Hard riffs?

[nils152]

Can you guys think of any metal/rock riffs that are techincally hard to play and will overall improve my riffing?

[Antagonist]

i don't have any riffs that will improve your riff playing, but try learning some Lamb of God or Children of Bodom. If your looking for fast metal riffs, most of their songs are excellent.

[paTz0r]

pretty much any dream theater song, haha.

check out:
beyond this life
erotomania
stream of consciousness
etc etc

[newamerikangosp]

A riff that will make you perform sodomy on your guitar?....



Frantic Disembowlment-Cannibal Corpse
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6455471444605708420&q=cannibal+corpse&pl=true


Even if you aren't a death metal fan, watch this video of pat and alex, and you will see riffing gods

[TheJeffinator]

Lamb of God - Laid To Rest

Children of Bodom - Needled 24/7, Chokehold, Hate Crew Deathroll, Kissing The Shadows

Megadeth - Hangar 18, Tornado Of Souls, Holy Wars

Testament - Trial By Fire

Death - Any of it

Cannibal Corpse - Any of it

Morbid Angel - Any of It

Soilwork - Grand Failure Anthem, Chainheart Machine, Bulletbeast, Follow the Hollow, Mercury Shadow, No More Angels

Nevermore - Ambivalent, Psalm of Lydia (if you pick one from this list, pick this one)

Have fun with these.

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[newamerikangosp]

enter sandman lol

[Jackel]

Hangar 18 is an awesome song to play. Depending on how good you are it's going to take some real effort to play it well.
Satch boogie is another good one for improving your playing.

[oRg]

Necrophagist has some really awesome riffs that are pretty technical. You could check them out. You'll be doing alot of EP, AP, and string skipping.

[scruffles]

+ Atheist, Cynic.

[TheJeffinator]

Bloody hell, did I leave out Cynic?

Put in I'm But A Wave To and Veil Of Maya, then.

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[DracWell]

Mesuggah - D.E.I. and Chaosphere.

[Death (Chuck)]

Bloody hell, did I leave out Cynic?


Yes.... and Annihilator :D
arch enemy and carcass are nice as well
death was mentioned above, so dont forget control denied
flotsam and jetsam have some killer riffs too
hypocrisy ( roswell 47)
Testament and Pantera

[oRg]

Mesuggah - D.E.I. and Chaosphere.
Good choice, I can't believe I forgot about those. Future Breed Machine (from D.E.I), Exquisite Machinery of Torture, The Mouth Licking What You've Bled, Concantenation, and New Millenium Cyanide Christ (from Chaosphere) are all awesome songs to work on for rhtyhmic complexity.

[Padawan]

"Killing is my business" by Megadeth has got hard and fast riffs. I love this album because you can really feel the anger of the singer...besides it makes me feel better when I want to KILL EVERYBODY! :)

[DracWell]

Yeah if not physically hard the timing is out of this world :)

BTW. Long time no see oRg :P

[delicious]

How about some dragonforce XD

[curiousgeorge]

Metallica's Master of Puppets intro will definitely help to build strength, and technique. Downpick all of it!

The Satch Boogie intro by Joe Satriani is a good one for riffing in a swing-type feel...It's a tricky one to get just right...deceiving...

One song that REALLY helped my riffing and pick hand was Bombtrack by Rage Against The Machine (the beginning)...At one point I could downpick it at at least double speed. Great for working on accuracy and endurance.

Try Pantera's Cowboys From Hell...the beginning riff and the same riff when they go down an octave. That riff is a MOTHER$*$**$!!!

[jrvipond]

Check these guys out...

http://www.myspace.com/edtasks

[Nolly]

I'd say if you can play Megadeth's Rust in Peace, Metallica's Master of Puppets, Trivium's Ascendancy and System of a Down's first album all the way through, you'd be well on your way to being an all-round metal riffing machine!

[TheJeffinator]

Just for fun, check out Cryptopsy's Shroud and Angelskingarden (for starters), At The Gates (Slaughter of the Soul will be easiest to find and likely the most accessible), In Flames' Colony album, and some older Dillinger Escape Plan. I have to stop doing these posts so bloody late at night, I feel like an idiot for leaving out Heartwork and Black Earth (I just skipped right by Bury Me An Angel! How?), so I'll probably be back, for better or worse.

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[EspBoobiesYeah]

^^^ Good choices homie!


I'm @ work, let me peruse the cds I brought


Unearth - The Oncoming Storm

Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin, Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation

Carnal Forge - Please Die!

Strung Out (songs) - Everyday, Razorblades, Blueprint of The Fall, Lucifermotorcade (solo), Her Name In Blood, Exile in Oblivion (album)

In Flames (as mentioned)

Between The Buried And Me - Alaska

As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security

Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil

Shadowsfall - The War Within

Thrice - The Illusion of Safety

Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing

Mastodon - Leviathan

Propaghandi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes

Shai Hulud (song) - Set Your Body Ablaze



Not all this **** is tech; alot of it is. I find nowadays that I can pretty much play anything by ear, it's just about how much time I choose to spend to play it. My next level is getting good recording software and start writing my own songs from scratch and being more than a collaborator.


