Top 10 Extreme Metal Lead Guitarists

The Top Ten
1 Jeff Loomis Jeff Loomis is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore and death metal band Arch Enemy.

He became an extreme metal lead guitarist when joined Arch Enemy. Before that he was a neoclassical and prog metal guitarist. Which explains his skills.

2 Chuck Schuldiner Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (1967-2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known as the founder and vocalist, guitarist and bassist of the American heavy metal band Death. He is considered the most influential figure in Death Metal, with some publications referring to Chuck ...read more.
3 Christian Münzner
4 Alexi Laiho Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho (April 8th 1979 - December 29th 2020) was a Finnish guitarist, composer, and vocalist. He is best known as the lead guitarist, lead vocalist, and founding member of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. He was also the guitarist for Sinergy, The Local Band, and Kylähullut. ...read more.
5 Dylan Ruskin

He's the main reason I listen to Brain Drill

6 Mikael Akerfeldt Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician, prominently known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth, as well as being the former vocalist of death metal supergroup Bloodbath for three albums up until 2012. ...read more.
7 Fredrik Thordendal Fredrik Thordendal (born February 11, 1970) is a Swedish musician, best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. He's considered the originator of the djent technique. Thordendal was rated No. 35 by Guitar World in the top 100 greatest heavy metal ...read more.
8 Rafael Trujillo
9 Michael Amott Michael Amott is a British-born Swedish guitarist, songwriter, founding member of the bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars, and Carnage, as well as a former member of the grindcore band Carcass.
10 Benjamin Baret
The Contenders
11 Kerry King Kerry Ray King is an American musician, best known as a guitarist for the American thrash metal band Slayer.
12 Jeff Hanneman Jeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman was an American musician, best known as a founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer.
13 Alex Skolnick Alexander Nathan Skolnick is an American metal and jazz guitarist who is the lead guitarist of the Bay Area thrash metal band Testament, and heads the jazz band Alex Skolnick Trio.
14 Gary Holt Gary Wayne Holt is an American guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a guitarist, the bandleader, and the main songwriter for the American thrash metal band Exodus and is also a guitarist for the American thrash metal band Slayer.
15 Mille Petrozza Miland "Mille" Petrozza is a German metal guitarist and singer of Italian descent, who has been the lead vocalist and guitarist for the German thrash metal band Kreator since 1984.
16 Tom Angelripper Thomas Such, better known by his stage name Tom Angelripper, is the founding member and main songwriter of German thrash metal band Sodom.
BAdd New Item