Who are the best metal guitar players ever?
Well, what does ‘best’ even mean? Fastest? Heaviest? Most popular?
Influence is a big element, I’d say: the inspiration that some players give others, regardless of perceived popularity or success, is maybe the ‘truest’ definition of best. What do you think?
Heavy metal is a genre that’s awash with exceptional guitarists. It’s the place in music where guitarists matter the most, and there they are celebrated the most. Regardless of your preference for metal style, if you like metal then I know you love guitar players! That means I know you’ll love this list, and have strong opinions about who belongs on here!
When deciding who belongs here, I’ve decided that one criteria was appropriate: the players needed to be in bands. So, no solo shredders and no YouTubers, no matter how talented they might be. This is about the people who go out and play shows, release albums and inspire others all over the world. The riffmasters, the shred legends, the whole of heavy metal in its entirety, right here.
What are you waiting for, you metal maniacs?! Mosh!!
The Best Metal Guitar Players At a Glance
Richard Z Kruspe & Paul Landers
Tony Iommi
The riffs, the tone, the image and the atmosphere. Iommi not only has it all, he invented it! Living in a castle, wearing crucifixes and playing guitar with plastic fingertips because his own were sliced off in an industrial accident…if it wasn’t all true, you’d never believe it!
Everyone who tunes to C# does so in Iommi’s honour. Everyone who chooses a black SG over the ubiquitous Cherry one does so in tribute to the Iron Man himself.
Randy Rhoads
Immortal Randy Rhoads, one of the greatest of them all. We didn’t get tons of material from him, but what we do have positively glows. He brought a unique and enviable style that branched into some exotic classical moves, and blended all of that with a fizzing, gnarly heavy metal attitude that elevated everything he was attached to.
Originator of the RR guitar shape, standard-setter of Ozzy’s guitarists (the finest guitar stable in the business, surely) and an artist with skills and taste that changed the hard-rock world forever: Randy Rhoads was and is a legit legend.
Hetfield & Hammett
Metallica are the biggest metal band on the planet. James Hetfield remains rock’s most valuable player, a strong vocalist and magnetic frontman who also happens to write great songs with humongous riffs. It’s no hyperbole to say that 100% of metal-loving guitar players have put in the hours trying to nail his best riffs. We all want his guitar tone too, because let’s face it: it’s the best metal sound that money can buy.
Kirk Hammett is the writer of some of the most timeless and beloved guitar solos in the world. From the tapping frenzy in Master of Puppets to the widescreen epicness of The Unforgiven, Hammett is like heavy metal’s David Gilmour: an accessible People’s Champion with more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
Adrian Smith
How to shine in a band that has three excellent lead guitarists? If you’re Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith, you develop an instantly recognisable style and approach to melody. Smith is fantastic at creating a narrative with his solos: beginning low and slow, moving up into some flash and ending with a high-register melodic part. I want to say that he’s the least ‘Bluesy’ of the Iron Maiden guitarists, though I’m not sure if that’s a fact or an opinion!
However it is he achieves his musical identity, in a trio of talented players, he’s immediately recognisable.
Dave Mustaine
Top riffs, great rhythm work, quality leads, solos that are a match for his ‘lead players’, great songwriting chops and the ability to sing at the same time as all of that…those are the reasons why Dave Mustaine is one of the greats. Megadeth are one of history’s mightiest thrash metal bands, and Mustaine is the integral element.
The band are about to release their final album and call it a day, so if you’ve not yet gotten into Megadeth, this is the time!
Zakk Wylde
He’s a genuine guitar hero in the old school mode. From being Ozzy’s sidekick to his own blistering solo career and now also Pantera’s lead guitarist, Zakk is one of the most visible guitarists in metal.
He’s an outrageous player with a lethal attack and the best pinched harmonics in the business. More significantly, he’s got that common touch that puts him in the sights of general music fans, not just guitar nerds. Zakk’s as metal as it gets.
Chuck Schuldiner
Death were trailblazers for extreme metal. Their sound - like most metal bands - was based around frontman Chuck Schuldiner’s exemplary guitar playing. Chuck knew all of the tricks & techniques, and had a strong sense for the dramatic in his playing. Favouring the harmonic minor mode, Schuldiner’s riffs and solos had an exotic gravity that accentuated their crushing heaviness.
He was an influential and significant figure who is rightly remembered for his kick-ass contributions to metal.
Dimebag Darrell
In my opinion, Dimebag Darrell is one of the greatest of all the metal guitarists. He really had everything: awesome technique, tons of feel, a great sense of timing and drama, and a unique tone that you could recognise a mile away.
Dimebag’s riffs were enormous, and always sat on a huge groove. His solos were special events that elevated each and every Pantera song, not to mention the Damageplan material. People called him the most significant rock player since Eddie Van Halen. People love saying things, but on this occasion I don’t think it’s too far from the truth.
