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The metal genre has a long line of guitarists who have changed and influenced the genre to as it is today. Lets talk about three guitarists who influenced the sound of heavy metal, and how they still impact on the genre even today.

• Randy Rhoads. Known more for his work with Ozzy Osbourne, rather than his earlier work with LA band Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads helped bring classical playing into metal. Randy Rhoads was instrumental in the writing of Ozzy classics ‘Crazy train,’ and ‘Dee’. Rhodes had a classical playing background, encorporating much of it into his work in the two albums that he played on for Ozzy. Randys work can be seen on the Ozzy albums ‘Blizzard of Oz’ and ‘Diary of a madman’. It is much discussed what Rhoads would’ve done after that, it is widely thought he would’ve gone on to further down the classical route and was looking to study at UCLA. The specialist guitars that Jackson had made for him are extremely popular with metal guitar players. Rhoads died tragically in a plane crash in 1982, and his since been an inspiration for thousands of guitarists since.
• Chuck Schuldiner. The chief songwriter and guitar player of the band ‘Death’. Although halied as the father of ‘death metal’, it was a term the man himself didnt agree with. Chuck had a great impact of the playing and sound of modern extreme metal. the first Death album ’scream bloody gore’, is often thought of as a template for the sub genre of death metal, but each new release saw Deaths sound progress onward from that. Death released four more albums before Schuldiner folded the band in 1999 to play guitar in a new band ‘control denied’, which released the one album ‘the fragile art of exsistance’. Chuck Schulidner died in 2001 after a long standing battle with brain cancer, which had seen the metal community rally round to try and raise funds for his operations.
• ‘Dimebag’ Darrell. The guitar player of Pantera and Damageplan, who also played guitar for the ‘rebel meets rebel’ project. Pantea began as a ‘glam metal’ band in Texas in 1981, but thier sound changed dramatically and 1989s ‘Cowboys from hell’ album saw them becoming heavier, with a groove in their sound. Their breakthrough album was 1992’s ‘A vulgar display of power’, which gave the band a whole ‘new level’ of exposure. The next album ‘Far beyond driven’ reached the top of the US charts at a time when metal wasnt considered ‘popular’. Pantera also released ‘Greater Southern Trendkill’ and ‘Re-inventing the steel’, after which Pantera split, as bassist Rex Brown and vocalist Phil Anselmo went off to do ‘Down’ and ‘Superjoint ritual’ and Dimebag and his brother and drummer Vinnie Paul created ‘Damageplan’. While playing onstage with Damageplan in Dec 2004, Dimebag was shot and died instantly. His sound is still seen in alot of bands today- ‘Lamb of god’ are an example of this.

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