Originally Posted by: aschlemanHm... In agreeance with all that you say except I will question how Mustaine is more important to Metal history... Wylde stepping in at the age of 18 for the late Randy Rhoads was a pretty big event in the history of Metal... Megadeth, in my opinion, is a Metal band that will always be second tier... More of a cult classic than a big time Metal band.

Zakk Wylde is not just a better guitarist but also a better musician. Piano, Banjo, Harmoncica, and acoustic... He would play circles around Mustaine in any genre of music except for Metal... but I would still say he's a better Metal guitarist as well... His riffs from BLS aren't as complex as some of the ones from Megadeth but his work with Ozzie Osbourne says something entirely different... Wylde all around.

Zakk Wylde stepped in for Rhoads and was on, like, ONE studio album. While that was a pretty big event in the history of metal, I'm talking about influence. Dave Mustaine was a founding member of two of the big four thrash bands of the late 80s, Metallica and Megadeth. Honestly, however, I don't care if you think Megadeth will always be second tier, because let the records show, the big four were Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Some people would call the Beatles or Mozart second tier, but that doesn't make them any less influential/important.

Regardless of all of this, at least Mustaine attempts to reinvent his style. Zakk Wylde bores me to "No More Tears," quite honestly, because it's the same thing EVERY time. The same derivative, redundant, pentatonic shred, album after album. Finally with Mafia he's at least trying a few new things, but for the most part he's fairly predictable. Sure he's fast, but if we played the same licks on everything we recorded, we'd ALL be that fast at them.