Josh Burgess
Member
maybe JPs sweeping is not that good but the sound he has in his hands beats most of those speed-technique type shredders. His playing is just pleasant to listen to unlike most of those shredders that simply produce noise. That's what in my ears makes diffrence between JP, Joe Satriani, Vai and players like Rusty Cooley(which i hate with all my heart), Michael Angelo Batio, Yngwie.
That beign said, tight technical rhytm play>long wankery solos at any time, any day. At least you can play it in a song and it wont feel ,,forced''. That's why Loomis/Michael Romeo shine, they can shred but they also play kickass rhytm.
Yngwie? Really, dude? Yngwie may be a pompous ass (so I've heard, anyway), but he is a brilliant guitarist. Amazing technique and very expressive. The awesome shred you hear from Jeff Loomis (who almost everyone, including myself, loves) is directly coming from Becker, Friedman, and Malmsteen influences.
I love Satriani, not all that into Vai... Petrucci's okay and has written some awesome music, but he's written a lot of not so awesome music too...
Rusty Cooley is a way better player than most people give him credit for... He does get caught up in speed, but I think he's capable of blowing people away... he just needs to write some better songs. I'd love to hear him in a Nevermore style band... or even along side Loomis in Nevermore itself. You guys should check out his guitar too... seriously the best playing guitar I've ever touched...
Paul Gilbert and Ron Jarzombek are both awesome players. Marty Friedman is awesome. Jason Becker is a guitar god... it's really sad what happened to him.
Overall, Jeff Loomis is probably my favorite shredder right now... perfect combination of great songwriting, all out shred, expressive and melodic "feel" type leads (vibrato and tremolo usage), and heavy, technical metal riffing. For my tastes, the dude is probably the best guitarist on the planet.
I really like Guthrie Govan too... super talented, and I love his fusion type stuff, but not so into his blues and chicken pickin' type stuff (although still very impressive)... I'm just more into Loomis' style in general. That's actually one of the only styles I haven't heard Govan master... haha