Top 20 Death Metal Guitarists
- Story by Albert Mudrian
#9 Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed)
Age first started playing guitar: “I was 7. Mom bought me a Hondo acoustic.”
Formal musical training: “I did have a bit back in New Mexico when I was in middle school; forgot the guy’s name, but he worked under old jazz legend Howard Roberts.”
Favorite guitarist: “John Maclaughlin and Allan Holdsworth are both are technically stellar, but more importantly, are fantastic song writers.”
Current favorite axe: “I love the 7-string Jackson that was made for me based on the Christian Olde Wolbers signature model but modified to my specs.”
You’d think that after 20+ years of guitar playing and writing and recording literally over a 1000 riffs between Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Scott Hull would be pretty satisfied with his playing abilities. Think again.
“A couple of years ago, I went back to rock school and took lessons from a shredder named Mike Mills—the dude who played the solo on ‘Towering Flesh’ from Terrifyer—who is Yngwie Malmsteen’s identical twin,” says Hull from his home studio in Bethesda, MD. “I wanted to correct years of bad technique and learn some more theory, both of which I got. I wish I had had the discipline back then to get my chops up, but then I would probably be playing in fusion bands now.”
Fuck that! There are already plenty of those kinds of dudes all over this list, but only one guitarist who continually packs the best elements of the genre into economical 90-second smart bombs like “Naked Trees” and the title track from this year’s stunning Phantom Limb. Sure, his technique owes just as much to grindcore and thrash as it does to traditional death metal, but it’s Hull’s commitment to the heavy metal’s backbone—the riff—that separates him from DM’s other technically dazzling axe-wielders.
“The [riffs] I’m most proud of aren’t the most technical ones,” the guitarist/producer offers. “I’m really proud if the main riffs in ‘Trojan Whore,’ which I modeled on the Melvins’ ‘Echo Head’ into the groove of Melvins’ ‘Honey Bucket.’ I’m really happy with the riffs in ‘Piss Angel’ as well. That’s when I really started the gallop picking—I used it a lot again in ‘Thumbsucker’ from Terrifyer. Again, the ones I tried to make as technical as I could haven’t really stuck with me like the more rocking riffs.”
Despite a demanding full-time government job, Hull still finds ample time to craft then obsess over those riffs, partially because he’s often home—ANb’s only performed live once and Pig Destroyer’s yearly tour schedule can easily fit on the back of a beer coaster. The band’s sparse live appearances also spare his body from the constant wear and tear of the road that has cut short the careers of death metal musicians such as Nile’s Pete Hammoura and Atheist’s Kelly Shaefer. Although, it turns out the PxDx rehearsal space can sometimes be just as dangerous.
“Not for me,” Hull explains. “But once we had to take [PxDx vocalist] JR [Hayes] to the emergency room during a practice. He was rocking out a little too close to a crash cymbal and gashed his forehead open. That was a buzzkill.”
