Michael Angelo Batio (born June, 1956) is an American heavy metal guitarist, songwriter, producer, columnist and record label owner from Chicago, Illinois. He was the lead guitarist for the Los Angeles-based glam metal band Nitro in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Batio’s work has encompassed many genres, but he is best known for playing heavy metal and its subgenres such as neoclassical metal, and speed metal. Batio has an advanced knowledge of music theory, having a deep understanding of complex scale combinations and time signatures which assist him in his compositions. He is widely known for his technical mastery of the fretboard and his extremely fast picking and sweep picked arpeggios. He is also known for his showmanship during performances, particularly his use of the “MAB Over Under” technique, which he invented and for his ability to play a double-necked and quad-necked guitar, using both hands to play.
Batio was voted the “No. 1 Fastest Guitar Shredder of All Time” by Guitar One Magazine in 2003 & 2005. Batio plays extremely fast and well articulated alternate picking, earning him the name, “World’s Fastest Guitar Player”. Batio has been listed as one of the “Top 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time” by Guitar World Magazine and one of the “20 Greatest Shredders of All Time” by Total Guitar Magazine, both in April 2008. Batio also won the 2009 Guitar World Magazine Readers Choice award in the “Best Shredder” category. In November 2011, Batio won the Guitar World Magazine Readers Choice Award and was voted the “Fastest Guitarist of All Time.” Over 440,000 votes were cast.
He is ambidextrous, a skill he taught himself. This enables him to play two guitars at the same time either in synchronization or using separate harmonies. This includes playing completely different parts at once, as shown while playing his famous Double-Guitar. Though naturally left-handed, he plays as right-handed when playing one guitar.
Batio was the inventor of the Double Guitar, a V-shaped, twin-neck guitar which can be played both right- and left-handed. As well as the Double Guitar, Michael Angelo also invented and designed the Quad Guitar. The Quad Guitar was recently named as the 2nd “coolest guitar in rock” by online music magazine Gigwise.
He is also the founder and director of M.A.C.E. Music, Inc., an American record label founded in April 1993. M.A.C.E. Music, Inc. is based in Gurnee, Illinois. M.A.C.E. distributes both directly and through other labels, to over 40 countries worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, all throughout Europe, Canada, Japan, Qatar, South Africa, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. M.A.C.E. has its own recording studio in Gurnee called ‘Monster Mix’.
