If youʼre like most guitarists, chances are you read Guitar World magazine on a regular basis. And if you read GW, you know that every year they poll the readers of the magazine to get their opinion on who tops the cream of the crop in guitar slingers.
In their April 2009 issue, the magazine posted the results of the 2008 Readerʼs Poll, and weʼre happy to say that ESP artists got the recognition they deserve. Check it out: the 2008 “Most Valuable Players” award was given to James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett. This award is for the best guitar duo in a band, and the Metallica guys (both long-time ESP users) took the top spot over the tandem guitarists in Testament, AC/DC, Slipknot, and Judas Priest. Nicely done, Metallica. You guys might make it big someday.
One thing that you may think of when you hear “ESP” is “metal”. And when you think of “metal”, you might also think of “Alexi Laiho”. Apparently, so do the readers of Guitar World, since Alexi was voted the “Best Metal Guitarist” in the Readerʼs Poll! Thatʼs right; our friend from Children of Bodom is #1, with Kirk Hammett taking the #2 spot in the poll. Between the two of them, nearly 70% of the Guitar World readers feel that ESP players are the best metal guitarists in the universe. We tend to agree with them.
In the “Best New Talent” category, there was some strong competition from a bunch of hot new up-and-coming bands, but no one really came close to Black Tide, who blew out everyone with 43% of the votes for #1 (second place had 19%). Black Tideʼs guitarist is a young man named Austin Diaz, who proudly plays ESP. If you havenʼt heard of Austin yet, itʼs only a matter of time. We feel heʼs one of the best young rock guitarists since... well, ever.
Congratulations to all the members of the ESP family who were recognized by the readers of Guitar World. Also, congratulations to the Guitar World readers for having such great taste in music! And congratulations to us, ESP, for basically ruling. Yeah. Itʼs been proven. We rule.
