Speed Metal Symphony
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Speed Metal Symphony
''Speed Metal Symphony'' is the first studio album by the American heavy metal band Cacophony, released in 1987 through Shrapnel Records. Critical reception In a contemporary review, Frank Trojan of ''Rock Hard'' magazine found ''Speed Metal Symphony'' "much harder and faster" than the works of Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore or Yngwie Malmsteen, "which means that some tracks are speed kills with super solos". He added that, although "the pure instrumentals are, unfortunately, again the usual mixtures of classic elements and endless revival on well-known riffs and standards, Cacophony could appeal to a bigger circle by their rough, and sometimes also partly speedy way of playing, than just pure guitar freaks." The album was re-released on CD in 1991. Andy Hinds at AllMusic called ''Speed Metal Symphony'' "tough to digest". He noted its technical complexity and lack of production quality, while suggesting that it is "some of the most indulgent music ever recorded." Praise was nevert ...
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Cacophony (band)
Cacophony was an American heavy metal band formed in 1986 by guitarists Marty Friedman and Jason Becker, and signed to Shrapnel Records. They released two studio albums and remained active until 1989, after which both guitarists forged their own solo careers and joined other bands. History The two albums released by Cacophony, '' Speed Metal Symphony'' (1987) and ''Go Off!'' (1988), were showpieces of the kind of highly technical playing typical of the 1980s shred era, with songs featuring fast tempos, melodic solos, exotic neoclassical scales and dual guitar harmonizations. Several of the tracks were entirely instrumental, which prominently demonstrated Friedman and Becker's renowned technical skills. In a 2009 article by ''Guitar World'' magazine, ''Speed Metal Symphony'' was ranked ninth in a list of all-time top ten shred albums.''Guitar World'' Staff (2009-07-09)"Top 10 Shred Albums of All Time" ''Guitar World''. Future US. Archived frothe originalon 2011-05-28. Retri ...
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Rock Hard (magazine)
''Rock Hard'' (also ''RockHard'') is a German music magazine published in Dortmund, with other language editions in various countries worldwide, including France, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Italy and Greece. The magazine focuses on hard rock and heavy metal content, including reports, interviews, specials, reviews and news. Next to the German edition of ''Metal Hammer'', it is the leading magazine for metal and hard rock in Germany. German news magazine ''Der Spiegel'' has called it the ' ("central organ") of heavy metal fandom in Germany; others have dubbed it a ' ("cult magazine"). Founded by Holger Stratmann, more than 300 issues have been published in Germany since 1983; it has been published monthly since 1989. ''Rock Hard'' magazine is independent from major media companies. Its slogan is "critical, competent, independent". Since 1990, magazine employees have also organized the Rock Hard Festival, which has been held annually in Gelsenkirchen on the Pentecost weekend since ...
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Record Producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music'' (Cambridge, MA & London, UK: MIT Press, 2005).Richard James Burgess, ''The History of Music Production'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)pp 12–13Allan Watson, ''Cultural Production in and Beyond the Recording Studio'' (New York: Routledge, 2015)pp 25–27 The record producer, or simply the producer, is likened to film director and art director. The executive producer, on the other hand, enables the recording project through entrepreneurship, and an audio engineer operates the technology. Varying by project, the producer may or may not choose all of the artists. If employing only synthesized or sampled instrumentation, the producer may be the sole artist. Conversely, some artists ...
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Bass Guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E, A, D, and G). It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick. To be heard at normal performance volumes, electric basses require external amplification. Terminology According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', an "Electric bass guitar sa Guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2." It also defines ''bass'' as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bas ...
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Rhythm Guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar); and to provide all or part of the harmony, i.e. the chords from a song's chord progression, where a chord is a group of notes played together. Therefore, the basic technique of rhythm guitar is to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming or fingerpicking rhythmically with the other hand. More developed rhythm techniques include arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos, and complex strums. In ensembles or bands playing within the acoustic, country, blues, rock or metal genres (among others), a guitarist playing the rhythm part of a composition plays the role of supporting the melodic lines and improvised solos played on the lead instrument or instruments, be they strings, wind, brass, keyboard or even percus ...
