, shoutout to Brit indie rockers overpass for Union Station. It’s being billed as the start of a new era for the band, and you can really hear that. Everything is amped up. The tones are tight. The riffs are excellent. The arrangement is on point. Some bands just scream ‘arena material’ and this is easily one of them.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

My first gig of the month was witnessing the brilliant Daraa Tribes at a very packed (and sweaty) show in Brighton (England). Armed with Telecasters and Jazzmasters, the Moroccan group is the definition of what it means for musicians to truly celebrate their individual and collective heritage while building cross-cultural bridges through their music.

This show quickly led me down a path of discovery to other artists from the region, and luckily, the Algerian Tuareg quintet Imarhan were there to satiate my appetite, as they have just released a stupendous new album, Essam.

Adounia Tochal is a heartfelt track written by band member Sadam’s cousin, Eyadou Ag Leche of legends Tinariwen, in memory of his late mother. The guitar reinforces the unhurried and meditative desert blues pulse that characterizes the song (and by extension, the genre), offering a space for reflection that complements the shared, communal spirit conveyed through the group vocals.

Speaking of quiet reflection, London shoegazers Whitelands' sophomore album, Sunlight Echoes, is the perfect soundtrack to a gloomy winter's day. Armed with an Epiphone Joe Bonamassa 1962 ES-335 (as showcased in his Me & My Guitar video on the Guitar World socials), vocalist/guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio and co. craft a delectable sonic feast drenched in reverb, delays, and dream pop textural goodness.

Fatoumata Diawara (who recently released a signature SG with Epiphone) continues to grace us with her musical dexterity on the collaborative track Ti Love, alongside Paris-born composer, guitarist, and vocalist David Walters. Syncopated rhythms and fingerstyle guitar choreograph a pleasant dance with the vocals – a nod to Creole and Afro-Caribbean sounds and to Walters’ Saint Kitts and Martinique heritage.

Matteo Mancuso will release his second studio album in 2026, and not only does it feature Steve Vai, but the LP will also be emboldened by the advice that Vai gave the young virtuoso during its recording.

Route 96 will continue where the Tosin Abasi and Al Di Meola-approved guitarist left off with his 2023 debut LP, The Journey, which cemented his reputation as one of the hottest young talents around.

That was succeeded by the single Paul Position, a baritone guitar romp inspired by Paul Gilbert. This time, Vai has gone one better than just honoring one of his heroes: he’s enlisted one.

Vai features on the track Solar Wind, joining forces with a player he once called “the evolution of the guitar,” while also offering him some crucial recording advice. Unlike his debut, Mancuso's Route 96 – named after his birth year – was recorded at a 96kHz audio sample rate, thanks to Steve Vai’s intervention.

There are plenty of technicalities behind why this sample rate can be beneficial, but the long and short of it is that it can reduce digital artifacts and improve the overall sound quality of recorded material.

“I know myself better musically thanks to this album,” Mancuso believes. “I went through a process of eliminating things, and through that I realised more about the things I liked best about the music I compose and hear.

“The first album was made when I was studying a lot of things. Now I study less but listen more to just the music that attracts me. Route 96 is a more honest-sounding record, I would say.”

It’s not the first time that Vai has offered tutelage to the young star. He’s previously spoken to him about being himself as a guitarist and how no player can truly copy another. It sounds like that’s led him on a journey of self-discovery, where his voice leads the way.

We’ll have to wait a while longer to hear Solar Wind, but the record’s first single, Isla Feliz, has dropped, and it features the gypsy jazz talents of Antoine Boyer. The track sees Mancuso wielding, as he usually does, his Yamaha Revstar, and is seen as a love letter to his Latin influences for classical guitar, despite boasting some electric guitar distortion for good measure.

“This album has come at the right time,” Mancuso feels. “I want to have a busy 2026 in terms of tours, [and] I wanted something newer and fresher to play. These ideas are more original and melodically stronger. There are more explorations, harmonically speaking. I think it shows who I am musically a lot better.”

In related news, Al Di Meola has offered his take on Mancuso's rapid rise, while Mancuso himself recently discussed why he prefers baritone guitars to seven-strings for when he wants more low-end.

Megadeth have dropped the third single from their final studio album – and it’s an old-school, throwback thrash romp that serves as a celebration of the electric guitar.

Titled Let There Be Shred, the new track is the latest preview that Dave Mustaine and co have shared ahead of the arrival of their last-ever record, which is set to land in January.

The self-titled LP was announced in August this year. At the time, it was also confirmed that a global farewell tour would follow, after which Mustaine will draw the curtain on his 40-year-plus career with Megadeth.

But, as had already been made clear with previous singles I Don’t Care and Tipping Point, the band is going out with a bang.

Naturally, there’s already an air of festivity around Megadeth and what the record represents. But it’s being helped along by some truly whirlwind playing from Mustaine’s latest – and last – guitar foil, Teemu Mäntysaari.

If you name a song Let There Be Shred, you need to deliver the goods. Mäntysaari – making his Megadeth studio debut after replacing Kiko Loureiro – does just that, and then some.

Swapping his Ibanez for a custom Gibson Explorer that will no doubt set the signature guitar rumor mill into gear, the Finnish virtuoso plays like a man possessed, ripping through a tome of otherworldly lead lines, which culminate in a death-defying solo.

Mustaine has his own solo, too, in a form of quasi-guitar duel against his young protégé. It was all done by design, as Mustaine explains to Guitar World.

“Teemu is such an exceptional talent that he really lit a fire in me for my playing,” Mustaine says of Let There Be Shred in the upcoming issue of GW. “We were joking around and constantly talking about how we have to make this record absolutely shred and that we needed to put a lot of solos in it. I think we accomplished that.

“A pretty unique thing about Let There Be Shred – in terms of the guitar duels Teemu and I were doing – is that he would do all the shred stuff, and I’d do all the hippie stuff. I thought that was really fun, based on what the lyrics were about, because it was supposed to be a guitar challenge.”

Speaking of lyrics, they deserve some love, too: “Guitars are all screaming / They squeal with delight / Clawing fretboards away / At the speed of light.” Oh, and did we mention the music video has Dave Mustaine doing karate?

Mäntysaari is clearly relishing his painfully short period with Megadeth, and leaving his own mark on the band’s catalog with his contributions here. It’s a shame we’re only getting one Megadeth album with him, truth be told.

“This one was written with a big grin and a lot of love for loud amps, fast fingers, and all of you who live for that feeling,” he wrote in a comment below the music video. “If it made you smile, headbang, or air-shred even once, then mission accomplished. Thank you for letting us do what we love – now turn it up and let there be shred!”

At the time of Megadeth’s farewell announcement, Mustaine thanked fans and took the opportunity to look back on the impact he’s had on the wider thrash world.

“Don't be mad, don't be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years,” he said. “We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it's played, and we changed the world.”

Megadeth will arrive via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint in partnership with BLKIIBLK on January 23, 2026. Visit Megadeth’s website to preorder.

Dave Mustaine's full interview with Guitar World will features the new issue, which will be available from Magazines Direct on December 30.

Guns N’ Roses have shared not one, but two new singles, as speculation surrounding a potential new studio album from the hard rock giants reaches boiling point.

Nothin’ and Atlas arrives as GNR’s first new material since 2023, when Slash, Axl Rose, Richard Fortus, and the rest of the group dropped The General and Perhaps.

In turn, those standalone singles came after the original GNR members Slash, Rose, and bassist Duff McKagan reunited in the studio for the first time in 28 years back in 2021 for a four-track EP, Hard Skool.

Against the backdrop of a grueling touring schedule that has already taken the band all over the world, Slash and co. clearly remain in rude creative health, and the arrival of Nothin’ and Atlas further seemingly confirms a new Guns N’ Roses album is merely a matter of when, not if.

Naturally, both new tracks feature plenty of Slash six-string exploits. Nothin’ – a fairly loose, back-beat power ballad – leaves room for a particularly lengthy solo, while Atlas is more ‘GNR of old’, propelled by a rolling riff and a far more urgent lead effort.

Now with four singles in two years under their belt, the next step for Guns N’ Roses would seem to be a fully fledged record.

After all, Slash all-but-confirmed an album was in the works, telling Guitar World that “everybody is thinking about it”.

“There’s so much material at this point – it’s a matter of having the discipline to sit down and fucking get into it,” he admitted. “But the thing with Guns is, in my experience, you can never plan ahead. You can never sit down and go, ‘We’re going to take this time, and we’re going to do this.’ Every time we’ve done that, it falls apart.”

The wait might have to go on a little longer, though. The two singles arrive alongside news of yet more touring dates, with Guns N’ Roses set to embark on another world tour next year that will stretch from March to September.

That would seem to imply that GNR will be spending much of their time on the stage rather than in the studio – but, of course, there are always work-arounds.

Furthermore, a press release for the new announcement did tease: “Guns N’ Roses never stops with more touring on the horizon and other surprises.” Does “other surprises” mean ‘new album’? Who knows. It’s all speculation right now. But it does all seem to be falling into place.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of November, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

As the world obsesses over retailers’ price cutting, I’m happy to confirm head cutting has been on the agenda for guitarists this month. Fresh slabs of heavy from Lamb of God and Heriot have been reverberating in my skull, but it’s the latest from Sylosis – for my money, the most bankable ‘classic’ thrash band in metal – that has me reaching for my nearest EMG-loaded bruiser. Since leaving Architects, Josh Middleton has approached his main squeeze with a renewed vigor, and The New Flesh is the kind of all-killer track that can unite every school of metal.

Switching to a different kind of heavy, Kiesel eight-stringer Ando San has chiseled his unique vision for prog-meets-hip-hop (prog-hop) into a work of fine art. Thick Neck melds a devastating lyrical flow over grinding riffs. Think Kendrick Lamar meets Deftones. It’s sneaking stealth guitar chops into a mainstream-adjacent sound, and that makes Mr San a hero in our book.

Finally, Des Rocs may have reinvented the shape of the electric guitar, but the NYC rocker’s latest three-and-a-half-minute rager is the perfect marriage of Aerosmith and the Cult. An Aerocult, if you will. Or a Cultsmith.

Anyway, The Juice is about as perfect a driving rock song as you could possibly hope for in the year of our lord 2025. Pentatonic riffs are snaking all over the place, the chorus hook wraps itself around your brain and compresses your temporal lobes until it’s the only thing you can hear, and the tones are raunchy with a capital Raunch. Des Rocs has always carried himself like a rockstar, and tracks like this are reasons why.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Dearborn, Michigan group Prostitute offer a pressure-cooker of post-punk, white-hot rage and a METZ-like powerwall of noise, with elements of traditional Arabic scales and instrumentation. I was recently levelled by their show in Liverpool – a lightning flash of rave-volume drums, samples and heavy distortions that barely let up, until the last note rang-off and they left an audience rabidly chanting for more. And, in a move I rated highly, did not capitulate to an encore.

All Hail is probably the most immediate example from their 2024 album Attempted Martyr, which is getting long in the tooth at this point, but has just been released on Mute in the UK, so I’m taking the window to get it in here.

I don’t know what it is about the nights drawing in that drives me to shoegaze. Perhaps it was the months riding the bus into central London listening to the Cocteau Twins, when I worked at Virgin Records.

Either way, if you missed mercury’s incredible GW-exclusive session earlier this year, then don’t sleep on newbie Heaven. It’s a killer, cathartic slab of shoegaze schadenfreude – full of melodramatic leads and colossal crunching rhythms.

LA trio Blackwater Holylight is scratching a similar itch, albeit with more of a Sabbath riff bed in Heavy, Why? The answer’s in the question, obviously, but this is doom-y, defiant and jubilant – and the perfect rumbling soundtrack for my traditional pre-Christmas cycle between mild elation and mild depression.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

New music-wise, November’s been a tad quieter than the fall-avalanche months that preceded it, but have no fear, my proverbial cup has still runneth over.

First, I’ve gotta yap about Julian Lage. I’ve proudly flown the flag for the jazz maestro (and one-time GW columnist) since 2021, when I was absolutely bowled over by his masterful – then-new – album, Squint. Opal is the first preview we’ve gotten from his forthcoming Scenes from Above LP, and a spin of it will make clear to anyone why he’s one of the most distinct voices in modern guitar.

Over an easy-going shuffle beat, Lage embellishes and dances around the song’s ear-candy changes with stunning arpeggios and classy phrases. The album’s primarily got Lage’s name on it, but he doesn’t care one bit about showing off – his tone, and sense of how to bring the best out of the melody, are something to behold.

There’s been plenty to like on the acoustic end of the spectrum, too. Pajarito, the stunning new single from the ever-underrated José González, for one, brought back (fond) memories for me of trying to learn (i.e. stumbling around) the divine fingerpicking on his classic cover of the Knife’s Heartbeats.

Singer-songwriter Tyler Ramsey and My Morning Jacket guitar-slinger Carl Broemel, meanwhile, engage in some front porch-primed, virtuosic unplugged dialog on the folky instrumental, Elizabeth Brown.

Elsewhere, anyone who, like me, is a sucker for anything even resembling ‘90s indie will find themselves as taken by This is Lorelei’s Holo Boy as I am, while those partial to the Tuareg guitar styles of Northern Africa (guilty again) will love Tellalt, the propulsive, almost spooky new tune from fast-rising Algerian combo Imarhan.

Matt Owen – News Editor

As someone who loves both Mark Lettieri and Justus West, I can’t begin to describe how gassed I was when I saw Neural DSP had brought them both together for Top Down Suits (not on streaming yet, boo) – one of many collaborations that Neural DSP has facilitated over the past week or so, presumably in preparation for Black Friday.

It’s a collab I never thought would happen, but one I’m overjoyed to see. Their playing styles complement each other so well. Top Down Suits sounds like the theme song for a 1990s buddy cop flick in the best way possible. The funk hook is just such an earworm. West’s borderline bebop lead effort has been added to my ‘solos to learn list’. Lettieri’s versatility as a rhythm player and blinding soloist continues to astound me. Thank you, Neural DSP.

Speaking of Neural DSP, one of the firm’s most notable signature artists, Mateus Asato, is gearing up to release his highly anticipated debut solo album, which has given the neo-soul virtuoso the opportunity to revisit some old demos.

Six years ago, he posted ‘the breakup song [idea]’ on YouTube, promising in the description he was “saving [it] for later”. Well, “later” has arrived, and the final version is just spell-binding. The runs are effortlessly smooth, the tones are to die for, and the chord melodies are classic Asato. Essential listening for guitar fans.

More essential listening I implore you to wrap your ears around this month include Novo Amor and Yvette Young’s new single monty (okay, I’m cheating, it came out late last month, but it deserves a mention). Young’s edgy, pristinely produced guitar hooks that carry the track are a perfect foil for the equally chopped vocals. A masterclass in modern bedroom indie pop production.

And I’d kick myself if I didn’t give a shoutout to Kings of Leon’s new EP. Give the whole thing a spin, but start with The Wolf. It’s giving Only by the Night vibes, which is great news for me – that’s my favorite KoL album.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

I must admit that Rosalía's album, Lux, has been on constant rotation, and has definitely clinched the number-one spot for my album of the year.

Much has been written about the album's classical music influences (Rosalia did, in fact, work with the London Symphony Orchestra for this record) and its already cemented status as an avant-garde classical pop masterpiece, with even the impresario of musical theater, Andrew Lloyd Webber, giving his two cents.

The track I chose, however, harks back to Rosalía's flamenco roots. La Rumba del Perdon sees the artiste collaborate with guitarists Joselito Acedo and Oscar Lagos for a track that spotlights the flamenco guitar. The result? An effervescent four-minute, 11-second piece that celebrates the lineage of Spain's national art form – and introduces it to a whole new generation.

