How metal can one man be? Exodus / Slayer guitarist Gary Holt is already a monstrous player and a thrash pioneer, but he's just taken part in the most bad ass thing we've ever seen. Bringing the title Bonded by Blood to a new level, Holt had his own blood extracted and painted onto a new custom guitar.

This marks the first time a guitar has ever been painted entirely in its player's own blood. The work was done by artist Vincent Castiglia, who specializes in art painted with human blood. Castiglia took 18 full vials of blood from Holt backstage at a recent Slayer gig in Long Island, Calif. and the finished product was debuted at the 2016 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show.

"It was very exciting to finally be able to reveal the 'blood guitar' painted with 18 vials of my own blood at this year's NAMM!" Holt exclaims. "This Vincent Castiglia original is the first of its kind. This weekend was also my first look at it in the flesh so to say I was stoked is an understatement! Looking forward to taking this one-of-a-kind piece of dark art out on tour in February!"

The amount of detail in this surrealist work is incredible, blood or no blood. The axe's body is mostly taken up by a demonic portrait of a human figure with horns. You may expect some sort of "666" numerology going on here, but Holt's pickups actually display "777" in Roman numerals.

Castiglia comments, "I thought about the logistics, whether it would be possible or not, and figured, 'Hey, if I've been able to take my paintings and medium as far as I have already on canvas, why not do it on a guitar body?' After some trial, and some extra preparation, it all worked out perfectly, and this guitar actually became what I'd cite to be one of my favorite, most detailed works to date. I pushed it as far as was physically possible in terms of detail. The subject matter, look and feel, and functionality of the piece are all in perfect line with my work."

The guitar will remain as a one-of-a-kind work, as Gary Holt doesn't contain enough blood to fill the amount of orders you sick freaks would no doubt place.

Photo Credit: Nathaniel Shannon

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