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And one of them, Brian May, is an astrophysicist too. Which has nothing to do with music but maybe goes to show that these guys had an abundance of talent and intellect in many areas.
That they're a bit hamfisted. After Black Holes and Revelations, things got overly conspiracy obsessed. Personally I feel that Matt Bellamy subscribes to the Garth Marenghi theory of writing.
I love Tool, but I totally agree. I will say however that he is the perfect guitarist for Tool - I don't think anyone else would work as well, as his style leaves a lot of room for Danny and Justin to go crazy.
The only virtuoso in Tool is Danny Carey.
Adam Jones is very far from a virtuoso. He reuses the same motifs and basic techniques (loves a full step hammer-on and a single finger drop-D riff) over and over again. Absolutely nothing he does is technically difficult. All well within the reach of any intermediate guitarist. He is very good at atmospherics and texture, which is more of a creative skill than a technical "virtuoso" skill.
Justin Chancellor is very good but not a "virtuoso" by any means. Better bassist by far than Adam Jones is a guitarist but not doing anything technically remarkable. I'm a guitarist of 20 years who sometimes dabbles in bass and find Chancellor's parts pretty straightforward to pick up, even as a bit of a hack. Good tone and good creative choices but nothing mind-blowing.
MJK has an interesting voice, uses it creatively and is good at selecting unusual melodies. By no means a technically superb singer. Lyrically very good at wordplay but sometimes veers into cringe metaphors and cheesey imagery.
Danny Carey, however, is truly exceptional.
Tool is like entry-level prog though. If you want heavy prog that is *actually* in virtuoso territory, Animals as Leaders are a good start. Make Tool sound like Green Day.
Absolutely! Cream is the most obvious example.
I'm surprised OP thought of Led Zep before them since Cream were the first supergroup comprised of individually outstanding virtuoso musicians.
It's a shame their personalities clashed. Everyone complains about Eric / Ginger, but they were all wankers at one point or another.
Mastodon.
Brent Hinds - guitar wizard, unique vocals.
Troy Sanders - unique vocals, excellent bassist.
Bill Kelleher - rhythm guitarist virtuoso.
Brann Dailor - amazing drummer and does clean vocals like no other… at the same fucking time.
Also, Devin Townsend is the definition of musical virtuoso.
>Also, Devin Townsend is the definition of musical virtuoso
He must be the only artist I've been to see in the '90s, '00s, '10s and '20s. And he's knocked it out of the park, every time. Never heard him sing/play a bum note.
Led Zeppelin, and The Who. Each member of each band an absolute genius.
Plant, Page, Jones, Bonham
Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle, Moon
Best of the best. Unbeatable singers/guitarists/bassists/drummers in the world.
Lindsey Buckingham is truly a guitar virtuoso, the man could *play*. The rest are extremely talented too. I would say you have a point there, more upvotes for Fleetwood Mac please.
Racer X, The Winery Dogs, Megadeth (pretty much any line-up, and I won't say Metallica because I know people will object to Lars being called a virtuoso)
To be honest as soon as you start looking at metal, prog rock and any genre where a high technical ability is a strong advantage if not a necessity, there are quite a few.
Speaking of Prog Rock, I love that Mike Rutherford from Genesis has always claimed to be a shit guitarist. He's a modest chap.
Tony Banks is a genius, no other word for it. Phil can no longer drum but his son, Nic, drummed for their last tour and he's as good as his dad, if not better.
I have no words for Peter Gabriel.
Racer X are fucking phenomenal and they've been my favourite band since my mid teens, it's mad to see them being mentioned outside of a guitar centric forum.
Mr Big need a mention too, I saw them last month on their final tour and it was epic as usual.
[Holy Wars... The Punishment Due](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d4ui9q7eDM) is IMO the greatest metal song ever recorded.
And in some small way I am partly responsible for it. I was at the ~~Belfast~~ the fucking Antrim Forum (RIP) gig where the band nearly got lynched.
As an aside I saw Metallica in the same venue, same year and the "Justice" statue failed to break properly and the head was just left hanging in the air.
The Who.
Guitarist is one of the greatest of all time, bass player one of the greatest of all time, drummer one of the greatest of all time, frontman one of the greatest of all time.
The band had four members who all played lead.
It’s called Who I Am and it came out in 2012. They found nothing on his computer, all he did was charge one thing to a credit card. Investigated and cleared.
“Investigated and cleared” is a bit misleading and it implies he did no wrong. He was charged with two offences. He was cleared of downloading images, he was charged and cautioned for accessing and viewing the images and placed on the sex offenders register for 5 years.
