Agreed, I love solo’s when there is obvious feeling coming from them, tech-y or not! When it is just tech-y for the sake of being tech-y then it’s just showing off, and the only emotion that invokes in me is boredom. I recommend the SF band Hammer’s of Misfortune. John Cobbet’s solo’s are always so emotional and he can go with simple solos or totally shred, whatever is best for the part.

as a heavy duty guitar soloer myself, i love them, i really like bands like obscura and necrophagist ect., and i love cacophony and racer x and anything jason becker or paul gilbert. i can really appreciate how much work and effort it takes to develop techniques, but if its not a good song its not. period. i cant stand michael angelo batio’s music it seems so unmusical to me its all about “how fast”. as long it fits in the music context of the song, i love a good shred.

I remember when St. Anger came out, people bitched about the lack of solos, but I thought the real problem was the fact that a lot of songs suffered from Vital Remains Syndrome, where they’re about a third too long.

And I totally second the Hammers of Misfortune recommendation.

Solos are badass,a song that consists of one long solo does not. One of my faves is the solo in Arch Enemys’ -Ravenous,it comes in fucks shit up and gets out.

Solos are only great when there is thought and feeling put into them. Shred is cool but most of the time doesn’t flow with the rest of the song.My favorite solo though has to been Kris Norris’s solo in Doomsayer.
It has a little bit of everything like string skipping,tapping and some awesome harmonies.

Joe Satriani…..nuff said

I pretty much agree wholeheartedly with this. Check out Matt Pike’s solo at the 13 minute mark on “Dopesmoker” if you wanna hear some spectacular shredding.

One of my favourites is the solo in Crusher Destroyer from Mastodon`s Remission. It just comes right out of the blue, punches you in the face, and runs away screaming maniacally… :D

So many shredders focus on technique and don’t develop a voice. I mean, you can usually tell Angus Young or Dimebag or Jimmy Page with two or three notes. And it has nothing to do with technical proficiency. I mean Kim Thaiyl has recognizable sound, ditto Yngwie, within a bar of music I can say “Oh yeah, that’s…” because of note choice, phrasing, dynamics, attitude, tonal choices, etc….but so many of these shredders play the same patterns really fast with a typical “shredder guitar sound”, you know super high gain with the digital delay up the wazoo…and it just isn’t memorable at all. It’s cookie cutter. It’s totally boilerplate. You can change a solo from one song to the next and it doesn’t change anything….whereas say “All Along The Watchtower” or a “Back in Black” or a “Crazy Train” (or fuck..anything ever from Jeff Beck) ..those solos BELONG in those songs. And I always loved how Jimmy Page would compose sections for the solo..you know..the band will now go off in a completely unexpected direction and he will change up the motif and do something different with the song and then bring it back. That idea is just fucking lost on todays shredders…it’s like “Oh just play the chorus or have the bassist ride on the root and the fifth so I can widdle widdle all over the place.” It’s boring. It’s utter lack of craftsmanship.

I much prefer listening to Curt Cobain lay into four simple chords with intensity and meaning than listen to a widdle widdle going nowhere shit.

And yo uknow – the same goes for rhythm playing…I’m not hearing too much individual voices in that in metal these days…again some guys – EVH, Dime, Hetfield..even just playing the changes they’re personality shines through…you kow the voice…so much modern metal that’s lost..

Of the shredders the only guys I could really stand is Becker, Greg Howe (his new disc is unreal btb) and I’m on the fence with Loomis. I don’t consider Vai, Satriani or Yngwe shredders per se..I can hear way too much 70′s influence in all of them, and all the attending musical richness…they’re rooted in something a bit deeper than just Lamb of God, you know what I’m saying…

Everyone seems to agree that as skilled as “shredders” are there’s nothing artistic about musical wanking. As a guitarist/bassist/shredder I would like to change that up a bit. Go ahead and feed me to the wolves but technical ability and artistic intent are inseparably linked. Sure, you can refer to generic tech metal bands like Necrophagist, Dragonforce and say the shredding is pure wankery and I’ll give that to you. Shredding is easily dismissed by those that don’t actually play an instrument as “all sounding the same.” whether or not it really is. I think shredding gets a bad rap from people who are obnoxious and obvious about their skills and are really more interested in making their fingers spontaneously erupt into flame than being “musical.” There are however, bands out there that make an art out of shredding and technical ability, and I personally believe to be some of the best music in the world. The fact is if you listen to a broad range of technical players some of them are doing amazing original shit and some of them like Herman Li are just recycling ideas that have been around since the 80′s. Artists like Behold…The Arctopus and Blotted Science are just a couple bands that come to mind that make a listenable experience out of some extremely technical material. Maybe I just have a hard-on for my craft, but you gotta give these guys respect. As for the debate about how shredding needs to “be in context” and “serve the song” there is no debate. It’s a given. There’s certain songs you don’t sweep pick over. Long story short, shredding IS an art-form. It can be done tastefully, or it can be a fucking mess. However, next time you think you can’t listen to another second of the shred, maybe you should just turn it off and go back to your equally trivial and debatable music, and just respect the craft and the obvious dedication of shredders. Fuck easy listening. Good music demands your attention and intellect. I think good technical players understand that and If you don’t like it because you don’t understand that then it’s like trying to explain why painting is great to someone who was born blind, so go ahead an gobble up another nu-metal fist-pounding pre-fab “riff based” song or whateverthefuck floats your boat.

I only like them when done tastefully and not just for the hell of it. Then again I do like some stuff like Apocalyptic Feasting

But I don’t like guitar solos that suck. Written by guitar players that suck.

