Really good. I'm tired so I couldn't pay complete attention but I've said at least half of this shit myself! Very well done.
 

Oh man, you completely threw out the pinnacle sub-genre of Metal Virtuosity: Progressive Metal

Symphony X (The Odyssey)
Spiral Architect (A Skeptic's Universe)
Vintersorg (The Focusing Blur)
Andromeda (Two is One)
Death (Individual Thought Patterns)
Extol (Undeceived)
The Faceless (Akeldama)
Necrophagist (Epitaph)
Liquid Tension Experiment (LTE)
And many many more.

Oh well, maybe next time.
 

You sound so professional.
 

Great Presentation! The only thing that really bummed me out was you didn't mention Uli Jon Roth in the beginning. Probably the first Neo-Classical guitarist, and first real "shredder" ever. He was before Eddie, Randy, and Yngwie. Go listen to "The Sails of Charon." That solo is SAVAGE!!!
 

and Michael Schenker. :-)
 

Hmmm. Very interesting. Nice lecture. I like classical music and some heavy metal. Still can't really get into the death metal. I like the musical part but I can't stand that breathy-screaming- chanting-vibe. I have a reaction to turn it off the moment it starts to play.
 

great lecture nick. I enjoyed it very much. who was that symphonic black metal band you had a video clip of?
 

Before I comment I'll say that I personally love both metal and classical music, however I was rather dissapointment with your broad strokes that attempt to find similarities between the two. The few parallels that you actually draw such as the need for precision could be said about any two <myspace>style</myspace>s of music, even pop music requires great precision. From what I heard it would have better served your purpose to show the similiarities between virtuosic romanticism and virtuosic metal guitar playing. This is a much more specific approach than simply saying "classical" and "metal", it is clear you lump quite a few too many bands and composers into each category. Your comparison of black metal and vivaldi, you misuse the word "sequence". Also, blues is not the "direct predecessor" of metal there are too many intermediaries for me to name. I found it very odd that you seem to be under the false impression that metal (in reference to the music) has been around since 1882. Sure there were virtuosic players in late romanticism, but simply because someone "plays lots of notes real fast" does not mean that it can be classified into the genre of metal. If anything you can say masturbatory butt rock solos are a throwback to virtuosic romanticism (in which case wouldn't even be metal at all). In closing I really feel you should have refined your argument, the only paralells you managed to make were broad generalizations and weak analogies. Even in the process of doing so you managed to offend me with your ill informed attempt at what seems to be a justification for your own compositions which seem to be a mix of "Classical" and "metal". Word to the wise, music should never need an explanation nor a justification. The reason metal was so sucessfull was that it didn't give a fuck about who thought what. Perhaps you should take the same approach. cheers.