Fuck yes, Jeff Loomis!

[Endrik]

YEP!!!..do you know I didn't know that was keys at first. So I learned that part on bass when we used to play it...man, that a long time ago!

I spewed honey!!!

yeah bro... it's kinda funny because tons of great bass players used to copy Stevie Wonder's keyboard lines.... his left hand patterns are some of the greatest bass grooves ever... and when you are using a Clavinet, Rhodes or Wurlitzer it does sound more like a bass or a guitar.

[horns666]

Well shit Troy..how am I supposed work with that?

You have ALL the NM discs..ainthatabitch.

This is the first time I heard this song..I don't like it at all!!! But Jeff's guest solo sounds ok..w/ Marty Freidman ..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_g4KXF1rxQ

[Endrik]

I'm still waiting for the new generation of classically influenced guitar players who would play something other than the overdone baroque based neo-classical meedley meedley.
I was never a big fan of baroque composers and therefore don't really care about that kind of guitar playing much either (except for a couple of dudes).
I'm waiting for folks who are Debussys, Rodrigos, Varéses or Sibeliuses on the guitar.

Players who use(d) melodies not based on classical music but something else have sounded much more appealing and interesting to me.... like Jeff Beck with Bulgarian melodies... Gary Moore with Irish.... Tak Matsumoto with Japanese etc. Classical influenced players have been stuck in a small circle or a box for too long... classical music has a lot more to offer... I'm hoping that those boundaries will be broken.

[horns666]

Some of Jeff's solo stuff highlights..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31K5zwooo4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOSaTD7ysk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0qWYpfG5Go&feature=related

Wow, there's a shitload of new Young Guitar lessons w/ Jeff ..some of the vid/aud is outta synch. Check 'em out!! Finally, Jeff shows how to do the River Drgon solo right..there's only about 1000 dudes trying that one.

[Jacksons Shred]

Some of Jeff's solo stuff highlights..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31K5zwooo4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOSaTD7ysk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0qWYpfG5Go&feature=related

Wow, there's a shitload of new Young Guitar lessons w/ Jeff ..some of the vid/aud is outta synch. Check 'em out!! Finally, Jeff shows how to do the River Drgon solo right..there's only about 1000 dudes trying that one.

His solo for the River Dragon is prety much his trademark Diminished Sweep w/ Chromatics, that was definitely based off Marty and Jasons lick which is somewhat similar. The licks awesome though. Ah shit...You probably already know that..But to anyone that doesn't!

[Guitardude86]

Jeff Loomis, 16 years old at the time, this was his entry at the "Wisconsin Guitar Wars". Damn right he won that contest. If this has been posted earlier I apologize. Maybe someone haven't heard it yet tho, check it out. Oh yeah it's real, it's from his website.

http://www.jeffloomis.com/sounds/jeff-16.mp3

[horns666]

Jeff Loomis, 16 years old at the time, this was his entry at the "Wisconsin Guitar Wars". Damn right he won that contest. If this has been posted earlier I apologize. Maybe someone haven't heard it yet tho, check it out. Oh yeah it's real, it's from his website.

http://www.jeffloomis.com/sounds/jeff-16.mp3

Yep he didn't get the Megadeth gig 20 years ago because he was too young..so he told a friend named Marty about it...

Do you know he wasn't even playing guitar for two years when that was recorded.

[Guitardude86]

There's nothing I can say about Jeff Loomis that Bill haven't already said. If it hadn't been for Bill I would probably not have checked out Nevermore and I would have thought Jeff Loomis was just some guy giving a few lessons for Guitar World magazine (that's were I first read his name a few years ago).

People, please listen to that soundclip.. at 16 years old, I'm pretty sure Jeff Loomis could already play anything he wanted to.

I see some of you people are comparing Loomis to Satriani, Becker, Friedman etc. I can see that, Jeff plays a guitar too.

Wanna know what I think? If Jeff Loomis really wanted to be compared with the shredders some of you have mentioned here, he would have put out a solo album years ago. He had the skills already back then, there's no question about it.
But that's not what he's doing. He's not travelling the world with a back-up band, trying to steal as much of the spotlight as possible. Na'ah. That would have been to easy.

