“I use the Eventide H3000s in my rack, via the left and right effects sends/returns from my amps, to create the Stereo Imaging that builds the Lava Landscapes. I use the H3000s for my stereo delays and other cool textures.” Trey Azagthoth said this on guitar6.com — and the “Lava Landscapes” is the specific visual-metaphor language he uses to describe what his guitar solos are creating: not notes and scales but sonic environments, heat-based and geological, the specific churning, molten, barely-controlled character of Morbid Angel’s most extreme guitar passages. The Eventide H3000 — the same rack-mount pitch-shifting and harmonizing processor that Bob Mould (Serie 3 #18) used for his wall of sound — here applied to death metal, creating stereo imaging that spreads the guitar across the left and right amplifiers’ effects loops. Two Marshall JCM 900 heads. ProCo RAT rackmount for distortion boost. Morley Bad Horsie wah. MXR Phase 90. TC Electronics G-Major. And his own description of how he plays: “I think that back then I used what would be called Creative Visualization: using my mind and my imagination to access a deeper place within myself, to open myself and allow myself to be moved by the vibes coming out of the speakers — not thinking in terms of notes and keys but rather just riding the waves.” Not notes. Not keys. Just riding the waves. Decibel Magazine ranked him #1 on their list of the 20 best death metal guitarists. Joel McIver’s 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists placed him #7. He lists Mozart and Jimi Hendrix as his primary influences. He began guitar at sixteen when he received his first guitar — a B.C. Rich Ironbird. He is sixty years old. Morbid Angel was formed in Tampa, Florida, in 1983. The Lava Landscapes are still flowing.
The Journey
George Michel Emmanuel III — Trey Azagthoth — was born on March 26, 1965, in Bellingham, Washington. He grew up in Tampa, Florida, in a Baptist household. He began guitar at sixteen when he received a B.C. Rich Ironbird. In 1982 he formed his first band (Ice) with high school friend Mike Browning, playing covers of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. After graduation in 1983 he founded Heretic, writing original songs, before that band evolved into Morbid Angel. Morbid Angel’s debut album Abominations of Desolation was recorded in 1986 but remained unreleased until 1991; Azagthoth was dissatisfied: “It wasn’t up to standards, and I learned a lot from that. A debut album is gonna mark you for life.” The official debut Altars of Madness (1989, Earache Records) established Morbid Angel as the defining act of American death metal. The subsequent albums — Blessed Are the Sick (1991), Covenant (1993), Domination (1995), Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (1998), Gateways to Annihilation (2000), Heretic (2003), Illud Divinum Insanus (2011), Kingdoms Disdained (2017) — represent one of the most influential catalogs in extreme metal history. He is sixty years old. Morbid Angel continues.
Background: Bellingham Washington, Tampa Florida, B.C. Rich Ironbird at 16, Black Sabbath Iron Maiden Covers, Morbid Angel 1983, Altars of Madness 1989, #1 Death Metal Guitarist Decibel
Azagthoth’s specific formation — from a Baptist household in Tampa, through high school cover bands playing Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, to the foundational work of American death metal — is the specific biographical arc that produced one of the most technically extreme and most atmospherically original guitarists in metal history. His early influences (Black Sabbath’s heaviness, Iron Maiden’s galloping rhythms and melodic guitar harmony) are the standard entry points for an 1980s metal musician in Tampa. What distinguishes his trajectory is the speed with which he moved from those influences toward something that had not previously existed: the Morbid Angel aesthetic, combining Sabbath’s heaviness and Iron Maiden’s technical melodicism with an extreme velocity, a dissonance, and a spiritual/occult conceptual framework that had no precedent in 1983 Florida.
His specific spiritual framework — the “Temple of Ostx” state of mind he describes for soloing, the “Creative Visualization” approach to improvisational guitar, the Lava Landscapes metaphor for his stereo effects chain — reflects an approach to guitar playing as a shamanic or spiritual practice rather than as a technical exercise. His comparison of his creative state to “not thinking in terms of notes and keys but rather just riding the waves” connects his death metal soloing to the same anti-intellectual, instinctive improvisation approach that blues musicians have described for decades: the music as a received state rather than a calculated performance.
His contradictory influences — Mozart (for compositional structure and the specific organization of musical ideas in time) and Jimi Hendrix (for the expressive, wailing, effects-based lead guitar vocabulary) — produce the specific paradox of his guitar playing: solos that are structurally organized enough to build and resolve over extended durations (the Mozart influence) but played with the instinctive, effects-saturated, pitch-bent expressiveness of psychedelic rock (the Hendrix influence). Applied to death metal, this produces the specific character of his solos: not the scalar, neoclassical shred of Malmsteen-influenced death metal, but something more atmospheric, more searching, and more emotionally overwhelming.
