An unfinished person (in this unfinished universe)

As a teenager, I loved me some heavy metal guitar, especially those guitarists that are now known as “shredders” who could play insanely fast. These were, and still are, some of my favorites, in alphabetical order, by surname (because it’s hard to put them in order, they’re all great):

1. Jason Becker– He and the next guitarist were the tandem in a group called Cacophony that was probably one of the fastest guitar-playing bands I had ever heard. Loved them. Becker was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 1989, one week after joining David Lee Roth’s band as Steve Vai’s replacement. He was given five years to live. He’s still alive. For more on his incredible story, see his site with links to his MySpace page, where videos round out his story (of which I had no idea until I read it last night).

2. Marty Friedman– Friedman is now in a band called Lovefixer in Japan with vocalist Shinichiro “Sin” Suzuki. Here Friedman is by himself:

3. Paul Gilbert– I first heard Gilbert with the group Racer X, and later, of all places, heard him play a solo on a Christian rock album, Revelations by The Darrell Mansfield Band. However, this is probably the song that I will never forget:

4. Greg Howe– A friend introduced me to both Howe and the next guitarist, I believe, as well as Racer X.

5. Tony MacAlpine (site not updated recently):

6. Yngwie Malmsteen– I would be remiss if I didn’t include him.

7. Vinnie Moore– Perhaps my favorite guitarist ever. I still have his album Mind’s Eye on LP and had a neighbor record it on to a casette, which I completely wore out. He now plays with the British supergroup UFO:

8. John Petrucci-- lead guitarist from possibly my favorite progressive metal band Dream Theater:

9. Joe Satriani– Teacher of the last guitarist on the list and Kirk Hammett (of Metallica), and then became famous for this album:

10. Steve Vai– Still one of my favorites for performances like this: