Nick Johnston is a guitarist we have oft covered in Gear Gods in spite of his music not being particularly metal. In fact, I’m not even sure what we would classify this kind of stuff as (not that it matters) – but I think what draws me to it so much is the obvious metal influence of the music, without it actually sounding like metal, sonically. The guitars are more clean than distorted, it has freakin’ Benny Greb on the drums, and, well, it’s just not that heavy.Â
But with every chord change, you can hear Opeth, Yngwie, Maiden, and more. It’s like metal without the metal, if that makes sense. It’s emotionally heavy. And of course, towards the end of this track he starts RIPPING, and then you’re sure this guy has done his time banging his head.
Or maybe I’m crazy. But either way, this new video of his song “Gemini” from his forthcoming Wide Eyes In The Dark record will make you sit up and listen – and probably pre-order the album/tabs/merch before the album drops on April 19th.