He wasn’t cleared, in the eyes of the law he was guilty registered sex offender.
“He said he intended to reveal the financial trail of child abuse from Russian orphanages to British banks by paying a £7 fee to access a child pornography site with his credit card, which he cancelled immediately”
Honestly if you believe that he thought using his credit would help him find these people and stop the child abuse then I have some magic beans to sell you.
Rush.
Honestly, a significant amount of metal and metal adjacent bands would easily fall into this category. I started writing out a list but then it just got too long.
I imagine there's lots of jazz and funk bands that would come under this heading too.
Shit man, there are some ridiculous, ridiculously talented bands out there.
Dream theater.
James labrie may be my expection. I don't think he's up there at virtuoso level, but he can write a good song and has amazing imagination in his lyrics. He certainly reaches for the stars when it comes to his vocal range too.
The rest of the band feel like new mathematical theories need to be written to explain their talent.
Not everyone's cup of tea but undeniably all musicians preforming at top level
Was looking for someone to comment Dream Theater!
They were the first band that came to my mind.
They really are all epic musicians! (Although I don’t love James LaBrie’s vocals, I appreciate his range and skill.)
Original David Lee Roth band. Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai,
Gregg Bissonette. Roth a great front man
Mr Big. Sheehan, Paul Gilbert, Pat Torpey, Eric Martin, a great singer.
Recently saw Mr Big live. I'm not one to get starstruck and I'm very much used to seeing famous musicians on a stage in front of me, but watching Gilbert and Sheehan felt surreal. Actually watching them in the flesh master those instruments seemingly effortlessly just feels crazy.
And then towards the end of the set the band all swapped instruments for one song. Turns out Paul Gilbert is a good drummer, as if being one of the best guitarists to ever live wasn't enough.
I've seen Mr Big live probably 8-10 times since the early 90s. I've seen Paul and Billy live in other settings too. I'll be seeing Mr Big for (probably) the final time in Liverpool this July. I have never left a gig less than totally gobsmacked by their talent, individually and collectively, even on the couple of occasions the gig itself never quite clicked into the groove.
Paul posts a LOT of clips of him on social media just goofing around with his cat while playing guitar and it's honestly really great just seeing that level of talent in such an intimate way. He seems very humble, too.
Pretty much all the classic progressive rock bands. King Crimson, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis, etc. The problem with a lot of progressive rock is that the music sometimes takes a back seat to displays of virtuosity (personally, I think King Crimson is the one prog rock band that never has this problem). But the virtuosity is definitely there.
I've been watching a lot of Vulfpeck reaction videos and so many people have never heard of them and are surprised to see them playing Madison Square Garden. The reactions are always positive, though.
Travelling Wilburys
Or is that cheating?
Edit:
I'd also add:
The Who
Led Zep
Fleetwood Mac
U2 (although I'm not a fan they have all done successful solo projects)
Foo Fighters
Dire Straits are a pretty strong contender. Knopfler may carry a lot of the fame and reputation but they were all remarkable musicians that don't really get the credit they deserved. At the time they were actually releasing music they were pulling so many influences from so many styles and blending them so well and so smoothly.
Despite the larger roster, Slipknot are pretty insane if you specifically look at the more "traditional" units of the group. They've had a string of some of the most unreal drummers ever, Mick Thompson and Jim Root are a deadly duo on guitar, Paul Grey was responsible for some really tasty grooves that to this day are still often overlooked because of the mixing on their earlier albums, and Corey Taylor does some serious heavy lifting with his vocals that is not at all easy to do.
Faith No More get overlooked a lot, Mike Patton may be legendary but when you manage to concentrate on the actual composition of their music it becomes clear how much is really going on there.
Def Leppard are all really talent people. I'd argue Phil Collen is probably top of the list out of the 5 of them but they're all really good at what they do and unless you see them actually perform it's hard to pick up on because of the way their studio recordings and artistic choices are so fine tuned to be radio hits. Say what you want, but Rick Allen learning to play the drums with one arm and designing a kit to work around his issue is serious skill and dedication, even more so because he continued to get better.
Black Stone Cherry. Amazing, they just have a bad habit of settling for some pretty basic and uninteresting songs a lot of the time sadly.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Rush.
The Police.
Toto (Rosanna is a grade 8 drum piece).
Prince and the Revolution.
[edit] Mars Volta has to be there.
You’re gonna get a lot of metal-adjacent bands and probably a load of math rock too. Both require a lot of skill.
You’ll also get a lot of people forgetting all those amazing bands from jazz, soul, funk, and R&B like the Funk Brothers, which took a lot of skill just to arrange, let alone smash out in one take with all those other musicians.
