Originally published in Guitar World magazine · January 2026
The Year’s Best New Stuff
Article1 min read
Pro players weigh in on 2025’s best songs, solos, riffs, guitar moments, guitarists of the year, gear and more
Compiled by Andrew Daly
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Al Pitrelli
Guitar Moment: Hellfest, Clisson, France. All the Long Island Italian guitar players were there. Me, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and honorary Long Islander Joe Bonamassa. He said backstage was “like being at the feast of San Gennaro.”
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Chris Caffery
SONG: Dream Theater ‘Midnight Messiah.’ The video was 2025! Honorable mention for Judas Priest’s cover of Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs.’
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Jake E. Lee
New Gear: My old Jordan Bosstone, Nashville-built. My favorite fuzz. And the Dunlop John Petrucci Cry Baby. I don’t know John personally, but his wah has huge balls. I went through almost a dozen from Dunlop, and that’s the one I brought to Back to the Beginning.
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Herman Li
Song/Solo: Dream Theater, ‘The Shadow Man Incident’
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Serena Cherry (Svalbard)
SONG: ‘Night Terror’ by Dream Theater. Parasomnia is the best album Dream Theater has released in years, and ‘Night Terror’ is the standout. Moody, proggy and packed full of epic solos, it’s a song that screams out loud that Dream Theater has very much still got it.
SOLO: The final solo on ‘Night Terror’ by Dream Theater
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Gary Hoey
Riff: Dream Theater, ‘Midnight Messiah’
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Nili Brosh
Album: Dream Theater’s Parasomnia
SOLO: John Petrucci’s solo on ‘Bend The Clock’
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Angel Vivaldi
SONG: ‘Triangulation’ from the Steve Morse album that features John Petrucci. Prog heaven!
SOLO: Dream Theater, ‘In The Arms Of Morpheus’