It's got to be Glenn Tipton. The title track Baptism of Fire is totally awesome. He's that bit heavier and faster than Malmsteem and certainly most of the other top neoclassical players are less vicious. Tons of treble, ear bleeding pinch harmonics (sometimes sweep picked), wide wide vibrato, pick tapping, tapping, sweeps and dives.. he can do the lot and what's more he has great melodies in his runs. Guys like Michael Romeo, Jason BEcker, Tony Macalpine and George Bellas are just as technical but they're not so damn nasty. I like Marty Friedman too 'cause he plays weird scales but he's not as fast. Kurk Hammett's tehcnique is far over-rated, he hardly sweeps at all, only gets pinches on downstrokes and the tapping he does is generally 1 fingered and hence piss easy. That said he's a good musician.