Bring on the Shred

[SteveB]

1. Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force
2. Vinnie Moore - Mind's Eye
3. Tony MacAlpine - Maximum Security

I think Maximum Security is a little more polished than Edge of Insanity which was mentioned in an earlier post, but either is great.

Maximum Security features guest solos by George Lynch of Dokken and a few other people, too. I think "Tears of Sahara" on this album is one of the greatest guitar pieces you can find... solos by MacAlpine and Lynch that are just brimming over with feeling and lots of shred!

Rising Force by Malmsteen is what started the whole neo-classical craze. Nobody else did it very well until Vinnie Moore unleashed "Mind's Eye" which blended neo-classical with jazz sensibilities.

If you have the budget for 4 discs, get the three above plus:

4. Racer X - Street Lethal

This will let you hear shredding in the context of balls to the wall metal with vocals. (Yeah, Jeff Scott Soto sings a few songs on Rising Force, but the instrumentals are the most memorable on that album.)

 

[OrangeChannel]

Great bit about Lynch...he used to go to GIT between albums to LEARN...that's awesome since he was definitely no slouch...

 

[aaronb]

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.

Secondly, no one has mentioned Michael Romeo from "Symphony X", get yourself the "The Odyssey" or "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy". Not full on shredding, just propper music with some great playing by MJR.

Thirdly, get yourself "Elements of Persuasion" by James Labrie (the singer from "Dream Theater"), the guitarist Marco Sfogli is a phenominal player influenced strongly by JP and the whole album completely rocks!!!!!

I forgot to mension Sfogli, elements of persuasion is a great example of what shredding should be like. (imho)

 

[Antoine]

Greg Howe, all his albums !!!

 

[tvanveen]

Do you have any preferences on what kind of shred you're looking for? I'm sorry I don't know who Verlaine and Marr are (maybe you can introduce me along the way?)
Neo-classical, heavy, progressive, metal, country (is there such a thing as country shred?) ?

Verlaine was in a band called Television, Marr was in The Smiths.

Pretend I'm your snobby emo cousin...show me some shred I might like. The songs themselves would have to be good.

I'm inclined at this point to try some Dream Theater, some Morse, maybe some Vai.

 

[Raz]

Verlaine was in a band called Television, Marr was in The Smiths.

Pretend I'm your snobby emo cousin...show me some shred I might like. The songs themselves would have to be good.

I'm inclined at this point to try some Dream Theater, some Morse, maybe some Vai.

Have you tried the radio sation yet, the one on the main EBMM page:
EBMM Radio

On the left is the link, and choose shred, you'll cover all of the basis there...

 

[mhorse]

Verlaine was in a band called Television, Marr was in The Smiths.

Pretend I'm your snobby emo cousin...show me some shred I might like. The songs themselves would have to be good.

I'm inclined at this point to try some Dream Theater, some Morse, maybe some Vai.

Dream Theater is your best bet then. I persoanlly think DT has much better overall songwriting skills then Vai and Satch and Malmsteen, even though latter ones can arguably get more technical.
I'm guessing neither the Smiths nor Television were real heavy, so Nevermore and alike are out of the question.

I'd like to mention one more band, although it doesn't exactly fall under shred category - The ****ing Champs. I remember recently there was a dicussion about lack of new guitar heros - there guys certainly are, but of the new type and unknow to the public.

Ah, one more name for you to look into - Buckethead ;-) How come everybody forgot about the guy????

 

[SteveB]

Verlaine was in a band called Television, Marr was in The Smiths.

Pretend I'm your snobby emo cousin...show me some shred I might like. The songs themselves would have to be good.

I'm inclined at this point to try some Dream Theater, some Morse, maybe some Vai.

C'mon... so many people have mentioned Yngwie's "Rising Force".. how can you ignore it?

I really think you'll miss out if you get Dream Theater or Steve Morse. They really are more about riffing and complex compositional structure than about shredding.

This may soud blasphemous to some around here, but I think that labelling Morse or Petrucci as 'shredders' is a little off. They are so much more versatile (as are some of the others mentioned here). Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, and Yngwie really are known for shred, shred and more shred. These three have had flop albums when they ventured too far from shred over neo-classical.

Morse and Petrucci are always well received because they play in the context of a band versus being solo artists (except on their specific solo albums).

