Metal has had its share of virtuoso musicians that have moved from band to band to band. In some rare cases said musician has rejoined the band that rejected them in the first place. in your opinion, who is the most under appreciated/ abused musician in metal today?

Paul Speckmann of Master, Mark "The Shark" Shelton of Manilla Road, Jason Becker, the list goes on.

Tatler and Harris from Diamond head are both great, and in my own opinion, underappreciated.
The entire intro to Am I Evil? ranks up there with the best in my book, and the solo is classic.

Howie Bentley from CAULDRON BORN
-graduated from the Atlanta Institute Of Music in 1989
-studied privately under the almighty Marty Friedman

http://www.myspace.com/bornofthecauldron

i say both paul bostaph and ripper owens. bostaph doesnt have rippers "being blamed for the worst albums in a band catalog" stigma but hes been bounced around testament twice, slayer, forbidden, who i guess reformed with him playing drums. and im also banking that if ripper owens gets kicked out of malmsteen's band then hes going to prove for all times that malmsteen is the most uncompromising musician in metal. ever.

Once again, I have to defend my hommie Blaze Bayley. The Most underrated Musician, In my opinion. He was Badass in Maiden just a slightly different darker sound. So most fans don't expect or want that from Maiden. I for one, did enjoy, and embraced those two albums. Now he's off on his own and apparently doing his own thing which is working out incredibly. so I think this man deserves further Praise. Yeah he's No Bruce Dickinson, but Bruce Dickinson is no Blaze Bayley. They're just different styles plain and simply. Neither, is better than the other. Personally, I'm a blaze fan though. I would have loved getting to see what a darker Maiden could have been like. Either way it came out Phenomenal. UP THE IRONS!!!!!!!!!!! and UP THE BLAZE'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andreas Hedlund, no doubt. He works so hard and his music is very under-appreciated. The only band he really gets recognition for is Vintersorg and even that band doesn't get enough exposure

Well, since Toxik is the most underrated metal band ever, I'm going to have to say that guitarist Josh Christian is the most underrated metal musician. The guitar solos in his songs are crazy as hell and pretty long, and the songwriting is even better. Their two albums that were released in the late 80's are both masterpieces.

big list, not sure who comes first:
1: Rafael Bittencourt of Angra
2: Charlie Benante of Anthrax
3: Alexander Kuoppala of Children of Bodom/Norther
4: Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage
5: Brann Dailor of Mastodon
6: Martin Axenrot of Opeth
7: Rex Brown of Pantera
8: Paul Grey of Slipknot
9: Mick Thompson of Slipknot
10: Marc Okubo of Veil of Maya

Written by Guest on 19.08.2008 at 10:54

big list, not sure who comes first:
1: Rafael Bittencourt of Angra
2: Charlie Benante of Anthrax
3: Alexander Kuoppala of Children of Bodom/Norther
4: Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage
5: Brann Dailor of Mastodon
6: Martin Axenrot of Opeth
7: Rex Brown of Pantera
8: Paul Grey of Slipknot
9: Mick Thompson of Slipknot
10: Marc Okubo of Veil of Maya

I wouldn't say Brann Dailor is underappreciated, cause he gets praise for his drummng everywhere you look. even mainstream magazines praise him

no-one said Yngwie Malmsteen??



on a more serious note,
i would include Joey deMaio on the list. everyone slams on him because most people hate Manowar, but he's really a damn good bassist(Sting of the Bumblebee anyone?)...i mean playing that thing on any instrument is hard enough, but anyone who can do it on the bass deserves respect. also his riffs are so catchy(Heart of Steel).

of course Ripper is also a worthy candidate, after all, just like the haters say: "he ruined Judas Priest and after that went on to ruin Iced Earth too! and now Yngwie Malmsteen's balls are going to drop off because he joined in with him!" :

Roope Latvala.



Alexi needs to give him more solos >.>

I was actually thinking about starting a thread like this today when I was driving. My number one must under appreciated musician in Metal has to be Chris deGarmo. He gets so over shadowed by Geoff Tate that people forget that there is actually a band called Queensryche and not just some guy singing. As both a guitarist and writer deGarmo is one of the best I have ever heard. Also notice that once he left the band they didn't just go down hill, they plummeted like a lead balloon (wow, someone should name a band after that).

Written by Guest on 20.08.2008 at 03:12

Written by Valentin B on 19.08.2008 at 13:34

no-one said Yngwie Malmsteen??



on a more serious note,
i would include Joey deMaio on the list. everyone slams on him because most people hate Manowar, but he's really a damn good bassist(Sting of the Bumblebee anyone?)...i mean playing that thing on any instrument is hard enough, but anyone who can do it on the bass deserves respect. also his riffs are so catchy(Heart of Steel).

of course Ripper is also a worthy candidate, after all, just like the haters say: "he ruined Judas Priest and after that went on to ruin Iced Earth too! and now Yngwie Malmsteen's balls are going to drop off because he joined in with him!" :

I think Yngwie appreciates himself enough for everybody, hahah.

I kinda miss Jake E. Lee. Excellent musician, but I haven't heard much from him beyond his short time with Ozzy.

yeah Jake E. Lee was a savage. and it really is too bad that he hasnt done more with his time, or if he did, its sad it wasnt recognized.

