Tony Macalpine

"Tony MacAlpine"

Tony Jeff MacAlpine (born August 29, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts) is an American guitarist and keyboardist. He is perhaps best known as a solo guitarist although he has worked with many different bands and musicians like Planet X, Steve Vai, Vinnie Moore, Mark Boals and Vitalij Kuprij. Prior to picking up the guitar, MacAlpine was a classically trained pianist and violinist, and he plays all the keyboards on his own albums as well as for other artists. He has played and toured with other artists as their primary keyboardist.

One of Tony's principal musical influences is Chopin, (and perhaps in general the Romantic era of classical music), and tribute is given by beautifully played Etudes of Chopin on many of his solo albums. There is at least one display of Tony's piano/keyboard skills on each of his solo albums up to and including Chromaticity.
MacAlpine influenced and contributed much to the neo-classical movement of the late 1980's. He is known for his style, blending elements of neo-classical metal and jazz fusion. Together with his own solo albums Edge of Insanity and Maximum Security, MacAlpine played an indispensable role on other candidate albums for "Best Neo-classical Album Ever", with keyboard work throughout Vinnie Moore's Mind's Eye and Joey Tafolla's Out of the Sun.
As a further indication of MacAlpine's "ambidexterity" between the guitar and keyboard, he has made contributions as a guitarist accompanying world-class keyboardists (Vitalij Kuprij's K3) and as a keyboardist accompanying world-class guitarists (Vinnie Moore's Mind's Eye and The Maze). Additionally, MacAlpine successfully provides vocals for the only non-instrumental - (see instrumental rock) - album in his solo career, displaying further his technical versatility.
Noteworthy is MacAlpine's versatility in musical style. He has covered just about the whole spectrum of musical styles throughout his solo career, often with songs that would usually be considered to be in different genres appearing next to one another on the same album.
In the last recent years, he has played guitars and keyboards in the band Steve Vai and The Breed (i.a. the Real Illusions Tour 2005) and is featured on the band's Live at the Astoria London DVD as well as on the live G3 DVDs, G3: Live in Denver and G3: Live in Tokyo.

Marty Friedman

" Marty Friedman "

One of the ultimate '80s guitar shredders, Marty Friedman first made his name with the speed-burning virtuoso outfit Cacophony, but landed his most widely renowned gig as the lead guitarist of Megadeth during the thrash legends' greatest period of popularity. Friedman was born in 1962 and grew up in the Baltimore area; he began playing guitar at age 15 in a band called Deuce, shortly before his family moved to Hawaii. While in Hawaii, Friedman hooked up with a local band (which changed names and personnel fairly often) and recorded with them on three different albums. Friedman studied guitar in earnest, going so far as to explore ethnic music (particularly Asian and Middle Eastern) in search of new, exotic scales to incorporate into his lead playing.
He initially connected with the shred-guitar label Shrapnel in 1981, but it wasn't until 1987 that he, along with friend Jason Becker, made an impact on the larger guitar community. The twin-guitar heroics of their debut album as Cacophony, Speed Metal Symphony, made an instant splash, and both took the opportunity to record the solo albums they'd been working on individually prior to the genesis of Cacophony.
Friedman's solo debut, Dragon's Kiss, was released on Shrapnel in 1988, and it was stylistically similar to his Cacophony material. After one further Cacophony album, 1989's Go Off!, Friedman and Becker went their separate ways. Friedman joined Megadeth in late 1990, becoming their third lead guitarist in four albums; however, he managed to bring some stability to the position, remaining with the band for ten years. His debut with the band, Rust in Peace, demonstrated his immediate impact on the rest of the group, still standing as one of the most technically accomplished albums in all of thrash metal. His second album with Megadeth, Countdown to Extinction, was the band's popular breakthrough, making them one of the biggest heavy metal groups in the world. In 1992, Friedman capitalized on the group's popularity as an opportunity to do something different: he stunned metal fans by hooking up with new age star Kitaro for a reflective, Asian-tinged instrumental album titled Scenes, which also appeared on Shrapnel. Pleased with the results, Friedman continued in that vein with his second contemporary instrumental album, 1994's Introduction, which boasted an even stronger Japanese flavor; that year, he also married Chihiro. Friedman continued to pursue his solo career as an outlet for less aggressive sounds, releasing True Obsession in 1996. Friedman left Megadeth in 2000, about a year after the release of their Risk album; he now considers himself exclusively a new age artist.

Paul Gilbert

" PAUL GILBERT "

Full Name :Paul Brandon Gilbert

Birth Date :November 6, 1966

Birth Place :Illinois, Carbon dale At the age of two, Paul moved to Pennsylvania,and he spent Pittsburgh until he was 17.