Jeff Loomis has a vision. And an artistic dignity which cannot be frowned upon. He is part of an entity called Nevermore. In Nevermore Jeff is taking metal in directions we have never seen before and few us could possibly imagine..
Some love it, some hate it. It'll always be like that. But the journey continues.
Jeff Loomis is doing EXACTLY what he wants to and he's content with that..
He's not looking to be compared to Satriani, Becker or any of the other guys from the 80's. We're in 2008. Someone has to take the step out of the 80's and in a new direction. But it's important to take with us what we learned in the 80's too.. All the godlike players who emerged on the scene and brought something new to the table.. Who can take that with them into the new millenium and beyond, and yet continue to evolve musically, artistically, avoiding becoming just a parody of the 80's? I believe Jeff Loomis is doing exactly that with NEVERMORE.


But then again, that's just me.

[SEEGERMANY]

I've had the pleasure of seeing some of the greatest guitarists in most of the genres. Bottom line, does the performance move me, is it pleasing to my ears, and will it stand the test of time. Sure, there are literally bazillions of cats that can rip off notes like an overheated UZI, but once "unloaded," what the fuck do you have that's memorable.

I have a pretty big CD/album collection and when I want to hear memorable playing, I grab for Roth, Schenker, Blackmore, Powell, Lee, Beck, Harrison, etc, etc, etc.

[horns666]

SEGEE my bud..you should dee Jeff up close and peronal..he will bapatize your balls with thy holy notes..I was blessed!!!

Blessed be Da Loomis..

Guitardude..that was an awesome posts..you KNOW I agree 100%

[pro-fusion]

I like Jeff's playing the best when he's getting weird and *not* doing the neoclassical stuff. The neoclassical material on Zero Phase Orders sounds, well, pretty much like the 50 million other guys who've done that before. But I love the parts where he gets away from that and goes either more melodic or more atonal. That's where he's most distinctive, and what makes Nevermore distinctive, too.

But I'm really more of a fusion guy now, so the neoclassical thing doesn't hit me right anymore. Sounds really rote.

[horns666]

FF, I know exactly what you mean. Jeff has a sig all his own and original..not unlike Satch, Ed, Vai, Beck and ect. TheTroy actually pointed out an obvious connection. What did I hear in Jeff Loomis. Well, I'm NOT a metal/rock bass player at heart. I'm self taught and cultivated a unorthdox style. I knew about Sheehan/Talas..but he sounded like Ed on bass to me. While most were focusing on Ed's tapping I was blown away mostly by his tone and rythm playing. In '82 I saw Tony Levin with a Chapman stick with King Crimson. I was in fuggin' awe, I wanted to do that! So, I did, but on bass. Once that door was opened, rock/metal was boring to play on bass. So I wrote "fusion" chops for years to a Roland drum machine. I loved playing that stuff with drummers without a guitarist to get in my way. I threw everything I learn at them and had a ball with it. I have alot of cassette tapes. Endrik heard some of that stuff. My biggest bass influences were Tony Levin and Louis Johnson. Bass players, you have no idea what complexity with musical cohesion and "groove" means until you learn "Stomp" by The Brothers Johnson! We didn't use 5, 6, or 8 strings just 4.
I'm so anti "pop" ..To me it sounds all the same. Once something becomes popular ..it becomes cookie cutter. No matter of musical talent..the creativity dies. It's a continuum that doesn't evolve, but stagnates. Recycled and put in a new wrapper, until that style becomes stale. Which is why I don't like alot of music that people love so much. I saw Poison 6 times live..I hate Poison. I hate Warrant..but I liked Crue when they first came out in '81. Then once their thing was being duplicated to death..their identity got lost in the sound they created, so they had to re-invent. Same with the awesome Metallica..by the late 90's their sound became interchangable with Godsmack amoung others. Did they evolve?..NO..they went with the flow..just like Queensryche..Ozzy..Dokken..Lych Mob. I couldn't tell the originators from the spinoffs. Sometimes the spinoffs sounded better. When something sells it becomes popular its the begining of the end for most bands. They don't write from the heart but play it safe with the trends. Trying to keep up with the spinoffs. Then they lose alot of their original fanbase..then they re-invent.."Risk"..Smoke this".."Load-Reload-St Anger" .."Hear in the now-Q2K".."Disconnect-FX"..."Dysfuctional-"Ear Candy-Mr Bulbhead".."Dissident Alliance"..."Remains"..Ghetto-Machine-Dragon".."VHIII".."Skunkworks"....."Waiting for the punchline"..."Firefly".."Demolition" .."Cold Lake"..FUCK, that list goes on for a decade. If any of those were their debut release, it would prolly be their last..and we wouldn't know them at all. Nevermore cut thru Nu like Van Halen cut thru Disco...to me. It felt like I was the only one paying attention to the subtitles. You can't understand a forieng film without subtitles. The underground didn't exist. Metal died in '91. There wasn't any worthy guitarist or bands coming out. Shred was non exist. Nobody ever played guitar or cared about their tone after '91. Japanese people wore smelly sweaters and played Jaguars..Sweden embraced Pearl Jam..The only Smashing pumkin in Germany was the Helloweens, England was not home....and so on.

