![St Vincent: Maybe the most innovative guitarist of the last decade, Annie Clark's live guitar work is unmatched for high risk, high reward playing. Her fingerstyle is glitchy and tonally explorative, her style is rich in jazz voicing and diminished chord structure - that's if you wanted the nerd translation for why her guitar lines sound so bonkers.]()
St Vincent: Maybe the most innovative guitarist of the last decade, Annie Clark's live guitar work is unmatched for high risk, high reward playing. Her fingerstyle is glitchy and tonally explorative, her style is rich in jazz voicing and diminished chord structure - that's if you wanted the nerd translation for why her guitar lines sound so bonkers.
![Josh Homme: His work in Kyuss precedes the millennium, granted, but Homme's guitar style wasn't fully appreciated until Queens Of The Stone Age gained momentum. With surprising roots in polka music, Homme's stop-start onslaughts of broken chords are matched only by his proficient use of obtuse music theory and sheer ferocity.]()
Josh Homme: His work in Kyuss precedes the millennium, granted, but Homme's guitar style wasn't fully appreciated until Queens Of The Stone Age gained momentum. With surprising roots in polka music, Homme's stop-start onslaughts of broken chords are matched only by his proficient use of obtuse music theory and sheer ferocity. "Most of my playing is about taking something away", Homme admits, less is more in this case.
![Simon Neil: From humble beginnings covering Nirvana cuts, Simon Neil's evolution as a play has been an active catalyst for the progression of his band. Rooted heavily in their influences in grunge, metal and emo, Biffy's transition from a hard-rock to post-hardcore to pop-rock band has always been accentuated by Neil's Strat work. His tunings are complex and his riffs are, for the first three albums, mind-boggling - making Biffy Clyro one of the most idiosyncratic bands around.]()
Simon Neil: From humble beginnings covering Nirvana cuts, Simon Neil's evolution as a play has been an active catalyst for the progression of his band. Rooted heavily in their influences in grunge, metal and emo, Biffy's transition from a hard-rock to post-hardcore to pop-rock band has always been accentuated by Neil's Strat work. His tunings are complex and his riffs are, for the first three albums, mind-boggling - making Biffy Clyro one of the most idiosyncratic bands around.
![Dan Auerbach: Black Keys mogul and the forerunner of a new Nashville movement, Dan Auerbach is at the top of many people's 'favourite modern guitarist' lists. Sounding as clearly proficient under a wall of fuzz in the early Keys records is a testament to his early play style. In addition to all his blues work, Auerbach's guitar style has acted as beat material for some of the most legendary rappers on the wholly under-appreciated Blakroc album, how's that for versatility?]()
Dan Auerbach: Black Keys mogul and the forerunner of a new Nashville movement, Dan Auerbach is at the top of many people's 'favourite modern guitarist' lists. Sounding as clearly proficient under a wall of fuzz in the early Keys records is a testament to his early play style. In addition to all his blues work, Auerbach's guitar style has acted as beat material for some of the most legendary rappers on the wholly under-appreciated Blakroc album, how's that for versatility?
![Nick Valensi: Arguably credited for making guitar solos cool for 2000s indie, Nick Valensi took what made lead guitar cool in the heyday of rock & roll and made it accessible for new-age kids. Even Valensi's guitar work screams New York with all it's slick adorn. While AHJ stuck to straight chord work, Valensi's solos added a dangerous flair to The Strokes' earlier material.]()
Nick Valensi: Arguably credited for making guitar solos cool for 2000s indie, Nick Valensi took what made lead guitar cool in the heyday of rock & roll and made it accessible for new-age kids. Even Valensi's guitar work screams New York with all it's slick adorn. While AHJ stuck to straight chord work, Valensi's solos added a dangerous flair to The Strokes' earlier material.
![Nick Zinner: Renowned for his wild sounds with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Zinner was the architect behind their sound. With guitar work that could roar with 80s punk licks but remain dancefloor friendly, the only thing Zinner has more than hair is vision.]()
Nick Zinner: Renowned for his wild sounds with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Zinner was the architect behind their sound. With guitar work that could roar with 80s punk licks but remain dancefloor friendly, the only thing Zinner has more than hair is vision.
![Synyster Gates: A modern chief of shred, the A7X lead guitarist has a mind-bending supremacy over his fretboard. Blitzing tapping, swept arpeggios and perforating dual harmonies. Trained in classical and jazz, Gates is a jack of all trades and master of all.]()
Synyster Gates: A modern chief of shred, the A7X lead guitarist has a mind-bending supremacy over his fretboard. Blitzing tapping, swept arpeggios and perforating dual harmonies. Trained in classical and jazz, Gates is a jack of all trades and master of all.
![Russel Lissack: The only musician on this list to make a guitar sound convincingly like a car alarm, Lissack's influence comes from his effect proficiency. Playing in mid-noughties indie where over-trebled power chord lines were the order of the day, Lissack broke the stale mould with his razor sharp experimentation and tonal variety.]()
Russel Lissack: The only musician on this list to make a guitar sound convincingly like a car alarm, Lissack's influence comes from his effect proficiency. Playing in mid-noughties indie where over-trebled power chord lines were the order of the day, Lissack broke the stale mould with his razor sharp experimentation and tonal variety.
