Latest articles by Amit Sharma
Mateus Asato on discovering his own identity, his big social media mistake and his debut album
Asato leads an amazing double life as pop sideman and virtuoso shredder. He dishes on his big social media mistake, the help he got from Kiko Loureiro, and the last-minute call from Nuno Bettencourt he couldn’t ignore
“Those overdriven cowboy chords and stadium-conquering chorus hooks will be omnipresent throughout 2025”: When Oasis finally returned
2024 Year in Review: The brothers gonna work it out... and they did. Cue the online meltdown for tickets as the Noel and Liam Gallagher get the Mancunion indie rock juggernaut back on the road
“His finest work since The Dark Side of the Moon”: How David Gilmour made a blockbuster comeback with Luck & Strange
2024 Year in Review: The prog icon's mystical solo album was only the start of it – who could have predicted a collaboration with Body Count?
“Joe was great at making me comfortable – he’s such a nice guy”: When Matteo Mancuso jammed with Joe Bonamassa
2024 Year in Review: The Sicilian guitar great joined the blues maestro for one of the year’s fieriest fretboard face-offs
“An end to 100 years of service to the music community”: Why the closure of Sam Ash marked the end of an era
2024 Year in Review: One of America’s best-loved music stores went out of business this year
“Her weapon of choice is, in fact, 45 years older than she is”: The unstoppable rise of Grace Bowers
2024 Year in Review: The teenager's meteoric success continues unabated as her frightening maturity yields magic from her trusty Gibson SG
“This is a historic collaboration”: How Diamond Rowe made history with Jackson Guitars
2024 Year in Review: The Tetrarch guitarist launched a super-charged signature single-cut with the high-performance guitar brand
“Honest appreciation and devoted teamwork brought us to this special moment”: When Linkin Park returned
2024 Year in Review: Back with a new lineup, the bit between their teeth, and a new album, Linkin Park begin a new era seven years after the death of Chester Bennington
The year Dave Navarro returned to Jane’s Addiction, got assaulted, and a fractious reunion fell apart
2024 Year in Review: The Jane's Addiction reunion was going so well until it wasn't, when frontman Perry Farrell lost it on a feral Friday 13th in Boston, bringing the curtain down on one of alt-rock's greatest bands
“Historic for Gojira and metal”: Why the Olympics played an unlikely host for some of the biggest guitar moments of the year
2024 Year in Review: Mainstream metal, historic guitar partnerships and solos while Tom Cruise abseiled – sports and music collided this year, with spectacular results
Why 2024 marked a major milestone for Fender – and saw a surprising turnaround for 2025
2024 Year in Review: The Stratocaster celebrated 70 years as the world’s most iconic guitar shape this year
![Beat [L-R]: Tony Levine, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew and Danny Carey](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YjufF4RcaSoEzmToxJj75i-840-80.jpg.webp)
How King Crimson was reborn at the hands of Steve Vai and Adrian Belew
2024 Year in Review: The all-star Beat tour brought King Crimson’s music to thousands of eager prog fans
Gibson launched an epic multi-guitar partnership with Jimmy Page this year – but 2025 could be even bigger
2024 Year in Review: The Led Zeppelin icon signed on with Gibson this year, but there are plenty of other stars due a signature model from the firm in 2025
Mark Knopfler parted ways with his guitar collection this year – but he hopes they all get played
2024 Year in Review: The Dire Straits icon raised a huge amount of money for charity selling off 120 prized instruments, including his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard
The hottest guitar gear launches of 2024 – from Wolfgang Van Halen’s long-awaited semi-hollow signature to UAFX’s Dumble-in-a-pedal
There was an onslaught of new guitar products released over the past 12 months. Here are the ones that had us all talking (and checking our bank balance)
“I never thought little ol’ 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in the bedroom would amount to this moment”: After 10,000 applicants, Kiki Wong landed the Smashing Pumpkins guitarist gig
2024 Year in Review: Billy Corgan and co hosted the biggest guitarist search of the year – and there could only be one winner
“I was playing at three times the speed I normally play at”: When Pete Townshend got his first Jackson guitar… and loved it
2024 Year in Review: At 78 years old, The Who icon picked up his first shred machine, and couldn't get enough of it
When their gear didn’t turn up for a festival performance, Primus played brand-new Fender guitars from Guitar Center – with the tags still on
2024 Year in Review: Les Claypool and co proved that tone really is in the fingers when they turned to off-the-shelf guitars for a high-profile festival spot
The best guitar albums of 2024
The guitar albums that had the biggest impact in the guitar world and beyond, as chosen by GW editors and pro players
“He’s playing pretty badly, but he is playing”: When Corey Feldman went full shred and melted faces
2024 Year in Review: This year’s most talked-about solo came from the most unlikely of places
How Kerry King rose from the ashes of Slayer – ready to slay all over again
2024 Year in Review: Slay bells ring, are you listening? From Hell I Rise is the sound of a thrash icon doing what thrash icons do best
![The Heavy Heavy's Georgie Fuller [left] and William Turner play live under gold stage lights, a fitting setting for their retro-inspired sound](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9xEE7YB5apcJxaz3aWqXv8-840-80.jpg.webp)
William Turner and Georgie Fuller on how the Heavy Heavy is making fresh music with classic sounds
One of a Kind makes something anew out of familiar materials, and presents a sound that's a not just a celebration of the classics, but of rhythm guitar itself...
“It was building up in the back of my mind for so long that it finally pushed its way to the fore”: Why this was the year Slash finally got the blues
2024 Year in Review: The Guns N’ Roses icon indulged his earliest influences and shone a spotlight on blues icons old and new
The best guitar songs of 2024 – as chosen by Guitar World editors and pro players
With the help of pals including Eric Gales and Vernon Reid, we run down the songs that lit up the guitar-o-sphere this year, including a remarkable hardcore breakthrough, a virtuoso collab for the ages and the prodigy that everyone’s talking about
