Megadeth are set to embark on a world tour in more than 25 countries across four continents starting in April.

The tour follows a first-ever performance at Copley Symphony Hall on April 12, where guitarist Dave Mustaine will collaborate with the San Diego Symphony on "Symphony Interrupted."

Beginning at 8 p.m., Mustaine and the Symphony will perform renditions of the "Summer" and "Winter" movements from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Bach's "Air" (on the G string). Richard Wagner’s "Ride of the Valkyries" and Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony" also will be performed by the symphony during the show.

For more information, visit SanDiegoSymphony.org.

"I love the challenge," Mustaine said in a press release. "I really admire this genre of music because of the level of skill required and there are great dark undertones in these incredible pieces.

"The marriage of two such distinctly different genres is one thing, but cross-pollinating different societies is a whole new level of badass! I'm used to them being before me, but it's a bit unnerving to know so many talented eyes will be on my back. It's a bit intimidating, and to be given the opportunity to interpret these melodies — to meld what I am best at with what they incredibly present, it is a great honor."

2014 Megadeth Tour Dates

4/12 San Diego, CA – Copley Symphony Hall
4/17 Las Vegas, NV – Pearl Concert Theater
4/19 Tuscon, AZ – Pima County Fair
4/22 Quito, Ecuador – Agros Casa de Cultura
4/24 Montevideo, Uruguay – Teatro de Verano
4/26 Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena
4/29 Córdoba, Argentina – Plaza de la Música
5/01 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio Cubierto Malvinas
5/04 Sao Paulo, Brazil – Espaco Das Americas
5/06 Bogota, Colombia – Royal Center
6/06 Solvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival
6/10 Paris, France – Le Palais Des Sports
6/11 Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg
6/13 Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell Festival
6/15 Nickelsdorf, Austria – Nova Rock
6/16 Budapest, Hungary – Aerodrome Festival
6/17 Prague, Czech Republic – Aerodrome Festival
6/22 Clisson, France – Hellfest
6/23 Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Rockhal
6/26 Rome, Italy – Rock In Roma @ Ippodromo Capannelle
6/27 Milan, Italy – City Sound @ Ippodromo Del Galoppo
6/28 Winterthur, Switzerland – Eishalle Deutweg
7/24 Tolmin, Slovenia – Metaldays Festival
7/26 Oulu, Finland – Qstock
8/01 Rejmyre, Sweden – Skogsrojet Festival
8/02 Wacken, Germany – Wacken Open Air Festival
8/04 Istanbul, Turkey – Rock Off Festival
8/09 Leeuwarden, Netherlands – Into The Grave
8/10 Derbyshire, England – Catton Park

Bloomsbury recently published a unique book about — in fact, by — guitar legend legend Jimi Hendrix.

The book, Starting at Zero: His Own Story, features an introduction by Peter Neal, who made Experience, the first-ever film about Hendrix.

Also known as Hear My Music Talking, it was the only one released during Hendrix's lifetime, and is arguably best known for its memorable footage of the guitar legend playing a 12-string guitar.

From the publisher:

It took just four years in the spotlight for Jimi Hendrix to become an international cultural icon.

The sheer impact and originality of his music and his unique mastery of the guitar placed him forever amongst musical giants.

But what of the man behind the public image? Modest and intensely private by nature, Hendrix was shrouded in intrigue from the moment he first came into the public eye, and the mystery has only grown with time.

Much has been written about him by experts, fans and critics, some of it true and some of it not. He did, however, leave his own account of himself, locked away like a Chinese puzzle in his many interviews, lyrics, writings, poems, diaries, and even stage raps. Starting at Zero brings all these elements together in narrative form.

The result is an intimate, funny, and poetic memoir—one that tells, for the first time, Hendrix’s own story as only he could tell it.

"For anyone interested in Jimi Hendrix this is essential reading," said Roger Mayer. "It’s Jimi’s voice and I recognize a lot of what he’s saying. It’s not like the books that tell you what he did on every day of the week, and it’s not someone’s opinion either. All those other books give very little insight into the person he was but this allows us a very real glimpse of Jimi, or as much as any outsider is likely to get. It’s the nearest we’re going to get to a posthumous autobiography."

Alan Douglas also played a major role in the creation of Starting at Zero. For 20 years, he was responsible for initiating and producing all of the music, films and promotional material relating to the Hendrix Estate.

He’d assumed control in 1974, at a time when Hendrix's legacy was coming under threat from the onset of punk and increasingly poor album releases — the last of which bore the title Loose Ends.

For more about the book, visit starting-at-zero.com and bloomsbury.com.

Starting at Zero: His Own Story (Bloomsbury USA), $26, October 2013

Michael Angelo Batio has released the music video for a new song, "8 Pillars of Steel."

The guitar-heavy instrumental track, which is from Batio's new album, Intermezzo, was written by Batio and features guest appearances — and solos — by George Lynch, bassist Elliott Dean Rubinson (Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker), Jeff Loomis (Conquering Dystopia, Nevermore), Craig Goldy (Dio), Dave Reffett (Shredding The Envelope), Andrea Martongelli (Arthemis) and Rusty Cooley (Day Of Reckoning).

That's drummer Joe Babiak behind the kit.

"8 Pillars Of Steel" is the first single from the new album, which is Batio's first album to feature his new signature model Dean MAB 7 Warrior seven-string guitar.

Other guest stars on the album include Guthrie Govan, Michael Romeo (Symphony X), Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth, OHM), Mike Lepond (Symphony X), Joe Stump (Holy Hell), Andrea Martongelli, Alex Stornello, Bill Peck, Maxxxwell Carlisle, Florent Atem, Annie Grunwald (Formless), Tobias Hurwitz, Joe Rose and more.

Check out the complete track listing below the video.

The album is available at angelo.com and iTunes.

Intermezzo Track Listing

01. Intermezzo
02. Kaleidoscope Images
03. Oceans of Time
04. I Pray the Lord
05. 8 Pillars of Steel (featuring Elliott Dean Rubinson on bass; solos by, in order, Dave Reffett, Jeff Loomis, MAB, Rusty Cooley, George Lynch, Andrea Martongelli and Craig Goldy)
06. The Possession – A Tone Poem
07. 5 Four Ever (featuring Alex Stornello from 2:34 to 3:07 and Guthrie Govan from 3:22 to 4:08)
08. Juggernaut (featuring solos by MAB, Chris Poland, Dave Reffett, Annie Grunwald, Guthrie Govan, Mike Lepond and Michael Romeo)
09. Overload Intro (featuring Florent Atem)
10. Overload (featuring solos by Tobias Hurwitz, Ken and Darren Burridge, Bill Peck, Peter Ema, Joe Rose, Joe Stump, Florent Atem, Maxxxwell Carlisle and MAB)

After forming in the late Eighties, Winger soared to success with their debut self-titled release, the platinum-selling disc that included the songs "Madalaine,"“Seventeen” and “Headed For A Heartbreak."

Their followup album, 1990's In The Heart Of The Young, kept things moving right along with the successful singles “Can’t Get Enuff” and “Miles Away."

But the advent of grunge and change in musical climate, coupled with being the target of two notorious cartoon characters (Beavis and Butthead) that eventually led the band to go on hiatus. In 2001, however, Winger reunited, they haven't looked back since, repeatedly winning back fans and critics through relentless touring, incredible musicianship and strong songwriting.

Winger's new album, Better Days Comin’, which will be released April 22, is another testament to the band's legacy and perseverance. Guitarist Reb Beach — who also plays in Whitesnake — and vocalist/bassist Kip Winger have put together a collection of songs that combine tasty riffs, infectious grooves and unique arrangements. The band is rounded out by John Roth (guitar) and Rod Morgenstein (drums).

Better Days Comin’ is available for pre-order now, with a deluxe edition that includes a bonus track and a DVD featuring a "making of" documentary and videos for the album's first single, “Rat Race,” and the title track.

I recently spoke with Beach about the new Winger album and his early years and session work. He also gave me an update on his next solo album.

GUITAR WORLD: It's been five years since the band's last album, Karma. Why such a long wait?

One of the things is scheduling. Rod [Morgenstein] is a professor at Berklee, John Roth is in Starship, Kip is doing classical music and scoring for orchestras and I'm in Whitesnake. So getting everyone together to do an entire record can be tough. But once we started, it all came together pretty quickly.

How would you describe Better Days Comin’?

It's kind of a cross between our last two albums, IV and Karma. It has elements of both. There's a very progressive song on there called "Tin Soldier," and then there are rock songs like "Rat Race" and "Midnight Driver of a Love Machine" a la Karma. The sound quality of this record, though, is one of our best. Kip does a large portion of the production and mixing.

What was the writing process like?

It's always the riff first. I'm very good at coming up with them, and as soon as I do, Kip knows exactly where to go with it. He has such an incredible knowledge of classical composition that he can create these really unique arrangements. He basically hears the whole song in his head.

Let's talk a little about your playing. What inspired you to first pick up the guitar?

I originally started out on piano and had thoughts of becoming the next Elton John [laughs]. I remember my mom had bought me an acoustic guitar that pretty much just sat under my bed because it hurt my fingers when I played and was just a pain in the ass. But then one day, I saw Kiss, and that was it. I said, "I want to do THAT!" [laughs].

How did you practice in your early days?

I used to just come home from school and play along to records. I actually learned a lot about how to play from the first Molly Hatchet record. I learned that entire album, front to back and used to play it every day. Eventually, I branched out and started getting into tapping.

How did you get involved in studio work?

I remember I was playing in a top 40 band in Fort Lauderdale. It was a good time, but I really wanted to write. So I went to New York and got my foot in the door at Atlantic Records. While I was there I did a session with Fiona, who had a record deal. Beau Hill was producing the album and wound up using me on everything he did after that. He also had Kip Winger on bass, and that was how we met.

Did the experience of studio work teach you anything?

Absolutely. I learned a lot about the art of recording and was playing on all kinds of stuff. But it got to a point to where the music I was doing started to become a drag. That was when Beau suggested I start a band with Kip, and that's what we did.

How did your relationship with Suhr guitars start?

