Jason Becker

Cacophony was an American heavy metal band formed in 1986 by guitarists Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. They remained active until 1989, after which... both guitarists would go on to forge their own solo careers and join other bands. The two albums released by Cacophony—Speed Metal Symphony and Go Off! —were showpieces of the kind of highly technical playing typical of the 1980s shred era, with songs featuring fast tempos, melodic solos, exotic neo-classical scales and dual guitar harmonizations. Several of the tracks were entirely instrumental, which prominently demonstrated Friedman and Becker's renowned technical skills. A 2009 article of Guitar World ranked Speed Metal Symphony as ninth in a list of all-time top ten shred albums. Both Friedman and Becker would release their own solo albums—Dragon's Kiss and Perpetual Burn, respectively—in 1988, shortly after which Cacophony ceased to exist. Friedman would later join thrash metal band Megadeth in 1990, remaining with them for nine years as well as releasing several more solo albums, whilst Becker enjoyed a short stint in David Lee Roth's solo band from 1989 to 1991.
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Shrapnel Records is a guitar-oriented record label started in 1980 by record producer Mike Varney. Guitarist Marty Friedman , one of the label's most successful artists, first appeared on the album Unsung Guitar Heroes II in 1980 with the band Vixen. Vixen would later change their name to Hawaii... and release the album One Nation Underground for Shrapnel. In 1981, a friend gave Mike Varney a tape featuring a 17-year-old Swedish guitarist named Yngwie Malmsteen. A year later, Malmsteen wrote to the label stating that he wanted to export his music to America. Varney, who started writing a column called "Spotlight" for Guitar Player magazine in 1982, featured Malmsteen in his February 1983 column. The record executive flew Yngwie to California and set him up with vocalist Ron Keel's new band called Steeler. Steeler's self-titled album became a best selling release for Shrapnel Records. The Shrapnel Records label and a growing worldwide interest in virtuoso "neoclassical-fusion" guitar playing helped launch the careers of dozens of other technically adept guitarists such as David T.
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Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and in the... United States. With roots in blues rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with masculinity and machismo. The first heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple eventually attracted large audiences, though many were critically reviled , a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as "metalheads" or "headbangers".
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