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Neoclassical Metal is a subgenre of Metal that has heavy inspiration from classical music, which is mostly from the Baroque and the Romantic periods. The composers who had inspired Neoclassical Metal are Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Paganini and Liszt. Baroque composers such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi had inspired Neoclassical Metal through their use of counterpoint to offer a foundation for the main parts of the songs in Neoclassical metal when there are no solos being played. Romantic Era composers such as Paganini and Liszt had inspired Neoclassical Metal through their use of fast scale runs by displaying their impressive playing ability as virtuosos.
Early guitar players from the late 60’s and early 70’s who had started this movement of Neoclassical Metal are Ritchie Blackmoore and Uli Jon Roth. Both guitar players were inspired through the Baroque and Romantic composers and have used the sound of their inspiration in their own works. Ritchie Blackmoore primarily had a bluesy style, although he would sneak in minor scale runs and arpeggios in his solos to create a hybrid of sound in his solos making it more sophisticated and advanced. Uli Jon Roth was heavily inspired by virtuosos such as Vivaldi and Paganini. There are audio recordings of Uli Jon Roth playing Vivaldi’s Seasons as well as Paganini’s Caprice no. 5 as the violin parts but in an octave register the guitar can play in.
In the 1980’s, more guitar players inspired by early Neoclassical Metal works begin to rise to fame such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, Michael Angelo Batio, Joe Stump and Randy Rhoads. Yngwie Malmsteen who is a leading figure in Neoclassical Metal even though he is not the first guitar player in this genre, he is the most famous and one of the top-rated guitarists in the entire genre among sources such as Time Magazine. Yngwie Malmsteen’s influences before he started playing the guitar were Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmoore, this is what led him to start learning the guitar at the age of 7. Later Yngwie’s sister had introduced him to classical music such as the Baroque and Classical eras with Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mozart, this led to Yngwie’s deep passion for classical music and inclusion in the style of his own music. What also influenced Yngwie’s interest in classical music is listening to Ritchie Blackmoore’s solos, even they are bluesy sounding, they include minor scale runs to further ornament the solos taking it beyond a straight-forward blues mindset. Due to Yngwie having a terrible behavior problem, he began to skip school at the age of 10, although since he was such a problem for his teachers, Yngwie’s mother just let him stay home and practice since he was not proving to be an issue. With the long hours of practice that spanned throughout the years following, this is what lead to Yngwie’s virtuosic electric guitar playing, becoming a public figure for many guitar players to come.
Another life-changing virtuoso guitar player in the Neoclassical Metal field is Joe Stump. Joe Stump is metal guitarist who has been active since 1988 and had become a professor at Berklee School of Music in Boston in the year 1993. Joe Stump, whose nickname is “Shred Lord” is one of the top-20 fastest guitar shredders in the world. Joe is also known as the “American Yngwie” due to the similar style in playing and skill level. Joe Stump believes to be a Neoclassical Metal guitarist, you must practice your instrument for a few hours a day every day to attain the virtuosic playability that the genre calls for. The practicing of the guitar for Neoclassical Metal goes along with the years of dedication to learning and understanding advanced music theory as well as Baroque Counterpoint. Another concept that Joe believed students of Neoclassical Metal guitar should understand is the encyclopedia of scales that music has to offer. Neoclassical Metal goes more in depth than the use of the Major and the Minor scales, in this genre, the use of Phrygian Dominant is one of the examples of scales that are extremely popular. Joe’s influences are very to Yngwie Malmsteen not only in early rock guitar players such as Ritchie Blackmoore and Uli Jon Roth who had inspired the genre of Neoclassical Metal, but similar classical composers as well such as Bach and Paganini.
In the next decade in the late 1990’s there was another genre of metal that was growing in popularity that co-mingles with Neoclassical Metal, and this alternate genre is known as Power Metal or Speed Metal. A big example of a guitar player who shows the use of Neoclassical Metal within Power Metal is Gus G from the band Firewind. Gus G, who’s original name is Konstantinos Karamitroudis, is a Greek guitar player who was inspired to pick up the guitar after hearing Peter Frampton’s live album Frampton Comes Alive. Although within a decade later near the end of the 90’s, Gus had developed an interest in the style of Neoclassical Metal with guitar players such as Joe Stump and Yngwie Malmsteen playing part in being his influences. At the age of 14 in 1994, Gus got his first electric guitar which led him to practice for 8-11 hours a day. These practice hours are a prime example of Joe Stump explaining the amount of practice someone should dedicate to attaining virtuosic playability on the guitar, although anything beyond 8 hours in a day is more than some people need. In the 2000’s going forward, Gus’s band Firewind had gained success worldwide and eventually got the attention of Ozzy Osbourne. This led to Gus being hand-picked by Ozzy Osbourn to become the official lead guitarist for Ozzy in 2009.
These handful of guitar players are examples of what Neoclassical Metal is all about in terms of style and sound of the genre as well as the practice and playability requirements to play the genre at it’s fullest. All these guitar players have had an influence on me as a guitarist changing the way I see the guitar as I had discovered them. For the past 11 years of learning and understanding my instrument, I still have a strong passion of playing the guitar, and a desire to make a career out of it. In doing so, playing one of my favorite genres of music which is Neoclassical Metal.