And speaking of modern masterpieces, Florence + the Machine is back with the haunting Everybody Scream. The track I picked, Made by Men, is a masterclass in songwriting.

The musical accompaniment is simple – acoustic guitar, piano, and a sprinkle of strings and drums. The focus of the track is clearly on Florence Welch’s penmanship, which moves between the nuances of relationship dynamics as poetically as it does in its subtle critique of misogyny in the music industry.

Moving on from orchestral-driven pieces… Just yesterday, I stumbled across the excellent Jack Francis and Hattie Whitehead at a grassroots music venue in Brighton (England) – two artists that will definitely go down well with fans of Chris Stapleton and Joni Mitchell.

The two have just released their own folk-tinged take on Talking Heads' This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) – a version that wouldn't be out of place on an early noughties indie rom-com soundtrack – and a great introduction to these two emerging artists.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of October, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

It's Halloween! So why not drop the needle on some six-string (and five-string) sorcery. With terrific new tunes from the likes of Conjurer, Alter Bridge, The Orielles, Eric Bibb, Jacob Collier, Slow Joy, and many more, you're spoiled for choice.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

I’m back from my travels to Fender Japan and after meeting some awe-inspiring Japanese guitar players (shoutout Rei, Chilli Beans. and Miyavi), I’ve been furiously catching up with the month in new music.

First up, that new Alter Bridge single is one of the best the band has produced in years imo. Maybe recording in 5150 Studios has shaken up their blockbuster hard-rock template, maybe some of EVH’s magic has rubbed off, but Tremonti and Kennedy’s guitars have never sounded bigger, especially on that outrageous ‘melody-shred-melody-shred’ solo.

The latest album from UK sludge metal merchants Conjurer has also been bowling me over. A precision-engineered take on all things doom, it gives the genre a welcome shakeup, with earthen riffs that cascade into proper choruses.

Flipping the script, PRS-toting virtuoso Mei Semones’ latest banger Kurayami is ticking all my math-jazz-pop boxes. Semones treats the guitar almost like an orchestra, her picking hand the conductor’s baton, as dizzying alternate-picked phrases rush on by, accompanied by live string sections. Nobody is making music quite like it.

If Mdou Moctar has recently introduced you to the magic of Tuareg ‘desert rock’ guitar playing, Imarhan should be the next band you check out. With intricate fingerpicked electric lines over pulsing ’80s synths, new single Derhan N’Oulhine is what I imagine Dire Straits would sound like if Mark Knopfler grew up in the deserts of Algeria rather than the streets of Newcastle.

Finally, as a grunge die-hard, I’m thrilled that the ’90s alt-guitar revival has continued to bear fruit – and LA’s Rocket have swooped in as perhaps its brightest stars. New album R is for Rocket is full of explosive dynamics, catchy solos (those tricksy outro pull-offs in The Choice make it one of my faves of the year), and a heck of a lot of fuzz. File next to Momma, early Wolf Alice, and Smashing Pumpkins.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

October is a traditionally nutty month in the music industry. Everyone releases everything and then tours everywhere, but this year feels like it’s been particularly bonkers. And then to top it all off, Mike went off to Japan to meet Fender’s new brand ambassador, Godzilla.

On the plus side, I’ve caught shows from Irish alt-rockers SPRINTS, melodic hardcore OGs Strike Anywhere, and punk’s harmony-guitar heroes A Wilhelm Scream, plus my favorite UK post-rock pedalboard-hawkers Alpha Male Tea Party – and all without having to leave the comfort of my hometown of Liverpool.

On the listening front, our staff writer Janelle tipped me to Karma Sheen – a London band who make a mash-up of Hindustani classical and classic rock – and I’ve spent a lot of time admiring the blend of wailing bends and sitar sibilance on Without You (Raag Jog). I’m not the only one, either – Jimmy Page was spotted at a recent gig.

The Orielles were one of those bands that formed when they were about 5 and, thanks to their sibling-based musical shorthand, have evolved at a breakneck rate ever since. Their sound is a psychedelic paint splat that has Pollock-ed everything from post-punk to disco, funk, and a dreamy 90s baggy vibe at the canvas. Newbie Three Halves is a darker number with some driving, urgent, Echo-like guitar work from Henry Carlyle Wade.

Elsewhere, I’m overjoyed to see The Cribs are back. I’m broadly done with the sound of EHX POG, but their return single A Point Too Hard To Make uses it (or something very like it) to make the chorus arpeggio really chime – and now I love it all over again.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

Happy Halloween, dear readers! Sure, I’ve accessed my inner goth teen here and there this month, but more than that my listening has been mostly fall – comforting and pretty. I said “mostly,” though. Plenty of blues, punk, and shoegaze has made its way into my ears as well.

I can start with nothing other than Whitney’s autumnal gem, Damage. If people knew how much I’ve been listening to this tune they’d probably think me fit for a towering asylum around which lightning is omnipresent and thunder is always cracking. It is Halloween, I guess.

If you’re in any way partial to the slide work of George Harrison, stop what you’re doing. Damage truly has some of the sweetest slide work I’ve ever heard, period. It’s so dynamic, so smooth, and does so much of the melodic heavy lifting – practically every phrase is its own knockout hook. It’s ridiculous.

On an extremely different note, but keeping (it’s a stretch, I know) with the Halloween theme is Jared James Nichols’ Ghost. He’s ostensibly a bluesman, but this all-the-way-into-the-red belter belongs squarely in the here and now. The riff is 18-wheeler size, the chorus radio-friendly, and to cap off its versatility – its solo is perfectly bite-size. Nichols could rear back and let it fly for as long as he wants, but he keeps it – especially the displays of Formula 1 speed – perfect for the song. The highlights, frankly, are the individual notes – listen to the man’s vibrato!

On the pure blues note, meanwhile, props must be given to Eric Bibb’s proudly simple This One Don’t, which features my second favorite display of slide work of the month.

Also on rotation for me this month – Searows’ hypnotic, grunge-y epic, Dearly Missed, Ratboys’ punk earworm Anywhere, and Strange Heaven, the ethereal and jangling new single from the always-brilliant Orchid Mantis.

Matt Owen – News Editor

I won’t be the first person from Team GW to tell you all about how hectic October has been. Mike went to Japan. Janelle saw some 1959 Les Paul Bursts. Jackson met Tommy Emmanuel. It’s been all go these past few weeks, but I had some fun, too: I had a guitar lesson with Jacob Collier.

I met Jacob in NAMM in January, where I was lucky enough to chat to him about his five-string signature Strandberg. It was truly enlightening, so when I caught wind that he’d be releasing a new album centered solely on the acoustic guitar, I was desperate to sit down with him again to talk about five-string Taylors. He showed me his five-string guitars, discussed his relationship with the instrument, and even gave me a tutorial on how to play one of the songs from his new album.

You’ll have to wait to find out which song that was, but in the meantime go and listen to his new album: The Light for Days is a guitar fan’s dream, putting on display Jacob’s singular approach to the musicality of the instrument, which lends itself to some kaleidoscopic, awe-inspiring songs. Sweet Melody is a particular highlight.

Back in more orthodox six-string territory, I’ve been obsessed with Militarie Gun ever since I heard them being interviewed on BBC Radio 1 the other week. Throw Me Away is excellent, as is their latest single God Save The Gun. In fact, it’s been a particularly rock-heavy month for me: Slow Joy is one of my favorite emerging artists, and Mugshot – the opener from new record A Joy Even Slower – has been on repeat since it dropped.

Of course, I’ve needed some technical guitar insanity in the mix (just to keep myself grounded whenever I get too comfortable with a new riff or lick), and who better than Unprocessed – the band headed up by percussive fusion virtuoso Manuel Gardner Fernandes – for that fix? Head in the Clouds literally sent my head to space. Some of the guitar playing on display is just… words don’t do it justice.

After huge anticipation, the wait for Mateus Asato’s first single is over – and Cryin’ is full of the smooth and soulful licks with which the Brazilian electric guitar virtuoso made his name.

The former Bruno Mars, Tori Kelly, and Jessie J guitarist has achieved a lot before releasing any of his own original music. The long-time Suhr endorsee launched his signature guitar back in 2018, with the pink six-string becoming one of the firm's best-selling axes since.

Five years later, he dropped a signature plugin with Neural DSP, and he released a collaborative track with Plini last year, before admitting to Guitar World that he's been taking his time to work on his hotly-awaited debut LP.

“All creatives are in a state of constant change,” he said. “I started out as a sideman backing these big pop artists… I had a lot of conflict with myself when it came to my art.

“At one point, I was going to write an album with a bunch of collaborations and go for the mainstream thing. Recently, I realized these short instrumental pieces are my true identity.”

The song begins with some tender piano lines, but it doesn't take long for a run of crooning, edge-of-breakup leads – the kind that defines Asato's irresistible playing style – to cut through the mix.

The song is simple, hinging on one core melody rather than being overpopulated with shred and fireworks. That’s indicative of his taste-before-showmanship musicality. And it’s a real earworm, too.

“Cryin’ is my emotional celebration of life – the first act of being human and the sound of joy, fear, and love all at once,” he says of the track. “It’s a reminder that life is full of emotions, vulnerability, and movement, and you’re free to feel it your own way.”

It would have been easy for Asato to neglect his songwriting talents. With Bruno Mars and Jessie J, especially, he's been at the top of the pop game, playing some of the world's most iconic venues and benefitting from a reliable paycheck. But the Brazilian wanted to take the risk.

“Trading the stability and the status of playing for a pop star to start walking on my own steps was a very tough decision, and that takes time,” he said during a pensive chat with GW last month. “I was able to give myself a proper season of rest. [It] cleared the path for me to start this first season of my solo career with a very great feeling.”

More details about Asato’s album, which is slated for release in early 2026, are expected to land imminently. In the meantime, we can bask in those lucious licks.

Or, readers could learn a few of his tricks, including his poetic soloing secrets, and the key to his neo-soul style, which Haken guitarist and GW columnist Charlie Griffiths says every player can benefit from.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of September, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Now, September often brings a true avalanche of new music, and this year was no exception. In addition to that, though, we've been preoccupied all month with a different avalanche – that of new guitar gear. Seriously, every week has been like a mini-NAMM, just with later sunsets.

So, no long-winded ramblings about our particular favorites from the 75-strong playlist below (devastating, I know), but do give it a spin.

Goodies within include...

Shams by Saudi Arabian band Seera, which turns Asturias by Isaac Albéniz into a prog- and psych-inspired opus, and SPRINTS' Better, which is a wash of shoegaze euphoria – all colorful distortion and ear worm melodies – and a sublime moment of catharsis amid a set full of fuzzy rage, spiky wit, and raucous dynamic shifts.

Also featured is the Struts' Could Have Been Me, which Brian May cited in 2014 as “one of the best rock songs ever.” Now, he’s playing on it courtesy of an epic, harmony-laden remake.

On the folkier, lo-fi side of things, there's Hudson Freeman's If U Know Me, a TikTok smash with a diabolical down-tuned (acoustic!) riff, and I Know (A Little) from Jacob Collier, which gives us our first taste of what's to come from the multi-instrumental prodigy's guitar-centric album.

Enjoy!

Aerosmith and Yungblud have followed their controversial MTV VMAs performance with a brand new song, My Only Angel – and a five-track EP is set to follow.

One More Time is set for release on November 19 and features four brand-new songs on which Tyler and Yungblud share vocal duties. There will also be a 2025 remix of Rocks banger, Back in the Saddle. It's been produced by Matt Schwarz.

It marks the first new music from Aerosmith since 2012’s Music from Another Dimension!. The surprise collaboration had been teased after the band partnered with Yungblud for an all-star Ozzy Osbourne tribute, which was met with derision from Dan Hawkins. His brother, Justin, followed closely behind in criticizing the spot.

Aerosmith was forced to retire from touring last year in light of vocalist Steven Tyler’s health issues, but he’s been on quite the comeback trail since. He linked up with Nuno Bettencourt to play some classics in February before reportedly reuniting with Joe Perry at a benefit show in May. He then took part in Ozzy's farewell show, Back to the Beginning, proving his pipes still pack plenty of power.

So, Aerosmith's first trip to the studio in 13 years will be music to fans' ears, and yet further confirmation that their premature end to touring wasn’t the end, full stop.

As for the new single, after some huge vocal harmonies, Joe Perry’s grooving, slightly off-kilter work is immediately recognizable. Yungblud supplies backing vocals until the second verse, delivering the same snarling attitude with which he stunned fans during his Changes cover at Back to the Beginning. Its bridge section is oozing with Pump-era swagger.

The song – and the project on the whole – will be met with cynicism from some, but with Aerosmith off the road, many others will be thrilled to wrap their ears around new riffs.

“A year ago, I got a call that Yungblud wanted to come to Sarasota to work with me and write some songs and said, ‘Hell yeah, this guy’s got the juice,’” Perry recalls. “[After] four days in the studio, I called Steven and told him, ‘You have to hear this guy Yungblud, he’s the real deal.’ Fast forward to May, and we’re in the studio with Steven recording new music. The result turned out to be an amazing collaboration between Aerosmith and Yungblud. Let the music do the talking.”

“It was like plugging into pure electricity,” adds Tyler. “For Joe and me, it was another cosmic collision to find ourselves in the studio with this outrageously talented and positively wild animal.

“Here’s this kid that lives his life out loud. [He] grew up on our records and the British invasion, and now we’re in the studio together creating something that bridges generations.

“Yungblud wants this next chapter in rock history and asked us to be a part of it. The vibe in the room was epic from the start. We had a blast and were truly honored to write with him.”

“Aerosmith have been such a staple of rock and roll and showmanship for me, so I’ve been ready for this my whole life,” Yungblud returns. “As soon as we entered the studio, the chemistry exploded and the songs just poured out of us. It’s the kind of collaboration that young me wouldn’t even dream of; it is truly blowing my mind.

“Steven and Joe are at the top of their game, and working with them is a huge fucking honor. I’m making records with my heroes.”

Meanwhile, Joe Perry says he hopes Aerosmith will get to play at least one more show together. He’s currently on the road with the Joe Perry Project, having enlisted members of the Black Crowes and Stone Temple Pilots for the cause.

Jacob Collier has announced a new studio album that’s driven entirely by the guitar. But The Light For Days is not your typical guitar album – you won’t hear a six-string on it.

Instead, Collier relies mostly upon his five-string tuned to DAEAD, trading “scales for intimacy”. And he made it all in less than a week. By the sounds of it, Collier couldn’t contain himself. The music just kept on tumbling out.

“Since completing the Djesse album series, my imagination has been brimming with all sorts of ideas of things I’d like to do and create,” he says. “One of the things I’ve wanted to really focus on, and zone into, is the limitation of a single instrument.

“The acoustic guitar sound world has been a foundational aspect of my music universe for as long as I can remember, and so I set myself the challenge of making a full-length album, using almost entirely the five-stringed guitar, in just four days.”

That sort of recording schedule would give many artists a nervous breakdown. Not Collier. He seems way too upbeat for that, and describes this as something of an exercise in embracing what might traditionally be thought of as constraints – of time, of strings, and so on. This, he argues, was liberating.

“As a result I had to work so fast that I couldn’t second-guess anything,” he says. “I just had to roll with and trust the process. The results are warm, scrappy, imperfect, but very close to my heart.”

Those looking to tap into this sort of approach have options. Simply procrastinate for a while – easily enough done in this age of digital distraction. Procrastinate some more until you’ve got hardly any time left.

