What TEN SONGS define your playing style?

[Jonny]

I'm into my Metal, however from the basics I listened to a lot of Maiden (three albums full, of course) and Metallica. so it would go like:

10. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
--- Actually, I like this song cause of it's slowness (and the solo) because it allowed me to, well, keep time, insane of constant power chording or anything.

9. Metallica - Enter Sandman
--- The whole song really, the solo wasn't everything, I loved the riffs in this.

8. Iron Maiden - The Trooper
--- The obvious intro and everything else

7. Trivium - Like Light to the Flies
--- The peddling, plus an introduction in soloing as I was major determined to get Corey's solo nailed.

6. Machine Head - (Enter the .11 gauge and Drop B tuning!) "Descend the Shades of Night"
--- Acoustic, so it helped me with changing chords. And the solo being beyond $%&#ing awesome.

5. All That Remains - This Calling
--- It all gets really heavy here, I think. And with the solo too. And the structure of the song, I loved it all.

4. The Darkest Hour - Sound The Surrender
--- Speed, it was fast. Plus the 'solo' which consisted of three notes dancing amongst strings and then which turned into sweeping. Got me into sweeping, obviously (still can't do it for shite though)

3. Bach/Mozart/Vivaldi
--- Fugue, Turkish March, Sonata. Enough said.

2. As I Lay Dying - The Sound of Truth
--- The intro, by this time I could 'gallop' but I couldn't gallop between strings which was like "WHHHAAAT" which was my first impression of this song's intro.

1. All Shall Perish - Day of Justice
--- Speed. Precision. Melodic. Death. Metal. Awesome.

It kind of got heavier, faster, more technical and stuff, lol..

[Antag]

1. Exodus - Chemikill
My all time favourite band.  I always loved the "H" team of Holt & Hunolt for their tight palm-muted riffing & whammy bar abuse.  Chemi-kill was the first Exodus song I ever heard (I was a little late into the thrash scene - probaby around '87 before I really got into it) & Exodus have had more influence on me than anyone else.

2. Obituary - I'm in pain
I could have chosen almost any song from "The End Complete" or "Slowly we rot" - Obituary's riffing style (the slow sludgy grind, the faster riffs that are only semi-muted) is something I've copied for ages.

3. Bolt Thrower - Ritual
Again, I could choose almost any Bolt Thrower song (critics say they all sound the same anyway! :lol:) for the arrangements, the pace, the heaviness & the riffing style.

4. Godflesh - Mantra
The use of sustain, feedback & dissonance.

5. Iron Maiden - Killers
Maiden were the band that got me into heavy music.  Killers was the first album I ever heard & the title track is one of the first songs I ever really, REALLY wanted to play.  The galloping rhythm of the verse riff is something I wrote into all my early songs, the great twin harmony work was & is a huge influence (just listen to any of my lead clips on this site!). Massive, massive influence.

6. Van Halen - Eruption
For the two-handed tapping duh :) (I was never really a VH fan, but hearing eruption on Tommy Vance's rock show was what got me tapping in the first place & it's a big part of my lead playing...)

7. Napalm Death - Suffer the children
It must be the Brum influence (I learned to play while at school in the Midlands & my music teacher had taught Shane Embury at another school) but I've played the big riff at the end of this song (which they admit to stealing from Celtic Frost) in more guitar shops & on more gear than I can count... :)

8. Motorhead - We are the road crew (from No sleep til Hammersmith)
Fast Eddie's solo was the first one I really tried to copy.

9. Anthrax - Among the living
Could have listed several songs from the Belladona/Spitz era - Dan Spitz's use of the harmonic minor scale & diminished arpeggio was probably what first took me away from simple pentatonic & natural minor scale soloing :)

10.Megadeth - Wake up dead
The song that taught me that all songs don't have to be structured verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo etc

It's funny how the bulk of my list are songs that influenced my songwriting & rhythm playing more than my lead playing - but then I'm predominantly a metal rhythm player & I write songs so I guess that's to be expected :)  It somehow seems wrong not to have something from Rush in there, but Alex Lifeson's influence has been a long & subtle one on me - I couldn't really pin it down to one song.  Also, there's nothing in the list that explains the amount of acoustic ballads & intros/interludes I come up with, but that's more down to my first teacher being a classical rather than rock player (Opeth came along LONG after my clean playing was established).  I wonder if I'll come back to this post in a few days & want to change it?

