Is prog-metal shaping the future of the electric guitar as we know it?

“吉他已经死了” - 我们都听说，这是既陈词滥调''，避免了各种文化器官。的确，现在陈词滥调，人们在开玩笑说人们开玩笑（看着您，Wet Leg）。无论相反，有什么充分的证据，通常说它也可能对吉他在数十年中演变为一种乐器的方式，实际上，吉他中发生了多少最令人兴奋和边界的事情世界正在出现在渐进金属的绝对主流世界中。前卫金属倾向于推动信封并欣赏才华的欣赏，这是下一个大吉他事物的天然繁殖场。

仅需快速仔细研究社交媒体即可展示我们的意思 - 几乎没有一天的过去，而没有一些年轻的事情发布如此出色的技术能力壮举，以至于它具有昨天的精力基准 -vai,Satchet al – slack jawed in amazement at the boundaries of physical agility these players are pushing. But there’s one thing that pretty much all the biggest names in this new wave of technical boundary pushers have in common –Tosin Abasi,plini,蒂姆·亨森（Tim Henson）,天使维瓦尔第,曼努埃尔·加德纳·费尔南德斯（Manuel Gardner Fernandes）等人 - 在某种程度上，他们都在扮演渐进的金属。最令人震惊的是，他们实际上可能正在使自己从未有过这种流派 - 时尚。

酷小孩

Suffice to say, there’s not a lot of capes in modern prog-metal – instead what we have is a legion of young, vibrant and diverse musicians, many of whom have fashion chops as razor-sharp as their legato technique. These players are more than just good, they’recool和所有酷事物一样，最终，前卫金属的臀部孩子已经开始跨入主流文化。

You may remember the last year’s storm of controversy when pop idolDoja Cat的音乐总监在MTV EMAS上表演了Plini歌曲的一部分- 但是，真正的重要之处在于，现代流行音乐中最热门的明星之一想将她轻松的排行榜的夏季国歌重新制作成一个prog metal调。

这也不是一个孤立的事件 - 污垢神Stormzy带来了YouTuber和Shred KingRabea Massaadto perform with him as he headlined Reading and Leeds last year. Now, guitar players have always been used to give a bit of musician cred to artists that don’t have a lot of live elements on stage when performing big gigs, but prog guys? That’s new.

而且，这些玩家中的许多玩家也不需要曝光 - Prog Metal的领先灯现在可以吸引大量的在线观众，这些观众将购买他们的商品，音乐，插件和标志性装备。

What’s more, we’re even seeing a number of festivals emerging worldwide specifically celebrating the feats of modern-day technical musicianship, including Techfest – who’s headliners this year were the Per Nilsson fronted outfit Scar Symmetry – and Radar Festival,who in 2023 host two of the modern day titans of progressive music –周边和哈肯。

“对我来说，作为一名吉他手，这些乐队代表了我现在写和扮演自己的方式的大多数原因。作为一名主要是自学成才的音乐家，到目前为止，我只能使用更传统的进步岩石和金属，并通过耳朵和标签学习。外围实际上改变了我的吉他方法。证明了这种类型的普及。

将场景融合在一起

这些节日的重要性不能低估。这些艺术家在网上建立了庞大的社区，这一切都很好，但是，通过将它们放在一个身体上并与其他志趣相投的行为分享他们的观众，它可以雕刻出一个以前根本不存在的地方。

Until recently, prog-metal acts would likely be lumped in with metal festivals, or prog festivals, despite not always having a huge amount in common with many of the other acts on the bill – particularly in the prog scene. Where ‘prog’ music often features everything from flutes to keyboards and synths leading the way, prog-metal is a吉他从最纯粹的意义上讲流派。

阿什利说：“我会这么说，更广泛的前卫绝对是吉他的领导。”“当然，哈肯有键盘Jimi Hendrix，尽管他从来没有真正学会过传统的方式演奏它。这给了他们独特的声音。然后，您看着康纳·卡明斯基（Connor Kaminski）等音乐节的新来者；他是这位爵士融合球员Strandberg，他的措辞令人难以置信，真正粉碎了沉重的音调，然后是令人难以置信的清洗。我认为这是一种非常动态的工具，这就是使它成为prog的领先工具的原因”

但是，这种守卫的改变有一个同谋：鼓。他们在一起似乎打算分手，曾经是鼓和贝司之间毫无疑问的纽带，乐队等乐队Meshuggahhaving paved with way for drums to be just as important a writing tool