I used to go to a place in New York called Rudy's Music Stop where Rudy Pensa had his Pensa guitars. They were all assembled and set-up by a guy named John Suhr who worked there. I remember John had this Koa body guitar that I just fell in love with. I thought it was the greatest guitar I had ever seen. So I took out a loan and I bought it. Over the years, I kept in touch with John and we eventually hooked up. His business is always growing. They're the finest guitars I've ever played.

What can you tell us about your upcoming solo album?

I've been working on it on and off for the past few years and am finally done with the writing portion. I have 10 songs that are all really good. It's very reminiscent of my Fusion Demos project. It's classy, jazz music with a rock edge. It will be my first instrumental album and has a sound I've been wanting to do my whole life.

When you look back at the legacy of Winger, what comes to mind?

Our friendship. That's the difference between Winger and so many other bands. We're all really good friends. Not only are the guys super musicians and so good at their craft, but they're also really cool people. It's great to be up there doing it as a team.

For more information:

• wingertheband.com
• Facebook
• Pre-order the album on Amazon.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

The Howlin’ Brothers had a very good year in 2013, following the release of HOWL, their first nationally and internationally released album.

HOWL, featuring Warren Haynes (on one track, “Big Time”), brought instant success to the band.

The trio toured their brand of “old-time string country blues with an indie-rock edge” throughout the U.S. and into Canada.

The majority of the 13 original songs that comprise Trouble, due out April 29, 2014, were influenced by the people they met and struggles they encountered on the road over the past year.

Trouble was produced and engineered by indie rocker Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs and solo career fame. It will be released on CD and digitally April 29th via Benson’s independent label Readymade Records (in the U.S.), and distributed by Thirty Tigers/RED. In Canada, it will be released via Dine Alone Records, and distributed by Universal. It will be released throughout Europe via CRS on April 28th. The vinyl configuration will follow on May 27th in the U.S. and Canada, and on May 26th throughout Europe.

Benson describes Trouble as “effortless artistry . . . woebegone, lovelorn and wrought with pain, but not without installments of lightheartedness and beauty, downtrodden and then uplifted.” He adds, “The Howlin’ Brothers are somehow able to conjure images of a bygone era and make it believable. Trouble is all over the map and I don’t just mean figuratively. The listener gets a glimpse into the troubadour lifestyle, traveling (among other places) to Louisiana for a Cajun romp on the bayou and across the Arizona desert to California on a search for a misses. It’s a journey very much worth the while. Hoooowwwwllll!”

According to Jared Green, “The songs on Trouble are very different from one another. It’s a collection of beautiful music influenced from personal experience. We tend to write songs separately and collaborate after a melody or lyrics are fully thought. Trouble is a gumbo of stories that we hope the whole world will hear.”

In the fall of 2013, The Howlin’ Brothers recorded and digitally released The Sun Studio Session EP in the U.S. and Canada. Recorded as part of the PBS series The Sun Studio Sessions, this six-song collection features four new originals (one of which, “Troubled Waltz,” was re-recorded for Trouble), a re-record of “Tennessee Blues” (from HOWL), and a cover of the Carl Perkins' classic “Dixie Fried.” A limited edition vinyl pressing will also be released via independent music stores on May 27th in the U.S. and Canada as well, and the EP will also be released in Europe on July 7 in CD, digital, and vinyl.

Their segment (#8) of the PBS show has already begun airing and will be broadcast on TV in as many as 100 markets throughout this year in the U.S. The guys treated the opportunity to record in that historic studio with respect and really captured the spirit & tradition of those famous early rock ’n’ roll recordings that helped change the music world, by breathing new life into the process — adding subtle modern touches via their own influences and vision.

Here's their video for "Big Time."

THE HOWLIN' BROTHERS ARE
Ian Craft (Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle, Kick-drum, Vocals)
Jared Green (Guitar, Harmonica, Piano, Vocals)
Ben Plasse (Upright Bass, Vocals)

Special guest artists on Trouble include:
Ricky Skaggs - mandolin on "Hard Times" and "Sing a Sad Song"
Etta Britt (also Brother Jared’s mother-in-law) - Background vocals on "Love" and "Yes I Am"
Mike Freid - Pedal Steel on "World Spinning Round”
Gregg Stock - drums on “Sing A Sad Song"
Brendan Benson - Washtub Bass on “Boogie” and background vocals on “Yes I Am!"

TOUR DATES
Mon., March 3 NEW YORK, NY Rockwood Music Hall 2
Wed., March 5 WILMINGTON, DE Wolrd Cafe at Queen World Cafe Live
Thurs., March 6 WASHINGTON DC Gypsy Sally’s; co-bill w/The Honeycutter
WAMU 88.5 FM interview and performance taping, 4 p.m.
Fri., March 7 FREDERICK, MD Weinberg Center for the Arts co-bil w/The Honeycutters and Steel Wheels
Sat., March 8 JOHNSON CITY, TN The Down Home

March 11-15 AUSTIN, TX SXSW:
Tues., March 11, 5 p.m. - KDRP on-air performance, location TBA
Wed., March 12, 1 p.m. - Guitartown/Conqueroo Kickoff, The Dogwood
Wed, March 12, 1 a.m. - Official SXSW, KCA Showcase at Shotguns
Thurs., March 13, 12 noon - 5th Annual Radio-thon (WLVR - 91.3 FM), SXSW session
Thurs., March 13, 2 p.m. - Lucy’s South by South Austin Chicken Revival
Thurs., March 13, 9:40 p.m. - Grammy Museum, Rolling Stones tribute, Red Eyed Fly
Thurs., March 13, 12 Midnight – Official SXSW, Readymade showcase, Maggie Mae’s Gibson Lounge
Fri., March 14, 3:30 p.m. – Grade Ole Austin at Maria’s Taco Xpress
Fri., March 14, 6 p.m. - The Midway Foodpark

Sun., March 16 FT. COLLINS, CO Avogadro’s Number
KRBX 89.9 FM, Radio Boise presents … (t), on-air interview, performance
Tues., March 18 BOISE, ID Neurolux
Wed., March 19 BEND, OR Father Luke's Room at Old St. Francis School *
Thurs., March 20 PORTLAND, OR Kennedy School Gymnasium *
Fri., March 21 GEARHART, OR Sand Trap Pub at Gearhart Hotel *
Sat., March 22 McMINNVILLE, OR Mattie’s Room at Hotel Oregon *
Sun., March 23 PORTLAND, OR Lola’s Room at the Crystal Hotel *
Tues., March 25 CENTRALIA, WA The Olympic Club Theater *
Wed., March 26 BAINBRIDGE ISLAND (SEATTLE), WA Treehouse Cafe
Thurs., March 27 TROUTDALE, OR Edgefield Blackberry Hall *
Fri., March 28 FOREST GROVE, OR The Compass Room Theater at Grand Lodge*
Sat., March 29 BELLINGHAM, WA Green Frog Acoustic Tavern
Sun., March 30 VANCOUVER, BC Railway Club
Thurs., April 3 (t) SALT LAKE CITY, UT or LINCOLN, NE TBD
Fri., April 4 DENVER, CO Swallow Hill Music Cafe
Sat., April 5 KANSAS CITY, MO Knuckleheads
Thurs., April 10 (t) ATLANTA, GA Smith’s Olde Bar
WDVX - FM, Blue Plate Special, noon. www.wdvx.com
(t) Wildman Steve Radio taping, 2:30 p.m. www.WildmanSteve.com
Fri., April 11 BROOKVILLE, FL Sertoma Ranch/SpringBreak Festival
Sat., April 12 ATHENS, GA The World Famous
Tues., April 15 NASHVILLE, TN WSM 650 AM Morning Show performance/interview (9:15 a.m.)
Thurs., April 17 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK Blue Door
Sat., April 19 CONROE, TX (Houston metro) Doseyt Doe Music Cafe
Sun., April 20 AUSTIN, TX Saxon Pub
Fri., April 25 INDIO, CA Stagecoach Festival, Empire Polo Field
Sat., May 3 CARBONDALE, IL Tres Hombres
Sun., May 4 NASHVILLE, TN 3rd & Lindsay, 8 p.m. Broadcast live on WRLT 100 FM, Radio Lighting
Fri., May 16 GETTYSBURG, PA Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival
Fri., May 23 ALBANY, NY The Linda
Fri., May 30 GOSHEN, IN Ignition Music
Sat., May 31 LOUISVILLE, KY Decca Restaurant
Fri., Aug. 22 LAWNDALE, NC Clear Mountain View Music Festival
Sat., June 14 PALISADE, CO Palisade Bluegrass & Roots Festival
Fri., Oct. 10 LONDON, UK Shepherd’s Bush Empire Brendan Benson & Friends, a benefit for the David Lynch Foundation.

Find out more at http://thehowlinbrothers.com

With his new record, The Straight and Narrow Way, NYC-native Riley Etheridge Jr. is proclaiming a new sound.

As a singer-songwriter with a carefully crafted four-album catalog, Etheridge noticed something on a previous tours: music makes people dance, and as a performer, what’s a better feeling?

With this realization in mind, he created The Straight and Narrow Way––an Etheridge-style party record born from freewheeling recording sessions in Los Angeles, Nashville, and New Orleans.

Chock full of feel-good acoustic tracks, the record features collaborations with a host of special guests including Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, drum legend Jim Keltner (Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Tom Petty), guitarist extraordinaire Shane Theriot (Neville Brothers, Dr. John), producer Wendell Tilley and more.

So what’s it sound like? That would best be described by Keltner himself, “Steely Dan got lost over a long weekend in New Orleans."

Learn more in our interview with Riley Etheridge Jr. below, and enjoy an exclusive stream of album-standout “The Maze,” featuring Sara Watkins. The Straight and Narrow Way is available March 18th, just in time for Etheridge to hit the road with Leon Russell this April and May.

Tell us about your artistic epiphany that inspired the sound on The Straight and Narrow Way.

It was truly a result of our live shows, and watching people dance to some of the new songs we were working out. That inspiration, combined with the addition of Shane Theriot to our production team brought a fresh, funkier perspective to this record.

