10 Greatest Guitar Duos In Hard Rock

As the '70s opened up, metal didn't really have a name yet. While you could call acts like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath heavy for their time, there was always that missing link that separated them from the true start of the metal movement. Once Judas Priest arrived though, metal had a name, a look, and two of the greatest solo crafters of the modern age.

When Priest were first starting to get the ball rolling, KK Downing had always wanted to have a two guitar dynamic in the group, which paid off in spades once Glenn Tipton joined the fold. Across albums like Sad Wings of Destiny and British Steel, the pair work off each other perfectly, with two completely different styles. On one side, Tipton was the real technician, with solos that were a lot more precise than you would usually find in the hard rock world. On the other hand, Downing was the real madman behind the scenes, using the whammy bar to the fullest extent and going absolutely insane.

Even the act of just playing a simple riff together sounded massive, with songs like Metal Gods feeling like a sonic army marching towards you. Whereas metal had started to gel before Judas Priest, this is where everything started to settle into place. No more messing around...it's now a style of music.