Bring on the Shred

[kbaim]

this might be like Black Sabbath is to death metal, but I think Al Dimeola's early stuff qualifies, "Land of the Midnight Sun" in particular. Also either of "Friday Night in San Francisco" or "Passion, Grace and Fire" are worth it for a guitar-only experience.

I was just gonna name Al DiMeola! Love MIDNIGHT SUN, but...

I might go with Al's "ELEGANT GYPSY". He's the muting speed picking king and the songs are just so hypnotic.

Satriani's SURFING W THE ALIEN, absolutely!

Jeff Beck's WIRED had a gigantic impact on me...though I'm not sure it's shred.

I remember arguing with a guy back in jr hs before I had heard Jeff Beck, that Frampton comes Alive is a better album than WIRED.

*gulp*

 

[Raz]

Yeah Gilbert's a monster, I think he is one of the more well rounded shredders out there...

 

[savannah_sean]

keith,

I agree re: Elegant Gypsy. That was the first DiMeola record I ever heard, and "Race with Devil on Spanish Highway" changed my guitar world-view. I recommended LoMS because the tunes are a little more manic and in-your-face (excepting the Bach thing and "Pictures of the Sea" of course)

 

[Norrin Radd]

I just realized after reading all of these posts that, three won't do it. There are just too many great players out there. How could I forget Al DiMeola? And Eric Johnson? And Gilbert and Morse and Beck (shame on me for that one!)? And.....well, you get the idea.

I think what would be more helpful is to get a better defintion of what the author is looking for, what particular style of "shred". Let's face it, Eric Johnson and Racer X are quite diverse aurally, but both can, well, "shred" extremely well.

Someone else brought up a great question too, what exactly qualifies as shred? Segovia? SRV? Joe Perry? I don't know.

Assist me you will or help you I will not.

 

[tvanveen]

I think what would be more helpful is to get a better defintion of what the author is looking for, what particular style of "shred". Let's face it, Eric Johnson and Racer X are quite diverse aurally, but both can, well, "shred" extremely well.

Assist me you will or help you I will not.

I was trying to be a bit open ended about it to see what people would come up with...half the fun is talking about what exactly shred is.

Pretend I'm your emo cousin and you want to turn me on to some shred.

 

[Raz]

I was trying to be a bit open ended about it to see what people would come up with...half the fun is talking about what exactly shred is.

Pretend I'm your emo cousin and you want to turn me on to some shred.

I'd have to beat you up first

 

[savannah_sean]

I'd have to beat you up first

If I was turning my emo cousin (perhaps I should, but I don't know what that is) onto some shred, I guess I'd make a compilation CD of my favorite songs. Replacing the (ambiguous) notion of what "shred" is with "songs I really dig that feature what I think is great guitar playing", my mix cd would include:

1. Tumeni Notes
2. Stressfest
3. Cliffs of Dover
4. Surfing with the Alien

and of course about a zillion others.

 

[ripley]

Rusty cooley's solo album

chris poland's "return to metalopolis" isn't that just the best title ever...

and "MVP - Truth in shredding" - frank gambale & allan holdsworth... so much like listening to math it will overload your brain and put you to sleep.

and honorable mention goes to michael manring's "Thonk" - shread on 4 string, 3 octave frettless bass.

 

[savannah_sean]

oops, wrong quote. my bad

 

[SteveB]

tvanveen,

just go out and start buying some of the discs that have been mentioned, already!

 

[tvanveen]

tvanveen,

just go out and start buying some of the discs that have been mentioned, already!

I did, but this is an interesting discussion.

 

[Norrin Radd]

I did, but this is an interesting discussion.

Well, what did you get?

 

[koogie2k]

Yeah man, spill the beans! LOL

 

[tvanveen]

Dream Theater - Images and Words
Racer X - Technical Difficulties
Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien

 

[Raz]

I had a feeling he was pulling our legs...bastid
The guy's probably a shredster himself, sitting in his basement for 8 hours on end shredding bags of lettuce for all we know

 

[tvanveen]

I had a feeling he was pulling our legs...bastid
The guy's probably a shredster himself, sitting in his basement for 8 hours on end shredding bags of lettuce for all we know

Ha! No. Check your myspace messages.

 

[Raz]

Ha! No. Check your myspace messages.

OK I'll check once I get home, bastids here at work have MY Space blocked now...

 

[jongitarz]

What a ridiculous statement. Or were you just trying to get everyone to never take anything you say seriously again?

+1

 

[jimmyp]

First of all, get yourself some "Dream Theater". John Petrucci is by far my favourite player and knocks the socks off satch, vai and co. both musically and technically. I would recommend "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulance" or Scenes From A Memory.

I second your recommendation of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance - I reckon Petrucci and co wrote some of their best stuff on that album. I know this is a shred thread (cool) but am I the only one that gets turned off by shred without a song? After the initial being impressed by Malmsteen, for example (especially impressed how large he has become) I just start falling asleep as he ruins every song with excessive widdling, not that the songs were great in the first place

 

[savannah_sean]

I second your recommendation of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance - I reckon Petrucci and co wrote some of their best stuff on that album. I know this is a shred thread (cool) but am I the only one that gets turned off by shred without a song? After the initial being impressed by Malmsteen, for example (especially impressed how large he has become) I just start falling asleep as he ruins every song with excessive widdling, not that the songs were great in the first place

Yes, I get turned off by it. "Rising Force" changed my life when I was 15 years old, but it's hard for me to listen to excessive wankery anymore. For instance, I got the live G-3 cd with Satch, Vai and Eric Johnson, and the EJ tunes are my favorites. Steve Vai does some great playing too, but there are these stretches of masturbatory wank that I don't care for. Then, I got the live G-3 with Yngwie (mainly because it has a live version of Joe's "mystical potato head groove thing" and I wanted to hear the arpeggios)...but I can't even listen to the Yngwie tunes. Maybe if I was 15 again I'd think it was bitchin, but not anymore.