Welcome one and all to the Guitar Wars. These battles feature songs nominated by you, the folks from the Realms. This isn’t about who the better guitarist is, or what band is better. This is about the instrument and the song. Great solos are something that make us sit up and take notice, but the guitar is more than that. There are great riffs like the one in Beat It, which was not done by Eddie Van Halen. You know, that awesome riff that permeates the song is also the part that EVH had nothing to do with.

There are ways that the guitarist wraps his playing around the melody and makes a perfect fit that’s so subtle and imperceptible that most times it gets missed. And of course, there are the solos, some with blinding speed and some played so eloquently and with so much feel that you can get lost in one sustained note after another.

You are hear! Hendrix, Clapton, Lifeson, Atkins, Page, Abasi, Santana, Morello and a host of others will be popping up. Come on in and check out the virtuosity of these and others. Find new songs you can add to your shuffle or just reminisce on songs you may not have heard in a while. Enjoy.

Listen to each song and pay attention to the guitar part and vote for the song whose guitar part you liked better. Maybe you’re a fan of the slide, or finger-picking or electric solo, but give each song a chance and then vote for the performance that you liked better. We’ll go round by round and match by match until we have a winner. That song will be crowned best overall guitar song to listen to on the Realms. All the songs will have the main guitarist or guitarists listed along with the band’s name and the name of the song. Critique it if you want, and judge it as you will, but keep in mind, this isn’t a battle of what band or artist is better. I for one may not be a fan of a certain band or solo artist, but that will not keep me from voting for a song of theirs if that song has one of the most gorgeous guitar solos ever heard.

Matchups will close on the fifth day after they are posted.

So, without further adieu, here we go:

TOTAL TRASH – Ronaldo/Moore/Sonic Youth

CAFO – Tosin Abasi/Animals As Leaders
Interesting to note that Abasi (the black dude on gtr) plays an 8 string guitar. This allows him to get some deeper sounds, and you'll notice that at around the 1:12 mark when he sounds like he's playing a bass solo.

ROUND 1 MATCHES:
1 Chet Atkins (Orange Blossom Special)Vs Buddy Guy (Baby, Please Don’t Leave Me) Chet Atkins wins 11-9
2 Clapton/Allman – Derek & the Dominos (Layla) Vs Joe Satriani (Oriental Melody) Satriani wins 13-8
3 John Mayer (Slow Dancing in a Burning Room Vs Duane Eddy (Rebel Rouser) Duane Eddy wins 11-10
4 B.B. King (The Thrill Is Gone) Vs Alex Lifeson – Rush (Working Man B.B. King wins 16-5
5 Jimmy Page – Led Zeppelin (Black Dog) Vs Eric Clapton – The Beatles (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) Eric Clapton wins 12-7
6 Adrian Smith – Iron Maiden (Sea of Madness) Vs Mick Jones – The Clash (Lost in a Supermarket) Adrian Smith wins 12-9
7 Pete Townshend – The Who (Pinball Wizard) Vs Friedman/Becker – Cacophony (Concerto) Friedman/Becker wins 8-7
8 Ronnie Montrose – Montrose (Space Station #5) Vs Allen Collins – Lynyrd Skynyrd (Free Bird) Allen Collins wins 13-6
9 Angus Young – AC/DC (Fling Thing/Rocker) Vs Steve Clark – Def Leppard (Switch 625) Angus Young wins 12-9
10 J Mascis – Dinosaur Jr (Pick Me Up) Vs Snakefinger (Climbing the Ladder) J Mascis wins 16-4
11 George Lynch – Dokken (Mr Scary) Vs Henry Paul – The Outlaws (Green Grass and High Tides) Henry Paul wins 14-7
12 Yngwie Malmsteen (Arpeggios from Hell) Vs Brian Setzer (Switchblade 327)
13 Sterling Morrison – Velvet Underground (Oh! Sweet Nothin’) Vs Daniel Ash – Love and Rockets (Yin and Yang and the Flowerpot Man)
14 Zakk Wylde – Ozzy Osbourne (No More Tears) Vs Robin Trower (Day of the Eagle)
15 Ronaldo/Moore – Sonic Youth (Total Trash) Vs Tosin Abasi – Animals As Leaders (CAFO)

Wow. Color me impressed.

CAFO – Tosin Abasi

Who ever nominated this, I thank you.

When I read VG9's statement below the song about an 8 string guitar, I immediately thought of something of a Korn knock-off. Nope. A hundred times better.

Holy smokes! A vote for CAFO by Tosin Abasi/Animals As Leaders.

I, too will vote for CAFO.

Maybe I just didn't get it but CAFO didn't do anything for me, just more metal guitar that wasn't helped by a drummer that couldn't keep time in a clock store.

I am going with the innovators of art rock and a song that shows both their melodic and distortion heavy sides.

Total Trash

\m/\m/

Tosin Abasi and Animals as Leaders, though I fully expect to vote against him in later rounds.

Add me to the Tosin Abasi camp.

your welcome

well this is one of my nominee's and i have to see that CAFO – Tosin Abasi/Animals As Leaders is my vote. i did listen to the other song very hard with an open mind and a fair judgement was passed. tosin is one of my favorite guitar players now. this band is amazing they way they mix metal with blue's, progressive, and jazz fusion. i can't say enough.

o and btw one of my favorite parts of this song is at 4:00 its a classical break down.

the drummer in this bands is amazing, he is keeping perfect time. the thing is that the do alot of mathematical equations in there music. so like if the guitar is in 4/4 timing, the drum's might be in 3/5. it makes it so they are off sync but sync up at the same time, the band TOOL does the same stuff. it sounds a bit weird but it is actually on time. its hard to explain but it is on time.

I'm familiar with the concept and I totally agree that it can be very cool in bands like Tool, or in math-rock groups like 65daysofstatic, or Mogwai. Complicated time signatures can be awesome without a doubt, but when done right the different aspects of the music compliment each other, that sounded like the guitar and the drums were fighting against each other and it made it seem disjointed in a bad way.

But that's just my two cents, if you guys dig it that is awesome, it is always better if someone likes something than if they don't, it just isn't my cup of tea.

ok kool. i am just glad you know something about music.

I remember the first time I heard Sonic Youth, I thought, "Now if the Velvet Underground had stayed together, this is probably what they'd sound like." I was blown away. I've been lucky enough to catch them live and I wanted to cry, they were that good. I know we didn't get an Adrian Belew song in here, but it's like his spirit is with us on Total Trash.

My son turned me on to Animals as Leaders after he saw them at the Summer Slaughter tour last year. I remember him telling me that I had to check out this guitarist. Tosin Abasi's a freak. He does some raw things on the fretboard that are even better than what Stanley Jordan does.

I have to go with Thurston Moore here as it's the solo that I can relate to more. There's a great feel to it that just captures my attention. I've always said that Billy Corgin is like the Picasso of guitarists (yes I do have a Billy nom in here somewhere), but even Picasso had to be preceded by someone and the Pumpkins were preceded by the Youth.

Ronaldo/Moore - Total Trash

I'm going with Total Trash as well.

I will go with Animals as Leaders They definitely blew me away after the intro that started to annoy me. I can't believe that they are from the D.C. area and I have not heard anything about them. Oh well.