Sometimes I wonder, what is wrong with the world?

I'm gonna warn you right from the start. This is gonna be one big, long and foul mouthed angry rant on today's popular music and some from a couple of years ago. In this post I'm going to show you some of the worst rapings of great music and potential ever. So brace yourself for anger in it's purest form.

The first example I'm going to talk about is bye a singer named JoJo whom I have no clue of who is. I have not heard of her outside of the sampling hell she made on her second album on the song Anything from her album The High Road. I remember hearing this song at a birthday party in ground school on the radio and I was amazed that anybody was allowed to try and kill the best piece of music ever written. Some might already have figured out that this bitch sampled Africa by ToTo in her song. How dared she even think about it.

If you could even dream up the thought of trying to make Africa better you should at least try to keep it simple or maybe even just take some small bites, and in small bites I mean instruments or small parts of the song and put it into your song but ooohhhh Noooooo JoJo didn't wanna be to subtle. The first thing you hear on the track is the best chorus ever written. And that chorus is morphed into her stupid lyrics about stupid shit and while she's singing you hear the drum/perc track in the background all along. This makes me sick. She hasn't got the coolness or abilities to pull of such a stunt, and don't tell me that she was under contract or shit like that cause that's BS. If she thought it sounded bad she could have refused to do it. I am dazzled by this song every time I even think about it. How dare take something as pretty, beautiful, dream like and perfected as Africa and put it into your shitty early 2006 pop with no substance to it what soever, I can't wrap my head around it. This shows a complete lack of respect for the artists and musicians who were in the past.

That last point is kind of the point of this post. Everybody is forgetting how good it could be and keep on sucking up to shitty singers and there terrible music. I have no beef with popular music in general. There has always been something for the musically dumb people and that is just fine. And every decade the sound and music style seems to change from boy bands to house music and so on. But the way that people just eat it raw and don't care how bad it is, is sick. Here in Denmark we have had the worst musical scene for at least 14 years in the world when you look at it from a popular standpoint. Talent shows where bad talent sings bad songs and get a record deal haven't helped at all, so now brain dead music is easier to make money of. Good musicians don't wanna play in talent shows cause they know it's for stupid people only so it kills the business. I do though have some respect to the guys who write some of the popular music coming out of The US. Those Swedish masterminds who earn millions off of every Katy Perry or Rihanna hit are brilliant businessmen but sometimes and just can't take the stupidity of everybody els around the world loving everything because the think they have to.

One of the newest occasions of rape came out in 2013 and it was the song Feel This Moment by Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera. Pitbull is a shit filled midget who can't sing, dance or write music. His low voice and Hispanic accent is stupid as fuck and the lyrics he sings are a stereotypical rap wannabe styled mess of Spanish and English. Ooohhh he looks tough with women, money and suits, yeah he dos when he's going to the strippers knees standing on his toes. But in Feel This Moment, he takes it to far out for me to let it pas bye. One of my favorite songs all time is Take On Me by A-ha, the band I call: the only good thing to ever come out of Norway. It was a smash hit back in 1985 and shows of one of the best vocal male performances ever. The chorus is fantastic and the hook is unforgettable. It has instant classic written all over it. When you take something as good as this song and use the hook to fill the dance floor on Ibiza you better be ready for the hammer to fall! 

Christina Aguilera was in my mind the sexiest women alive when Dirrty was launched in 2002 of the album Stripped. Holy fuck she was hot at that point and I will not deny that she can sing her ass of when she want's to and shake it off as well, but joining in on something as horrible as this is suicide. A song that rapes on of the best hooks in pop history shouldn't be touched with a 3 foot pole. Here we go again. No respect for what has been and why the has been was good. Let's take what we need and screw everything els. Who in their right mind would ever approve an idea like this? RCA are owned by Sony should have pulled the plug on Pitbull 5 or 10 years ago when Sean Paul finally got something close to canceled. But off course there money to be maid and all the idiots out on the dance floors around the world started dancing and unfortunately this trend of mindless pop seems to go one without an end.

