Symphonies of Destruction

LOST SYMPHONY FOUNDER BENNY GOODMAN TELLS US HOW HE ROPED IN GUITAR LEGENDS EN MASSE FOR HIS LATEST INSTRUMENTAL ESCAPADES

- Amit Sharma

"I HAVE ABOUT 185 guitars here with me at home... I'm a total tone nerd," begins Lost Symphony guitarist/keyboardist Benny Goodman, who started the project back in 2015. Taking GW on a quick tour of what feels more like a museum than someone's home studio, with all kinds of rare Gibsons, Paul Reed Smiths and Fenders lined up across endless walls, he's clearly invested a lot of time, effort and money into what he calls – and we have no doubt - his biggest passion.

This is also evident from the music he's been making with Lost Symphony. On their three studio albums to date, the group have enlisted famous friends to guest on nearly every track, harnessing the mind-boggling talents of Bumblefoot and Satchel or Angel Vivaldi and Jeff Loomis for some suitably epic musical expeditions. That said, “Take Another Piece" – the lead single from 2021's Chapter III – could very well be the most head-turning collaboration of them all, with Nuno Bettencourt, Marty Friedman, Alex Skolnick and Cradle of Filth's Richard Shaw signing up for a quadruple guitar assault to propel their classical overtures. Mixing elements of film score, progressive metal and "fuckin' Disney," Goodman - who is joined by his brother Brian, guitarists Kelly Kereliuk and Cory Paza, drummer Paul Lourenco and violinist Siobhán Cronin - is on a mission to melt expectations and trail far beyond rock's usual confines.

"With instrumental stuff, you're writing more than music to wank over," he says. "You have to compose. Go back to classical music, listen to it and then steal from it. That's what Yngwie did, so that's what I do. Franz Liszt is how I learned how to use all that diminished stuff. He would change the feel from happy to sad to angry with every chord, maybe every beat! Listening to that gets you out of the pentatonic and 4/4 boxes.