Sábado 27 May 2006, 18:31

Ok, so.. I'm very bored cause it's Saturday night and I'm sitting here alone in my room watching some amusing ghost movie.

In this journal I'm gonna list men who are grandmasters at what they do. Without big words, here they are.

First of all I have to list Jari Mäenpää, Ex-Ensiferum frontman - now having sucess with his solo-project Wintersun. There is no one else I know who can combine powerful riffs with epic keyboard sounds and melodic guitar melodies like he does. His real potential can only be seen when you listen to his solo stuff, so damn BUY THAT ALBUM!!!

http://www.013web.nl/Imagesprograms/wintersun.jpg

Second there's Mikael Åkerfeldt. This guy has done some amazing work so far. Not only was he part of composing all Opeth-albums by now - no, this man was the singer for Bloodbath from 2000-2004, he took part in Edge of Sanity's Crimson, he sang and played guitar on Porcupine Tree's Deadwing, and he was vocalist on Katatonia's Brave Murder Day. Just to mention the well-known stuff. Hail! \m/

http://home.earthlink.net/~guitardan311/Mikael_Akerfeldt.jpg

Talking about musical geniousses you can't leave the following one out: Chuck Schuldiner. He was one of the pioneers of Death Metal in the 80s. In the 90s he re-invented his music, making such ingenious albums like Symbolic, Sound of Perserverance or Human. He was the one who combined meaningful lyrics with death metal giving his music a progressive touch. If you look at some live videos you will recognize that this guy was actually a very talented, virtuos and passionate guitarist, maybe one of the best. People should pay him more respect. I wish I could have seen him live just once. He died of the consequences of cancer on December 13, 2001.

http://static.siberalem.com/gruplar/TRIODIS/Chuck%20Schuldiner.jpg

The next one is more a personal favourite, not that many would name him as a mastermind but I do.Jon Schaffer is the head of the American band Iced Earth. He is the one who is responsible for such great works like Something Wicked This Way Comes, Night of the Stormrider or Burnt Offerings. He is known as a very egoistic, eccentric guy. In the Band he is doing the part of the rhythm guitar and backround vocals. Besides Iced Earth, he has a common project with Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch. His style is similar to Steve Harris' sound combined with 80s thrash metal and it's fun for me to play his stuff. :D

http://www.onlineenzyklopaedie.de/Images/1/180px-jon_schaffer.jpg

And here comes the man who paved the way for Black and Viking Metal: Thomas "Quorthon Forsberg. He founded Bathory at the age of 17 and was the main songwriter until his tragic death on June, 7th 2004. In addition to this, he had a solo Project that was also called Quorthon. Even though the genre black metal is named after a Venom-album, he had more impact on the sound of this genre than
any other musician. He created that typical style that so many bands emulated later on.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/Qourthon_Bathory.jpg/250px-Qourthon_Bathory.jpg

Kristoffer Garm Rygg is maybe one of the craziest guys in metal. At the age of 16 he called Ulver into being - one of the most inflecting bands ever. He has been the vocalist for Arcturus and Borknagar. His voice is just amazing since e can switch from black metal shrieks to opera-like bartione or even falsettos any time. Now he's running his own label called Jester Records. That guy is just insane ! Just look at the picture. xD

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Garmentist.jpg

I know what you think. You think "Hey, I know this guy with that funny beard down there!". Right, you do - since everybody who listens to death metal knows Peter Tägtgren, the leader of the legendary band Hypocrisy. But not enough, he is also successful with Pain, the Industrial Metal band. As you might have noticed he is also vocalist on Bloodbath's Nightmares Made Flesh. He plays the guitar, piano, drums and bass, so he could easily establish his own solo-band. :P

http://www.the-gothicworld.de/_reviews/2005-06/pain.jpg

This guy is probably even more famous than Peter: Ozzy Osbourn. Actually he is responsible for everything, so blame him. :D Being the vocalist for the first real heavy metal band Black Sabbath, he influenced all sequencing bands by now in singing, lyrics and everything. Together with his friend Tony Iommi he created the exemplary sabbath sound. People say Ozzy's lyrics and the slow speed of some songs were the beginning of doom metal, especially the song Hand of Doom, which is supposed to be the origin of the genre's titling. Besides that he bit off the head of a bat. :D

http://www.rockdetector.com/assets/resized/img/artists/50660-0-220-0-300.jpg

Here's the next dead one: Cliff Burton. He died 20 years ago in a tragic accident in sweden. It was a huge loss for his band Metallica then since he was an ingenious songwriter and bassist. I would consider Orion as his best work. There is no other song that can be compared with this one. It's so powerful and aggressive, sad and depressing and also happy and joyful at the same time. And the big thing is -> he creates this feelings without the use of words. The song is the best instrumental I've ever heard. Not as technical as Dream Theater and partners but who cares ? Honor to this man who loved and lived for music.

http://www.anus.com/metal/about/images/cliff_burton.jpg

Coming Soon: Dan Swanö, Anders Nykström, Alexi Laiho, Devy, and many many more