 

[Colin]

I'm going to step outside the square a bit with my suggestions.

Michael Lee Firkins
Eric Johnson
Frank Gambale

Cheers,
Colin

 

[Tokkes]

I was wondering (and have to agree with SteveB), but do you really consider Steve Morse a 'shredder'? I just think of him as a superb guitar player that just happens to play 1/16 notes. Well, he is fast, but that doesn't make him a 'shredder' I'd say.

On the other hand, what is typical for a 'shredder', or better, when do you earn that title?

For me, it's all about sound: there may be a truckload of distortion, if it's played well and sounds good, heck, I'll buy it. And might even try to play it myself (if there has not been too much tune dropping, hate to do that with my Morse w/ tremolo).

Tom.

 

[Danjp1928]

I don`t know about Petrucci knocking Satriani`s socks off!!!!! But i will say Tony McAlpine could give John a run for his money! Don`t comment if you`ve never heard of Tony because he is that good a player!

Well, each to their own but I have both Planet X albums and ive been to watch him several times appearing with Steve Vai etc. technically he is a great player theres no disputing that. Musically however he really doesnt do it for me.

 

[AxSport4me]

Well, each to their own but I have both Planet X albums and ive been to watch him several times appearing with Steve Vai etc. technically he is a great player theres no disputing that. Musically however he really doesnt do it for me.

When he`s with Vai its not his show! Try some of his solo stuff or if your into Jazz Fusion check out a band called CAB that he`s in with Dennis Chambers and Bunny Brunnel!!!!!

 

[tommyindelaware]

i saw satch quite a few times on the last legg of the last u.s. deep purple tour...standing at a guitar station right next to his amp......& i'm telling ya'all......there is nobody w/ a better blend of shredding chops, fire , soul , tone .....and magic live.
i wasn't expecting to be so blown away w/ his show the first night.......but after standing there for about 15 minutes....i HAD to go out front to get in front of his amp. the guy is a walking flame thrower ......MAGNIFICIENT !!!!!!
imnsho.....

 

[Raz]

I'm going to step outside the square a bit with my suggestions.

Michael Lee Firkins
Eric Johnson
Frank Gambale

Cheers,
Colin

Good choice, but this thread makes a good point, what exactly is a shredder...I noticed on the EBMM station that, for example Jeff Beck is played on the SHRED channel, again I guess shredding is a pretty loose classification...

Also consider Mattias IA Eklundh...however he doesn't pile on the notes, but he'll sqeeze enough into thirty seconds that will make your heart drop.

Neil Zaza is also a shredster...I guess there can be a separation of 'Metal', 'Fushion', and 'Neo-Classical' shredding...let's not forget that there's some bluegrass players that can also pile on the notes...

 

[AxSport4me]

Well if were really name dropping........

David Chastain
Michael Harris
Joe Stump
are excellent as well!

 

[CudBucket]

first off DO NOT BUY PASSION AND WARFARE, that guy is a cheap excuse for a shredder, the massive quantities of compression on that record make me sick, and the songs just blow.

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

 

[Raz]

Well if were really name dropping........

David Chastain
Michael Harris
Joe Stump
are excellent as well!

Ah Joe Stump...cool!

 

[savannah_sean]

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.

 

[fsmith]

There are tons of great shred guitar out there.

Here are my three picks:

Racer X - Superheroes

+1 for Racer X although I think that their older stuff is actually scarier. Check Extreme Volume 1&2, both are live albums. Scary fast and they happen to be pretty melodic too. Gilbert and Bouilet were incredible together. Yngwie from that era gets an honorable mention as well.

I spent many a night jamming to the Racer X stuff with a neighbor and some cold ones.

fred

 

[Hookpunch]

Steve Morse a shredder? Music isn't a competition but I will say that Steve's techical ability is second to no one, as for his facility with picking, I think he is even faster than Yngwie or Eric Johnson (see Tumeni Notes). The big difference is that Steve's chops serve his music, his music is not a way to show off his chops.

I will take the beautiful Highland Wedding in preference to recording after recording of a minor harmonic scale played at lightning speed.

Back to the thread - good choices by Raz , I would only add Coast to Coast by Steve and perhaps Ah Via Musicom by Eric Johnson.