Virtuoso Guitarists Events

1966 Dec 9 Cream Releases "Fresh Cream"
Fresh Cream is Cream's December 1966 debut album. It was the first LP release of producer Robert Stigwood's new "Independent" Reaction Records label. It reached number 6 in the UK in Febr...
1967 May 12 Jimi Hendrix releases Are You Experienced
Are You Experienced is the debut album by English/American rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, it was the first LP for Track Records. The album highlighted Jimi Hendr...
1967 Dec 1 Jimi Hendrix releases Axis: Bold as Love
Axis: Bold as Love is the second studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Under pressure from their record company to follow-up the successful debut of their May 1967 album Are You Ex...
1967 Dec 9 Cream Releases "Disraeli Gears"
Disraeli Gears is the second album by British blues-rock group Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK album chart. It was also their American breakthrou...
1968 Sep 16 Jimi Hendrix releases Electric Ladyland
Electric Ladyland is the third and final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in 1968 on Reprise Records (see 1968 in music). Produced and mainly written by Jimi Hendrix, the al...
1975 Nov 21 Queen Releases "A Night at the Opera"
A Night at the Opera is the fourth album by English rock group Queen, released in November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, A Night at the Opera was, at the time of its re...
1978 Eric Johnson Releases "Seven Worlds"
Seven Worlds is Eric Johnson's 1978 solo record after disbanding with his first band, The Electromagnets. The album was recorded in 1976 and 1977. Due to various disputes, general release...
1978 Feb 10 Van Halen Releases "Van Halen"
Van Halen is the eponymous debut album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1978. Recorded in 1977 and released in February 1978, it has sold over ten million copies in th...
1979 Mar 23 Van Halen Releases "Van Halen II"
Van Halen II is the second album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1979. The actual recording of the album took place less than a year after the release of the eponymous "...
1980 Mar 26 Van Halen Releases "Women and Children First"
Women and Children First is the third album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1980. It basically continues the trends laid out on the first two albums, relying on the voca...
1981 Mar 27 Ozzy Osbourne Releases "Blizzard of Ozz" in the US
Blizzard of Ozz is a heavy metal album by Ozzy Osbourne, recorded in Surrey, UK and released on September 20, 1980 in the UK and on March 27, 1981 in the U.S.. This is Osbourne's first...
1981 Apr 29 Van Halen Releases "Fair Warning"
Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1981. Fair Warning went double platinum, which means it was a substantial hit, but still the band...
1981 Nov 7 Ozzy Osbourne Releases "Diary of a Madman"
Diary of a Madman is an album by Ozzy Osbourne. It was recorded from the 9th of Feb to the 23 of March 1981 inclusively - the end of winter in the UK and recording ending just into spring...
1982 Apr 14 Van Halen Releases "Diver Down"
Diver Down is the fifth album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1982. According to Van Halen's official website, it spent 65 weeks on the US album charts and had, by 1998,...
1984 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Rising Force"
Rising Force is a Yngwie J. Malmsteen project as well as his debut solo album released in 1984. It is also the title of a song on Malmsteen's album Odyssey. Rising Force is credited as th...
1984 Jan Steve Vai Releases "Flex-Able"
Flex-Able is an album by Steve Vai. This was his first as a solo artist, and was created in Stucco Blue, a shed converted into a studio in Vai's old back garden. It is very different than...
1984 Jan 9 Van Halen Releases "1984"
1984 (written as MCMLXXXIV on the front cover) is the sixth album by American hard rock band Van Halen. One of the band's more popular albums (in terms of both record sales and chart perf...
1985 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Marching Out"
Marching Out is an album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen which was released in 1985. In an interview with Sweden Rock Magazine, singer Jeff Scott Soto stated that he sings 'bög' ('faggot' in Sw...
1986 Eric Johnson Releases "Tones"
Tones was Eric Johnson's second solo album. It was released in 1986 by Reprise Records. Two of the tracks are re-recordings of songs from the (at that time) unreleased album Seven Worlds....
1986 Joe Satriani Releases "Not of This Earth"
Not of This Earth is the first full album by instrumental rock solo artist Joe Satriani. Numerous tracks off this album are still played live by Satriani. The original artwork used for...
1986 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Trilogy"
Trilogy is the third album released by guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen issued in 1986 by the label Polydor. This album was produced in honour of the murdered Swedish prime minister, Olof Pa...
1986 Jan 1 Racer X Releases "Street Lethal"
Street Lethal is the debut album by Racer X. It introduced the original band lineup featuring drummer Harry Gschoesser.
1987 Joe Satriani Releases "Surfing with the Alien"
Surfing with the Alien is the second album by instrumental rock solo artist Joe Satriani, released in 1987. Surfing with the Alien contributed greatly to establishing Satriani's reputatio...
1987 Nov Cacophony Releases "Speed Metal Symphony"
Speed Metal Symphony is the debut album of Neo-classical metal band Cacophony released in 1987 (see 1987 in music) on Shrapnel Records.
1988 Mar Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Odyssey"
Odyssey is an album by guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen released in March 1988, With Joe Lynn Turner on lead vocals, with the three instrumentals being "Bite the Bullet" - a brief intro to "...