Can you explain your songwriting process for the album? Was it different from your earlier records?

The process was very different. Wendell Tilley, Shane and I wrote several songs together over a few weekends in Nashville, and the success of those sessions spurred us all on to write more individually and contribute new ideas. Previously I tended to show up for sessions with finished songs for consideration, but this record was more collaborative and spontaneous.

You have an impressive lineup of guest artists featured on the record.

I feel very fortunate to have players like Jim Keltner and Dan Dugmore on the record. Jim is a friend of Shane's and Dan has a close relationship with Wendell, and now has played on all four of my records.

They both approach the songs in a musical and distinctive way that only their legacy of experience can bring. We just rolled the tape and let them play whatever they heard!

You have two songs featuring Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek, can you tell us a little about how that came about?

Sara's last solo album Sun Midnight Sun has been one of my favorite records of the last few years. When we decided that "The Maze" and "Another Time, Another Place" were suited for female harmonies, recording with Sara was at the top of my list.

We had met briefly playing the 2013 Cayamo Music Cruise, and we had a connection with her management through my label Rockridge Music. As luck would have it, I was in Southern California at a time that worked for her and we were able to finish both the vocals and the beautiful violin parts in one session.

Listen to “The Maze” here:

Tell us about some of the acoustic guitars and other gear you used on the album.

The two main acoustics on the record were my Collings OM that I have been playing live lately, and an old Martin that belongs to Wendell. While we tracked the record in 5 different studios, the bulk was done in New Orleans at Fudge Recording, a studio with a great collection of vintage preamps and mics.

How does it feel to have a tour lined up opening for Leon Russell?

It feels amazing! Leon has been an inspiration to me since the first time I heard "Lady Blue" in the ‘70s, and his wonderful collaboration with Elton John and T-Bone Burnett last year is a gem. I am really looking forward to hearing him play for ten nights.

Will you do the tour with a band or solo? Should we expect a lot of acoustic magic live, too?

I will do the Leon Russell tour as an acoustic duo with Kenji Shinagawa on mandolin, and I will probably bring my Collings OM and a Santa Cruz Vintage Southerner along for the party.

Find out more at rockridgemusic.com/rileyetheridge

Fingerpicking Neil Young's Greatest Hits is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $12.99.

This fantastic collection offers fingerpicking arrangements in notes and tab for 16 Neil Young classics!

Includes:

• After the Gold Rush
• Cinnamon Girl
• Harvest Moon
• Heart of Gold
• Helpless
• Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
• Like a Hurricane
• Ohio
• Old Man
• Rockin' in the Free World
• Southern Man

... and more, plus a helpful introduction to fingerstyle guitar and loads of photos, design pages and lyric sheets. 80 pages!

Head to the Guitar World Online Store now.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the premiere of a new music video from Ozzy Osbourne/Firewind guitarist Gus G — "I Am the Fire," featuring Devour The Day.

The track is from Gus' solo debut, I Am The Fire, which will be released March 18 via Century Media Records.

Gus handles all guitar, bass and keyboards on the album.

He's also joined by a host of friends and guests, including drummers Jeff Friedl (A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Devo) and Daniel Erlandsson (Arch Enemy), bassists David Ellefson (Megadeth), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Marty O'Brien (Tommy Lee, We Are the Fallen) and vocalists Mats Leven (Candlemass), Blake Allison (Devour The Day), Michael Starr (Steel Panther) and many more.

You can see a complete track listing below.

"I Am the Fire," featuring Devour The Day is available now at iTunes, and fans also can pre-order the album here.

For more about Gus G and the new album, visit gusgofficial.com and his Facebook page. You can catch up on Gus G's spring tour dates below the video.

I Am The Fire Track Listing

01. My Will Be Done (feat. Mats Levén)
02. Blame It On Me (feat. Mats Levén)
03. I Am The Fire (feat. Devour The Day)
04. Vengeance (feat. David Ellefson)
05. Long Way Down (feat. Alexia Rodriguez)
06. Just Can’t Let Go (feat. Jacob Bunton)
07. Terrified (feat. Billy Sheehan)
08. Eyes Wide Open (feat. Mats Levén)
09. Redemption (feat. Michael Starr)
10. Summer Days (feat. Jeff Scott Soto)
11. Dreamkeeper (feat. Tom S. Englund)
12. End Of The Line (feat. Mats Levén)

GUS G. w/ Uli Jon Roth, Jorn Lande & Mats Levén / “Unity 1” Tour:

Mar. 7 - Kerkyra (Greece) - Eptatehnon
Mar. 8 - Thessaloniki (Greece) - Block 33 / www.ticketarena.gr
Mar. 9 - Edessa (Greece) - Kanavourgeio
Mar. 10 - Larnaca (Cyprus) - Savino Rock Bar
Mar. 11 - Athens (Greece) - Kyttaro Live / www.ticketarena.gr
Mar. 12 - Athens (Greece) - Kyttaro Live / www.ticketarena.gr

GUS G. w/ Marty Friedman / “Guitar Universe 2” Co-Headline Tour:

May 1 - Tampere (Finland) - Klubi
May 2 - Helsinki (Finland) - Nosturi
May 3 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Stockholm Rocks Festival
May 5 - Gothenburg (Sweden) - Trädgårn
May 7 - Malmö (Sweden) - KB
May 9 - Krakow (Poland) - Lizzard King
May 10 - Warsaw (Poland) - Progresja
May 12 - Munich (Germany) - Backstage
May 13 - Colmar (France) - Grillen
May 15 - Essen (Germany) - Turock
May 16 - Zoetermeer (The Netherlands) - De Boerderij
May 17 - Hasselt (Belgium) - MuziekoDroom
May 18 - Uden (The Netherlands) - De Pul
May 20 - Savigny Le Temple (France) - L’ Impreinte
May 21 - London (UK) - O2 Islington Academy
May 22 - Nuneaton (UK) - Queens Hall

Joyful Noise Recordings is pleased to announce the release of violinist, singer and composer Kishi Bashi's sophomore album titled Lighght, which will be released worldwide on Tuesday, May 13.

Taking its title from the one-word poem by minimalist poet Aram Saroyan, Lighght (pronounced "Light") continues and expands the sound of his critically acclaimed debut, 151a, which earned Kishi Bashi the title of "Best New Artist" for 2012 by NPR.

Since the profoundly successful release of 151a two years ago, Kishi Bashi has toured relentlessly, captivating audiences across the globe with his loop-based live show, and fostering a groundswell of devotees.

Check out the first song off of Lighght titled "Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!"

151a was crafted over a four-year period while Kishi Bashi, the pseudonym for artist K. Ishibashi, was touring and recording with Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and of Montreal (where he was a full-time member and co-producer).

In late 2012, after the success of 151a, Kishi Bashi decided to focus solely on his own music and began composing the new material, which led to the songs that are featured on Lighght.

Though violin remains his primary instrument and songwriting muse, Kishi Bashi has expanded his palette to include more diverse and nuanced instrumentation on Lighght. Bright and soaring avant-pop songs are prevalent, as are Eastern-tinged arrangements, gentle ballads, Philip Glass-inspired improvisations, and more than a few moments that flirt with '70s prog (in the tradition of ELO or Yes). If this sounds jarringly kaleidoscopic, that's because it is. But it works.

In addition to the release of the album, Kishi Bashi will be making the following appearances during SXSW next week in Austin, Texas.

Kishi Bashi at SXSW
Friday, March 14 - Aerobic International OFFICIAL SXSW Showcase at Half Step Bar
Saturday, March 15 - Pandora Showcase at The Gatsby
Saturday, March 15 - Denver Post Reverb Showcase at The Dirty Dog
Saturday, March 15 - Wild Honey Pie Presents "The Beehive Showcase" at Cheer Up Charlie's

Find out more at http://www.kishibashi.com

Steve Stine, highly sought-after guitar educator, teaches live group and private classes at LessonFace.com.

In the last installment of my "Absolute Fretboard Mastery" series, we touched on mastering your open chords, your barre chords and the notes along your fifth string.

It’s been about a month since then, so I hope you’ve practiced hard and that you’re ready for this month’s installment.

Today we’re going to pick things up where we left off by tackling the notes on the fourth string. And remember, we’re going to be focusing on the prime pitches — that is A, B, C, D, E, F, G — like we did with the fifth and sixth strings.

I do this because I’ve learned that simplifying the notes across the fretboard can make things easier for students to master them.

And once you’ve learned where these seven notes are on the fretboard, playing them as sharps or flats simply becomes a matter of moving up or down a fret.

Again, when memorizing these notes on the fourth string, I want you to cross-reference each of them with the fifth and sixth strings. So for example, when memorizing the E on the second fret of the fourth string, you should cross-reference that with the same note on the fifth fret of the fifth string and the 12th fret on the sixth string.

Another little shortcut I want to point out at this point is how, when playing your power chords, the octave of your root note on the sixth string will be two frets higher on your fourth string. For example, when you’re playing a fifth-fret A power chord on the sixth string, the octave of the A note will be on the seventh fret of the fourth string. This is another little tool to help you visualize your notes and cross-reference them across the fretboard easily.

The next thing I’m going to talk about in this lesson is the "blue note." For those of you who don’t know, the "blue note" is a single note we add into our pentatonic major or minor to turn them into blues scales. For example, let’s take the first position of the A minor pentatonic scale:

Turning this into a blues scale is as simple as adding the note on the sixth fret on the fifth string. This is also called a flat fifth.

This blue note is a note that guitarists aim to include in their licks when playing the blues. But the problem with this note is that if it is emphasized, it results in a diminished sound that can sound pretty awkward. So when using this note, it is always important to use it in conjunction with other notes and never as a target note.

For example, if we were to solo in the key of A minor, one of our target notes would be A. But what we can do is introduce the blue note in conjunction with other notes in the key of A minor to add a lot of color to our licks.

Another thing you will notice at this point is that when you continue down this scale into the next octave, you’ll also come across the octave of the blue note. So for example, if you were to continue down the A minor pentatonic in this first position, you’ll notice that you’ll come across the blue note again on the eighth fret on the third string.

