In July of 1999, Marty Friedman was onstage headlining Woodstock ’99 in front of a sea of fans as the lead guitarist for Megadeth. Since joining the band in 1990, Marty played a crucial role in their rise to stardom with his unorthodox style of virtuoso guitar playing, selling millions of records worldwide, and being nominated for multiple Grammy awards. Just 6 months after Woodstock, in an unexpected move that shocked his friends, family, and especially his bandmates, despite platinum albums and sold out tours, for reasons unknown, he suddenly quit the band and walked away from it all. Unbeknownst to his US fans, Marty moved to Tokyo to pursue his love of Japanese pop music, and in the process, reinvented himself as a wildly successful Japanese TV celebrity! Marty has appeared on 700+ television programs, commercials and motion pictures since then, and become was dubbed the “Ryan Seacrest of Japan” by Billboard Magazine in the USA. 

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for a new documentary, entitled Hebi Metal San, about Friedman's career. It tells the surreal story of Marty Friedman, a nice Jewish boy from the suburbs of Baltimore who walked away from the ultimate rock and roll dream to search for something more fulfilling in a culture that was not his own. His renegade story is an inspiring example of the vast human potential to reach for our and achieve even our most unconventional dreams. 

Go to this location for details.

Friedman recently released a video for the Inferno album track “Meathook”, a collaboration with Jorgen Munkeby (Shining) on sax.

Friedman commented on the pairing "We both share a musical perversion and a willingness to do literally anything in the chance that we might come up with something that has never been done before, hence the unusual and abrasive collaboration we did in “Meat Hook”.”

Inferno, out now, was recorded primarily in Los Angeles with engineer Chris Rakestraw (Danzig, Children Of Bodom) and mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Amon Amarth). Inferno also includes notable guest appearances by several artists influenced by Friedman, including flamenco/metal acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, Children Of Bodom front man Alexi Laiho, Skyhardbor mastermind Keshav Dhar and Revocation guitar whiz David Davidson.

Tracklisting:

"Inferno"
"Resin"
"Wicked Panacea" (feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)
"Steroidhead" (feat. Keshav Dhar)
"I Can"t Relax" (feat. Danko Jones)
"Meat Hook" (feat. Jørgen Munkeby)
"Hyper Doom"
"Sociopaths" (feat. David Davidson)
"Lycanthrope" (feat. Alexi Laiho & Danko Jones)
"Undertow"
"Horrors" (co-written by Jason Becker)
"Inferno" -reprise-

Stay tuned for details on a new album in 2017.