The Rig: Trey Azagthoth’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Trey Azagthoth’s first guitar — received at age sixteen — was a B.C. Rich Ironbird. The B.C. Rich Ironbird is one of the most extreme-looking guitars in the metal tradition: a sharp, angular body design with the characteristic B.C. Rich pointed headstock, associated with the specific heavy metal aesthetic of the 1980s. His return to B.C. Rich in his current playing (the “instaGIB” custom Ironbird visible in Equipboard’s documented photo: “Trey can be seen here playing on his B.C. Rich ‘instaGIB’ Ironbird”) reflects the circular nature of his guitar development: beginning with the Ironbird, moving through multiple other brands and models across his career, and returning to the specific instrument type he started on. The “instaGIB” name (from gaming terminology — “instant kill”) reflects his consistent interest in video games (his documented favorites include Doom, Quake, Castlevania, and Metal Gear Solid).
The Equipboard documentation: “I used my B.C. Rich Ironburn [Ironbird], Gibson Explorer for the rhythms and six-strings. I used 2 different Ibanez Universes for the seven-strings.” The Ibanez Universe — the 7-string guitar series that Steve Vai developed with Ibanez, featuring the seventh string (low B) that extends the guitar’s range downward — was Azagthoth’s primary 7-string instrument for the Formulas Fatal to the Flesh album (1998), which incorporated 7-string guitars alongside 6-strings for specific passages. The UV7’s pickups: the DiMarzio Blaze II, documented in Equipboard as the specific pickup configuration of “The 90’s Ibanez UV7 used by Trey Azagthoth had the DiMarzio Blaze II pickups.” The DiMarzio Blaze II is a high-output humbucker designed specifically for the 7-string UV7’s low B string, providing adequate output and tonal definition for the lowest string’s extended range.
The Equipboard documentation: “Trey can be seen here holding an Ibanez RG7620.” The Ibanez RG7620 is a production 7-string from Ibanez’s RG (Racing Guitar) series — a high-performance solid-body with the specific thin, fast neck profile of Ibanez’s professional series.
His own Equipboard quote: “I used my B.C. Rich Ironburn, Gibson Explorer for the rhythms and six-strings.” The Gibson Explorer — the angular, V-adjacent body shape associated with heavy rock guitarists from Dave Davies (Serie 3 #5) through James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett — appeared as a rhythm guitar instrument in his recording setup for Formulas Fatal to the Flesh. The Explorer’s specific character: the mahogany body’s warmth combined with the angular shape’s resonance provides a thick, full-bodied rhythm tone appropriate for death metal’s heavy riff playing.
The UberProAudio documentation: “custom Dean X-Core Razorback V (blue, with Dean Equalizer pickup and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickup).” Dean Guitars’ Razorback V — a sharp, angular Flying V-inspired design associated with Dimebag Darrell — in custom blue finish with the specific pickup combination of the Dean Equalizer (Dean’s own humbucker design) and the Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (a hot single-coil-sized stacked humbucker). His own pickup philosophy: “I’ve got all kinds of guitars that have custom pickups and wiring for my solos, single coil pickups and/or humbuckers with split coil tap, phase switch. All kinds of tone options there in combining different pickups and electronics.”
Equipboard: “Trey can be seen here with his Dean Astro-X” and “Trey can be seen here playing on a Jackson JS32.” Both the Dean Astro-X (another Dean angular-body design) and the Jackson JS32 (a production Jackson solidbody) appear in his documented collection alongside the B.C. Rich, Ibanez, and Dean primary instruments. The Jackson Warrior Pro (1990, “pearl yellow”) also appears in a documented Jackson advertisement featuring Azagthoth.
Equipboard: “Trey can be seen here posing with his guitar collection, which includes a Charvel Explorer.” The Charvel Explorer — Charvel’s take on the angular Explorer design — appears in his documented collection. The Charvel name (the California company associated with the “superstrat” development and with the Van Halen-era modification work) adds a rock-era instrument to his primarily metal-brand-focused collection.
Amps
Trey Azagthoth’s primary live and recording amplifier is the Marshall JCM 900 2100 — two heads running in stereo, with the Eventide H3000 creating the specific stereo imaging between the left and right effects loops. The SevenString.org forum: “He uses JCM900’s the 2100 model with a ProCo Rat.” The JCM 900 2100 is the 100-watt, dual-reverb, two-channel Marshall — a high-gain head with the specific Marshall EL34 character, and enough preamp gain for death metal without the ProCo RAT boost. With the RAT as additional input boost, the JCM 900 provides the specific compressed, aggressive, harmonically dense Marshall gain character of the Morbid Angel recordings. Alchetron: “For amplification Azagthoth mainly uses Marshall heads such as the JCM 800 and 900 and 4×12″ cabinets.”
The Guitar World interview documents his most recent full rig description: “Azagthoth plugs into a ProCo R2DU Rat rackmount distortion and an MXR Kerry King EQ box, which he favors since it has two outs and he runs two amps and a stereo sound (achieved from the way he sets his H3000 into the FX loops in the amps).” The two-amp stereo approach — Marshall heads into 4×12 cabinets, with the Eventide H3000 creating the specific stereo width via the effects loops — is the foundational architectural choice of his live sound.
Effects
Trey Azagthoth’s most important and most specifically described effect is the Eventide H3000 — the same rack-mount pitch-shifting and harmonizing processor that Bob Mould used for his wall of sound and that Bill Frisell used for harmonic depth. In Azagthoth’s rig, the H3000’s application is specifically architectural: “I use the Eventide H3000s in my rack, via the left and right effects sends/returns from my amps, to create the Stereo Imaging that builds the Lava Landscapes. I use the H3000s for my stereo delays and other cool textures.” The Guitar World quote adds the specific technical detail of how he uses the H3000 for stereo: “he runs two amps and a stereo sound (achieved from the way he sets his H3000 into the FX loops in the amps).” Two Marshall heads, the H3000 in both loops simultaneously, creating the specific stereo imaging that he describes as “Lava Landscapes.” The volcanic metaphor is the right one: the H3000’s specific character — warm, harmonically complex, with the specific Eventide pitch-shifting that adds dimensional width to the guitar signal — does create a “flowing” quality when applied to the Marshall’s saturation.
Guitar World: “Azagthoth plugs into a ProCo R2DU Rat rackmount distortion.” The ProCo RAT — in its rackmount two-channel (R2DU) configuration — is his primary distortion boost, placed before the Marshall heads’ input stage. The ProCo RAT’s specific character: a hard-clipping op-amp distortion (using an LM308 chip in original versions) with the specific “ratty,” aggressive, compressed character that has made it one of the most celebrated distortion pedals in rock and metal. In rackmount form, the RAT provides the same circuit in a more physically stable, rack-mounted configuration suitable for professional touring.
The Alchetron and Infogalactic documentation: “a Morley Bad Horsie” as the primary wah pedal. The Morley Bad Horsie is the Steve Vai signature wah pedal — an optical-circuit wah (using light-dependent resistor rather than the conventional mechanical potentiometer) known for its specific sound and for its self-returning action (the wah returns to the toe-down position when the player removes their foot, rather than staying in position). His early career: “He later bought some effect pedals, including a Morley Wah” — the first Morley wah eventually evolving to the Bad Horsie as his primary wah choice. The Morley wah’s specific character: a different frequency sweep and voice from the conventional Dunlop Cry Baby, with a specific bright, cutting character that suits his lead guitar approach.
Equipboard: “Trey Azagthoth used the MXR M101 Phase 90 phaser pedal on his pedalboard during the ‘Altars of Madness’ and ‘Blessed Are the Sick’ eras, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on Equipboard.” The MXR Phase 90 — the same four-stage phaser documented for Van Halen (who made it central to “Eruption”) — provides the specific swirling, rotational modulation that appears in certain Azagthoth lead passages.
Alchetron: “Azagthoth runs a number of effect unit for his lead sound like a TC Electronics G Major Processor.” The TC Electronics G-Major — the same rack-mount multi-effects unit documented for multiple guitarists in this guide — provides reverb, delay, modulation, and pitch effects for his lead sound, separate from the H3000’s specific stereo imaging function.
Guitar World: “an MXR Kerry King EQ box, which he favors since it has two outs and he runs two amps and a stereo sound.” The MXR Kerry King Signature EQ (a 10-band EQ with the specific two-output configuration that allows stereo signal routing) is used specifically for its dual-output capability, allowing the single guitar signal to be split and routed to the two Marshall heads running in stereo.
Alchetron documents “a Locobox Flanger” as a historical effect — the Locobox being a Japanese pedal company producing affordable effects in the 1980s. The flanger’s specific metallic, jet-plane sweep character appeared in certain Azagthoth passages from the early Morbid Angel period.
Equipboard: “Trey Azagthoth of Morbid Angel used the DigiTech WH-4 Whammy pedal during the production of ‘Illud Divinum Insanus.'” The DigiTech Whammy — the same pitch-shifting pedal that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Serie 3 #16) and Matthew Bellamy (Serie 3 #11) use — appears in his Illud Divinum Insanus recording setup for specific pitch-shifting effects.
His most important “effect” is not electronic but mental: “I think that back then I used what would be called Creative Visualization: using my mind and my imagination to access a deeper place within myself, to open myself and allow myself to be moved by the vibes coming out of the speakers — not thinking in terms of notes and keys but rather just riding the waves.” And the state of mind for soloing: “His state of mind when he solos is what he refers to as the ‘Temple of Ostx.'” This specific spiritual/shamanic approach to improvisation connects his death metal soloing to the deepest traditions of improvised music — the state of receptive, non-thinking, wave-riding improvisation that jazz musicians describe in comparable terms.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Trey Azagthoth’s playing style is the most specifically spiritual in this section of the guide — the approach of a guitarist who frames his creative state as a form of meditation or shamanic practice rather than as technical performance. His Wikipedia characterization: “His playing features much utilization of the… tapping, extensive use of a Morley Wah-wah pedal and other effects, and wailing guitar solos that have a distinct tone fans attempt to consider his trade-mark sound.” The “wailing” quality — the specific expressive, pitch-bent, emotionally overwhelming character of his lead guitar — is the direct connection to Jimi Hendrix (one of his two primary influences) and to the blues tradition from which Hendrix drew. The Lava Landscapes metaphor — the visual, environmental, geological framework for describing the sonic effect of his stereo H3000 imaging — is the specific aesthetic language of someone who thinks about guitar sound as environment, not as melody.
His tone philosophy is the H3000 philosophy: the stereo imaging that builds environments. The Marshall JCM 900 provides the raw power; the ProCo RAT provides the additional aggressive clipping; the Morley Bad Horsie provides the vocal expressiveness; the H3000 provides the dimensional, spatial, Lava Landscape character. Each element has its specific role in the sonic architecture. Together they produce the specific overwhelming, churning, barely-controlled quality of Morbid Angel’s guitar sound at its most extreme.
How to Sound Like Trey Azagthoth
Guitar: B.C. Rich Ironbird or custom Dean/Jackson angular-body instrument with active or high-output passive pickups. Custom wiring with “single coil pickups and/or humbuckers with split coil tap, phase switch” for lead tone variety. Ibanez Universe or RG7620 for the 7-string passages.
Amp: Two Marshall JCM 900 2100 heads running in stereo, each into 4×12 cabinets. The ProCo RAT (or R2DU rackmount) boosting the input. The Eventide H3000 in both amps’ effects loops simultaneously for stereo imaging.
Amp Settings (Marshall JCM 900 — Morbid Angel Death Metal):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | 8–10 | Maximum — ProCo RAT further boosts this input |
| Bass | 5–7 | Present — death metal requires low-end foundation |
| Mid | 5–6 | Moderate — Marshall midrange with the Kerry King EQ for correction |
| Treble | 6–7 | Bright — the wailing lead tone needs treble definition |
| Presence | 6 | Present — attack definition for the extreme speed riffs |
Essential effects chain: Guitar → ProCo RAT (high gain, medium tone) → Marshall JCM 900 input → [effects loop out] → Eventide H3000 (stereo pitch shifting, delays, textures) → [effects loop return, both amps simultaneously] → Morley Bad Horsie wah in signal chain. MXR Phase 90 for specific passages. TC Electronics G-Major for reverb and additional effects. Enter the Temple of Ostx. Ride the waves. Build the Lava Landscapes.
Influence & Legacy
Trey Azagthoth’s influence on death metal guitar is the most foundational in the genre — Decibel Magazine’s #1 ranking on the best death metal guitarists list reflects the specific consensus within the extreme metal community that his work on Altars of Madness, Blessed Are the Sick, and Covenant defined what death metal guitar sounds like and what it is capable of expressing. The specific combination of Sabbath-derived heaviness, Iron Maiden-derived technical melodicism, Hendrix-derived wah expressiveness, and the specific atmospheric spiritual quality of his solos — described in his own terms as Lava Landscapes and the Temple of Ostx — produced a guitar aesthetic that subsequent death metal guitarists have drawn from without being able to replicate.
