Photo: Jason Squires
When Jonathan Donais sat down for Metal Edge to count off the players who shaped him, the Anthrax and Shadows Fall guitarist kept the order loose and the reverence high. The list runs from the thrash titans who handed him his first tab books to a death metal innovator he credits with the very existence of Shadows Fall, with stops along the way for a classical-metal architect, an abrasive wild card, and the Texas rock star he calls his outright MVP. Here's how Donais breaks it down, in his own words.
James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett — Metallica
Metallica showed up at exactly the right moment for a beginner with a guitar and a stack of tab books. "Metallica came into my life just as I started playing guitar, and those tab books got me up and running," Donais says, crediting the band with some of the most iconic riffs ever committed to tape. It was Hammett's soloing that left the deepest early mark, especially across the band's mid-'80s run, and he doesn't overthink why it stuck. "I love Kirk's lead playing, especially on Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. Great songs, great riffs. Can't deny that."
Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman — Megadeth
For Donais, the Rust in Peace lineup is where Megadeth's twin-guitar chemistry peaked, with Mustaine and Friedman pulling in two very different directions at once. He was drawn first to how Mustaine wrote rhythm parts that behaved like lead lines. "I loved how Dave Mustaine's riffs were almost lead-like, with a lot of single notes," he says. "They're complicated. They're not easy to play." Friedman's contributions worked the opposite end of the spectrum, all polish and precision. "Marty had a very sophisticated lead style, great memorable leads, but a lot of technical aspects to it."
Randy Rhoads
Rhoads opened a door that Donais hadn't seen anyone walk through before, fusing conservatory discipline with the muscle of hard rock and metal. "I loved how he mixed classical, hard rock and metal. That's the first time I kind of heard something like that," he says. The leads themselves became permanent residents in his head, the kind of solos that beg to be played on an invisible guitar. "You want to air guitar all of Randy's leads," Donais says, reaching for the highest praise he can find: "Mr. Crowley is probably the national anthem of guitar leads."
Zakk Wylde
Wylde arrived through a grainy MTV broadcast and grabbed Donais on contact. "I remember seeing the "Miracle Man" video on dial-up MTV, and I fell in love with his playing instantly," he says, dating himself a little in the process. What hooked him was the sheer physicality of the attack, a sound that managed to be filthy and pristine in the same breath. "I love that wide vibrato, the pentatonics, picking everything, real abrasive and super clean and aggressive. Loved it."
Dimebag Darrell
There's no hedging on this one. Asked to crown a single most valuable player, Donais hands it straight to Dimebag, the rare guitarist who covered every base at once. "He had everything. He checked all the boxes," he says. "Great songs, great rhythms, great riffs, great leads, and great stage presence. He was a rock star." Those early Pantera home videos did more than impress him, they set the course for his whole career. "Those Pantera videos really made me want to be a tour musician. I loved watching those when I was a teenager."
Runner-up: Bill Steer — Carcass
Donais was only supposed to name five, but he couldn't close without flagging the record that made his own band possible. Carcass' Heartwork sits at the foundation of everything that came after. "Without that, Shadows Fall wouldn't exist," he says, describing it as Iron Maiden and Megadeth on steroids, with leads that stayed melodic even at full shred and riffs cut from the same cloth. And he leaves with one more piece of credit due: "Bill Steer is probably the most underrated metal guitar player."
