10 favorite guitarists/ most influential bands

[ALLEGAEON]

Just curious who people are into out there....here are mine. (Any suggestions on new bands or players)

Guitarists (list is always changing)

Vai
Becker
Jari Maaenpa (wintersun)
Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry)
Loomis
Petrucci (solo album way better than DT)
Micheal Romeo
Gilbert
Neil Zaza
Frank Gambale

Bands (not necessarily my favorite, just most influential)

Symphony X
Nevermore
Scar Symmetry (specifically pitch black progress)
Soilwork (old)
Arch Enemy
Demonoid
Strapping young lad
Behemoth
Necrophagist
Opeth

MySpace.com - ALLEGAEON (another new song up!) - Fort Collins, Colorado - Metal / Progressive / Death Metal - www.myspace.com/allegaeon

 

[The Hoff]

In no specific order:

John Petrucci
Paul Gilbert
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Steve Vai
Alex Lifeson

Couldn't really think of 10 guitarists

Those are the only 5 that really influence me in what I do.

 

[The Dark Wolf]

Guitar players

Top 3
Prince
Dime
Jimmy Page

The Rest, in no particular order
Randy
SRV
James Hetfield
Tony Iommi
The Yng
EVH
Segovia


The list changes. Ask me again tomorrow, who knows? But offhand, those guys all mean alot to me, both in terms of as a fan, and as a player.


Bands

Top 3
Led Zep
Prince (and his various incarnations)
Lamb of God

The Rest
Metallica (Up to AJFA)
Opeth
ACDC
Guns N' Roses
Nevermore
Queensryche
Korn
Ozzy's bands (Sabbath and his solo work)
Pantera

Shit, this second list is way too hard.

 

[Trespass]

Influential on my playing:

1) Al Di Meola (Scale Choice, Licks, Picking Technique)
2) Yngwie Malmsteen (Getting me into guitar)/ Paul Gilbert (Pentatonics)
3) Middle eastern, Japanese musicians, and Indian Sitar/Sarrod Players (Exotic Scales and Phrasing)

Favourite electric:

1) Bumblefoot/Ron Thal
2) Greg Howe
3) Guthrie Govan
4) Mattias Eklundh
5) Brett Garsed
6) Dream Theater
7) Steve Vai

Favourite Acoustic:

1) Stochello Rosenburg
2) Birelli Lagrene
3) Antoine Dufour
4) Don Ross
5) Andy McKee
6) Stephane Wremble


The rest are classical pianists and violinists.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

In fact, my greatest inspiring guitarrists were Janick Gers and Dave Murray, when I was 14 years old.
The bands at that time were Iron Maiden and Manowar.

Today, I would say (alphabetical order):

- John Petrucci
- Slash
- Steve Morse
- Steve Vai
- Yngwie Malmsteen

- Cannibal Corpse
- Dream Theater
- Guns N' Roses
- Radiohead
- Symphony X

Top 5 only, top 10 is too hard to make!
Also hard BTW, these things changes often.

And not considering all the classical stuff, obviously.

 

[progmetaldan]

hmmm, in vague order but not necessarily...

Guitarists:

John Petrucci
Michael Romeo
Steve Vai
Tony MacAlpine
Greg Howe
Brett Garsed
Ron Jarzombek
Rusty Cooley
Mikael Akerfeldt
Stephen Forte


Bands:

Symphony X
Dream Theater
Opeth
Adagio
Outworld
Spiral Architect
Neal Morse
The Flower Kings
Ayreon
Liquid Tension Experiment

heaps more, but that's probably a snapshot...

 

[The Dark Wolf]

I love technical virtuousos, but I always find myself more drawn to... well, "popular" approaches to music, if you will. I take pride in being a good songwriter, and a good song, apart from say, some technical masterpiece (which usually has much less "broad" appeal, and is generally more focused towards musicians, I would say), is such an interesting thing, because it has to be a balance between -

A) technique
B) arrangement
C) melody
D) rhythm and meter
E) lyric and theme
F) hook
G) emotion

So, that is a big part of why I enjoy Prince so much. 'Purple Rain' is one of the best examples of the confluence of all those factors coming together in a near-perfect combination.


But I like extreme, technical examples of more "pure" music, too! For example, some of my favorite albums

Technical virtuoso guitar playing. Classically oriented.
1. Yngwie Malmsteen - Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra.
2. Paul Galbraith - Bach: The Sonatas and Partitas for Violin

Extreme and/or Technical Death Metal
1. Cannibal Corpse - Kill
2. Arsis - United In regret

Jazz
1. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Technical masterpieces, and stuff I love, but I never really felt the drive to go far down that road.

 

[TheAceOfSpades1]

Guitarists

Jeff Loomis
Jason Becker
Marty Friedman
Trey Azagthoth
Karl Sanders
Mikael Akferdeldt
Alex Webster (he's a bassist I know)
Joe Satriani
Chuck Shuldiner
Michael Amott

Bands

Nevermore
Cannibal Corpse
Decrepit Birth
Meshuggah
Electric Wizard
Origin
Nile
Anata
Defeated Sanity
Whitechapel

And pretty much any death metal.

 

[ak33]

Guitarist:

Bucket Head

 

[Zepp88]

I'm not much for personal "best of" lists but....my influences?

Opeth
Nox Mortis
My Dying Bride
Arch Enemy/Carcass(Michael fucking Amott)
Nevermore
Jerry Cantrell
Katatonia
Type O Negative
Black Sabbath
Zakk Wylde (hey, he was a badass in the early 90's, and I'm really struck by his work on "No More Tears" AMAZING IMO)

These are in no order...and if I remember more I'll update the post I'm no good at these lists...

 

[The Dark Wolf]

Old school Zakk is great!

