I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.
Guitar Player Magazine says Dick Dale is the father of Heavy Metal, blowing up 48 amplifiers, creating the first power amplifier.
What we feel most comfortable doing is playing loud, screaming rock songs.
I think there's a lot of death metal or doom metal dudes that somehow or another find a groove in it.
I got into alternative rock in the early 80s, bands like Husker Du and The Replacements. Bob Mould's playing was a huge influence. It was very heavy with a lot of open tunings, which was great because I played in trios, so I used open tunings to get a fuller sound.
Hard rock for me is AC/DC, Def Leppard, Tesla, Kiss. Metal tends to be louder, ruder, darker, like Judas Priest, Slayer, Iron Maiden.
Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page's loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing.
I remember being inspired by this band Godflesh, actually. They were a really heavy metal band, really nihilistic.
To me, Sabbath was always JUSt a really heavy blues band. That s all we were. We just took those blues roots and made them heavier.
What we're doing is special and unique in its own way but still keeping it heavy. For me as a listener, part of the journey I'm on with Metallica, there's just a certain edge that needs to be there.
I lie more with drums and the more heavy and darker aspects of music.
More than a quarter of a century into the band's career together, it's inspiring to hear Melvins continue to deafen new generations of listeners.
The power, the complexity, the aggression - there's so many things that would attract anyone to Metallica. I think that they are the prime example of a metal band.
It's got big riffs and really it's a rock and roll album. I think Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver fans will relate to that
I was looking for something a lot heavier, yet melodic at the same time. Something different from heavy metal, a different attitude.
I am the Great White Buffalo and I play an American-made Gibson guitar that can blow your head clean off at 100 paces.
Back in the old days, we were often compared to Led Zeppelin. If we did something with harmony, it was the Beach Hoys. Something heavy was Led Zeppelin.
Pighammer' is my pure vision of what I want to do, but at the same time, if you like Static-X, you will love 'Pighammer.'
When I write in the studio, I tend to gravitate toward the ability to play really loud, aggressive, post-punk stuff, with big, heavy guitars and a big rock drum sound.
With Rage, we wrote riff rock and had rap vocals, so we didn't really concern ourselves with melody for the most part.
Sabbath is always some of the best music ever. And the reason is because it grooves. It's funky. It's heavy. It's got lots of great changes, twists, and turns.
The power chords in 'Come Sail Away' were super heavy to me as a kid. Metal? No. Hard rock? At times, for sure.
When you put the guitars over the 808, it just makes it grittier and grimier. It's just different.
Heavy metal is a universal energy -- it's the sound of a volcano. It's rock, it's earth shattering. Somewhere in our primal being we understand.
I have a really feminine voice, but I also feel quite powerful when I write. So my songs feel heavy, and that's how Banks sounds. It's a really short, powerful sound. It almost sounds masculine, and I like having that dichotomy.