Remember, we haven’t even started talking about specific licks and patterns that we can use the blue note in. So what I want you to do for now is to start using this blue note when meandering in your minor pentatonic scales. Once you’ve got the blue note mastered in all five positions of the A minor pentatonic scale, I want you to practice using it in and memorizing it in all other minor pentatonic scales. This way once you’re ready to use the blue note to create a lick or a solo you’ll know with absolute certainty where your blue notes are located across the entire fretboard.

Next, what we’re going to do is to learn add the blue note to the major pentatonic scale. Let’s take the first position of the A major pentatonic scale:

The blue note is going to end up visually in a similar spot, on the third fret of the second string. This is called a raised second or a flat third. Theoretically, this is different from the blue note in the minor pentatonic, but what I want you to notice here is how adding the blue note in a minor pentatonic and major pentatonic is visually similar.

Again, what I want you to do is to start using this blue note when meandering in this first position of A major pentatonic. Once you’ve mastered that, move onto including it in all five positions. Once you’ve done this, you can start memorizing this note in the five positions of all other major pentatonic scales.

The next thing I want to talk about is a concept I use in meandering called the “Rhythm Pyramid.” When we think of a pyramid, we picture a large base that tapers off into a small top. As far as guitar playing goes, whatever we play on the instrument is based on pitch and rhythm. Rhythms are whole notes, half notes and quarter notes and so on, all of which tends to get confusing at times. So what I want you to do is look at rhythm like a pyramid.

• By doing this, all you have to remember is that a whole note is worth four beats.
• A half note is worth two beats.
• A quarter note is worth one beat.
• An eighth note is worth half a beat.
• And a 16th note is worth a quarter of a beat.

Visualize this: When we move up our rhythm pyramid, we’re going twice as fast as the earlier count; or, in other words, using phrases that are half the size.

Coming back to the concept of meandering, what we’ve been doing so far is training ourselves to meander without stopping. This isn’t necessarily that musical, but what we've been doing is getting our brain and our hands comfortable with moving around constantly on the fretboard.

In last month’s lesson, we worked on adding in some pauses into our meandering. This is what I want to elaborate on today.

When we think about creating phrases in a guitar solo or passage, we can use pauses or complete stops. So this week, I want you to practice including these pauses and stops into your meandering to break it up into different phrases. When doing this, you’ll notice how things are starting to sound more and more musical.

The more you work on this, the better you’ll get at it, and it's at this point that you’ll start to get a feel for how long you should play a particular phrase and when you should stop.

The next thing we’re going to do is introduce our idea of a rhythm pyramid into this meandering. Earlier, we were moving at one speed with notes of the same length. Now we can start thinking about using whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes and 16th notes to create to create various melodic phrases.

The last thing I want you to do this month, which relates to the technical side of things, is go back to a video of mine on GuitarWorld.com called Three Steps to Shred: Fundamental Daily Practice Techniques in About 15 Minutes and start incorporating its techniques into your daily practice.

As we progress through this series, you’ll start to notice how the basics we touch on during the earlier lessons start coming together to lead into more advanced concepts, so I hope you keep up and you keep internalizing the techniques I teach every lesson.

Check back next month for the Part 4 of "Absolute Fretboard Mastery"— and keep practicing hard!

Steve Stine is a longtime and sought-after guitar teacher who is professor of Modern Guitar Studies at North Dakota State University. Over the last 27 years, he has taught thousands of students, including established touring musicians, and released numerous video guitar lesson courses via established publishers. A resident of Fargo, North Dakota, today he is more accessible than ever before through the convenience of live online guitar lessons at LessonFace.com.

LessonFace.com offers live online music lessons via videoconference, allowing you to access top teachers in a wide variety of instruments from anywhere with a broadband connection. More information about live online lessons with Steve is available at lessonface.com/player.

Earlier today, Queen and Adam Lambert announced a 19-date North American tour.

The tour will kick off June 19 in Chicago and wind its way to Washington D.C.'s Merriweather Post Pavilion on July 20. You can check out all the announced dates below.

This will be Lambert's first tour with the remaining members of Queen — guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The trio first performed together on a 2009 edition of American Idol; they later got together in 2011 "The Show Must Go On,""We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" at the MTV European Music Awards.

Two years ago, Lambert hooked up with the band for several shows in Europe.

"It was great with Paul [Rodgers], but it came to a natural end," May said at a press conference at New York City's Madison Square Garden. "This happened organically with Adam. People are going to ask whether it's Queen without Freddie. I don't know. We just want to go out there one more time. Adam isn't an imitator. We're going into new territory."

"Adam is the most incredible frontman," Taylor added. "He's a great diva, and I mean that in the best possible way. We need that theatrically."

“I'm completely in awe of the Queen phenomenon,” Lambert said in a statement. “The thought of sharing the stage for a full set in North America is so beautifully surreal. I'm honored to be able to pay my respects to Freddie's memory; he's a personal hero of mine, and I am deeply grateful for the chance to sing such powerful music for fans of this legendary band. I know this tour will be a huge milestone for me, and with the support of Brian, Roger and the rest of the band, I feel like magic will be on display.”

As far as the set list, the band are looking to pull from every corner of Queen's catalog.

"Our biggest problem is having too many hits," May said. "We have a very interesting set design. It's big and daring. We're gonna do it to the max." Lambert said he'd love to perform "Dragon Attack" from The Game. "It's such a cool groove," said the singer.

Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Dates

6/19 Chicago - United Center
6/21 Winnipeg - MTS Centre
6/23 Saskatoon - Credit Union Centre
6/24 Edmonton - Rexall Place
6/26 Calgary - Scotiabank Saddledome
6/28 Vancouver - Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
7/1 San Jose - SAP Center
7/3 Los Angeles - The Forum
7/5 Las Vegas - The Joint
7/6 Las Vegas - The Joint
7/9 Houston - Toyota Center
7/10 Dallas - American Airlines Center
7/12 Detroit - The Palace of Auburn Hills
7/13 Toronto - Air Canada Centre
7/14 Montreal - Bell Centre
7/16 Philadelphia - Wells Fargo Center
7/17 New York - Madison Square Garden
7/19 Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
7/20 Washington, DC - Merriweather Post Pavilion

From Les Paul to Paul Gilbert, Johnny Winter to Johnny Hiland, and Paco De Lucia to Al Di Meola, fleet-fingered guitarists have made their mark in every genre throughout the modern history of the guitar.

Guitar World exceeds the legal limit with this roundup — in alphabetical order — of the 50 fastest masters of the fretboard.

And if you're not completely happy with our choices, be sure to take our poll so you choose the shredder (or jazzer or chicken-picker, etc.) of your choice. Check out our poll right here.

Trey Azagthoth
SIGNATURE SONG: “Summoning Redemption”
ALBUM: Gateways to Annihilation (MORBID ANGEL)

When a guitarist cites Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and Mozart as influences, you could probably bet your life savings he’s a shredder.

But guitarist Trey Azagthoth is not the typical fret burner, preferring the brute force and bludgeoning energy of death metal over the more rarified air of instrumental rock. Azagthoth’s rough and raw solos sound completely spontaneous, eschewing the technical precision of a prewritten solo for sheer emotion that comes directly from the gut.

He may look like some geek from a Tolkien fest who has an unhealthy obsession with Gollum, but precious few players can match Mick Barr’s intensity and speed, which has reportedly been clocked at up to 24 notes per second.

The music that Barr records under the pseudonyms Octis, Ocrilim, Or:12r3 and Orthrelm is challenging, to say the least, for its avant-garde atonal melodies. But although it may sound like noodling to the untrained ear, Barr’s bizarre scales and lack of repetition prove that he’s working on another level altogether. It’s rock, Jim, but not as we know it.

Michael Angelo Batio encompasses everything a shred guitar hero should be. Renaissance-inspired name? Check. Insanely fast, overthe- top (literally) ambidextrous technique? Check. Wacky, unconventional dual- and quad-neck instruments? Check and check.

Casual music fans may consider Batio little more than an oddity or cult figure (allmusic.com didn’t even bother writing a bio for him or rating any of his seven albums), but real guitar fans know and appreciate him as the shred god he truly is. As generous as he is gifted, Batio has revealed the secrets of his incredible technique to players like Tom Morello and Mark Tremonti as well as to readers of his Guitar World columns.

Even with his help, we still can’t figure out how he plays so friggin’ fast.

A titan of neoclassical shredding, Jason Becker’s astounding arpeggios made him a youthful champion of the Shrapnel Records stable in the late Eighties.

He went on to play with David Lee Roth but was stricken with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) while working on Roth’s 1991 album, A Little Ain’t Enough. The condition has left him almost completely paralyzed and unable to speak, but he continues to compose music via a computer program that can track the movements of his eyes and head.

His courage, determination and continued creativity in the face of extreme difficulty are every bit as inspiring as the dazzling virtuosity of his youthful guitar work.

Jazz legend Barney Kessel once called Jimmy Bryant “the fastest and the cleanest guitar player I have known.” Listening to Bryant’s timeless instrumental duos with pedalsteel guitarist Speedy West, one instantly realizes that Kessel wasn’t complimenting Bryant’s punctuality and hygiene.

Bryant played a wild fusion of country and jazz equally influenced by Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz and Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys western swing, and he became an important figure on the West Coast studio scene, accompanying country artists like Tennessee Ernie Ford and Tex Williams as well as pop artists like Bing Crosby and Spike Jones. Bryant’s work with Speedy West recorded in the Fifties showcases his talents at their unrestrained peak.

He may wear a KFC bucket on his noggin, but that ain’t no chicken pickin’ emanating from Buckethead’s amps.

The guitarist known to his parents as Brian Carroll is one of the most eccentric players to ever master the six-string, one whose playing can shift in a 32nd-note triplet from downright weird computer meltdown noises to hauntingly beautiful arpeggios.

While he’s become known to the general public through his soundtrack work on major films like Saw II and his collaborations with Guns N’ Roses and actor Viggo Mortensen, Bucket’s three dozen or so solo albums remain the best source for experiencing his mad genius.