Then pop onto the music retailer of your choice and get yourself one of Collier’s Strandberg Boden signature guitars. They ship with five strings as standard (Yes, you could lop off a string on your regular guitar but then there’s all that fingerboard lying spare). And off you go. Make a record. Oh, and a 10-string acoustic would be useful too; Collier uses a custom Taylor.

Okay, another quick hack: include some covers. Collier did. You’ve got Beach Boys, Beatles and James Taylor tracks among The Light for Days’ five covers and six original compositions.

But maybe you need a thorough grounding in the creative potential of the five-string, and Collier started out young with that. He told Guitar World that his first guitar was a Tenor four-string, tuned in fifths like a mandolin only an octave lower, i.e. low-to-high GDAE.

“The feeling of this under my fingers became a deeply strong magnet for my music world,” he said.

Many of us will have experienced the creative exhilaration that comes with dropping our sixth string from E down to D, with Drop D tuning making powerchords even easier and bringing new chord voicings into reach. Collier? He dropped his four-string’s top string (E) down to D. That was his ‘Eureka!’ moment.

“It really clicked, as it unlocked some of my 4ths-based language that was native to me as a bass player before that,” he said.

One key detail in Collier’s signature Strandberg is the string spacing. It uses a regular width neck and fretboard, so there’s some extra room for the digits.

“There is slightly more breathing room around each string, which I love,” he said. “The neck is incredibly ergonomic, and the controls are super-intuitive – even to a slight electric guitar novice like me!”

The Light for Days is out October 10 via Hajanga/Interscope/Decca. You can check out the first single, I Know (A Little) above.

Steve Morse will release his first album since leaving Deep Purple on November 14, with Eric Johnson and John Petrucci as guest recruits for the Steve Morse Band.

Triangulation is the group’s first album since 2009’s Out Standing in Their Field. It will see Morse team up with bass player Dave LaRue and Enrique Iglesias drummer Van Romaine as the core trio. His son, Kevin, stars on the closing track, Taken by an Angel.

All eyes will be on Johnson and Petrucci, though, with the two greats of blues guitar and prog metal, respectively, trading licks with Morse on the songs TexUS and Triangulation.

Lead single Break Through is guest-free, with its music video nodding to Morse’s aviation past. For Morse, it was important to pull the spotlight away from his guitar playing with the first single.

“This may start with a guitar riff, but the bass carries the melody,” he says. “It's just a great feel to play over, and a positive vibe to start the album.

“Dave and Van have been the bedrock of this trio, and this recording shows why. These guys are unique and incredible musicians on their own, and together, our chemistry is magical. While making the album, we played together, working through parts, riffing off each other, and collaborating on arrangements. We made this album together, and you can hear it.”

While the arrivals of Johnson and Pettruci will excite the guitar community, its third guest appears on the song’s most poignant track. Taken by an Angel is a tribute to Morse’s late wife, Janine.

“That song is new territory for me,” he explains. “It was put together for my late wife's memorial service, with my son Kevin playing along. It brought tears to many folks' eyes because Janine was a huge part of my life and career. People knew her from the Steve Morse Band tours. She was the smiling face opening CDs for me to sign, selling t-shirts, listening to people's stories in the crowd, and taking photos for VIP visits.”

In related news, Morse was recently put through his paces when he was tasked with adding a tasteful solo to a Coldplay classic, which came after he joined a covers band for an intimate showing of his talents.

He spent 28 years in Deep Purple, making him the band’s longest-serving six-stringer. Simon McBride, who has discussed the differing styles of his predecessors, replaced him.

Triangulation releases November 14 via Music Theories Recordings.

Visit Steve Morse for more.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of August, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

With killer cuts from Deftones, Lorna Shore, Big Thief, Young Dervish, Paco Peña, and many more, there was plenty to pick from this month.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

OK, can we talk about the new Deftones for a second? In this obsessive fan’s humble opinion, it’s their best since 2012’s Koi No Yokan – and infinite source is the standout, a double-picking jam that bounces and caresses.

It’s been a bumper month for fans of all things ‘alt’, actually. Paramore leader Hayley Williams has indulged her love of woozy ’90s indie on new solo record Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, on which she plays a fair chunk of guitar.

Post-hardcore darlings turned progressive songsmiths Thrice have lent into their bluesier single-coil side with spectacular success on the anthemic Albatross. There’s a fuzz-rich single from Kansas City juggernauts Shiner that boasts a croon so menacing it could give Josh Homme a run for his money (Asleep in the Trunk).

Underrated Midwest emo outfit Algernon Cadwallader – cited by Yvette Young as one of the 10+ guitarists who shaped her sound – have made their first album in 14 years, and Hawk stands up there with anything the band has produced. All twinkly cleans and shimmering arpeggios, it’s a reminder that it wasn’t just American Football who pioneered the genre.

August also marked the month we heard Polyphia’s latest collab with Babymetal – which hints towards the heavier direction Tim Henson has pointed towards for the band’s own material. And boy, did Tim and Scott break out all the guitars on this one. Sunset Kiss is nylon-string in the verses, eight-string for the riffs, and signature models for the shred. It’s catchy AF and will not leave my head.

Lastly, Tom Morello has hailed grandson (aka singer-songwriter-rapper Jordan Edward Benjamin) as one of the successors to Rage Against the Machine’s riff-rock crown – and I had to double-check the credits to make sure he wasn’t involved on GOD IS AN ANIMAL, which elicited the kind of headbangs that make me worry for the structural integrity of my standing desk.

It makes pentatonic riffs exciting again. We may be coming to the end of festival season, but I hope to see next year’s crowds leaping like impalas to that chorus hook.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Mason Lindahl is an acoustic guitarist who takes the warmth of nylon-strung tone into strange and experimental new climes. His new double album, Joshua / Same Day Walking, absolutely delivers on that front, packaging two records made in very different locales (namely, Iceland and California) together as a contrasting pairing.

Opener Joshua Under Water seems initially to plod through the desert, shimmering and catching your ear with a tonal and dynamic range that is truly astonishing. There are sparse supporting instruments in there, but it’s an objectively epic composition that is almost entirely guitar-driven – and when the tension finally breaks at 5:30, the result is dizzying.

The partner track, Little Sister, from Same Day Walking, is its own adventure. Full of thumping, distorted thumb-picking, quiet pauses, and cycling runs laid around haunting synth beds.

Elsewhere, this month I’ve spent a bit of time with Hand Habits’ Bluebird of Happiness (the album Blue Reminder dropped last week). I love the way that simple, central stabbing rhythm part just builds in the mix, before it suddenly gives way to the solo/middle eight.

I have also awarded 15 scene points to the band Guitar for existing in the face of all SEO logic and releasing a song called Pizza For Everyone. Yeah, you heard me. The band is called Guitar – that’s the pitch. Why are you still standing here?

And, finally, I’m going to carpet bomb all this good taste and subtlety with the carnal brutality of Lorna Shore’s Prison of Flesh. The New Jersey deathcore heroes are achieving remarkable things – giving extreme metal a once-unthinkable profile – and rounding off none of their serrated edges to do so.

Leaving aside the subject matter of Prison… (vocalist Will Ramos’ family history of dementia), the sound of this truly feels like hell on earth – and that breakdown at 6:00 is among the most severe metal recordings I have ever heard. It’s torturous. Don’t watch the video if you struggle with horror films, the sight of blood, if you have kids, any next of kin, or a desire to feel happy ever again.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

Though whole new albums can be a bit harder to come by in the dog days of summer, it’s a time where a lot of tantalizing previews of what’s to come in the fall come rolling in – and this year’s been no exception to the rule.

Numero uno on my personal list is Big Thief’s forthcoming Double Infinity, the band’s first new LP since 2022’s all-immersive (though rather clumsily named) double-album masterpiece, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You.

For all the talk of bandleader Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting prowess (and, let’s be clear, she is truly one of the best of her generation in that department), she doesn’t get nearly enough credit as a guitarist. Though recent single Los Angeles lacks the six-string fireworks of, say, the astonishing three-minute spin-out solo she laid down on the band’s 2019 career highlight, Not, the limber, sun-kissed leads that help bow the song out are beautiful, and exactly what the doctor ordered.

Speaking of underrated guitarists in the indie-sphere, those in need of a fix of terse rockabilly riffage can find what they need once again in the work of Spoon’s Britt Daniel, who serves up plenty of the stuff in his ever-tight band’s new tune, Chateau Blues. They have no right to be as consistently good as they have been for the last (checks notes) three decades.

In the more classic rock-minded sphere, Mirador – the new band led by the dynamo guitar-slinging combo of Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka and Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin – are fast approaching the release of their self-titled debut LP. Back in May, the duo stopped by Guitar World’s NYC headquarters to discuss their influences and how their six-string chemistry developed, and to play through a selection of their heaviest (and sweetest) tunes.

With their partnership hardly public knowledge at that point, I didn’t quite know what to expect when I joined my GW colleagues in the studio for the session. Seeing them plug in and rip from a few feet away, though, showed clear as day the unique wavelength these two have found. Listen to the thundering Fortune's Fate – with its whirlwind Kiszka solo – to hear it for yourself.

One last thing, Mike talked about it more elegantly above, but let the record show that I too am absolutely over the moon – as someone who was shaped by late-’00s/early-2010s emo and math-rock – at the Algernon Cadwallader reunion. Their new single, Hawk, is to me like chestnuts roasting over an open fire.

Matt Owen – News Editor

It’s only a matter of time before Young Dervish – the fretless, baritone, slide guitar virtuoso, whose instrument collection resembles something of a mad scientist’s store cupboard – becomes a household name among guitar fans. His playing, vision, and musicality – previously reserved for Instagram, now on display for a fully fledged debut album – is just that good.

It would be a waste of time to try and liken his style to a contemporary. The lo-fi, baritone edge will conjure up whispers of Mk.gee, but this is too lazy and, honestly, a bit of a cop out. Young Dervish has developed a fretboard vocabulary and tone that is entirely his own: gritty, fizzy, drenched in dynamics and vibrato that skirt along a tightrope teetering on the edge of gung-ho guitarisms.

Daddy is but one song (I could have picked any) that demonstrates this. It makes me want to play more slide guitar. It also makes me want to buy a baritone and rip the frets out. Inspiring stuff.

Speaking of slide guitar, Johan Borgh’s Santa Monica Serenade is essential listening for blues fans. Another popular player with a sizable following on Instagram, Borgh is beginning to roll out more original music, and slide players should take note: there are some exceptional lines in there, with immaculate touch and feel to boot.

Wolf Alice also returned with a new record which, while perhaps comparatively lighter on guitars relative to previous efforts, reserved a few special slots for six-string action, including the cantering riff and crush-y solo of Bread Butter Tea Sugar and Foals-ian layerings of White Horses.

Nova Twins, who recently professed their passion for recreating all their studio sounds live with pedals, also dropped their new album, Parasites & Butterflies, and put their acclaimed sound-design approach to six-strings to work on the off-kilter Parallel Universe (as well as every other track).

Oh, and Mac De Marco shared Guitar – a new album filled with plenty of woozy, easy breezy progressions. Helluva title for an album, that. No prizes for guessing what instrument he plays on it.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

This month started out with a masterclass in flamenco guitar – I had the opportunity to watch one of the world’s top flamenco players, Paco Peña, in action at King’s Cross Summer Sounds Festival in London, and saying that I was mindblown is definitely not an understatement.

Peña’s virtuosity, as his hands practically flew over the fretboard, was perfectly complemented by his company – complete with two flamenco dancers – which truly transported me from gloomy London to the streets of Córdoba.

Speaking of bridging cultures, São Paulo’s Pelados are a recent (but very welcome) discovery, and their album Contato (and, naturally, my pick, não sei fazer refrão) manages to hark back to the slacker-sleaze-style indie rock of the aughts, but with an unmistakable Brazilian flair. The guitars are a nod to this era, with a Mac DeMarco tinge that feels both nonchalant yet carefully crafted into hooks that weave in and out throughout the track.

You can imagine my surprise when Mk.Gee collaborator Dijon’s Baby (the follow-up to his 2021 debut, Absolutely) dropped in my inbox – mere weeks after Justin Bieber’s SWAG, the (very) high-profile record he was involved in.

HIGHER!, and the title-track Baby!, epitomize the whole album due to their abstract nature, with the guitar and vocals holding the songs together, as soundscape elements and different instruments are brazenly chopped and quasi-loosely fitted together in a way that’s fresher than fresh.

Shifting gears a little bit, Room Service’s Plastic Cosmic Fantastic Hotel has echoes of Steely Dan and the B-52’s (as well as Khruangbin’s Evan Finds the Third Room), and is unequivocally uplifting, partly thanks to the disco-funk guitar part driving the track. And for those wondering about the title, it’s a teaser of an upcoming EP where Room Service are stuck working at a hotel where time stands still, with each song representing a different floor or room within the hotel… intriguing!

Wrapping up this month’s picks is another recent discovery – South African guitarist and vocalist Madala Kunene links up with his protégé, Sibusile Xaba, for an intergenerational, acoustic guitar–anchored piece, Izimpisi, that draws from South Africa’s rich musical legacy. It’s an emotionally moving, immersive, and meditative sonic fabric – meant to be experienced as much as felt.

Dave Mustaine has revealed that Megadeth’s next studio album, which is due to arrive next year, will be his and the band’s final record.

Mustaine made the surprise announcement in a post on social media and, through band mascot Vic Rattlehead, confirmed that not only was a new Megadeth album on the way, but that it would also be the band’s last.

The as-yet-unnamed album, which will be Megadeth’s 17th, will be followed by a global farewell tour and a memoir penned by Mustaine, both due in 2026.

“For over four decades, I've been chained in silence, but the end demands my voice,” a usually voiceless Rattlehead says in an announcement video on Instagram. “It is confirmed, the next Megadeth studio album will be the last 40 years of metal, forged in steel, ending in fire, and when the New Year rises, the global farewell tour.

“You've heard the warning, now prepare yourself, cyber arm. Stay loud, stay tuned and meet me on the front lines.”

It brings the curtain down on Mustaine’s four-decade-plus career with Megadeth, which first began when he formed the band in 1983. In the 42 years that have since passed, the thrash metal icons have released 16 records, with the latest – The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! – arriving in 2022.

“There's so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional,” Mustaine says in a press statement. “Most of them don't get to go out on their own terms on top, and that's where I'm at in my life right now. I have traveled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them.

“We can't wait for you to hear this album and see us on tour,” he continues. “If there was ever a perfect time for us to put out a new album, it's now. If there was ever a perfect time to tour the world, it's now.

“This is also a perfect time for us to tell you that it's our last studio album. We've made a lot of friends over the years and I hope to see all of you on our global farewell tour.

“Don't be mad, don't be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years. We have done something together that's truly wonderful and will probably never happen again. We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it's played, and we changed the world.

“The bands I played in have influenced the world. I love you all for it. Thank you for everything.”

The next Megadeth album will arrive via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint in partnership with BLKIIBLK. According to Megadeth’s website, preorders for the record begin in 42 days.

Head over to Megadeth’s website to sign up for more details surrounding the new album and the farewell tour.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of June, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

This month, there's plenty to pick from, with new cuts courtesy of Wet Leg, Deftones, Mirador, Big Wreck, Eric Gales, Dream Nails and many more...

