Sawyer's Shred Spotlight: The Life & Times of Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Pt 1

As mentioned last week, today’s edition of Sawyer’s Shred Spotlight is going to be a discussion of one of the men most synonymous with the word shred, the Swede with speed, Mr. Yngwie Malmsteen himself. Now, first I just want to say that these articles won’t encompass every detail of Malmsteen’s 30+ year career, but many important aspects, as well as some of my own commentary on the whole deal (Also, I decided after writing this all out that it would probably be better to break it up into two chunks, so hopefully its not too long winded). So hit the jump, and we’ll get started!

Sawyer's Shred Spotlight: Compilations Pt 1 - The Guitars That Rule The World

Hey friends! Welcome to another edition of Sawyer's Shred Spotlight, where I hope to expose you to the greatness that is shred. Today I'll be starting off a series of posts on some of my favorite shred compilations. I'm going to be presenting them in semi-chronological order, starting with Guitar World's 1992 compilation The Guitars That Rule the World off Metal blade Records. TGTRTW is a solid album, featuring a lot of big names in the realm of guitar from the early nineties: Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Zakk Wylde, Alex Skolnick, just to name a few. And the various tracks span the genre continuum. We'll dig in to the album right after the jump!


Reb Beach (probably most known for his work as a founding member of Winger, as well as replacing George Lynch in Dokken) provides the first track on the album, "Black Magic". "Black Magic" is one of my favorites from this album for a number of reasons. First of all, its a bit heavier of a song compared to the many lighter songs on the album. But mostly, Beach's crisp yet head-spinning playing makes this track stand out. Specifically, check out the licks being spit out around 1:20.



Another phenomenal track, "Filet of Soul" is a bluesy/jazzy piece from former Testament guitar player Alex Skolnick. Blues and Jazz where a bit of a change of pace for the thrasher at the time, but he's now devoted all of his efforts into fusion with the Alex Skolnick Trio. Its also interesting to note that Les Claypool of Primus provides that bass for this jam.



And just for kicks here is Zakk Wylde's contribution, "Farm Fiddlin'". The bluegrass/chicken pickin' intro is pretty interesting, but at 2 minutes long its kind of overkill. Once the song actually kicks in, its heavy blues in true Zakk Wylde fashion. And if ol' Zakk doesn't keep your attention, then maybe the animals attacking each other in the accompanying video will.



Full Track Listing:

1. Reb Beach - Black Magic
2. Richie Sambora - Mr. Sambo
3. Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Leviathan
4. Paul Gilbert - I Understand Completely
5. Elliot Easton - Walk on Walden
6. Zakk Wylde - Farm Fiddlin'
7. Nuno Bettencourt - Bumble Bee (Crash Landing)
8. Alex Skolnick - Filet of Soul
9. Richie Kotzen - Chype Fluxx
10. Albert Collins - Blues for Stevie
11. Dickey Betts & Warren Haynes - Willie and Poor Bob
12. Reeves Gabrels - Why Do I Feel Like I'm Bleeding
13. Earl Slick - Surfer Junkie Dude

Alright that's all for now! Next week I'll be showing you a more modern shred compilation with some of today's hot shots. Remember, if you like what you hear on SSS, you can tune into my weekly radio show: Night of the Living Shred, every Friday Night at 9 PM C/10 PM E on WSUM.

Sawyer's Shred Spotlight: The Overlooked

Hey there, and welcome to the first ever edition of Sawyer’s Shred Spotlight. In case you didn’t guess, my name is Sawyer, and Mr. Rob Liz has invited me to be a weekly poster on what I know best: SHRED.















You know what I’m talking about. Insane fret-board runs at 200 BPM, electrified Bach pieces, and all of the other over the top guitar-heroics in the book. Even if you aren’t a “shred-head”, odds are you have heard of some of the big names always thrown out in the same sentence: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, or Yngwie Malmsteen; the masters of the Golden Age of Shred. These guys are great, in fact they make up a huge chunk of my last.fm account. But there are quite a few shredders from back in the day that I feel deserve more recognition then they received. I’ll be discussing a few of these guys today, so lets get started right after the jump.

First off is Joey Tafolla. Tafolla got started off as the guitar player for the American power metal band Jag Panzer in the early 80’s. After recording Jag Panzer’s debut album, he left to sign with shred powerhouse, Shrapnel Records - alongside some of the guys mentioned before. His 1987 solo debut, Out of the Sun combined the neoclassical approach of Yngwie with a greater sense of melody and songwriting to make a great, but under-appreciated album. Check it out. (Its also interesting to note that labelmates Paul Gilbert and Tony MacAlpine make multiple appearances on Out of the Sun, with MacAlpine providing the keyboards for the entire album.)



Next up is Britian’s Dave Sharman. He got his start relatively late in the game, with his debut album 1990 coming out in the year of it’s title, which is unforate as he’d probably be much more well known had he started out earlier in the shred wave. Sharman took more of a rock based approach to his song writing, infusing anthemic riffs with super smooth and catchy licks. Here one of my personal favorites from his second album, Exit Within.



Finally is a man who I’m sure many are aware of, but I cannot say enough how grossly underappreciated he still remains to be. In my opinion, when people talk about shred, the first name mentioned should be Jason Becker. Sadly that is not the case. Becker started his career in the shred duo Cacophony on Shrapnel Records with Marty Friedman, arguably one of the greatest guitarists in his own right. The dude put out Cacophony’s debut album at 18. At 18 years old, he was already showing that he was one of the best of the best. Throw on a couple of phenomenal solo albums, and work with David Lee Roth. But at the age of 20 he was diagnosed with ALS (Think Stephen Hawking), and just a year later he wasn’t able to walk or play guitar, and eventually lost the ability to speak. He still writes music to this day, using an intricate computer program, and has had other musicians record this material. A documentary about Jason is in the works and set to be released in 2012

Perpetual Burn: The Story of Jason Becker [2nd trailer] from Jason Becker: Perpetual Burn on Vimeo.

And here is a cut from his debut solo album, Perpetual Burn.



Thanks for reading, be sure to check out next week's installment. And if you find that you dig this shred stuff, check out my weekly radio show Night of the Living Shred; every Friday night at 9 PM Central/10 PM Eastern - found right here.