Dimebag grabbed the baton from players like Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads and proceeded to shove it up the ass of pretentious neoclassical guitarists with his incredibly heavy, unapologetically raw pentatonic shredding.

The solos that Dimebag recorded with Pantera and Damageplan are impressive, but his true talents exploded on the concert stage, where he could let loose with wild abandon, inspired by hell-raising crowds and shirt-raising hotties. While most thrash bands did away with solos during the Nineties, Dimebag kept the shred flag flying like the stars and bars over the South Carolina State House.

Born into a family of Spanish flamenco performers, the late Paco de Lucia came to the international guitar arena with a background rich in colorful history, artistic passion and centuries of mesmerizing guitar technique.

A traditional flamenco performer from the mid Sixties to the late Seventies, he crossed over to fusion, jazz and world music audiences via virtuoso collaborations with Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell.

What De Lucia brought to the party was the rhythmic fire of flamenco, a stunning five-finger picking style and a dizzying repertoire of rasgueados, picados and other flamenco techniques. His forays into jazz, classical and other genres have also enriched his expressiveness within the flamenco idiom. In any genre, Paco de Lucia made those nylon strings burn like molten lava.

A blizzard of dotted 32nd notes in the shape of an Italian-American guy from New Jersey, Al Di Meola was one of the premier guitar architects of the jazz rock fusion genre that started in the Seventies. He’s responsible for bringing the rich guitar heritage of Spain and Latin America into the fusion arena.

His lightning-fast left hand is complemented by distinctive right-hand palmmuting techniques that some Seventies wags were fond of describing as “that rubberband sound.” Di Meola’s work with Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, his solo efforts and collaborations with fellow guitar legends John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia have considerably raised the standard of excellence for both acoustic and electric guitar performance.

Marty Friedman played dueling neoclassical leads with Jason Becker in Cacophony before going on to make thrash metal history as the lead guitarist for Megadeth on their classic albums Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia and Risk.

His shredded arpeggios, hyperactive sweep picking and winning way with exotic scales have stood him in good stead, both in his Megadeth work and his current incarnation as an American expatriate who is definitely big in Japan.

Cliff Gallup recorded only 35 songs as a member of Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps before he quit the band to focus on life as a family man, but that was enough to leave an indelible impression on players like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

With a jazzy style that fused the influence of Chet Atkins and Les Paul, Gallup developed a sophisticated sound that made most blues-influenced rock and rollers sound downright primitive in comparison. Gallup’s cascading triplets and chromatic lines still inspire the same awe as when listeners first heard his solos more than 50 years ago.

In the Eighties Gambale proved that sweep picking wasn’t just for neoclassical rockers, using the technique to great effect on his progressive jazz fusion solo recordings and performances with jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and keyboardist Chick Corea.

A graduate of GIT, Gambale returned there to teach for four years, sharing the secrets of his speed-picking technique with students. His unique approach to sweep picking along with his aggressive tone has helped him gain an audience beyond jazz fusion fans. Gambale remains an innovator, having recently developed an alternate tuning he calls “Gambale tuning,” which he says gives him greater liberty to voice any chord, including closevoiced chords.

It’s easy for critics to dismiss Avenged Sevenfold because they look like a bunch of emo-punk kids who raided Axl Rose’s wardrobe, but no other band has done as much to introduce Generation Y to the shock and awe of a brilliant guitar solo.

Justin Timberlake may be bringing sexy back, but Synyster Gates brought almighty shred to the forefront with his numerous extended no-holds-barred solos on A7X’s albums. A GIT graduate, Gates is a surprisingly versatile guitarist influenced by players ranging from Django to Dimebag.

It was always a treat to watch the late Danny Gatton’s stubby fingers dance like fire on the maple fretboard of his battered Telecaster.

The “Telemaster” fused country, blues, rockabilly and jazz into a blue-collar virtuoso style that the man himself once called “Redneck Jazz.” His unique combination-picking technique (plectrum plus fingerstyle) propelled chicken-pickin’ riffs, muscular jazz chords, blue notes and open-string banjo runs, all of which he made dance gracefully side by side. Gatton took his own life in 1994, opting out of a world where instrumental prowess is no guarantee of commercial success.

His legend and legacy live on.

Paul Gilbert has always been a reluctant guitar hero. He’s humble, good humored, polite and obliging, but when he straps on that guitar, he becomes the biggest, baddest monster in the entire shred forest.

Gilbert’s Eighties work with Racer X and Mr. Big paved the way for a varied and compelling solo career. His fleet and flawless fretwork has always been tempered by highly developed harmonic sensibilities born of his abiding love for pop music.

Maestro Alex Gregory probably earned more enemies than fans in his time. He sued Ibanez over the seven-string guitar (he patented and developed a seven-string Strat with Fender in 1987, three years before the Ibanez Universe hit the market), took the title of “Maestro” (allegedly bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth in 1983) and released an album depicting himself pissing on the graves of Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai.

Even so, he’s earned the respect of many heavy friends, including drummer Matt Bissonette, bass player Dave LaRue and guitarist Albert Lee, all of whom have participated in musical projects with the Maestro. Gregory completed work on his latest album, Bach on Steroids, in 2006, but although the album has received acclaim from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney (“I can’t wait to listen to it in my car!”) no record label has expressed interest in releasing it.

Click here for the video.

Ten years after the untimely death of Danny Gatton, Johnny Hiland emerged with an album released by Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label chock full of impressive country/rockabilly/blues/jazz/rock performances that rivaled those of the Telemaster himself.

Hiland has since broken into the extremely competitive Nashville studio scene, playing on sessions for high profile A-list artists like Toby Keith, Ricky Skaggs and Randy Travis. Like Gatton, Hiland’s playing is as tasteful as it is flashy, displaying an uncanny knack for melody even as he burns up the fretboard at light speed.

Allan Holdsworth developed a cult following of jazz fusion and progressive rock fans for his work with Tony Williams Lifetime and Bill Bruford’s side project U.K., but his name became a household word in the guitar community in the early Eighties when Eddie Van Halen cited him as one of his main influences.

Holdsworth’s flowing legato lines are inspired by the sound of the saxophone and violin, and in his quest for the perfect tone he’s experimented frequently with guitar synthesis systems like the SynthAxe. The blinding speed of Holdsworth’s left hand is truly mind boggling, but even more impressive is his ability to perfectly improvise over incredibly complex and unorthodox chord changes.

It’s easy to dismiss Chris Impellitteri as another in a long line of Yngwie clones, especially since he plays neoclassical metal on a Stratocaster with a scalloped fretboard and he hired former Alcatrazz singer Graham Bonnet to front his band. But anyone who looks past Impellitteri’s hyperspeed sweeppicked harmonic minor scales will notice incendiary chromatic lines rivaling the precision and intensity of Steve Morse and bluesy phrasing that gives his playing distinct character.

Impellitteri enjoys an impressive devoted following in Japan, where he still appears on the cover of guitar magazines, and he’s putting finishing touches on a new album titled Good and Evil.

It takes a sick and twisted mind to be able to play guitar with Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth and country singer k.d. lang. But John5 has exhibited more than enough warped imagination and dazzling dexterity to shine in all these wildly diverse musical settings.

Whether it’s a barn dance or a ritual virgin sacrifice to the Lord of Darkness, count on Mr. 5 to turn up with all the right licks, and the clothes to match.

It’s hard to know whether the Great Kat’s thrash metal interpretations of classical music compositions are meant to be taken seriously—especially when her albums have titles like Beethoven on Speed, Bloody Vivaldi and Rossini’s Rape—but when this Juilliard-trained virtuoso plays it’s certainly no joke.

With a heavy leather dominatrix persona so over the top that she makes Yngwie Malmsteen seem like Tony Randall, the Great Kat would make a fine role model for young ladies who want to shred if she didn’t scare the living shit out of them.

Richie Kotzen made his debut at the tender age of 19, quickly establishing himself as one of the fastest young guns in the whole Shrapnel Records corral. From the start, his style has been admirably fluid, incorporating techniques like tapping and sweeping to create extended legato passages of daunting complexity.

Kotzen has lent these skills to both Poison and Mr. Big. In recent years, he’s emerged as an all-around classic rock talent, adding a soulful Paul Rodgers/Rod Stewart/Steve Marriott–influenced vocal style to his considerable resources as a guitarist.

An incredibly prolific guitarist who is the member of several bands—Children of Bodom, Sinergy and Kylähullut—as well as a frequent guest performer with bands like Annihilator, Godsplague and Pain, Alexi Laiho has probably recorded more notes than Bach ever wrote down on paper over his entire lifetime.

Laiho has mastered the same sweep, tapping and precision picking techniques and neoclassical scales that placed his Scandinavian predecessors on the map, but unlike his cohorts he’s never shown any ambition to record a guitar concerto or metal opera.

Many guitarists pursue speed for its sheer ability to impress others. For Shawn Lane, it was merely one of numerous avenues of expression that he discovered on a strange and twisted path to musical enlightenment that started when he joined southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas at 14 and culminated in his mastery of Indian music in the years before he passed away at the age of 40.

Few, if any, guitarists can play faster than Lane could, and his arpeggio sweeps and precision-picked lines blasted more rapid-fire notes than the average human mind could comprehend, blending into a hypnotic blur that leaves listeners feeling intoxicated and disoriented.

One of the all-time greatest country guitar pickers comes not from America’s sunny deep South but from rainy, gray England. Albert Lee developed his own greased-lightning combinationpicking technique (plectrum plus third, fourth and fifth fingers) and a masterful command of country licks, open-string runs, B-bender gymnastics and all things that go twang in the night.

He can unleash cascades of crystalline notes that fall on the ear like a gentle country rain and execute tear-jerking string bends that slither and slide like a moonshiner’s wagon down an icy stretch of road. Lee has played with everyone from Emmy Lou Harris to Eric Clapton to the Everly Brothers. Now in his Sixties, he shows no sign of slowing down.

Circa 1969, Alvin Lee was the fastest gun in all of guitardom. He wowed Woodstock with 11 minutes of fretboard frenzy called “I’m Going Home” and was duly rewarded with a large watermelon—presumably an organic hippie tribute to the unmitigated ballsiness of Lee’s playing.