Michael Astley-Brown – GuitarWorld.com Editor-in-Chief

I’ve long touted Ian Thornley as perhaps the most underrated guitarist on the planet – with blistering alternate-picking ability and a deft touch and musicality – and he’s just put out the one of the most Van Halen tracks since, well, Van Halen. Big Wreck’s Holy Roller is an homage to Eddie’s legacy on guitar playing: jaw-dropping riffs, wild whammy flourishes, thrilling solos and, inevitably, two-hand tapping. Nuno Bettencourt isn’t the only one keeping EVH’s flame burning – Thornley just gave him a run for his money.

Two icons of Noughties alt-metal have been tapping into my teenaged guitar loves this month: Daron Malakian has served up the best thing this side of a new System of a Down record with Addicted to the Violence. It got me searching Ibanez Iceman guitars on eBay for the first time in decades, which is probably the best indicator of its quality.

Also: Deftones are finally back. I live in the UK, which means I probably won’t see Stephen Carpenter perform onstage ever again, but at least I can still enjoy his Meshuggah-for-mortals riffing on record. my mind is a mountain plays to Deftones’ increasingly younger audience with its lower-case song title, but it’s as uncompromisingly heavy as anything from the past decade of ’tones tracks, with some excellent nods to Metallica, too.

Disengaging my gain channel for a second and stepping on my filthiest fuzz, can we all give it up to Wednesday for fusing alt-country, indie-folk and grunge and making it work so utterly seamlessly? The band’s guitarist MJ Lenderman is a star in his own right now, but it remains an utter treat for the ears to hear his dirty leads crossing axes with lap steel maestro Xandy Chelmis’ yearning fade-ins.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

I’m kicking things off with two Third Man releases (that’s the label side of Jack White’s musical empire). Obviously, it would be more poetic if I had three, but life is annoying like that, so settle down...

Die Spitz’s second album Something To Consume arrives in September and they’re a four-piece force of nature that is capable of drifting from dreamy classic rock to frantic punk and metallic riffage. They do the latter particularly well on new single, Throw Yourself to the Sword, which is not so much about falling on your sword as flailing it about wildly in the face of overwhelming odds, all in the hope that you take at least one of these pricks down with you. But in a positive way.

It’s the kind of gravelly, menacing hardcore-influenced riff that slamdances its way across the floor at you and it’s all wrapped up with the exact type of scrappy, Stooges-esque outro solo that I love. (Side note: more solos should be saved for outros).

My second, er, Third Man comes from Snooper and clocks in at 2.41, which by their standards is essentially a prog epic. Worldwide is a frantic, fuzzy earworm and a nice reminder of all the (very brief) good times I had listening to their debut two years ago.

All of this running about requires a slow jam tonic, which has come courtesy Hermanos Gutierrez and Leon Bridges in the form of Elegantly Wasted. Bridges’ previous collaborations with Khruangbin (in particular, Texas Sun) have become a go-to end-of-a-long-day listen for me and this hits similarly, with Hermanos Gutierrez bringing out a little more funk flavor from their, as ever, beautifully-crafted guitar work.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Who had a Justin Bieber/Mk.gee crossover on their bingo card for 2025? Well, anyone who read the news last year that the two were collaborating probably did. Still, we were surprised just how… Mk.gee the whole record sounds. DAISIES, recorded and produced by everyone’s favorite fast-rising lo-fo guitar star, is perhaps the best track of the album, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Two Star and the Dream Police sequel. It’s a testament to Mk.gee’s influence on the wider music scene and, by extension, yet further evidence that the guitar in mainstream pop music is still very much a thing. Even if you’re not a Belieber, DAISIES is essential listening.

Having seen Biffy Clyro play at a festival a few weeks back, I have rekindled my obsession with the Scottish alt rock outfit (they effectively soundtracked my college years), and although I may have dipped out from their past few records, I am very much ready to receive the new one. Both singles have been excellent, Hunting Season in particular, with quintessential Clyro with kaleidoscopic riffs and cavernous soundscapes of all-out rock. As an aside, this was the month I found out that the ‘Biffy Clyro’ name was inspired by an imaginary Cliff Richard Biro pen – Cliffy Biro, Biffy Clyro, geddit? Moving on…

The blues is never far away from my playlist, and it doesn’t get much better than Eric Gales, who teamed up with his close friend and fellow virtuoso Joe Bonamassa for Don’t Want To Go Home. It seems to be something of an event when these two link up – remember that epic solo battle on I Want My Crown from 2022? – and this track continues that tradition with aplomb. Yet another hot bed of pentatonic phrasing inspiration.

Last but not least, I’ve been playing Nieve Ella’s new track – Good Grace – a concerning amount over the past few weeks, but I promise it’s not my fault. It’s an indie rock song done right, all killer, no filler. The riff is ruthless, the hook is irresistible, and the guitar tones are delightful. It’s probably already made its way into my 2025 Spotify Wrapped playlist…

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Marissa Nadler's soothing voice and fingerstyle mastery in Hatchet Man are very much welcome this (very stormy) afternoon while I'm writing my monthly track roundup. It's the perfect accompaniment to this weather (and yes, a warm drink in the middle of summer) – with lush, Everly Brothers–style harmonies and an intricate and eerie acoustic guitar accompaniment that underscores the melancholic story being told.

Jehnny Beth returns with a genre-hopping new track, No Good For People, that's as hard-hitting as it is inventive, as we've come to expect from Beth's post-Savages work. A vignette of growling, grunge-style guitar/bass gives way to a more electro-punk sound – made even more visceral and sinister by the Lynchian visuals that accompany the track.

Speaking of grunge-leaning sounds, Dream Nails have gone through several iterations and lineups over the past few years, and the latest, composed of longtime members Lucy on drums, Mimi on vocals and bass, and Anya on guitars, is the outfit's most musically self-assured yet.

Organoid is an unapologetic mix of grunge and punk that captures the current zeitgeist – and while it's got unmistakable nods to the nineties, it still manages to sound fresh and contemporary without leaning too heavily into nostalgia.

Mk.gee was one of biggest break-out guitar artists of 2024, and now the boundary-pushing musician has returned with a surprise new collaboration: a guest spot and production credit on the new Justin Bieber album.

Last year, Mk.gee became one of the most talked-about new artists when his wholly unique approach to electric guitar playing and tone – characterized by a retro-futuristic lo-fi flair, soft psychedelia and experimental indie, and headed up by an oddball baritone Jaguar and old-school analog gear – exploded onto the scene.

His debut, Two Star & the Dream Police, was one of 2024’s most popular guitar albums. Not only that, Mk.gee’s unique sound was being championed by all corners of the music world, with none other than Eric Clapton calling him his favorite new guitar player, likening him to Prince.

The influence of Mk.gee’s music spanned far beyond the guitar world and found huge commercial and popular appeal, with his blending of pop sensibilities with guitar hero chops proving to put the instrument on the radar of an all-new diverse audience.

Now, Mk.gee has further demonstrated the appeal of his guitar playing by picking up a credit on SWAG – the seventh album from pop megastar, Justin Bieber, which is absolutely oozing with a Two Star…-inspired style.

The album, which was surprise-released last week, also featured Mk.gee’s longtime collaborator Dijon, who handled most of the production work, and as such it’s probably not a shock to hear the creative direction of the record seems to be so heavily informed by the lo-fi dream pop pioneered by Mk.gee.

This observation is particularly applicable to DAISIES – the only track on the record that Mk.gee produced, and the song that boasts his unmistakable playing.

The slappy phrases, the squishy low-register tone, the harmonic strums, the aggressively dynamic fingerstyle technique… It’s a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on Two Star, nor would it have stuck out on its eventual followup.

But it didn’t end up on any of those things. It was released by quite possibly the biggest male pop star of his generation. If that doesn’t speak volumes of Mk.gee’s appeal, or highlight just how incredibly influential his fresh take on guitar playing and tone truly is, we’re not sure what does.

The pair had first teased their collaboration back in September last year, when Mk.Gee said of working with Bieber (via The New York Times), “Anything that comes out of his mouth: that’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”

In his praise of Mk.gee, Clapton had said, “Mk.gee kinda sits in a bit of a pop category for me. Right. But it's unique. And he has found things to do on the guitar that are like nobody else.

“My daughter turned me on [to Mk.gee] today, and I trust her taste. And not only that, we're [referring to the guitar scene and the music industry] safe. The same when I first saw Prince, it was like we're safe. Just to know it's there [artists like Mk.gee] is enough.”

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of June, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

This month, there's plenty to pick from, with new cuts courtesy of Muse, Rafiq Bhatia, Eric Gales & Buddy Guy, Wunderhorse, Haim, and many, many more.

Michael Astley-Brown, Editor-in-Chief

“Hello? Is this thing on?” You haven’t seen/read my musings lately (lucky you) as I’ve been off for two months raising my firstborn child. So I’m playing catchup somewhat. In fact, I’ve been mostly spinning the latest offerings from the Callous Daoboys and Maya Delilah, which are already riding high in my personal albums of the year list. But I’ve been digging into some hotter-off-the-press stuff, too.

First, there’s no way I’m going to write about new tracks and not mention Matt Bellamy donning an eight-string.

His experiments in the extended range have often yielded some of the strongest Muse material (Citizen Erased, Kill or Be Killed), and Unraveling is no exception. It definitely leans into the kind of djent-EDM bombast that Sleep Token have wielded so effectively, but there’s something endlessly gratifying about a relatively old rock dog learning new tricks – and convincingly pulling it off.

Donning my shark fin-toothed shred hat for a moment, I would like to call your attention to this month’s big-name collab between electric virtuoso Bernth, acoustic master Mike Dawes, and bass whiz Charles Berthoud.

A YouTube-friendly one minute and 50 seconds, the track finds all three delving into their respective trick bags. R.S.I. is an appropriate name for the single – presumably named after the injuries Bernth surely experienced after sweeping harder than the janitor at a tumbleweed and industrial cooling fan convention.

Also surely on the way to his physician is Marcos Mena, who has been deploying the kind of break-wrist thumping that should by all rights warp his band standards – which features ex-Covet drummer Forrest Rice – to the world’s biggest progressive stages. Buster is a more aggressive affair than the group’s typically fruit-obsessed output yet it’s more refreshing than a pineapple cooler on a hot Long Beach afternoon.

Speaking of Covet, Yvette Young has dropped her latest solo oeuvre, outta sight, outta mind, which takes her warbly guitar leanings into chill indie-rock territory. Think Bon Iver with a pedalboard full of Walrus Audio, and you’ve got a pretty good idea. But the other side of her algebraic guitar brain crops up in a collaboration with returning cult Irish math-rockers Adebisi Shank, who were early pioneers on the British instrumental scene that Young holds so dear. Pitch-shifters set to stun, it’s a riotous stomp through the most electronic of electric guitar tones.

Lastly, I’d like to take a second to acknowledge the brilliance of Wet Leg’s new single davina mccall. Named after the UK TV presenting institution, it's a masterclass in making the most out of the smallest number of notes.

The main hook is simply bending one fret over a wistful chord progression. But my god, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers have an uncanny ability to turn the humblest of ideas into a heart-wrenching ballad that’s as addictive as it is melancholy.

Matt Parker, Deputy Editor

We’ve had a few months of covering for our fearless leader, Mike, who’s been off on paternity leave, learning to like dad rock. As a result, we’ve all been pedaling harder and I’ve been after listening that places me in a zen garden – and insulates me from the raging trashfire of my own creation that’s been burning around me.

The return of Rafiq Bhatia has been a lovely bonus on that front, then. A singular guitarist, I’ve been keeping tabs on Bhatia since he joined forces with the mighty Son Lux (experimental composer Ryan Lott).

The first track of his new solo record Environments (due September) is dubbed Aviary I | Sunrise and offers a sort of musical mise-en-scene packed with all sorts of (positively) bird-brained soundscapery, with Bhatia’s playing taking a swelling backseat. You can practically feel the sun – and the feathers – on your face.

From one fantasy to another, I’ve also been lured into the considerably more Dungeons and Dragons – but, I suppose, no more ludicrous – realm of Brooklyn’s Castle Rat.

Perhaps it’s the upcoming Sabbath farewell, but I’m finding WIZARD an irresistible blend of stoner-y riffs, galloping drums, and harmony guitar lines. It’s like the band that should have existed somewhere in middle of the triumvirate of Tony Iommi, Iron Maiden, and Spinal Tap’s Stonehenge, and exactly as enjoyable as that sounds.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

Earlier this month, I finally got around to seeing the Ryan Coogler horror blockbuster, Sinners. Set in the Mississippi Delta in the early '30s, it features cameos from two of the guitarists I'll be talking about here. Oh, and it absolutely rocks – go see it, even if horror's not normally your bag.

On the most consistent rotation for me this month was What You Want is Gone, the gargantuan new single from NYC indie perennials We Are Scientists.

The duo made their name with twisty, nervy, snarky, and hooky rock of a strain that fit in perfectly with the era (mid-2000s) and wormed their way into my own head with After Hours, a twinkling, cinematic guitar-pop gem that filled 13-year-old me with idyllic visions of the magic of the city.

What You Want is Gone is neither of those things. Ok, there’s a bit of the twinkly DNA – but wait for the chorus. Guitarist/vocalist Keith Murray’s tone is huge, and later on he rips a solo that rounds itself out with some guitar face-inducing bends.

It came out but three days ago, but I’ve also been enamored with Somebody, which sees two blues guitar legends – Eric Gales and Buddy Guy – join forces. The proceedings are joyful, but also poignant – it’s the first single from A Tribute to LJK, Gales' forthcoming, full-length tribute to his late brother, blues guitarist Little Jimmy King.

Gales is just on another planet – there’s no need to describe it any other way. His climactic solo evokes Hendrix at his finest – a total mastery of blues forms with flash, originality, and pure fire.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of the best blues guitarists in the whole wide world – Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram has also made a welcome return. Pick your highlight on his fierce solo on Voodoo Charm, there’s the lyricism, the jaw-loosening vibrato, or the wah-colored flourishes – it’s all a spectacular show.

Also worth a shout this month is the Dropkick Murphys' terrific punk scorcher, Who'll Stand With Us? Unabashedly political, it, with bulls-eye skill, tackles trickle-down economics and authoritarianism. Otherwise, on the most different of notes but equally worth a highlight, is What Are You So Afraid Of?, a sublime acoustic fingerpicking showcase from singer/songwriter Kaleah Lee.

Matt Owen – News Editor

A day will come when I stop writing about Wunderhorse (it will probably come after I’ve been forcibly dragged kicking and screaming from my laptop) but today is most definitely not that day – and, after the band proved once again that they’re one the finest live acts in action today with a sensational set at Glastonbury 2025, my affection (read: obsession) for Wunderhorse has hit new heights.

Thankfully, The Rope lends me the perfect opportunity to sing their praises once again. For those listeners like me who preferred Wunderhorse’s second album to their debut, The Rope is good news, with a Midas swagger that leans into what makes the band so god damn infectious: raw, untethered energy that threatens to spill over into all-out mayhem, reigned in only by the commanding rhythm work and lead lines executed by Jacob Slater and Harry Fowler.

Away from Glastonbury, John Mayer’s mystery rock guitar rig – which, when teased earlier this year, was believed to be a hint towards a heavier new album – was explained after Ed Sheeran announced he’d tapped Mayer and Dave Grohl for Drive.

Featuring on the new F1 film starring Brad Pitt, it’s a riff-y belter that required the construction of a custom PRS baritone guitar. Alas, there is no solo – from Sheeran or Mayer, for that matter.

Speaking of Mayer, one of his new favorite players, Justus West, took time out from his busy session schedule recording and performing for other acts to release a solo single of his own.

