“There’s a different dynamic to distorted slide playing – a fully distorted slide guitar is an incredibly noisy beast”: Meet the guitarist fusing Western slide and black metal – with devastating results

Perhaps more than any other technique, slide playing separates the pros from the hobbyists. It requires laser-guided intonation and supreme control over string muting – and that’s just with a clean tone. But slide playing over black metal and raging distortion? That’s either foolish or plain next-level guitar playing.

Thankfully, for Joe Strong-Truscelli, guitarist with Colorado four-piece Wayfarer, his yearning, high-gain slide cries elevate the band’s double-kick-spattered, swaggering riff fury to new heights – indeed, the band call themselves “the pre-eminent Western American metal band”, and we’re not going to argue.