Great thread TO :)

[MDV]

This question is driving me mental, cos I know how to play very, very few actual songs. I just make stuff up.

But I think

Metallica - One  My clean arpeggio-y and fast stuff owes a lot to this. One of the only songs I know all the way through, and one of the first I learned.

Isis - Grinning Mouths Big, huge drawn out buildups to dramatic heavy riffs

Nile - The Burning Pits of the Duat    Ultra-fast minor and diminished scale runs as riffs, and string skipping goodness

Corrosion of Conformity - Long Whip/Big America Blues-metal groovy stuff.

Origin - Debased Humanity    Sweepysweepysweepsweepdjentsweepchugchugsweepchugsweepysweepydjentsweepdjentsweepchugchugsweepchugsweepydjent

Led Zep - Babe I'm gonna leave you The slightly classical, but not really, arpeggios

Iron Maiden - Children of the Dammed Similar, but heavier

Meshuggah - ObZen  Odd timed slow heavyness

Machine Head - Davidian Superb use of hamering on powerchords and using harmonics in drop tuning.

Nevermore - Born Screaming, ripping lead, great use of trem picking, sweeps, arps, aggressive and energetic but melodic, phrasing and structure make it closest to what I play but way, way, way better.

No particular order, and I'm not sure of most of them. I am sure that thats a LOT of metal. I also cant even play all of that, but the vibe and styles are the most similar to my bashings of a guitar.

[indysmith]

1. Man and Wife, the Latter (Damaged Goods) - Desaparecidos
    Simple riffs and lines comined into one awesome, emotive tune

2. Crawl - Alkaline Trio
    Everyone hates Alkaline Trio and takes the piss out of Matt Skiba's guitar playing but this track has an awesome array of the sweet ass double stops that make up my style - octaves, fifths, fours, beautiful.

3. Blueprint - Fugazi
    One solid driving riff of double stops throughout basically the whole song. Repetition is key.

4. Killing a Camera - Braid
    Saturated but course and slightly dissonant pop guitar rolling along with the bass guitar noodling in the back

5. A Line in the Sand - Q and Not U
    Awkwardly duelling ultra dissonant guitars with perfect tone. This whole album is guitar bliss.

6. You Losin' Out - Two Gallants
    Fingerstyle Electric on a big phat Gretsch. I don't understand the guy's style or how he does it, but it's amazing.

7. Sucker and Dry - Cursive
    My Favourite song of all time. Unremitting huge chords, like a chainsaw in your chest.

8. Orchard - Indian Summer
    Chimey, innocent sounding riff that builds through the song and grows from a cute little baby to an enormous spewing monster.

9. Mainline Life - Criteria
    Big driving riffs. ROCK.

10. Can't think right now but it'll be a song with lots of big, clean open chords

[badgermark]

Only got a few really.

Scar tissue by RHCP- really opened my eyes to notes within chords as a riff, and i spent far too much time improvising a solo over it.

I lied my face off- Alkaline trio- say what you like, the octave riffs are still with me, i love them and this is a perfect song.

eradicate the doubt or bodies in flight by biffy clyro- both songs got me into using dropped d tuning in a more interesting way that the next song

Sweetness/bleed american by jimmy eat world- taught me simple chords can make a catchy song.

Looks a bit weak next to all your metal and lead guitar playing gods, but sod it, i have a blast.

[hunter]

Guess for me that would be very very commonplace stuff:

Pink Floyd - Time
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Led Zeppelin - Since I've been loving you
Metallica - One
Gary Moore - Walking by myself
U2 - Bullet the blue sky
Scorpions - Still loving you
AC/DC - The Jack
Guns n'roses - Sweet child o'mine
Michael Jackson - Beat it!

