The ESP Guitar Company

In a move that surprised... well, no one at all, two bands featuring ESP players were awarded high honors at last week's Metal Hammer magazine awards in Germany. Slayer, featuring ESP-playing thrash gods Tom Araya and Gary Holt, were given the awards for "Best International Band". One of the bands that they beat out in that category, Paradise Lost, won the "Best New Album" award for their latest album The Plague Within. Paradise Lost includes ESP player Aaron Aedy.

Tom Araya, Slayer's frontman and bass player, is as well known for his ESP Signature Series bass as he is for his spine-tingling shriek of doom. Gary Holt, the longtime Exodus guitarist who replaced the late Jeff Hanneman in Slayer, also has several Signature Series guitars that were introduced earlier this year. Aaron Aedy of Paradise Lost is a relative newcomer to the ESP family, but has been completely enthralled with his ESP E-II Eclipse.

Read more about Aaron's connection to ESP here, and check out Slayer's completely blood-soaked, gore-filled, prison-riot-themed fun video for the title track off their new album Repentless here.