10 Best Guitarists You've Never Heard Of

4. Keshav Dhar (Skyharbor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW2XbTmM9AI The metal scene in India is fit to burst right now. The amount of bands occupying the country unable to escape to the further reaches of the globe is now at breaking point. However, Keshav Dhar's Skyharbor are leading the charge of Indian metal bands actually managing to venture into the wider world. Keshav is the chief songwriter, guitarist and producer for the band, crafting the whole of their debut album Blinding White Noise from his own studio in New Delhi. The influences on the album are very much western, you can hear elements of Dream Theater and TesseracT in Keshav's playing. However, when the playing is this good, you shouldn't be too worried about the influences of the player. Sitting under Dan Tompkins' lilting vocals, the guitar work is a sharp contrast, yet entirely appropriate for the overall production. Keshav's style is very intricate and percussive. It can almost be considered mechanical, such is the strict tightness of Dhar's playing. He layers a lot of chiming clean guitars over his heavier riffs to lighten the production but the riffs always remain heavy and interesting. One thing that stands out about Dhar is that no matter how intricate or impressive a riff he is playing is, he never allows it to take focus away from the song. As a guitarist and a writer he is incredibly humble, allowing the songs to be what they are naturally and not forcing particular musical passages or tones to overwhelm just so he can show off his skill to listeners. It takes great restraint to be an excellent guitarist and be humble about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHfSK_G0sO4