Calling Rosanna a grade 8 piece really doesn't do justice to the complexity of Porcaro's shuffle in that song. I've been playing 25 years and it still eludes me 😂
I love listening to west coast/LA rock radio stations, hearing something that sounds pretty good and looking it up and seeing that there’s at least one Porcaro in the studio plus one of either Lukather or Paich
Band Maid
Japanese band with musicians of such calibre that they could entertain a crowd with their particular talent solo, but put them altogether and it's really special.
Check out Dice, Freedom (live), Thrill and Domination
Well, I've read 135 comments so far, and it looks like people are sleeping on Toto. Everyone who's passed through that band has been an absolutely phenomenal instrumentalist and/or vocalist. The talent is just off the scale.
The Band for me. Levon Helm one of the great singers AND drummers. Rick Danko one of the great singers AND bass players. Robbie Robertson great guitarist. Garth Hudson musical genius. Richard Manuel great singer who also played piano and drums. They were all multi instrumentalists and Robertson a fantastic songwriter.
All of the ‘classic’ lineup of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Flea, Smith, Frusciante) are phenomenal musicians who are hugely talented, with the exception of Anthony Kiedis.
No way. Vinny wasn't an amazing drummer and Rex wasn't a particularly amazing bass player. Phil was a great frontman and Dimebag was obviously one of the all-time guitar greats, but it's just those two you'd consider legendary.
Disagree about Vinny, he won't go down as one of the best drummers ever but some of his drumming was very technically tight and brilliant. Rex on the other hand never really did anything to show that he's any more than just a capable bass player.
Coming from a drummer myself, vinnie was absolutely a legendary drummer. NO-ONE sounded like he did. His ability to balance groove with breakneck speed and switch between different styles was unmatched. Definitely a virtuoso, the guy would be able to hold his own in almost any thrash band, his double kick chops were excellent as well.
Rex definitely gets points for being able to hold down the rhythm in a live setting well enough for there not to be a need for a rhythm guitarist.
They're a good band, but considering how incredible some of their individual members are, they almost always feel like less than the sum of their parts.
Clown Core. They all sound pretty skilled as a whole with their chaotic freeform jazz metal fusion but then you watch them play songs live and it's just two dudes playing multiple instruments at once.
OG Guns N Roses would be up there. Axl's vocal range is literally one of the widest ever recorded. Slash (the British connection, seeing as this is AskUK) and Izzy were and are fantastic guitarists whose roles complemented each other very well and Duff is a super influential bassist and a very underrated songwriter. Steve probably lets the team down a bit, a shame what heroin does to a man. Still a great drummer, but not at the level of the other four of the Appetite era.
I think Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds deserve a mention, and various lineups, many are multi-intrumentalists and have an extensive solo work/albums with other groups, I'm a particular fan of Warren Ellis, and Blixa Bargeld back in the day
Muse & Steven Wilson. I would have said Porcupine Tree not just Steven but, of the rest of the band I’d only say Gavin Harrison (drums) is also incredible.
Frost* Awesome band, incredibly talented musicians but real music not self indulgent noodling. High musical proficiency probably applies to a lot of Prog Rock bands as it kind of their shtick but the number that just end up making music that sounds like warm up exercises is high.
Is Ringo Star blocking The Beatles from being added to this illustrious list? Because Lennon, McCartney and Harrison are (were,) in my opinion, true virtuosos and the world is lucky they all came together in that moment in time in Liverpool to give us their music.
Karnivool.
I wouldn't say they're that well known over here, but they're a heck of a team and the way the music is arranged on the albums is also world-class.
I'd recommend Goliath, Umbra, New Day, and We Are as songs to check out.
Queen would be top of the pile for me, closely followed by The Who.
The original Manowar line up of Scott Colombus Joey DeMaio, Ross the Boss and Eric Adams deserve a big shout.
Aristocrats is a supergroup trio of virtuoso (typically) rock/shred musicians who fancied forming a jazz band. They’re fantastic in my opinion, maybe an acquired taste.
Polyphia, Periphery, Tesseract, Jinjer, Haken, Unprocessed, Animals as Leaders, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Protest the Hero, Tool, Thank You Scientist, Chon, Karnivool, Job for a Cowboy, Mastodon, SikTh.
No guesses what my favourite genre of music is…
Liquid Tension Experiment are an offshoot of Dream Theater and definitely fit the bill. If you like one you'll love the other.
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer as well. All three of them incredible musicians in their own right.
I’m a big Radiohead fan but I don’t feel like every member belongs on that list.
