Mark Tremonti names his five favourite extreme metal guitar players
Most people wouldn’t characterise Mark Tremonti as an extreme metal shredder. Famed for his work in multi-Platinum-shipping hard rockers Creed and arena-filling alt-metal outfit Alter Bridge, he’s far more synonymous with soulful ballads and intense, immediate hooks. But it’s not a career that he envisioned for himself.
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“When I was younger, I thought I’d be in a band that was, like, a metal band,” the guitarist says. “The first sign was my long hair. I had long hair and it looked terrible. I wanted to be that long, straight-haired, head-banging, Flying V-shredding, speed metal guy.”
Plans changed when Tremonti co-founded Creed with bassist Brian Marshall, drummer Scott Phillips and vocalist Scott Stapp in 1994, but his passion for the heavier end of metal did not. While playing guitar on such earnest anthems as With Arms Wide Open and Higher, he continued to harbour a love for the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Celtic Frost and Kreator. Eventually, Creed imploded and gave way to Alter Bridge, where Tremonti, Marshall and Phillips were joined by new frontman Myles Kennedy, and the guitarist got to unload some groovier riffs and wilder solos. Still, he was dealing in fare so melodic that it didn’t point towards an adolescence as a thrash addict.
Mark Tremonti. Image: Press
“It just so happens that I ran into guys in college who weren’t into metal, so we did different styles of music,” Tremonti reflects. “Even in Alter Bridge, because I’m with the same rhythm section, when I come in with a metal riff, they kind of look at me funny.”
The guitarist also admits he’s more focussed on writing a good chorus than an intense knock-about section. “The chorus is arguably the most important part of any song,” he says. “So, if you start there and you have a great chorus, everything else will just boost that great chorus. But, if you don’t have a chorus and everything else is great, it’s never going to be a great song.”
Mercifully, Tremonti has his namesake solo band Tremonti on the side, where’s he free to let breakneck guitar parts fly with abandon. Also, the new Alter Bridge album has its fair share of gnarly moments. Self-titled for a reason, the platter explores the full breadth of the band’s sound, with songs ranging from acoustic ballads to white-knuckle ragers.
Alter Bridge. Image: Press
“Trust in Me is probably my favourite riff,” Tremonti says of the new album. “It actually has two of my favourite riffs. It has the main intro riff chugging part. I like something that can be heavy and slow at the same time. It sounds just like a train coming down the tracks that’s going to get you. And then the bridge and the outro of that song has a finger-picked part that I feel sounds very Alter Bridge. It’s something that feels big, but not poppy big.”
Frankly, Tremonti’s passion for the most brutal end of metal music is one of his most underrated characteristics. So, we asked him to list his favourite extreme metal guitar players. As he rallies off names from Dave Mustaine to Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, his passion for the extreme becomes very, very obvious.
Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, Slayer
“Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman from Slayer, as far as riffs go, I think they’re my favourite writers of all time. Reign in Blood is probably the best riff record in all of the metal world: an incredible record.
“I think I discovered Slayer in seventh grade. My older brother, he was into extreme metal. My other brother was into more, like, Van Halen and Kiss and Ted Nugent and stuff, but my brother Dan had the Reign in Blood record. Back then, when you heard music like that, it was scary! It was like, ‘Ooh, this is intimidating music! This is edgy! I don’t want my parents to catch me listening to this,’ you know? And the kids at school that listened to it were the bad kids who’d be smoking weed. It drew me in. When I heard [opening song] Angel of Death, just the first 10 seconds of it, I was just like, ‘This is incredible!’
“Still, to this day, Reign in Blood is one of the most important records – probably in my top five records ever. Kerry and Jeff’s speed metal, right-hand-rhythm stuff, that spilled over [into my playing]. If you listen to Tremonti, there’s a lot of that – much more than in any of my other bands. But, that’s what I grew up on.”
Tom G. Warrior, Hellhammer / Celtic Frost / Triptykon
“As far as the chord progressions and the mood and the doom and the vibe, Tom G. Warrior is one of my favourite songwriters ever. I think he’s an absolute genius. I had a friend called John Hitchon back in sixth or seventh grade, and he would burn tapes and make copies of things, and he gave me [1987 Celtic Frost album] Into the Pandemonium. Right out of the gate, Inner Sanctum, first track on that record, I was like, ‘This is something different.’ And then you’d hear such creativity on that record. There are so many different, weird vibes going on.
“To me, Slayer made more sense – I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and stuff – but Celtic Frost were interesting. It was dangerous and different, and it was hard to understand the direction of it. I got to meet Tom and he’s great. He knew I had said that Celtic Frost were my favourite band for all of these years, and he thanked me for saying that probably in a million interviews. He said it would be interesting if I got up and played with his band at a festival or something. That would be cool to do.”
Dave Mustaine, Megadeth
“I’ll say Dave, but [I look up to] all of the guitar players who’ve been in Megadeth, especially Chris Poland. I think, when it comes to speed metal, James [Hetfield], Kirk [Hammett] and Dave were the guys who were the outlines for that. Mustaine, he had a fire in him and you could tell the music was intense. He’s underrated as an architect of the speed metal movement.
“[1988’s] So Far, So Good… So What! was the first record I bought from them, and then I went back and got Killing Is My Business… and Peace Sells…. So Far, So Good… So What! means a lot to me because I love that record. I probably wore that sucker out!”
Alex Skolnick, Testament
“When it comes to speed metal bands, Metallica were the biggest of them all, and they were the one that shaped me the most. Back then, I didn’t know who was doing what: James is rhythm and Kirk’s lead, but I loved every bit of it. I loved Alex Skolnick from Testament [for different reasons]. Alex is a big jazz fan, but back in the day you wouldn’t have known it. When he was playing metal stuff, it was dark and it was pointedly speed metal-ish, but it was tasteful. That’s what you could hear in his playing. In a lot of speed metal, the lead stuff was blistering and kind of harsh. His stuff had a smoothness and a polish to it.
“I used to hear rumours, ‘Oh, Skolnick’s the best, he’s the best in this genre,’ and you started paying attention to it more. You start buying the records and trying to see if you could learn a few riffs here and there. I was too young to be able to even think about playing his lead parts!
“If you were to ask me for my favourite Testament riff or solo, [1989’s] Practice What You Preach has them all. Trial By Fire [from 1988’s New World Order] is the song that got me to be a Testament fan, but I’d have to go back through Practice What You Preach and find the one.”
Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, Mercyful Fate
“The guys from Mercyful Fate were some of the most classic [guitarists]! For me, they just embodied that era with their tones. I think they were playing the old Marshalls and it just sounded so good! The riffs were so great. King Diamond is one of my favourite artists ever. Mercyful Fate, I remember seeing them at Hellfest or Copenhell, watching them live for the first time. I’d seen King Diamond, but never Mercyful Fate, and it was perfect. It was spot on. King Diamond crushed it; the band crushed it. I got to talk to King Diamond after the show for like half an hour.
“Mercyful Fate wasn’t extreme, blast beat-ey stuff at all. There weren’t a lot of guitar players [like Hank and Michael]. A big part of what I grew up on was Metallica and Slayer: that almost exclusively E-string open picking. The moodier, heavy, detuned stuff was just wanting to get vibes like Celtic Frost, but Mercyful Fate was more, like, almost dreamy and 70s. Moody. It didn’t even seem metal to me. It was more just badass hard rock.”
Alter Bridge’s self-titled album is out now via Napalm.
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