I'm looking for recommendations for metal bands that incorporate incredibly technical neo-classical shredding, arpeggios, sweeping, etc but in the context of music not defined solely as 'shred' (ie. the way in which the Metal Archives lists 'shred' as one of Malmsteen's genres). I think few people would deny that stuff like Malmsteen's Rising Force, Michael Angelo Batio, Jason Becker, Cacophony and musical projects of that ilk amount to little more than vehicles by which the respective leaders can showcase their incredible playing. While I do enjoy listening to the latter, I'm looking for other kinds of metal that incorporates such neo-classical virtuosity, but without neo-classical virtuosity being the sole purpose of the music. I'm not sure if this is a very abstract concept or not, but I guess the obvious example would be Necrophagist's 'Epitaph' which is a death metal album that features loads of neo-classical shredding. Some of Morbid Angel's stuff would prob come under the category too when one considers Trey's purported classical influence and some of the stuff on albums like Blessed Are The Sick.
Any recs? Thanks in advance!
Any recs? Thanks in advance!
