What are the best musicians of metal music (drummer, guitar, base)?

[{D|aBo|uS}]

Give your points of view on who you think are the best drummer, guitarist, basist, singer and even keyboard player of metal music (no matter what kind of metal they play)

Keyboard or piano and all the other stuff : I have to go with the one from Dimmu Borgir (I don't know his name, sorry). He is able to compose great stuff. Not only piano but all the orchestral thing, especially on their last album (death cult...)

Drum : Nicolas Barker (which was also with Dimmu Borgir) is my favorite. He can be so fast and really technical. this guy is incredible. I really don't know why people don't like it as much as I do....anyway.

Base : I really don't know...I am not a big fan of base... so I will just shut up on this one instead of saying shit hehe

Vocals: the singer of Lost Horizon is really incredible. For those who like Power Metal (or speed metal...I am not really sure which one is the best), and don't know them, you should really check out. But because it is hard to compare Power metal singer with Death Metal singer, I have to mention Opeth's singer (which I don't know the name). I like his style.

Guitar : I really like Alexi from Children of Bodom and Timo Tolke (not sure about his name though) from Stratovarius. Prefer the riffs of Alexi, but Timo's solos are more technical.

 

[xOrdinary_Storyx]

Keyboards: jordan rudess
drums: mike portnoy
bass: billy sheehan (spl?)
vox (clean): tony kakko, bruce dickinson
vox (growl): mikael akerfeldt(spl?), petri lindroos
guitar: steve vai, chuck schuldiner, rhoads....i could go on forever

 

[ethereallights]

I don't know about all the other categories but my favorite drummer, and who I think the best is is Trym from Emperor.

 

[Buttheaded]

who ever rob halford had playing on his ''live insurection" cd those dudes are bad ass!!!

 

[Leper_/-\ffinity]

Keys: Dan Swano
Drums: Andy from Vehemence, Pete Sandoval, Johan from Pain of Salvation, Tool's drummer
Vocals: Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation and Mikael Akerfeldt, alond with Dan Swano, and Isahn for the black metal stuff.
Bass: Martin Mendez, Ryknow from Mudvayne (hate me), Justin from Tool
Guitars: MA and PL from Opeth, Dan Swano, Gildenlow, Azagthoth, Isahn, Blakkheim, Iommi, Rhoads...way too many to think of...

 

[Dark Life Dying]

Keys: Lazare, Jordan Rudess, Derek Sherinian, Kevin Moore, Arjan Anthony Lucassen etc.
Drums: Trym, Hellhammer, Virgil Donatti, Mike Portnoy, Danny Carey etc.
Bass: Billy Sheehan, John Myung, Tyr, Fabio Fecchio
Guitar: John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert etc.
Vocals: Mikael Akerfeldt, Ihsahn, Lazare, etc.

 

[{D|aBo|uS}]

There is one thing here....I wanted your points of view on metal music...I'm not sure if Satriani and Vai are making metal music. But.....anyway, say whatever you want, because hehe, they play like gods hehe

 

[Metal is Religion]

Drums:
Erik: Dying Fetus
Trym: Emperor, Zyklon
Flo: Cryptopsy
Dave Suzuki: Vital Remains
these guys are fucking nuts. its ridiculous how fast they can play and as long.

Bass:
Vortex: Dimmu Borgir
Cliff Burton: Metallica (owns)
guy from Dying Fetus, he plays all the same as the guitars, tapping and all!

Keyboards:
Janne: Children of Bodom (owns)
whats his face from Kalmah
Mustis: Dimmu Borgir

Guitar:
Chuck Schuldiner: Death (owns)
Dying Fetus' guitarists (amazingly technical)
Alexi Liaho: Children of I enjoy it
Jesper Stromblad: In Flames
Dave Suzuki: Vital Remains
Yngwie Malmsteen
Randy Rhoads
Michael and Chris Amott: Arch Enemy
...and so on

Vocals:
Dani Filth: Cradle of Filth
Alexi Liaho: Children of Hell yeah
Both guys from Dying Fetus
Guy from Skinless
Glen Benton: Deicide,Vital Remains
Shagrath: Dimmu Borgir
Anders Friden: ONLY in In Flames
Warrel Dane: Nevermore
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Iced Earth
Matt Barlow: ex Iced Earth
Ihsahn: Emperor
Chuck Schuldiner: Death
Angela Gossow: Arch Enemy (sounds like her cootch has teeth!)
...and so on

 

[{D|aBo|uS}]

Hey, thx god you wrote all the bands, because there were so many, I didn't know them all (I mean their names)...but with the band I can remember.

