The Best Metal Guitarists Of All Time Ranked
Heavy metal guitar players use highly-amplified electric guitar playing that is rooted in the guitar playing styles developed in 1960s-era blues rock and psychedelic rock. Metal guitar playing uses a massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos and overall loudness. The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. Heavy metal bands often have two electric guitarists, with one guitarist playing rhythm guitar and one guitarist playing lead guitar. The rhythm guitar player is part of the rhythm section of the band, along with the bass guitarist and the drummer. The lead guitarist plays guitar solos, instrumental melody lines and melodic fill passages. In power trios, which consist of a guitarist, bassist and drummer, with one or more members singing lead vocals, the single guitarist will switch between rhythm guitar and lead guitar roles as needed. Here are all of The Best Metal Guitarists Of All Time ranked.
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20. Buckethead
“Buckethead is hands down the greatest guitarist ever, give soothsayer a listen and you will see why. His songs have strong cleans that really draw emotion as well as mind numbing speed in the solos. I’m a huge Metallica fan and I have listened thousands of bands but buckethead is very different. Everyone should listen and give him a chance. Nobody can say “buckethead sucks”. He is great on his job.”
19. Jeff Hanneman
“Slayer are a band – and one of the mightiest – but they had a FU attitude to pompousness and don’t care what anyone thinks about them. They are a punk bank band in a thrash outfit, so Lombardo aside, don’t leave them open for judgement on a best guitarist list. They, like Metallica, are a united front.”
18. Synyster Gates
“He not only has speed and technicality, but is incredibly versatile and emotive. He is one of very few who can strike a balance between technical prowess and tasteful phrasing. He has his own distinctive sound and creative use of conventional techniques. His solo’s always compliment the music, the style and the underlying harmony and are always memorable.”
17. K.K. Downing
“Continually creates solos that work to connect with the melody of the song. Together with KK Downing no other band can match Judas Priests mastery of solos with such dedication to detail. He was shredding in 70′, while no one knew how to play metal! (I mean the solo of Victim of Changes)”
16. Alex Skolnick
“Definitely one of the most diverse guitarists out there, which shows from his soft metal, to death metal, to his jazz trio he is currently part of, not to mention being one of the lead guitarist for the philharmonic orchestra.. Testament! One of the most unique and talented guitarists I’ve ever heard, he does incredibly fast arpeggios yet maintaining a jazz fusion influence, one of the most underrated guitarists.”
15. Jeff Loomis
“Amazing guitarist. One of the few that can shred and convey emotion simultaneously. Most shred guitarists sound amazing by virtue of their technical skill, but the emotion seems missing from much of their work. Loomis manages to do both brilliantly.”
14. Yngwie Malmsteen
“While ironically beat at his own invention by Glenn, this man is still the next best sweep picker. His shred arpeggio’s are hard to beat, but he doesn’t experiment much so I ranked him down a bit. After Randy and Ritchie invented Neo-classical metal, Yngwie invented the sweep pick and developed the genres true stylistic sound.”
13. Glenn Tipton
“Glenn Tipton is living proof that class and style beats technique any day of the week. Not that his work isn’t technical or difficult (it is, though there’s several on this list that take it quite a bit further on that aspect), but he’s a sloppy player – especially live. That doesn’t stop at least half of his solo’s being beautiful, memorable tunes and mini-stories that fit perfectly within the song. That percentage is easily 5 times as high as any other guitarist in this list in my very humble opinion – many guitar solo’s are either boring or just don’t add much to what is already in the song; regardless of how difficult, unusual or well played it is.”
12. Dave Murray
“Dave Murray has a fast fluid intricate style and puts bags of emotion into every note he plays. He’s a complete natural who is a joy to watch and listen to and really is one of the nicest people in rock. No ego, no arrogance just an amazing capability to blow the roof off when the spotlight shines on him. He is the best guitarist in the World.”
11. James Hetfield
“If anyone on this list actually heard him play hard wasn’t playing his usual backup, Then he would have made the list. I’ve heard him let loose and he’s one hell of a guitar player. Remember, its not about how fast you can play, its about what you play and how intricate it is. Not only did he write most of the riffs for his music but he has an agreement with his manager that he MUST be recorded whenever he picks up a guitar, because of his creativity and natural talent he always comes up with new material every time he plays.”
