About a year ago I was a co-owner/manager of a nightclub. We would have bands come in and play about 4 nights a week. The majority of the bands were neo punk, neo metal and emo. Some of the bands were good and some were just terrible. One night I asked one of the bands in which their guitar player was pretty good, where are the guitar solos at? Most metal in my generation have guitar solos as part of the song. He replied to me kinda showoffish" Solos are for ego maniacs, my music I write comes from the heart and no with no frills". Call me old fashioned, but I thought I was up with the times of music. I guess he proved me wrong. I listen to bands like the Deftones, Fear Factory and Superjoint Ritual and have already realized that they do not have solos in their song and I am down with that, but for that kid to tell me that solos are for egomaniacs kinda ruffled my feathers since I am a lead guitarist.
I grew up listening to punk before thrash and speed metal was on the scene. I know most punk guitarist do not play solos. As years gone by and my abilities on the guitar have grown, (started playing just barre chords and powerchords because that is all I knew) my musical taste has grown too.
I guess what I am trying to get at is most metal music I listen to today are minus the solo. Is this a trend? Is this the reason why you do not hear guitar solos in modern metal? I always thought metal and the guitar solo were like PB and J. I really got offended saying that solos are just and ego trip. My opinion is that some songs do not need solos and some do just depending on the song itself. The guitar, to me, is the basis of metal music.
Could it be an ability thing with these newer bands? I just find it more egotistical to say guitar solos are an ego trip than not. It is like they have something to prove. This all really hit home when I was watching Metallica's "Some Kinda Monster" movie. One part of it had Lars and James arguing that Lars wanted to be more with the times and not have solos in most of the songs, and of course James disagreed. Kirk stepped in and said that he did not want to be of the "new trend" of metal and just be Metallica. If a song needed a solo in it, so be it if not so be it to, but overall there should not be a rule about solos in metal.
I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on this topic.
Sorry for being sooooooo long winded.
John in the 510
