The NeoClassical Shred Guitar
It all was started by 19th century violinist Nicolo Paganini. He was the world's first virtuoso. He always wore black and had long hair. He wrote much of his music for his own performances, music so difficult that it was commonly thought that he entered into a pack with the Devil. His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist. In performance Paganini enjoyed playing tricks, like tuning one of his strings a semitone high, or playing the majority of a piece on one string after breaking the other three. He astounded audiences with techniques that included harmonics, double stops, pizzicato with the left as well as the right hand, and near impossible fingerings and bowings.
The first electric guitar player to combine classical influences with hard rock music was virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore. Just listen to Rainbow Rising and you will know what I mean.
Then came Yngwie Malmsteen who took over where Blackmore had let off. His first solo album just stunned the guitar world and after that we saw a new wave of shred guitarists following suit, most notably of whom are Vinnie Moore, Tony Macalpine, Joe Stump, Jason Becker etc.. (I am not saying that they copied him, I am just saying that they were heavily influenced by him - like Yngwie was heavily influenced by Blackmore after all!)