50 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time
Who are the greatest metal guitarists of all time?
No. 1 on Beatintel's 50 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time is Tony Iommi, followed by Eddie Van Halen at No. 2 and Randy Rhoads at No. 3. The full ranking covers 50 guitarists and was last updated in September 2026.
Top 10 at a glance
Metal is a guitar genre before it is anything else. The riff is its unit of meaning, the solo its moment of release, and its history can be told through the players who changed what six (or seven, or eight) strings could do: the man who lost his fingertips and invented the genre, the teenager who tapped on a Frankenstrat, the Floridian who turned horror into philosophy. This list ranks the fifty who mattered most. Each is weighed on innovation, the strength of the riffs and solos they left behind, and influence on the players who followed; speed alone counts for little. Twin-guitar teams that wrote together are ranked together. One entry per rank, a one-line case for each.
The Top 10: The Players Who Defined Metal Guitar
Tony Iommi
Black Sabbath · 1968–2017
The man who invented heavy metal guitar after losing his fingertips in a sheet-metal press: down-tuned strings, homemade prosthetics and the riffs on Paranoid and Master of Reality that every metal band descends from.
Also ranked: #15 Greatest Guitarists
Eddie Van Halen
Van Halen · 1972–2020
"Eruption" changed the instrument in 1978: two-handed tapping, dive bombs and a tone every eighties metal guitarist chased.
Also ranked: #10 Greatest Guitarists
Randy Rhoads
Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot · 1975–1982
Classical training and metal fire on "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley"; dead at 25, still the model for the neoclassical metal soloist.
Also ranked: #58 Greatest Guitarists
Dimebag Darrell
Pantera, Damageplan · 1981–2004
Groove metal's greatest riff writer and the most influential metal guitarist of the nineties: "Walk", "Cowboys from Hell", the harmonic squeal and a murder on stage that ended it.
Also ranked: #60 Greatest Guitarists
James Hetfield
Metallica · 1981–present
The most precise down-picking right hand in metal and the riffs of Master of Puppets and the Black Album; the rhythm guitarist every other rhythm guitarist is measured against.
Dave Mustaine
Megadeth, early Metallica · 1981–present
Wrote the riffs of two Big Four bands, and on Rust in Peace pushed thrash to its technical limit.
Kirk Hammett
Metallica · 1983–present
Wah-drenched solos on "One", "Fade to Black" and "Enter Sandman"; the most-heard lead guitarist in metal history.
Also ranked: #59 Greatest Guitarists
Ritchie Blackmore
Deep Purple, Rainbow · 1968–present
"Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star" and "Stargazer": the classical-meets-blues style that metal lead guitar grew from.
Also ranked: #54 Greatest Guitarists
Glenn Tipton & K.K. Downing
Judas Priest · 1974–2011
The original twin-guitar attack; harmonised leads and duelling solos on British Steel and Painkiller that Maiden and every metal band after copied.
Chuck Schuldiner
Death · 1983–2001
The father of death metal and its most musical guitarist; from Scream Bloody Gore to Symbolic he took the genre from horror to philosophy.
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Legends and Innovators: Ranks 11–30
Adrian Smith & Dave Murray
Iron Maiden · 1976–present
The harmony guitars of "The Trooper" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name"; Murray's legato and Smith's songwriting defined the NWOBHM's sound.
Yngwie Malmsteen
Rising Force · 1978–present
Neoclassical shred begins with Rising Force (1984); Bach and Paganini at speeds that launched the whole eighties guitar-hero era.
Also ranked: #57 Greatest Guitarists#82 Greatest Metal Albums
Zakk Wylde
Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society · 1987–present
Pinch harmonics, pentatonic fury and the bullseye Les Paul; Ozzy's longest-serving guitarist and a genre unto himself.
Marty Friedman
Megadeth, Cacophony · 1986–present
Exotic scales and the solos on Rust in Peace; the most melodic lead guitarist thrash ever had.
John Petrucci
Dream Theater · 1985–present
Progressive metal's technical benchmark: alternate picking, seven-strings and thirty years of Dream Theater epics.
Kerry King & Jeff Hanneman
Slayer · 1981–2019
Atonal, whammy-bar chaos on Reign in Blood; the solos that defined extreme metal's disregard for melody.
Trey Azagthoth
Morbid Angel · 1984–present
Death metal's most alien lead player: whammy dives, chromatic runs and the riffs of Altars of Madness.
Mikael Ã…kerfeldt
Opeth · 1990–present
Growled death metal and seventies prog on one guitar; the writer behind Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries.
Adam Jones
Tool · 1990–present
Texture over shred: the drop-D riffs of "Schism" and "Ænema" and a sound built from restraint.
Fredrik Thordendal
Meshuggah · 1987–2024
Eight strings, polyrhythms and jazz-fusion leads; the guitarist who invented djent on Destroy Erase Improve.
Alexi Laiho
Children of Bodom · 1993–2020
Finnish melodic death metal's shredder and the most influential European lead guitarist of the 2000s; died at 41.
Joe Duplantier & Christian Andreu
Gojira · 1996–present
Pick scrapes, tapped riffs and the environmental epics of From Mars to Sirius; the sound of modern heavy metal.
Brent Hinds & Bill Kelliher
Mastodon · 2000–present
Banjo-rolls, prog complexity and sludge weight on Leviathan and Crack the Skye.
Mark Morton & Willie Adler
Lamb of God · 1994–present
The groove riffs of Ashes of the Wake and the twin-guitar template of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.
Michael Amott
Carcass, Arch Enemy · 1988–present
Harmonised leads on Heartwork that created melodic death metal, then Arch Enemy for thirty more years of it.
Jeff Loomis
Nevermore, Arch Enemy · 1991–present
Seven-string technical precision and the solos on Nevermore's This Godless Endeavor; a shredder's shredder.
Tosin Abasi
Animals as Leaders · 2007–present
Eight-string thumping, selective picking and the most original technique in twenty-first-century metal guitar.
Also ranked: #90 Greatest Guitarists
Misha Mansoor
Periphery · 2005–present
Turned bedroom djent recordings into a genre; Periphery's guitarist and the producer behind modern metal's tone.
Michael Schenker
UFO, Scorpions, MSG · 1970–present
The Flying V and the melodic leads on UFO's Strangers in the Night that Metallica, Maiden and Slash all cite.
Uli Jon Roth
Scorpions · 1973–present
Hendrix and Bach on the early Scorpions albums; the neoclassical seed that Malmsteen grew.
Riff Writers and Modern Masters: Ranks 31–50
Angus Young
AC/DC · 1973–present
Hard rock at the metal border, in a schoolboy uniform: the riffs of Highway to Hell and Back in Black.
Also ranked: #16 Greatest Guitarists
Scott Ian
Anthrax · 1981–present
Thrash's most recognisable rhythm player: the mosh riffs of Among the Living and the goatee.
Gary Holt
Exodus, Slayer · 1981–present
Bay Area thrash's riff machine on Bonded by Blood, then Hanneman's replacement in Slayer.
Alex Skolnick
Testament · 1983–present
Jazz-schooled leads on The Legacy and The New Order that gave thrash its most sophisticated soloist.
Jim Root & Mick Thomson
Slipknot · 1999–present
Down-tuned savagery on Iowa and the masks; the heaviest twin-guitar team to headline stadiums.
Munky & Head
Korn · 1993–present
Seven-string Ibanez guitars, dissonant scrapes and no solos: the sound that created nu-metal.
Wes Borland
Limp Bizkit · 1995–present
Face paint, unconventional tunings and the only guitarist in nu-metal whose parts nobody could copy.
Dino Cazares
Fear Factory · 1989–present
Machine-precise palm-muted riffs synced to double-bass drums; the industrial-metal guitar sound of Demanufacture.
Matt Heafy & Corey Beaulieu
Trivium · 1999–present
Metalcore's most technically ambitious twin-guitar team, from Ascendancy to Shogun.
Synyster Gates
Avenged Sevenfold · 1999–present
Neoclassical solos and Django-style runs on City of Evil; the most famous metal lead guitarist to emerge in the 2000s.
Tom Morello
Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave · 1991–present
Guitar as turntable: killswitch scratches, whammy-pedal siren solos and the riff of "Killing in the Name".
Also ranked: #45 Greatest Guitarists
Jerry Cantrell
Alice in Chains · 1987–present
Drop-tuned dread and harmony vocals on Dirt; the guitarist who made grunge heavy enough for metal.
Also ranked: #42 Greatest Guitarists
Ihsahn
Emperor · 1991–present
Symphonic black metal's guitarist and composer, from In the Nightside Eclipse to a progressive solo career.
Euronymous
Mayhem · 1984–1993
The riffs of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and the architect of Norwegian black metal, murdered before the album was released.
Quorthon
Bathory · 1983–2004
Recorded almost everything himself; the tremolo riffs of Under the Sign of the Black Mark and the Viking epics of Hammerheart.
Piggy
Voivod · 1982–2005
Denis D'Amour's dissonant chords and sci-fi harmonies on Nothingface; the most original guitarist in thrash.
Paul Gilbert
Racer X, Mr. Big · 1985–present
Shred's cleanest technician and Racer X's speed-metal picking; a teacher to a generation of metal guitarists.
Jason Becker
Cacophony, David Lee Roth · 1986–present
Perpetual Burn at nineteen, then ALS at twenty; still composing by eye movement, the most poignant story in metal guitar.
Tobias Forge
Ghost · 2006–present
Under the Papa Emeritus paint, the writer of Meliora's riffs; seventies hard rock and doom reassembled for arenas.
Josh Homme
Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age · 1987–present
Down-tuned desert riffs on Welcome to Sky Valley and Songs for the Deaf; the sound of stoner rock and its heaviest cousin.
Also ranked: #50 Greatest Guitarists
How we ranked this list
Rankings are editorial. Each guitarist is weighed on innovation, tone and technique, influence on the players who followed, and the strength of their recorded legacy. Speed and popularity inform a position but never decide it. Every entry carries a one-line rationale, and the list is revisited when new evidence or a fresh listen changes our view.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the greatest metal guitarist of all time?
Tony Iommi. He invented the genre's guitar language — down-tuned strings, the tritone, the riff as the song — after an industrial accident took his fingertips, and every metal guitarist since plays in a style he created. Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Dimebag Darrell are the strongest cases for second.
Who is the fastest metal guitarist?
Speed is measurable but rarely the point. Yngwie Malmsteen set the neoclassical standard in 1984, Michael Angelo Batio and Paul Gilbert are technically among the fastest ever recorded, and Alexi Laiho and Jeff Loomis carried shred into modern metal. None of them rank above Iommi, who rarely played fast at all.
Who is the best thrash metal guitarist?
James Hetfield for rhythm — the most precise down-picking in the genre — and Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman for the leads on Rust in Peace. Kirk Hammett's solos are the most heard, and Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman defined thrash's atonal extreme.
Who is the best death metal guitarist?
Chuck Schuldiner, who founded the genre with Death and took it from Scream Bloody Gore to the melodic complexity of Symbolic. Trey Azagthoth (Morbid Angel) is its most original lead player and Michael Amott (Carcass, Arch Enemy) invented its melodic strain.
Who are the best modern metal guitarists?
Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders), Misha Mansoor (Periphery), Joe Duplantier (Gojira), Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah) and Mikael Ã…kerfeldt (Opeth) are the players who defined metal guitar after 2000; Synyster Gates and Matt Heafy lead the mainstream metalcore generation.
Is Eddie Van Halen a metal guitarist?
Van Halen were a hard rock band, but "Eruption" and Eddie's tapping technique reshaped metal guitar more than any single recording of the eighties; every shred and glam-metal player of the decade learned from him, which is why he ranks here.
Who are the most famous metal guitarists?
Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag Darrell and James Hetfield lead Beatintel's 50 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time — the first five of 50 ranked guitarists. Every entry below carries a one-line case for its place, and the list was last updated in September 2026.
Who are the top metal guitarists of all time?
Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag Darrell and James Hetfield lead Beatintel's 50 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time — the first five of 50 ranked guitarists. Every entry below carries a one-line case for its place, and the list was last updated in September 2026.
Who are the best heavy metal guitar players?
Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag Darrell and James Hetfield are the top five on Beatintel's ranking, followed by Dave Mustaine, Kirk Hammett, Ritchie Blackmore, the Judas Priest pair of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, and Chuck Schuldiner. See the full 50 below.
Write a riff Sabbath would nod at.
Type "doom metal, down-tuned, Ozzy-style vocals" and Sonx builds the full track, lyrics and all.
Make a metal song →Try Sonx in your browser →Free to start · iOS, Android and web