This is an excerpt from the February 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus our "Van Halen 1984 Revisited" interview with Eddie Van Halen and features on Zakk Wylde & Ozzy Osbourne, Jake E. Lee, Tosin Abasi, Steel Panther, Five Finger Death Punch and John Petrucci's monthly column — check out the February 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Zakk Wylde has announced the next chapter in the Black Label Society story, Catacombs of the Black Vatican.

The album, the first disc of all new material from the band since 2010’s Order of the Black, will be released April 8.

Wylde also has announced a new tour, "An Evening with Zakk Wylde." The 13-city Canadian trek will feature Wylde and new Black Label Society guitarist Dario Lorina performing intimate versions of some of BLS's most popular songs, plus readings from Wylde's 2012 book, Bringing Metal to the Children: The Complete Berzerker’s Guide to World Tour Domination. You can check out all the tour dates below.

Nicola is the latest addition to our Girls of Guitar World Gallery.

Photos by gentilybeshari.

Scroll down to see the complete photo gallery!

If you think you have what it takes to be a Guitar World Girl, simply email photos of yourself with a guitar to

Alyssia is the latest addition to our Girls of Guitar World Gallery.

Scroll down to see the complete photo gallery!

If you think you have what it takes to be a Guitar World Girl, simply email photos of yourself with a guitar to

                                                                                                                                                                         As 2014 rapidly approaches, Guitar World is taking a nostalgic look                                                             back at the most popular GuitarWorld.com stories of 2013, including viral videos, guitar lessons, Guitar World Girls and other fun features.

Be sure to check out our other 2013 Year in Review stories HERE!

Today, we're revisiting the 15 most popular Guitar World Girls photo galleries, as determined by YOU, the readers, based on web traffic (page views per photo gallery), Facebook shares and more. You can see a complete photo gallery of each Guitar World Girl by following the "See the complete photo gallery here" link. Note: Some galleries also include videos.

All the Guitar World Girls photos in the gallery below were sent to us by the women in the galleries. We're always looking for new Guitar World Girls! If you think you have what it takes, email photos of yourself with a guitar (or bass)                                                       

Model Cassandra Lynn Hensley, who was best known as Playboy magazine's Miss February 2006, died Wednesday, January 15, 2014, at age 34.

Hensley also was featured in Guitar

and that second album will be ready to mix. We were going to make the first one 18 songs, but it was 70 minutes long and I never got through it once while driving anywhere. But it was awesome! Every song was great. Eventually we decided to record six more songs and then split it into two albums.

What amp head and cabinets did you use on the new record, and how does that differ from your classic Misfits setup? — Lucas Hidalgo

I made the cabinets, as well as the guitars. I fill the cabinets with 25-watt Celestion Greenbacks and Vintage 30s. My amp is an Ampeg SVT classic bass head. I run a Demeter preamp through it, and the rest is me.

Is it true that you’re trained as a machinist? Do you ever take jobs to pay the bills between tours and records? — Dylan

Yeah, you’d be surprised how many well known musicians have regular jobs. And yes, I’m a machinist. That’s how I made my guitars—at a machine shop.

I’m from Patterson, New Jersey, and as far as I’m concerned, the Misfits put Lodi, New Jersey, on the national map. Do you still live in the area? — Tony Sancarlo

I live about 50 miles from there. I moved all over and then I had to come back. But I still I live in Jersey, yeah.

As far as classic-rock albums go, 2013 was all about familiar sounds by old favorites, with a few welcome returns and at least one totally surprising comeback that nobody knew was coming. We also got another posthumous Jimi Hendrix album — but at least it’s a good one. From metal marathoners to cozy piano ballads, here are the Top Rock Albums of 2013.

David Bowie has been called many things in his life – rock ‘n’ roll chameleon, musical genius, Ziggy Stardust and Thin White Duke, to name a few. Today (Jan. 8), we’re calling him ‘Birthday Boy,’ as the rock star celebrates his time on planet Earth (give or take a few years he’s likely spent on other planets). To come up with a list of Bowie’s 10 best songs is both pleasurable and painful. How does one narrow such an eclectic and magnificent career down to just 10 tunes? Missing from this list are his only two No. 1 U.S. songs (‘Fame’ and ‘Let’s Dance’), as well as classics such as ‘Starman,’ ‘Oh! You Pretty Things,’ ‘Life on Mars?’ and countless others. Perhaps a Top 65 Songs would have been more fitting on this occasion, but for now please enjoy this list of the Top 10 David Bowie Songs:

Mama Cass Elliot

form — originally appeared in the June 2006 issue of Guitar World, which is pictured below.

“Fuck it, Hitchcock,” drawled Dime, downing the dregs of his beer.

“We’ve been hammering this for hours and we’re out of booze. Interview and lesson over…we’re hitting a bar, goddammit! Put the camera and tape machine away, I’ll film me playing the riffs we went over when I get home and Fed Ex a tape to ya.”

The date was Saturday, December 13, 2003; the time: 3:30 A.M.; the place: an upscale New York hotel room with an empty mini-bar and a case’s worth of empty Heineken bottles filling every flat surface. The occasion? The interview and planned private guitar lesson for the ‘King Dimebag Returns!” cover story for the March 2004 issue of Guitar World.

I didn’t need any prompting, I hit “stop” on my recorder and we ventured out into the heart of Manhattan. Even at that hour, finding a bar that was still open in “the city that never sleeps” was an easy task. In typical Dimebag fashion, the goateed guitarist was immediately adopted as everybody’s new best friend, especially the bartender, and also in typical Dime fashion, we drank until dawn.

Later that day Dime did a beyond stellar in-store appearance for Dunlop at a Long Island Sam Ash store (despite “one bitch of a hangover!”), and we went our separate ways...

True to his word, within a few days of Dime returning home to Texas, a Fed Ex package containing a videotape arrived. By this time, though, Darrell had agreed to come back for the third run of his wildly popular "Riffer Madness" monthly column as soon as Damageplan’s 2004 touring cycle was over, so I put the video, lesson interview and hand shots away until that time.

Sadly, for the tragic reason we are all still painfully aware of, Dime’s return as a columnist wasn’t to be, and I forgot all about the video tape he’d sent me until a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled across it.

Intrigued, I put the tape in my VCR and watched with anticipation. What I saw blew me away—30-plus minutes of Dime in magical form ripping through Damageplan riffs and some scorching, off-the-cuff licks! Even though the tape was marked “For Your Eyes Only” and was a one-take home video recorded after one of Dime’s all-nighters, I knew I had to share it.

That said, we obviously wouldn’t dream of doing anything with the footage without the permission of Dime’s nearest and dearest. So I called up his brother, Vinnie Paul, and his life-partner, Rita, to tell them what we’d got and what we’d like to do with it. Their response was immediate and identical: “Hell yeah! Run with it!” We’ve since edited the tape down to 13 minutes and, with the blessing of Dime’s family, Guitar World is proud to bring you “The Lost Lesson: Dime’s Instructional Destructional Home Video.”

Before we get started though, there are two things that quickly need clarifying:

01. Dime never intended this footage to be released; it was just done to help me tab-out his playing as accurately as possible. This said, despite its low-tech quality, it blows away most instructional videos, thanks to the man’s personality and playing!

02. Just so you aren’t left scratching your head over the “cholesterol level” wisecracks Dime makes on the footage, a few days before our Manhattan meeting I’d had a physical and was told to lay off red meat and beer because my cholesterol level was too high. Needless to say, that wasn’t going to happen on Dr. Dime’s watch—his staple diet was booze ‘n’ beef! Hence the cholesterol humor...

03. [Added in 2014] Note that we're publishing ONLY the videos from this exclusive 12-part lesson. The original lesson, which can be found in the June 2006 issue of Guitar World, features all 12 tabs and more. Enjoy!

Nick Bowcott and everyone at Guitar World would like to express our sincere thanks to Vinnie Paul and Rita for allowing us to use this precious footage of Dime. Much respect and Big Love, guys...

 original lesson, which can be found in the June 2006 issue of Guitar World, features all 12 tabs and more. Enjoy!

Nick Bowcott and everyone at Guitar World would like to express our sincere thanks to Vinnie Paul and Rita for allowing us to use this precious footage of Dime. Much respect and Big Love, guys...

Below, check out a recently posted demo video of a new $30 product called the Hammer Jammer.

