Stefan Brending (2eight) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Alex Skolnick joined the Bay Area thrash metal band that became Testament at fifteen, and by the time he left in 1992 had recorded five albums with them and been named among the genre's fastest and greatest guitarists by Guitar World. He returned to Testament permanently in 2005 after a decade split between projects including a stint filling in for Savatage and founding his own jazz group, the Alex Skolnick Trio, which he still leads.