[Oli]

Opeth - The Moor
Electric Wizard - Electric Wizard ... for me, the slow swinging chugging is just my style through and through
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast ... just clicked with me, the fluid solos, the ending, brilliant
Akercocke - Horns of Baphomet ... harsh sounding chords and rung out notes have had an effect on me, love it
Isis - Divine Mother (The Tower Crumbles) ... dissonant sounding chords, heavy riffing, great :)
Anathema - We, The Gods ... the chorus laden clean part at 5:47 is something that i've incorporated into my playing style
My Dying Bride - A kiss to remember ... the lead parts combined with the viola
Esoteric - i can't really pinpoint a single track (or even an album), they've shaped my sound a lot, really effect-laden, soundscapey sounds, something which i love to just turn the amp up, whack on the chorus' and delays, and just chill out :)
Black Sabbath - War Pigs ... yea, you know it!
Moss - again i can't pinpoint a track, but after i saw them live years back, the hyper-slow style just struck a big chord with me.

Certainly for me, the slower side of things really appeals, and that's where i've found myself playing mainly. Slow, heavy, simple riffs, interspersed with the odd fast section, and nice big chorus and effect cover clean passages, is what makes me tick on the average day.

[dave_mc]

i'm mainly a lead player, so that's what i'm going with, not that i can necessarily play like these guys, but it's what i'm aiming for. These are in no order, by the way.

1: Van Halen- Hot for Teacher
2: Eric Johnson- Trademark
3: Joe Satriani- Circles
4: Yngwie Malmsteen- Black Star
5: Gary Moore- Parisienne Walkways
6: SRV- Texas Flood
7: Extreme/Nuno Bettencourt- Get the Funk Out
8: Winger/Reb Beach- Madalaine
9: Zakk Wylde- No More Tears
10: Megadeth/Marty Friedman (for the solo) + Dave Mustaine (for the rhythm): Tornado of Souls

Bunch of other guys who just missed out- Steve Vai, George Lynch, Andy Timmons, Guthrie Govan, Alex Skolnick, Steve Lukather, Dimebag, etc. then all the classic rock guys like Page, Clapton, Hendrix etc. Then there's all the guys who don't really influence your playing because you can't play like them (but you wish you could), which is a whole other list... :lol:

[kellar]

10: Blue Jean Blues- ZZ Top
Classic ZZ Top

9: Red House- Jimi Hendrix
Jimi's best blues song in my opinion, one of the first blues leads I ever learned.

8: November Rain- Slash
I always loved the melodic nature of those solos, had to learn it the minute I heard it.

7: Tin Pan Alley- SRV
This is only one of the many songs that turned me on to SRV. I've stolen a million licks from him. :D

6: Since I've Been Loving You- Jimmy Page
One of all-time favorite blues guitar leads, absolute classic. Jimmy at his best.

5: Sweet Home Chicago- Buddy Guy
I know, nearly every blues great has done this one. But, the first time I ever heard it live was in Chicago at     Buddy Guy's Legends, and Buddy was playing it, and he just tore it up! :D

4. That Smell- Lynyrd Skynyrd
Great song, great solos, everything that made Southern rock great was in there.

3. Highway To Hell- Angus Young
Not just this song, but so many others. ACDC proved to me that playing guitar doesn't have to be difficult to sound great!  

2. The Blues!!
No particular song here, but growing up listening to Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Albert King, BB King, Buddy Guy, Robert Johnson, SRV, and all the great local Chicago blues that I was exposed to in the Windy City left a lasting impression on me.

1. Comfortably Numb- David Gilmour
The solo by which I measure all rock solos. Big, dramatic, emotional, precise. I love everything about it. Pink Floyd/David Gilmour has had an enormous impact on my guitar playing.