Musical Influences : The Beatles / Led Zeppelin / Van Halen / Todd Rundgren / Cheap Trick / Rush / Robin Trower / Pat Travers / Randy Rhoads / Yngwie Malmsteen / Elvis Costello / Enuff Z'nuff /The Wildhearts / J.S. Bach / J.C. Bach / his uncle (Jimi Kidd)

* Paul became interested in music under the influence of his parents at the age of five. On his 5th birthday, his parents gave the toy guitar and toy amp to him.He started to play the guitar in 1971.At the age of 9, he became listening to music; hard rock/heavy metal like LED ZEPPELIN,KISS, AEROSMITH and HEART.When he was 11, Eddie Van Halen guitar play gave him a great shock.And he started to play with band.At the age of 15, he sent Mike Varney (a president of the record company, "Shrapnel") his demo tape.And Mike liked his demo tape. So Mike talked to him, "How about recording?". But it wasn't realized. He graduated high school and moved to Los Angeles to entered G.I.T in 1984. In September, 1985, he became a teacher of G.I.T. At the same time, he formed his band called ELECTRIC FENCE.The members of his band were Paul (guitar/bass), Jeff Martin (drums) and Russ Parrish (guitar/bass). They were jamming cover songs. In 1986, he started the new band called RACER X. But he quit RACER X in 1988. In 1989, he joined MR.BIG. They released first album,"MR.BIG" in the same year.In 1996, they made an announcement about their permanent off.Paul released his first solo album,"KING OF CLUBS" in 1997.And he went to road as his first solo tour in 1998.In the same year, he released his 2nd solo album,"FLYING DOG". And he came back to Japan to play live in 1999.He made an announcement about leaving MR.BIG at the same time.In 1999, October, RACER X is back !! They makes their reunion album.Now, Paul Gilbert enjoys making and playing his favorite music.

Jason Becker

" JASON BECKER "







'Such an amazing young prodigy’s career cut so short'' - words described by the Shredaholic team on this naturally gifted guitarist, who has suffered a tragedy none of us should ever have to experience...
Jason’s father played classical guitar, and his Uncle Ron played blues guitar, this got Jason interested in guitar music and he would eventually take up the guitar at a young age. His early influences were: Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, and Eddie Van Halen amongst other greats.

Jason was not a shy performer, he continuously practised (as all of us should) from the age of 5 and performed at school and coffee greenhouses from sixth grade and on, absorbing a lot of different style of music as he went along. Jason was so advanced at an early age that he was even giving his music teacher lessons! Then at 16 already an accomplished virtuoso player, came Jason’s big break, he met his close friend Marty Friedman. Marty had already made a few records already, when Marty saw Jason’s playing he was blown away, so Marty had the idea of the two to do a record together, so Marty set Jason some tasks on guitar. When Marty Returned, Jason had learnt them note-for-note-perfect! So, They got together and released an Album entitled ''Speed Metal Symphony'' in 1987.

This album is highly recommended by Shredaholic.com, it contains playing of breakneck speed and intense melodic energy, tracks like ''Concerto'' and ''Speed Metal Symphony'' are virtuosic masterpieces at the highest level, combining both amazing technique and sense of melody. They never got ''mega-famous'' but were known now around the world for there innovative style, the Japanese loved them, as Japanese are massive shred-heads themselves! :D Jason also made instructional videos for fellow shred-heads who were interested. In 1989 they produced there follow up album entitled ''Go Off'' this didn’t do half as well in sales as their debut, but still, shred fans will love it. The main highlight was ''Images'', an immaculate piece of intense melody.

Later that year, Becker went and joined David Lee Roth’s band, which he delightfully accepted. It was at this time that Jason had a lazy limp in his leg and went to check it out, he was tragically diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease), and given 5 years to live. Despite this, Jason, being the amazingly committed musician that he is, carried on, and recorded the album with Roth. It all starts getting quite upsetting at this point, Shredaholic recommends for fans to read ''In Jason’s Own Words'' on his official website jasonbecker.com for an in depth description of his illness. In the end, he was unable to play guitar properly and started recording on a keyboard and computer with one hand because the other hand would fall. Eventually this resulted in him confined to a wheel chair, but despite this, even to this day, he manages to compose his own music from his head onto a computer, and has other respectful artists to record for him (such as Eddie Van Halen). The Shredaholic team truly respects this amazing individual for what he has accomplished and strived for in his career, and great influence to us and many more.
Jason Becker - We Salute You.