Category Archives: The Player’s Room

This is the song Insidious which is straight forward thrash death metal kind of song with a lot of frenetic rhythm guitar playing, the Nightrage way. I use a lot of triplets on the rhythms and the overall arrangement its simple and to the point. A nice thing is the change from 4/4 to 3/4 on the…

Amorphis has a long history of intense music that draws inspiration from Finnish folklore. In the season finale of Voices of Metal we talk with the guitarist, songwriter and founding member of Amorphis, Esa Holopainen. Tell us about The Beginning of Times and the inspiration behind this album. “The writing process for TBOT started already…

When you type in ‘badass metal player’ on Google, Keith Merrow doesn’t show up – but he should. For years Keith has served as a studio musician and a brutal player who has recorded several albums and whose videos have been seen by over 1,700,000 people on YouTube. In this installment of Voices of Metal,…

In this weeks edition of Voices of Metal we turn to Ryan Knight, lead guitarist for the metal band The Black Dahlia Murder. Ryan talks with us about his history with Arsis, joining The Black Dahlia Murder, his thoughts on touring, gear and advice for guitarists. Click here to hear our interview with Ryan Knight…

In this week’s edition of Voices of Metal we turn to Simon Johannson who plays alongside Mike Wead in the Swedish band BibleBlack. You have a pretty long history in the Swedish death metal scene, including playing in Abstrakt Algebra and Memory Garden, how do you believe the metal scene has changed in the last several…

Several weeks ago we asked you who you wanted to see on Vocies of Metal and we got several responses asking for us to talk with Alex Skolnick. We tracked him down among his busy schedule of touring, recording and writing to talk metal, tone, jazz and Testament. You can listen to the full interview below.

During NAMM, we had another oppurtunity to meet an incredible musician named Dave Reffett. Dave recently produced, was the lead guitarist and singer on the album The Call of the Flames which featured performances by George Lynch, Michael Angelo Batio, Chris Poland, Glen Drover, Joe Stump and Mike Mangini. This album was widely praised among metal critics and his skills were…

During NAMM, we had the oppurtunity to meet some great metal players. One guitarist who stopped by to shred was Joe Gettler. Check out the video below to see our interview with him and hear his skills in action. Click here to learn more about the Load Bros Guitar and the ToneZilla pickups.

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…

In our continuing search for brutal heavy tone and the tools used to create it, we came upon Brandon Ellis, who has toured with Arsis and Sylosis and has the unique ability to learn songs incredibly fast. We took one look at this video and said “yes, we need this guy.” Check it out! You…