Your favorite musicians?

[Jesse]

We've all seen what happens when a thread is started about a band, but, I figure this should be approached differently. Let's discuss musicians instead of bands.

My musical taste has changed a lot over the last year. I used to be into really simple music, but now, since I've started playing guitar, I've grown to appreciate more technical and skilled music. I know I'm the only person here that likes death metal and what not, but, the guitarists are insane.

Anyway, onto the topic of this thread. Who are your favorite musicians? Can be anybody that plays an instrument.

For me, it's tough to chose just one. I've got 4 favorite guitarists, and one favorite bassist right now, and they're amazing guitarists. Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom) The Amott brothers (Arch Enemy) and Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse). And Alex Webster (Bass, Cannibal Corpse) Though I've got different reasons for all of them.

Alexi can just write and play ASTOUNDING music. You can tell how good he is from listening to any Children of Bodom CD, but, the other day I got this guitar lecture video, and the stuff he can play is just phenomonal. He's right up on par with Yngwie in my book. Let alone the solos he can write.

And the Amott brothers, they just write the best riffs. And their solos are so beautiful. Maybe I use the term "solo" too loosely. There are different kinds of solos. There are Slayer solos which are just disgusting (in a good way), and then there are solos that are just written so well and sound so good. Some of the stuff Alexi and The Amott brothers come up with is just so perfect.

And then there's Pat O'Brien of Corpse. I'm convinced he can play any riff at any speed. I have a video of them playing one of their songs, and unless you saw it, you wouldn't believe the stuff he can do on a guitar.

Alex Webster can match what Pat O'Brien can do on a bass. Not only is he fast and technical, but, he uses a lot of different picking methods on his bass. He's taught himself several different music styles, and then applied them to death metal. He's a great musician. He's not far behind Victor Wooten in my book.

[Mr Biglesworth]

I'll be the last to write off some of the talent in xxxx metal bands, and let's not forget drummers. Death/heavy/black metal always strides to be the most 'insane' and so you get the push to be faster, stronger, blacker.

I myself am not a musician and so I tend not to follow individual musicians or associate the people with their particular part to a song. So I'll have to stick to bands. I've been listening to The Beatles more and more lately, and their genius just continues to astound me. They were so creative, they pioneered an art form and set the possibilities for all those that followed. Think about creating an art... there's no rules, you can do anything, and they did.
Though now that I've mentioned the Beatles I can't think of anyone else. Long live the kings!

[Jesse]

That's how Cannibal Corpse looks at their music. Music is open territory. You can make it as challenging as you want, you can do anything with it. They're very smart and well spokem musicians. Which, I will say, surprised me. You don't expect people in a death metal band to be so well spoken.

[raublekick]

Jesse, you aren't the only person here into metal, trust me.

In my opinion most metal drummers aren't that great. They can play fast as hell, but it's all doublebass with some really simple snare/hihat/occasional tom work.

If you want to hear an insane drummer check out Zach Hill. He is the drummer for Hella, and at first it seems like he is a just a fast and chaotic drummer with no real sense of keeping the rhythm to a song. But after listening ot Hella records over and over you can hear all the details and see that he is actually in almost perfect rhythm, but his style is so unconventional that it doesn't seem so. He has a record out with some other drummer called Nervous Cop, haven't heard it yet but it sounds interesting.

Spencer Seim, the other half of Hella, is one of my favorite guitarists. He can just play so many melodies simultaneously, it sounds like there are at least 2 people playing guitar. He's also a really good drummer for the Advantage. It's odd because his normal guitar style is so off the wall and insane, but his drumming is really conventional comparatively. But he excells at each.

Damon Che is another great drummer, from Don Cabellero. So is Alex Van Halen (tell me the drumming in Hot For Teacher isn't fucking awesome!).

Why the hell am I talking about drummers? I don't even play drums....

Eddie Van Halen is amazing, his style (pre 1984) was just intense. The man invented tapping solos for christ's sake, he basically created metal solos.

I can't think of anyone else at the moment, I'll probably add more later when I can look through my CD collection.

[raublekick]

I'd actually like to argue against the Beatles' creativity. They're an amazing band, truly, but they took a lot of influence from other musicians at the time.

The Beatles were pretty conservative when it came to the boundaries of pop/rock music. They stuck to conventional measures, tempos, etc... But to refute that, oddball music wasn't really "invented" yet, so they stuck with what was around.

Paul McCartney kinda held the band back in that aspect. He was the sensible pop guy, Lennon was the creative hippie, and Harrison was the rock and roll dude. And then there was Ringo, he was cool. They kept each other in balance, but that's what made them work.

Sgt. Pepper was pretty much directly influenced by Brian Wilson's songwriting for Smile, but then Smile was never released and Sgt. Pepper was hailed as such an amazing record.

It's their simplicity and pop sensibility that made them so good. So I'm not going to say they should have worked outside the box a little more, because frankly I think their more contemporary stuff is better than stuff like Yellow Submarine.

[Mr Biglesworth]

I don't know man... I mean, you may be right and the whole 'they invented an art form' thing may just be revisionist populism, but I really do have to say they were amazingly creative. C'mon! hahaha, I'm listening to The Beatles right now, and I just don't feel I have to argue the point! C'mon!

[Jesse]

When it comes to drummers, I put a lot of emphasis on how well they can actually play the drums. Most metal drumming is a lot of double bass and snare (those are called blast beats the really quick DAT DAT DAT DAT DAT on the snare with double bass). But, there are a few drummers I really like a lot.

There's Meshuggah's drummer, Thomas Hacke (SP on the last name). I don't know if anybody here has listened to a lot of Meshuggah, but, they're known for their really weird timing and rythym. And just listening to what their drummer comes up with is just insane. He's fast, yea, but, very, very technical. I don't know how he can remember just one song of drumming.

What do you guys think of keyboards in bands? I used to think they were pretty lame, then I heard Children of Bodom. Their keyboard player is amazing. It's not like they use a keyboard in one or two songs, but, in every song, the keyboard is just as important as the guitar. Then they'll switch back and forth between keyboard leads/solos and guitar leads and stuff. Check out the song "Chokehold" by Children of Bodom. Great example of their great keyboard work.

[raublekick]

Without keyboards in bands we wouldn't have Totally Radd!!, Mr. Pacman, Chromelodeon, and those are three of my favorite bands.

Then again, Van Halen started sucking after Eddie Van Halen went full blast with the keyboards. 1984 was the inroduction of keyboards in Van Halen, and it worked well with what they used them for, but anything after that is just to keyboard heavy.

[Marshall]

My two favorite artists are Prince and Morris Day and the Time.

But I listen to everything, and I do mean everything.

Except michael bolton.

[sharkz]

...Beck. I may elaborate later. preoccupied now.

[Mr Biglesworth]

Yea... good call, Sam.

[thecreeper]

hmm...tough one

- scott ian from anthrax, that man can can play guitar with the best of them, and charlie benante from 'thrax as well, he can do some crazy stuff with the drums.
- tony iommi from black sabbath, he created some of the most memorable metal riffs ever.
- dave grohl, though i know he's a bit overrated, he's still a hell of a drummer.
- josh homme, some as dave grohl, he can play a mean drum and guitar.
- pretty much everyone in pearl jam, their live shows are absolutely amazing in both showmanship and playing.
- likewise, pretty much everyone in tool. their live shows are so tight and perfectly played. lots of energy.

[raublekick]

good call on the josh homme/dave grohl/pearl jam there, creeper.

dave and josh have some awesome shit on the last QOTSA album.