Ok, here's what I'm doing. I read the first few posts and got an idea of what the topic was. Now I'm skipping everyone else (sorry, nothing personal, just lazy) and speaking my thoughts so if I repeat anything then sorry. After a while I really can't tell the difference in speed from one guitarist vs another. All I can really think to say is "holy **** he's fast". My goals with speed, I love speed myself. I want to be able to shred as fast as I can, but I don't care much to be the fastest. And since I've already got significant speed I don't want to sound like someone that's solely based my time into getting fast it's time I made use out of some other things worth using. Music theory, harmonics, you get the idea. Speed, in my opinion, is good to have, but it's not the only thing to have. Fine composing skills are a must at least for one member in a band. Therion for example, their composures really usually don't require much skill to play, but bringing so many different instruments and musicians together and in such harmony and melody. It's far from adding a keyboardist that can synth a string session. Speed is cool, it adds a degree of intensity, but it's not the only thing worth investing time into. That being said. Time for some Cryptopsy.