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Gary Holt and His Blood Painted Guitar

Gary Holt and His Blood Painted Guitar - Metalhead Community.

What do the Exodus and Slayer bands have in common? That one shared and another shares the stage with one of the most eccentric guitarists in the world, Gary Holt.

Gary Holt wearing his signature Kill the Kardashians Tee. Photo Credit: Unknown.

In the metal world, the extreme personalities of the artists of this genre such as Gary Holt have led him to be as controversial as enjoyable, and this time would not be the exception. Gary Holt is an iconic guitar player who belonged to two well-known bands. In his early days, he was in Exodus, a band that he plays with since 1981 which he has refused to leave.

Suddenly part of Slayer

His participation in Slayer arose because of the terrible loss of a lifetime friend, a respected musician and a longtime guitarist Jeff Hanneman, died in 2013 because of cirrhosis that he was fighting with for some time.

Slayer band photo. L-R: Gary Holt, Tom Araya, Kerry King, Paul Bostaph. Credit: Unknown.

Slayer or Exodus? Definitely both

Gary Holt accepted his participation in the iconic thrash metal band Slayer, where he also continued with his activities in Exodus. He is currently a part of the two legendary metal bands at the same time, which surely makes a badass lifetime story. Gary has temporarily joined forces with Slayer in 2011 for the first time and played together a few shows. But became a solid member only after 2013. Since that time he has participated with his solos in the recordings of Slayer's latest studio album; Repentless, which was released in 2015, and still the band's lead guitar player. Recently Slayer has announced that they will tour every corner of the world with their Farewell World Tour, where they will play their most iconic songs and end their live performance careers with it.

Gary Holt, playing his signature blood painted Esp guitar on stage with Slayer. Photo credit: Unknown.

The official Slayer calendar is unknown

Although there is still no official calendar of shows, it is known that the band will give a large number of shows that have the deadline for the final months of this 2019. This tour is supposed to be over a while ago, but apparently, there is Slayer for a while longer. Tom Araya said he wants to say goodbye in a monumental way to each of the people who have been part of these long years of Slayer's career.

Gary Holt and his equipment

We all know that Gary Holt has been a mythical figure in thrash metal, and as such, he has a fairly marked behavior (typical badass metalhead). One of the significant things about Gary Holt is, of course, his custom Esp guitars, which he has never hidden his love for. Esp guitars has released a few custom Gary Holt guitar models since he joined Slayer; Gary Holt EC (in Liquid Metal Lava), GH600 (in black and white), and then The Prince and The Officer Holt model.

Gary Holt performing live on stage. Photo credit: Unknown.

Blood from his blood

Many guitarists could say that their guitars have valuable memories related to memories, shows, bands, songs and that they retain a part of them. But not many can say it literally, as Gary Holt does. During 2016 he showed the world what can happen when a professional tattoo artist and a guitar legend come together.

Vincent Castiglia, an artist who has given what to talk about

Castiglia is recognized for many of his unique works. But in recent years, he has become well known by the metal world for one in particular works; Gary Holt's blood painted guitar design. Gary Holt honored him for this during a live performance at the NAMM Show in 2016, where he showed everyone the result of the work of both artists merged into one guitar. The artist unveiled a classical Gary Holt styled Esp Eclipse (or traditional Les Paul model with floyd rose) guitar with a particular design, not only because of the shape, but the material used to create it was nothing less than the blood of Gary himself.

Vincent Castiglia and his iconic art. Photo credit: Unknown.

Holt and Castiglia have shown their joy by participating in such a project

Both artists say that approximately 18 bottles of blood were needed to completely cover the work. These were extracted after Slayer gave a concert on Long Island. The creator of such work Vincent Castiglia shows his complete emotion at the fact that the work was finally revealed. He said that this was an unprecedented event, because there is no such thing in history, a guitar player with a guitar painted with his own blood. So he considered that Holt at that time was marking the history of metal in an amazing way, just as an iconic metal musician.

Unprecedented work

Castiglia had not done a job of this kind on an instrument, much less at the request of the one who plays it. There is no doubt that they managed to surprise more than one, and have taken the eccentricities of the artists to a much higher level than was thought possible. But, as I said before, both are very satisfied with this idea that for many it can be a bit odd, or even chilling.

Vincent Castiglia showcasing the art he painted on the blood painted Gary Holt guitar. Photo credit: Nathaniel Shannon.

What will happen with this controversial guitar?

The already famous instrument has been used on stage since day one (confirmed by Gary Holt himself). Although it is said that the creation of this particular instrument is more related to Exodus and their "Bonded by Blood" album, his beloved new acquisition will accompany him throughout the process of Slayer's farewell tour as well. This is the only and the first ever that someone has a request like this, and even more so that there is an artist capable of giving a particular treatment to the blood which is permanently embodied in a musical instrument. This incredible story of Gary Holt and Vincent Castiglia has reminded me of what Victor E. Frankl once said; "the meaning of life is to give life meaning."