All About That Bass......... All About That Bass! Holy fuck I hate that song. I thought at first that it was some low value song out some random studio in England and then I could tolerate the song cause of its lyrical message about being ok about your body. But it is just more of the same generic and repetitive crap that's all over radio right now. It is a stupid song with a bad musical backing. Straight out of the US with more of the same lame effects as Nicki Minaj uses.
Rude by Magic! is a bit different then the other songs here. I like the phrasing in the chorus but the reggae style song is pissing me of. reggae is the laziest style of music ever. It demands nothing at all in any way from the musicians. The lyrics don't even need to rime FFS. And that slow beat in Rude is driving me insane. The Zedd Remix on the other hand is good but the lyrics are still completely irrelevant. It's a problem when the only clue of what the words of the chorus are remembered by reading the title of the song. I always replace Rude with Cruel and that is just massed up. I don't think 95% of the people who listen to the song know that he's not singing to his girlfriend but his mother/father in law. WTF. And they didn't even write it themselves! 
Another song is Counting Stars  by One Republic. Boom they are back and have a big hit that they claim to have written themselves. HELL NO. That is the thing about good bands. They come back time after time with at least one good song on most of their albums. One republic was brought to life by Timberland and the they are back with a bang for no reason. And you're telling me that suddenly the write their own music. If that's true then i'm Bill Clinton. Call One Hit Wonders what they are. Don't try to cover it up by lying on Wikipedia.



Get a life and start listening to better music!

        

Roma Victor!

In 2000 one of the all time greatest movies premiered. It brought back something the world had missed ever since Braveheart. An action movie with an amazing setting, an almost perfect cast, incredible production value and the best soundtrack and score ever to appear on screen. I was 7 or 8 years old when my father took me to the movies and I was blown away completely and I have ever since been amazed by the roman empire. I am off course talking about the movie Gladiator.


First off, the whole mood and lighting of the movie is incredible. It is dark and cold when in Germany and the marbled and grey Rome is astonishing to look upon. When watching Commodus talking to his sister in his palace the grey light makes him look like the alien he is and the dry and hammering sun in the African setting really makes you believe you are in an oasis in the dessert. When Commodus returns to Rome as the emperor the almost the entire city is CGI but it looks fantastic. I almost can't tell that the big buildings and the sea of people are computer made.

The Colosseum is still to this day looking like how I picture the Colosseum would look like. I do though think that the city as a whole is to clean. The costumes, clothing and props are amazing. The Weapons are simply stunning and fit the scenery perfectly. In the different gladiator battles the weapons and great looking armors all ad color and variation to the movie as a whole and make it more correct in my book. Though the story is not really close to anything that seemed to happen  in real life, but it all seems to me like it could have happened cause everything looks and feels so real.

The first battle in Germany is an incredible sight to behold. You are never in doubt that the Romans are indeed fighting some barbarians with no strategic ability at all. You watch as a well oiled war machine fulfilling it's purpose. You see a forest bathed in fire with dying soldiers in it and cut to Maximus and his cavalry storming through the woods yelling "Hold the Line".

That brings us to the casting and to me it could not had gone any better. I really hate Commodus and that is a credit to Joaquin Phoenix. Commodus is crazy, paranoid and distant to the people around him. Connie Nielsen is flawless in her performance as Lucilla and you sense right from the start that she hasn't let go of her dream of Maximus now that her husband is dead. Oliver Reed and Richard Harris, The old breed, are perfect for the rolls given to them. When Proximo and Maximus talk about going to Rome and the arena you feel Proximo's passion for the game and his lust for glory where he once was a god of the arena. He looks the part of a veteran Gladiator with scars and a stocky body and his acting fits his angry but yet carrying persona great. Harris as the old dying emperor is as always astonishing. Like in the first Harry Potter movies and The Count of Monte Cristo he plays the part as the wise old man to perfection. His voicing during dialog is soft and weak but he still holds that same thing like the grandfather whom everybody listens to at the dinner table, sort of a respect in his voice. The gladiators around Maximus show the diversity in gladiators. You get the fast African hunter, the big German barbarian, the writer who soils himself and the Veteran Gladiator Tigris of Gaul played by Sven-Ole Thorsen. Then off course Russel Crow is playing his part to perfection. His vocal tone fits the role brilliantly and his physical presence is with his dark hair and not to big of a body makes him an underdog like character in appearance.