While it doesn’t flex the jazz fusion chops he’s most well-known for, it does showcase his robust grasp of expansive sound design, which, as expected, carries the guitar at its heart. That’s now three singles in the space of six months – surely an album is next?

Honorable June mentions must also go to Mac DeMarco, whose distinct brand of warbly and whimsical guitar musings returned with Home, and Jack Gardiner, who’s leaving the Giacomo Turra saga in the past with Shibuya Meltdown – another virtuosic instrumental track that sees Gardiner rip through more notes in the opening five seconds than I could probably play in about five minutes.

For a reference piece on how to combine expansive technique with elite phrasing that makes every note count, look no further.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Surviving a heatwave is easier when you've got a barrage of great tracks gracing your ears – and while I've been soundtracking my days with Ernest Ranglin, Joe Arroyo, and, to mix things up a little bit, math-rock legends toe, here are some sizzling (pun intended) new tracks that have compelled me enough to share with you.

Following their 2024 debut, Night-bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day, Whitelands deliver shoegaze perfection with Heat of the Summer.

Reverb-soaked guitar riffs (just how we like them) accompany the lyrics, which, despite the melody’s unmistakable dream-pop sheen, have a political edge that, according to guitarist and singer Etienne Quartey-Papafio, details “a community of people coming together to overthrow a tyrant.”

Summer melancholy comes courtesy of Cyprus-based Della, who delivers pure emotion on her EP, 13, which feels wise beyond her years. Della's jazz-blues-meets-dark-pop-tinged vocals are accompanied by Wicked Game–esque guitars that perfectly capture a sense of impending doom.

Speaking of jazz, the next one comes by way of producer to the stars Mark Ronson and the vocal (and songwriting) powerhouse that is Raye.

Many may compare it to Ronson's timeless collaboration with the late Amy Winehouse – we’re referring to Valerie, of course – but Suzanne is its own beast. Part nostalgia and part contemporary, it's two artists doing what they do best – and the result has me hoping (praying, begging) for a full album from these two.

Rounding out this month's picks is Haim's Gone. I've been an unapologetic fan of “rock's most affable sisters” since their initial releases, and their latest album, I Quit, shows them going from strength to strength.

Gone – which is also the first track on their record – is not only a great entrée to the musical feast that is I Quit, but sets the tone of pure liberation through guitars galore – and, perhaps surprisingly, a cheeky sample of George Michael's Freedom! ’90... now that's a way to start a post-breakup album.

Streaming services are practically part of the furniture now. They’re the epitome of aural-media convenience, serving us access to an unfathomable volume of ‘stuff’ – from music to podcasts to whale noises if that happens to be your thing. Amazon Music is one of the top-dog platforms for such convenience, and as of today, they’re dropping the barrier to entry for new subscribers with a three-month free subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited – or 4 months for existing Prime members.

Now, it's worth noting that the service will auto-renew after the free months are up, and will cost you $11.99 a month ($10.99 for Prime members) until cancelled. This offer is for new subscribers only, and you can only listen to one audiobook each month.

As a guitarist making music in the most physical of ways, it’s impossible to deny the merits of physical media – but, beautiful as it is to sit down and listen to a vinyl record, it’s hard to imagine life without the incredible convenience of the streaming subscription. There are a handful of services that have come to define the streaming era, Spotify chief among them, but Amazon’s own answer to streaming has some HD tricks up its sleeve.

Amazon Music has a free tier with ad-stippled listening at standard definition; the Unlimited subscription naturally blows it away, but also tops a number of other industry-leading platforms with its approach to fidelity. Subscribing to Amazon Music Unlimited ups the fidelity to CD-quality lossless playback, which already trumps the average fidelity of other subscription-service streaming platforms; it also offers millions of tracks at ‘Ultra HD’ fidelity, meaning up to 24-bit/192kHz audio.

There’s also a healthy showing for spatial audio in Amazon Music Unlimited, with thousands of songs available in 360 Reality Audio or Dolby Atmos. If you’ve spatial audio headphones or a network of connected smart speakers in your home, you get to experience 3D audio at its best.

Music isn’t the only benefit to an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, either. You also get unfettered access to a veritable smorgasbord of podcasts and radio shows, including some incredible Amazon-exclusive content from the likes of Rolling Stone and the BBC.

Looking for more Amazon-related bargains? Well, you're in luck. Amazon Prime Day takes place from the 8th to the 11th of July, and we'll be covering the very best Prime Day guitar deals all in one place, so be sure to bookmark our hub page to ensure you don't miss out.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of May, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

This month, there's plenty to pick from, with new cuts courtesy of Isaiah Stone, Suede, Matt Schofield, Wolf Alice, Calva Louise, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and many more...

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

Cherry-picking just a few highlights of my enormous “favorite tracks of the month” playlist is always a challenge, and this month was no different. These tunes are all over the map, and you won’t find them burning up the charts, admittedly; but one thing they all have in common is that the guitar-work featured within is brilliantly song-serving.

“Genre-blending” is a term that gets thrown around a lot. Indeed, do we live in a post-genre world? However you feel about that question, newcomer guitarist Isaiah Stone is creating music that puts a buffet of disparate influences together in a way that I genuinely haven’t come across before.

Vocally, he delivers his new song, Soul Exchange, with an infectious, Michael Jackson-esque confidence and tuneful sensibility. Equally confident is its earworm riff, which engages in a hook-filled call-and-response with Stone’s vocals, and its big-time solo, which bridges blues, funk, and Eddie Van Halen with showful flair. Keep an eye on him…

On a very different note, I’ve followed U.S. Girls – the project of singer/songwriter Meghan Remy – since her stellar 2018 album, In a Poem Unlimited. What’s her music like? Well… It’s one of those “easier to just listen to than describe” deals. Earlier this month, Remy truly outdid herself with the release of Bookends, an astonishing 12-minute opus that truly defies categorization.

The first half of the song’s easy gait is soulful and eerie at the same time, with multiple harmonica solos bringing some lonesome, desert-swept country into the picture. But we’re not here to talk about harmonica solos, are we?

Just shy of eight minutes in, the epic suddenly kicks into gear on the back of a slinky guitar solo and the funkiest rhythm work this side of Nile Rodgers. Do those few sentences make sense when put together? No? Just give it a spin. Trust me, it’s a hell of a trip.

Also on rotation for me was Disintegrate, a swaggering rocker from Suede – the long-running glam specialists who, 35 years into their career, continue to produce incredibly strong records that brilliantly balance the maturity that comes with all those years and the rebellious vigor that made them icons three decades ago. Any fan of Geordie Walker or Billy Duffy will find themselves won over in seconds by the imperious, gothic riff that kicks the song off with authority.

Additional plaudits must be given to Hayden Pedigo's brilliant fingerpicking on the sublime I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away, Winter’s summer-ready shoegaze gem, Just Like a Flower, and the World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die’s monumental political scorcher, Beware the Centrist.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Did I ever imagine I’d be writing about a Robbie Williams single for one of Guitar World’s monthly editors' picks round-ups? No, no I did not – yet here we are. Funny old world, isn’t it?

To not include the new single from Williams – who, for US audiences, is probably most known as ‘the guy whose biopic starred a CGI monkey’ – would be something of an oversight, owing to the fact it features none other than Tony Iommi on guitar. It’s perhaps the most surprising guest spot the Black Sabbath legend has ever turned up for, but we can’t help but love it.

Williams’ rock-tinged turn is carried by Iommi, whose hell-for-leather riffage in Rocket seems to be in immensely fine form. Good news for that long overdue solo album that’s been in the works for the past few years, it seems…

For a slightly less surprising inclusion, Matt Schofield – a player who was so informative and influential for this writer growing up as a blues fanatic – finally returned with a new record, 16 whole years after his last one.

Fortunately, Many Moons looks to be the first chapter in a new era for the revered British bluesman (it’s been dubbed a “Vol. 1 effort”), who, quite simply, possesses some of the finest, most tasteful and sophisticated chops of any blues player currently active.

Schofield truly has a definitive sound that stands out on its own – see new tracks Do Me Right and Measure Of A Man for example – and the 16-year studio hiatus has done nothing to dampen his skills. In fact, he seems to be playing better than ever (and that’s no surprise, considering he’s also been one of the hardest-gigging guitar players of the past decade).

For something a little less blues-y, The Beaches – a band whose 2024 LP I nominated to be last year’s record of the year – are venturing into “a new era” of their own (their own words), and have continued the lead-up to their new album with yet another chorus-drenched indie rock romp, Did I Say Too Much.

My month’s playlist has also been populated by Wolf Alice, who also made a comeback with Bloom Baby Bloom; Tom Misch, whose new album can’t arrive soon enough following the release of Red Moon; and Sleep Token – the hottest name in metal right now, who dropped their highly anticipated record, Even In Arcadia. Don’t ask me to pick out a highlight, there’s no point in trying. Just absorb the whole thing, and thank me later.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

I must admit, I've been on a Steely Dan kick this month thanks to an eight-hour-plus road trip... but I did find time to unearth some new gems.

My first pick comes by way of Australian psych-rockers (no prizes for guessing correctly) Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. It's from the excellent Carpe Diem, Moonman – an explosion of experimentation, chaos, and intergalactic sounds. Qwik Maff is a masterclass in guitar work – kicking off with (as the name suggests) a very quick guitar part that immediately draws you in, with strokes of math rock that make for a truly enthralling listen.

Rounding out this month's picks is the ever-imaginative Calva Louise with Impeccable. The track is anything but boring – flitting between English and Spanish lyrics and blending a multitude of genres, with some “impeccable” guitar work by way of Jess Allanic, all in 4:42.

And oh, it also follows the story of a young man called Jonnie, who's been fatally poisoned and has to act “impeccably” to survive – and that's not all. He has to follow his double into another world (the Fractalworld), or death will strike him. The sci-fi theme extends to the music video – which continues building on the fantastical world the trio have successfully managed to conjure.

John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, and Dave Grohl have formed an unlikely power trio for a song that will be featured in Brad Pitt's forthcoming racing film, F1.

A clip of the track, due for release in cinemas on June 27, has been shared on Sheeran’s Instagram and confirms the surprising lineup of musicians, with Grohl behind the kit, and Sheeran and Mayer (presumably) sharing six-string duties.

Going off the tease, it represents something of a departure from Sheeran’s typical acoustic guitar sonic direction, with a thick, fizzing guitar riff – the safe bet is it's from Mayer's hands – giving it a suitable 'driving song' quality.

“Sneak peek of the song I did for the F1 movie,” Sheeran’s post reads. “Mayer on guitar, Grohl on drums. A lot of fun making this, coming out next month with the movie x.”

Grohl holds a sturdy beat down, and there are flashes of Sheeran’s chart-smashing melodic sensibilities with the vocals, despite the edge that Mayer’s riffwork provides.

It feels like they’ve gone for the kind of ‘top down, foot to the floor’ style of song that racing games have been full of over the years, and with EA Sports involved in the film, it’s easy to see why.

It isn’t, however, the first time the two guitarists have linked up. In 2023, Mayer joined Sheeran on stage for a more virtuosic version of Thinking Out Loud.

Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem are among the cast for the movie. Filming took place during several prolific racing events and at some of the world's most famous tracks, including Monza in Italy, Silverstone in the UK, and the Las Vegas Strip circuit. Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is also listed as one of the film’s producers.

Hans Zimmer has been revealed as the film's composer. An accompanying LP, F1 the Album, will be released at the same time. Drive features on it, alongside songs from Doja Cat, Chris Stapleton, and Dutch DJ Tiësto.

It adds to an already eventful year for both guitarists. After having a street performance shut down by the police, Sheeran then gave a loop pedal masterclass to Jimmy Fallon.

Sheeran’s solo catalog is expected to be injected with a serious dose of heavy soon, too, with his surprise collaboration with Cradle of Filth expected this calendar year.

Mayer, meanwhile, has just wrapped his second Dead & Company residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, a run of dates that came after breaking several fingers forced him to reapproach his playing. He’s also been spotted playing a digital amp modeler at Coachella – in this case, a Neural DSP Quad Cortex – and has hinted that Dead & Company might record new music together.

Stone Temple Pilots’ Dean DeLeo has lifted the curtain on One More Satellite – a brand-new collaborative project, which will be dropping its debut self-titled record via Symphonic later this summer.

For One More Satellite, the electric guitar maestro has called upon a host of special guests, from old bandmates to new collaborators, all of whom will feature sporadically across the upcoming record’s 10-song tracklist.

To mark the announcement of One More Satellite, DeLeo has shared the group’s debut single, Paper Over The Cracks, which has been premiered via Guitar World below.

A grunge-tinged, five-minute introduction to the One More Satellite sonic universe, it submits an early entry for 2025’s best guitar riff conversation. Indeed, Paper Over The Cracks pivots between bruising hooks, sultry slides, cascading interludes, twangy progressions, and a piercing solo – delivering a genre-melding tour of DeLeo’s guitar skills, in the process.

As DeLeo explains, One More Satellite was first conceived as an instrumental album, and as a means through which he could share with the world some of the unrecorded and unreleased material he’d been sitting on.

However, the creative direction of the project would later shift towards something different altogether, when UK vocalist Pete Shoulder was brought onboard as an early Transatlantic collaborator.

“I was simply sitting on some songs I wanted to record,” says DeLeo. “What started out as an instrumental album, quickly changed soon after Pete and I chatted. He was going to sing on a song or two, then wound up singing on eight of the 10 on the record.”

Of his own contributions to One More Satellite’s sprawling first offering, Shoulder adds, “I was excited to hear the new music Dean wanted to collaborate on. We’ve worked together in the past and it’s always been an absolute pleasure making music with him.

“The stuff he comes up with is so interesting, with so many beautiful, unexpected, twists and turns. It’s very inspiring to write to and pushes me into realms that I would never usually think of exploring. I’m very proud of the album we’ve made.”

Shoulder is but one of a number of guest musicians who linked up with DeLeo to record the album. Elsewhere, Stone Temple Pilots’ Eric Kretz was recruited to drum on Serenade, while DeLeo’s son, Rocco, manned the stool for Drowning Out The Sun, Willow Mae and Spit It Out.

Billy Idol, Whitesnake and former Ozzy Osbourne drummer Brian Tichy was behind the kit for most of the other tracks, while Dean’s daughter, June, gets in on the action with a vocal cameo.

A full tracklist for One More Satellite – which arrives via Symphonic on July 18 – can be found below.

Keep an eye out for Guitar World's full conversation with DeLeo in the coming weeks.

One More Satellite track list

1. Paper Over The Cracks
2. Vultures
3. Long Way Down
4. Drowning Out The Sun
5. Serenade
6. Can Of Worms
7. Willow Mae
8. Spit It Out
9. Pull Back The Veil
10. Your Call

• One More Satellite is available to preorder now.

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since electric guitar titans Joe Satriani and Steve Vai dropped The Sea of Emotion, their first ever collaborative song.

Now, though, we finally have its follow-up. Titled I Wanna Play My Guitar, it's an ode to the titular instrument that traverses many eras of rock guitar – particularly the '70s, a formative decade for both players.

Adding to the '70s flavor is an epic vocal turn by Glenn Hughes, who made his name on bass and pipes with Deep Purple during the middle part of that decade.

Now, don't run to your streaming platform of choice just yet. I Wanna Play My Guitar can only be spun here for the time being (or on our sister website, Guitar Player).

You can check it out – in all its funky, swaggering, dual-guitar acrobatic glory – below. It's a fun ride!

I Wanna Play My Guitar has quite the backstory, which Satriani kindly keyed us in on.

