Heres the finalist for the guest lead challenge.

[ihave27frets]

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=2719274

[Musician78]

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...iendId=2719274

Wow. I bet it is going to be a hard choice.

[Alvin_Wilson]

I haven't watched those yey, I am work right now. Are any of the finalists from the JCF?

[horns666]

No contest IMO. The kid with the black IBZ is pretty good. The guy with the natural guitar is firey much like a sloppier Loomis kinda thing. Overall I think the last dude with the black guitar wrote the tastiest lead over that progression..he went for more of a melodic Mike Amott thing which fits the song like a glove. He wins IMO!

The rest were..meh..

[bibz]

Yeah totally horns, I rekon the second last was good but the final one was great. I know taste is entirely optional in shred but christ! Sticks out like dogs balls here

[Sinistas]

I think Bill was talking about the third one, which I also think is the best, by far.

[horns666]

The thrid one is good but he's playing redundant paterns in 4ths. He's very good but is he's "stiff" and doesn't really gel with much of that track. I'm talkin' 'bout the very last dude with that solid black 24 fret guitar. He wasn't just showing off and composed a very fitting piece of music over that progression. Honestly, he's the only one more qualified than myself If I would have participated of all those players. He did a brilliant job and looked at the big pic that actually compliments that arrangement! He wins hands down IMO! ..It's absolutely perfect!

..and I'm prolly the biggest Absence fan here..

Their ROTP was in my top 10 best metal releases that year!

[Sinistas]

Interesting. I thought the *last* guy sounded stiff

[Hellbat]

I was kind of hoping Jani would have done a harmonized lead for this with him playing both parts at once in the video.

It would have been a shoe-in for my vote.

[LouSiffer]

I personally liked the guy with the black Ibanez and mirror guard....Steackhach and the last guy with the black 7 string Ibanez.

The guy with the mirrored guard had a little melody tossed in there with the tempo change, had bends to grab the emotions in the right spot and came in with some harmony. The 7 stringer had a cleaner arpeggiated run.

I think that I would choose the guy with the mirrored guard if it was me.

Everybody else just sounded bland.-Lou

[Jacksons Shred]

The guys with melody have the boring shred licks, and the guys with the shred licks have no melody and terrible vibrato.

WHY ARENT THESE PEOPLE LISTENING TO MORE JASON BECKER?

These guys are good though and a few of them had some really cool phrases. The fourth guy down probably has the "most fitting" solo. The guy above him had the coolest intro but his vibrato is so terrible it really makes him sound bad, even though he's clearly good on a technical level.

There was a guy who posted a video who I surely thought would make it, I tried looking for the video but it appears he took it down.

The riff to solo over is fucking cool though, I will definitely be illegally downloading this album when it comes out. Just playing, I'll just steal it from a record store instead!

[Trem]

Last guy with the 7 - tasty melodic interesting and fit the song well -
i also liked #5 for the shred points between them both, i think number 5 could pull the win easily in a final take, most potential anyway i think.

[broken_fusion]

I like #5 or #3. A lot of them have technically impressive stuff but seem to pay no attention to the melody or whats going on with the chord changes.

[T@rgetDrone]

#'s 5, 7 and 8 hit me with that intangible something.