New Michael Romeo War of the Worlds pt.2
- Thread starter lurè
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Sermo Lupi
Well-Known Member
Fits better for Romeo, I think. Petrucci wasn't as influenced by Yngwie, MJR is substantially more groove-oriented, and DT began in the 80s and hit it big in the 90s whereas Symphony X began in the 90s and hit it "big" in the 2000s. The second half fits better for Petrucci...his solo record is much better known, his signature guitar sold more units by probably two orders of magnitude, Rock Discipline is the bigger instructional video, and ultimately Petrucci has the bigger following.
Similar paths, but they differ enough in each of those areas that it only works in abstract. I do agree than both of them (and their bands) will appeal to the same people, though.
Morse, Lifeson, Dimeola, to name three of the bigger ones. Yngwie wasn't much of an influence at all, except as a limiting factor. By that I mean how a lot of 80s guys didn't want to touch Yngwie's style to avoid being called an imitator. Romeo didn't come along until the mid-90s, so it was a bit different by then.
As for Michael Romeo and Petrucci, yeah, they've been fans of each other for ages but they differ drastically in their approach to the instrument.
Don't forget the Savage Curtain! Romeo has had that signature heavy riffing since basically day one. One of the best to ever do it.
This site may earn a commission from merchant links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Listening to When Dream and Day Unite I get some clear Yngwie vibes at times. Personally, I love Yngwie's playing, and think he's absolutely iconic, but, that said, I'd much rather listen to Petrucci than Yngwie, and I'd rather listen to Romeo than Petrucci. All three of them would definitely be in my top ten.
The timelines between the two bands are about 5 years apart, yes, but there are still a lot of coincidences between the two.
The timelines between the two bands are about 5 years apart, yes, but there are still a lot of coincidences between the two.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
I’d rather listen to Gilbert than any of them, though I’d also rate them differently than you. Trilogy was one of my first rock albums as a kid. Piece of Mind and Smashes, Thrashes, and Hits were the other two that got me into music quite a bit.
Yeah, we probably share 6-8 of our top tens, but would arrange them in a different order. I absolutely loved the earlier Yngwie albums, but I didn't actually own them until I was quite aware of Dream Theater anyway (would have been circa 1992-3).
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Lynch is definitely in my top ten, as well. A recent guy I’ve been digging is Greg Howe. He’s awesome. So are Kotzen and Moore.
HungryGuitarStudent
Well-Known Member
I hear you. Not to nitpick and I’m no metal historian, but I think JP’s main influence was Al DiMeola, not Malmsteen.
You can hear it pretty well, for example, in early LTE stuff. On Acid Rain, JP even plays almost note for note Al’s riff from Race with the devil on a Spanish highway.
Where does the pick go to / come from when he starts using his index finger for tapping sections? It's like watching a slight of hand magic trick.
And what's this guitar pick doing behind your ear?!
He also manages to tap so cleanly with tons of distortion without using a fretwrap, or even a noise gate, as seen here:
The guy is in a league of his own.
MR's technique is just insane to watch - his hands are no bigger than mine (unlike virtually every other shredder), and yet he does things I have no hope of doing without radically re-working the physicality of my playing. Plus, the riffs! "Domination", for example, that rideout/breakdown at the end...<chef's kiss>
Lorcan Ward
7slinger
Michael is the king of tapping cleanly. String skipping across multiple strings cleaner sounding than most guitarists with a fretwrap.
I saw them live at a festival once and they played an odd setlist but I did get a front row seat to Romeo warming up on stage before the gig which was insane.
I saw them live at a festival once and they played an odd setlist but I did get a front row seat to Romeo warming up on stage before the gig which was insane.
Sermo Lupi
Well-Known Member
I think the key to Romeo's tapping, legato and muting technique is in large part how he poses his right hand and holds his pick.
I don't just mean in terms of positioning, either, as Romeo himself explained in the video above. I mean in terms of how he shapes his hand when picking/tapping, which causes a lot of palm contact with the strings. I'll include a couple of pictures below, but basically he holds his hand in such a way that the side of his palm makes a lot of contact with the playing surface while his thumb and index finger holding the pick sort of reach "over" his hand to reach the strings. He also tends to hold his pick between the pads of his thumb and index finger with his index finger mostly extended, which differs from the much more common Paul Gilbert style of gripping the pick against the side of the index finger and keeping the index finger curled.
