Michael Angelo Batio

Overview

Submitted by guitar-list on Sat, 2006-11-25 08:35

musical style:

photograph of Michael Angelo Batio

Michael Angelo Batio (/ˈbeɪtioʊ/), also known as Michael Angelo, Mike Batio or MAB, is an American heavy metal guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. He was the lead guitarist for the Los Angeles-based glam metal band Nitro in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is currently serving as the touring guitarist for the American heavy metal band Manowar.

Batio's work has encompassed many genres, but he is best known for playing heavy metal and its subgenres such as neoclassical metal, and speed metal. Batio has an advanced knowledge of music theory, having a deep understanding of complex scale combinations and time signatures which assist him in his compositions. He is widely known for his technical mastery of the fretboard and his extremely fast picking and sweep picked arpeggios. He is also known for his showmanship during performances, particularly his use of the "MAB Over Under" technique, which he invented and for his ability to play a double-necked and quad-necked guitar, using both hands to play. Batio is also noted for his guitar instruction DVDs in the "Speed Kills" series which teach shred guitar techniques and how to "master the art of playing lightning fast".

Batio was voted the "No. 1 Fastest Guitar Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine in 2003. Read more about Michael Angelo Batio on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.