“We shared and borrowed gear from our students, who usually had better gear than we did”: How Jason Becker and Marty Friedman made one of shred’s most celebrated albums with a little help from their pupils

In 1986, Marty Friedman and Jason Becker started Cacophony – a relatively short-lived project that would be responsible for some of shred music’s most technical and celebrated compositions.

Together, the two virtuosos produced a pair of studio albums – Speed Metal Symphony and Go Off! – which gave Friedman and Becker ample opportunity to let loose on 15 tracks of no-holds-barred neoclassical shred metal.