In a recent interview Louder Sound, HAKEN guitarist Charlie Griffiths sang praises of MEGADETH‘s 1990 album “Rust in Peace”, saying: “This is the perfect metal album. Everything about it is magical; from the riffs to the lyrics, to the production, and of course Marty Friedman who brought an exotic flavor to the solos.
“Realizing that everything doesn’t have to be ‘minor’ and ‘dark’ for it to sound badass was a huge influence on me.
“In Haken, we’re always exploring different modes and exotic scales to try to inspire different moods, and I believe Marty Friedman opened that door for metal music.”
During the rest of the conversation, Chris also praised DEATH‘s 1991 “Human” album, saying: “All the DEATH albums are absolute works of genius, but I’ll pick this one because it was such a cool blend of fusion musicianship and metal aggression.
“It was as if Allan Holdsworth was jamming with MORBID ANGEL, but Chuck Schuldiner managed to make everything sound so elegant.
“I had the pleasure of meeting him after the London Astoria show and he gave me his guitar pick, which I treasure to this day and actually used on the second verse of ‘Puzzle Box.’ The riff there is a huge tip of the hat to Chuck!”