“When I started writing this song I had no idea how important the contributions from Glenn and Steve would be,” he shared. “What they brought to the track made it all happen.”

Originally, the song was meant to not only be a dual guitar showcase of sorts, but a dual vocal one as well.

“My original idea was to have Glenn Hughes and Justin Hawkins do the vocals together,” Satriani said.

“I got this crazy idea on the Monsters of Rock Cruise where Glenn and Justin were both performing. Unfortunately, when I got back from the cruise I tested positive for COVID and I entered into a 10 day fog, forgetting if I had sent the invitations to collaborate.

“When I finally recovered, I heard back from Justin's people that The Darkness were going to be releasing a record at the same time and he wouldn’t be able to contribute to the song, so, I sent a rough demo to Glenn and he was into it. I pray no one ever hears that demo of me singing into my iPhone!”

According to Vai, the song is meant to take listeners all the way back to the guitarists' early days – before the sold-out crowds, platinum records, and magazine covers.

“This song depicts all that Joe and I used to think about as teenagers. All of the things we loved about pounding rock ‘n’ roll and the glorious guitar,” he explained. “It is phenomenal for us to be able to present to you now our teenage aspirations in this song.

“I remember those days and how absolutely exciting it was to play the guitar. Our whole world revolved around it as if it was a mysterious monolith, as it is, and I know that there are teenagers right now that are feeling the same thing about this sacred instrument when they play it.

“It feels like freedom and joy and I recommend everybody find some time in their life to play the guitar – enjoy!”

Rounded out by Pete Thorn on rhythm guitar, Marco Mendoza on bass, and Kenny Aronoff on drums, the SatchVai Band will hit the road for the first time starting next month.

For tickets and a full list of tour dates, visit SatchVaiBand.com.

When it comes to reimagining popular rock and heavy metal tracks for solo guitar, there is arguably no one in the game who can rival Mike Dawes – the British acoustic guitar virtuoso whose body of work already boasts covers of Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix and more.

For his latest release, Dawes has turned his attention to contemporary alt/prog metal heroes Sleep Token, and transformed the cinematic metal ballad of Euclid into a one-guitar-only masterclass.

For the uninitiated, Euclid isn’t strictly a guitar track. Sure, there are some hair-raising riffs and awe-inspiring progressions dusted throughout the run time, but the track – lifted from 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden – relies heavily on its operatic piano motif.

As such, Dawes – who first covered Euclid live on stage – has to tackle all the above. In true Dawes form, though, he doesn’t stop there: his fingerpicking and fretting hands are also tasked with managing the vocal melodies, and the drum lines, which are gorgeously recreated through pin-point body hits, rolling finger slaps and harmonic tapping lines.

It’s not a cover recommended for the faint of heart, but for Dawes himself, it didn’t prove too tricky to arrange. In fact, it was the easiest he’s worked on.

“This was the least challenging arrangement I've done,” he tells Guitar World when asked about the challenges Euclid posed. “I was playing around in the tuning, CGDGAD (I call it Step-DADGAD) and the melodies and chords really fell into place and inspired the arrangement quite naturally.

“That being said, trying to replicate ii's complex drum patterns was a bit of a nightmare. The outro was also quite tough as the melody had to dance around the mid range whilst the harmonics weaved around it. Physically, that part sucks to play.”

That’s not to say Euclid didn’t force Dawes to think outside the box, though. Indeed, those drum parts proved to be particularly problematic, and required special attention – especially against the backdrop of everything else that’s going on in the arrangement.

“Honestly, getting the drum inflections and patterns close required some right hand training,” Dawes continues. “It was like learning a new groove, I'm talking about the‘The Night Belongs to You’ part near the end where it gets big. That was like a tongue twister for my hands.

“I will add that the other hardest part was probably preventing the harmonics behind the fretted notes from ringing out in those really delicate parts. Condenser mics really pick that stuff up.”

Difficulties aside, it is a rather timely cover: over the past few years, Sleep Token – whose members are anonymous – have become one of the biggest contemporary bands in the alt and prog metal world. For guitarists especially, the band’s tone has been the focus of many tone-chasers.

“I think that any band regardless of genre that reaches a huge audience will have a generational impact playing real instruments like the guitar,” Dawes says of the band’s influence.

“Sleep Token in particular, given their anonymous presence, have inspired so many more people because their music is so raw and relatable, like an exposed nerve.

“Their songs seem to reach out and grab you emotionally in a way that is aided by a tangible analogue instrument – similarly to how the acoustic guitar is often associated with emotive raw music and themes. I think this is why the guitar arrangement works.”

For the cover, Dawes rigged his acoustic up to a Boss OC3 Octave and Neural DSP Quad Cortex. The acoustic virtuoso recently sat down with Guitarist to explore his set-up in more detail.

Mike Dawes will be on the road for a North American tour later this year. A full list of dates can be found below. For more, head over to Mike Dawes’ website.

1. July 24 Seattle, WA The Triple Door
2. July 25 Portland, OR McMenamins Mission Theater
3. July 26 Eugene, OR The WOW Hall
4. July 27 Bend, OR Tower Theatre Bend
5. July 29 Mill Valley, CA Sweetwater Music Hall
6. July 30 Venice, CA The Venice West
7. July 31 Fontana, CA Stage Red Fontana
8. August 1 Seal Beach, CA The Bay Theatre
9. August 2 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole
10. August 3 Phoenix, AZ Musical Instrument Museum
11. August 7 Las Vegas, NV John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of April, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

This month, there's plenty to pick from, with new cuts courtesy of Joanne Shaw Taylor, Mike Dawes, Turnstile and many, many more...

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

While not quite the length of The Brutalist, as it was last month, my personal playlist of new guitar-driven music this month was still quite formidable, and as all over the map stylistically as ever.

First, I’m giving myself away as a proud native of the fine state of New Jersey, but one of the most exciting announcements (of any kind) in April for me was that of Tracks II, a massive new box set of outtakes and lost songs – grouped thematically into seven (!!) albums – from the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Ok, so you’re clearly a nerd, you might be thinking. Why should I care? Well, give the first single from the set, Rain in the River, a listen.

Designed for the arena and stadium, the song makes up for what it lacks in development in pure steely determination.

It’s hard to get caught up in how skeletal the lyrics are when Max Weinberg is pounding away and Springsteen, Nils Lofgren, and Stevie Van Zandt are creating a tangled web of feedback, riffing, and six-string atmosphere. Which one of them plays that triumphant solo that so brilliantly echoes the hook? Probably Bruce, but who cares!

On the bluesier side of things is Bye Bye Blues, an infectious, swinging new single from guitar great Larry McCray. Its funky opening riff absolutely can’t be denied, but the real treat comes during the song’s final chorus, when McCray stings a single note repeatedly, for all its worth. You want to know what they mean when they say ‘do more with fewer notes’? You won’t go wrong with that example.

Joanne Shaw Taylor’s magnificent run, meanwhile, continues unabated with Look What I’ve Become, a funky but elegantly executed rocker with a distinct late-period Beatles (think While My Guitar Gently Weeps) flavor. The song’s climactic, aching solo is really the cherry on top – one of the best I’ve heard all year.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain, and so I have become one by throwing “song of the summer” declarations around, but I can’t help but award that banner to Far Caspian’s First Day, a feast of interlocking guitar beauty. I’d also like to shout out Jahnah Camille’s sit with you (pain), which will have shoegaze fans seated, and Hayden Pedigo’s work of instrumental guitar brilliance, Long Pond Lily.

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

First up this month, I have been enjoying the somewhat-against-the-odds return of Dinosaur Pile-Up. Songwriter Matt Bigland has always had hooks for days and no problem backing them up with massive post-grunge rock riffs.

However, I didn’t have him down to pull-off a rap-rock number called My Way, in which he simultaneously explains why he’s done listening to industry advice, breaks down all the reasons why it’s impossible to be successful as a band – and then somehow whips it into shape as one of their most appealing earworms to date.

Yelling “Kiss this motherfuckers” before ripping a shred solo on a Flying V is quite the flex in the year 2025. It’s a little childish and stupid, but then so is high school the music industry – and this sort of nonsense absolutely gets me through the day.

On the subject of bands that refuse to stay in their corner, Turnstile’s latest – the first taste of their new album NEVER ENOUGH – completes their transformation from hardcore caterpillar to psychedelic New Wave butterfly.

There’s a full minute in which you’d have serious trouble recognizing this as the same band popping blood cells on 2018’s Time And Space, but that core DNA and ability to make monstrous riffage sound somehow airy and uplifting is all there. Its euphoric centerpiece is a whammy-laden guitar solo (possibly intertwined with some synth bending). Imagine writing that about a hardcore band even 10 years ago…

It’s a sign of how far not just Turnstile has come, but the whole new hardcore movement that has broken out through the hole they left in the prison fence…

Finally, for my tech heads, I’m picking the second single from Lari Basilio’s forthcoming album, Redemption – The Way Home. So many virtuoso types have a cut-glass touch, but Basilio does it with character. My favorite moments here are not the lightning runs, but the muted rhythmic work and verse section licks, which bring to mind the melodic phrasing of ’80s Steve Lukather. And that is far harder to pull off.

Matt Owen – News Editor

Okay, I’m cheating a little bit. Technically, Slimdan’s Problem Solver came out a while back, but the alt/indie songwriter recently re-released a version with Medium Build (whose own music dominated my playlists last month) and so I feel compelled – nay, duty bound – to include it here.

It’s got a ridiculously irresistible acoustic hook littered with some neat double-stop slides and edge-y bends, and when the banjos, backing guitars, and fuzz-y, bit-crushed electrics get poured into the mix, it makes for a very well-seasoned sonic soup of indie rock goodness.

Slow Joy’s Wound – another home run from the fast-rising emo rockers, which flits between twangy Strat hooks and visceral drop-tuned riffs – had a similar stronghold on my eardrums this month.

My ears were also at the mercy of The Crux, the latest studio record from Djo (AKA Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame), who put out his most accomplished body of musical work to date earlier this month.

Basic Being Basic and Delete Ya are particular highlights, but it’s Poison – a fingerstyle-driven piece that eerily evokes Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac – that will most appeal to broader guitar fans. Try getting that progression under your fingers.

Joe Bonamassa and Mike Dawes have also provided plenty of food for thought for me this month.

JoBo’s Breakthrough is yet another timely reminder of how important it is to keep your phrasing fresh – something that’s easier said than done – while Dawes’ mind-blowing cover of Sleep Token’s Euclid is an insight into how effective and inspirational it can be to take an unorthodox approach to different genres. Alternative metal reimagined for solo acoustic? The results are quite mesmerizing.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

In a month where my playlist was shaped by Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii and a heavy dose of post-rock (courtesy of my band supporting And So I Watch You From Afar and Maybe She Will), I still found time to go down internet rabbit holes in search of fresh new music. Here's what that search led me to this month…

First off, Yukimi from Little Dragon's album For You – a beautiful example of how production can support songwriting (not the other way around). Elinam, my track of choice, has R&B and neo-soul flavors that strike a perfect balance of soothing melancholia. The guitar and bass parts move in tandem with Yukimi's lullaby-esque melody – never overshadowing the vocals, but still very much holding their own in this intimate track.

Speaking of neo-soul influences, I recently discovered Toshiki Soejima's work thanks to an article I was writing about Eric Clapton naming him as one of his favorite contemporary Japanese players.

Lo and behold, I did a deep dive into Soejima, and I must say, his music has accompanied many a writing session over the past month. Persona – his latest track alongside Casablanca beatmaker and guitarist Saib, and Parisian jazz pianist Bastien Brison – is a pleasant interplay between guitar, beats, and keys, leveraging each collaborator’s strengths. Best of all, it features very tasteful use of wah, which adds an extra oomph to an otherwise laid-back track.

Salif Keita – the Malian singer-songwriter often referred to as the Golden Voice of Africa – delivers pure emotion and acoustic guitar brilliance in Aboubakrin, from his latest album, So Kono.

“Even in a crowd, if I don’t have a guitar, I feel alone,” Keita confesses – and his hypnotic playing is a testament to this ethos. He’s undoubtedly an intriguing artist: as an albino descendant of Emperor Sundiata Keita, he defied social norms by daring to sing, which led to his rejection by his family, leaving his village, and eventually living off his voice and a makeshift guitar. The album is the culmination of all these experiences and epitomizes a master at work.

My final pick, Je t’Aime, also comes by way of Mali – from Lamomali, the French-Malian group that includes several guitarists, most notably the French multi-instrumentalist -M-, Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, and, specifically on this track, the late Amadou Bagayoko – the renowned guitarist from Amadou & Mariam, who passed away earlier this month.

It’s a beautiful encapsulation of how contrasting cultures and musical backgrounds can lead to true artistic innovation…and some pretty tasty guitar parts and basslines.

Hello there, and a very warm welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of March, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief, GuitarWorld.com

The six-string disruptors are out in force this month, and they don’t care what you think. Machine Gun Kelly – who Tim Henson hailed earlier this year for making guitar cool again – has returned with his divisive Schecter Razorblade signature for your name forever, which fuses his rap and punk-rock personas. The end result sounds like vintage-era Linkin Park – and he even tapped up a surprisingly restrained Synyster Gates for the solo, too.

But it’s YUNGBLUD who has upped the ante with Hello Heaven, Hello – a nine-minute, hard-rocking, orchestra-embellished track that the word ‘epic’ doesn’t quite do justice to. It’s like the Black Parade for Generation Z, with hints of Aerosmith and Queen thrown in for good measure, and co-guitarist Adam Warrington ripping his best Page-isms. If any song can unite all generations of rock guitar fans, this is it.

Meanwhile, on the heavier side of the mainstream, Sleep Token are readying fourth album Even In Arcadia, and its debut single, Emergence, continues the astonishing form that saw the masked metallers becoming unlikely TikTok heartthrobs.

It’s an agonizing 2:40 wait before the eight-strings land their sucker punches, but when that outro riff transfers the vocal line to high-gain guitars… Hoo boy. Only Bloodywood can compete in the genre mashup stakes, with Kismat perhaps the most effective example yet of their Indian folk-meets-metalcore savagery.

Pierre Danel of France’s Novelists, on the other hand, is pioneering his own fusion by bringing, erm, fusion into anthemic metal. His leads in Say My Name are a tour de force of technique, taste, and tone, bringing a fluidity rarely heard in the genre. It is, dare I say it, one of 2025’s best solos so far.

Although he’d face tough competition from Steven Wilson’s partner-in-crime Randy McStine, who draws on from a broad palette of evocative textures to conjure futuristic prog solos that go far beyond Gilmour. I’ve had to stick Objects Outlive Us at the end of the playlist owing to its 23-minute duration, but it’s some of the most inspiring, transcendent guitar playing I’ve heard in ages.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

How’s this month been for new music, you ask? Well, after all was said and done, my playlist of personal picks clocked in at over three hours. And as was the case in January and February, the highlights came from players pushing the boundaries of the instrument from every conceivable direction (though you’ll catch a bit of a slant in my write-ups, sorry). These were a few of my favorites…

Slapping one of the usual “alt” or ”indie” labels on Pittsburgh quartet feeble little horse has long felt unfair – they're one of those bands that's best approached without an angle.

Take their new single, This is Real. Loud/quiet/loud isn't necessarily a new equation, but the way the twistily catchy verses are followed by a fuzz-forward (that's not really doing justice to how diabolical the tones are) explosion in the song's chorus literally stopped me in my tracks – and I didn't even have my volume up that high.

Oh, and speaking of fuzz fury, 777, the new single from illuminati hotties (the project of Sarah Tudzin) has not one, but two, killer sing-along solos – the kind that’ll remind you why you picked the instrument up in the first place.