The dialog in the movie is really well written. Maximus' speech to the cavalry before the opening battle his phenomenal and gives me chills every time. Commodus' angry rant at his siter near the end the "Am I not Merciful" part shows his desperation and jalousie towards a man lower than him in every way. I could name countless lines and they are all great but one thing is better than anything else in this movie!

This soundtrack is the best one ever made to a movie ever. Hans Zimmer created a masterpiece. His music constantly supports the visuals throughout the entire movie and some of the pieces are outright once in a lifetime music. The Battle on the Soundtrack is just on its own the best score ever written. the thing about it is that it can stand alone. You are inside the battle and then you jump to Maximus pumping up his men and cavalry. You go in and out of emotions and the dynamics are perfect for a battle scene and the preparing for battle. This piece of music shows just what fitting music does to a movie. it enhances everything and makes it better. The last two songs on the soundtrack should be heard in succession as they finish of the movie in magnificent style. While Juba buries Maximus' small figures of his wife and son in the bloody sand at the arena Zimmers soft tones lay like a blanket underneath everything, and as Juba walks out of the arena saying "Not Yet", Lisa Gerrard's vocals raises the blanket up to the sky over Rome and walk you out with the stunning view of the sun setting on Rome, into the credits. A perfect ending to and amazing movie.

This leads on to the biggest screw-job in academy award history. How the hell did Hans Zimmer not get an Oscar for the scor? I think the academy was afraid of ending up with another year like 1995 where Forrest Gump got almost all the major awards and The Shawshank Redemption, whom I think turned out to be a better movie in the long run, didn't get any awards at all. But from thinking that thought and then letting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, win for best scor is miles apart. This was a down right robbery and you can't even give the reason that Chrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon only had one award. Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon had 4 at the end and though I will say it's not a bad movie, what went one right there was stupidity and total bullshit. The academy didn't even give the award to the second best scor The Patriot. What the fuck were they thinking about. How can a movie win for best sound mixing and then not get the one for best scor, when the soundtrack aka. the score is 50% of the sound that's mixed. If I was in Zimmer's shoes I would have walked out or would've done a Kanye West, and simply storm the scene and take what was mine.

A sad ending to a masterpiece, but let's not forget how good this movie is. Gladiator is one of the best movies ever!            
    

My Metal top 10

At some point in my childhood I started looking into heavier stuff. I had always been mad about Ozzy Osbourne and such but me and my good friend started hearing some band called Pantera and that changed everything. Ever since I have had a thing for metal so hear are my favorite metal songs of all time. I am drawing a line between Sabbath, Zeppelin and so on cause I think it's more heavy rock then metal so they'll come at some point in time.

10. Slipknot - Duality

I have to admit that I was never really that much into Slipknot as some of my friends were. The whole mask thing and the fact that it seemed like there were 20 members in the band mad it look goofy to me. Oil drums and so on just made it seem like one big stunt but as I grew older I didn't care and didn't pay any attention to them. But a couple of years ago I heard Duality at a party and thought it sounded really cool. Off Course I knew Wait and Bleed but this song was in a way better for me. The intro is awesome with the lyrics and the whispering vocal and that metal drum bang is killer. The dynamics work well together and the vers and pre-chorus all work towards the chorus whit dark and soft spoken lyrics.The bridge is awesome and once again it leads to the chorus with power and precision. A great metal song that stands out as slipknots best work to me.

9. Korn - Freak On A Leash   

Korn was never really my cup of tea at the beginning. I felt like it was over hyped and I didn't get why got so much attention and in some way I still don't. But at some point Freak on the leash got my attention. Then I started getting but made them famous. They had found a new sound coming out of those gorgeous Ibanez Apex 7-strings and I got hooked. The screaming guitars in the back of Jonathan Davis' vocals give a spooky feel to it and then, boom hardcore pre-chorus into the bone rattling chorus with those knocking sounds supporten the guitares and those great though short lyrics.Did he just beatbox? I cause so, and then it goes on into the bridge and then into a variation off the chorus with more open guitar. At the end the electronic sounds finish it of in style. It's a shame Korn never got even close to this again, but at least this song stands.

