Originally published in Guitar World magazine · February 2022
best of 2021 (excerpts)
Article1 min read
2021
A heapin’ helpin’ of top-notch guitarists weigh in on the year’s best new albums, songs, guitar solos, riffs & more
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John Petrucci
Gear: My new Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty eight-string signature guitar. It’s a total beast. [It] plays like buttah and sounds like a Demogorgon!
New skill, technique or discovery: Picking through all of the notes of a sweep arpeggio as opposed to pulling off on the high E string when descending. It sounds a lot stronger and adds a certain snap at the top of the sequence.
Guitar moment: Writing and recording ‘Awaken the Master’ [from 2021’s A View from the Top of the World] with my Majesty eight-string and being able to creatively explore a new instrument. The last time I had a similar experience was when I got my first seven-string in 1994 while Dream Theater were in the studio writing Awake.
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Nita Strauss
Album: I’m a huge Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment fan – so it was so exciting to finally get LTE3 [featuring John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, Mike Portnoy and Tony Levin]. The album lived up to every ounce of hype!
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Lari Basilio
Solo: I love the first John Petrucci solo on ‘The Passage of Time’ from Liquid Tension Experiment’s new album. It’s so melodic and played with such feeling and expression, making us listeners enter another dimension.
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Matt Heafy (Trivium)
Album: LTE3 by Liquid Tension Experiment