Christian Thompson

Christian Thompson — American guitarist — is part of Falling in Reverse in the line-up that consolidated the band as a phenomenon with a broad audience. His function is the most exposed in the group after the voice. Falling in Reverse combines metalcore, rap, electronic pop and ballad within the same tracks, and the guitar has to cross all those changes of register without the song losing cohesion — a heavy riff in one section, discreet accompaniment beneath a pop chorus in the next, a technical solo in the third. It is a format most heavy rock refuses, and one demanding of the guitarist a willingness to serve materials of opposite logics within the same piece. Where a traditional metal band builds identity through the consistency of the riff, Falling in Reverse builds it through constant rupture. Thompson holds that position in the phase when the band reached its biggest numbers — a period in which the group began appearing on the American charts regularly, keeping a mass audience despite persistent contempt from the specialist press.