MARTY FRIEDMAN, MICHAEL AMOTT And JEFF LOOMIS Discuss State Of Metal Lead Playing In 2015 (Video)

U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine rounded up three of the finest metal guitarists around today — Marty Friedman (MEGADETH),Michael Amott (ARCH ENEMY) and Jeff Loomis (ARCH ENEMY, NEVEMORE) — to find out their thoughts on the state of metal lead playing in 2015. Check out the discussion below.

Asked for their thoughts on the state of "shred" guitar playing today, Friedman said: "Can I go on the record with something? I fucking hate that word ['shred']."

He continued: "I look at this way… That word has come up a lot more recently, for whatever reason. It seems like there's an interest in guitar more than there was, like, maybe, say, five or seven years ago, and if that brings more interest to us and guitar and rock and heavy music and exciting music, you can call it whatever you want. But when I grew up, that word meant guys who sucked. 'Cause I was always of the mindset that, when you don't have anything interest to play, you play fast. And it happens to my playing very much. Like, if I'm nervous, or if I don't really know what I'm doing, I just play fast. And that's what shredding is to me. It has nothing to do with music. Cheese, you're shredding cheese. It's not cool."

Added Amott: "I don't consider myself a shredder at all. I just play guitar. I like to play something memorable, if possible."

Stated Loomis: "I think ultimately it comes down to the music, which is the most important thing."

Said Friedman: "The content of what you're playing… It's the content that gets you going, if the content is interesting, if the content makes you feel good or makes you happy or sad or whatever. So the speed of something is so irrelevant. But most of the people watching this and people who read guitar magazines, they're playing one or two years, they can't get over the fact that, 'Why can’t I play fast like these guys?' It's so impossible.' It's so impossible to those people, and those are the people who pay money to buy magazines and all that stuff, so let 'em shred all they want, because it's interesting to them. But once you've played for three years, anybody can play fast. So then it comes to the point of, 'Okay, now I can play fast. Do I have something to say? Do I have some content, do I have some interesting music that's gonna come out?' Once you get the motor skills down, 'Okay, now I've got motor skills. Now what am I gonna say musically?' This is very important."

Added Amott: "If you look at heavy metal, two of my favorite bands, JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN, the guitar players in those bands are not the best guitar players in the world and they're not really shredders, but they play great solos and they have great songs and great melodies. That's kind of where I would like to see ARCH ENEMY… Instead of being like a circus, or a freakshow or something."

Download Total Guitar issue 265 for the accompanying feature — available in the U.K. and, digitally, worldwide via Newsstand for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and Zinio from March 16.