Lee and his band, Ten Years After, were among the cream of the mid-Sixties British blues boom—contemporaries and, some would say, co-equals of groups that featured Clapton, Beck and Page.

More than just 10 itchy-fast fingers, the late Lee always balanced his six-string mastery with a strong singing voice, charismatic center stage presence and solid songwriting skills, making him not just another speed demon but an all-around classic rock contender.

Leave it to Dave Mustaine to light a fire under a guitarist’s ass. When Jeff Loomis auditioned for Megadeth at the tender young age of 16, Mustaine told him that he’d become a great guitarist one day but he was too inexperienced for Megadeth. Instead of giving up, Loomis persevered, and six years later he formed the band Nevermore with two ex-members of Sanctuary, with whom he had briefly played as well.

Loomis’ trick bag is deep and diverse, including sweep arpeggios, atonal tapping, whammy pedal effects and tremolo picking, and his solos are like mini compositions within the songs. He may never find a spot in Megadeth’s ever rotating second guitar spot, but he’s already established himself as a worthy player.

When Yngwie Malmsteen released his debut solo album, Rising Force, in 1984, he unleashed the fookin' fury of guitarists, who were already having enough trouble keeping up with Eddie Van Halen. Malmsteen's all-encompassing mastery of speed techniques like sweep-picked arpeggios, tremolo picking, legato, string skipping, tapping and more inspired guitarists to either woodshed or use their guitars as firewood.

Although countless imitators have challenged Yngwie's speed-king crown, none can match the iropeccable precision with which he plays each note and how he makes absolutely every one count from a melodic perspective. Even more frustrating is how easy he makes everything look when he plays onstage, pelforming kung fu kicks and acrobatically flinging his guitar without ever missing a note. Bastard.

Mann-Dude was the ultimate big-hair Hollywood Eighties shredder, but unlike the bulk of preening poodle boys who clogged the classrooms at GIT, he always seemed to have his tongue planted firmly in his cheeks (instead of sucking them in to highlight his cheekbones).

Mann-Dude certainly had the pedigree to prove he wasn’t just a joke. He had previously played drums on a post-Zappa Steve Vai project and was one of only a handful of guitarists who released instrumental shred albums on a major record label (MCA). Ever since stonewashed jeans and K-Swiss high-tops went out of style, Mann-Dude has been missing in action. Dude!

The modern-day shred guitar duos of Dragonforce, Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold have nothing on the furious pace and precision of the performances by Larry Collins and Joe Maphis in the Fifties.

Even more impressive is the fact that Collins was only 10 years old at the time, yet he could keep pace with virtuosos like Maphis and Merle Travis without missing a note. Check out the YouTube videos of “Flying Fingers” and “Wildwood Flower” from vintage broadcasts of the program Ranch Party to witness some of the craziest playing you’ll ever witness, including Maphis and Collins attacking a single double-neck Mosrite at the same time.

Mahavishnu Orchestra guitarist John McLaughlin was the first guitarist to play jazz riffs with all the fierce intensity and brute volume of rock guitar. The world has never been the same since. McLaughlin's Seventies recordings with Mahavishnu pioneered the jazz fusion genre and rocketed electric guitar instrumental music into the Hot 100. His later acoustic work with Shakti was equally influential in forging the world fusion genre.

The clarity, precision, profound conviction and blinding speed of McLaughlin's guitar work has always reflected the emotional depth of his lifelong spiritual devotion and the arduous discipline involved in serious spiritual practice. His dense note clusters propel us toward realms of bliss far beyond this mundane existence.

Vinnie Moore was one of the first contenders to challenge Yngwie Malmsteen for the speed-king throne, releasing the stunning solo effort Mind’s Eye on the Shrapnel label in 1986. While Moore sold respectable amounts of his solo albums, he never reached much of an audience beyond aspiring shred guitarists, who eagerly purchased Moore’s instructional videos in which he revealed the secrets behind his immaculate technique. Moore persevered as a solo artist through the Nineties, but in 2003 he took over the lead guitarist spot in UFO vacated by Michael Schenker.

People laughed back in the Seventies when Steve Morse first sought to combine fusion and Southern boogie with his band, the Dixie Dregs. Fans of the two respective genres here hardly on speaking terms back then, but the last laugh belongs to Morse, who is still going strong today.

He has plied his lightning licks and tenacious technique in the service of numerous genres and bands, including latter-day lineups of Deep Purple and Kansas.

Originally a banjo player, Jimmy Olander quickly shifted his attention to guitar when he realized he’d get more gigs, adapting his advanced five-string banjo playing techniques for the six-string guitar.

In addition to mastering rapid flatpicked bluegrass lines and chicken pickin’ Tele twang, Olander performs amazing pedal steel imitations using a guitar equipped with Joe Glaser string-bending devices on the G and B strings. Although Diamond Rio’s radio-ready tunes rarely give him enough room to truly let rip, when the spotlight shines on him he never fails to impress with his taste and technique.

Even the most diehard country music fan has probably forgotten the band Boy Howdy, which is best known for the hit ballad “She’d Give Everything,” but the sibling dual-guitar team of Cary and Larry Parks recorded several impressive dueling-guitar solos that deserved a much bigger audience.

The sons of bluegrass fiddler Ray Parks, Cary and Larry grew up in the crossfire of Los Angeles’ country rock scene and the more traditional sounds they heard at home. As a result, their unique playing styles blend the chickenpickin’ twang of the Bakersfield sound, the clean cross picking of Kentucky bluegrass and the rowdy attitude of Hollywood rock, best heard on their blazing countrified cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” which comes across like Van Halen and Bill Monroe jamming at a Buck Owens concert.

SORRY: NO VIDEO AVAILABLE!

There are those who swear that prog-metal pioneer John Petrucci has a few extra fingers on both hands that he craftily keeps hidden during photo shoots. How else can one explain the man's ability to make six- and seven-string electric guitars generate quantum-shifted note clusters exceeding the speed oflight?

Maybe it's the six daily hours of practice he put in during his formative years, and his rigorous studies at Berklee, where he mastered the intricacies of sweep and alternate picking. Petrucci's guitar work with Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment and as a solo artist exemplify the present-day ideal of extreme guitar discipline.

The Wizard of Waukesha’s technological contributions to the electric guitar and multitrack recording are so great that people sometimes overlook his accomplishments as a guitarist. His recordings with the Les Paul Trio in the Thirties and Forties helped establish the jazz guitar lexicon, but he was equally handy with a cornball melody for a Top 40 pop hit.

A formidable fretsman and crafty stylist, his highly active brain always seemed to be a little bit ahead of the next chord change, and his nimble fingers knew how to follow. Les’ “New Sound” recordings of the late Forties and early Fifties were the perfect merger of technique and technology.

A dapper Belgian gypsy with a pencil thin mustache and a miraculously nimble left hand, Django set the Twenties and Thirties alight via incendiary guitar performances with the legendary Hot Club of France Quintet and other jazz ensembles. It was a time when the very notion of the guitar solo was just being invented, and Django set a pace that guitarists today are still struggling to match.

The astounding thing is that he did all this with just the index and middle fingers of his left hand—his third finger and pinkie had been seriously maimed in a caravan fire. Yet Django did it all: lightning-fast diminished scale runs, frisky double-stop passages and the most lyrical finger vibrato in all of guitardom.

There’s a plaintive undertone in even the most jaunty Django passages, and likewise a playful wink lurking just behind his most heartbreakingly romantic playing. Django remains the original and ultimate gypsy king.

Metal’s martyred boy-child, Randy Rhoads embraced the tapping, divebombing innovations of Edward Van Halen and brought these techniques to a new plateau in the early Eighties.

He came out of Quiet Riot and the Hollywood hair-band scene to find fame with Ozzy Osbourne, but his life was cut tragically short before he had time to realize his full potential. During his brief yet stellar career, he played with the blazing intensity of a man who somehow knew he only had a few short years to share his gift with the world.

Although Ritchie Blackmore gets most of the credit as a guiding light of the Eighties shred phenomenon, Uli Jon Roth established the blueprint for neoclassical metal through his highly sophisticated guitar playing with the Scorpions and with his own band, Electric Sun. Roth undoubtedly has the playing and compositional skills to dominate as a shred guitar hero, but he pursued loftier goals in the Eighties and Nineties by devoting his ambitions to performing and composing classical music instead.

In 2003, Roth recorded an interpretation of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” and since 2005, he has frequently made surprise guest appearances with the Scorpions and Smashing Pumpkins.

Shred was born in 1987 on the day Joe Satriani released Surfing with the Alien. Satch took all the rock guitar virtuosity that had gone before—Hendrix, Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, etc.—and brought it all a giant step further, adding a few new tricks to the lexicon of hot guitar moves and upping the land speed record for notes-per-nanosecond.

But where earlier ax heroes employed techniques like tapping and dive bombing to dazzle and astound, Satriani’s mastery lies in his ability to subsume daunting technical maneuvers into beguiling, seemingly effortless melodic statements that appeal to guitar geeks and the general public alike. His secret? Satch is one guitar virtuoso who never lost touch with his rock and roll heart.

Chuck Schuldiner passed away in 2001, but were he alive, he would almost certainly be amused by the new legion of metal guitarists inspired by him that emerged in his absence. During the rise of his band Death, Schuldiner’s outstanding solos—which featured playing as melodic and precise as that of anyone who put out a record on the Relativity or Shrapnel labels—were often overshadowed by Death’s jackhammer rhythms and dark lyrics.

However, anyone taking a look back at his work would instantly realize that Schuldiner could tap as tastefully as Eddie Van Halen and rip up a fretboard as well as anyone else. Eleven other guitarists shared the spotlight with Schuldiner in Death, including James Murphy and Andy LaRocque, but none shined more brightly.

You simply have to admire Alex Skolnick’s dedication to the guitar. Right when Testament were ready to hit the big time, Skolnick bailed to pursue his love of jazz, preferring to make music in San Francisco clubs with players like bassist Michael Manring and eventually making his way to New York City to study jazz at the New School.

