During a new interview with Masters of Shred, Joel Hoekstra explained how Metallica pulled off shredding.
“Selling platinum records and having the culture change was probably like, ‘Is this going to survive should it survive?’ The validity of it,” the guitarist said of shredding while reviewing the 1993 Guitar World magazine.
He went on to explain, “What’s funny is that it seems like, you can see clearly Metallica, like the ‘The Black Album’ and Pantera and stuff like that, there was no bagging on the shredding when it was happening in the really heavy stuff. That was like perfectly acceptable.”
“They’re praising ‘Diamond’ Darrell in the magazine. So I guess it’s more steered at mainstream rock and roll. Let’s go ahead and push a lot of that fast playing off into the heavy stuff and we’re okay with that,” Hoekstra added.
“I suppose really the godfather of that whole shred movement [was] when Yngwie [Malmsteen] came out. I started guitar right when it was Eddie Van Halen transitioning over to Yngwie, so everybody was kind of just learning to shred and get their chops together,” the rocker previously said on The Rock Experience with Mike Brunn about shredding.
Joel continued, “I think that my role has been a little bit different in that I’ve had to make a living playing guitar in a lot of different environments that haven’t always been about how fast I could play or what my chops were like.”
Shredding in rock and metal refers to a fast, virtuosic guitar-playing style characterized by rapid note sequences, complex techniques, and technical proficiency. It’s often used in solos and instrumental sections.
Names like Randy Rhoads, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, and Tony MacAlpine are regarded as shred guitar pioneers.