1988 Jun 11 Joe Satriani Records "Dreaming No. 11"
Dreaming #11 is an EP by Joe Satriani released in 1988 with three live tracks and one new studio track, The Crush of Love. Live tracks, taken from the Surfing With the Alien tour were rec...
1989 Cacophony Releases "Go Off!"
Go Off! is the second and final album of the speed metal band Cacophony released in 1988 on Shrapnel Records.
1989 Nitro Releases "O.F.R."
O.F.R. (Out-Fucking-Rageous) is the 1989 debut album by American glam metal band Nitro. Two singles were released from the album: "Freight Train" and "Long Way From Home". The band became...
1989 Oct 17 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Trial by Fire"
Trial By Fire is a live album released by Yngwie J. Malmsteen in October 1989 in Leningrad, Russia. Three of the tracks are instrumental and many are strongly influenced by 1970s progress...
1989 Oct 30 Joe Satriani Releases "Flying in a Blue Dream"
Flying in a Blue Dream is a 1989 album by instrumental rock solo artist Joe Satriani. It is his third studio album (Dreaming #11 is a mostly live EP). Tracks 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 13 also...
1990 Feb Eric Johnson Releases "Ah Via Musicom"
Ah Via Musicom is Eric Johnson's third solo album, released in February 1990. Several of the songs on the album are dedicated to fellow guitarists. Johnson revealed in an interview wit...
1990 May 8 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Eclipse"
Eclipse is an album released by guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen issued in 1990.
1990 Jul Steve Vai Releases "Passion and Warfare"
Passion and Warfare is a 1990 instrumental album from guitarist Steve Vai. It has been certified 2 times Platinum. It was written based on a series of dream sequences that Vai had when he...
1991 Aug 12 Metallica releases the Black Album
Metallica (also referred to as The Black Album) is the fifth album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released August 12, 1991 through Elektra Records. The album features songs t...
1992 Mar 31 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Fire and Ice"
Fire & Ice is an album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen, released in 1992. Yngwie Malmsteen left Polydor records in the 1990/1991 season, signing a new contract with Elektra/WEA Entertainment in...
1992 Jul 14 Shawn Lane Releases "Powers of Ten"
Powers of Ten is the debut studio album by guitarist Shawn Lane, released in 1992 on Warner Bros. Records; a second edition was released in 1993, containing a revised track listing and al...
1992 Jul 21 Joe Satriani Releases "The Extremist"
The Extremist is an instrumental rock album released by Joe Satriani in 1992 and re-released in 1997 with his entire Epic Records catalog. The track "Summer Song" was used heavily in a...
1993 Joe Satriani Releases "The Beautiful Guitar"
The Beautiful Guitar is a compilation album released by instrumental rock artist Joe Satriani in 1993. It was only released in Europe, and contained various softer, ballad-like songs (As ...
1993 Oct 10 Joe Satriani Releases "Time Machine"
Time Machine is a double instrumental rock album released by Joe Satriani in 1993. The first CD comprises new, unreleased, and rare studio (such as tracks from Satriani's self-released 19...
1994 May 9 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "The Seventh Sign"
The Seventh Sign is an album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen released in 1994.
1995 Ron Thal Releases "The Adventures of Bumblefoot"
The Adventures of Bumblefoot is the debut solo album from Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, current guitarist of Guns N Roses.
1995 Mar 21 Steve Vai Releases "Alien Love Secrets"
Alien Love Secrets is an EP made by Steve Vai in 1995. It was written as a stripped-down guitar, bass and drums record with minimal keyboards. Alien Love Secrets was released in the middl...
1995 Sep 1 Michael Angelo Batio Releases "No Boundaries"
No Boundaries is the debut studio album by American shred guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, released on September 1, 1995. The album was released through one of M.A.C.E. Music's external di...
1995 Oct Joe Satriani Releases "Joe Satriani"
Joe Satriani is a 1995 album by instrumental rock solo artist Joe Satriani. Produced by Glyn Johns, it showcases a more laid-back, bluesier sound with less use of effects than all of Joe'...
1995 Oct 17 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Magnum Opus"
Magnum Opus is an album released in 1995 by Yngwie J. Malmsteen. It features his signature very fast guitar playing, often in the form of guitar solos. A seperate version released in Ja...
1996 Michael Angelo Batio Releases "Holiday Strings"
Holiday Strings is a cover album by American shred guitarist Michael Angelo Batio. The album features classical Christmas songs on acoustic guitar, and for every copy sold, $1.00 was dona...
1996 Sep Eric Johnson Releases "Venus Isle"
Venus Isle is Eric Johnson's fourth solo album, released in 1996. The song "S.R.V." is a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. It features his brother, Jimmie Vaughan, as a guest soloist.
1996 Sep 17 Steve Vai Releases "Fire Garden"
Fire Garden is a 1996 album from guitarist Steve Vai. This is his fourth solo album, as Alien Love Secrets is an EP. Fire Garden is divided into two "phases". Phase 1, consisting of ev...
1996 Nov 5 Yngwie Malmsteen Releases "Inspiration"
Inspiration is an album released by guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen issued in 1996. It consists entirely of cover versions of various influences. The cover art and package design was done b...
1997 Michael Angelo Batio Releases "Planet Gemini"
Planet Gemini is the second studio album by American shred guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, credited simply as Angelo. After No Boundaries, Batio appeared to take a more progressive approa...