8. Slayer - Raining Blood

I've had the pleasure of hearing Slayer live and though it's the worst sounding band in the world it still the best sounding band in the world. Never has anything ever been so good by being so bad. It is a sea of screaming vocals, guitars and drums mashed into a live show all about power, speed and high volume. The climax of Slayer has always been raining Blood in my book. Ever since I heard it in GTA Vice City I thought it was pure evil in a musical form. The thunder, the screams, the lyrics and so on all made it clear to my that this was not a laughing matter. Everybody knows what the opening riff means and what's going to happen and that shows that it is a pretty successful song a s a whole. Many people don't like it but they still know what the song is so all hail the King.

7. Mastodon - Oblivion

First of all this song has one of the best choruses ever written in a metal song. "Falling from grace, cause I've been away too long. Leaving you behind with my lonesome song." Are you kidding me? The song changes tempo in the chorus to half tempo and works so well it's mind blowing. this is one of the best songs I know to sing along to when your getting ready for a party. The up tempo vers gets you going and the chorus makes you feel like a king because the sound is so deep and powerful. The song is packed with contrasts. The intro is experimenting and dark while the verses are fast and straight forward. The guitar solos are slow as the bridge and again creates a contrast to the rest of the song by being a mix of long bends a fast picking. This is one hell of a piece work and I've only just jumped into the sea that is Mastodon. Just take a look at the cover of the album. My god!

6. Dream Theater - Lie

I have already written about this song once. But I need to again. This song is borderline prog and metal but when the guitar is my main focus the i'll call it a metal song. The one thing that elevates this song so high on this list is John Petrucci and his solo. That heavy riff is insane and the solo is my all time favorite so I can't leave it off the list. The song in it self is though not bad at all. Lyrics with good rhymes and intense metaphors. A build up to the solo that is filled with breaks and then: Unleash the Beast. Some would say the song has to much keyboard to be a real metal song but I don't care. That solo alone deserves a spot on this list. 

5. Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill

I could have filled this list with Pantera songs only but that would have been no fun so Pantera will only appear one more time after this one. The first thing I want you to do is take a look at that cover. In contrast to Crack the skye above this is a simple cover. But to me this is the best album cover ever. You get a rattlesnake sticking its tongue out, A big read Pantera writing and then that tittle: The Great Southern Trendkill. It is so simple but yet tells more about this album than anything.this album is a mix of metal ballads like Floods and Suicide Note pt. 1 and hardcore trash songs with nonstop action. It is trash at it's core and yet soft and slow. The tittle song is though to me the loudest and fastest of the bunch. It's as head on as anything I have ever heard and of course at the stirring wheel is Mr. Dimebag Darrell and lord is he good at taking charge. Phil screams and yells like normal and then if ever hell broke loose. at the 1:40 mark everything breaks down and you're left alone with Dimes screaming Guitar and a deep Phil Anselmo that says something like "Let's kick this off southern style" And Dime goes berserk during the reminding two minutes. That is one hell of a way to start an album.

4. Metallica - Master Of Puppets

Master of puppets had to be on this list. It is an absolute stable in metal and is a fantastic song in general. It is classic Metallica and has both the melodic parts as well as the fast pasted palm muted parts that started it all. A song about drugs is always a good way to start if you want to write metal lyrics. And the breaks before the chorus where they really put an emphasis on "Master" tells you that you're being controlled by a higher power and that it's pulling the strings to make you behave. It's a great setting for a metal song and this song deserves all the acclaim it gets cause it is an awesome song from top to bottom.

3. Soil - Halo

Some bands or singers are called one hit wonders. others are able to spit out one hit after another but Soil is somewhere in between. I discovered Halo About a 8 months ago and found it amazing. This song has some of the best metal vocals i have ever heard and that word: Halo, there is something about it I can't explain. The riffs and the vocal fits each other like hand in a glove and I feel like I wanted the song to continues for 3 more minutes just so I can have some more. But here is the thing. The rest of the album is complete and utter garbage. You can hear that all songs are written by Soil but Halo is the only song that's worth anything at all and live this band is a mess off sloppiness and a lag of teamwork. But if this song is the only one they'll give me i'm fine. It's spectacular.