Six-string players can install the device on their electric or acoustic guitars (We've even included the company's official "installation and tweaking" video below) to produce a different-sounding, percussive attack — something, perhaps, in the ballpark of a hammer dulcimer on speed.

The only line of promotional material we have from the company is this: "The Hammer Jammer provides incredibly fast hammering techniques, unique sounds and unusual patterns for six-string guitars."

 month, Metallica will return to the Grammys stage for the first time in 22 years.

But, as always, it's not so cut and dry.

The band will perform with renowned 31-year-old Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang during the show.

“This performance will be truly special with Lang Lang, who has appeared on stages all over the world including the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a White House state dinner, World Cup ceremonies and the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm among many other acclaimed appearances,” the band said in a press release.

“We are also very proud that the Through the Never soundtrack has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package, and we’re hoping for another win for our friends from Turner Duckworth, who also designed theDeath Magnetic art and took home the mini gramophone in 2009.”

For more about Lang Lang, visit l anglang.com — and check out a video of Lang Lang in action below.

The 56th Grammy ceremony will take place January 26 in Los Angeles. Below, you can see a list of rock-, blues- and guitar-centric nominations. For the complete list of the 2014 nominations, visit  grammy.com.

Best Rock Album
Black Sabbath: 13
David Bowie: The Next Day
Kings Of Leon: Mechanical Bull
Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day
Queens Of The Stone Age: …Like Clockwork
Neil Young with Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill

Best Rock Performance
Alabama Shakes: "Always Alright"
David Bowie: "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)"
Imagine Dragons: "Radioactive"
Led Zeppelin: "Kashmir"
Queens Of The Stone Age: "My God Is The Sun"
Jack White: "I'm Shakin'"

Best Metal Performance
Anthrax: "TNT"
Black Sabbath: "God Is Dead?"
Dream Theater: "The Enemy Inside"
Killswitch Engage: "In Due Time"
Volbeat: "Room 24 (featuring King Diamond)"

Best Rock Song
Gary Clark Jr: "Ain't Messin' 'Round"
Nirvana/Paul McCartney: "Cut Me Some Slack"
Rolling Stones: "Doom And Gloom"
Black Sabbath: "God is Dead?"
Muse: "Panic Station"

Best Blues Album
Billy Boy Arnold, Charlie Musselwhite, Mark Hummel, Sugar Ray Norcia & James Harman:Remembering Little Walter
James Cotton: Cotton Mouth Man
Ben Harper/Charlie Musselwhite: Get Up!
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa: Seesaw
Bobby Rush: Down In Louisiana

Best Compilation Soundtrack
Dave Grohl & co: Sound City - Reel To Reel

Best Recording Package
Metallica: Through The Never (Music From the Motion Picture)
David Bowie: The Next Day

Best Boxed Or Limited Edition Package
Rolling Stones: The Brussels Affair
Paul McCartney & Wings: Wings Over America (Deluxe Edition)

Best Historical Album
Rolling Stones: Charlie Is My Darling – Ireland 1965
Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex And Columbia Albums

Best Engineered Album
Alice In Chains: The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Queens Of The Stone Age: …Like Clockwork

Best Surround Sound Album
Paul McCartney: Live Kisses
Primus: Sailing The Seas Of Cheese (Deluxe Edition)

Best Music Film
Green Day: ¡Cuatro!
Paul McCartney: Live Kisses

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The classic lineup as signed toGeffen Records in 1986, consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. Today, Axl Rose is the only remaining original member, in a lineup that comprises Use Your Illusion–era keyboardist Dizzy Reed, lead guitarists DJ Ashba and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Frank Ferrer, and keyboardist Chris Pitman. The band has released six studio albums to date, accumulating sales of more than 100 million records worldwide,^[ including shipments of 45 million in the United States, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time.

A year after its release, Guns N' Roses' debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987) reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, on the strength of the hit "Sweet Child o' Mine", their only single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album has sold in excess of 28 million copies worldwide, including 18 million units sold in the United States, making it the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S. The success of their debut was followed by the eight-song album G N' R Lies (1988). The twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (1991) debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide, including 14 million units sold in the United States alone. The cover album "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) was the band's last studio album to feature Slash and McKagan. After more than a decade of work and many lineup changes, Guns N' Roses released the long-awaited album Chinese Democracy (2008) which, at an estimated $14 million in production costs, made it the most expensive album to ever be produced in music history. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 but underwhelmed industry expectations, despite mostly positive critical reception.

