MusicRadar

6. Geoff Downes/Asia - Heat of the Moment

Right from the start, Asia were all about bombast. After all, what could be more over-the-top than a supergroup made up of prog veterans? Keyboardist Geoff Downes' kit was equally portentous, with something like 20 'boards arranged as a horizontal wall, forcing the erstwhile Buggle to run to and fro to play his parts. Yet it's his solo on the rarely-seen strap-on Moog Liberation that earns his place on this list. Joining guitarist Steve Howe and stand-in singer/bassist Greg Lake for a bit of synchronized bopping at the front of the stage, the solo is replete with pitch bends, portamento and much widdly.

5. DragonForce

What do you get when you mix power metal, synths and video game music? We're not sure if it's a good idea either, but we're reasonably certain that it would sound very much like DragonForce. Keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov is a head bangin' maniac onstage, bashing out frenetic solos on his Korg Triton or even, yep, his Roland Keytar. If Guitar Hero had existed back in those 8-bit Nintendo days, the solos might have sounded a lot like this.

4. Edgar Winter - Frankenstein

It's the epitome of the bombastic synthesizer solo. Equipped with an ARP 2600 (with a ridiculously long lead attached to the keyboard that he wore round his neck in these pre-keytar days), the multitalented Mr Winter blew everyone's head off with this monster riff. Not content with playing one of the most influential keyboard parts in rock history, the skinny sequined specter rips into a searing sax solo before having a go at the timbales. Astounding. For sheer bombast, it'd be hard to beat the wild flailing and live tweaking at about six minutes into this video.

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