Over 68,000 of you voted and the results of our Greatest Metal Guitarist Ever Poll are now in. There are a few surprises in here to say the least, but the public have spoken and, in this case at least, the public gets what the public wants!

Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah)

Proportion of vote: 0.48%

Essential listening: 'Bleed'

Next: Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne, Firewind) >>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’