I know, I know… everyone has their own opinion on this and that is fine. This is my opinion on which metal solo is the greatest ever made, and Marty Friedman’s Symphony of Destruction lead work is an unbeatable winner for me.
My tribute to this amazing musical experience
I want to start this blog with my tribute video for this solo. This is me recording the solo and choosing the best possible take and then creating a quick video for it that pays proper tribute to this life-altering moment in metal history. If I have ever felt that good envy that makes me say “I wish I wrote that solo,” it is definitely something I feel with this solo.
The origins of my love for this solo
Let me take you back to the moment when I first heard this solo. The Symphony of Destruction single was released in 1992, but it wasn’t until 1994 that I heard the song. I was 14 when I bought the album and I loved it, but I didn’t really give it much thought back then.
Fast forward to 1996 and a friend of mine who worked at a local video store rented a VHS tape called Exposure of a Dream. It was a Megadeth home video that included the original video for Symphony of Destruction, a remix version, and also the video for Go to Hell, Exposure of a Dream, and a live version of High Speed Dirt.
I remember it like it was yesterday: my dad walked into my room and I was watching the Symphony of Destruction video. I told my dad, “Dad, check this out,” and Marty started blazing the solo. Once it was over I said to my dad, “I want to play like that one day,” and he looked at me and said, “But those guys had to spend many years to achieve that level of play.” I knew the comment was more inclined to sway me away from the idea of becoming a musician (he wanted me to be a businessman like he was), but I remember even then that my path was not going to be the regular get-a-haircut-and-get-a-“real”-job way of life.
What makes Symphony of Destruction my all-time favorite solo
When guitar players think of Marty Friedman in Megadeth, it’s almost in unison that they say, “Tornado of Souls is his best solo.” This is something I heavily disagree with. Even though I do feel that the Tornado of Souls solo is great, I think there are at least 3 Friedman solos that are better.
Symphony of Destruction obliterates everything else in my opinion, and not just in Megadeth or in Friedman’s solo career. I think this solo is truly the best in metal overall.
Every single note in the solo serves the song well. Nothing feels like random crap thrown together to fill in the blanks. Friedman once said in an interview that he wasn’t very fond of the final lick of the solo, but the producer told him it was perfect and they left it that way. A wise decision all around, as that lick at the end of the solo is truly unique.
The deceptive difficulty of the solo
I started playing the guitar in 1997, December 1996 to be exact. I got my first guitar from my dad for Christmas. Since then, I have learned techniques from guitar players of all kinds, but mostly in metal and rock. It started with Metallica and Megadeth rhythm guitars, then I moved up to Kirk Hammett leads a few years in, and after a while I started feeling confident enough to try some Friedman leads, but I was terrible at playing them properly.
I remember when I had been playing guitar for about 3 years, I tried to learn the Symphony solo and failed miserably. I also remember clearly that this showed me the abysmal gap between Hammett’s leads and Friedman’s. Then I was introduced to Dimebag Darrell and his Pantera work. I also started listening to Satriani and Vai, but I wasn’t too drawn in by their style. Then I heard Nuno Bettencourt and his solo work on Three Sides to Every Story, and I realized that my favorite players were Friedman and Nuno, with many others in between who also influenced my playing.
Later on, I discovered Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Rusty Cooley. I became obsessed with guitar tech and learned many of their best tracks. Still, I felt that Symphony of Destruction has very specific nuances that made it more difficult than most ultra-shreddy fast stuff from other players.
Viewing solos from the guitarists perspective
To a regular person or an amateur guitarist, the thought of the Symphony solo being harder than, say, Far Beyond the Sun by Malmsteen is preposterous, but if you understand the guitar at a higher level of skill and technique, you can see why that is the case.
There are some sections in the Symphony solo that are so tricky that even Friedman fails to play them correctly in most of his live performances. In fact, to this day, no guitar player has ever landed that solo accurately live, with the exception of Teemu, the newest player, who has come the closest. Kiko did okay with it most of the time, and so did Broderick, but they always butchered at least 2 sections of the solo. Keep in mind that we are talking about two beast lead players. Both Kiko and Chris are amazing players, but like I have been saying, the difficulty in Symphony is not in flashy lightspeed scales or 6-finger tapping and 6-string sweeps. It’s way more complex than that.
I also see a higher success rate live in solos like Tornado of Souls, which would seem to be harder, but it really isn’t. That is not to say Symphony is my favorite solo because of its difficult nuances. I fell in love with that solo before I even played the guitar at all.
Solo performance and tab
You already saw my tribute video with a more theatrical style. My Instagram and YouTube have videos that show me doing the single-take style on this solo. I have always felt that I’ve never achieved the perfect take on it, but some have come close enough. The first video on this blog is my single raw take, no audio interface, no editing, and I am satisfied with it, but not entirely happy. There is always room for improvement.
That said, it is close enough for me to feel like it is worth posting, and I also included the tab on the video for anyone who wants to take on this challenge.
Conclusion
I have heard and played some incredibly amazing leads in my life, but this one is truly a one-of-a-kind monster of a solo.
Save it. Learn it. Shred it!
-Tyranthsredd