MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Buckethead…

“He was born in a coop, raised in a cage,
Children fear him, critics rage.
He’s half alive, he’s half-dead
Folks just call him ‘Buckethead.’”
–”The Ballad of Buckethead,” Buckethead featuring Les Claypool

Buckethead (his mommy just calls him “Brian Patrick Carroll”), the one-time Primus and Guns N’ Roses axe slinger, hasn’t released a single album in 2011, which I guess is excusable, SINCE HE RELEASED FOUR IN 2010 and ANOTHER FOUR IN 2009. In fact, his most recent release, 2010′s Untitled, was his thirtieth studio album — and that only counts solo albums, not stuff he’s recorded with bands/other artists. And even then, only solo albums released under the moniker “Buckethead,” not solo albums released as “Death Cube K” (which, in case you don’t see it, is the letters that spell “Buckethead” re-arranged).

Of course, the fact that he’s pretty much the most prolific person in the history of ever would make no difference if he wasn’t also an incredible, mind-bogglingly mind-blowing musician. Fact of the matter is, when you look at all those albums he’s released, not only are they all good, and not only do they all display top-notch musicianship and songwriting abilities, but they cover a wide range of styles, including not just metal and hard rock, but electronica, country, funk, blues, flamenco, and lots and lots of experimental shit that I don’t even know what the fucking fuck you’d call it.

For example, here’s a quick overview (and a shit ton of videos) of the genres covered in just those eight most recent solo releases:

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Tool’s Adam Jones…

I love thinking of Tool’s Adam Jones as an awesome guitar player. I mean, it’s true, even despite his total lack of resemblance to those we think of as rad axedudes. He’s not that kind of virtuoso. Like, I find no photo documentation of his jumping off a monitor or rocking out with his lead singer. Nor does he pucker his lips or drop his jaw whilst ripping. Gosh, he doesn’t really rip, ever. No screaming artificial harmonics or tapping; no runs or tremolo picking; I can identify only a handful of Tool moments that qualify as a solo, or even a second guitar part. Mostly, his accents go only far as wah pedal and wicked vibrato. That is what Tool requires; that is what Jones is awesome at.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Living Colour’s Vernon Reid…

If ever I was told that a certain guitar icon has been living a secret life as a crazed face-eating killer, my first guess at that guitarist’s identity: Vernon Reid. Don’t take that wrong. I know that, in reality, he’s wonderful, an ambassador, an explorer, and a cross-genre samplee (on Public Enemy’s “Sophisticated Bitch”). He’s a higher-consciousness dude, a high-concept artiste (what’s a Marcel Duchamp?), and a high-impact collaborator with outer-ring weirdos John Zorn, Bernie Worrell, DJ Spooky, and Mariah Carey. And he’s handsome, in good shape, nice hats, all that.

So, no, Vernon Reid is not a bad person. That’s not what I mean by these 100% hypothetical accusations of purely imagined murderous nose-chewings. All I’m saying is that if we consider his quiet exterior vs. the “Cult of Personality” solo — a three-act brow-singer that announced Reid as a major talent back in 1988 — we’d all be like, “Ah, that makes sense,” once confronted with evidence of his human face collection.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Periphery’s Misha Mansoor…

I feel like telling the readers of MetalSucks why Misha Mansoor is worthy of this list is a little like telling a cardiologist why the heart is an essential organ, but I’m gonna try and do it anyway.

In a relatively short amount of time, Mansoor has become an icon in the metal scene, and if he’s not higher on this list for whatever semi-arbitrary reason, it doesn’t change the fact that he is arguably the musician who currently best personifies the phrase “modern metal.” This assertion is based on the following inarguable facts:

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Testament’s Alex Skolnick…

If there’s one dude that has fused jazz and metal together by way of guitar better than Alex Sknolnick, I don’t think I’ve heard him yet. It probably doesn’t hurt that Skolnick studied under Joe Satriani. But when the then fifteen year old Alex Skolnick joined Legacy, the band that would go on to become Testament, he couldn’t have possibly imagined the kind of guitar icon he would become as one of thrash’s signature soloists, a touring part of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual arena sell-out showcase, and his own acoustic jazz-metal hybrid band, The Alex Skolnick Trio.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson…

