After nearly a decade of delivering brute-force blasts from behind his drum kit, Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Francesco Paoli has strapped on a custom Rufini guitar and stepped up to the mike for the sextet’s fifth epic full-length, Veleno. This just means everything is back in its right place, with the symphonic death metal group’s principal songwriter having handled those same roles all the way back on their 2009 debut, Oracles. Speaking from his home in Perguia, Italy, Paoli explains with an incredulous laugh that handling the backbeat was originally intended to be a temporary measure. Though he’d always been meshing grave-desecrating metal licks with near-heavenly melodies behind the scenes, he’s happy to be back to the front of the stage after a long hiatus.
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MIDNIGHT MADNESS
Foo Fighters’ guitar triumvirate DAVE GROHL, CHRIS SHIFLETT & PAT SMEAR unleash their inner early-Eighties David Bowie (and SRV), bust out the ABBA beats and get decidedly “weird” — just in time for their 10th album, Medicine at Midnight
Remembering Leslie West
THE BIG MAN WHOSE BIG GUITAR SOUND HELPED LAUNCH HEAVY METAL
Intervals
WHY NO PEDALS OR AMPS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF CANADIAN PROG-METALLER AARON MARSHALL’S AGGRESSIVE NEW RECORD
The Commander in Chief
THIS SEDULOUS SEVEN-STRINGER PUTS A COMPLETELY NEW SPIN ON CLASSICAL-INSPIRED GUITAR MUSIC
Relentless Reckless Forever
GW PAYS TRIBUTE TO ALEXI LAIHO, THE LONG-TIME CHILDREN OF BODOM GUITARIST WHO REVOLUTIONIZED DEMONIC SHRED IN THE NINETIES AND 2000S AND EMBRACED A HARD-PARTYING LIFESTYLE WORTHY OF HIS “WILDCHILD” NICKNAME
LARKIN POE
Six-string sisters REBECCA and MEGAN LOVELL talk us through the tones that grace their new covers record — Kindred SpiritS — and the musical telepathy that comes with growing up together OVER THE LAST 10 or so years, sibling duo Larkin Poe have become one of the most exciting prospects in guitar music, thanks to their tasteful musicianship and heavenly harmonies. Latest release Kindred Spirits sees them return to the “covers” format that originally got them noticed, giving us their take on classic hits by Elton John, Neil Young and Elvis Presley, as well as more contemporary cuts by Lenny Kravitz and Post Malone.
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Francesco Paoli lifts the lid on the symphonic death metal masters’ most vicious and vivacious cycle of songs thus far
Meet Me @ The Altar
Guitarist Téa Campbell marries her pop-punk and emo influences
Jan Akkerman – “Hocus Pocus”
Focus | Moving Waves, 1971 | Guitarist: Jan Akkerman
Plini – Voices in The Sky
PLINI — the guy Steve Vai once called “the future of exceptional guitar playing” — discusses the perils of “guitar fame,” the challenges of a modern prog-rocker and his breathtaking new album, Impulse Voices
