Some thoughts on the state of heavy metal and rock in July 2026 by Joerg Sonberger
Hey guys, I write this in english because my band "The JS Experience" has lots of fans in the U.S. and Japan....and it is the language of modern music. Our music genre could be called: "modern melodic rock...."Sorry to the german fans :-)
So where can I start!? It is deep in the night and I am tired....it is Saturday at 1.50 a.m. in my living room.
Okay: so the first real heavy metal band was definitely "Black Sabbath".
Their song "Paranoid" was really frightening , and far, far ahead of their time.
But there are so many different influences in Rock and Heavy Metal today, maybe the most versatile music style of the 20th and 21th century!....these I want to show you here.
We have influences by middle age music, opera, classical music, Jazz, Blues, Rock´n´roll and Pop.
One of my mature influences are "Journey"
You could call them: Melodic Rock or AOR Rock (Adult orientated Rock).
They sold more than 100 million Albums worldwide.
I love the positivity in their music and those great melodies and even better guitar work by "Neal Schon".
They were the main influence for "Bon Jovi".
(Nothin´ more to say!)
Then in 1987 the Sleaze Rock was the thing to listen to: "Guns´n´Roses"
became living legends.....Slash is an awesome guitar player.
In Germany we have lost of Rockbands with middle age influences like:
Saltatio Mortis
Schandmaul
Subway to sally
....then there is of course the great Carlos Santana with his south american influences-just awesome!
Then a true virtuoso on guitar: Mister Yngwie J. Malmsteen!
He created the music style "Neo classical metal" all by his own....
He is influenced by rock and heavy metal bands but far most by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Niccolo Paganini and Johann Sebastian Bach.
He is maybe my biggest influence in playing the guitar. A true virtuoso on his instrument!
Then we have "Progressive Rock" like Dream Theater....some of my colleagues call them " the best band in the universe"-highly virtuos and very very difficult to play.....their influence range from opera to jazz to classical music and have influences by Metallica.
So now "Metallica": what can I say!?
Just the most successful metal band on the planet....living legends!
Their album Master of puppets is one of the greatest and versatile albums in music history!
In the early years they revolutionized speed metal, as did "Slayer"
To Slayer: brutal and frightening! Speed and thrash metal at its best.....they have influences , besides of black sabbath, by arabian music! Listen to " Seasons in the abyss!"
Then there´s another great speed metal band called Megadeth.....their lead guitar player had major influence on my playing! Marty Friedman on guitar!
In the 80´s we had a very successful band in the USA called "Dokken"
They play classic hard rock with extremely virtuos guitars by legendary guitar player
George Lynch. Worldclass!
He even was the biggest influence for the first grunge band on this planet: "Alice in Chains"
In 1991 in their first interview in guitar world magazine they said, they love the guitar playing of George Lynch (Dokken)....
So George created Grunge music!
The same year Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilot and Nirvana became worldwide successful....
The rest is rock history!
Also in the 90s groove metal became worldwide recognition by the lights of Pantera.....awesome singing and playing. Dimebag Darrell is one of my all time heroes!
In these days we have the opera influenced bands like Epica and Nightwish....great music!
But as I always say: there is always something good in any kind of music style-I think about Max Giesinger and Mark Foster in german pop music.
Or Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande! Worldwide pop music!
Or SIDO and Bushido in german hiphop.
In german Schlager there is Helene Fischer and Betrice Egli.....as a musician, I am always a constant student! I learn from all kinds of music.... :-)
Or in reggae , the great Bob Marley!
And of course I love classical music like Beethoven, Vivaldi, Paganini, Mozart,
and the great Johann Sebastian Bach!
And of course Jazz!....there is still so much to learn, kids! :-)
Okay so that is it for tonight! Enjoy the videos below....
Thanx J.S. 31,07,2026 at 1,50 a.m.
Dokken "In My Dreams" guitar solo