If you haven't yet listened to Currents' new album The Way It Ends, and you're in any way metal-inclined, you need to hear it. The Connecticut five-piece offer an onslaught of self-penned "death-infused metalcore" over the album's 11 ferocious tracks, which are certain to get your head banging and, when allowed once more, the pits spinning.
The record is a shining example of metal guitar work par excellence, highlights of which can be found in fourth track, Monsters - which guitarist Chris Wiseman joins Guitar World today to play through.
He blazes through its demonically drop-tuned riffs, dissonant passages and dizzying guitar solos with startling ease, illustrating why he's one of metalcore's finest six- (or seven-) stringers.
Wiseman plays a Ibanez RGD71AL 7-string electric guitar fitted with D'Addario strings and Seymour Duncan Fusion Edge pickups, which runs through an instance of a JST Toneforge Guilty Pleasure amp modeler.
"On this song, I really wanted to combine aspects of heavy arena rock with some of the more experimental elements we've used in the past," he says. "We tune down to Drop E on this one, an octave below standard, which gives a super thick sound.
"I can still take advantage of the full neck of the guitar, hitting high notes very frequently and even throw in a fun little guitar solo towards the end. It's definitely my favorite track we've done to date."
Currents' latest album The Way It Ends is available now via SharpTone records.
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Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
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