 

[Break Zero]

Vocals: Devin Townsend (Strappping Young Lad, etc.), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Pete Steele (Type O Negative, Carnivore), Ronnie James Dio

Guitar: Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Jeff Loomis (Nevermore), K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)

Bass: Steve DiGiorgio (Testament, Sadus, Death), Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath)

Drums: Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad, Death, Dark Angel)

 

[Cosmic_Sea]

Guitar: Chuck Shuldiner (Death, Control Denied)

Drums:
1. Gene Hoglan (Death, Strapping Young Lad)
2. Danny Carey (Tool)
3. Nicholas Barker (Old Man's Child, Dimmu Borgir)
4. Joey Jordison (Slipknot, Murder Dolls)

Bass:
1. Steve Harris (Iron Maiden)
2. Terry Butler (Six Feet Under, Death)
3. Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse)

 

[Bryant]

vocalist - tough to choose just one.... maybe Ronnie Dio in his prime
keys - Gunter werno of Vabden Plas. He is simply an amazing player.
guitar - Wolf Hoffmann former Accept guitarist. He was one of the few who could blend blues with classical and still command the harmonic minor like the other teutonic greats.
drummer - Mark Zonder - fates Warning. technical wizardry galore, but his chops never stood in the way of style.
bassist - Francis Bucholz former Scorpions bassist. He might be the most underrated musician I can think of. He had great chops and a great tone and even in a dual guitar driven band like The Scorps with players such as Roth, M. Schenker and Jabs, he was at their level as a bassist.

Bryant

Other vocalists I like: Urban Breed (tad Morose) Andy Kunts (Vanden Plas) Tony Martin (ex-Black sabbath) Russell Allen (Symphony X) Udo (UDO ex-Accept)
Other drummers: Dave Lombardo (Slayer) Kirk Arrington (Metal Church) Stian Kristoffersen (Pagans Mind) Niel Peart (Rush) and Phil Rudd (AC-DC simple but absolutely flawless.
Other guitarists: Yngwie Mick Mars (don't make fun because though technically not very good, I think he is the most instantly recognizable guitarist there is. He is good enough that he has his own style and tone that screams Mick) Jorn Viggo Lofstat (Pagans Mind and an awesome player with super classy solos) Buck Dharma (this old guy will still wipe the floor with most guitarists) John Denver (don't like country music and hated his voice, but his acoustic playing was complexed and he was probably my favorite acoustic artist) David Gilmour (this guy can do more with three notes than most can do with thirty. Great player) Hetfield/Mustaine two ofthe best rythm players ever. Too bad Shitallica sucks since "Load." Vivian Campbell (Dio era) Warren Dimartini second best "hair" guitarist. Vito Bratta (God disguised as a hair guitarist. I can't understand why that guy didn't get with another band after White Lion disbanded. He was incredible. Bruce Kulick..... the best musician Kiss ever dreamed of having. His solos were some of the best out there in the 80's.
Other bassists: Geddy Lee, Peter Baltes (Accept) CLIFF !! Delorian (former Avalon bassist but I can't remember her first name. Awesome bassist and great for fem musicians to look to for inspiration)
Other keyboardists: I'm not big into keys, but prog bands rule the key department except for Yngwie's first keyboardist, Jens Johanssen. He was badass !!


Bryant

 

[TwilightSymphony]

I'm not going to list my favorites (which is what everyone usually seems to be doing with this kind of list), but those that I feel actually have displayed their technical abilities, inventiveness. Being that Heavy Metal is so amorphous, I don't think that you can simply say that certain bands are(n't) really Metal, so:

Vocals: Geoff Tate (Queensryche) Let's face it, the man has a 4 1/2 octave vocal range. Many men would give their balls to be able to sing this well. Higs and lows...the man runs the gamut.
Guitar: Ritchie Blackmore (Blackmore's Night, Deep Purple, Rainbow) Co-founder of one the prototypical Heavy Metal bands (Deep Purple) and not afraid to combine influences (Rock, Classical, Country, etc.). Originally started as a session guitarist doing studio gigs. For an excellent visual example of some of his guitar playing, check out the Masters From the Vaults DVD; and for recordings, check out Made In Japan.
Bass: Geddy Lee (Rush) Tastefully combines countermelodic and unison basslines that don't interfere with the vocal lines, and one of the best bass players around in the Rock spectrum.
Keyboards: Jon Lord (Deep Purple) Classical, Ragtime, Jazz, Rock...and, one of the classic Hammond B3 Organ tones on the planet!
Drums: Neil Peart (Rush) Without a doubt, simply one of the best drummers in the world, and one of the best drummers in Rock music (in all it's forms), period.

