Four criminally underrated guitarists from the 1980s that are guaranteed to melt your face off
This opinion might land me in some hot water with music purists everywhere, but I believe the greatest era of guitar wizardry came in the 1980s.The decade featured some of the most revered and celebrated virtuosos to ever walk the planet, both critically and commercially.But for every Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads, there were plenty of other face-melters who existed in some form of relative obscurity compared to their more famous counterparts.BARRY MANILOW RESCHEDULES CONCERT 45 MINUTES BEFORE START AMID ONGOING LUNG CANCER RECOVERYThat's not to say the bands these guitarists were in weren't successful in their own right, but if you were to ask a mainstream pop-listener from the era who these guys were, chances are you'd get looks of befuddlement.Which is a shame, because these guys were just as talented (if not more talented) than some of the more popular axe-slingers of the 80s.And hey, since I love you dear readers so much, I decided to include a bonus guest pick from my good buddy and fellow guitar junkie, Matt Reigle!With that said, here are four (plus one) of the most criminally underrated guitarists from the Decade of Decadence.Of all the late 80s hair metal groups who got unfairly characterized as a bunch of no-talent hacks, Winger might be the most egregious victim.It's a fairly famous story by now, but some combination of Beavis and Butt-head roasting their nerdy friend for wearing a Winger shirt and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich throwing darts at a picture of the hair band's frontman Kip Winger effectively ruined any credibility the band had.Which is a shame, because, with all due respect to the members of Metallica, whom I have a great deal of respect for, the members of Winger could play circles around them.Chief among those talented members is guitarist Reb Beach, whose buttery smooth legato tapping runs and percussive riffs like the one from hit-single "Seventeen" made him an underground guitar god in his own right.Unfortunately, Winger committed the mortal sins of having a pretty boy lead singer and painfully cheesy videos (even by 80s standards), so most people dismissed them and Beach as cheap imitators.Though his time in the spotlight was brief, any of guitar-oriented hair metal knows Beach is one of the more technically accomplished shredders of his era, Mike Judge be damned.ZERO BS. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD.
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This opinion might land me in some hot water with music purists everywhere, but I believe the greatest era of guitar wizardry came in the 1980s.The decade featured some of the most revered and celebrated virtuosos to ever walk the planet, both critically and commercially.But for every Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads, there were plenty of other face-melters who existed in some form of relative obscurity compared to their more famous counterparts.BARRY MANILOW RESCHEDULES CONCERT 45 MINUTES BEFORE START AMID ONGOING LUNG CANCER RECOVERYThat's not to say the bands these guitarists were in weren't successful in their own right, but if you were to ask a mainstream pop-listener from the era who these guys were, chances are you'd get looks of befuddlement.Which is a shame, because these guys were just as talented (if not more talented) than some of the more popular axe-slingers of the 80s.And hey, since I love you dear readers so much, I decided to include a bonus guest pick from my good buddy and fellow guitar junkie, Matt Reigle!With that said, here are four (plus one) of the most criminally underrated guitarists from the Decade of Decadence.Of all the late 80s hair metal groups who got unfairly characterized as a bunch of no-talent hacks, Winger might be the most egregious victim.It's a fairly famous story by now, but some combination of Beavis and Butt-head roasting their nerdy friend for wearing a Winger shirt and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich throwing darts at a picture of the hair band's frontman Kip Winger effectively ruined any credibility the band had.Which is a shame, because, with all due respect to the members of Metallica, whom I have a great deal of respect for, the members of Winger could play circles around them.Chief among those talented members is guitarist Reb Beach, whose buttery smooth legato tapping runs and percussive riffs like the one from hit-single "Seventeen" made him an underground guitar god in his own right.Unfortunately, Winger committed the mortal sins of having a pretty boy lead singer and painfully cheesy videos (even by 80s standards), so most people dismissed them and Beach as cheap imitators.Though his time in the spotlight was brief, any of guitar-oriented hair metal knows Beach is one of the more technically accomplished shredders of his era, Mike Judge be damned.ZERO BS. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!Their eponymous debut features some tasty licks and haunting solos and should be an immediate listen for any fans of the genre.Metal acts from far off lands was nothing new even back in the mid-80s, as fellow Axis Power Germany showed us with groups like Accept and, more importantly, Scorpions, but Japan's Loudness filled the void of bands who melted face from the Land of the Rising Sun.The group featured a singer who barely spoke a lick of English, so if you were looking for a hair metal act with poetic, introspective lyrics, you might want to search elsewhere (or pick a different genre entirely).What they lacked in lyrical depth they made up for with crushing riffs and explosive solos courtesy of their fleet-fingered lead guitarist and founding member Akira Takasaki.The first time I heard Loudness was on Satellite Radio driving back to college one weekend. The song in question was perhaps their most well-known, "Crazy Nights," off their 1985 glam metal masterpiece "Thunder in the East."I was blown away by the balls on display from Takasaki's guitar tone and immediately went home and looked the band up only to be shocked to find out they hailed from Japan.Takasaki's incendiary lead stylings and creative riffing likely inspired a million bedroom guitar players in Japan alone, and he has definitely influenced my tastes over the years as well.The Sunset Strip is famous for producing hundreds of wildly talented shredders in the late 70s and early 80s, with the aforementioned Eddie Van Halen likely taking the crown as the king of Los Angeles-area guitarists from that era.One six-stringed genius who came up right alongside Eddie was none other than George Lynch, lead guitarist extraordinaire from the hair metal band Dokken.Dokken had everything you could want in a popular metal act in the early-to-mid 80s: a charismatic frontman, an untouchable lead guitar player, memorable songs, and catchy riffs.The only problem is that the two principal members, Lynch and lead singer Don Dokken, absolutely despised each other, and that friction led to the band imploding right before their rocket went from "popular" to "superstars."Despite this, Dokken released plenty of material beloved by both guitar tech-heads and leg warmer-wearing chicks of the 80s, and Lynch etched out a spot in metal history with his blistering solo runs and deceptively heavy hooks.Mr.
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- This opinion might land me in some hot water with music purists everywhere, but I believe the greatest era of guitar wizardry came in the 1980s.The decade featured some of the most revered and celebrated virtuosos to ever walk the planet, both critically and commercially.But for every Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads, there were plenty of other face-melters who existed in some form of relative obscurity compared to their more famous counterparts.BARRY MANILOW RESCHEDULES CONCERT 45 MINUTES BEFORE START AMID ONGOING LUNG CANCER RECOVERYThat's not to say the bands these guitarists were in weren't successful in their own right, but if you were to ask a mainstream pop-listener from the era who these guys were, chances are you'd get looks of befuddlement.Which is a shame, because these guys were just as talented (if not more talented) than some of the more popular axe-slingers of the 80s.And hey, since I love you dear readers so much, I decided to include a bonus guest pick from my good buddy and fellow guitar junkie, Matt Reigle!With that said, here are four (plus one) of the most criminally underrated guitarists from the Decade of Decadence.Of all the late 80s hair metal groups who got unfairly characterized as a bunch of no-talent hacks, Winger might be the most egregious victim.It's a fairly famous story by now, but some combination of Beavis and Butt-head roasting their nerdy friend for wearing a Winger shirt and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich throwing darts at a picture of the hair band's frontman Kip Winger effectively ruined any credibility the band had.Which is a shame, because, with all due respect to the members of Metallica, whom I have a great deal of respect for, the members of Winger could play circles around them.Chief among those talented members is guitarist Reb Beach, whose buttery smooth legato tapping runs and percussive riffs like the one from hit-single "Seventeen" made him an underground guitar god in his own right.Unfortunately, Winger committed the mortal sins of having a pretty boy lead singer and painfully cheesy videos (even by 80s standards), so most people dismissed them and Beach as cheap imitators.Though his time in the spotlight was brief, any of guitar-oriented hair metal knows Beach is one of the more technically accomplished shredders of his era, Mike Judge be damned.ZERO BS. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD.
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Four criminally underrated guitarists from the 1980s that are guaranteed to melt your face off
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