10. Alexi Laiho
“Being lead vocalist and guitarist is really hard and takes real concentration and Alexi is issued in that state but he enjoys it and is clearly known to be a “crowd favorite”. I also have to mention that some of his verses do not equalize with his vocals and that shows a great talent cause not only can he concentrate on his vocals but also his melodic guitar tunes.”
9. Adrian Smith
“When Adrian Smith joined Iron Maiden, he formed a partnership with Dave Murray that became one of the most impressive yet underrated in metal history. The styles of the two guitarists formed the riffs and solos of some of the most influential and ground breaking songs in metal history – (Hallowed be Thy Name, The Trooper and Aces High) to name a few.”
8. John Petrucci
“In terms of sheer technique, Petrucci wins hands down. He is the most consistent of everybody on the list, especially when watching live performances, as most of these guitarists only can play their own parts so-so in live shows… but Petrucci always delivers. Even in videos where he is covering other bands, he always plays the guitar parts BETTER than the original guitarist (even when I don’t want it to be so) and even mimics their style of playing.”
7. Marty Friedman
“Marty Friedman is one of those guitarists who have their own distinctive playing, no matter how obscure. His knowledge of music theory is absolutely masterful, and his solos never fail to blow me away. His material is really difficult to emulate as well. He’s a musical genius in his own right and he still doesn’t get the amount of credit he deserves. His work with Megadeth displays just a portion of his skill and work, listen to Cacophony and his solo albums such as Dragon’s Kiss. To further prove how incredible he is, his solo in Tornado of Souls was one of the three improvised takes he did, and Dave decided that the one we hear is the best one.”
6. Chuck Schuldiner
“If Schuldiner had done a collaboration with Marty Friedman, then that would be the most melodic thing that the world had ever heard. Chuck had a sense of melody that very few others have (Friedman is the only one that comes to mind), and the fact that he could change keys easily only goes to show that he was on par, if not above, most of the guitarists in the top ten”
5. Randy Rhoads
“Randy is a Metal guitar God! I have true respect for all on this list, but Randy was exotic, small time footprint in history, yet in that short of a time he left Metal never the same again. He was a perfectionist, a classical music background that was flawless with Ozzys gothic style it was stunning. Perfectionist on every level including laying down studio track, he was so anal about the sound that he even wanted to listen to his creations fart away, in another room or floor just to make sure every note is directly driven to every metal freaks brains”
4. Kirk Hammett
“Perfect use of effects, shows his technique, shows how good he is on the guitar, but does not overdo it like many others do, he is just what Metallica needs, he is the first guy most people think of when someone mentions who is the best metal guitarist. Surely there are many other guitarists who are better players technically than kirk but no one else plays their solo with so much power, emotion and quality, he is excellent live, he is number one”
3. Tony Iommi
“The fact that he lost a finger in a factory accident did not even hinder him. And, he has written and created some of the most iconic metal riffs of all time. He even is responsible for my favorite guitar noise: the Iron Man Bend. And how would it be complete if I did not mention a few of his solos. The best would be Iron Man, riff and solo. My flavorist solo is from Ear in the Wall, a very underappreciated sabbath song”
2. Dimebag Darrell
“Dimebag is one of those guitarists that come once in every 100 years to show the world what stuff legends are made of. His ability to bring so much vibrato and emotion without losing any of its heaviness to every song is UNREAL. His creative genius is unparalleled to this day. Even though Dave and Kirk are amazing but if there’s one guitarist who has the skill and the soul to set heaven on fire it’s Dimebag Darrell.”
1. Dave Mustaine
“Definitely the best metal guitar player. The main creator of thrash metal guitar playing. He wrote some of the best songs in Metallica and some of the best songs in metal history with megadeth, his insanely fast, technical and aggressive guitar playing style spawned subgenres of metal such as death metal. Dave is definitely the most influential guitar playing in heavy metal, he does everything while singing and very few people can do that on this planet.”