MacAlpine is best known as an instrumental rock and heavy metal solo guitarist, although he has worked with many different bands and musicians in guest appearances and collaborations.

[1] Together with his first studio releases, Edge of Insanity (1986) and Maximum Security (1987), he had a prominent role on other works during the popular shred era, including keyboard performances on the debut albums of fellow guitarists Vinnie Moore (Mind's Eye, 1986) and Joey Tafolla (Out of the Sun, 1987).

As part of a band effort named 'MacAlpine', Eyes of the World was released in 1990 as a more commercially oriented attempt to emulate other hard rock acts at the time.

A further consecutive string of instrumental albums followed throughout the 1990s, most of them through the renowned Shrapnel Records label: Madness (1993), Premonition (1994), Evolution (1995) and Violent Machine (1996).

[4] After the release of Chromaticity in August 2001, he took an extended hiatus from recording solo albums and worked with a variety of other musicians and bands, most notably with supergroups CAB and Ring of Fire.

He has incorporated elements of classical, jazz, fusion, hard rock and heavy metal on both guitar and keyboard, and has been described as a virtuoso by Jason Ankeny at AllMusic.

[3] On August 25, 2015, he posted on his Facebook profile that he may have developed colon cancer, which forced cancellation of some dates on his tour to promote Concrete Gardens.