In our continuing series to release the Kraken of brutal tone, we turn to Dark Funeral and one of the brutalest guitar players around, Lord Ahriman.

How did you get started playing metal?
I’ve been into metal since my early childhood, played various instrument when growing up, but I didn’t start playing guitar or write music myself until the age of 17. I come from a somewhat musical family, so I guess once I really had figured out what I wanted to do in my life, music came quite natural to me. The big change, however, came to me in 1988, when my family moved from one area in Lulea (a town in the north part of Sweden where I grew up) to another. There I met this guy named Hasse, who was a killer guitar player already at that time. We became good friends and it didn’t take long until we start jamming together, and eventually formed our fist band called “Satan’s Disciples” (1989/91).”

How did you come to play in Dark Funeral?

“Actually, I’m the co-founder. And since 1996 I’m also the only original member left. In 1991 I decided to move from Lulea, to Stockholm to be able to focus entirely on music. And after approximately two years of planning and auditioning different musicians, the first line-up of Dark Funeral was born in early 1993. During 1992, for a short while, and with another drummer, we called ourselves “Ahriman”, but once the real line-up was completed we changed the name to Dark Funeral.”

“Anyhow, ever since the original line-up split up (1996), I’ve been mainly responsible for all the music and pretty much everything else concerning the band. We’ve been through numerous line-up changes over the years, but “Dark Funeral” is where my soul belongs. And as long as my passion remains, I’ll keep doing the band. At the moment and with the current line-up I must say that the atmosphere and the chemistry within the band feels absolutely fantastic. Furthermore, every single member of Dark Funeral is once again sharing a tremendously strong commitment, an absolute dedication as well as utter professionalism.”

What gear do you use to get your brutal tone?
“At the moment I’m playing a BC Rich Warlock NT Guitar spiced up with Seymour Duncan’s Blackouts Metal. With that setup plugged into either a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifire or a Randall V2, I personally think I get the ultimate guitar tone. Crunchy, yet clear and with tons of bottom edge.”

Tell us about your upcoming tour.
“Well, since November 2011, we’ve more or less been touring non-stop, with only short breaks in between. And as it seems, we’ll continue to tour throughout the spring 2012, with several festival appearances during the summer as well. And in between the shows and tours we’ll also work on a new album.”

What advice could you give to those getting into playing metal?
“Do out of passion and not for any other reasons. It’s a very tough business, so be careful.”

Check out Lord Ahriman on Facebook.

Check out Lord Ahriman on Myspace.

BAND-SITES:
http://www.darkfuneral.se 
http://www.facebook.com/darkfuneral
http://www.myspace.com/darkfuneral
http://www.twitter.com/darkfuneral
http://www.diaboliswear.com
http://www.facebook.com/diaboliswear
http://www.myspace.com/diaboliswear

Click here for Tour Dates.

Tickets:

http://www.dragon-productions.com

http://www.facebook.com/DragonProductionsOfficial

Watch here

You recently filled in for Sylosis on the As I lay Dying tour and it is said that you had only one day to prepare, learn all the songs by ear, and then tour.

Photo By Debbie Kar

“To say it was difficult would be a huge understatement, I thought I was in way over my head. I started around 10PM and stayed up all night learning the Sylosis setlist until they picked me up at noon the next day. We drove to Philadelphia and I had to play the first show without having slept in 48 hours and never even having heard the songs before the last night! The first show was a little crazy but after that it was all smooth on tour with Sylosis, iwrestledabearonce, The Ghost Inside, Of Mice And Men, and As I Lay Dying!”

How did you get started playing guitar?

“I started playing guitar when I was 10 years old, I got sucked into guitar players such as Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen. I remember playing Eruption and Blitzkrieg at my middle school battle of the bands. I was always inspired more by the attitude and touch of a guitar player rather than the licks he can play. If I were to list some big influences it would include Eddie Van Halen, Mattias IA Eklundh, Blues Saraceno, Greg Howe, etc.”

How did you find yourself in Arsis?

“Well I had previously playing in a band with Noah Martin, the bassist from Arsis. I have since left that project but we stayed in touch and talked about working together on something else. So one day I was in economics class at my university when I left the class to answer a phone call from Noah and it became clear that in about a week from that time I would be filling in on guitar for Jim Malone in Arsis. I left in the middle of class to go straight to the enrollment office and drop my classes for the semester that night, went home and started learning the 9 song 45 minute set that I had about 1 week to learn. We had 1 rehearsal before hitting the road and it was all gravy after that.”

Photo By Debbie Kar

“I play mostly Charvel guitars with Seymour Duncan pickups. I like the JB and Duncan Distortion for the bridge position, the ’59 in the neck, or the STK-S4 if I need single coils. My guitar collection consists mostly of 80′s and early 90′s axes but I really like the Charvel pro-mod series that they produce now. My main workhorse guitar is a San Dimas Style 1 from that series, I think that series are the best bang for the buck you can get in a guitar today. Incredible tone, very loud and snappy not to mention incredible feeling necks. In my amp collection right now is a Soldano Avenger, a Hughes and Kettner Duotone, and a Krank Rev Jr, with the Mesa Rectifier 4×12 being my favorite cab. For playing live, the Avenger gets my choice for heavy metal rhythms, while the Duotone is my amp of choice for leads or an eighties style rock tone. The 20 watt Rev Jr is, however, absolutely perfect for recording in my home studio. It sounds absolutely crushing paired with a good cab. All of my amps have in front of them a Maxon OD808, and an ISP Decimator G-String, which is a dual stage noise gate. The Decimator gets used both right after my guitar AND after the Maxon or in the effects loop of the amp to keep the gate super tight.”