 

[Bryant]

I'm not going to list my favorites (which is what everyone usually seems to be doing with this kind of list), but those that I feel actually have displayed their technical abilities, inventiveness. Being that Heavy Metal is so amorphous, I don't think that you can simply say that certain bands are(n't) really Metal, so:

That's a great way to look at it as far as musicians and their technical prowess abnd how they have set new standards. I like your post and appreciate it as well, but I could make an opposite post as well. I could name musicians that are technically average or even challenged that still made/make impacts due to ownership of style.
My Mick Mars and Phil Rudd inclusions in my post are examples of that. Both are technically inferior by "average" by standards of professional musicians but though I am not a Crue fan nor AC/DC fan (though I do like many songs by both bands and love the BIB release,) I think both musicians have made statements worthy of mentioning due to being stylistically unique enough to stand apart from "the crowd" and also just being rock solid at their craft.
I am a guitarist by trade, but I like to goof around on the drums and I am not bad at all, but Phil Rudd is so freaking perfect, I can't play his stuff though I can do a little double bass and play the more complexed stuff by other bands. Phil plays basic stuff, but he makes drum machines sound out of time. His "style" makes it sound easy but he is hard to duplicate.
Mick Mars is a different thing. He too is technically deficient, but I realized I respected Mick when I first heard "Kickstart My Heart" for the first time. Mick had never done anything like that "race car sound" at the beginning of the song, but as soon as I heard that "waaaaaah...waaaaaaah" I said to myself "that is a new Crue song" and that alone made me realize what a player Mick was despite being a bit simplistic. If any guitarist can make me recognize him/her from two notes, they are impressive. My favorite guitarist of all time is Wolf Hoffmann, but I would never have guessed it was him playing from two notes.


Bryant

 

[TwilightSymphony]

Fair enough. Like I said, I didn't want to add some of my favorites. This is not to say that I don't like the material put forth by artists from the "less is more" school of playing regarding music (there are times when "less is more," but also times when "less is less"). I wanted to put in those performers that I felt achieved the most from a stance of displayed (e.g. recorded) technical prowess and creativity on their instruments.

 

[Bryant]

Fair enough. Like I said, I didn't want to add some of my favorites. This is not to say that I don't like the material put forth by artists from the "less is more" school of playing regarding music (there are times when "less is more," but also times when "less is less"). I wanted to put in those performers that I felt achieved the most from a stance of displayed (e.g. recorded) technical prowess and creativity on their instruments.

Works for me. The beauties of music are within the ears and minds of the beholders. If we all had this same opinion, this place would be boring as hell.


Bryant

 

[Reign in Acai]

Guitar- Chuck Schuldiner \m/, Alexi Laiho, Tim Roth, John Petrucci
Bass- Steve Digiorgio, Cliff Burton
Drums- Gene Hoglan, Richard Christy, Martin Maurals
Vox- Hansi Kursch, Heather Findlay, Mikael Akerfeldt

 

[ShadowOfDeath]

Vocals: Damnagoras(Ex-Elvenking, Leprechaun), Joacim Cans(Hammerfall, Ex-Lost Horizon), Nocturno Culto(Darkthrone), Bruce Dickenson(Iron Maiden), Tarja(On Nightwish's Angels Fall First...her vocals blow on the rest of nightwish's albums)

Guitar: Kirk Hammet(Metallica), Kerry King(Slayer), Toni Iommi(Black Sabbath), Pat O'Brian(Cannibal Corpse) and Jack Owen(Ex-Cannibal Corpse)

Drums: Fenriz(Darkthrone)

Bass: Cliff Burton(Ex-Metallica), Geezer Butler(Black Sabbath), Steve Harris(Iron Maiden)

 

[VileCreation]

Vox - Ted Skjellum (Darkthrone)
Guitar - Nergal (Behemoth) or Ihsan (Emperor)
Drums - Inferno (Behemoth) or The Proscriptor (Absu)
Bass - Magnus Olsfelt (The Crown - R.I.P.)