Welcome back to Rifflist! Last time, we brought you gearhead and YouTube extraordinaire Ryan "Fluff" Bruce of Riffs, Beards & Gear. This time we're bringing the extreme metal, personified in the form of The Black Dahlia Murder's Brandon Ellis.
As guitarists, we all deviate along different musical paths and forge our own unique sonic identities, but it seems we all start at the same block: Smoke on the Water - even note-demon Brandon Ellis. Although the BDM axeman certainly shreds it up slightly more than you may be used to hearing at your local guitar store...
When Ellis isn't tearing up stages and opening up pits with one of extreme metal's biggest bands, he likes to sit down and watch James Cameron's epic romance blockbuster Titanic, apparently. Watch as he delivers a high-gain, vibrato-heavy version of Celine Dion's iconic vocal line.
- Check out Ellis's ultra-precise playthrough of Removal of the Oaken Stake
- Watch the title track of latest album Verminous played in full here
In the hands of the shred-master sits a Jackson Custom Shop Kelly electric guitar in a suitably metal - and suitably Verminous - green crackle finish.
The Black Dahlia Murder's new album Verminous is available now via Metal Blade Records.
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Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.