| underrated metal guitarists |
| 1 |  | Scorpions
Blackout
Matthias Jabs - people love Michael Schenker but basically every notable catchy Scorpions lead line and solo was done by Jabs. Super clean, very good melodic sense, basically a hook master. |
| 2 |  | Queensryche
Operation: Mindcrime
Chris DeGarmo - another excellent solo wizard, but his extremely high rate of good solos seems to kind of get overlooked. Maybe his style wasn't the shreddiest or most original, but it's hard to argue with several albums worth of incredible solos on nearly every song. |
| 3 |  | Vicious Rumors
Digital Dictator
Mark McGee - Brought in to replace Vinnie Moore, McGee was largely more interesting and tasteful than Moore with the same incredible shredder chops and better phrasing. Check the solo on World Church from their self titled cus that's probably the best I can think of from these guys. |
| 4 |  | Sadist
Tribe
Tommy Talamanca - talked about this guy before but he's got some mad solos in his time. Dunno to what extent he's responsible for the weird Castlevania-tech death of Sadist but his solos on Escogido and Den Siste Kamp would get him on here regardless. |
| 5 |  | Laaz Rockit
Nothing's Sacred
Ken Savich - world's ultimate Marty Friedman impersonator. Copies a lot of Marty's phrasing and stuff. Bit more classic shredder-y in terms of note choices but still overall a good follow on if you want more stuff like Marty. Band is alright too. |
| 6 |  | Cryptopsy
None So Vile
Jon Levasseur - Big Jon not only wrote basically all the best Cryptopsy songs but he was also a nutty guitarist with some great neo-classical vibes underlying your favourite death metal brutality. Personal favourites are Dead and Dripping, Phobophile, Serial Messiah, Cold Hate Warm Blood, and Red-Skinned Scapegoat from the self titled. |
| 7 |  | Nuclear Assault
Something Wicked
Dave DiPetro - bad album but anyone ever heard Another Violent end? Sick multi-minute guitar solo, honestly could have been a legendary moment if it was on a good album. |
| 8 |  | Obituary
Cause of Death
James Murphy - I mean yeh we all know who James Murphy is but you know goddamn is he good yknow |
| 9 |  | Martyr
Warp Zone
Daniel Mongrain - For my mind the greatest metal guitarist currently active, Mongrain has probably the best combo of inventive riff writing and brilliant, Holdsworth-ian solos. Pretty much resurrected Voivod too so that's cool. Appears on an alarming number of great releases (wrote the tile track, Unearthing the Past, Das Martyrium Des on From Wisdom to Hate which is pretty gang) |
| 10 |  | Deathrow
Deception Ignored
Uwe Osterlenger - not a king of the leads but a king of the weirdest riffs. Besides being responsible for how insane the latter two Deathrow albums sound, he also did a lot of the best work for Mekong Delta which kinda just figures really. |
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