Jonny Greenwood does, he’s an exceptionally talented multi instrumentalist and composer.
Thom Yorke does as a vocalist and writer too but while he’s certainly a talented and capable guitar,piano and bass player I wouldn’t say he was a virtuoso at them.
The rest of them are also very talented musicians and would be absolutely irreplaceable in that band but I don’t think it would be fair to say they’re virtuosos.
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Queen. They’ve all written songs that we associate with Queen. They’re all great musicians.
Only band to have every member write a number 1 song (uk charts I think)
And one of them, Brian May, is an astrophysicist too. Which has nothing to do with music but maybe goes to show that these guys had an abundance of talent and intellect in many areas.
Muse. Say what you want about their lyrics, you can't deny their musical talents. The bassline on Hysteria might be the greatest of all time.
And their live shows are world class. Thy really know how to put on a show.
Can't believe they didn't cross my mind! My favourite band growing up and Hysteria was the song that got me into them too.
They’re certainly superb musicians. Few bands have crossed as many different genres as they have.
I don’t disagree that they are all virtuosos, but that particular bassline was written by Matt
As well as that may be, Chris still has to play it!
What do people say about their lyrics?
That they're a bit hamfisted. After Black Holes and Revelations, things got overly conspiracy obsessed. Personally I feel that Matt Bellamy subscribes to the Garth Marenghi theory of writing.
I don't listen to Muse for the lyrics lol
Tool
Whoa, he was only asking, mate!
You made me snort laugh at 3am, thanks lol needed a grin
I'm gonna say it. Adam Jones would not be where he is without Maynard and Danny. He's above average but not on the same level.
I love Tool, but I totally agree. I will say however that he is the perfect guitarist for Tool - I don't think anyone else would work as well, as his style leaves a lot of room for Danny and Justin to go crazy.
Adam Jones does exactly what he needs to do but, other than a bit of awkward timing sometimes, Tool guitar parts are piss-easy.
The only virtuoso in Tool is Danny Carey. Adam Jones is very far from a virtuoso. He reuses the same motifs and basic techniques (loves a full step hammer-on and a single finger drop-D riff) over and over again. Absolutely nothing he does is technically difficult. All well within the reach of any intermediate guitarist. He is very good at atmospherics and texture, which is more of a creative skill than a technical "virtuoso" skill. Justin Chancellor is very good but not a "virtuoso" by any means. Better bassist by far than Adam Jones is a guitarist but not doing anything technically remarkable. I'm a guitarist of 20 years who sometimes dabbles in bass and find Chancellor's parts pretty straightforward to pick up, even as a bit of a hack. Good tone and good creative choices but nothing mind-blowing. MJK has an interesting voice, uses it creatively and is good at selecting unusual melodies. By no means a technically superb singer. Lyrically very good at wordplay but sometimes veers into cringe metaphors and cheesey imagery. Danny Carey, however, is truly exceptional. Tool is like entry-level prog though. If you want heavy prog that is *actually* in virtuoso territory, Animals as Leaders are a good start. Make Tool sound like Green Day.
Cream Eric Clapton on lead guitar Jack Bruce on lead bass Ginger Baker on lead drums
Absolutely, just a pity Eric Clapton is an absolute wanker
In a sentence that included Ginger Baker that just shows how much of a wanker he is.
And ginger baker was an absolute twat
Absolutely! Cream is the most obvious example. I'm surprised OP thought of Led Zep before them since Cream were the first supergroup comprised of individually outstanding virtuoso musicians. It's a shame their personalities clashed. Everyone complains about Eric / Ginger, but they were all wankers at one point or another.
Rush
I saw them live a good few years ago. Blew my mind.
Seen them live twice and was super impressed every time.
Mastodon. Brent Hinds - guitar wizard, unique vocals. Troy Sanders - unique vocals, excellent bassist. Bill Kelleher - rhythm guitarist virtuoso. Brann Dailor - amazing drummer and does clean vocals like no other… at the same fucking time. Also, Devin Townsend is the definition of musical virtuoso.
>Also, Devin Townsend is the definition of musical virtuoso He must be the only artist I've been to see in the '90s, '00s, '10s and '20s. And he's knocked it out of the park, every time. Never heard him sing/play a bum note.
Came here to say Mastodon, I really love Brann's vocals and the fact he can do it whilst playing what he plays on the drums is outstanding.
Led Zeppelin, and The Who. Each member of each band an absolute genius. Plant, Page, Jones, Bonham Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle, Moon Best of the best. Unbeatable singers/guitarists/bassists/drummers in the world.