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Lead Guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featured guitar, which usually plays single-note-based lines or double-stops. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, punk, fusion, some pop, and other music styles, lead guitar lines are usually supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs. History The first form of lead guitar emerged in the 18th century, in the form of classical guitar styles, which evolved from the Baroque guitar, and Spanish Vihuela. Such styles were popular in much of Western Europe, with notable guitarists including Antoine de Lhoyer, Fernando Sor, and Dionisio Aguado. It was through this period of the classical shift to romanticism the six-string guitar was first used for solo composing. Through the 19th century ...
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Singing
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument (as in art song or some jazz styles) up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged, or improvised. It may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual as part of music education or ...
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Shred Guitar
Shred guitar or shredding is a virtuoso lead guitar solo playing style for the guitar, based on various advanced and complex playing techniques, particularly rapid passages and advanced performance effects. Shred guitar includes "fast alternate picking, sweep-picked arpeggios, diminished and harmonic scales, finger-tapping and whammy-bar abuse", It is commonly used in heavy metal guitar playing, where guitarists use the electric guitar with a guitar amplifier and a range of electronic effects such as distortion, which create a more sustained guitar tone and facilitate guitar feedback effects. The term is sometimes used with reference to virtuoso playing by instrumentalists other than guitarists, as well. The term "shred" is also used outside the metal idiom, particularly in bluegrass musicians and jazz-rock fusion electric guitarists. History Many jazz guitarists in the 1950s such as Les Paul, Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow improvised various guitar techniques comparing to co ...
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Guitar World
''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original artist interviews and profiles, plus lessons/columns (with tablature and associated audio files or videos), gear reviews, news and exclusive tablature (for guitar and bass) of three songs per issue. The magazine is published 13 times per year (12 monthly issues and a holiday issue) by Future plc. Damian Fanelli has been Guitar World’s Editor-in-Chief since June 2018. History Stanley Harris, a New York magazine publisher, launched ''Guitar World'' magazine in July 1980. The magazine’s debut issue featured bluesman Johnny Winter on the cover and included pieces on the Allman Brothers Band, George Thorogood and pedal steel guitars. As former Editor-in-Chief Brad Tolinski wrote in the magazine’s 40th-anniversary issue, “It was a dece ...
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Dragon's Kiss
''Dragon's Kiss'' is the first studio album by guitarist Marty Friedman, released on August 8, 1988 through Shrapnel Records (United States) and Roadrunner Records (Europe). Critical reception In a contemporary review, Holger Stratmann of ''Rock Hard'' did not recommend the album, but considered it as "quite good" in mixing "speed and folkloric influences from his old days in Hawaii" with "the typical and probably indispensable nature of the Shrapnel horde." Andy Hinds of AllMusic considered ''Dragon's Kiss'' an excellent album, and wrote that it "may be the most definitive sampling of Friedman's talents available." Martin Popoff in his ''Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal'' described ''Dragon's Kiss'' as "a structured album of artful instrumental rock that kills all that came before" and "ushered in a new classy, mature era in shred records." The album was re-released on CD in 1991. Track listing Personnel ;Musicians *Marty Friedman – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guita ...
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Perpetual Burn
''Perpetual Burn'' is the first studio album by the American guitarist Jason Becker, released in 1988 through Shrapnel Records (United States) and Roadrunner Records (Europe). The album was released at around the same time as ''Dragon's Kiss'', the first album by the fellow Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman, who also co-produced and performed on ''Perpetual Burn''. This is the only solo album Becker released before his diagnosis with ALS in 1989. Track listing Personnel ;Musicians *Jason Becker – lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, producer *Marty Friedman – additional guitar solos (tracks 5–7), co-producer *Atma Anur – drums ;Production *Steve Fontano – co-producer, engineer, mixing *Joe Marquez – assistant engineer *George Horn – mastering at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California *Mike Varney Mike Varney is an American record producer and music publisher. He is the founder of the Shrapnel Label Group, which includes Shrapnel Records ...
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Jason Becker
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He was also the great-grandson of the messenger god Hermes, through his mother's side. Jason appeared in various literary works in the classical world of Greece and Rome, including the epic poem ''Argonautica'' and the tragedy ''Medea''. In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 film '' Jason and the Argonauts'' and the 2000 TV miniseries of the same name. Persecution by Pelias Pelias (Aeson's half-brother) was power-hungry and sought to gain dominion over all of Thessaly. Pelias was the progeny of a union between their shared mother, Tyro ("high born Tyro"), the daughter of Salmoneus, and the sea god Poseidon. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson (the rightful king), killin ...
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