When tapping, Romeo crowds the strings with both the side and the flat of his palm so that only the string he's playing rings out. It looks a bit unusual because he almost taps in a vertical or diagonal position rather than a horizontal orientation, which he often exaggerates to look like he's pointing at the string.
My technique is more the Petrucci/Gilbert style, but I can see how the way Romeo does it has inherent advantages for muting. It's notable that Paul Gilbert primarily mutes using his left (fretting hand), as explained in the video below. I think this was at least partly necessitated by his picking style, which doesn't grant him the same advantages as Romeo's.
While we speaking about Romeo's technique, his legato/trilling has got to be some of the best ever. His speed is ridiculous. It's by far the hardest part of playing his stuff for me. Anyone else have trouble with that?
I don't just mean in terms of positioning, either, as Romeo himself explained in the video above. I mean in terms of how he shapes his hand when picking/tapping, which causes a lot of palm contact with the strings. I'll include a couple of pictures below, but basically he holds his hand in such a way that the side of his palm makes a lot of contact with the playing surface while his thumb and index finger holding the pick sort of reach "over" his hand to reach the strings. He also tends to hold his pick between the pads of his thumb and index finger with his index finger mostly extended, which differs from the much more common Paul Gilbert style of gripping the pick against the side of the index finger and keeping the index finger curled.
When tapping, Romeo crowds the strings with both the side and the flat of his palm so that only the string he's playing rings out. It looks a bit unusual because he almost taps in a vertical or diagonal position rather than a horizontal orientation, which he often exaggerates to look like he's pointing at the string.
My technique is more the Petrucci/Gilbert style, but I can see how the way Romeo does it has inherent advantages for muting. It's notable that Paul Gilbert primarily mutes using his left (fretting hand), as explained in the video below. I think this was at least partly necessitated by his picking style, which doesn't grant him the same advantages as Romeo's.
While we speaking about Romeo's technique, his legato/trilling has got to be some of the best ever. His speed is ridiculous. It's by far the hardest part of playing his stuff for me. Anyone else have trouble with that?
Sermo Lupi
Well-Known Member
I'm about an hour into that Orulian interview with Romeo and he mentions that he used a 7-string for one song on the album. I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet; I guess this is the first we're hearing of it?
Quoting from 53:30ish:
"[The record]'s been done for a while and there was a couple of things I did have to add. [...] And again, trying to make stuff different--you know, we were just talking about making things different than [Symphony X]--those last couple songs, I think "Destroyer" was one, I had the riff laying around and it wasn't really a finished song. I thought, 'man, this is really kind of a friggen pretty heavy riff, maybe I'll try a 7-string on it.' And that's something new, for me."
Romeo goes on to say there was 3 or 4 songs he put together like that nearer to the release of the record but the bulk had been kicking around since 2019 or so. It's unclear whether he used a 7-string only on Destroyer or some of the other songs as well.
How crazy is that going to be, though? Michael Romeo's crushing riffs on a seven? God help us all.
Quoting from 53:30ish:
"[The record]'s been done for a while and there was a couple of things I did have to add. [...] And again, trying to make stuff different--you know, we were just talking about making things different than [Symphony X]--those last couple songs, I think "Destroyer" was one, I had the riff laying around and it wasn't really a finished song. I thought, 'man, this is really kind of a friggen pretty heavy riff, maybe I'll try a 7-string on it.' And that's something new, for me."
Romeo goes on to say there was 3 or 4 songs he put together like that nearer to the release of the record but the bulk had been kicking around since 2019 or so. It's unclear whether he used a 7-string only on Destroyer or some of the other songs as well.
How crazy is that going to be, though? Michael Romeo's crushing riffs on a seven? God help us all.
Romeo already sounds heavy as hell in drop D. Can't imagine him riffing on a 7 string.
He used to say he hated 7s. I guess times have changed. 
He used to say he hated 7s. I guess times have changed.
Do you know what was his reason to dislike 7s?
No idea. Probably a holdover from when Awake came out, and every "prog metal" band started using them. 
Sermo Lupi
Well-Known Member
That he does. Plays in D standard though.
He used to say he hated 7s. I guess times have changed.
There's some word-of-mouth about that online. In a thread discussing Romeo's tunings from 2006 on the Symphony X forums, as one example. Who's to know what he disliked about it, if anything. Might've just thought it wasn't for him. As a rule, when he's wanted to make music darker/heavier he pursued compositional solutions for that instead.
