Alex Skolnick
Skolnick performing withTestament at Wacken, Germany in 2019
Background information
Born	(1968-09-29)September 29, 1968 (age 56) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Genres	Thrash metal[1] jazz fusion[1] hip hop[1] progressive metal hard rock
Occupation	Guitarist
Years active	1983–present
Member of	Testament Alex Skolnick Trio Metal Allegiance Hu$h Money[2]
Formerly of	Legacy Trans-Siberian Orchestra Savatage Attention Deficit Stratospheerius
Website	alexskolnick.com

Alex Skolnick (born September 29, 1968) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of thethrash metal bandTestament and has played with several other bands, including The Alex Skolnick Trio,Trans-Siberian Orchestra,Savatage and theheavy metal supergroupMetal Allegiance.

Skolnick began his musical career at the age of 15 when he joined the localBay Area thrash metal band Legacy, which eventually became Testament, and performed on five albums with them, betweenThe Legacy (1987) andThe Ritual (1992). By the time he left Testament in 1992, Skolnick had found considerable fame among the thrash metal and guitar communities;Guitar World magazine named him one of the greatest guitarists of all time,^[3] and as one of the "fastest guitarists of all time".^[4]

After his first departure from Testament, Skolnick went on to pursue various musical careers, including briefly replacingCriss Oliva in Savatage for their albumHandful of Rain (1994) and a short tour,^[5] and starting hisjazz band The Alex Skolnick Trio in the early 2000s, which remains active as of 2025. He briefly reunited with Testament in 2001 for the re-recordings of their early songs on the albumFirst Strike Still Deadly, and then returned to the band on a permanent basis in 2005, contributing to four more albums.

Skolnick was born and raised inBerkeley, California, in a non-traditional Jewish family.^[6] His parents,Jerome Skolnick and Arlene, bothPhD graduates fromYale University, taught sociology atNew York University andUniversity of California, Berkeley.

Skolnick joined theSan Francisco Bay Area thrash metal bandTestament, then-called Legacy, in 1984 as the replacement of original guitarist Derrick Ramirez. Skolnick was just eighteen years old when he recorded his debut album with Testament,The Legacy (1987), which received critical acclaim from both music critics and fans alike. The band's next four albums,The New Order (1988),Practice What You Preach (1989),Souls of Black (1990) andThe Ritual (1992), cemented Testament's reputation as one of the premier bands of the thrash metal genre and nearly gave them the same level of popularity as the "Big Four" (Metallica,Megadeth,Slayer andAnthrax).^[7][8][9] In late 1992, several months after the release ofThe Ritual, Skolnick opted to leave the band, citing his weariness of playing thrash metal music and his desire to explore musically outside of Testament as the reasons behind his departure.^[10][11][12]

Skolnick returned briefly to Testament by re-recording old material for their ninth albumFirst Strike Still Deadly, as well as theThrash of the Titans performance in 2001. He officially rejoined the band in 2005 for a short European tour with some American dates appended. A CD/DVD release was put together fromthe London show of May 8, 2005. On April 29, 2008, Testament releasedThe Formation of Damnation, its first studio album with original material in nine years and with Skolnick in sixteen years. Their next album,Dark Roots of Earth (2012), debuted at No. 12 on theBillboard Top 200 Albums chart, at No.1 on theBillboard Hard Rock and Rock albums chart, and No. 9 on the World Chart.^[7] Skolnick has since recorded two more albums with Testament,Brotherhood of the Snake (2016) andTitans of Creation (2020).

After his first departure from Testament, Skolnick joined the bandSavatage in 1994 for the recording ofHandful of Rain, as well as its follow-up live album and home video releaseJapan Live '94. In 1991 he recorded and toured with theStuart Hamm band. He also played guitar forOzzy Osbourne in 1995.^[13] In 2004, he made a guest appearance onLamb of God'sAshes of the Wake album, recording a solo for the album's instrumental title track.

During the mid to late 1990s, Skolnick led several projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Skol-Patrol, a funk band featuringMichael Manring that played themes from police shows. He recorded two albums with Attention Deficit, a trio with Manring andTim Alexander ofPrimus. In the late 90s, he collaborated with electric violinist Joe Deninzon (who he met in New York City at the New School) in the bandStratospheerius, recordingThe Adventures of Stratospheerius album. He also appears on theirLive Wires album.^[14]

In 1998, Skolnick moved to New York City and began devoting all of his energy tojazz, enrolling inThe New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music and graduating with a degree in jazz performance. Since 2002, he has toured and recorded as the Alex Skolnick Trio, a jazz group known for rousingbebop renditions ofclassic rock andheavy metal tunes. The trio has performed at theRochester International Jazz Festival,Musikmesse Frankfurt, Germany, the National Center for the Arts, Mexico City, and theIridium Jazz Club in New York City. Skolnick's trio has been praised byDown Beat,Jazziz, andThe Village Voice.^{[citation needed]} Their albumVeritas (Palmetto) reached No. 7 on theiTunes jazz chart.