Enslaved arrive at our feet as a package deal: woozy synths and atmospherics; Pink Floyd-ian touches; Grutle Kjellson’s harsh, phlegmy scream; and the back in forth between prog-flecked black metal and black metal-flecked prog. But considering the band’s individual achievements, none come off better than Ivar Bjørnson, founding axeman. Their metamorphosis into what they are today — a truly great metal band you could at best arguably call “black metal” — would have been impossible without him. The bold steps between Frost — their debut full length — and their latest — the dense masterpiece Axioma Ethica Odini – are like listening to someone grow up, taking in more music and life experience. Along the way Enslaved always flourished, and there isn’t a band in black metal with more interesting, bizarre, and pleasing guitar work than them. Ivar was at the helm for that the whole time.

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Let’s pretend for a moment that Avenged Sevenfold don’t dress like a bunch of clown-faced goons that fell off the back of a truck carrying clothes rejected from Hot Topic. Let’s also pretend that they don’t indulge in ridiculous stage names that make ICP’s Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent Jay look like members of Mensa. Finally, let’s agree that music should be judged on its merit alone, not on a band’s tweeny fanbase. There… so how do Avenged Sevenfold actually sound?

Now the shut the fuck up and RECOGNIZE: Synyster Gates (aka Brian Haner Jr.) is a ridiculously good guitar player.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. We kicked off the list yesterday and continue today with #24, Scale the Summit’s Chris Letchford…

Few young guitarists are as ridiculously skilled yet as calmly restrained in their playing as Scale the Summit leader Chris Letchford. This is doubly true considering the fact that Letchford’s band is completely instrumental. Only once have I ever heard Letchord completely go OFF on a shred run like those that most metal guitarists butter their bread with, and that was in an improvised song-ending jam out at the band’s recent New York City show… and who even improvises live these days? Most of the time, though, Letchford is doing what Letchford does best — play laid back, mellow, but somehow still metal rhythms and leads that take the listener through a journey of space and time despite the lack of vocals in Scale the Summit’s music.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we kick off our countdown with Origin’s Paul Ryan…

Tragically, it seems like there are a lot of people don’t even know who Paul Ryan is, and a lot of those who do know who he is dismiss him as just another trend-following guitarist — albeit a talented one — in the death metal scene. An awfully large amount of metal fans just view Origin as “that tech death band with that really fat vocalist and crazy sweeps,” but James Lee’s recent departure should hopefully clear shit up for people.

Paul Ryan is actually one of the most skilled pioneers of the tech death scene, primarily because he doesn’t just use technicality to create mindless and forgettable wankery (see: Brain Drill et al.) and because he doesn’t just use heaviness to create mindless and forgettable breakdowns (see: Oceano et al.) It’s pretty sad that the majority of other bands these days are so bad, but it’s great for Ryan — his skill stands out from among the masses.

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So we’ve been teasing our new list this week. Yesterday we had some readers guess that the list was of “Best Living Guitar Players,” and, hey, that’s close! It’s actually The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists. (Worth mentioning: the awesome above banner was done by the Derek Riggs to our Iron Maiden, Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33.)

So what does that mean? Well, there were three qualifications for a musician to be eligible for this list:

• The musician in question has to play metal. (Duh.)
• The musician in question has to play guitar. (Double-duh.)
• The musician in question has to have released a new recording within five years of May 1, 2011 (thus, no Dimebag).

We didn’t invite any industry peeps or musicians to vote on this list — it was decided solely by The MetalSucks Get High Council. So if you love the list, you’ll have us to thank, and if you hate the list, you’ll have us to blame.

We obviously can’t tell you who’s on the list just yet, but we can give you this hint: Dan Donegan’s name never even came up.

It starts Monday. Get ready to be angry.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks