In the September issue of Guitar World magazine, Death Angel guitarist Rob Cavestany answered a series of questions from readers, revealing his inspirations and recording secrets on new album The Evil Divide.
“The guitarists I was originally inspired by were not playing thrash metal,” states Cavestany about his guitar heroes. “The first guy that turned me on to playing guitar was Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin was the first rock band I idolized. Right beside him is Tony Iommi, because I listened to a lot of Sabbath.
“When it comes to lead guitar playing and composition my true guitar hero is Randy Rhoads. Not only for his playing, but his style, look and his Jackson guitars. Then I have to give a nod to Uli Roth and Stevie Ray Vaughan.”
Cavestany also credits Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Bill Steer and his producer Jason Suecof for their exceptional playing abilities and style.
When asked how he achieved his crushing guitar tone on The Evil Divide, Cavestany praised his custom Jackson guitars as the foundation of his specific sound.
“We used a few different amps and guitars, but the main tone on this album is from my custom signature series Jackson,” he said. “On this album we have two different tunings going on. I did all the drop-C# stuff with my blue one and the Eb stuff with my white one. Those are going straight into my old 1970 Marshall Super Lead, which I’ve had since 1988 when I first used it on our Frolic Through the Park album. It was hot-rodded by a guy called Dave Ray out of San Rafael, and has a nice raw tone. That’s pretty much it, besides an original Tube Screamer for some enhancements of distortion and gain.”
Read the full fan-curated interview here.