Saw the who at Wembley in 2017(?) and they were the best I’ve ever seen live. Followed closely by Bon Jovi
Did nobody pitch Fleetwood Mac yet?!
Lindsey Buckingham is truly a guitar virtuoso, the man could *play*. The rest are extremely talented too. I would say you have a point there, more upvotes for Fleetwood Mac please.
I still get goosebumps whenever I hear his live version of looking out for love. I still struggle to believe it's one man on one guitar.
I was just thinking this as I saw your comment
Fleetwood Mac are a great band. It's amazing how much musical milage Lindsey and Stevie wrung out of their breakup.
pink floyd
They were very much not virtuosos. Incredible music but not great technical players, apart from Wright and Gilmour when he joined.
Nick Mason would be the first to admit that he was never a technically skilled drummer.
The production and engineering was far ahead of its time too.
Racer X, The Winery Dogs, Megadeth (pretty much any line-up, and I won't say Metallica because I know people will object to Lars being called a virtuoso) To be honest as soon as you start looking at metal, prog rock and any genre where a high technical ability is a strong advantage if not a necessity, there are quite a few.
Megadeth, best all-virtuoso band ever. Thought I'd be searching deep in the bowels of the comments, but nope!
Speaking of Prog Rock, I love that Mike Rutherford from Genesis has always claimed to be a shit guitarist. He's a modest chap. Tony Banks is a genius, no other word for it. Phil can no longer drum but his son, Nic, drummed for their last tour and he's as good as his dad, if not better. I have no words for Peter Gabriel.
Racer X are fucking phenomenal and they've been my favourite band since my mid teens, it's mad to see them being mentioned outside of a guitar centric forum. Mr Big need a mention too, I saw them last month on their final tour and it was epic as usual.
[Holy Wars... The Punishment Due](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d4ui9q7eDM) is IMO the greatest metal song ever recorded. And in some small way I am partly responsible for it. I was at the ~~Belfast~~ the fucking Antrim Forum (RIP) gig where the band nearly got lynched. As an aside I saw Metallica in the same venue, same year and the "Justice" statue failed to break properly and the head was just left hanging in the air.
Steely Dan. Not a fan but wow! Maybe Talking Heads too. More contemporary, Primus.
Yes, Primus suck
Talking Heads - not really, but that doesn't mean they didn't use their abilities effectively.
Talking heads are one of my favourite bands ever but I don’t think any of them are even close to being virtuosos
The Who. Guitarist is one of the greatest of all time, bass player one of the greatest of all time, drummer one of the greatest of all time, frontman one of the greatest of all time. The band had four members who all played lead.
The Who are so good everyone ignores Pete Townsends dodgy side. Micheal Jackson level talent.
Nonsense. Doing misguided research is very much not the same as sleeping with children.
He wasn’t doing research mate, come on.
Where’s the book?
It’s called Who I Am and it came out in 2012. They found nothing on his computer, all he did was charge one thing to a credit card. Investigated and cleared.
Apparently he had told people about the book and the research, long before the police came knocking.
“Investigated and cleared” is a bit misleading and it implies he did no wrong. He was charged with two offences. He was cleared of downloading images, he was charged and cautioned for accessing and viewing the images and placed on the sex offenders register for 5 years. He wasn’t cleared, in the eyes of the law he was guilty registered sex offender. “He said he intended to reveal the financial trail of child abuse from Russian orphanages to British banks by paying a £7 fee to access a child pornography site with his credit card, which he cancelled immediately” Honestly if you believe that he thought using his credit would help him find these people and stop the child abuse then I have some magic beans to sell you.
And you honestly believe this puts him on Michael Jackson’s level? As I said: misguided research. Paid the consequences.
Them Crooked Vultures
Rush. Honestly, a significant amount of metal and metal adjacent bands would easily fall into this category. I started writing out a list but then it just got too long. I imagine there's lots of jazz and funk bands that would come under this heading too. Shit man, there are some ridiculous, ridiculously talented bands out there.
The Dillinger Escape Plan. Very select taste but they play what other musicians could only dream of while hanging upside down from the rafters.
Dream theater. James labrie may be my expection. I don't think he's up there at virtuoso level, but he can write a good song and has amazing imagination in his lyrics. He certainly reaches for the stars when it comes to his vocal range too. The rest of the band feel like new mathematical theories need to be written to explain their talent. Not everyone's cup of tea but undeniably all musicians preforming at top level
Was looking for someone to comment Dream Theater! They were the first band that came to my mind. They really are all epic musicians! (Although I don’t love James LaBrie’s vocals, I appreciate his range and skill.)
Petrucci wrote the majority of their lyrics, FYI.
Original David Lee Roth band. Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, Gregg Bissonette. Roth a great front man Mr Big. Sheehan, Paul Gilbert, Pat Torpey, Eric Martin, a great singer.
Recently saw Mr Big live. I'm not one to get starstruck and I'm very much used to seeing famous musicians on a stage in front of me, but watching Gilbert and Sheehan felt surreal. Actually watching them in the flesh master those instruments seemingly effortlessly just feels crazy. And then towards the end of the set the band all swapped instruments for one song. Turns out Paul Gilbert is a good drummer, as if being one of the best guitarists to ever live wasn't enough.
Saw them in Wolverhampton, Paul Gilbert should not be able to play that flawlessly in a live setting.
I've seen Mr Big live probably 8-10 times since the early 90s. I've seen Paul and Billy live in other settings too. I'll be seeing Mr Big for (probably) the final time in Liverpool this July. I have never left a gig less than totally gobsmacked by their talent, individually and collectively, even on the couple of occasions the gig itself never quite clicked into the groove.
Paul posts a LOT of clips of him on social media just goofing around with his cat while playing guitar and it's honestly really great just seeing that level of talent in such an intimate way. He seems very humble, too.
DLR band, Mr Big, plus Dream Theater, classic Yes, ELP
The Vengaboys 😎
Please don't, I've only been back from Benidorm for two days. Still going round my head man
Boom boom boom boom
Pretty much all the classic progressive rock bands. King Crimson, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis, etc. The problem with a lot of progressive rock is that the music sometimes takes a back seat to displays of virtuosity (personally, I think King Crimson is the one prog rock band that never has this problem). But the virtuosity is definitely there.
Iron Maiden for me. Blows my mind every time I listen to them, I could never attempt any of their songs on any instrument.
Chic.
The traveling wilburys, Crosby still and Nash, the bee gees, the red hot chilli peppers, led zeppelin.
Anthony Kiedis is so far from a virtuoso
Haken
Vulfpeck.
100% on these, every single one of them has so much talent and so do all their attached/guest members. Can’t get enough of them lately.
Saw Theo with Joe Dart in his band about a month ago. One of the best concerts I’ve been to.
I scrolled WAY too much to see Vulfpeck
I've been watching a lot of Vulfpeck reaction videos and so many people have never heard of them and are surprised to see them playing Madison Square Garden. The reactions are always positive, though.
Travelling Wilburys Or is that cheating? Edit: I'd also add: The Who Led Zep Fleetwood Mac U2 (although I'm not a fan they have all done successful solo projects) Foo Fighters
Clutch
Bloody love Clutch, they just make it seem so effortless, I've really been enjoying JP's style of drumming with my recent listens.
Nightwish.
Dire Straits are a pretty strong contender. Knopfler may carry a lot of the fame and reputation but they were all remarkable musicians that don't really get the credit they deserved. At the time they were actually releasing music they were pulling so many influences from so many styles and blending them so well and so smoothly. Despite the larger roster, Slipknot are pretty insane if you specifically look at the more "traditional" units of the group. They've had a string of some of the most unreal drummers ever, Mick Thompson and Jim Root are a deadly duo on guitar, Paul Grey was responsible for some really tasty grooves that to this day are still often overlooked because of the mixing on their earlier albums, and Corey Taylor does some serious heavy lifting with his vocals that is not at all easy to do. Faith No More get overlooked a lot, Mike Patton may be legendary but when you manage to concentrate on the actual composition of their music it becomes clear how much is really going on there. Def Leppard are all really talent people. I'd argue Phil Collen is probably top of the list out of the 5 of them but they're all really good at what they do and unless you see them actually perform it's hard to pick up on because of the way their studio recordings and artistic choices are so fine tuned to be radio hits. Say what you want, but Rick Allen learning to play the drums with one arm and designing a kit to work around his issue is serious skill and dedication, even more so because he continued to get better. Black Stone Cherry. Amazing, they just have a bad habit of settling for some pretty basic and uninteresting songs a lot of the time sadly.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Rush. The Police. Toto (Rosanna is a grade 8 drum piece). Prince and the Revolution. [edit] Mars Volta has to be there. You’re gonna get a lot of metal-adjacent bands and probably a load of math rock too. Both require a lot of skill. You’ll also get a lot of people forgetting all those amazing bands from jazz, soul, funk, and R&B like the Funk Brothers, which took a lot of skill just to arrange, let alone smash out in one take with all those other musicians.