-Capt. Hellfire

[HArd rocker]

i wuld say any pantera, megadeth-hangar 18, most metallica, joe satch, and symphony x, any of it, oh and black label society, any black label really but a really good riff is low down

[Andy5]

I'd say that the difficulty of riff-playing is not weird chords or speed, but being in sync with rhythm. You can take some technically simple riff like the one from "Little Dreamer" (Van Halen), record it and compare your timings with Eddie's in some wave editor... And the real difficulty begins when you'll try to make your timing close to Eddie's :)

Why am I saying this? Because if the riff's timing is not perfect, the riff doesn't sound. And with proper timing, even a single note may be killing.

Having said this, one of the most difficult riffs for me are Bettencourt's ones. For example, "He-man woman hater".

[TheJeffinator]

That's an excellent point, and also the reason why it's so painful to listen to None So Live and hear them (Cryptopsy) playing all of their old songs perfectly and nailing several of them about 20-30bpm faster than the original. Megadeth's Lucretia is a great song to use when working on that kind of thing, because it's so easy to think you're in the pocket, and it's a great tool for finding where you're on and where you're off. The old Testament stuff is good for this too - not always challenging in terms of speed, but hard to do consistently and in sync with the record.

On an entirely different note, Bettencourt is just mean.

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[Mcbane]

I'd agree with the whole ryhthm thing which is why incubus's stuff is a lot harder than you'd expect especially if your not used to funk playing as well as rock and metal. Off the top of my head favourite things is quite a difficult one. Also Led Zepellin have some hard riffs as well I'e been trying to learn the song remains the same and the riffs are suprisingly tricky, really well written as well.

If your just looking for fast technical stuff you can't really beat dream theater though Eric johnsons stuff does have its moments if anything because its quite different.

[Glyderbat]

i found playing the verse riffing in the number of the beast by iron maiden really helped my rythym chops, all downstroke at a fairly uptempo speed. The other guitarist in the band had it down to a t and i couldnt do it, so I kept at it and it improved my playing significantly. try it and see if it works for you

[TheJeffinator]

Phantom of the Opera, off their self titled, anyone?

[Chud]

A riff that will make you perform sodomy on your guitar?....



Frantic Disembowlment-Cannibal Corpse
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6455471444605708420&q=cannibal+corpse&pl=true


Even if you aren't a death metal fan, watch this video of pat and alex, and you will see riffing gods

Wow, definatly gonna agree with that. That's some mental riffing. What tunning is that in and what gear is he using?

[BigBagBill]

Definatly some Darkest Hour. Like Tranquil or maybe hands of the sadist nation, payphones and pills. Himsa is pretty good too, The Destroyer on their newest album rocks somethin fierce. As I Lay Dying is great, pretty much any song by them is fun to play. Trivium will definatly improve your over all playing, Dying in Your Arms and Gunshot To The Head of Trepidation is great.

[Reza]

master of puppet is a good way to build your riffing stamina, since hetfield use a lot of down strokes in most of his playing. down strokes and palm muting is the best way to get that nice 'chugga'. but alternate picking riffs are cool too, check out the intro for 'tornado of soul' by megadeth.. i love pantera's 'great southern trendkill' riffing, the one after the screaming intro.. got that boogie kinda feel..

[TheJeffinator]

Chud - that's a BC Rich 6 string in Bb (it's easier to just tune a 7-string down a half step, if you're on a six use at least 12s or 13s) and there's a powertab that's 100% accurate to the best I can tell (just a beast to play).

I'd agree with at least Trivium in Bill's list - can't stand the rest of those guys, though. Rain would be a better start, in my opinion - by the time you can nail that you'll probably be ready for most stuff. As far as thrash goes - definitely learn Rust In Peace from front to back. Nevermore also would be great to check out - early stuff is very good for thrash rhythm, and Enemies of Reality, Dead Heart in a Dead World, and This Godless Endeavor run through just about everything metal.

Rock On,
The Jeffinator

[Chud]

Chud - that's a BC Rich 6 string in Bb (it's easier to just tune a 7-string down a half step, if you're on a six use at least 12s or 13s) and there's a powertab that's 100% accurate to the best I can tell (just a beast to play).


Yeah i could tell what guitar and all it is (i got the powertab and i'm working on it... SLOWLY :D), just wanted to know the amps and such.

[TheJeffinator]

Pat O'Brien uses Mesa Boogie amps (he's a real innovator, you see). Not sure what the other guys use.

[Chud]

Pat O'Brien uses Mesa Boogie amps (he's a real innovator, you see). Not sure what the other guys use.


Yeah i thought it sounded a bit like a Mark IV or something :confused: