Hi MA. I don't consider myself much of a metalhead--not that I hate Metal, I love hearing great riffs, solos, and other virtuoso guitar work, but it's a massive genre and people nowadays from my (admittedly extremely limited) experience are into more Black or Death Metal, and I'm not a terribly big fan of those two genres' intentionally extremely dark atmospheres (not that I couldn't grow to appreciate them in time, who knows, I fucking love Bathory's You Don't Move Me (I Don't Give a Fuck), those riffs and solo are fucking great, feel free to suggest any bands like that as well). I'm more of the guy who likes shredding and riffage, so think more like old-school Thrash or something. That kind of Metal appears to be less popular these days, though I'll admit I'm ignorant as fuck.

As such I've never really made much of an effort to get into Metal really hardcore, it's such a massive genre. However, I do absolutely fucking adore the work of Daisuke Ishiwatari's work on the Guilty Gear and Blazblue series, with songs such as Suck a Sage or Keep Yourself Alive. I love the guitar work on these songs and understand that they're very "video-game-y" and slightly "anime", but do you guys have any suggestions for bands that play this more old-school style focused heavily on virtuoso guitar skills with riffs and solos?

Daisuke Ishwatari is Japanese, and probably influenced by factors that a lot of other Japanese musicians are. So look into Japanese metal:

Gyze:


Nameless One:


Regnum Caelorum Et Gehenna:


Serpent:


Sex Machineguns:


Thousand Eyes:


Thousand Leaves:


Veiled In Scarlet:


To name a few...

You might also like Holy Grail from the US:


And Skull Fist from Canada: