Burning Man

For the Second Act of Defiance Album, Old Scars, New Wounds, Ace Shredder Chris Broderick Takes His Playing to New Levels of Hotness. 

- Dan Epstein

OVER THE COURSE of 20 years with Jag Panzer, Nevermore, Megadeth and Act of Defiance, Chris Broderick has developed quite the reputation for serious seven-string shredding—so it comes as something of a surprise to learn that he’d actually intended to “tone down” his solos for Old Scars, New Wounds, Act of Defiance’s second and latest album.

“I wanted to have absolute control over every aspect of my technique for this CD,” he explains, “so I initially thought it would be best if I didn’t push it too hard.”

Thankfully, for fans of Broderick’s dazzling playing, things didn’t quite work out that way. Old Scars, New Wounds features his most adventurous soloing yet, utilizing everything from dispersed-octave arpeggios and classically influenced counterpoint to locked tremolo bar accents and two-handed tapping runs.

“I had all these techniques that I’d always wanted to work into my playing,” he says, “and through the course of developing them, they organically—and kind of inadvertently—worked their way into my playing.”