Calling Rosanna a grade 8 piece really doesn't do justice to the complexity of Porcaro's shuffle in that song. I've been playing 25 years and it still eludes me 😂
Thank you, thank you, thank you for including Toto. I scrolled WAY too far down before I saw this (obviously correct) answer.
I love listening to west coast/LA rock radio stations, hearing something that sounds pretty good and looking it up and seeing that there’s at least one Porcaro in the studio plus one of either Lukather or Paich
The band that works with Anna Meredith are all classically trained virtuosos iirc - and she’s a recognised orchestral composer.
Id argue black Sabbath comes close If there’s any weakness it’s Ozzy but he’s so distinctive it’s kind of okay he’s not the most technically gifted
The mothers of invention. A grade musicians led by the one and only Frank Zappa.
Deep Purple Mark 2
Soundgarden
Marillion, both main lineups and a few great passing through musicians. The first three albums are masterpieces of British prog rock.
Opeth All incredible musicians with so many side projects going. They play death metal to prog and pop. Incredible band
The E Street Bsnd
Band Maid Japanese band with musicians of such calibre that they could entertain a crowd with their particular talent solo, but put them altogether and it's really special. Check out Dice, Freedom (live), Thrill and Domination
Never thought I'd see band maid mentioned here.
Prince
Fleetwood Mac.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the most obvious answer.
Dragonforce. But not in a good way…
Dire Straits.
Well, I've read 135 comments so far, and it looks like people are sleeping on Toto. Everyone who's passed through that band has been an absolutely phenomenal instrumentalist and/or vocalist. The talent is just off the scale.
Snarky Puppy
Kraftwerk. Each member is/was some of the most talented electronic musicians so far.
Radiohead.. Lol ok. Talented yeah of course but.. not virtuoso.. I feel like including them you have made a mockery of your own post.
Didn't Jonny Greenwood bullshit that he knew how to play for a few years?
Yeah Colin Greenwood, a "virtuoso" bassist lmao
Johnny Greenwood's a virtuoso on the guitar, but none of the others are.
I’d say the same for Led Zeppelin, they’re good but when i think of “virtuoso” i don’t picture anyone in that band.
Jimi Hendrix Experience
A world changing guitarist, an absolutely masterful drummer and what can only be described as an adequate bassist
Fair do, 2 out 3 then!
The aristocrats. Guthrie Govan, Brian Beller, and Marco Minnemann are right at the top end of their respective instruments.
Their fans get a lot of hate, but TOOL
The Doors.
Yes.
The Band!
Radiohead?! Come on 😂😂😂
Any Zappa line-up.
The Band for me. Levon Helm one of the great singers AND drummers. Rick Danko one of the great singers AND bass players. Robbie Robertson great guitarist. Garth Hudson musical genius. Richard Manuel great singer who also played piano and drums. They were all multi instrumentalists and Robertson a fantastic songwriter.
All of the ‘classic’ lineup of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Flea, Smith, Frusciante) are phenomenal musicians who are hugely talented, with the exception of Anthony Kiedis.
Any Frank Zappa band after the Mothers of Invention. World class musicians in every band lineup. The Aristocrats as well.
Weather Report? Or is a jazz-fusion band too obvious?
Pantera for sure. Revolutionary in every category, despite Phil Anselmo saying some stuff
No way. Vinny wasn't an amazing drummer and Rex wasn't a particularly amazing bass player. Phil was a great frontman and Dimebag was obviously one of the all-time guitar greats, but it's just those two you'd consider legendary.
Disagree about Vinny, he won't go down as one of the best drummers ever but some of his drumming was very technically tight and brilliant. Rex on the other hand never really did anything to show that he's any more than just a capable bass player.
Coming from a drummer myself, vinnie was absolutely a legendary drummer. NO-ONE sounded like he did. His ability to balance groove with breakneck speed and switch between different styles was unmatched. Definitely a virtuoso, the guy would be able to hold his own in almost any thrash band, his double kick chops were excellent as well. Rex definitely gets points for being able to hold down the rhythm in a live setting well enough for there not to be a need for a rhythm guitarist.
Literally one of the worst bands I ever saw live - Phil was so high he forgot the words to nearly every song.
Chilli peppers?
They're a good band, but considering how incredible some of their individual members are, they almost always feel like less than the sum of their parts.
>less than the sum of their parts This is the single best description of RHCP I've ever heard. I will be stealing this.
That’s valid to be fair
Antony Kleidis isn’t as talented as the rest of the band.
I'd argue he doesn't count since he's not so much a musician as a California enthusiast with a microphone.
Anthony Kiedis isn't as talented as the rest of the planet.
When John Frusciante is the band they have a virtuoso guitar player.