And so is Cantrell. He and Akerfeldt are my personal "models" for what I do musically.

1. Great blend of heavy, clean, acoustic
2. Great vocals, and especially Cantrell's harmonies.\
3. Sweet, sort of blues-influenced leads


Those guys are terrific.

 

[Zepp88]

Old school Zakk is great!

And so is Cantrell. He and Akerfeldt are my personal "models" for what I do musically.

1. Great blend of heavy, clean, acoustic
2. Great vocals, and especially Cantrell's harmonies.\
3. Sweet, sort of blues-influenced leads


Those guys are terrific.

Yeah man, I'm listening to Degredation Trip right now.

 

[Uber Mega]

I can't do these lists, here just some guitarists and bands that I've taken influence from.

Some guitarists i like:

- Django Reinhardt
- Stanley Jordan
- Guthrie Govan
- John Petrucci
- Dave Martone
- Frank Gambale
- Garry Moore
- Paul Gilbert
- Paco De Lucia

Some bands/artists that influence me:

- Gravenhurst/Nick Talbot
- Opeth
- Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson
- DJ Shadow
- Meshuggah
- M83
- Gazpacho
- US3
- Mogwai
- Dream Theater
- Thrice
...etc.

 

[TheAceOfSpades1]

gahh, I forgot to add Opeth to my list...

that's why I hate doing those lists...

I also really enjoy the sound that comes out of the far east... (Japan etc)

 

[Seedawakener]

10 Guitarists and the things I admire about them:

Brett Garsed - Such fluidity in his playing. Its just amazing to hear and see him playing all of his chromatic runs... And his BENDS! oh my.... What a god among mortals.
Jeff Loomis - Fierce brutal Vibrato anyone? I love his alternative picking too, its all just so tight and brutal.
John Petrucci - This man knows his tone, and his sense of melody when soloing is amazing!
Ron Jarzombek - Right now he is my favorite technical Shredder. And then he can do things like he did on the first Gordian Knot album too...
Frank Zappa - I love this guys tone so much. It's just him. As a composer he is also probably unbeatable.
Guthrie Govan - Govan has it all... He is just the best all round fusion/shredder out there. AND THE TONE!
Bulb - Absolutely amazing composer and riffwriter! Keep those polyrythms coming man!
Mikael Åkerfeldt - One of the persons I admire most when it comes to composing beautiful music! And as a lead guitarist I think he does an amazing job. He always does these beautiful phrases!
Andy James - Well... Andy James is crazy when it comes to Beautiful wide intervalls in soloing. That is what I love about him!
Michael Romeo - One of my bigger heroes during my earlier days. I love his solos!

Bands/Artists:
Dream Theater
Chroma Key - Kevin Moore is god.
Periphery
Nobuo Uematsu -
Frank Zappa
Cynic
Gordian Knot
Nevermore
Vanden Plas - Anyone not listening to these guys should. The choruses are equally amazing EVERYTIME!
Opeth

 

[kmanick]

These are the guys that have inluenced my playing the most
and therefore are also my favorites as well.
Guitarists:
Greg Howe
Joe Satch
Paul Gilbert
Eddie Van Halen
Jeff Loomis
Jeff Beck
Tony MacAlpine
Andy James
Marcel Coenen
John Petrucci
Jason Becker
Robin Trower
Yngwie Malmsteen

Bands
Nevermore
Dream Theater
Megadeth
Van halen
Arch Enemy
Alice in Chains
Ratt
Racer X
Strapping Young Lad
Led Zep
too many more to list

 

[Popsyche]

I started playing 36 years ago, so my influences are more "dated"!

First and foremost is Peter Frampton, right down to getting a 3 pickup Les Paul(which is about 2 feet away from me). If you get a chance to hear some of his soloing on Humble Pie's live albums, you'll get the idea.

Also, Little Stevie Marriott, the other Humble pie guitarist, and devout Les Paul junior player. He could coax the absolute evil out of that one P90 pickup.

Leslie West from the group Mountain, another LP Jr player that just made that thing sing.

The three guys listed have made album sides that were just one song with 20 minutes of soloing, and never lost my interest, as they changed textures and feelings throughout.

Buck Dharma/ Blue Oyster Cult used interesting riffs when much else on the rock front was pretty boring.

Andy from Gang of Four had a really great crashing style of chord playing.

Geordie/ Killing Joke for nasty use of dissonance(listen to Revelations).

I guess that I am influenced a lot by great rhythym players as well as soloists.

 

[MrJack]

Guitarists:

John Petrucci
Antti Hyyrynen
Pekka Olkkonen
Mattias IA Eklundh
Devin Townsend
Tony MacAlpine
Guthrie Govan
Michael Romeo
Daron Malakian
Jeff Loomis


Bands:

Dream Theater
Stam1na
Freak Kitchen
Strapping Young Lad
The Devin Townsend Band
System Of A Down
Symphony X
Nevermore
Evergrey
Adagio

 

[sakeido]

Guitarists - Devin Townsend (songwriting), Marty Friedman (leads), Mark Morton/Willie Adler (riffs), Paul Gilbert (chops)
Bands - Devin Townsend Band/SYL, Lamb of God, and Tool are the biggest influences. Smaller ones are Meshuggah, Protest the Hero, Opeth, and Sikth.

 

[Decreate]

Guitarists who made me want to pick up the guitar in the first place but don't necessarily influence the way I play:

Angus Young
KK Downing
Glen Tipton
Dave Murray
Adrian Smith
James Hetfield
Yngwie Malmsteen
Al Di Meola
Steve Vai
Akira Takasaki

Bands:

AC/DC
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead
Metallica
Venom
Slayer
Exodus
Fear Factory
Meshuggah