The real ones in the nu world know that Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit is among the best guitar players in the subgenre, and deserves to be in the conversation of all-time guitar gods. Among those who would, as it seems, know ball, is Brighton-based virtuoso Rabea Massaad, whose recent work includes a reimagining of the theme from Gran Turismo.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Massaad talks about five riffs that changed the way he thought about guitar, and first among them is Wes Borland's lick in the breakdown of "My Generation." As Massaad recalls after playing the riff a couple of times through:
That's a really cool riff, and I remember because the way that Limp Bizkit are really good at doing that whole thing where they start building it first, and then you get that tension before it explodes and you get the big break and the drop. It's a cool riff that you can play low gain and palm-muted and then as soon as it kicked in, it was really aggressive.
When that came out, I was in high school, like year 7 or year 8, and I was just getting into guitar at that point, about 13, 14 years old at that point. It was a really good, definitely not a intro-level riff, but it felt like it was achievable at that time. Wes Borland is a big influence on my riff approach, I guess.
Massaad goes on to name guitarists like Incubus' Michael Einziger on "Morning View" and Dimebag Darrell on Pantera's "I'm Broken" among his five, offering up a wide range of influences for the afro-donning axeman.
Check out the full clip from Guitar World below:
