Biggest Loss

The first was mainly responsible for that very special aura of 80s Metallica, his contribution ranginig from the plurality of different music that he brought to the band that made a huge impact (compare Kill em All to Ride the Lightning) to the down-to-earth, "fuck the mainstream way" attitude. However, history has been written without him and ...And Justice for All is a masterpiece.

Criss Oliva along with Andy LaRocque are, in my humble opinion, the best metal guitarists. Ever. Criss had the ever elusive perfect balance between flawless technique and endless inspiration, his phrasing is totally otherworldly. Savatage was never the same without him and I think if he was still around we would hear amazing progressive metal from the band. But again, history has written itself.

Chuck Schuldiner on the other hand was a dedicated musican and passionate all-around metalhead who never released an even "merely good" album. He had way more stuff to contribute and I was (and still am) very curious to hear what Control Denied or anything else would have turned out like. History just stopped with his death. Even the second Control Denied album cannot see the light of day for fucks sake (any year now, come on...). That's a tragedy right there.

Vote to Chuck.

Oh man, I didn't know about it... ALS may be even worse than death. Feel so sorry for that guy.

Perpetual Burn is by far my favorite guitar album. Altitudes man...

The album he did painstakingly note-for-note, by moving the mouse with his head and making the click by opening his jaw (imagine writing the score of an 11 minute piece like this), "Perspectives" makes me a better human being just by listening to it. The End of the Beginning is such a masterpiece and Michael Lee Firkins (a GREAT guitarist) really does justice to Jason's composition.

I love Jason Becker man. Once I wrote a fanboy gushing all over mail to him, a little less than ten years ago,  and I got a personal reply. That made my decade.