It's not a good year to have played guitar with me. The loss of my bud Shaun Dunn, marks the second guitarist I have lost in the past year. This turned my thoughts to what makes a good guitarist great. Metal finds the stakes for guitarists high. Shredding can come before playing a fucking song. While all of these guitarists can play a solo, I was also looking for tone, impact on the genre as a whole and how their personalities came through in their playing. So this list of the top 50 Metal Guitarists, is dedicated to Chris and Shaun, you two both talked about a few of these guys with each other and your favorites both made the list.
50- Richard Z Kruspe
He adds inspired texture and melody to the machine like grind of his employers.
49-Jason Weirbach
One of the darkest heaviest and most interesting tones in the game. Much more muscle behind it than your typical tremolo picked black metal playing yet it still possess the hypnotic throb.
48-Steven Russell
His two projects greatly differ one is atmospheric sludge the other is blackened thrash so this speaks to how he is versatile enough to shift his playing.
47-Jon Schaffer
His band has gone through various "lead Players" so he might be the only so called rhythm player on this list, but his tone and command of this instrument serve the song and power his band's sound no matter who is behind the mic or playing the solos. Though I prefer Matt Barlow handling the mic
.
46-Oystein Garnes Brun
His band juggles so many vocal part and shifts in dynamics, he proves himself in one song being able master both epic almost power metal riffing and then dig into fast tremolo picked black metal. One of the most under rated prog metal guitarists out there.
45-Michael Keene
He has the worst tone of anyone on this list, but is fleet enough of finger to compensate for it , though live the sound was rather thin.
44- Justin Hartwig
On his band's last album he really stepped up to the plate and delivered stellar playing that should elevate this reputation beyond just playing in a funeral doom band.
43-Eddie Clarke
He is more of a rock n roll player who did just enough rough living to give his music a burly enough edge to be embraced as metal, He doesn't compete with the snarl of Lemmy's bass and occupies the right jagged mid range to cut through the blitzkrieg of bass and drums.
42-Nergal
He has a dark dense tone, but I find his more melodic touches and more tender bits of musicality more impressive. Not the biggest fan of "the Satanist" , but trying to get over that and return to their earlier work that I did enjoy.
41-Hasjarl
His odd angular playing might barrow from Emperor, but I think his band is impressive in how chilling and dissonant they keep things, which lies in his ability to not over play despite playing very technical odd timed black metal.
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