Skolnick released a DVD Jazz tuition set with Rock House Method in May 2010. He recorded the albumWhat's Next? with pianist Randy Klein in 2012.^[15]

On June 21, 2012, Summer Solstice Day, Skolnick announced hisworld music albumPlanetary Coalition at the annual Make Music New York festival sponsored byGuitar World magazine.^[16] He said that he intended to have, "musicians from all over the world, driven by acoustic guitar and bringing together inspirational melodies, in-depth improvisation and the passion of the musical styles of Gypsy, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin, East Asian, Mediterranean, Balkan/Eastern European, African and other indigenous lands – Planetary Coalition has been guided by a single hope: that by weaving the threads that connect musical expressions with regional identities, we can bridge the gap between diverse cultures and people, and increase awareness of the ecological and social issues facing the planet, our island in the sky."^[17]

Planetary Coalition was released byArtistShare on November 11, 2014 to commemorate the centennial of the end of the First World War. The album gathered over twenty musicians from five continents, including Indo-Canadianghazal singerKiran Ahluwalia, Argentine bassist Pablo Aslan, Chinesepipa playerYihan Chen, American violinist Rachel Golub, Cuban drummerHoracio Hernández, Albanian accordionist Raif Hyseni, Palestinianoud playerAdnan Joubran, Turkishkanun player Tamer Pinarbasi, Mexican guitar duoRodrigo y Gabriela, Israeli percussionist Gadi Seri, andYacouba Sissoko, akora player from Mali.

The project endeavored to combine artistic, ecological, political, and social issues, as well as showcase the landscape and architecture of other countries. Maddy Samaddar Johnson, an architect and urban planner, was hired as a consultant.^[18][19][20]

Skolnick used a variety of guitars, including steel string, nylon string, acoustic, and electric. All compositions were by Skolnick, except two which were composed by Skolnick-Joubran and Skolnick-Hernandez. The tune from Mali and from China were first-time guitar-kora and guitar-pipa duos of traditional songs from those regions.

The album was praised by many publications, newspapers, and blogs.^{[20][21][22][23]}Guitar World magazine chosePlanetary Coalition as one among the top 50 albums of 2014^[24] and among the top 10 acoustic guitar albums of the year.^[25]

Skolnick's memoir,Geek to Guitar Hero, was published in January 2013^[26] and received positive reviews fromAnthony Bozza,Bradford Morrow,Ned Vizzini, andBrad Tolinski, editor in chief ofGuitar World.^[6]

He has been active in blending music with works of art and literature. In 2007, he contributed a solo for Egyptian artistNader Sadek's project, "Faceless". The song was only to be heard in an art gallery in New York. In 2012, he performed live at the Feature Inc Gallery in New York, for a musical interpretation project for the works of visual artist Douglas Melini.^[27]

Skolnick plays electricESP Guitars andGodin hollow-bodied models withSeymour Duncan pickups. He formerly playedHeritage andIbanez guitars.

In 2009 Heritage released Alex's first signature guitar. His signature is a solid body based upon the H 150/157 model. In his early years with Testament he endorsed Ibanez guitars and mainly played the short lived 540P second generation Power series models, and later the 540SLTD Saber model. Throughout his days with Savatage he used the RV470 Radius model and an LA Custom Shop prototype based on the Ghostrider series. Alex endorsed Charvel guitars and was featured in their ads around 1995. For amplification, he usesBudda amps and several Marshall amps including the discontinued Marshall Mode Four hybrid amps.

In 2013, Budda released a signature amp for Skolnick, called the Preceptor,^[28] and later in the same year it was announced that Skolnick was signed to ESP guitars, with an ESP and LTD model in the works for 2014.^[29]

Skolnick's influences includeFrank Zappa,^[1]Eddie Van Halen,Jeff Beck,Jimi Hendrix,Eric Clapton,Johnny Winter,Randy Rhoads,Michael Schenker,Yngwie Malmsteen,Kiss, andScorpions.^[30][31] He was a student of guitaristJoe Satriani.^[32]

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• Official webpage
• Alex Skolnick Trio collection at archive.org

• 1968 births
• 20th-century American guitarists
• American heavy metal guitarists
• American male guitarists
• California Democrats
• Guitarists from California
• Jazz-rock guitarists
• Jewish American musicians
• Jewish heavy metal musicians
• American lead guitarists
• Living people
• Musicians from Berkeley, California
• Palmetto Records artists
• Savatage members
• Testament (band) members
• The Ozzy Osbourne Band members
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra members
• Magna Carta Records artists
• Roadrunner Records artists
• Nuclear Blast artists
• Metal Allegiance members
• West Coast hip-hop musicians
• ArtistShare artists
• Thrash metal musicians

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