Top 10 Songs with the Best Christian Münzner (Muenzner) Guitar Solos
Christian Münzner (alternative spelling Muenzner, for non-German countries) is a German virtuoso guitarist born in 1981. His playing style is neo-classical (metal). He is a great sweep picker (sweep picking is a pretty hard guitar playing technique).Genres: Death metal, technical death metal, progressive metal, power metal, neoclassical metal.
He played for Necrophagist (2002-2006), Obscura (2007-2014), Spawn of Possession (guest on album Incurso, 2012) and he's currently in the band Alkaloid. He also made solo albums.
Münzner began playing guitar at 11 and played his first live shows at just 12. He developed a habit of practicing rigorously for 6-8 hours a day. At 21 he graduated from the Munich Guitar Institute and joined Necrophagist.
Heath Issues
After recording Obscura's album Omnivium in 2011, Münzner was diagnosed with focal dystonia in his left (fretting) hand. He had this disorder for several years but physicians couldn't characterize the disease. Münzner describes the disorder as "impairing the coordination between both his index and middle fingers, making the technical demands of his music impossible, forcing him to change his fingering and technique."
This disease is a severe thing for a virtuoso guitarist, especially in the left (fretting) hand.
Despite the disease, Münzner continued to tour with Obscura until his departure in 2014. He wasn't kicked out of Obscura - he left because his disease made almost impossible to play live shows. And you know Obscura music is extremely demanding because of its extreme technicality. Münzner explained:
"My decision to step down from my position as the lead guitar player in Obscura after more than 6 years was not an easy one, but even though it may come unexpected for the majority of fans...I am still dealing with a neurologic condition in my fretting hand called Focal Dystonia, which almost took the ability to play guitar away from me completely by late 2011/early 2012. Even though I regained most of my chops by now through re-training and Botox therapy, the condition is still there and I have to be very careful not to relapse and undo my progress by putting too much strain on my hand, which is why touring several months on an album cycle with material that brings me to the edge of my technical ability every night is not an option for me anymore in the near future."
It's really sad because Christian Münzner loved being in Obscura - he said he liked the artistic freedom he had in this band, particularly thanks to the band leader Steffen Kummerer who welcomed his contributions.
But past and present Obscura members still help Christian make music because he still can write music and record songs in the studio when the state of his disease allows him. He was helped by his former Obscura band mates who played on his solo albums.
In Alkaloid he's again with some of his former Obscura band mates: Linus Klausenitzer (bass) and Hannes Grossmann (drums).
A song (instrumental) from his 2011 solo album Timewarp. The entire song is like a long solo.
Find on YT: Christian Muenzner - The Tell Tale Heart (Demonstration).
(it's a Guitar playthrough video)
This Obscura song is the only Obscura song written on his own. In most cases he used to generate riffs and solos for the band which were then organized into songs.
An instrumental song from his 2nd solo album Beyond The Wall Of Sleep.
Find on YT: Christian Muenzner - Demon's Gate (Guitar playthrough video ft. Jimmy Pitts)
That's a pretty long solo (3:03-3:53)
It isn't very long (30 seconds) but it's incredibly fluid and I like it (starts at 3:20).
This instrumental is a Cacophony cover - Cacophony was the band of two virtuoso guitarists: Jason Becker and Marty Friedman.
Not many would attempt this song because Jason Becker and Marty Friedman are guitar Gods.