TESTAMENT – Alex Skolnick Reunited With Stolen Guitars

A vigilant Sam Ash employee recently helped reunite TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick with a few guitars that were stolen from him. Due to Skolnick’s hectic schedule this year, it turns out that he didn’t even know that the guitars in question were lifted from a storage locker he had them housed in.
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Alex Skolnick, born in 1968, grew up in Berkeley, California. At age nine, a fascination with the rock group Kiss led to a desire to learn guitar. At fourteen, he began lessons with a local teacher with a serious reputation – his name was Joe Satriani. At age sixteen, Alex tried out for a local band called Legacy. Shortly after graduating from high school, he found himself recording his first album with the group, who by this time had changed their name to Testament. What followed were five albums and countless tours with, among others, Megadeth, Slayer, Judas Priest, and White Zombie. Alex received critical acclaim for his lead guitar work, which had been inspired by heroes such as Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, ranking high in many guitar magazine polls, often as ‘Best Thrash Guitarist’ and ‘Most Underrated Guitarist.’ In 1988, while working on the second Testament album, nineteen year old Alex happened to capture one of Miles Davis’ guitar driven electric bands on television. This inspired an intense study of jazz, leading to, his eventual relocating to New York City, where he earned a BfA from New School University’s jazz program (class of 2001).

It was at the New School where Alex Skolnick Trio was born. AST bends the conviction of rock with the elegance and sophistication of jazz. Since their debut, AST has had an entire Jazz notes column in honored with 4 ½ stars by Downbeat, reviewed by Jazziz, The Village Voice and has charted on the JazzWeek radio charts. Fans of the group include international superstars Rodrigo & Gabriella, who chose the trio as their support act on tours throughout the US and Europe in 2010 (and recruited Alex as a guest on their hit album 11/11), Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, who joined the band for an impromptu jam at Radio City Music Hall. The trio’s latest record, Veritas, reached the Top Ten of the iTunes jazz charts, nestled in between Miles Davis and Esperanza Spalding, and is released via the highly respected jazz label, Palmetto Records.

In 2005, after a hiatus of more than a dozen years, Alex rejoined Testament and helped bring the band back to the forefront of metal. Their 2008 album, The Formation of Damnation, was released on Nuclear Blast Records to critical acclaim. It was named SiriusXM Liquid Metal’s ‘Album of the Year,’ Revolver ‘Golden God ‘Album of the Year’ and debuted at #59 on the Billboard Top 200 (Testament’s highest charting release in their 24-year history). Tours with Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell and Motorhead followed. A follow up album, ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’ is planned for 2012.

Alex has been involved in numerous other musical projects, including the platinum selling Trans-Siberian Orchestra and producing ‘Accrasicauda,’ the Iraqi refugee band featured in the film ‘Heavy Metal In Baghdad.’ And the past few years have found Alex almost as prolific in his writing and blogging as he is in his recording. Skolnick writes to a nationwide readership almost daily. His blog, SkolNotes, is listed by web aggregator AllTop.com as one of the most important in the music industry. (It’s the only blog on that list written by an individual musician.) Thousands of fans follow his daily updates on both Twitter and Facebook, and tens of thousands more visit his personal website and YouTube videos. (Via Skolnick’s Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/testamentlegions/

https://www.facebook.com/AlexSkolnickFanPage/

Source: The PRP