Well well. a topic for the best Rhythm guitarist in metal history. my pick is Jon Schaffer, that dude is so intricate and technical and he's got a great, crushing tone with really tight palm mutes. his acoustic songs are also really good, he almost always uses a 12-string guitar on them, and it sounds awesome. check out Iced Earth-
The Coming Curse(very intricate and inventive main riff)
Desert Rain
Melancholy(Holy Martyr)
Watching Over Me(to get an idea on how well he balances crushing tone with quiet acoustic chords)
Dante's Inferno(very technical, very difficult song to play, 16 minutes long with lots of rhythm changes and technical riffs)

and of course Demons and Wizards- Fiddler on the Green(masterpiece) and Dorian(great riffs in this one).


and please remember THIS IS A RHYTHM GUITARIST THREAD. if you don't know what that is THEN CLICK THIS LINK DO NOT SHOVE [INSERT RANDOM SHREDDER] UP MY ASS!

And don't Forget songs like Last December, Solitude, Slave to the Dark, The Dimension Gauntlet, or 1776.
my vote is for Jon Schaffer by far but if i had to choose other one that must be Olavi Mikkonen from Amon Amarth

Jon Schaffer is a great rhythm guitar player I totally agree.
Another very good one is imo James Hetfield.
But imo the best rhythm guitar player by far is Dave Mustaine he plays rhythm guitar in such a way it almost becomes lead at times. He does things as rhythm guitarist no other rhythm guitarist does.

Dave Mustaine's rythms are almost as impressive as some peoples leads. Eric Peterson is pretty good too.

Yeah, Hetfield and Mustaine are pretty damn good too, though honestly i didn't think of Mustaine when i created this thread, i thought about putting James in the first post but he's not as good as Schaffer, he is pretty inventive though and slightly better than him at playing and singing at the same time(i say only slightly because Schaffer can sing the song Stormrider and play at the same time, which is a pretty hard thing to do)

I know he is not exclusively a rhythm guitarrist, but holy crap, listen to those Mike Petrozza's Rhythmic Riffs!!!!!
And Pata from X Japan, some breakneck riffing out there xD

Jon Schaffer for me too. His right hand technique is unique.

Written by Nightmare^ on 30.11.2008 at 14:15

Jon Schaffer for me too. His right hand technique is unique.

Where do I sign? Choise between Shaffer and Mustaine, but I definitely must say Shaffer. His technique is just simply stronger than anyone else. Burnt Offering, Dante's Inferno, Damien, Dracula, The Phantom Opera Ghost....let the wisdom of metal magic stream into your heart.

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

the criteria would be: how complex, technical, and inventive the riffs are, and how hard the vocal part is

Written by Valentin B on 07.03.2009 at 14:45

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

the criteria would be: how complex, technical, and inventive the riffs are, and how hard the vocal part is

I think when the rhythm guitarist is also the vocalist, it gives him even more merit, but he doesn't necessarily have to sing of course.

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 15:07

Written by Valentin B on 07.03.2009 at 14:45

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

the criteria would be: how complex, technical, and inventive the riffs are, and how hard the vocal part is

I think when the rhythm guitarist is also the vocalist, it gives him even more merit, but he doesn't necessarily have to sing of course.

yeah but sometimes when the guy is a main creative force of the band(Schaffer, Hetfield, Mustaine, maybe Shuldiner etc) he does do vocals too. also, i can't really think right now of a guy who most of the time sticks to being the rhythm guitarist, is really fucking good at it, and doesn't do vocals. the one that keeps coming to my mind is Izzy Stradlin from Guns n Roses lol and he's shit compared to Mustaine or Schaffer.

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

While I consider Tommy T Baron as some kind of genius, I must say he doesn't exactly fit in topic, simply because he's the only guitar player in Coroner, which means he is far from being 'simply' in rythm guitar position.

Written by Darkside Momo on 07.03.2009 at 19:26

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

While I consider Tommy T Baron as some kind of genius, I must say he doesn't exactly fit in topic, simply because he's the only guitar player in Coroner, which means he is far from being 'simply' in rythm guitar position.