Where do you find the energy to go on stage night after night and produce such brutal metal?

“The energy to play this stuff night after night comes of course from the crowd and the music itself! It is really important to put on an energetic stage show and get the crowd pumped up. The best shows are the ones where the crowd is stage diving, crowd surfing and enjoying themselves as much as they can, and in order to have that you need to have energy yourself! An important thing to remember, that a lot of bands don’t, is that even the people in a small crowd have paid their ticket price and come out to see you play, and they deserve for you to put on the same show for them that you would for a crowd of thousands. A lot of times the small crowds are actually the most energetic and fun to play to!”

For more information on Brandon, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/brandonellisguitarist

From Schecter, the Blackjack SLS series:

From Godin Guitars, the CORE featuring a model with Seymour Duncan P90′s.

From Jarrell Guitars, the Monte Pittman Signature line.

CJ Pierce of Drowning Pool shows us his new Eagle Gold Top.

The ESP GUS G. NT and the LTD GUS-600NT now locked and loaded with the Gus G. FIRE Blackouts System:

New from Washburn is the Paul Stanley Starfire with two Seymour-Duncan SM-3 Mini Humbuckers.

From ESP, we have the HRF NT, featuring Seymour Duncan Blackouts.

From Parker with have the Maxx Fly 7 string with a Seymour-Duncan Distortion® SH6N pickup in the neck position and a Seymour-Duncan® Distortion TB6 in the bridge position.

The ESP Eclipse II Sparkle features the Seymour Duncan JB.

New from Fender is the Kurt Cobain Mustang featuring the JB.

Know a guitarist you think should be on Voices of Metal? Let us know in the comments below.

At a young age, Preston took to playing his fathers guitar. When Preston was 15, he went to see Hot Tuna and was deeply inspired by the fretwork of Jorma Kaukonen. Energized, Preston went on to push himself and his creativity to develop his own unique style, and as a result developed a style that has been defining and revolutionary to this day. Preston has released 15 studio albums, toured the world numerous times and videos of his performances are commonly shared by acoustic guitar players. Preston, can currently be found touring the United Kingdom and Europe, playing his signature Bailey Guitar with the D-TAR, an acoustic guitar pickup that combines the piezoelectric pickup with a condenser microphone to give you a full and natural tone. Preston also uses the Solstice, a two-channel preamp mixer that can combine any two sound sources.

After nearly 25  years, Preston Reed continues to amaze audiences and is currently working on a new album. For tour dates and more information on Preston, please visit: www.PretonReed.com

Over to the left of this picture is the tone bar, which can be seen in more detail below. It was stocked and loaded with the whole assortment of Seymour Duncan products.

The view walking up towards the booth.

Photographs of pickups adorned the walls.

It wasn’t long before the first jam started on the stage and a crowd gathered around.

We had many happy winners for our sticker contest!

And then we had a surprise visit by Andy Timmons who joined Seymour on stage for an incredible jam!

The three amigos!

On Friday, some big names in rock joined us including Alex Skolnick, Bruce Kulick, George Lynch and Cesar Rosas. Fans were able to get their picture taken with them and have it posted to Facebook on the same day.

Seymour received a lifetime achievement award from the Music & Sound Retailer.

Seymour with Abigail Ybarra, Maricela Juarez and Cathy Carter Duncan. 

At 4PM the exciting and animated Alex Lora showed up along with Lalo Carrillo, Cesar Vampiro Lopez, Tucanes De Tijuana and the booth became a party of music.

Meanwhile, Frank Falbo was hard at work demonstrating our new products.

Masters of the tone bar, James Garza and Scott Marceau.

Scott Miller (the Chuck Norris of tone) was startled to see he was left out.

This kid knows tone.

Seymour Duncan NAMM generals Lisa Vander Meulen and Cathy Carter Duncan take a brief moment to pose for a photograph.

It was briefly quiet before the doors opened up on Saturday.

A large crowd gathered to see Gus G., Mick Thomson, CJ Pierce and Scott Ian. They did not disappoint, fans were able to get their picture taken with them and have them posted to Facebook – making for one cool Facebook profile picture!

Gus and our chief engineer, Kevin Beller, sat down for a talk about the Gus G. FIRE Blackouts.

Right after that, blues guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa showed up and jammed with Seymour with his new Joe Bonamassa Signature Pickups.

Seymour was then joined by Warren DeMartini and Lita Ford for pictures with fans!

On Sunday, we had some serious girl power with Shaunna Hall, Kat Dyson, Arielle, Muriel Anderson, Karen Cuda and Michelle Marie.

It was another great year and it was a blast to get to see everyone, talk tone and enjoy music together.

Bruce is seen here signing autographs for fans.

Jamming out a KISS song for the crowd.

Upcoming clinics:

Melbourne, Australia – Thursday, February 2, 2012: Concert at The Corner Hotel

Fri February 3, 2012, 7pm, Allans Music + Billy Hyde 130 Pyrmont Bridge Rd Camperdown NSW (Limited tickets available at the door)

Sydney, Australia – Saturday, February 4, 2012: Concert at The Factory Theatre

Once players submit a secret, they get access to all the other exclusive secrets. They can also comment on the secrets and rate them. The highest rated secret between now and March 1^st, 2012, will receive a Godin Summit CT, a lovely and versatile carved-top solidbody electric guitar that sells for around $1,000.

Click the link to submit your tone secret at The Secret Room