Most players have trouble mastering one style of music, but Skolnick impresses whether he’s blasting out thrash metal solos with Testament (which he has since rejoined) or tearing up the fretboard with his jazz band, the Alex Skolnick Trio.

Maybe the harsh Scandinavian winters are the reason why Europe’s northernmost countries boast the most neoclassical shredders per capita. Finland’s Timo Tolkki and his band Stratovarius released their first album in 1989, about the time that shred mania reached its peak, and fortunately for them they established a huge following in—where else—Japan by the time grunge took over in 1992.

Like Malmsteen, Tolkki’s ambitions reach far beyond power metal into classical music, and his precision fretwork is inspired more by virtuoso violinists than other guitarists. This year he completed work on his “metal opera,” Saana—Warrior of Light.

When the first Dragonforce album came out in 2003, critics were convinced that Herman Li and Sam Totman’s outrageously fast guitar solos were the product of studio trickery. However, Li and Totman later proved that they were the real deal both onstage and under the scrutiny of skeptical editors right here at Guitar World headquarters.

Individually, Li and Tottman boast jaw-dropping speed and precision, but when they lock horns in tightly synchronized harmonies they can make heads explode from sonic overload. Who needs amphetamines? Just put on a Dragonforce’s Inhuman Rampage to jumpstart your day.

Steve Vai can do things with a sustainer and twang bar that surely ain’t natural and certainly indicate a high tantric mastery of all documented and undocumented alien love secrets. Discovered by Frank Zappa and fostered by David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, Vai emerged in the Nineties as a solo artist and guitar hero of major stature.

His astounding technique defies categorization. In his graceful hands, the guitar becomes a cosmic antenna, channeling other dimensions and parallel universes. His best work combines the swagger of a lifelong rock and roller with the romantic soul of a poet. As if this weren’t enough, he’s also a first-rate composer and has great cheekbones.

Though numerous players have surpassed Eddie Van Halen’s speed and precision, Ed deserves credit for developing and perfecting the techniques that have become essential elements of the shredder’s vocabulary ever since Van Halen’s debut in 1978.

Eddie’s tapped triplets helped players with sloppy picking technique double and triple their speed, but his incredibly precise tremolo picking showed that you still needed excellent right- and left-hand coordination if you truly wanted to impress. Although players like Night Ranger’s Jeff Watson took tapping to ludicrous eight-finger extremes, no one ever sounds as good as Eddie when he’s in the groove.

Who says that hardcore punks can’t shred? The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman pioneered a style known as mathcore, which isn’t as nerdy as the name suggests but certainly requires an IQ above 100 to be fully appreciated for its unique blend of punk intensity, technical precision and the anomalous jazz melodicism. Still think punks can’t shred with the best of them? We dare you to try and figure out one of Weinman’s solos. Go ahead, tough guy.

Long before Stevie Ray, Johnny Winter was the original white-guy-from-Texas blues guitar demon. Critics have often remarked on the irony that a pale-skinned, crosseyed albino turned out to be one of the greatest interpreters of America’s seminal black musical idiom. Winter has the hardlivin’ outsider’s perspective that it takes to play the blues for real, but it’s matched with the rockera chops of a guy who came up alongside immortals like Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield.

The best of Winter’s phenomenal playing is imbued with both fire and fluidity. Flurries of notes crawl all over the 12-bar grid at every conceivable angle, like a hoard of spiders fanning out in search of prey. In the whole vast river that is the blues, nothing quite possesses the eerie intensity of Johnny Winters’ best work.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Our list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a few other speed demons, most notably Eighties neoclassical shredder Tony MacAlpine, Outworld guitarist and shred instructor Rusty Cooley, Shrapnel disciple (and current UFO guitarist) Vinnie Moore, Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, Australia's Tommy Emmanuel and, of course, the mighty Zakk Wylde.

Be sure to take our poll to voice your opinion on the fastest guitarist of all time!

I am often asked how I incorporate chromatic notes into my solos and how I approach playing “outside” the given key center of a song.

If you have ever used the blues scale, then you have already employed chromatic notes in some of the most musical ways possible.

FIGURE 1 shows the A minor pentatonic scale. To get the A blues scale, we simply add Eb, the flatted fifth (f5), as shown in FIGURE 2.

Now, that Eb can sound like the worst note in the world—if you land on it and stop, you’ll be hurting people—but most of us use it as a passing tone, as I do in four spots in FIGURE 3: in the key of A, at the end of bar 1, I slide from Eb up to E, the fifth, which is a nice solid chord tone, and in bar 2, I move from beat one to beat two by sliding down from Eb to D, the fourth.

I use the same concept into beat four and on beat one of the next bar. Here, I use the b5 as an ornament to add “funkiness” to the lines. If you can employ this concept successfully, in theory you know everything you need to know in order to use any one of the 12 notes as a passing tone at any point—as long as you use it responsibly. The safest approach is to follow every jarring, passing note with a “good” note that sits close by melodically.

Moving into a chord tone immediately justifies the jarring note you played right before it. It’s also important that the “good” notes land rhythmically on the more important parts of the beat or groove.

Let’s go back to A minor pentatonic and simply fill in the gaps between the scale tones with most of the available passing tones, as I do in FIGURES 4 and 5. You can also go back to basics and start with chord tones only. FIGURE 6a shows the triadic chord tones for C major: C, G and E, played through three octaves.

FIGURE 6b shows how to add the chromatic “approach note,” or “lower neighbor,” one half step below each chord tone. FIGURE 7 illustrates a typical way to use this concept in a swinging, bluesy line. This approach can be heard in well-known songs like “Politician” by Cream, and Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther.”

When people talk about playing “outside,” it’s often just a broader approach to creating lines. Instead of a “wrong” note followed by a “right” note, it’s often the wrong key followed by the right key. In FIGURE 8, I play a long line based around B minor, using as many passing tones as possible but ending up squarely back in B minor.

If you can “get lost” without traveling too far away and then land on your feet, you’ve done a successful job at weaving chromaticism into a solo phrase. The key is to keep your ears wide open and don’t be afraid to explore uncharted musical waters.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive video by Monster Truck — ”Live in Germany, Episode 2.” You can check it out below.

The clip is the second of a six-part series that will be premiered here and on RevolverMag.com, one video per week. In fact, you can check out Episode 1 right here.

All the episodes were shot during the band’s recent German tour, and they serve as the perfect tour diary for Monster Truck fans. You see the band on stage, back stage, hanging out, talking gear and much more.

Be sure to tell us what you think of the clip!

For more about Monster Truck, visit ilovemonstertruck.com.

The all-new April 2014 issue of Guitar World is available now!

In the new April issue, we check in with guitarist Paul Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons<.strong>, who celebrate their upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with a pair of revealing interviews about their 40 years in Kiss. Also, Stanley and Simmons rate Kiss guitarists past and present: from Ace to Tommy Thayer.

In addition, we make the case for 15 artists still waiting to be admitted into the Hall of Fame, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dimebag Darrell, Ted Nugent and Soundgarden.

Also, read about how a new generation of acoustic guitar fingerstylists is blazing a daring style of percussive, alternate-tuned shred. Then, try it out for yourself! Guitar World presents an instructional guide to the inspired techniques of percussive acoustic guitar playing.

Finally, the Scorpions wrap up their nearly 50-year run with a new Unplugged release and a farewell album of songs from their Eighties heyday.

PLUS: The best gear of the New Year — Guitar World picks the greatest guitars, amps, effects and accessories from the 2014 Winter NAMM Show.

Five Songs with Tabs for Guitar and Bass

• Daryl Kellie - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
• Kiss - "Black Diamond"
• Lamb of God - "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
• Daft Punk - "Get Lucky"
• Arctic Monkeys- "Do I Wanna Know?"

The April 2014 issue of Guitar World is available now at the Guitar World Online Store!

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of Sonder On, the new album by Onward, Etc., a violin-equipped punk band.

The album, which features guest appearances by former members of Social Distortion and Flogging Molly, will be released March 11 via DC-Jam Records.

The band was put together by Rosco Wuestewald, who met violin player KC Olsen in 2009 and drummer Tom Pearson in 2011.

Onward, Etc. have performed with a dream-come-true list of bands, including Larry and His Flask, Skinny Lister, Lucero, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, the Goddamn Gallows, Reverend Horton Heat and many more.

They've been a part of Coachella and played Vans Warped Tour, SE Alaskan State Fair and other venues — both intimate and rowdy — throughout the U.S.

For more about Onward, Etc., including their current tour dates, visit onwardetc.com and their Facebook page.

Sometimes change happens — whether we’re ready for it or not.

Who’d have thought that haircut you were rocking for your senior class yearbook photo would eventually go out of style?

While new pedal technology is impressive, sometimes you just need what you're already used to.

While the Tutti Love Chorus by Donner follows the current compact-sized pedal trends, it cops the tone of a classic era of analog chorus pedals. There's no fancy bluetooth technology here; the knobs are Level, Depth and Rate. It's powered by a common BOSS-style 9-volt power supply.

Like most red-blooded American males, I set the instruction manual aside and plugged the pedal right in. Later on, I did go back to read that the pedal is true-bypass and is an analog circuit.

CLIP 1: I have the Depth and Rate at about 12 o’clock with the level almost all the way up. I’m picking some chords on a Strat with a humbucker in the bridge and the amp set to clean.

CLIP 2: I dialed back the Level and Depth to fatten up a Tele with some light overdrive.

CLIP 3: This is a Strat in the second position. I cranked the Depth and dialed back the Rate to show how the pedal can get that slightly detuned vibrato if you need it.

Web: donnerdeal.com
Street Price: $39.99

You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.

Bob Dylan In The 80s: Volume One will be released on March 25.

The brainchild of producers Jesse Lauter (Elvis Perkins, The Low Anthem) and Sean O'Brien (Dawes, PAPA), the mission of Bob Dylan In The 80s: Volume One is to shed new light on a large cache of Bob Dylan songs that have long gone ignored, covering the period starting with 1980s Saved and ending with 1990s Under The Red Sky (including unreleased material -- the "80s Basement Tapes" -- and The Traveling Wilburys).