Guns N' Roses have been credited with reviving the mainstream popularity of rock music, at a time when popular music was dominated by dance music and pop metal. Their late 1980s and early 1990s years have been described as the period in which they brought forth a "hedonistic rebelliousness" reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones, a reputation that had earned them the nickname "The Most Dangerous Band in the World". The band's classic lineup, along with later members Reed and drummerMatt Sorum, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, their first year of eligibility

Guns N' Roses was formed in March 1985 by singer Axl Rose and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin of hollywood  

along with lead guitarist traci , bassist ,ole bleic and drummer 

The band coined its name by combining the names of both previous groups. After only a short time, during which they reportedly played just two or three shows, Beich was replaced by Duff McKagan, while Guns' lack of attendance at rehearsals led to his replacement by Slash. Gardner quit soon after and was replaced by Steven Adler.Stradlin had previously played with Slash in Hollywood Rose, while Slash had played with McKagan and Adler in Road Crew.

In June 1985, just four days after the lineup was finalized, the band embarked on a short, disorganized tour of the West Coast, from Sacramento, California, to McKagan's hometown of Seattle, Washington. The so-called "Hell Tour" cemented the band's first stable lineup, with McKagan later commenting, "This trip had set a new benchmark for what we were capable of, what we could and would put ourselves through to achieve our goals as a band."

Through their increasing presence on the Hollywood club scene—playing such famed bars as The Troubadour and The Roxy—Guns N' Roses drew the attention of major record labels. They were signed by Geffen Records in March 1986, receiving a $75,000 advance. In December of that year, they released the four-song EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, designed to keep interest in the band alive while they withdrew from the club scene to work in the studio. The EP contained covers of Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin", along with two original compositions—the punk anthem "Reckless Life" and the classic rock-inspired "Move to the City." Although billed as a live recording, the four songs were taken from the band's demo tapes and overdubbed with crowd noise. Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide was released on the Geffen subsidiary UZI Suicide, with production limited to 10,000 vinyl copies.

When 11-year-old Nebraska native Aidan Fisher took off with his dad to the Steel Panther hard rock concert in Kansas City last month, he was on a mission.

The sign he carried to the gig, directed to the band’s guitarist, said it all:

But wouldn’t you know that when Fisher and his dad were on an elevator in their Kansas City hotel, the object of the sixth-grader’s challenge walked through the doors?

“We showed him our sign and asked for an autograph,” the Fisher told yahoo shine

But Satchel had a better idea: “He said he could bring me on stage instead of getting an autograph.”

It was on.

Fisher and his dad waited four hours to nab seats in the front row at the Midland Theatre. And then during the concert, Fisher suddenly graduated from his spot in School of Rock in Millard, Neb. to center stage at a big-time rock ‘n’ roll show, wow tv in Omaha reported.

Steel Panther called him up on stage.

The band asked Fisher if he was nervous. In front of thousands of fans, he said no — and with that launched into “Eruption,” the iconic electric guitar instrumental by legendary six-string master Eddie Van Halen.

Not more than a few seconds into the flurry of notes the Steel Panther guys were visibly impressed…

…as was the crowd, which often cheered louder than Fisher’s amplifier:

Check out the clip of Fisher’s big moment with Steel Panther, recorded by his dad — a video that’s gone viral with more than a 1.3 million YouTube views as of Jan. 8. It’s unclear if the band “vetted” Fisher’s skills before inviting him onstage or if it was all truly a surprise, but the moment is fun to watch all the same: 

Speaking of albums well worth the wait, Slipknot will unleash their fifth beast in 2014.

They've rightfully risen to legendary status over the years, becoming the biggest metal band of the twenty first century and shedding blood, sweat, and tears to do so. This is going to be a special one for the group. It's the first since the passing of Paul Gray, and the gravity of the record is on everybody's mind. These guys took over for a reason, and they're going to stay the genre's kings when this drops. Expect an irresistible atomic explosion of emotion and mind-bending musicality like only Slipknot can deliver.

This will be a contender for "album of the year".

—Rick Florino
01.06.14

Are you excited for new Slipknot?

Go forward! Go back!