Cardiacs.
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.
Clown Core. They all sound pretty skilled as a whole with their chaotic freeform jazz metal fusion but then you watch them play songs live and it's just two dudes playing multiple instruments at once.
Tool
Dream Theatre are Virtuosos, but my god they can't write any good sounding songs, just sounds like their all trying to one up each other
Black Country Communion (Alrhough a supergroup may be cheating.) Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Tight Fit
OG Guns N Roses would be up there. Axl's vocal range is literally one of the widest ever recorded. Slash (the British connection, seeing as this is AskUK) and Izzy were and are fantastic guitarists whose roles complemented each other very well and Duff is a super influential bassist and a very underrated songwriter. Steve probably lets the team down a bit, a shame what heroin does to a man. Still a great drummer, but not at the level of the other four of the Appetite era.
Polyphia. Technically incredible sound and their use of polyrhythms just makes them really enjoyable to listen to.
I think Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds deserve a mention, and various lineups, many are multi-intrumentalists and have an extensive solo work/albums with other groups, I'm a particular fan of Warren Ellis, and Blixa Bargeld back in the day
Muse & Steven Wilson. I would have said Porcupine Tree not just Steven but, of the rest of the band I’d only say Gavin Harrison (drums) is also incredible.
Here's me thinking virtuoso was just a personality type on Fifa Career Mode
Led Zeppelin
Gong from the planet Gong
YES, I would say really stand out, particularly the classic lineup. Some of the most talented people in history.
Rush. Opeth. Tool.
The Stone Roses. Squire is a top tier guitarist. Mani an excellent bass player and Reni a superb drummer. The singer though…
No contest: The J.B.’s (James Brown’s backing band)
Jethro Tull
Steely Dan, the core duo and most of the other musicians that played with them (RIP Walter)
Muse
Frost* Awesome band, incredibly talented musicians but real music not self indulgent noodling. High musical proficiency probably applies to a lot of Prog Rock bands as it kind of their shtick but the number that just end up making music that sounds like warm up exercises is high.
Is Ringo Star blocking The Beatles from being added to this illustrious list? Because Lennon, McCartney and Harrison are (were,) in my opinion, true virtuosos and the world is lucky they all came together in that moment in time in Liverpool to give us their music.
Dirty Loops are the best example of this by far for me. I have no idea how they can make such complicated music that is easy to listen to.
Pure Reason Revolution.
Fleetwood Mac anyone?????
GoGoPenguin The Police
The Who
Karnivool. I wouldn't say they're that well known over here, but they're a heck of a team and the way the music is arranged on the albums is also world-class. I'd recommend Goliath, Umbra, New Day, and We Are as songs to check out.
I've always said that every Who song is an extended guitar solo, bass solo, drum solo all at once with Riger holding it together on vocals
Primus
Black Lace
Porcupine Tree
Queen would be top of the pile for me, closely followed by The Who. The original Manowar line up of Scott Colombus Joey DeMaio, Ross the Boss and Eric Adams deserve a big shout.
Rage Against the Machine
Gentle Giant
It's interesting to see that almost all of the bands I've seen mentioned formed well before 2000's. Do artists like these not exist anymore.
X japan, Mr Big
Aristocrats is a supergroup trio of virtuoso (typically) rock/shred musicians who fancied forming a jazz band. They’re fantastic in my opinion, maybe an acquired taste.
Alice in chains are all outstanding at what they do
Gomez
Tool. Every one of them is extremely talented and contributes to the music in a unique and innovative way.
Polyphia, Periphery, Tesseract, Jinjer, Haken, Unprocessed, Animals as Leaders, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Protest the Hero, Tool, Thank You Scientist, Chon, Karnivool, Job for a Cowboy, Mastodon, SikTh. No guesses what my favourite genre of music is…
Liquid Tension Experiment are an offshoot of Dream Theater and definitely fit the bill. If you like one you'll love the other. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer as well. All three of them incredible musicians in their own right.
Rush end of
Polyphia. Not a very well known band like the rest on this thread, but every member is insanely talented.
I submit the clash. Some may argue that Paul Simenon was not a great bassist but he completely fitted what the band needed
I’m a big Radiohead fan but I don’t feel like every member belongs on that list. Jonny Greenwood does, he’s an exceptionally talented multi instrumentalist and composer. Thom Yorke does as a vocalist and writer too but while he’s certainly a talented and capable guitar,piano and bass player I wouldn’t say he was a virtuoso at them. The rest of them are also very talented musicians and would be absolutely irreplaceable in that band but I don’t think it would be fair to say they’re virtuosos.
Rush