2. Pantera - 5 Minutes Alone

  

This song means the world to me. It's one of the songs that I feel like are a part of me somehow. It's heavy as hell and is classic Pantera. 5 Minutes Alone though has something unique. the fills Dimebag made in between the chorus and the vers are out of this world. Where did that come from? It is one of the coolest guitar things ever made and along with that breathtaking bass-line underneath the solo makes this song one I will always treasure. But one part of this song that's the cherry on top is the best music video ever. Though shot in 1993/94 it's really good quality video and the setting is the best I've ever seen. A black background, spots and some cameras, that's it. in the guitar solo you switch between A closeup of Rex Brown's bass strings and some different angels on Dime's guitar and when he has a massive whammy pull you watch from the head of the guitar how the strings bend like crazy. The perfect music video to the song.

1. Metallica - Battery

Battery is my all time favorite metal song. The intro is slow and mood setting and then you crash into everything ahead while Kirk and James back you up with that powerchord heaven they created. With this song and Master of Puppets Metallica proved that they were the fastest and the best writers at the time. And then that word: Battery. It just sounds awesome and powerful so to end a chorus of with that word is fitting to a sound that oozes speed and aggression. Kirk's solo is good as well. though i'm not a fan of him in general some of his work fits the songs brilliantly and Battery needed a fast paced wah solo to compliment it and it does amazingly. This song is metal at it's finest fast when it has to be and slow when it can be. All in all my favorite metal song.

A song that changed my life

there have been certain songs that I feel like have change my life and one of these songs in particular is what this post is about. It opened up a new world to me a gave me an artist that I could really feel was "mine". Nobody have ever met knows more about him then I know and I must say I'm glad that I have him to myself in a way. The song that changed my life this time is:



Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

It was my second year in gymnasium and we had all year had a sort of show and tell going on in my English class. We had this so that the more quiet students would get a chance off showing what level their English was on. I myself had no need for it cause my oral English is perfect but eventually it was my turn to talk about something. It could be whatever I wanted and first of I had set my sights on Steve Lukather but for some reason i can't explain I thought about doing it on Eric Johnson instead. I knew who Eric was but only from a G3 show with Vai and Satriani where he was kickasss and then from his album Venus Isle witch had a song I really liked called SRV (A tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan) but other then that I had never really explored his music. I did my presentation about his gear and a bit about his Grammy winning song Cliffs of Dover  but I just talked about it I didn't really hear it, but after I was done I sad down and found a live show from Austin, TX, from 1988 and the penny Dropped. I couldn't believe my own ears. The intro to the song was him playing chord variations on his clean sound and I thought I was flying around the white cliffs of Dover. I have never experienced anything like that. Had I been at home I would have started crying because I thought I was in heaven. And then the song. The FUCKING song! Eric Johnson is a master craftsman who sounds 100% unique and for some reason just speaks to me. I started checking out the whole concert and found one amazing song after the other and then he started singing. His soft and high voice fitted the gentle love songs with the blistering solos perfectly. Songs like Emerald Eyes and Trail of Tears, where so different from what I heard at the time and I ended up almost hearing nothing but Eric Johnson for 6 months. The only song I really heard outside of Eric was Take on me by A-ha <3 but it was all about Eric. Now I wanted to sound like Eric and try some of that amazing stuff he did and I found out that my band mates also thought it could be interesting so I learned some of my favorite guitar songs and it all culminated when I finally got the courage to take on Cliffs of Dover one Saturday and that moment where I nailed the main riff it felt like everything I had ever done didn't matter cause right now I was playing the best instrumental song ever and it sounded god damn good. I couldn't play his songs unless I had my gear set up right and when I got the Mad Professor: Golden Cello pedal  in Las Vegas my pedal board was complete. Now I had Eric in a box and now I could always get a fix of Cliffs and in my opinion the highest from of art that exists.

