Best Metal Guitarist

I'm going to start a thread that maybe everyone will love. BEST METAL GUITARIST. Go ahead and start replying as soon as possible. Thanks.

1. Kirk Hammett
2. Zakk Wylde
3. Billy Howerdel (He's really innovative in my eyes. The way he plays "Rose" is awesome.)

Best "metal" guitarist? I would have to say Dimebag. That's basically all he plays, so he has a good head for that sort of thing.

to me the best metal guitarist should be dimebag darrell. he totally rocks on his own man...he is practically PANTERA.
kirk hammet or karl logan may come in second...

Randy Rhoads all the way... the man was a musical genius.

Very true. Randy Rhoads was incredible. But he was more of a classical guitarist and that's why his sound was so unique with Ozzy. But Dimebag is all "metal". He doesn't care about being well rounded at the guitar. He just wants to make the biggest, hardest metal riffs you've ever heard, and that's exactly what he does. Check out the riff to "Regular People", "Walk", and anything else off of any Pantera album and you can see that this guy is METAL!

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I disagree, he was a poor classical guitarrist. He was a hard rock/metal guitarrist who incorporated some classical ideas (i.e. diatonic scales, arpeggios) into his playing. As a true fingerstlye classical guitarrist he was nothing special. Check out Dee, it's a nice song, but compare it to music played by somebody like Elliot Fisk, Chris Parkening, John Williams, and it sounds like the work of an amateur.
If what you mean is that his lead guitar ideas came more from classical music, well I'd still debate that (A lot of his pentatonic stuff sounds much more like it's coming from blues based rock than from bach) but I think there's a stronger argument. In that he used trills, played fast, and that he often played diatonic scales, his rock playing was influenced by classical music. Imho these are quite superficial, surface aspects that don't really make music classical, but many people look at things that way and I understand where they're coming from.

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Since I think rhythm playing is more important than lead in metal, my list is going to be different.
Dave Mustaine
James Hetfield (well... maybe not now..)
Jimmy Brown

In No Order
Dime - Pantera
Rhoads - Ozzy, Quiet Riot
Slash - G n' R, Slash's Snakepit
Hammett - Metallica
King - Slayer, Megadeth
I am more in to the lead stuff

Actually Luigi, I meant that Randy considered himself more of a classical type guitarist than a rock guitarist. As a matter of fact I believe he said that he was going to quit Ozzy's band and start doing more classical music. As far as how good he was as a classical player, I have no idea. I just know that he didn't consider himself a "metal" guitarist. Supposedly his mom is quite the musician, though. I believe she has her own music school and plays the flute. I remember her saying something about it when she was a judge at a guitar contest.

You're right, he did. And I know what you mean, he definitely doesn't sound anything like dimebag darrell or that style of metal. All I'm saying is that to judge him as a classical guitarrist because of this is unfair to him, cause he did a lot of great stuff, but if we look at his classical guitar playing it was not professional level. We have to acknowledge his contributions, and we have to recognize that they were contributions to the realm of rock/metal, not classical music. I don't say this to say anything bad about him, but compared to the greats of classical guitar, it's clear that he was a rock/metal guitarrist, and should be judged as thus. I would say the same for yngwie, if you put a classical guitar in his hands and tell him to play fingerstyle, he won't produce much, he's rather a rock/metal guitarrist heavily influenced by classical violin music.
I see where you're coming from though, i guess my point was that it's not fair to count him out because his music isn't purely metal like darrells is. I guess I'm saying that to me he produced better (better as in i like more, not saying this objectively) music that can be classified as metal, making him the better guitarrist. To you, dimebag's music is more metal, therefore he's the better metal guitarrist, am i getting this right?

You pretty much summed it up there. One thing, though. When I say Dimebag is a better metal guitarist I don't mean that just because he plays heavier riffs. I guess you could say Dimebag has more "memorable" riffs. There's another word I wanted to use but couldn't think of it. For example; how many people do you know that can hum the guitar riff from "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. Almost anyone that's heard the song. Same thing with "Crazy Train". But Dimebag puts together really solid metal riffs and he really doesn't get a whole lot of credit for his rythm playing. Almost any Pantera song has a really good and catchy metal riff to it. That reminds me, just listen to the new Pantera song off of the Dracula 2000 soundtrack. I'm not saying that Dimebag is a real technical player, because he's not. What I'm saying is he can turn nothing into something (ie. "Walk"). That's one of the simplest riffs I've heard and yet he makes it work. I don't think Dimebag is something really incredible, I just love what he does for metal. I know there's a lot more great riffs than "Crazy Train" by the way, I just can't think of them right now.

Chris Poland

Do you think it would be safe to say that EVH was just as classically influenced in his playing as Rhoads? I know he falls more under the category of rock, but I've been thinking and it seems that while Rhoads is seen as the "classical-metal" guitarist (not to say that he was a special classical player: I agree with you luigi), EVH doesn't get as much credit that way. EVH was a a classical pianist and has incorporated some classical ideas to the guitar. I heard that he got the idea to tap (yes yes, I know he wasn't the inventor of it) by piano players who would play fast triplets... I dunno... what do you guys think?

I tend to agree james. If you listen to Eruption, one of the speed picking licks there is lifted straight out of a widely used book of beginning violin excercises. As for the tapping, you're probably right. He incorporated some diatonic lines to his playing I seem to remember. I think the reason he doesn't get thought of as much when it comes to classically influenced players is because of all the things he did that were very much not at all classical. Whammy dives, power chord riffs, pinch harmonics, wierd animal noises, etc. You don't see as much of that in Rhoads' playing. Also, while he did play diatonic lines sometimes, more of his playing was pentatonic, and thus had a more rock sound than Rhoads' playing often did.

true dat... true dat

Two important people in the rock/metal field in any event

Originally posted by Guitonne
Chris Poland

Cool, another Megadeth fan.

Speaking of underrated guitarists, how about Larry LaLonde; He's mostly known for his work in Primus, but have any of you heard him in Possessed? I have to give him mounds of credit for not only being able to play the stuff Possessed did, but then being able to adapt to the spaced out generally odd playing styles he uses in Primus.

Larry LaLonde plays the guitar???

oddly enough, yes

Hey, thanks to all that replied to this thread. I appreciate all the input. Oh, and all you who are talking about Rhoads, he's got awesome lead ability, but I too doubt that his style comes from classical music. So, here I am!