Holy fuck. Someone doesnt like Zakk's squealing, eh? I can understand how it could be overbearing....but I still have to say he is my favorite guitar player currently. If I hear him, air guitar is imminent.
Sure, he has a lot of cliches in his playing, and tends to overuse certain techniques, it's still his style, and its highly recognizable. Hide wide assed vibrato, the aforementioned squealing, his insistence on picking every note and not relying on deceptive hammerons, and of course his pentatonic leanings all turn my crank. Not to mention his absolutely SICK versatility. The fucker is awesome.
The only thing I dont always care for is his over the top tone. Back in the day with Ozzy he clearly was a kid in a candy store with the rack effects-I hate that saturated chorused tone he has on say, Live and Loud. And some BLS shit is just too dirty and muddy. Dont get me wrong, I'm all for Marshalls on 11, but his....get a little out of control sometimes. But, his performance on the Budukan album is fierce, to say the least.
I've met the man at an instore signing a few years back, and he seemed very cool, and down to earth. Sure, he's chock full of Andro and Sierra Nevada, but this is America, after all.
Still say it'll be hard for him to top the No More Tears solo.
If you havent seen it, check out the Zakk guitar lesson video on guitar.com. Fucking amazing!!