For me, the artists at Shrapnel records recorded and produced some of the most inspiring guitar albums of the 80’s. Guitarists such as Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Greg Howe and Richie Kotzen were at the forefront of the technical instrumental guitar movement, and produced ground breaking that defined the genre.
This new era of guitarist made such advanced guitar techniques as alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking, and tapping part of every day practice vocabulary for guitarists all over the world.
They were also responsible for guitarists wanting to understand theory, and modes, and explore more exotic modes of the major scale, as well as Harmonic minor - and in the case of Jason and Marty, experiment with exotic Japanese scales. Then there were the guitars; colourful, pointy, and with fast flat necks for optimum shred capabilities! And of course there was Yngwie, although he played a Strat, the Stradivarius of the electric guitar as he called it, Yngwie scalloped his fretboards for ultimate speed, and a wide vibrato.