Sawyer's Shred Spotlight: Compilations Pt 2 - Guitars That Ate My Brain

Hello again shredders, welcome to Sawyer's Shred Spotlight. This week's post is the second part of the mini-series on shred compilations! Last week I showed you a classic shred compilation, and this week I'm going to bring you a more modern compilation with some of the best guitar players up & coming in metal today. This album is appropriately entitled: Guitars That Ate My Brain!! We dive into this compilation, right after the jump.

As mentioned above, this album features original compositions from some big name guitar players, of (or formerly of) bands like Between the Buried & Me, Death, Darkest Hour, and even Hevy Devy himself. Its really about as good of a shred album as you could possibly want. I'll get us started with a track by Dave Martone (of solo fame) , "Hybrid Angels". If the first few riffs in the song don't kick you in the nuts, then I don't know what the hell you want. Throw in some unique Eastern tonalities and a handful of spaced-out solos (2:30 always blows my mind), and you've got a great shred song.



Next up is a really interesting track from Devin Townsend (Devin Townsend Project, Strapping Young Lad), called "Nerd Alert". The song weaves through smooth, dreamy, "left brain" melodies and then to spastic, some times violent "right brain" carnage. Plus, you get a good dose of Townsend's trade mark humor, with little bits of narration like: "You can't stop me, I was born to rock!" (Sometimes I use the "Greetings fellow guitar nerds" to start off my radio show.)



And my last expose from this compilation is a more straight forward heavy rocker, "L.D.E." from ex-Megadeth guitar player Chris Poland. I really dig the bluesy/sabbath-esque riffs in the song, mixed with the wahed-out leads. Poland actually does a great job of making his lines feel like vocals.



Here is the full track listing for the album, as well as what band each dude is from:

1. Paul Waggoner (Between the Buried & Me) - "Boot Dagger Boogie"
2. Kris Norris (Ex-Darkest Hour) - "The Life and Times of Sir Walter Sickert
3. Dave Martone (Solo) - "Hybrid Angels"
4. Bumblefoot (Solo, G'N'R) - "Disengaged"
5. Eyal Levi/Emil Werstler (Dååth) - "The Unwavering Collapse"
6. Shane Gibson (Solo, Korn) - "Artichoke Samurai"
7. Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad) - "Nerd Alert"
8. Chris Poland (Ex-Megadeth, Ohm, Solo) - "L.D.E."
9. Ola Frenning (Ex-Soilwork)/Chris Mälmstrom (Darkane) - "Hydra"
10. Mike Orlando (Solo) - "Stomped"
11. James Murphy (Death, Testament) - "Maiden Voyage"
12. Hugues Lefebvre/Yann Mouhad (Anthropia) - "Schrodinger's Cat Paradox"

Try pronouncing those last two. Damn. Anyway, that's all for this week's SSS! Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out next week's post where I get to a pretty obscure compilation!!! And as always, I'll be on air tonight at 9 Central/10 Eastern so check it out at WSUM.org!

Lastly, I've entered the blogosphere, so if you'd like to get more shred throughout the week visit Night of the Living Shred!