“吉他和鼓，我认为这些年来他们的关系越来越近了。”阿什利同意。“对我的个人音乐项目而言，写入Guitar Pro可以使我更加了解鼓，结果我认为我写的更多复杂的音乐对多种乐器有了更好的了解。您去年看我们的许多阵容，其中有几个我们在5 - 6年前贬义地称为“卧室Djent”吉他手。现在，其中一些人的表现非常好，因为他们可以写吉他，贝斯和鼓，并且可以聘请乐队演奏该材料”

推动

前卫金属吉他手和吉他制造商之间总是存在共生的推拉，这导致改进使所有流派的玩家受益，而不仅仅是Prog Metal。技术能力的进步尤其一直推动了技术。而在那个时代evh，如果设备无法屈服于艺术家的意志和想象力，那么EVH和Steve Vai等玩家将选择自己的工具并制定自己的解决方案。如今，在艺术家和制造之间的信息流动更加流畅，制造技术已经发展到一个地步，如果您可以认为它可以做到，那么新的新设计已经出现，例如扩展范围和扇形的粉丝 - 粉丝8串。即使他们不是创新者，通常是渐进的金属先驱者是新设计的早期采用者，而吉他制造中的一些最新创新（如斯特兰德伯格）是在诸如Tosin abasi之类的进步玩家的手中首次找到的和Misha Mansoor。

吉他线索的另一端也可以这样说。诚然，数字建模技术并不是现代碎纸机强迫的事情，但它们再次成为早期采用者。那些年纪大了，可以记住Fractal Audio’sfirst digital modeller will recall that its first endorsees were predominantly metal guitarists, yet these days you’re not surprised to hear that artists such asPat Metheny正在与数字建模器上演，我们似乎每年都越来越近，直到放大器不再是现场舞台设置的日子。

“I think unless you’re playing an arena where the PA is the top PA you could possibly get, you’d be hard pressed to know the difference between digital and more analogue setups,” says Ashley – who should know what she’s talking about. “It’s been interesting to see the bands that have moved to digital; it’s easier for touring. I’d probably say it was about 80 per cent modellers.

“Take Vola for example. They played our festival in 2019 and enroute all their gear got lost. They put up a post just saying like ‘What we need is XYZ’, then they just connected to the internet where they re-downloaded all their patches and off they go. Whereas if it was someone with a more traditional setup, hopefully they’d probably have to take a photo of how they left the dials on their amp, and they’ve got to try and source potentially up to 10 different pedals depending on their setup”

There seems to be a little resentment toward those currently beginning to dominate the scene.Steven Wilsonis anoutspoken adversary of those of a technical persuasion, often describing these players as being devoid of feel and playing fast for the sake of it. Although the irony of his enlisting some of the most technically gifted players out there perhaps being lost on him.

“I like Steven Wilson’s music, but I don’t agree with it,” Ashley explains. “If you were doing music to show off that you’ve mastered your instrument, then you’re doing music for the wrong reasons, and that’s I think more of an issue than just about saying whether music should be as technical as possible or not. I mean, for some of the bands that we had on the line-up, some people might argue why are they on the bill as they’re not ‘prog’. But for me, you know, prog isn’t playing as fast as you can or fitting in as many notes as you can; it’s a whole host of borrowing things from other genres, or doing something slightly different, slightly original”

Taste test

史蒂文有观点吗？在吉他方面，我们并不只是有点自我吸收。这种音乐不是比音乐爱好者更符合音乐家的味道吗？

“I think there’s probably a balance of both,” Ashley reflects. “Catherine and Joe, who co-organises the festival, don’t play instruments. I know Catherine puts on gigs herself. Joe, I know one of his favourite bands is Periphery but he has often said he feels like some songs are filler. And as Periphery are probably in my top five at the moment, I kinda feel like if he did play guitar he might have a slightly different opinion! Not to say that he’s wrong, but I’m saying if he had an understanding of the work that went into behind some of the songs that he doesn’t like, for whatever reason, he might appreciate it more.

“我认为最初是作为我们更广泛的朋友圈子的人群，他们是音乐家和非音乐家的混合在一起，有些人很高兴听音乐，让它影响他们的情绪，影响他们的感觉，帮助他们创造回忆。其他人想学习音乐，学习背后的细节并创建自己的细节。

“这是一个艰难的人，因为我在其他节日中见过，有些我玩过台下的地方，人们在问我我使用的是什么弦乐规，而不是祝贺我的场景或其他任何东西。在雷达上肯定没有那么多。无论您是否是音乐家

在有关雷达节的更多信息www.radarfestival.co.uk