![Jesse F Keeler: Fine, not a six string, but DFA1979's basslines are as ferocious and raw as any guitar line on this list. Keeler's unrelenting riffage and caustic tones set the bar for the bass/drum band dynamic, a bar that no bassist has come close to reaching.]()
Jesse F Keeler: Fine, not a six string, but DFA1979's basslines are as ferocious and raw as any guitar line on this list. Keeler's unrelenting riffage and caustic tones set the bar for the bass/drum band dynamic, a bar that no bassist has come close to reaching.
![Gary Clark Jr: At age 30, it's impressive to have developed a unique style let alone have it considered 'trademark'. Following his debut, Clark was branded as the second coming of Stevie Ray Vaughan which, as far as guitar work is concerned, is the highest compliment for a blues musician can receive.]()
Gary Clark Jr: At age 30, it's impressive to have developed a unique style let alone have it considered 'trademark'. Following his debut, Clark was branded as the second coming of Stevie Ray Vaughan which, as far as guitar work is concerned, is the highest compliment for a blues musician can receive.
![Courtney Barnett: A newcomer with an undeniable guitar voice, Barnett's clanky guitar lines are constituted by equal parts abrasion and heart. Her instrumentals tend to follow simple structures but her use of off-kilter transitionary notes and a loose-handed strumming style has formed one of the most recognisable styles of this decade.]()
Courtney Barnett: A newcomer with an undeniable guitar voice, Barnett's clanky guitar lines are constituted by equal parts abrasion and heart. Her instrumentals tend to follow simple structures but her use of off-kilter transitionary notes and a loose-handed strumming style has formed one of the most recognisable styles of this decade.
![Benjamin Weinman: Hardcore guitarists are rarely lauded for their subtlety and skill but Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman shatters that stereotype. DEP have always been revered for their genre-busting mix of math-rock, alternative and metal and this is largely due to Weinman's rhythmically complex and pioneering guitar work.]()
Benjamin Weinman: Hardcore guitarists are rarely lauded for their subtlety and skill but Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman shatters that stereotype. DEP have always been revered for their genre-busting mix of math-rock, alternative and metal and this is largely due to Weinman's rhythmically complex and pioneering guitar work.
![Mike Kerr: While the Royal Blood bassist (it's still a guitar so it still counts) hasn't 'reinvented' rock, as some ludicrous claims suggest, he's doing a pretty stellar job writing infectious riffs. Royal Blood's debut was short but packed two records worth of guitar lines into 30 minutes, definitely an axe-man to keep an eye on.]()
Mike Kerr: While the Royal Blood bassist (it's still a guitar so it still counts) hasn't 'reinvented' rock, as some ludicrous claims suggest, he's doing a pretty stellar job writing infectious riffs. Royal Blood's debut was short but packed two records worth of guitar lines into 30 minutes, definitely an axe-man to keep an eye on.
![Jack White: In the rock-doc 'It Might Get Loud', Jack White reveals that the reason he plays music is to recreate Son House's 'Grinnin' In Your Face':]()
Jack White: In the rock-doc 'It Might Get Loud', Jack White reveals that the reason he plays music is to recreate Son House's 'Grinnin' In Your Face': "All that mattered was the attitude of the song". This philosophy bleeds out of White's guitar work from the banshee screams he rinsed out of his Whammy pedal in the White Stripes to the tightly locked grooves of his more recent solo stuff, White has become the 21st centuries most influential personality guitarist.
![Dan Kessler: Being able to hold a steady rhythm is one of the most important tools in a guitarists arsenal and one that many accomplished players still have trouble mastering. Kessler's work in Interpol shows us how steady rhythms and call and response rhythms can curdle and sustain to create an inescapable web of cinematic atmosphere.]()
Dan Kessler: Being able to hold a steady rhythm is one of the most important tools in a guitarists arsenal and one that many accomplished players still have trouble mastering. Kessler's work in Interpol shows us how steady rhythms and call and response rhythms can curdle and sustain to create an inescapable web of cinematic atmosphere.
![Matt Bellamy: For someone so against the idea of manipulation, Bellamy has no qualm with exploiting sound for his own wild experimentation. Combining hard-rock riffs and the strange whirrs and screeches that come from his custom guitars X-Y controlled KAOS pads, Bellamy is responsible for some of the weirdest and memorable guitar sounds of the 21st century.]()
Matt Bellamy: For someone so against the idea of manipulation, Bellamy has no qualm with exploiting sound for his own wild experimentation. Combining hard-rock riffs and the strange whirrs and screeches that come from his custom guitars X-Y controlled KAOS pads, Bellamy is responsible for some of the weirdest and memorable guitar sounds of the 21st century.
![Alex Turner: The Arctic's frontman wrote the riffs we all wrote in our bedrooms in our teenage years and, to his credit, made a guitar career out of them. By applying his knack for writing vocal melodies and mapping them out on a fretboard, Turner's riffs are an irreplaceable part of the Monkeys' total sound - from scratchy indie to modern day arena rock.]()
Alex Turner: The Arctic's frontman wrote the riffs we all wrote in our bedrooms in our teenage years and, to his credit, made a guitar career out of them. By applying his knack for writing vocal melodies and mapping them out on a fretboard, Turner's riffs are an irreplaceable part of the Monkeys' total sound - from scratchy indie to modern day arena rock.