On a rather different note is Samantha Fish’s I’m Done Runnin’, which manages, as she always does, to avoid tried-and-true blues cliches. Nodding to her forebears while delivering a chorus in particular that sounds right at home in 2025, Fish caps things off with a solo that snakes brilliantly around the progression. It takes a confident player to play something that smooth and not foreground it in all-caps – and it speaks to Fish’s songwriting ability that she doesn’t.

Additionally, I’d love to shout out Superheaven’s Stare at the Void (I blabbered on about them for five paragraphs or so last month) and Orchid Mantis’s (speaking of artists who I literally never shut up about) beautifully ethereal new single, Spirit Circle.

Matt Parker – Features Editor

This month I’ve been thinking a lot about how, as guitarists, our first response to most musical questions is ‘guitar!’ We’re fortunate, as guitar players, to have an instrument that can cover most bases, but our default is so often to leave it lumbering along eating-up mix space with chunky chord sequences.

Two tracks from the indie sphere have therefore caught my ear for the way they use the guitar, or sometimes don’t. Broncho’s I Swear – the latest from the Oklahoman mumble rock lynchpins – envelopes you in breathy synth-like textures, but does so with a super-low-mixed, watercolor wash of acoustic that drifts over that thick-as-a-brick bass, then intersperses with short bursts of Marr-like electric.

Seattle, WA indie sleeper cells Great Grandpa have also spent a lot more time thinking about this than your average van-dwellers. Recent single Never Rest – from new album Patience, Moonbeam – is a great showcase.

Like many of their songs, it started life on Pat Goodwin’s acoustic, but in the studio they break out lines, sometimes string by string, and give them new homes on other instruments, whether it be piano, bass, strings, electric guitar, or weird synth pedals. It’s a great reminder that just because a song starts its life on acoustic, it doesn’t have to end it there.

In the metalcore world, Atlanta, GA’s The Callous Daoboys certainly have no problem gobbling up the mix with gigantic guitar lines, but their double-drop new singles Two–Headed Trout and The Demon of Unreality Limping Like A Dog, seem to pull on threads of Latin percussion and folk fiddle, synth swagger and just about anything else that Spotify has thrown across the decks at 4 am on a wet Thursday.

All of which means that when the bludgeoning riffs come melting through the speaker grille, amid the dog barks and bit-crushers, I am truly here for it…

Matt Owen – Senior Staff Writer

Since the start of 2025, my playlist has largely been dominated by three artists: Medium Build, Divorce, and Rachel Chinouriri. To see all three release new material in March, therefore, is something of a miracle, and has made the past four weeks feel like something of a lottery win.

Divorce’s new album, Drive to Goldenhammer, is a masterclass of rootsy indie rock and I can’t get enough of it. The sludgy, beefy, slide-loaded tones of Jet Show serve as a particular highlight, more so for the fact I’m in a bit of a slide guitar rabbit hole right now because of my playing commitments.

Chinouriri, meanwhile, demonstrated once again that 2025 will indeed be her year, serving up Can We Talk About Isaac? as a bruising, riff-driven chaser to follow her collaboration with sombr last month.

Conversely, Medium Build (AKA Nicholas Carpenter) opted to strip away the production for White Male Privilege and, as he so often does, lets loose on a blinding, moving commentary that is as dynamic instrumentally as it is powerful thematically.

Swimming in the opposite end of the same pool, overpass is one of the hottest names in the UK’s indie-rock guitar band circuit right now, and with the release of their new EP, Dependent, it’s clear to see why.

Overpass have mastered the art of channeling the spirit of late ’90s and early noughties arena rock, and Slow is a great ice-breaker for listeners: huge progressions, mammoth hooks, and an irresistible chorus destined for stadium speakers.

Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention the newest cut from Joe Bonamassa, Shake This Ground – which, in true JoBo style, offers a very early contender for solo of the year. If you fancy giving some good ol’ fashioned blues rock a spin, look no further.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

While the first half of the month saw me fully immersed in a heady mixture of bachata, merengue, and salsa – courtesy of the Dominican Republic – the second half had me captivated by my usual hodgepodge of playlists, though this month's selections were slightly more pop-oriented than usual.

Lady Gaga's SNL performance of Killah, off her most recent album, Mayhem, can only be described as gripping – and must surely rank among the best performances on Saturday Night Live of all time.

The out-of-the-box spectacle made me want to check out the actual recorded track – a heavily Prince/Young Americans-era Bowie-inspired song with Gaga’s quintessential stamp. The guitars – played by super-producer Andrew Watt – are almost an homage to Bowie's Fame, and perhaps even Prince's Kiss and Sign o' the Times, adding a funk flavor that complements the track's electro-industrial style perfectly.

Next on the list is Jennie and Dua Lipa's Handlebars (from Jennie's Ruby, also released this month) – an R&B/pop earworm that's been living rent-free in my head for the past couple of weeks. And in honor of Bass Week, it features a killer (pun very much intended) bassline that’s equal parts slinky and effortlessly cool – very much in the vein of Dua Lipa's latest release, Radical Optimism, with hints of Childish Gambino's excellent 2016 record “Awaken, My Love!”

Moving on from established pop stars to an emerging artist with Mickey Callisto's Take It Easy.

Callisto has finally started receiving his flowers thanks to his recently televised Britain's Got Talent audition, but the independent artist has been hard at work for the past couple of years, releasing bop after bop.

Take It Easy is an ’80s-inspired disco track defined by Callisto's unmistakably Freddie Mercury-esque tone. Complementing this is a disco guitar part that transforms into a bona fide classic rock-style guitar solo... someone needs to call Brian May, pronto.

Fingerstyle acoustic guitar and a seriously groovy bassline characterize Little Simz’s latest effort, Free – perhaps a nod to her recent lawsuit against former producer Inflo (AKA Dean Cover of music collective Sault) for £1.7 million (roughly $2.19 million). Simz delivers effortless rhymes and razor-sharp delivery, uplifted by lush instrumentation – showcasing an artist who never shies away from experimentation and reinvention. In short, an artist at her most “free.”

Bachman-Turner Overdrive return to action today with 60 Years Ago, their first new song release since the 1996 compilation Trial By Fire: Greatest & Latest.

The You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet rockers have dropped the single ahead of a tour of Canada & the USA that kicks off April 1.

The Canadian band are joined by Neil Young, who adds a characteristically raucous guitar solo that Randy Bachman describes as "incredible."

Original members Randy Bachman and Fred Turner are joined by Bachman's son, guitarist Tal Bachman, and daughter-in-law, drummer KoKo Bachman. The lineup is completed by Lance Lapointe on bass and Brent Knudsen on guitar.

"We sound better than ever. We’re playing all the hits, as well as diving deep into the album cuts, and the response from fans has been incredible. We can’t wait to tour Canada in April and May and show off this powerhouse lineup. The BTO sound is BACK!!” says Randy.

Bachman wrote the song in honor of the Manitoba scene that birthed the band.

“This song is our tribute to Winnipeg, the place where we grew up as teenagers in the '60s, a time when the city's music scene was exploding," states Randy. "It was the Liverpool of North America, a melting pot of incredible talents.

"Everyone I've talked to who spent time in Winnipeg and witnessed that musical explosion is excited to hear this song, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it.”

Neil Young's guitar solo kicks in at 1:52, with a driving sequence of double stops. In fact, Young barely hits a single note by itself throughout the lead break, with most of the notes played against the ringing open first string.

Young opens with a pummelling 8th note rhythm, and finishes with funky, syncopated triplets.

The band's Canadian dates will see them supported by fellow Canuck rockers Headpins and April Wine. US dates will feature The Marshall Tucker Band, and support from Jefferson Starship.

Neil Young traded solos with John Mayer in a jam with Stephen Stills last year, while Mike Campbell collaborator Jason Sinay revealed what it's like to spot Young in the audience.

Bachman, meanwhile, has recently reflected on getting back his long-estranged '57 Gretsch.

Dense as a rainforest, sometimes grating, and often hard to grasp, Captain Beefheart's best-known album, Trout Mask Replica, is the poster boy of late-Sixties avant-garde rock. And rightfully so. No other album from that era brought together as many disparate influences in such an utterly original, aggressively confrontational, and thought-provoking manner.

Big – 28 tunes in one hour and 20 minutes – Trout Mask was originally released as a double album. The album features the Magic Band's most legendary line-up: Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet), Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad), Antennae Jimmy Semens (Jeff Cotton), Rockette Morton (Mark Boston), Drumbo (John French), and The Mascara Snake (Victor Haydon).

Assimilating the sound of hard-driving African rhythms, Appalachian folk melodies and cadences, sea shanties, Delta blues licks, and free-form atonal jazz, the Magic Band provided the perfect backdrop to Beefheart's wailing/barking/spewing stream-of-consciousness singing. The cumulative effect is an explosive assault on the senses that later proved to be influential on such bands as Pere Ubu and Devo.

Legend has it that Beefheart wrote all 28 songs in eight and a half hours, although band members recall that developing the music took somewhat longer.

In his book, Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rob's Captain Beefheart Experience, Bill Harkleroad describes the experiece: “I spent nine months learning the parts to Trout Mask. It was very hard work, [because Don's] creativity wasn't clear cut as far as being very musical. He adopted the mentality of a sculptor, using sound, bodies, and people as the tools.”

Most of the material was conceived at the piano, but Beefheart also used the guitar. “He would beat the shit out of the guitar,” Harkleroad says. “The result can best be described as Jackson Pollock trying to play like John Lee Hooker.”

The album's opening track, Frownland, immediately offers a hint of the madness to follow.

“The opening lick was in 7/8, but, like most of these tunes, it had those broken sections to it,” Harkleroad details. “Everyone played in their own time signature and own key, and came together at some points and not at others. You'd hold onto your part for dear life against the thrust of what everyone else was doing.”

And what of those crazy band member names?

“Frank Zappa, who had produced us, gave Don the name ‘Captain Beetheart,’” explains Harlkeroad, “so Don bestowed those of us in the Magic Band our own nicknames.

“The name ‘Zoot Horn Rollo’ was suggested for me, and I thought, ‘What? I don't know if I like it!’ Then I had a change of heart and thought, ‘Oh, whatever – I'm in the Beefheart band and this the coolest thing on earth. I'm going to be rich and famous and I won't even have to go to college!’”

This feature originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of Guitar World.

If extraordinary reports coming out of the Netherlands are to be believed, Alex Van Halen is working on a new Van Halen album – and Steve Lukather has been recruited to help him complete it.

The Van Halen band name has been the subject of much speculation over the past few years, from talk of the ill-fated tribute tour with Jason Newsted and Joe Satriani that never quite worked out, all the way to Sammy Hagar’s recent Best Of All Worlds tour, which many considered to be the next best thing.

An actual new Van Halen album, on the other hand, was never really considered to be a likely possibility, even if there has been concrete confirmation – most notably from Michael Anthony – that an archive of unreleased, unfinished Van Halen does indeed exist.

The general feeling was, though, that this would never see the light of day, and as such, any talk of a 13th Van Halen studio album – especially one without Eddie himself – was futile.

However, it seems as though a new Van Halen record is exactly what we’ll be getting, and the band’s first album since 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth is on the way courtesy of Alex Van Halen and the Toto guitar great, who may or may not be playing electric guitar in place of Eddie Van Halen.

Reports of the pair’s collaboration emerged in the Dutch press earlier this week, with De Telegraf [paywalled] quoting Alex Van Halen as saying, “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”

Lukather, for his part, told De Telegraf: “Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case the news is true,” said Lukather. “Ed, Alex and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together.”

Lukather’s involvement in the project makes sense, and his long-standing connection to the Van Halen name makes him an ideal candidate for the job.

After all, he was close to both Van Halen brothers, and worked with Eddie on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Eddie also played bass on Lukather’s solo debut record, and helped cut his 2003 Christmas album, Santamental. The pair also jammed onstage on numerous occasions over the years – and even had a secret supergroup.

In other words, it’s no surprise that Alex Van Halen tapped Lukather for the project, and now all that remains is to ask, what exactly will this new album sound like, and who else will feature?

Will Alex Van Halen and Steve Lukather team up with any former vocalists? Will bassist Anthony be brought onboard?

Alex has made no secret of his desire to revive old Van Halen parts, and even revealed he’d contacted OpenAI about the possibility of rounding out some of Van Halen’s old guitar demos.

Could this new album finally bring those to light, and will it tap into the never-before-heard archive of Van Halen material? Only time will tell.

The day is finally here. After an absurdly hectic few months either side of the festive period, we are thrilled to report that we are well and truly back. With no more Black Friday, Christmas or NAMM shenanigans getting in the way of our traditional new music scouting activities, we have returned in full force with a good ol’ fashioned edition of Editors’ Picks, write-ups n’ all.

It’s a good thing, too. There’s been plenty of notable new music releases over the past four weeks or so, and not only have we conveniently dropped them all in our purpose-built Spotify playlist (embedded below), but we’ve also put some standout singles under the spotlight and waxed lyrical about the tones, playing and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Expect everything from world-conquering indie rock, ultra-intricate progressive fingerstyle and Mastodon-esque stoner/groove metal, all the way to hard-riffing blues, filthy funk and beyond. It sure is good to be back.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

While it may not be quite as mind-bending as David Gilmour’s guest spot with Body Count last year, Buddy Guy cropping up on a tune from post-grunge mainstays Switchfoot is sure to rank pretty high on our list of 2025’s Most Unlikely Guitar Collaborations. But Jon Foreman and co play to Guy’s strengths on Last Man Standing, with a foot-stomping, hard-driving riff punctuated by the blues icon’s stinging leads, still potent at 88 years young.

Also on a modern blues tip, I’m digging the latest single from the rapidly rising Jack Moore, son of guitar legend Gary Moore. His collaborative effort with vocalist Quentin Kovalsky has a breezy swagger to its wistful chord progression, but dear lord, that solo is fiery enough to sear flesh. He’s got his father’s vibrato, alright. Rockstar offspring are seemingly everywhere these days, but there’s more than just a surname here.

On the heavier side of my split guitar personality, I’ve been impressed by the latest offering from the Callous Daoboys, which combines savage metalcore noise riffs with the kind of progressive post-hardcore perpetrated by Dance Gavin Dance. The song is called Two-Headed Trout. And – I promise I did not plan this segue in advance – you know what kind of animal eats trout? Pelican. And the instrumental riff merchants by the same name have debuted Cascading Crescent, the first track from their first album in six years, which features the return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec after over a decade away. It’s stoner, it’s groove metal, it’s Mastodon-esque chug, and it’s all impeccably delivered. Many may imitate the Chicagoans’ riff-forward approach, but none can match Pelican for sheer right-hand power.

Lastly, I’d like to give a shoutout to London funkateer and Fender Next Class of 2024 grad Maya Delilah for dropping the downright filthiest single of the year so far. Squeeze may be driven by its outrageously smooth bassline, but when the guitar drops, Delilah strips everything else back to bust out a wiry fuzz tone that evokes St. Vincent and Prince, with harmonics and pick slides as exclamation points. It’s playful, filled with personality and exactly the kind of thing the Instagram algorithm won’t be injecting into your eyeballs every time you log on. And it’s all the better for it.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor

As the sheer length of our playlist this month can attest, it feels like a day hasn't gone by this month where something really good hasn't hit my inbox – and the highlights have come from every conceivable musical direction.

First, I'd like to point to Superheaven, a grunge-informed alt-rock combo set to release their first full album in a decade in April. And what a strange trajectory they've had.

