Guitar Anthems of the '00s

When it comes to guitar anthems, the first decade of the 21st century has felt like a pile-on mosh pit of influences from every one before it. Take Green Day — pop-punk pioneers who rebooted their career by writing a rock opera caught between breakneck Ramones riffs and the layered licks of Brian May. Also looking back while pushing things forward are the lo-fi "American Girl" allusions of "Last Nite," the itchy tempos and anvil-heavy garage guitars of "Icky Thump," the stoner-rock stomp of "Little Sister," and the blow-up-a-building guitar chords of "In Too Deep." Which is a lot to take in, really. Don't worry, though — our Next Steps are just as scatter-brained.

Remember when there was a clear division between the underground and what everyone else listens to? Well, that line's been officially decimated, as modern rock guitar anthems reach from obvious reference points — the time capsule-cracking Led Zeppelin licks of Wolfmother, the manic moonwalk melodies of a "Smooth Criminal" cover, the punked-up AC/DC of "First Date" by Danko Jones — to the kind of chords you normally hear on stranger record shop fare, like the post-punk pressure points of "PDA" and the squealing, siren-like stabs of "Gold Lion." What's that? Things aren't noisy enough for you? Better pull out your earplugs for our Deep Cuts, then.

With grunge long gone as a "the kids aren't alright" art form, the past few years have seen a resurgence few expected: pure, eardrum-shredding heavy metal and the many weathered faces of extreme music, including the sludge-slinging grooves of Eyehategod and the twisted time signatures of Mastodon. A nagging, rib-poking sense of unease also cuts its way across the overheated amps of Comets on Fire's "Dogwood Rust," the geo-political angst-thrash of Propagandhi's "A Speculative Fiction," and the Gorgon's head guitars of "Easier Said Than Done" by C'mon.

A guitar is just a guitar, right? Meaning you simply plug and play, building harmonies and chord progressions from the voices in your head? Yes and no. As much as our Guitar Anthems of the '00s guitar greats want to rock like the Stones and Led Zeppelin, they're also obsessed with reinventing the riff — paying tribute to the gods of guitar thunder past while looking forward to a future of shimmering, stained-glass hooks ("Love Like Winter"); dizzying, overdriven highs ("Vertigo"); meat cleaver melodies ("In the End", "Last Resort"); prog-powered punk (everything the Mars Volta touches); and glossy dance rock ("Do You Want To," "Somebody Told Me").