Guitar hero Sophie Lloyd has gone viral hundreds of times over for her fretboard-sizzling takes on classic rock, heavy metal and pop songs, amassing over a million followers on YouTube alone. Her debut full-length solo album, Imposter Syndrome, landed in 2023 to decent reviews, and last month she made her first appearance at Download Festival, ticking off a major personal bucketlister in the process.
During the festival, we caught up with Sophie to ask her to reel off her favourite guitar solos ever, and she was quick to mention one that set a very particular and personal bar for her as a young player.
"We're gonna go for Beast And The Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold," she reveals, referencing the high octane solo by Synyster Gates that turns into a twin harmony attack alongside fellow Avenged guitarist Zacky Vengeance. "This is because when I was growing up, I remember thinking, listening to that solo in the car and thinking, 'When I can play that, that's when I'll finally admit I'm a good guitarist.'"
Sophie mastered it soon after - her video cover of the solo has been on her YouTube page for over 10 years now - although she still won't hold up the second part of that deal with herself.
"I still won't admit it," she laughs, "but I can play it. I probably can't any more, I haven't played it in so long. But the techniques that Synyster Gates uses are just incredible, his little chromatic runs at the end. He really is the daddy of shredding to a lot of people. He just comes up with such cool, creative ideas."
Watch the full video and find out what other solos Sophie paid tribute to below.