The band had only been intermittently active in recent years until Youngest Daughter, a hazy 2013 track with a slow-motion hammer of a riff, went mega-viral on TikTok. In an incredibly short time came over 100 million Spotify streams and many thousands of new converts. And yes, Cruel Times – the latest single from that forthcoming, self-titled album – will likely have you digging in your closets for that flannel you've had for... god, how long? But cataloging Superheaven as mere grunge revivalists would be a mistake.

There's something for everyone – palm-muted chug, a whirry solo for your inner air guitarist, another monster riff, of course... But as everyone says, it's all about the songs, and Cruel Times' chorus is a winner that's sure to bring plenty more converts to the fold.

We're not new to the Tash Sultana bandwagon by any means, but their new single, Milk & Honey, is a ridiculous show of six-string versatility. Want some reggae? Peep those terse upstrokes. Slinky, Khruangbin-esque funk-by-way-of-surf leads? Plenty of those. Just here for a center-stage, story-telling solo? Sultana's got one of those on tap, too – a true masterclass of immaculate phrasing and build-up.

Moving to punk, we have the always-amazing Laura Jane Grace. Grace's earworm of a riff on Against Me!'s True Trans Soul Rebel was one of my favorites of the 2010s, and the one that leads (after a choir, naturally) into her new single, Your God (God's Dick), is just as irrepressible.

Other highlights for me this month came in the form of Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo (TajMo)'s Room on the Porch, a sweet, melodic acoustic blues showcase that also doubles as the sonic equivalent of a warm hug, Takuro Okada's sublime guitar instrumental, The Room, and another stunning avant-jazz showcase from Wilco's Nels Cline, Slipping Into Something.

Matt Owen – Senior Staff Writer

Well, what a busy few months it’s been. I may have been pre-occupied with Black Friday in November, last-minute Christmas shopping in December, and my first-ever NAMM show last month – but that doesn’t mean I’ve neglected any of 2025’s early music releases.

And so, I am absolutely champing at the bit to finally write about February’s drops – particularly Sam Fender’s new album, which obliterated my (quite lofty) expectations. The biggest act in alternative and indie rock right now, Fender is seemingly immune to writing a bad song – and People Watching is full of belters. Little Bit Closer is a highlight, pairing Fender’s jangly six-string pads with a grizzly-yet-anthemic drop tuned riff – and a screeching solo chucked in for good measure – that clearly shows his passion for letting rip on the guitar. An album full of riffs next please, Mr. Fender.

Speaking of letting rip on the guitar, Chris Buck’s Cardinal Black finally dropped a live cut of Holding My Breath on streaming. Few modern players possess the sheer dynamic control and melodic sensibility that the Revstar-toting blues rock ace does, and almost every facet of his irresistible playing is put in the spotlight here: rhythmic single-note stabs that serve the song, decorative interludes that weave between the lyrics, and a ripping solo that I’m definitely going to try (and fail) to learn.

Something I probably won’t even bother trying to learn (because it would be a futile endeavor) is VOID – the latest progressive nylon-string masterclass from percussive fingerstyle virtuoso Ichika Nito. If the first 10 seconds alone don’t blow your mind… well, you’re made of stronger stuff than I. I needed to have a lie-down after my first listen.

Honorable mentions must also go to Delete Ya by Djo – AKA Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame – who is shaping up to release what could be his finest body of musical work to date, and Forever In Our Hearts by Paul Gilbert’s Mr. Big – who will be wrapping up their 35-year career in a few months.

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Fresh from a Robert Stillman and Tom Skinner gig that I had the pleasure of witnessing yesterday – and a couple of weeks spent flirting with a wide array of guitars at the studio – it's safe to say that it has been a month of contrasts when it comes to my music taste: from giving Sabrina Carpenter's absolute earworm Espresso a chance after a friend's coaxing (I can confirm that it is indeed an earworm), to (digitally) crate-digging and trying to find the most obscure or (at least) sonically interesting tracks that February has to offer. While I'm going to spare you from Espresso, I did manage to find some hidden gems among the flurry of new tracks that landed in my inbox and playlists...

I feel like I properly discovered Bon Iver this month – and his very serene (and aptly titled) Everything is Peaceful Love almost feels like a well-needed embrace from a long-lost friend. With heartfelt lyrics, pedal steel guitar parts that fit cozily alongside warm electronic pads, and a neo-soul sensibility to the harmony-rich vocals – it's the perfect song to add a hint of joy to these long and dreary winter days.

Speaking of falling back in love with the artists that soundtracked my teenage years – Darkside make their return with Nothing, and (to my delight), it's as experimental as ever. I first discovered Darkside through their track Paper Trails (and spent hours trying to emulate the reverb-soaked guitar that characterizes the latter part of that track). Heavy is Good For This immediately captured my attention – and, in true Darkside fashion, the guitars weave in and out almost like a narrative tool that supports the haunted rhythms, distorted vocals, and eerie aura that the track – and by extension, the album – successfully conjures.

Colombian avant-Latin experimentalists Los Pirañas join the ranks of instrumental-driven, psych-leaning music that's gaining momentum even on a more mainstream level – perhaps best seen in Khrunagbin’s Best New Artist Grammy nomination. Los Pirañas' songs, however, are less carefully curated, and more spontaneous and daring in nature, as exemplified by their latest release Despectiva caridad – all while drawing inspiration from, but putting their own off-center stamp on, Latin American music styles.

And to finish off – an album that I just discovered today and that immediately captured my attention is Piers Faccini and Ballaké Sissoko's Our Calling – a virtuosic and, frankly, mesmerizing interplay between guitar and kora [the West African stringed instrument], as shown in the desert blues-steeped Mournful Moon, included in this playlist. With all its layers and nuanced meaning, I can confidently say this is an album I will be revisiting over and over again.

A new George Harrison tribute album that was recorded using some of the late guitar great’s own Beatles electric guitars and acoustic guitars has been released.

Compiled by gypsy jazz virtuoso Robin Nolan, For the Love of George comprises reinterpretations of 10 classic Harrison and Beatles songs, as well as a new original track that was crafted from chords the Beatles legend once drafted on an envelope before his passing.

As Nolan explains, it was during a trip to Friar Park – Harrison’s home – to celebrate the birthday of George’s widow, Olivia, that the idea of recording a fully fledged tribute album with genuine Beatles guitars first came to mind.

"I was at Friar Park playing for Olivia's birthday,” he recalls. “We were all talking and then George's Ramirez acoustic guitar appeared and I played And I Love Her on it. It was a massive thrill to play the song on the same guitar George originally recorded it on with Olivia and everyone watching.”

Nolan had toyed with the idea of a Harrison tribute album in the past, but his visit to Friar Park – and the experience of playing the Ramirez – all-but-confirmed the project.

“I had already been thinking about how cool it would be to do an album of George's songs, but then to actually be playing one of his songs on that guitar, that’s another level,” Nolan goes on. “That's another layer of awesomeness. So that was where the inspiration for the album was born.”

As for the title track, For the Love of George came about after Olivia sent Nolan a picture of an envelope, upon which George wrote some chords before he died. There wasn’t too much to go on, but upon Olivia’s request, Nolan took a look – and ended up turning the note into a full song.

“I stared at the envelope and studied the chords intently that George had written all those years ago and started to feel the magic,” he reflects. “It was like unraveling a mystery, trying to imagine what George might have meant.

“After I’d figured out the chords a melody came to me. In my mind I could hear George humming a tune that sounded really beautiful. That’s when it all came together. The title track of this album For the Love of George.

“I was really excited so I recorded a simple version on my phone and sent it to Olivia wondering what she might think. She responded, ‘Wow it sounds so much like George!’

“And, of course, it does sound like George, because there's a few chord changes in there which are really unique to him, and then the melody I wrote is so inspired by him.”

To record the track, Nolan used all three of Harrison’s old guitars that were utilized across the rest of the album: the iconic 12-string Rickenbacker from A Hard Day’s Night, the Gibson J-160 that featured on numerous Beatles albums, and the aforementioned Ramirez classical acoustic, which can be heard on And I Love Her.

These guitars were used to record gypsy jazz renditions of tracks such as Wah-Wah, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, All Things Must Pass, Dark Sweet Lady and more.

For the Love of George is available now via Dark Horse Records.

25 years ago, the Black Crowes played a run of generation-bridging, Led Zeppelin-heavy shows with Jimmy Page.

Though the collaboration fizzled out before any studio material was produced, some of their most thunderous live performances were captured for posterity in the 2000 double album, Jimmy Page & the Black Crowes: Live at the Greek.

Now, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, Live at the Greek is set to be given the deluxe reissue treatment.

Produced, mixed, and remastered by Kevin Shirley, the reissue will feature 16 previously unreleased tracks, including a previously unreleased song – titled, appropriately enough, Jam – Rich Robinson and Jimmy Page wrote at a soundcheck.

Ahead of the release, a two-track single has been released – No Speak No Slave, a brand-new video for which can be seen below, and a previously unreleased version of the Zeppelin-via-Sonny Boy Williamson classic Bring It On Home.

“I’m really looking forward to the soon to be available release of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes material from concerts in 1999,” Page said in a statement. “The new mixes capture the collaboration of those historic encounters and provide the full explosive passion and exciting energy of those alchemical moments.”

“The new Live at the Greek box set brings the whole experience of our work with Jimmy into a vibrant, electric, mystical, and powerful perspective,” added Crowes frontman Chris Robinson. “Hail, hail rock ‘n roll!”

Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson said, in turn, “Going through the shows and putting together the new box set has been such an incredible dive back to that time in our history. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill to play these amazing iconic songs with the man who composed them. The sound of the new mixes and extra songs blew me away when I first heard them.”

The 25th anniversary edition of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes: Live at the Greek will be available as a 6 LP box set with a foldout poster and removable top box, a 3-CD set presented in a six-panel digipak with a foldout poster, and a double LP “Best Of” edition.

Limited to 1,000 copies, the “Best Of” features 15 highlights from the larger album pressed on electric smoke-colored vinyl, and can only be ordered directly from the Black Crowes' website.

Set for release on March 14 via The Orchard, the album as a whole can be pre-ordered here.

Speaking of the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin, the brothers Robinson recently recruited none other than Slash for a heartfelt cover of the folky Zeppelin classic Going to California at the star-studded FireAid benefit concert.

After thanking the city of Los Angeles's first responders, Chris Robinson said by way of introduction, “We're gonna play something we thought was appropriate for the evening.”

Oh, hey! Didn’t see you there. I’m still up to my eyeballs in new gear PR and Denny’s receipts after our recent trip to Anaheim to sample the delights of the 2025 NAMM Show (it was one for the ages – just check out our recap of the biggest trends.)

But while we were frantically cranking out the most comprehensive coverage we possibly could, we still had one eye on music releases. And hoo boy, it’s been a busy month. Heck, our playlist was nearing 80 tracks before we whittled it down to a trim-ish 63.

There are plenty of highlights: the king of modern blues getting down and dirty (musically) with a former Van Halen singer. G3 trading solos for 11 minutes over a rock classic. Alex Lifeson flexing his textural guitar chops with Envy of None once more. And there’s a veritable feast of indie and metalcore alike.

So, no write-ups again this month (soz). But we’ll be fighting fit come February, so brace yourself for words. And lots of ’em. See you then!

Talent runs in the family, as Rusty Williams, the grandfather of Paramore's Hayley Williams, is gearing up to release his debut album, Grand Man, at 78, on her bandmate Zac Farro's label, Congrats Records.

Despite being his debut album, this is far from Rusty Williams' first rodeo in the music industry. The guitarist and singer began writing songs as a child, sang in a church choir, joined a band, and even wrote jingles for local businesses before finally recording his life's work in the '70s. While he often talked about this album, Hayley and her bandmates never believed it actually existed until Rusty's old production partner recently unearthed it.

“So many people our age are mining these albums for tones and things you can’t even replicate,” Hayley says. “And Grandad has a way of cutting to the core of a feeling, and not overcomplicating it which we tend to do, because the world is hard. It’s nice when you can hear something plain and simple and know that it is true.”

“I thought that it was a crime that these songs were sitting there on the shelf,” adds Farro.

With the first single, Knocking (At Your Door), already out, music aficionados can expect an album that evokes the “relaxed pop of Herb Alpert and Burt Bachrach,” sprinkled with “a bit of the Nashville sound.”

From his end, Williams senior is just happy that this album is finally seeing the light of day – albeit a couple of decades later than he intended.

“I don’t expect anything, and I’m too old to be famous,” he says matter-of-factly. “But I just want to know someone liked what I did and to be touched by whatever the hell they are listening to. I want people to see how it felt when things were real.

“You write stuff, and you want somebody to get something out of it. I just had to wait for a granddaughter and a band with her to really do anything with mine,” he concludes.

• Grand Man is out on February 14 via Congrats Records.

Do They Know It’s Christmas? is one of the most iconic charity singles of all time, featuring an all-star cast of musical heroes including Sting, Bono, Phil Collins and countless others. Since its release in 1984, it has raised almost $180 million for famine relief and development in Ethiopia and Africa.

Although the song was written by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof using acoustic guitars, the final track didn’t end up featuring much in the way of six-strings, despite a plethora of players in the studio – and, as it turns out, there’s a good reason for that.

A new BBC documentary, The Making of Do They Know It's Christmas?, pulls together archive footage from the creation of the track, and includes an interview with Geldof prior to the star-studded session, where he reveals one big guitar name that couldn’t make it to the studio.

Asked by a reporter who was arriving, Geldof says, “Bono’s just come in. He rang me last night and said [U2 guitarist] the Edge had got a kidney infection, and so he’s in hospital. So send him my love, and I hope he gets better.

“That’s a bit of a drag, because he was going to be the lead guitarist… but there’s about a million guitar players coming down.”

Geldof wasn’t kidding. The likes of Paul Weller, Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi, Sting, and Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp were among the guitarists who did turn up – but none of them made it onto the actual recording.

The day before the vocal recordings took place, Midge Ure attempted to track some jangly chords on electric guitar, while Geldof and Weller watched. But nothing could cut through the thick layer of synths.

“We’ve got so many fucking keyboards,” Geldof says. “It’s just the sound of guitar that I think it misses.”

Unfortunately, the sound of the electric guitar would never grace the track, although Weller and Kemp did contribute some background acoustic parts – and the Jam leader even attempted some electric lines.

“There was nothing wrong with his guitar parts, nothing wrong with his playing at all. It just didn't fit in this electronic-based track,” Ure told Guitar Player of Weller’s electric contributions earlier this year.

“He did a kind of picking thing with a clean sound. It was kind of jangly, probably using one of my guitars, quite – dare I say – Smiths-like… It was all very good. I think even he saw it didn’t fit. He felt it didn’t sound right within that track.”

All of which means it’s a real shame that the Edge was struck down with illness just days prior to the recording of Do They Know It’s Christmas?

It’s not hard to hear how his sparse single-note lines, sprinkled with a touch of his signature delay, could have floated atop the layers of keyboards, adding a sense of spaciousness and fragility to the recording, and ticking off the guitar timbres Geldof sought.

Guitars were a bigger feature in Band Aid 20’s 2004 recording of the track, with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Busted’s Charlie Simpson, and The Darkness guitarists Dan and Justin Hawkins all tracking parts, while Paul McCartney contributed bass.

The newly released 2024 Ultimate Mix finally brings guitars to the fore, reviving lost contributions from Weller, Ure, Greenwood and Kemp, and highlighting Justin Hawkins’ harmony guitar solo – although we’ll always wonder what the Edge would have brought to the track.