His connection to Frank Black (Serie 3 #19) as a fellow guitarist whose studio approach shares the Eventide H3000 as a foundational effects processor (Mould for wall-of-sound indie rock, Azagthoth for Lava Landscape death metal) reflects the unexpected overlap between the avant-garde rock world and the extreme metal world in their specific stereo imaging approaches. His connection to Eddie Hazel (Serie 3 #10) as a fellow guitarist who approaches soloing as a spiritual/emotional practice rather than as a technical exercise — Hazel playing “as if his mother just died,” Azagthoth entering the “Temple of Ostx” — reflects the shared tradition of emotionally driven improvisation. His connection to Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Serie 3 #16) as a fellow extreme guitarist who “wrestles” with the guitar rather than mastering it reflects the shared relationship of productive struggle with a difficult instrument.
Frequently Asked Questions: Trey Azagthoth Morbid Angel Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Trey Azagthoth use?
Azagthoth’s primary documented guitars include: B.C. Rich Ironbird (first guitar at 16, still used as the custom “instaGIB” model), Ibanez Universe UV7 (7-string with DiMarzio Blaze II pickups, used for Formulas Fatal to the Flesh), Ibanez RG7620 (additional 7-string), Gibson Explorer (rhythm guitars), custom Dean X-Core Razorback V (blue, Dean Equalizer + Seymour Duncan Hot Rails), Dean Astro-X, Jackson Warrior Pro and JS32, and a Charvel Explorer. His own quote: “I’ve got all kinds of guitars that have custom pickups and wiring for my solos, single coil pickups and/or humbuckers with split coil tap, phase switch.”
What amplifier does Trey Azagthoth use?
Azagthoth runs two Marshall JCM 900 2100 heads in stereo into 4×12 cabinets — confirmed across multiple sources. The Guitar World 2017 interview documents the current rig: ProCo R2DU Rat rackmount → Marshall JCM 900 heads → Eventide H3000 in both effects loops simultaneously for stereo imaging. The MXR Kerry King EQ with two outputs handles the stereo routing. He has also used Marshall JCM 800 heads in certain periods.
What is the “Lava Landscape” effect?
“I use the Eventide H3000s in my rack, via the left and right effects sends/returns from my amps, to create the Stereo Imaging that builds the Lava Landscapes. I use the H3000s for my stereo delays and other cool textures.” The “Lava Landscapes” is Azagthoth’s visual metaphor for the sonic environment created by two Marshall JCM 900 heads with an Eventide H3000 in both effects loops simultaneously — the specific stereo imaging, harmonic width, and delay textures that give Morbid Angel’s guitar sound its particular three-dimensional, overwhelming, churning quality.
What is the “Temple of Ostx”?
“His state of mind when he solos is what he refers to as the ‘Temple of Ostx.'” Azagthoth’s own description of his creative state: “I think that back then I used what would be called Creative Visualization: using my mind and my imagination to access a deeper place within myself, to open myself and allow myself to be moved by the vibes coming out of the speakers — not thinking in terms of notes and keys but rather just riding the waves.” The “Temple of Ostx” is his personal spiritual framework for the meditative, non-intellectual improvisation state in which his guitar solos are played.
What are Trey Azagthoth’s guitar influences?
Azagthoth cites Mozart and Jimi Hendrix as his two primary influences — an unusual pairing for a death metal guitarist. Mozart for compositional structure and the organization of musical ideas over time; Hendrix for the expressive, wailing, effects-saturated lead guitar vocabulary. He also cites Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden as his early formative influences (the cover bands of his high school years). The synthesis of these influences — Sabbath’s heaviness, Maiden’s technical melodicism, Hendrix’s expressiveness, and Mozart’s structural ambition — produces the specific Azagthoth guitar aesthetic.
What is Trey Azagthoth’s most celebrated solo work?
The Guitar World-referenced collection “Love of Lava” — “A collection of some of his famous guitar solos from Morbid Angel’s sixth album Formulas Fatal to the Flesh were put on a B-side record entitled Love of Lava which later were included on the second disc of Morbid Angel’s 8th album, Heretic” — is the specific document of his solo work at its most extreme. The solos from Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (1998), incorporating both 6-string and 7-string guitars, represent the most technically advanced expression of his Lava Landscape approach.
What rankings has Trey Azagthoth received from the guitar community?
Decibel Magazine ranked him number 1 on their list of the 20 best death metal guitarists. Joel McIver’s 2009 book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists placed him at number 7. These rankings reflect the specific consensus within the extreme metal and metal guitar communities that his foundational contribution to death metal guitar — the Lava Landscapes approach, the Temple of Ostx improvisation, the specific sonic character of the Morbid Angel recordings — represents the highest achievement in the genre’s guitar tradition.
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