10 Best Guitarists Of The 2000s
Guitar Gods of the Millennial Generation.
As the music world reached the turn of the century, being in a rock band wasn't really that cool. Many of the greatest artistic voices at the start of the 2000's were coming from the hip hop community along with some amazing pop artists. Even though some rock bands were coming out of the woodwork, guitarists from the nu metal and pop punk scenes were mining a relatively rudimentary guitar style.
However, that doesn't mean that there weren't any stellar guitarists out there. As the decade slowly got underway, the rock world saw an influx of fantastic six-stringers emerge as well as some old dogs stepping up to deliver even more fantastic performances. These shredders brought amazing riffs that sounded incredibly fresh and have since become classics of modern rock.
In an era when rock's spotlight was waning, these musicians were able to pick up the mantle of the old guard and inspire the next generation of guitarists to pick up their instruments and actually learn how to play them. May they continue to give more fretboard brilliance for many years to come.
10. John Petrucci
When it comes to technical skill, Dream Theater's music is held up as the gold standard of what any rocker can aspire to be as a musician. Throughout the band's tenure, they have consistently delivered epic songs that leave their audiences awestruck and guitarists sitting back in disbelief.
The way that John Petrucci weaves his playing style through Dream Theater's music sounds so effortless while still being incredibly complicated. The man is a true virtuoso who uses his music-school background to break all the limitations of rock guitar. While he does have some inklings of rock, the solos that Petrucci performs employ scales from many different genres spanning rock, jazz, classical, and even Eastern music.
Even though Petrucci can play like a madman, he has never forgotten the importance behind a song's emotional center. Sure, you can write a song where you play a million notes a minute, but it doesn't mean a thing if the song doesn't have a heart. Petrucci strikes the perfect balance between restraint and intensity as he draws a straight line throughout the song. Jump into Dream Theater's back catalog and witness the concentrated expertise that comes through in every riff that comes from Petrucci's amplifier.