[Ola’s signature Washburn Solar guitar is tuned down one step to D Standard: D G C F A D.]

Eye Of The Storm Solo

Ola Englund shows us his Swedish roots as he breaks down his Yngwie Malmsteen/John Norum-inspired solo from The Haunted’s ‘Eye Of The Storm’ from this year’s EP of the same name.

Ola’s frequent half-step bends give the solo much of its character, along with his aggressive unison bends at the solo’s end. In between all that stretching, you’ll get a nice finger workout with the burst of legato speed in bar 8. The final technique to note is the pedal tone lick that begins on the adjacent 4th and 3rd strings in bar 6 and jumps into string-skipping by the end of bar 7.

The Haunted – Ola Englund – Eye Of The Storm – Solo

Check out this solo in context in the following video where Ola demonstrates the crushing tones of the classic Mesa Boogie Mark II C+ amplifier:

Stay tuned for two more lessons with Ola where he’ll teach us the solo to Feared’s ‘Mass Destruction’ and offer some helpful tips on downpicking. In the meantime, check out our Part 1 and Part 2 of our interview with Ola to learn about the disciplined life of an ambitious entrepreneur and family man who’s carved out a career for himself in the new music business!

[Special thanks to Chris Dingman and Alexander Pierce for their video work, Chris for his additional editing assistance, and Paul Schneider for his transcriptions!]