If you've never checked out Eric but like classic rock and guitar in particular then for god's sake do something about it. You don't know what you're missing ;)  

"Tommy Vercetti is an innocent man"

Ever once in a while when you think back at certain points and memories in your life there are moments where you feel like you're hit by a sledgehammer of joy and you you can't help but to smile. I feel that way when I think of the multi-platform game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In this post I'll have a look on what made this game special to me and give reasons to my claim of this being the best game ever.

The Gameplay
The gameplay is by no means impressive by today's standards but at the time I thought it was a boost compared to GTA 3. The graphics in itself are not that different, you still got clubby hands and flat faces but the visuals seemed more spectacular to me. The mechanics have now turned into "Classic" GTA and are very alike to GTA 3. The mechanics are off course working great and the steering of vehicles works incredibly well and have done ever since. This is not the point where it sets itself clearly apart from other sandbox games but it's a great foundation to start with.

The Setting
Never has a game hit the theme or setting so well and so capturing. the whole game oozes 80's, Miami Vice and Scarface. From the cars to Tommy Vercetti you can't help but to fall in love with this games take on the 80's and it's crimes. The fact that you start of with a light blue palm printed shirt and with your trusty Tech 9 by your site you set to raise havoc in your Lamborghini Countach inspired Cheetah. You walk into Ammu-nation to by yourself a new Ruger-mini so you can fend of the Voodoo Gang near little Hawana. Bikers drive around the two islands and while your butchering guys in speedos on the beach Lance Vance "Dance" is looking cool in his white and purple suit. The fact that you get references to the best movie ever Scarface only adds to the scene. The mansion you get when you kill Mr. Diaz holds a office which is almost a copy of Tony Montana's stronghold and it fits in perfectly. Boats are bigger, cars are louder and more stylish and guns are plentier and more exotic then ever. Drugs, money, women and guns are constant factors and Vice city even grants you the chance of riding a tank. The script and story is working great together and really handles the drug centered crime scene spotless. Tommy Vercetti is a great character and he is backed up by great supporting characters like Ken Rosenberg and Mitch Baker. But none of this would have worked if not for one thing.

The Soundtrack
Vice City has the best soundtrack ever fitted to anything EVER. Not before or after has a soundtrack embraced a game, a movie or whatever so perfectly. Eventhough San Andreas had a great soundtrack and feel, Vice City is just a class above everything els. Vice City taught me about great music and V-Rock was just what I needed in my early teens. you got some of the greatest songs ever written on the 7 radio stations that played music. Radio Espandoso was not my cup of tee but Emotion 98.3, Flash FM and V-rock were and sometimes I would turn the game on just to listen to Lazlow getting into trouble. You got: Toto, Bryan Adams, Twisted Sister, Slayer, Ozzy Osbourne, Loverboy, The Outfield, Yes, Megadeth, Michael Jackson, INXS, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, David Lee Roth, Nena, Blondie, Iron Maiden and so much more. It was on big highlight reel over what the good side of 80's music was. Ad to that Lovefist. Rockstar made up a band and fitted them into the story line along with two songs on V-Rock and it's hilarious. The songs are not even bad they're okay 80's rock song. That ads another dimension to it. Songs you don't know from a band that doesn't exist is cool as hell, an particularly when the music is kicking ass. A part of the soundtrack which is really going unnoticed is the intro song. The small one minute jam of different synths, bongo drums, guitar and horns has the potential to become an insane 80's inspired solo platform whit almost no boundaries.That one minute before the game even starts sums up what you're about to embark in. The best video game ever developed. The voice acting is spot on and the dialog is incredible as always in GTA games. 

This is why I think Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the best game ever!

The 5 most underrated guitar players in my book

This list consists of some guitar players whom you might have heard off and some I will almost guaranty you haven't heard off. Cause to me a great guitar player is not measured in how he influenced the music scene or how popular his or her music is. It can help when you're talking about and measure different guitar players but in my book capability comes first. that is why my favorite guitar players are not the ones whom I think are the best. But some of my favorite and the ones I rate as the best are really underrated and highly unknown. Here is my top five over amazing guitar players who fly under the radar of mainstream and popular music.


