One of my favorite things to do on YouTube is watch guitar playthroughs by metal bands. Most of the time during online live shows the camera is jerking around so much between the band members and the crowd that I can't really enjoy the artist playing their instruments. So I generally just put the video into the background and listen.

Playthroughs however allow the viewer to enjoy the artist playing their instruments in a raw form, without all of the distractions a viewer is generally subjected to in live shows. The camera is focused solely on the artist and their instrument and nothing else in most all cases. This also serves as a guide to discovering new techniques for those times when you're wondering, "How the fuck did they do that?".

VITRIOL is a band I came across yesterday while going through some metal guitar playthroughs. In particular it was Kyle Rasmussen from the band that caught my attention. One video in particular just made me have one of those "holy shit!" moments.

Exhibit A

I cannot recall ever seeing someone play guitar with such "passion" (aka demon possession 😉) as Kyle does in this instance. By far, this is the greatest playthrough I've ever watched to date. Most guitarist are pretty tame when they're playing outside the occasional (and often required) head bang, but Kyle ... he's on a completely different level here.

Kyle is famous for his facial contortions I've come to learn. Some even mock him for it. But for me personally, it just shows this guy really ... really ... really loves to play guitar ... and I dig that shit man!

It's not that I'm a death/extreme metal fan by any means. I'm not even sure I like his music tbh, but as I said on Discord yesterday, I could watch this fucker play all day long! His music is not bad, it's just not my first, second or third choice of ear hole pr0n. To quote Kyle himself, people have described his style in this fashion, "They're playing fast, but not that clean".

And this brings up something else that makes me respect this brother, his interviews. You'd be hard pressed to come across a musician, especially in this genre (no offense), who can extrapolate on their band and why they do what they do the way they do it more eloquently than Kyle Rasmussen (see below).

Kyle & VITRIOL are what musicians should strive towards, no matter the genre. Everything about this guy shows that he is striving towards excellence in his field. He's not in a mold and he's not breaking molds, he's just making music with "blissful ignorance".

"Vitriol started as an answer to something lacking in the calculus of extreme metal, which was ... there weren't enough bands that we're just saying like ... we're going to fist you. That's just what's going to happen." - Kyle Rasmussen

VITRIOL - Extreme Metal That Will Fist F-ck Your Ear Hole

Exhibit A

Interviews