Who influenced your favourite bands?

[Pedrito]

Something I always really enjoyed was reading bands or musicians get excited about other bands and openly talk about why or how they influenced them. Unfortunately many seem to keep it a secret and it bugs me in interviews when journalists never ask, what to me, is the most obvious question (at least for me) of all...who influences you? What band makes you want to jump through a brick wall? blah blah you get the idea.

The obvious one for me is the Diamond Head influence on the Hetfield/Mustaine guitar playing. I eventually saw Brian Tatler in Fibber Magees one night and I couldn´t wipe the smile off my face watching a true master at work and also immersing myself in a guitar style that literally changed my life.."I would not be here today if not for God, Devalera, my horny parents and Brian Tatler"..haha fuck off you twat!

Another band is Watchtower. Their influence on Pantera is something that I have never read about, but they Pantera, from what I understand, gigged extensively with them and Kings X(I think) around Texas, back when they were trying to break it big. Just listen to Control and Resistance, the tempo changes, the manic riffing, the demented lead work, that fucking amazing voice and then go and listen to Cowboys from Hell. The influence is all over it.

Any other bands out there who are just wearing their influences on their sleeves, and tell me why if you can, is it the drumming, the guitar playing? Something I´ve always been into and which has got me into so many bands over the years.

[Juggz]

Watchtower's influence is subtle, at times, but very far reaching. The music they were writing when Metallica were releasing Kill Em All is so advanced for the time. When Roger Patterson died, Doug Keyser was asked to play bass on Unquestionable Presence as he was Patterson's favourite bassist. Steve Flynn was clearly a also student. You can find traces of their sound in pretty much every techy metal band. Reinert got an awful lot from from Rick Colaluca too.

The fist time I heard Birds of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra was an eye-opener. I was drawn there by reading how Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson were massive fans but, on listening, it was clear Cynic had spent an awful lot of time listening to it, too.

[Pedrito]

That's the kind of detail I'm looking for, cheers man! I've been listening to Watchtower and Atheist all week funnily enough. Have you heard the Cynic demos with Tony Choy on bass...incredible versions.

The Mahavishnu thing I've heard quite a few times but could never get into them. Is there a particular song or album that you'd recommend?

[lifeeternal]

That's the kind of detail I'm looking for, cheers man! I've been listening to Watchtower and Atheist all week funnily enough. Have you heard the Cynic demos with Tony Choy on bass...incredible versions.

The Mahavishnu thing I've heard quite a few times but could never get into them. Is there a particular song or album that you'd recommend?

Birds of Fire is unbelievable. If you cant enjoy this there  is no hope for you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSIEkPqVgk

[Juggz]

That's the kind of detail I'm looking for, cheers man! I've been listening to Watchtower and Atheist all week funnily enough. Have you heard the Cynic demos with Tony Choy on bass...incredible versions.

Oh yeah, I have heard them a lot 

Choy is one of my favourite bassists. Hearing Uriboric Forms on the At Death's Door II comp had me chasing the Roadrunner demo and I was delighted when someone put all the early stuff up on the old Cynical Sphere forum. I spent a lot of time and money picking up as much of the Cynic-associated stuff as I could find over the years and went over to Bloodstock when Atheist first got back together to see them with Choy.

As for Mahavishnu, Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire and The Lost Trident Sessions are all class to my ears. It's hard to pick out one song as something more notable than anything else, They're just albums I'd put on and let them flow, rather than a kind of forensic analysis listen. They're more about vibe and details for me.

[Ducky]

I'd never have drawn a line between Watchtower and Pantera, interesting (makes sense that they'd gig together as they're both Texan). I do remember reading a thing about how the outro to Floods is pure Ty Tabor worship. Much to my shame I only got into Kings X a few years back, but when I read that it was a total "holy fuck it really is" moment.

One of the big ones for me is Allan Holdsworth. You can hear his style of playing all over Fred Thordendal's leadwork, Paul Masvidal's and Jason Gobel's earlier playing with Cynic too. It's cool that a lot of my favourite metal records have more of a jazz influence to them and the players than metal. Look at Sean Reinert - he lists the likes of Gary Husband and Vinnie Colaiuta as some of his favourites (both of whom played with Holdsworth as well).

I believe Steve Flynn from Atheist is a massive Rush/Neil Peart fan and it's all over his playing and Piece of Time. I got into both of those bands at roughly the same time and have always felt that the instrumental section in Freewill formed the basis of a lot of Atheist's (and other tech-death bands) sound.

I fell in love with Opeth in my early music days because of how fluid and melodic some of the lead playing is. Then, when I made the leap to 70s prog and discovered Camel, the influence of Andy Latimer's playing made too much sense.

[Pedrito]

That's the kind of detail I'm looking for, cheers man! I've been listening to Watchtower and Atheist all week funnily enough. Have you heard the Cynic demos with Tony Choy on bass...incredible versions.

Oh yeah, I have heard them a lot 

Choy is one of my favourite bassists. Hearing Uriboric Forms on the At Death's Door II comp had me chasing the Roadrunner demo and I was delighted when someone put all the early stuff up on the old Cynical Sphere forum. I spent a lot of time and money picking up as much of the Cynic-associated stuff as I could find over the years and went over to Bloodstock when Atheist first got back together to see them with Choy.

As for Mahavishnu, Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire and The Lost Trident Sessions are all class to my ears. It's hard to pick out one song as something more notable than anything else, They're just albums I'd put on and let them flow, rather than a kind of forensic analysis listen. They're more about vibe and details for me.

Savage..great to hear someone into great music. Any other bands you'd recommend? I'm always on the lookout for a hidden undiscovered gem. I'll give Mahavishnu another go, I always seem to just switch them off, despite loving Prog stuff.

Seeing Atheist live must have been something

[Pedrito]

I'd never have drawn a line between Watchtower and Pantera, interesting (makes sense that they'd gig together as they're both Texan). I do remember reading a thing about how the outro to Floods is pure Ty Tabor worship. Much to my shame I only got into Kings X a few years back, but when I read that it was a total "holy fuck it really is" moment.

One of the big ones for me is Allan Holdsworth. You can hear his style of playing all over Fred Thordendal's leadwork, Paul Masvidal's and Jason Gobel's earlier playing with Cynic too. It's cool that a lot of my favourite metal records have more of a jazz influence to them and the players than metal. Look at Sean Reinert - he lists the likes of Gary Husband and Vinnie Colaiuta as some of his favourites (both of whom played with Holdsworth as well).

I believe Steve Flynn from Atheist is a massive Rush/Neil Peart fan and it's all over his playing and Piece of Time. I got into both of those bands at roughly the same time and have always felt that the instrumental section in Freewill formed the basis of a lot of Atheist's (and other tech-death bands) sound.

I fell in love with Opeth in my early music days because of how fluid and melodic some of the lead playing is. Then, when I made the leap to 70s prog and discovered Camel, the influence of Andy Latimer's playing made too much sense.

Class..Rush is everywhere of course. The Fall of Reason midsection from Watchtower is a pure homage. Funny, even the singing makes sense in that context, a slightly more metal Geddy.

The King's X thing is interesting because they often would say that certain grunge metal bands just ripped off everything they were doing and used their sound to make themselves superstars. Again, there seems to be that Texas link if you take it that they were talking about Alice in Chains who toured extensively with Pantera, though I'm not sure if it was before or after defining that metal/grunge sound they had. I wonder who else they were referring to. I would imagine Soundgarden who had a lot of that guitar style that Ty Tabor was known for aswell as that distinctive singing style of Dug Pinnick which may have influenced Cornell. Now again, that's all speculation, but there are some real crossovers there from what I can hear.

[Ducky]

The Fall of Reason is my favourite WT song!

I think Staley had a similar timbre to Pinnick, but I guess that's natural and not learned/emulated. Couldn't tell ya about Soundgarden, I only like them from Badmotorfinger onwards.

Random recommendation - The Eleventh House - "Level One". Should tick the box for anyone onto jazz fusion. Some mental playing on this...

https://youtu.be/jjIV1TDAP-I