5. Nuno Bettencourt

Nuno is right now getting a lot more attention then he was when he was shredding around in Extreme. Cause right now he is the touring guitarist for Rihanna and even she/her touring manager are letting him go a couple of times each show. Nuno has a unique ability. He is the master of the challenging and complex rock riff that is almost constantly evolving. during the 90's he was composing riff after riff after riff that turned into great heavy rock songs. His signature guitar, the Washburn N4, proved to be an amazing and durable metal machine that showed the world that Washburn could make some really good guitars along with the Dime (Dimebag Darrel's siganture Washburn guitar). He is one of the few shredders who have had success in pop as a session and touring guitar player. If you don't believe me check out More Than Words and look for yourself.


4. John Sykes

One of my best memories of music as a kid was seeing Thin Lizzy live in 2005 when I was 12 years old. My father had bought the live album One Night Only in 2000 and I adored it. It was songs i knew but they were so much more then they used to be. Loud and improvised solos with blistering speed and Sykes' vocal was really good to my surprise. Watching Sykes with his fabled "Black butty" at his site was like a dream come true when he handed me one of his guitar picks. Even though Sykes was in both Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake he is not a house hold name. He is seen as one of the guitar players in Whitesnake and thin Lizzy that wasn't that important. But he was one of the guitar players on the Album "Whitesnake" from 1987 before Coverdale went crazy. His influence on The thin Lizzy album "Thunder and Lightning" was clear it was much heavier and whit more demanding guitar parts. And by god is he a beast when you set him free. He has incredible speed and his technique is very unique cause he has some pitched long runs that I have only heard in a way from Gus G, but Sykes' runs are longer and more screaming.


3. Reb Beach

Reb Beach was one of the forgotten guitar players of the 80's. He himself has talked about how everything was Kirk Hammett this and Kirk Hammett that in the late 80's. He played in a band that was part of the glam rock era and therefor got lost in all the bands that looked just like them. Winger though, had nothing to be ashamed of. they had already showed their ability when they released "Winger" in 1988. The hits Headed for a heartbreak and Seventeen are classic 80's rock songs and both of them show of what makes Reb special. He is a tapping master. He has a unique technique, where he pulls the string above (above tonal) the one he is tapping at with his ring finger on the tapping hand, to get to the next string. I have never seen anyone els do that. Ad the coolness of fast tapping with the look af an Ibanez Voyager and result is the essence of the 80's. Right now he's playnig along side Doug Aldrich in Whitesnake so check out the guy standing with a Suhr Koa on the opposite side of Doug.


2. Goncalo Peraira

Some guys are rated, some are overrated or underrated but Goncalo isn't rated at all. He is the only guitarist I now from Portugal but my is he exciting. When I saw him for the first time he used a Mesa-boogie stack with a PRS Custom series guitar and that would be enough for me to go crazy but then I heard his live show from his DVD "Another day in Another world" and it took my breath away. It seems that he has gotten the best musician in all of Portugal to back him up and the end results are some gorgeous instrumental songs. His album "G-Spot" is amazing and you wouldn't believe it came from his own studio and wasn't some big spending California recording. Check out the DVD songs Pastel de Nata and Sessão Geleia.


1. Shawn Lane

Shawn Lane's album "Powers of Ten" opened up a whole new world to me back in the day. He was my first real experience of a REAL shredder in action. He had an incredible mind and was such a talent at work you could not help but to be amazed. Grey pianos and  Get you back are beautiful songs with his amazing feel and speed mixed with fusion chords and cheesy synths. He is a guy whom only guitar players know and not even everybody knows him as well as they should. At a NAMM show on the January 15th 1993 Reb Beach, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Steve vai, Joe Satriani and Alex Skolnick were blown away by Shawn's shredding in a jam over "Going Down". He died in 2003 after life long osteoporosis but left a permanent mark on my soul in 2001. Shawn had been working on Indian music with the Swedish bass player Jonas Hellborg and at "New Morning" in Paris the gates of heaven opened and out came the most vulgar display of power I had ever seen. Time stood still and I couldn't believe my ears and still to this day this on show can make me slip away and forget everything. He was a century talent and there will never be another Shawn Lane.