Album contributors include: Built To Spill, Aaron Freeman of Ween & Slash, Glen Hansard, Reggie Watts, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Lucius, Langhorne Slim, Craig Finn Of The Hold Steady, Deer Tick, Dawn Landes, Blitzen Trapper, Carl Broemel Of My Morning Jacket, Elvis Perkins and more. The album is available for pre-order now.

In the liner notes to this collection, New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude) writes, "In the famously difficult art of going up against Dylan's performance of his own material, a number of these reach the highest threshold. I hope Bob Dylan listens to this record, and plays it for his current touring band."

When you ask someone to name a Bob Dylan song or album from the 1980s, you usually get a blank stare in return. Bob Dylan In The 80s: Volume One helps to answer this question.

"80s Dylan is by no means a celebrated period in his career," says co-producer Lauter. "It was, in fact, the lowest point of his commercial success even though he released eight studio albums." He continues, "Our goal was to showcase one of the greatest artists of our time during an off-rhythm period and bring a stronger sense of harmony to the material at hand. Sean and I did everything we could to make this album flow together sonically as if you were listening to a concept album."

Again, Lethem claims, "Given the benefit of decades more hindsight, our Dylan was a lot better than anyone knew...Were one to begin compiling instances of greatness in the type of songwriting that defines our esteem for the earlier Dylan - complex, suggestive, glinting, cascading constructions - you'd hit a dozen examples even before the "comeback" of Oh Mercy."

Portions of proceeds from album sales will go to the charity, Pencils of Promise. Pencils of Promise is a non-profit organization that builds schools and increases educational opportunities in the developing world. The charity has built more than 150 schools in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For more information on Pencils of Promise, visit www.pencilsofpromise.org.

COMPLETE TRACK LISTING:

1) Langhorne Slim & The Law - "Got My Mind Made Up"(from Knocked Out Loaded, 1986)
2) Built To Spill - "Jokerman" (from Infidels, 1983)
3) Reggie Watts - "Brownsville Girl (Reprise)" (from Knocked Out Loaded, 1986)
4) Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) - "Sweetheart Like You" (from Infidels, 1983)
5) Ivan & Alyosha - "You Changed My Life" (from Shot Of Love outtakes, 1981)
6) Deer Tick - "Night After Night" (from Hearts of Fire Soundtrack, 1987)
7) Dawn Landes & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Dark Eyes" (from Empire Burlesque, 1985)
8) Tea Leaf Green - "Waiting To Get Beat" (from Empire Burlesque outtakes, 1985)
9) Aaron Freeman of Ween & Slash - "Wiggle Wiggle (from Under The Red Sky, 1990)
10) Elvis Perkins - "Congratulations" (from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, 1988)
11) Hannah Cohen - "Covenant Woman" (from Saved, 1980)
12) Marco Benevento - "Every Grain Of Sand" (from Shot Of Love, 1981)
13) Yellowbirds - "Series Of Dreams" (from Oh Mercy outtakes, 1989)
14) Blitzen Trapper - "Unbelievable" (from Under The Red Sky, 1990)
15) Lucius - "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" (from Empire Burlesque, 1985)
16) Glen Hansard - "Pressing On" (from Saved, 1980)
17) Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) - "Death Is Not The End" (from Down In The Groove, 1988)

In addition, there will be seven bonus tracks available exclusively via iTunes as a Deluxe Edition and will also be included on the digital download card that accompanies the vinyl. The seven bonus tracks are listen below:

1) Spirit Family Reunion - "Man Of Peace" (from Infidels, 1983)
2) Widespread Panic - "Solid Rock" (from Saved, 1980)
3) Grayson Capps - "Silvio" (from Down In The Groove, 1988)
4) Neal Casal - "Property Of Jesus" (from Shot Of Love, 1981)
5) The Low Anthem - "Lenny Bruce" (from Shot Of Love, 1981)
6) Jesse Elliott (These United States) - "Handy Dandy" (from Under The Red Sky, 1990)
7) Chastity Brown - "Saving Grace" (from Saved, 1980)

Find out more at 80sdylan.com

Guitarist Gus G has spent the better part of the last decade solidifying his place as one of metal’s reigning guitar virtuosos.

He’s recorded more than a dozen studio albums and performed around the world as a member of Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Firewind. And let's not forget he was handpicked by Ozzy Osbourne in 2009 to become his new guitarist.

But Gus G’s debut solo album, I Am The Fire, which will be released March 18, is a new adventure. The album, which was mixed by Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour, Steel Panther), gives Gus the opportunity to explore a different side of his creativity and showcases his skills as a producer and songwriter.

Apart from a few signature Gus G instrumentals (“Vengeance” and “Terrified”), I Am the Fire veers away from the traditional heavy/power metal vibe and leans more toward a straight-ahead classic rock sound. The album also features a multitude of guests, including vocalists Mats Levén and Jeff Scott Soto and bassists Billy Sheehan and David Ellefson.

I recently spoke with Gus G about I Am the Fire, his playing and how he got the gig with Ozzy.

GUITAR WORLD: How did the I Am the Fire project begin?

I had some time off with Ozzy because he was busy with the Black Sabbath reunion and started coming up with ideas that didn't really seem like a Firewind record.

They were more on the hard rock side of things rather than metal. One singer I’ve always wanted to write with was Mats Levén, who sang on the Yngwie Malmsteen album Facing the Animal. We've known each other for about 10 years and had always talked about doing something together. So I sent him a few demos, and that's what got things started.

You have a lot of special guests on this album. How did that come about?

I already knew I was going to work with Mats, but around the same time I sent a demo to Jeff Scott Soto, and we wrote the song "Summer Days" together. That was when I got the idea of bringing on a bunch of different people to collaborate with. The next person I spoke to was Jay Ruston about mixing the album, and it was through Jay that I was able to get a lot of the guest musicians to help me put it all together.

Let's discuss a few of the songs from the album, starting with the title track, "I Am the Fire."

I had written the music for the song but didn't have any vocals. Then someone suggested the band Devour the Day. I was just blown away by their work so I sent them the demo. A short time later they sent me back the lyrics and I just loved it. We then all met up together in LA and went in the studio.

"Blame It On Me."

I asked Mats if he had a cool rocker and he sent me the song. It has a really strong Scorpions vibe to it that I dug right away. It's very catchy.

You also have two guitar instrumentals on the album as well. Was that planned?

I wasn't sure about including them at first because this was going to be a different type of record and those songs are more metal with a lot of shredding. But that's when Jay said, "Fuck, dude! You should put whatever songs you want on there. That's what a solo record should be!" Those are two of the best instrumentals I've ever written, so I decided to include them.

What are you touring plans?

I'll be doing a few dates here in Greece with Uli Jon Roth and then in May I'll be doing Guitar Universe 2, a co-headlining tour of Europe with Marty Friedman.

What inspired you to pick up the guitar?

Peter Frampton. My dad had a copy of Frampton Comes Alive, and he used to play it all the time. I remember being 8 years old when I first heard the talk box, and I was floored. At first I thought it was a robot, but once my dad told me it was a guitar, I wanted to play. I started taking lessons and knew immediately that I was going to be a guitar player.

Did you have a regimen for practice?

I had a teacher who taught me a little bit the first few years, but then I went to conservatory and really started learning about theory, harmony and sight-reading. At the same time, I practiced along to my favorite records at home. I would pick up everything I could get my hands on and just learn it. I learned a lot about solos by figuring them out by ear. It was the best thing I ever did.

Tell me a little about how you got the gig with Ozzy.

I got an email from Ozzy’s management team asking me to come to LA to audition. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I remember Ozzy called me at my hotel room shortly after I checked in and told me not to stress about the audition. He told me to just come in and play my heart out, and that really broke the ice for me.

What's it like being in that position?

It's really hard to put into words just how special it is. It's the biggest honor a guitar player can get to be in that position because so few people have been there.

Do you have any advice for new guitarists?

I remember when I first heard Tony Iommi on Master of Reality. It was so inspiring and easy to play. I think that when you don't know a lot on guitar but can still play "Sweet Leaf" or songs like "Iron Man" or "Paranoid," it’s encouraging. The secret to a successful riff is making any kid who doesn't really know how to play want to pick up the guitar and learn.

For more information about Gus G, visit his official website and Facebook page.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Human hearing is most sensitive in the frequency range of about 1kHz to 5kHz, which is also where human speech is most intelligible. These are, similarly, the ideal midrange frequencies for the guitar, especially when you want your solos to prevail over a mix.

Over the years, guitarists have used various devices to find the ideal midrange sweet spot, including wah pedals, treble boosters, EQ and small combo amps. The Fulltone Secret Freq offers an excellent solution for guitarists who want fat, full midrange with vocal-like singing expressiveness that brings their playing right to the front of the mix.

Feaures The Secret Freq is essentially a distortion pedal with volume and distortion controls, but the circuit also includes a Freq control that boosts a certain narrow-band midrange frequency up to 20dB and a Highs control that cuts high frequencies when it’s turned down from its full clockwise/neutral EQ setting. Professional-quality features include true-bypass switching, a brilliant-red LED, four thumbwheel screws that provide screwdriver-free access to the battery compartment, and a center-negative DC adapter jack that handles any voltage from nine to 18 volts.

Performance Unlike wah pedals and treble boosters, the Fulltone Secret Freq provides sweet, expressive midrange without cutting crucial bass and upper-treble frequencies, producing rich, full-range tones that sound absolutely massive. The distortion control provides everything from subtle overdrive crunch to the aggressive roar of a fully cranked classic amp. Instead of compressing the guitar’s tone, the Secret Freq delivers smooth, singing sustain by enhancing the frequencies the ear wants to hear while maintaining excellent dynamics that preserve the guitar’s natural liveliness. Many midrange boosters have a pinched, nasal tone, but the Secret Freq’s character is satisfyingly dulcet and resonant, especially with single-coil pickups that need a little extra midrange enhancement.

List Price $225

Manufacturer Fulltone, fulltone.com

The Bottom Line

By enhancing key midrange frequencies, the Fulltone Secret Freq provides expressive, dynamic overdrive and distortion tones that boost solos to the front of the mix.