    

[mecca777]

1. The Cure, "A Forest"
2. The Cure, "Homesick"
3. The Cure, "One Hundred Years"
(Robert Smith, Porl Thompson)

4. The Durutti Column, "Requiem for Mother"
(Vini Reilly)

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "I Could Have Lied"
(John Frusciante)

6. Guns 'N' Roses, "Rocket Queen"
(Slash, Izzy Stradlin)

7. Ozzy Osbourne, "Mr Crowley"
(Randy Rhoads)

8. Ozzy Osbourne, "Bark at the Moon"
(Jake E. Lee)

9. Metallica, "Fade to Black"
(James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett)

10. The Smiths, "Back to the Old House"
(Johnny Marr)

There are loads of other songs and guitarists that got me stoked on guitar at an early age, and doubtless contributed some stuff to my musical DNA, but these are the ten songs that most closely resemble the kind of sounds that come out of a room when I'm in it murdering a guitar. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Kaki King, as well as a fair amount of folk and drone bands; but trying to map my bar-steward New Wave/80s rock guitar style onto that kind of music is, shall we say, challenging. Where's the "reset" button on my style?

[_tom_]

3. Blueprint - Fugazi
    One solid driving riff of double stops throughout basically the whole song. Repetition is key.

5. A Line in the Sand - Q and Not U
    Awkwardly duelling ultra dissonant guitars with perfect tone. This whole album is guitar bliss.


8. Orchard - Indian Summer
    Chimey, innocent sounding riff that builds through the song and grows from a cute little baby to an enormous spewing monster.

How did I forget these :o They're all like the kind of thing I want to be able to write but I never quite get there

[TomW]

Can only think of 5 at the moment but here they are:

5. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
(Nothing really technical, just big simple held on chords that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end)

4. AC/DC - Riff Raff
(Or basically all the songs on Powerage, used to always play along to that album from start to finish)

3. UFO - Mother Mary
(Awesome song and awesome solo. Schenker is a big influence on my lead playing, I just wish I was as good as him :()

2. Led Zeppelin - Rock & Roll
(Fast bluesy riffs with a good groove)

1. Black Sabbath - War Pigs
(My favourite song of all time by my favourite band of all time, and favourite guitarist of all time. So much fun to play along to :twisted:)

[AJDS]

In no particular order:

Metallica - Fade to Black

Jimi Hendrix - Bold as Love

Pantera - 5 Minutes Alone

Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train

Any Jose Gonzalez

Killswitch Engage - Break the Silence

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

Paul Gilbert - Technical Difficulties

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Avenged Sevenfold - Eternal Rest (I know, I know...)

There's probably a thousand others.

[shaman]

ok..I will try, but I think I need a few drinks first-sure I will miss a few

in no order...
1. "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers"-ZZ  pure tone and AGGRESSION-really digs in
2. "Couldnt Stand The Weather"-SRV-helped me get into the rhythym/lead scene
3. "Still Got The Blues"-G Moore-hello, fat neck pickup!!really goes for it at the end..nice ex. of how to construct a solo IMO
4.  "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"-Allmans...introduced me to instrumental jazz-rock and acid!
5. "Tonight"-RR...geez, the outro solo-full, all out aggression as well
6. "In My Dreams"-Dokken/Lynch-turned me on to GL and his unorthodox approach...aggressive!!!!
7. "High Wire"-Jake E. Lee....wow..really digs in and rips it...aggressive!!
8. "Is This Love?" -Whitesnake/Sykes-big, bad Les PAul and Boogie-sweet stuff
9. "Thorazine Shuffle"-Warren Haynes/Govt Mule-if you wonder what the hype surrounding WH is, check this one out(song is killer...the drummer solos over the guitar and bass groove at the end..pump up the volume ahd feel the groove!)
10. "Day of the EAgle" trower..."Dover" -EJ   ..."Crossroads" -EC   "Colorado BDog"- PG   "That Smell" -LS/ STEVE FREAKIN" GAINES (RIP)  ..any ZEP  any CARS-ELLIOT EASTON is the most underrated guitarist/musician around(and a southpaw!)...and Neil Schon...!!"Stone in Love"...wooo!!8th grade all over again!!!

[noodleplugerine]

Jason Becker - Altitudes
SiKth - Scent of the Obscene
Periphery - Insomnia
Rage against the Machine - Know your Enemy
Testament - Into the Pit
Paul Gilbert - Tecnical Difficulties
Everytime I die - The new Black
Mnemic - Jack Vegas
Opeth - Heir Apparent
Mastodon - Bladecatcher