DEFCON 4, Austin guitar OGs – incoming GOAT right here. All genres boil down to a handful or even one main big bang musically, and Paul Gilbert shreds atop a singular movement in early metal extremity. In the mid-Eighties when thrash lit up the Left Coast, Sunset Strippers Racer X burned nitroglycerin speed metal with the former Pittsburgh prodigy at the helm, introducing a supersonic whiplash fast becoming its own lane. His reward: mainstream commercial success later that same decade with Mr. Big, which offset Gilbert with bass analog Billy Sheehan. Now he teaches, endorses, and inspires. That’s transcendence. Master class in session. – Raoul Hernandez