The only solo that has really stuck out to me lately is the one on Circle of Contempts album. It’s like the only guitar solo on the cd but it’s all I needed to hear to get that they knew what they were doing behind those guitars and beside the fact that it sounded great. The track is Nothing Imminent.

I’ve always loved guitar solos. In fact, the solos were always what I listened to over and over again on my favorite records. unfortunately, I never had the ability to kick ass like most great soloists so I can’t utilize it in my own music. The solo rules as long as it makes the song better!

I agree totally. Those guys who just go out and flawlessly bang out notes really fast–fuck, that shit is boring. It’s like a technical manual set to music.

Couldn’t have said my exact thoughts better Eyal. Music is emotional. Its all about the feeling.

As far as I’m concerned guitar solos in extreme metal are mandatory, hell, obligatory even. I wouldn’t dare to imagine what bands like Angelcorpse, Blood Red Throne, Cannibal Corpse, Death, Deicide, Drawn and Quartered, Immolation, Monstrosity, Morbid Angel, Necrophobic, Obituary, Pessimist, Suffocation, Unholy Ghost, Unleashed, Vader etc would’ve sounded like without their characteristic, evil sounding leads/solos.

I guess I like guitar solos because I grew up on my parents’ steady diet of classic rock acts as AC/DC, Dire Straits, Genesis, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Police and the influence of (early) 1990′s MTV with acts like Europe, Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, etc. For me, guitar leads/solos are a quintessential part of the metal experience.

Goddamn, Eyal, you get quite a turnout here! I agree with most of what’s said above (what I read of it, that is!), so I won’t repeat about this band and that band being good or whatever.

For a very long time I’ve been a fan of technical wankery, and only in the past year or so have I become a discriminating snob. Listening to Opeth solos does something to your brain, and you can’t ever stomach the cookie-cutter solos of cookie-cutter bands like Atreyu and Black Dahlia Murder.

I loved wankery when it was high above me. Now that I can play a good deal of those wanking solos myself, I’ve had to swallow my pride and admit it’s really not all that impressive. Nailing a cover of a very passionate solo is incredibly difficult, way harder than just shredding your balls off!

i think my favorite guitar solo is in Between The Buried And Me’s “Selkies: The Endless Obsession” it’s fucking amazing. it doesn’t “shred”, but it just sounds like it was written and played with passion.

it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time i hear it

Listening to every solo on AIC – Facelift gives me the shivers. Jerry Cantrell holds more feeling in a single “ghost bend” than any of your modern day shredders.

solos are necessary to distinguish metal from the metal-esque evolutions of hard rock that infest corporate “metal” radio stations (see: seether, breaking benjamin, slipknot), and to remind everyone that even though you play a 7string/baritone, you’re not Korn.
That said, we learned in the late 80′s that guitar wankery for the sake of wankery gets stale faster than you can play it.
Solos ARE an essential part of metal music, but many metal players loose sight of the musical vision of the song and just run through scales as fast as they can.
I think everyone should be reminded of Eric Clapton’s comment on the subject: “It doesn’t matter HOW MANY notes you plated; did you play the RIGHT notes?”
It’s hard for me to think of a “bad” metal solo )because any that qualify are, by definition, not memorable) but for an example of doing it RIGHT: Behemoth’s “Conquer All”

I always found Nuno Bettencourt to be an outstanding player of guitar solos. Granted, he can tend to over-saturate some of his riffs with a little excessive fret work, but a lot of songs from Extreme’s third album featured great, emotive solos…the best example that comes to mind being “Am I Ever Gonna Change?” that was part of the final three-song album closer masterpiece. He knows how to make that guitar pull at your heartstrings.

Opeth….
Mikael Åkerfeldt is a musical genius and most of his solos are memorizing.
Played with feeling, well placed and flows with the song.

I enjoy a guitar solo when it’s well done and SUITS THE SONG. Mindless wankery just annoys me.

Now forgive me if this sounds like ass-kissing because it’s not, but Emil’s solo in “Wilting on the Vine” has probably got to be one of my favorite guitar solos around. And not solely because it’s fast and there’s lots of shredding, that’s cool too, but the way he seems to blend different styles of playing all within the solo, and how he complements and BUILDS the solo slowly with the underlying arrangement from the rest of the band. And then finally, climaxes on that final run right to the last high note that he bends the shit out of, that solo just gets me fired up every time!

Other solos that get me fired up:
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb (they’re all good, but particular the one that ends the song)
Mastodon – The Czar (the one near the end at the slow part, 3rd movement I think)
A lot of In Flames solos…some of them aren’t really so much solos as they are quick little leads, but they’re always tastefully and effectively done.

There’s more but I’m forgetting at the moment…

yes, Eyal. solos must be integral. I believe every guy should shine on every song in a way too. I never gave a shit about megadeth. ever. quite lame in every way but i understand the musicianship. don’t mean shit if it won’t hold you back and make you remember it forever though. The greats do that and the album and tour sales show that. more popular bands have an edge of course. thats a fact of the modern era.

The less notes being more “emotional” isn’t true at all.

Usually, I connect shred (especially harmonic minor/Phrygian dominant scales) with feelings of anger, which is just as much an emotion as sadness. Although, it’s impossible to play without emotion… since you feel emotion whenever you do something and that applies equally to guitar. What you probably mean is, “when there is less notes, it allows the player to put more thought into tone, phrasing, dynamics and vibrato” even though you can have a solo with those things and also shred.