Who was better at what they did?: Randy Rhoads or Cliff Burton

Gotta be Randy no question right?

I mean Cliff was a savage, Orion is a goat Metallica track for me but I think randy is at or for sure very near the top of the list of all time guitar players. Both went out in the fire and flames way too young, but for me I'll say it's not even close. RR was playing shite that had never been done b4. You already know this though

I guess I would go with Randy but you make some great points too about Cliff. All I know is they are two of my all-time favorite metal musicians. So damn tragic.

I drove out to the plane crash site a couple of years ago. Found a good place to just park and play You Can’t Kill Rock And Roll while looking out over the pastures and at the white house in the distance that the plane crashed into. It was powerful, solemn, and eerie all at the same time. Pretty heavy.

Might be a little tougher to get over to Sweden, but if I ever find myself in that region I’ll plan some time for a side trip.

Obviously a big Metallica fan and the 100% answer here is Randy. He was a virtuoso in his 20s and was redefining bringing classical techniques into metal. His chops and writing were in a different world than the rest of the genre at that time.

IMO, Cliff gets a mini-Cobain effect and is elevated/overrated by his premature death. He was doing some very innovative things with bass and expanding its role in a genre where bass generally doesn't do much.

I would love to see an alternate timeline where the bass was not effectively phased out of Metallica and they may have tread a different path. But in reality bass in Metallica/metal was never as important as Randy was to guitar.

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But in reality bass in Metallica/metal was never as important as Randy was to guitar.

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Cliffs writing, ideas and approach had a large impact on the rest of his bandmates. He made everyone around him grow as musicians.

Same thing kinda happened with Acid Bath, Audie Pitre was a hell of a player and writer. He bridged a lot of different styles in the band and was the glue. When he died, Acid Bath wasnt able to continue without him.

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I would love to see an alternate timeline where the bass was not effectively phased out of Metallica 

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Cliff would have laughed at Lars if he had tried any shite on the justice for all album. And if they had treated his bass sound like they did Jason's, Cliff could have left for Megadeth..and imagine that.

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Maybe Metallica would have broken up around Justice time as Cliff wouldn't have let Lars be the Lars we all now know.

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silencing Cliff?
Lars would have gotten kicked out or made to STFU.

Maybe they could have recruited Dave Lombardo or Mike Portnoy at the time.

Gotta go with Cliff Burton

Rhodes was incredible but frankly Eddie Van halen was doing that stuff before Rhodes

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Randy wasn't even the best to play with Ozzy

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I don’t understand how anyone can listen to Diary of a Madman and have this opinion.

Randy Rhoads was remarkably talented and if anything Ozzy held him back. Imagine if he had enjoyed what he was doing when he recorded those albums instead of dealing with Ozzy’s bullshite constantly.

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Thats why I'm stumped on it, I dont really see any talent gap between the two in any way. Even died similar, at similar ages.

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That’s the thing. Death makes them even. Or at least unable to choose. Their bodies of work are too short. You may only have been scratching the surface of what those guys could do.

Imagine a 40 year old Cliff going batshit on an upright bass for a song or two at a show.

Or Rhoades goes acoustic at 45 and does a tour. Or goes bluegrass. Lol

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Randy wasn't even the best to play with Ozzy when you consider Iommi basically invented metal.

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Iommi was THE riff master, but his solos were mostly E minor pentatonic trills layered over each other.

Randy's sh!t was magic.