• Randy Rhoads. Known more for his work with Ozzy Osbourne, rather than his earlier work with LA band Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads helped bring classical playing into metal. Randy helped to write Ozzy classics such as ‘Crazy train’ and ‘Dee’. Randy’s classical influence and background can be seen on the first two solo Ozzy albums which he played on. Randys work can be seen on the Ozzy albums ‘Blizzard of Oz’ and ‘Diary of a madman’. Ozzy believed Randy would’ve gone on to leave the band and further study classical music, which seemed to be the direction he was going in. The specialist Jackson guitars made for Rhoads are a popular choice amongst guitarists today. Rhoads died tragically in a plane crash in 1982, and his since been an inspiration for thousands of guitarists since.
• Chuck Schuldiner. ‘Death’s main axeman, vocalist and head songwriter. Often hailed as the ‘father of death metal’, a term that the man himself wasnt in agreement with, Chuck was a huge influence on extreme metal and metal in general. Death’s first release, ’scream bloody gore’, could be said as setting the tone for death metal, but each album featured not only different line ups, but changes in song wiriting and direction. Death release a further 4 albums with the band, ‘Human, ‘Spiritual healing’,'Symbolic’ and ‘The sound of perseverance’ before folding Death to play guitar for ‘Control denied’, which released ‘The fragile art of exsistance’ in 1999. Chuck Schulidner died after a long battle with cancer in 2001, which saw the metal community unite many a time to try and raise funds for his surgery.
• ‘Dimebag’ Darrell. The ‘infamous’ guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan, who could be held responsible for the current state of metal guitar playing -in a good way. Pantera was formed in 1981 as a glam metal band, but the bands first album ‘Cowboys from hell’ saw them take a much more heavier groove laden approach with the music. Their breakthrough album was 1992’s ‘A vulgar display of power’, which gave the band a whole ‘new level’ of exposure. The next album ‘Far beyond driven’ reached the top of the US charts at a time when metal wasnt considered ‘popular’. Pantera also released ‘Greater Southern Trendkill’ and ‘Re-inventing the steel’, after which Pantera split, as bassist Rex Brown and vocalist Phil Anselmo went off to do ‘Down’ and ‘Superjoint ritual’ and Dimebag and his brother and drummer Vinnie Paul created ‘Damageplan’. While playing onstage with Damageplan in Dec 2004, Dimebag was shot and died instantly. His sound is still seen in alot of bands today- ‘Lamb of god’ are an example of this.

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