Start at 2:12


Easily one of Black Sabbath's best solos.

At 2:45


A fantastic haunting solo on a kinda of forgettable album, by far the best 25 seconds of the entire album.

Start at 1:28


An amazing solo from a band that only people that keep browsing oldschool death metal videos on youtube know.

Avantasia's Unchain the Light

Start at 3:45


I've always considered Avantasia a metal opera. I don't exactly go looking through their catalog for my virtuosity fix, y'know? I also haven't really seen anyone discuss Avantasia's solos either so I would guess that the soloing aspect of the band doesn't get much attention. Unchain the Light has my favorite Avantasia solo to date. I think it's one of the best things Tobias has ever written but I've never seen anyone talk about it really.

i wouldn't say !t.o.o.h.! is particularly underrated - most people who know them, like them from what i've seen - but you don't hear people talking about their solos... which i guess is understandable considering their output is filled with a lot of other stuff that's worth more than a word or two, but anyway...

"Promised Land" by Mary's Blood, aside from being straight-up one of my favorite songs of all time, also has one of my favorite solos of all time from 2:40 to 4:25. The solo from 4:47 to 5:48 is also pretty legit.

I just remembered about this one:

Hibria has so many good solos.

Random one below. Skip to 2:58.





I don't think Tobias has the skills or the patience to "write" a guitar solo, and part of Avantasia's appeal is the massive number of guest spots anyway.

He probably just gets some guitarist in a chair, lets them rip out a solo, has them re-do it if he's not happy with something, etc. So he technically curates it but he's not the one who decides what notes go where.

The lead guitarist credited on that song is Oliver Hartmann, which surprised me, as I mostly know him as the vocalist from At Vance. But yeah, he does an amazing job.

The most underrated solo ever is the solo from the song "Where the Night" by tech thrash band Aspid. I recommend you guys check it out

Pharaoh's song Telepath has a fantastic solo with some incredible legato playing, both beautiful and fun as hell!

On Antestor's The Forsaken the solos are shreddier than expected. Sometimes it doesn't work, but the slow one in The Return is quite mind blowing, in particular how well he follows the chords

Helrunar's song Sol is another example of how following well the chords works amazingly, the ending solo is simple and very long, but pretty amazing

Also: Tyr's solo duel on Lord of Lies, oh my god

Greg from Paradise Lost provided sooo many quality and superb solos throught PL's discography.

Even if a lot of people know it, I'll vote for "Where The Rain Grows". That is my favourite guitar solo of all time. The melting starts at 2:32. The harmony parts of this solo kill me.

Fist In Fetus has some of the best solos I've ever listened on extreme metal.
And it's fun because since it's a grindcore band they all come so unexpectedly

I think Blind Guardian's lead work is very underrated. So many of Andre Olbrich's solos are classic, and so well composed. I'm gonna throw in the one from "Another Stranger Me", because I love that solo and it's an underappreciated song on an underappreciated album.

Some of my favorites:

Akira Takasaki solo on Loudness's "Devil Soldier" is such a beautiful and underrated showcase of guitar mastery.. emotive, technical, classy... words aren't enough to describe how much i love it. Takasaki is one of the most, if not THE most underrated guitarrist of all 80s Heavy Metal.


The little solo on Priest's "Killing Machine" is such a underrated piece of kick-ass guitar simplicity, a true testament of the talent of Judas Priest's axemen.



The guitar solo section from Nasty Savage "XXX" is ferocious as hell... i wish more people put atention on the Nasties, such an underapreciated band with such talented musicians and crazy original ideas. They don't get all the love ther rightly deserve.




Also, not metal, but more people need to put atention to what Frank Zappa was doing with the guitar in the 70s... not as skilled as some of his peers but absolutely master of the guitar tone and improvisation. Listen to the warm and fuzzy tone on "Black Napkins" with that tiny Pignose amp... pure guitar heaven.

Ralph Santolla's solos on Stench of Redemption, my fav being the Homage for Satan:

Without a doubt, the most unexpected and tasty metal solo in tech death, and most anything else ...

Starts at 3:22

0:28

Shaune Kelley and Erik Rutan channeling the eldritch dimensions...

Kim Rantala's synth solo in "My Kantele" (2:30-2:55 below) is probably the greatest, most memorable keyboard solo in all of metal. Too bad it never gets the credit it deserves, likely because it's keyboards. Rantala was easily Amorphis' best keyboardist and his work throughout Elegy (his only appearance with the band) is some of the best keyboard work I've ever heard.

Oh, and Esa Holopainen's solo right before this is pretty tasty too.

