Metal Guitarist Unlocks a Sick New Way to Shred

Guitarists love inventing recent methods to play, and regardless of all the improvements that’ve already been made, there are nonetheless new strategies to uncover. Simply have a look at Columbian progressive/tech-death metallic axman Sebastiside, whose “hybrid rasgueado” rhythmic method is astounding everybody who sees it.

In a brand new interview with Guitar World, Sebastiside – whose actual title is Sebastian Garcia – reveals that his initially needed to be a lead guitarist. Early into his profession, nevertheless, he realized that he’d be higher suited attempting one thing else: “I couldn’t shred like Rick Graham and Stephen Taranto [The Helix Nebula], and possibly due to that, I targeted on my rhythmic taking part in.”

Influenced from artists comparable to Caligula’s Horse, Plini and Karnivool, he ultimately moved to Australia and started honing his craft whereas educating. His debut EP, Reincarnate, arrived in August of 2023, and his ground-breaking methodology shines all through it.

READ MORE: Different Guitarists Shred the Metallica Riffs That Made Them Need to Study

Sebastiside’s “Hybrid Rasgueado” Method

Within the movies beneath, you’ll be able to see Sebastiside demonstrating his “hybrid rasgueado” method (which primarily sees him sweeping his fingernails throughout a number of strings so shortly that it creates a condensed and muted staccato sound). In a approach, he’s fusing conventional rasgueado fingerpicking (usually related to flamenco music) with the distorted tones and irregular slapping of djent and different prog/tech-death metallic practices.

“With chords, you’ve got dominant chords that create plenty of stress, and tonics for the discharge. It’s like telling a narrative. I attempt to do the identical with my rhythms,” he tells Guitar World, including: “So if you happen to’re taking part in eighth notes, utilizing triplets, syncopations, or polyrhythms provides stress and curiosity to your story.”

Concerning his incorporation of slapping, specifically, Sebastiside displays: “I spotted there have been hybrid choosing parts – you can use your thumb to slap and your fingers to drag on the opposite strings to create a powerful percussive impact. So I used that concept to mix hybrid choosing with rasgueado.”

By holding the choose between his thumb and index finger (as is customary), he’s in a position to make use of the remaining fingers for raking (principally, scrapping strings simply earlier than the notes ring out or are bent). Per Guitar World, he routinely plucks a be aware “on a low string” after which “rake[s] together with his pinky, ring, and center fingers.”

“It may be used for chords and rhythm taking part in and leads,” Sebastiside explains. “It has limitless rhythmic potentialities. . . . You can also make music with only one riff when you’ve got sufficient variations. [It’s about] occupied with riffs in a really melodic sense.”

If that weren’t sufficient, he additionally bucks traits by endorsing the advantages of cheap and second-hand guitars.

He mentions:

I needed a guitar to play extra trendy types of music, however they’re very costly to ship to Colombia. I discovered a seven-string Legator Ghost on Fb Market, which I traded for an previous Laney tube amp head and cab plus money. . . . [Cheaper guitars are] a lot simpler to play. The strings really feel unfastened and the pickups are delicate so this makes the taking part in expertise very completely different from my common guitars. I get plenty of new concepts each time I play a kind of guitars. . . . I like the problem of constructing an inexpensive guitar sound good!

Again in 2022, Sebastiside garnered consideration for giving Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” the prog rock therapy and for demonstrating the virtues of taking part in “trendy metallic” on a $200 guitar. So, he’s been exhibiting the world his abilities for a lengthy time.

You possibly can try Sebastiside’s “hybrid rasgueado” method beneath, and you should definitely tell us what you concentrate on his taking part in and his stance on cheaper guitars.