The music in my "metal" library are dated from 68 to present. Showing a steady progression, advancements, and evolution in techniques, writing, production, of all the basic fundamentals of rock and metal. Guitars, Drums, Bass, Vocals, and occasional keys. The birth of genres and sub genres to bluring the lines of all genres. 1995 was a VERY bad year for mainstream rock and metal..guitar became almost non exist, and not the focal point, almost anti-guitar, unplugged. It was the beginning of the ebonic plague. Nothing "rocked" anymore. Anyone that bought into that bullshit better burn photos of hanging with yo possie before your kids finds 'em. "Daddy, why do you like like a fuggin' tool?" "Daddy, why can I see everyone's underwear"...ehhh.....NICE!!!

In 1996 Nevermore hit me out of the blue fuggin' hard...second to VH in '78. They are rooted in classic Queenryche, Candlemass with a dash of Simon and Garfunkel. With an OTT guitarist that is "Ride the lighting" meets "Contradictions collapse"..meets "Speed metal symphony" THAT's fuggin' original!!! THAT was happening during the end of hair metal..grunge..the dawn of Nu..and Rap metal. They never "evolved" or "re-invented". The remained the same but yet unpredictable since 1995. Stuff like "St Anger"/"Smoke This"/"Risk" was like the new Coke of the 80's..a bad idea! They must go back to what they did 20 years ago to re-claim their identity after two decades of metal atrophy. While a sea of young bucks have raced by them at the speed of light. Now guys like Kirk bow down to bands like Trivium..or Dragonforce..well, read all his interviews. They didn't have to care about that scene anymore. They were still making money, they were fortunate. Like Van Halen, Metallica did their job and paved the way. That's OK, Jeff Loomis will be shouting like a 13 year old girl at a Metallica show..because he would be nothing without them. He would bow down to Kirk Hammet, and smile as we would..he's that humble. Trust me, I watched Candlemass with him..he was like a chick watching the fuggin' Beatles in 1964! There isn't another guitarist like Jeff Loomis. Nobody can write a Nevermore song but Jeff Loomis..not Uli..not Vai..not Yngwie..not Ed..not Marty or Jason..or Tony Mac and ect. They all have their place. While searching for NM and Jeff loomis stuff on youtube there's a sea of disciples paying homage with their attempts at Loomis songs and solos. He's becoming quite inspirational..and assume he will be on Guitar World cover. Funny, that is how a guitarist is gauged by people. I guess Frank Marino, Uli Roth , Criss Oliva, Tony Macalpine, Greg Howe, Gary Moore, and such didn't make the cut...they must suck! Hmmm..I think Greg Howe made a GW cover once..he must good afterall.

I relate to Mike Varney and Martin Popoff to name a few. We could talk forever!! Too bad I didn't look into doing this shitr. Now metal DJ's and review scribes are a dime a dozen. I did DJ one night on a college metal show. That was 1995..funny thing is I didn't discover Nevemore until '96..so I played Savatage, Fight, Dio, Testament, Yngwie, even some VH most of the night..Ahhh..My pre-NM days!!

OK..I don't know what I just said. I rambled for my own entertainment..and maybe yours too.

BTW..I think the best time for metal creativity in the unedrground was 1995 to 2000. Man, there was so much great things going on..discovering so much stuff along the way. That was the best time for me for metal!!!

[toejam]

Jeff Loomis > everyone on this forum!

[horns666]

Jeff Loomis > everyone on this forum!

+

[thetroy]

Epic post - took up almost my entire 22" monitor!