Written by Guest on 20.08.2008 at 07:02

Written by LeChron James on 20.08.2008 at 06:42

Written by Guest on 20.08.2008 at 03:12

Written by Valentin B on 19.08.2008 at 13:34

no-one said Yngwie Malmsteen??



on a more serious note,
i would include Joey deMaio on the list. everyone slams on him because most people hate Manowar, but he's really a damn good bassist(Sting of the Bumblebee anyone?)...i mean playing that thing on any instrument is hard enough, but anyone who can do it on the bass deserves respect. also his riffs are so catchy(Heart of Steel).

of course Ripper is also a worthy candidate, after all, just like the haters say: "he ruined Judas Priest and after that went on to ruin Iced Earth too! and now Yngwie Malmsteen's balls are going to drop off because he joined in with him!" :

I think Yngwie appreciates himself enough for everybody, hahah.

I kinda miss Jake E. Lee. Excellent musician, but I haven't heard much from him beyond his short time with Ozzy.

yeah Jake E. Lee was a savage. and it really is too bad that he hasnt done more with his time, or if he did, its sad it wasnt recognized.

He's defintely not prolific in his contribution to music, but does have a few projects. He just released a solo album this year called "Runnin' With The Devil" (very original...heh). I might have to check it out.

hella van halen song title with it. and if that album is anything like george lynch's solo albums, im avoiding it. i know, i know, its dokken's guitarist but his stuff is significantly different than that of dokken. defintiely different.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 19.08.2008 at 12:05

Written by Guest on 19.08.2008 at 10:54

big list, not sure who comes first:
1: Rafael Bittencourt of Angra
2: Charlie Benante of Anthrax
3: Alexander Kuoppala of Children of Bodom/Norther
4: Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage
5: Brann Dailor of Mastodon
6: Martin Axenrot of Opeth
7: Rex Brown of Pantera
8: Paul Grey of Slipknot
9: Mick Thompson of Slipknot
10: Marc Okubo of Veil of Maya

I wouldn't say Brann Dailor is underappreciated, cause he gets praise for his drummng everywhere you look. even mainstream magazines praise him

that's true now, but 5 years ago he really didn't have any credit. but i guess he doesn't count anymore.

Martin Walkyier from Skyclad and Sabbat.
Martin has a great voice and is a great lyric writer, especially with Skyclad you can see this.
To bad he faced many money problems and problems with band members which is probally why he quit the music business some while ago.

Me. I am the most under appreciated Metal musician.

Written by Valentin B on 19.08.2008 at 13:34

no-one said Yngwie Malmsteen??



on a more serious note,
i would include Joey deMaio on the list. everyone slams on him because most people hate Manowar, but he's really a damn good bassist(Sting of the Bumblebee anyone?)...i mean playing that thing on any instrument is hard enough, but anyone who can do it on the bass deserves respect. also his riffs are so catchy(Heart of Steel).

of course Ripper is also a worthy candidate, after all, just like the haters say: "he ruined Judas Priest and after that went on to ruin Iced Earth too! and now Yngwie Malmsteen's balls are going to drop off because he joined in with him!" :

What do you mean Joey is unappreciated? At live shows Joey plays more solos than Karl Logan :D
And on the topic aside form Ripper Owens I actually like his work with both Judas(Hell is Home) and Iced Earth(Declaration Day)
And I'd say... everybody form Savatage... I don't think anybody even listens to them, I used to think Grave Digger was quite underrated then I found out about Savatage and it's just sad ow such a great band gets so little respect...

I think Victor smolski (and the band Rage as a whole) has always been a bit underrated. He is truly a great guitarplayer!

And i do aggree with Ripper Owens. His voice is one of the greatest in Metal. But he will always be seen as a second hand singer im afraid. Being a Rob Halford clone, then a fill up for Iced Earth. Both bands kickt him out when their former singer returned (luckely so i must say)buth nonetheless a shame for him.

Mmm im of the opinion that Markus Grosskopf is a terribly underrated musician. he can play that bass like nobodys business.

John Oliva the man behind Savatage a great musician and the most under appreciated one:maniac:

Written by Guest on 19.08.2008 at 10:54

big list, not sure who comes first:
1: Rafael Bittencourt of Angra
2: Charlie Benante of Anthrax
3: Alexander Kuoppala of Children of Bodom/Norther
4: Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage
5: Brann Dailor of Mastodon
6: Martin Axenrot of Opeth
7: Rex Brown of Pantera
8: Paul Grey of Slipknot
9: Mick Thompson of Slipknot
10: Marc Okubo of Veil of Maya

90% of those people are from famous bands, and along with being in a famous band you generally get appreciated. You may not be a household name, but numbers 2,3,5,6, and 7 are all widely appreciated musicians. I find Slipknot as whole over-appreciated, and I've seen Mick Thompson in tons of magazines.

I agree with you, Slipknot is over aprreciated as a band. Its mainly their "image" that makes them over-popular (escpecially by the younger masses who want to kick against everything in their life). I think its crap.

I would say Buckethead. Even if he's odd, he plays that guitar like it was pussy

Troy Seele of Iced Earth.

Does anyone even know who Marcel "Vampellans Traumschänder" Breuer is? ex agathodaimon and Nocte Obducta, mastermind composer behind this band which is one of the best bands that have existed. yes, they disbanded. pity. i guess this guy might be very under appreciated 'cause apparently not too many people even know who he is. really recommend that band, i really do

Written by Guest on 18.11.2008 at 10:37

I would say Buckethead. Even if he's odd, he plays that guitar like it was pussy

i second that haha
buckethead is truly an amazing guitarist

Jon Schaffer or Mike Sifringer.

Blaze Bayley - definately under rated, I could care less if he sounds like bruce dickinson or not, he definately has a distinctive voice and his last album was excellent.
Akira Takasaki - From loudness - excellent guitar player, thats all there is too it. Not as fast as rusty cooley or alexi laiho but he definately delivers.
"L.O.N" - from hellveto, the band itself is unappreciated, not many one man bands sound as good as his.