Well, he is both an amazing rhythm and solo guitar player, but you know most of the songs constitute of rhythm sections, so I think he fits in and what makes Coroner such an amazing band is those crazy riffs.

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 19:36

Written by Darkside Momo on 07.03.2009 at 19:26

Written by K✞ulu on 07.03.2009 at 14:28

To cease stagnation in this thread, I wonder what are the criteria for assessing rhythms guitar players? Is it how complex the riffs that they play are?

As for me, I'd like to add Tommy "T. Baron" Vetterli from Coroner. I am not sure whether it's he who wrote the music since the lyrics were written by the bassist, but to play that stuff, one has to skillful. I can't imagine covering Coroner... it would need a lot of practicing.

While I consider Tommy T Baron as some kind of genius, I must say he doesn't exactly fit in topic, simply because he's the only guitar player in Coroner, which means he is far from being 'simply' in rythm guitar position.

Well, he is both an amazing rhythm and solo guitar player, but you know most of the songs constitute of rhythm sections, so I think he fits in and what makes Coroner such an amazing band is those crazy riffs.

You sure have a point... he's kinda in a bastard box between lead and rythmics... I'm just listening to 'The Lethargic Age' right now...

Well he is kind of borderline but I'd vote for Geoff Thorpe from Vicious Rumors. Sure, he also plays leads but he was/is the band's main songwriter and his riffs are technical, heavy and still surprisingly catchy.

I gotta say I'm a Schaffer supporter. That gallop of his is just damn good, and he's very consistant live. Recently his riffs have dropped in quality, but his work in the 90s has solidly placed him as my favorite riff-writer.

Another vote for Schaffer. He's the first person I think of when I hear words rhythm guitar...

There are two Rhythm guitarists that come to mind when I think of this question.
Jon Schaffer - Jon has outstanding timing and rhythm, he also happens to be one of the best songwriters in metal. Great guitarist, great songwriter.
Dave Mustaine - I have never know another guitarist with his timing. He is something sensational with regards to his timing, he also writes some amazing riffs and the guys isn't restricted to just rhythm either he can also play a pretty awesome lead as well.

Dave Mustaine... He is such a good rhythm guitarist its scary, i respect others like Hetfield and Shaffer, but Mustaine takes the cake and slices it with his guitar!!!

Dave Mustaine and Jakob Mölbjerg (Mercenary)

Jon Schaffer and Scott Ian. They don´t do solos, but they do riffs like no-one else.

Eric Peterson from Testament! But I love Jon Shaffer, Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield too!! But Mustaine is not a rythym guitarist, but... It's depends of the songs...

P.S. Funny but I never heard about Testament around here...

Hi metalstormers.
I can believe I have not since this post till 2-3 days ago.
I am been thinking and I almost agree with everybody about Mustaine, Schaffer and Tommy T. Baron. -also Hetfield until becoming rocker-. I will like also point out almost every guitarist in any technical heavy, thrash, death metal band for instance Atheist, Riot, Watchtower, Rage, Tokyo Blade..., but in general...Angry God Mustaine followed by Tommy T.

I have to go for Hetfield

Brendan small- when he plays toki wartooth's part
Anyone who dosent know who im talking about, go watch metalocalypse-NOW!!! DETHKLOK! DETHKLOK!

It would be hard to pick a best rhythem guitarist in any stile of music little own in metal. As far as a full time rhythem guitarist goes I would go with James Hetfield, he wrote some great music and plays it well too. Of course their is also John Petrucci, he owns on rhythem. He is also a lead guitarist as most of you know but he plays a mean rythem guitar. I also like Jon Schaffer, Dave Mustain, and Marcus Siepen. Their are others too though.

Well Scott Ian for rhythm but other than that favorite guitarist is Zakk Wylde.

Scott Ian he is fucking fast at rhythm

Hetfield, definitely.