Head & Munky
It’s not so easy to see from this perspective, but Korn really, really changed the sound of metal. They came out of nowhere with a sound that blended hip hop with horror; that had lower sounding riffs and slower grooves that somehow just made everything heavier.
Korn’s two guitarists - Brian ‘Head’ Welch and James ‘Munky’ Shaffer’ - utilised the then out of fashion 7-string Ibanez Universes to deploy earth-shaking riffs, which they coupled with spooky, paranoid atmospherics. In truth, they created a whole new vocabulary for the guitar, and in which the hordes of Nu Metal copycats couldn’t quite figure out. Genuinely, nobody has been able to adequately copy their sound, which is shared between the players equally, as opposed to a lead & rhythm dynamic.
More remarkably, Korn have kept their sound fresh and appealing over a three decade career, whilst retaining their signature sound.
Matt Heafy
To a whole generation of metalheads, Trivium were the gateway to metal. They were the band who introduced ‘the way’ to music fans in the early 2000s. They were also seen as a band who returned metal to a more classic thrash sound, albeit an updated form of it for a newer audience.
Matt Heafy, the band’s writer and vocalist, is also responsible for most of Trivium’s riffs. Whether on 6 on 7 string guitar, Heafy’s a dedicated and influential metal warrior, with the righteous zeal of a true believer.
Fredrik Åkesson
Part of me feels that both of Opeth’s guitarists should be mentioned here since they are both outstanding guitarists, but Fredrik is a player who deserves to be put on a pedestal. One of the most insanely talented players around right now, Åkesson has a real flair for flash, but in the context of extremely emotional and tasteful solo parts.
He’s so good that mega-stadium-rockers Ghost actually got Fredrik to play all of the solos on their last two albums. Between that and supplying Opeth with their most outrageous guitar fireworks.
Alexi Laiho
If his life hadn’t been cut tragically short, Alexi Laiho would be seen as one of the greatest metal guitarists in the world. As it is, he’s still one of the best, with that added elegiac sting of unrealised potential.
I’d say that Alexi’s style was quite traditional, in metal terms. What made him stand out was sheer ability: he was supersonically fast, and played with a level of precision that applied to everything he did, from sweep picking to tapping to aggressive alternate picking.
He was like a reincarnated Randy Rhoads, and even chose a similarly-shaped guitar to shred on. Greatly missed and never forgotten.
Devin Townsend
The Canadian ex-Strapping Young Lad maestro has become one of the world’s top prog-metal artists in recent years, thanks to a risk-taking attitude to his music, a supersonic singing voice and some of the deadliest guitar playing on record.
Devin plays primarily in C standard tuning, an unusual but effective choice for low slung riffs and exotics soling intervals. As diverse as his solo output is, there’s always the hint of that old SYL madness in there, and that’s something to celebrate for sure.
Richard Z Kruspe & Paul Landers
Rammstein are one of the biggest metal bands in the world. On paper, this industrial, German-language, semi electronic, fully-controversial band shouldn’t be as huge as they are, but there’s no arguing with greatness!
Part of Rammstein’s appeal is undoubtedly their gargantuan guitar riffs. Crunchy and succinct, there’s an economy of expression in the music that works superbly well in context. Both guitarists play exactly the same parts 95% of the time, and use different approaches to sound to formulate that distinctive Rammstein sound. In a word: satisfying.
Brent Hinds
The world recently lost a wild and unique talent when Brent Hinds died in a motorcycle crash. As one half of Mastodon’s twin guitar attack, Hinds brought a jagged, dextrous and psychedelic sound to their heaviness. Arguably, Hinds was the lead guitarist, and he also shared lead vocal duties with bassist Troy Sanders and drummer Brann Dailor.
Mastodon’s collective sound is a unique, painterly, sprawling ocean of haunted expression, and Hinds was the mad hurricane at the centre of it all.
Synyster Gates
Combining traditional heavy metal guitar heroics with a slant of weirdness, Synyster Gates is cut from a unique cloth. Avenged Sevenfold have always been about fun and entertainment, but they also really know how to throw down. Syn Gates is a hugely capable guitarist, and one who is more than happy to step up to the spotlight.
In an age when many lead players had an ‘aww shucks’ attitude, Gates behaved like rock royalty and so was treated as such.
Why Didn’t You Include?...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re at the end of the blog and you didn’t see your favourite post hardcore new wave of beatdown doom shred guitarist in the list. Sorry about that. I have a few players that I love too, who didn’t make the list! Like these people, for example...
- Jeff Loomis
- Daron Malakian
- Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal
- Adam Jones
- Max Cavalera
- Glenn Tipton
- John 5
Whomever you admire and respect out there in the world of metal, I salute you!