Lots of underrated/unknown solos come to mind for me, but a couple that really stick out are these:

The solo at the end of Angela by Frightmare is so awesome. I remember the first time I heard this song. I was completely taken by surprise when that solo came out of nowhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6W_DAV-Vkg

Disfigurement released a really awesome EP in 2013, and unfortunately haven't been heard from since. The whole EP is filled with tasty solos, particularly from the song Foul Light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z80UusXapoA

One that's always stood out to me is that solo in the song "Thrash Assault" by the US band Sauron. Just an amazing, beautiful, and well composed melodic guitar solo over top this bestial, raw thrash metal, that's sort of unexpected upon first listen. I don't see them mentioned on here much anymore, but I think they were a little more well known around the time of that album, mid-to-late 2000s.

The last Ephel Duath has a great guitar solo for 'Within This Soil' courtesy of Erik Rutan that provides such a cathartic and emotional closure to the song.

No youtube link so I'll post the bandcamp link for the whole album. Solo starts at around 05:40 but the whole song is great.

https://agoniarecords.bandcamp.com/albu ... y-darkness

This is great. I didn't even remembered Ripping Corpse released something other than DWTD

This one right here, I suppose it's relatively unknown



1:20-6:25

By the way, no Yossi no Orphaned Land

Very few people know or care about Nocturne Moonrise... it's a shame because the guitarist for that band is amazing.

Solo technically starts at 4:00, but the first part is shared with the keyboard player. He gets the solo to himself at 4:43.

Who would think that an Atmospheric Black Metal, Summoning-clone band would have such a wonderful solo (9:35)

I honestly like this album more than any single Summoning album.

I think Maha Kali has one of the most memorable solos in metal, whether is good or not its subject to debate, but Its sure catchy as hell.

This is the live version. It starts at 4:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_BLuTUXA_M

Maybe a little off topic but Coroner has some sort of "signature" hook in some of their guitar solos which I think it's pretty awesome (as if they weren't awesome enough already).

00:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4-QkRvczzA
02:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vrFFg7QCvM

Black metal is not the best place to find nice solos specially ones you could call "great" or "underrated" but I've heard a couple of them that have really caught my attention and I think deserve to be mentioned here.

Cicatrice by Gris at 4:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUZTGCjYdNA

Wind of the night forest by Drudkh at 5:20, which also has some of the best drumming in black metal in my opinion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejRyZhaMN_w

Ukraine by Nokturnal Mortum at 5:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaJj7AaVtT8

Shining has plenty of good solos as well, I can recall exactly which ones but I'm pretty sure there are a couple ones at V halmstad.

Here's a very overlooked guitar solo.

https://youtu.be/UDL-bW_yAqM?t=262

Order From Chaos "There Lies Your Lord, Father of Victories". I love the entire solo, but this part is the best.

Underrated-Black Sabbath Born Again, Computer God, and Nightwing. All have nice things going on. Also Johnny Blade rip roaring all over the place.

Just remembered another one if anyone here is interested in cheesy power metal whose musicians look like they came from a Final Fantasy game set in the Baroque period... Versailles - Faith & Decision has 5 different solos, all of which are good, but my favorite is Teru's solo at 3:28. The others can be found at 1:59, 5:02, 12:13, and 12:35.

Mercyful Fate - Burning the Cross, at 5:45

I had never heard of this band before, but as soon as I heard that solo, I knew that it was Chuck Keller of Ares Kingdom. He certainly has a unique style. I'll have to check this band out, thanks for sharing!

Insert any Holy Terror solo here. Their albums are chock-full with amazing kick ass solos.

Massacre's solos on the Inhuman Condition EP works surprisingly good. There's even some dude who apparently only registered here to review this EP who said they bring tears to his eyes.

Not metal but the solo on Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4 kicks so much ass!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYH4s7_e34

The solos on Night of the Unborn need mention because they do....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoA7rBJIOPU

Loomis never disappoints....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am4SzXhbXZU

Tribulation - Strange Gateways Beckon

Saw them live before listening any of their material, this song and the solo was the reason I went home that day to write "Tribulation" on the MA search engine.

Yngwie Malmsteen - Fire and Ice title-track solo

Fucking rebellious solo. Like the whole song, but that solo is the highest point. Gets me shivering...

I always loved the solo on Grip Inc's Hostage to Heaven by Waldemar Sorychta. Just flows perfectly with the rest of the tune to me.

My 5 fave solos are the following:

Holy Terror - Tomorrow's End

Onslaught - Fight with the Beast

Sacrifice - Light of the End

Violence - Oppressing the Masses

Dark Angel - Perish in Flames

The Dark Angel one is probably my all time favorite one.

Now that you mentioned Onslaught, I remembered that Metal Forces solo is awesome