Top 10 Riffs

[NAD]

Now that we all have our Top 10 Metal Albums set in stone time to move on to another list. What makes metal? The Riff. I'm just going to throw a couple out there to start.

Carcass - Heartwork main verse
Although I think drummer Ken Owen really seals the deal making this just simply incredible.

Metallica - Master of Puppets intro section
Yes yes, I give a lot of shit to this album, but it's pretty hard to not love the first few minutes of the title track.

Machine Head - Old intro verse once Rob screams
Come on, if that riff doesn't make you want to get up and mosh, you have no metal soul. This is why power chords were invented people!

Limp Bizkit - Stalemate 2nd to last outro riff
Haha, yes I'm being serious. Fuck that band, but Wes Borland could be pretty creative at times, and that whole exit section can still get me going.

Slayer - Angel of Death intro
Probably one of the most recognizable riffs ever, even non-metal buddies of mine know this one. Capped with the most perfect double bass and 80s wail ever done, and then the song gets better...

Sacred Reich - Crawling guitar solo buildup riff
Even though this whole album is just massive rifftastic display, this one always stands out the most. And Phil Rind just kicks ass.

Faith No More - Kindergarten verse
Those harmonics are simple and extremely effective. This is also my favorite FNM song, and very high up on the chart of greatest songs ever.

Black Sabbath - ...
Screw it, I just realized my top 10 list will probably be 10 Sabbath riffs.

 

[Ayeka]

Depends what I just listened to really

 

[JayKeeley]

I'll give you a few here - too busy doing new upload for a top 10!

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath: The grandaddy of riffs. That with Bill Ward's percussion, just classic.

S.A.T.O - Ozzy Osbourne. This is signature Randy Rhoads.

One - Metallica. You know, that riff. "Darkness has taken my sight, taken my speech..."

Angel of Death - Slayer: Not the intro, but the mid-song interlude. The riff that Public Enemy sampled for She Watch Channel Zero, and the same riff that was used in Gremlins 2 when the gremlin starts morphing into a gargoyle.

Holy Wars...The Punishment Due - Megadeth: The whole song. Fuck it, the whole album is a riff bible.

Dead Embryonic Cells - Sepultura. That open E chord mid-song interlude again. Probably one of the greatest, simplest, and most effective riffs of the thrash kingdom.

Thrash bands of today fail because they forget all about the half-time, mid tempo, mid-song riffs. It was a quintissential part of thrash, never about just balls-to-the wall speed. The only band I know of that's paying homage is Exit to Eternity.

 

[NAD]

Dead Embryonic Cells is like THE blueprint for thrash, and yes, that interlude is amazing.

 

[Hell Mike]

Carpathian Forest - The Return of the Freezing Winds
First riff, so fucking good

Mayhem - Pagan Fears
First riff, so fucking good

Metallica - LOTS OF THEM but in particular the Four Horsemen

Grand Belial's Key - Shemhamforash

Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
First riff in particular

Treblinka - Earwigs in your veins
All Treblinka riffs (That I've heard - which means three songs or something like that)
are fucking great but the opening riff here si something spectacular indeed

The rest of the top 10 places saved for future enlightenment.

 

[Erik]

Top 10? Could never do that. I'll just mention some candidates off the top of my head (and from glancing my CD collection)

I'm thinking lots of stuff from various songs in "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"... Back in the days you could regularly read in interview with Euro how the songwriting was taking so long because he threw away most of the riffs he wrote because he wanted each one to be perfect. Well, it shows. Standouts would be the first in "Freezing Moon", (laughably simple. EFFECTIVE) the second and third ones in "Life Eternal", the first in the title track...

Then the main clean riff plus the heavy one with all the pinch harmonics in Anathema "Sleepless"... Fucking amazing.

Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

Tiamat "Whatever That Hurts," first riff. I mean, it's four power chords, each strummed once... Yet five years after I got the album they still mesmerize me with each listen.

Metallica "Blackened." I mean the song is my favourite Metallica song and a total riff fest so I'm not going to pick out a particular riff here.

Carcass "Corporal Jigsore Quandary", first riff. Pure malevolence.

Negurã Bunget's "Vint Da Rau..." off Sala Molska. Listening to that song makes me want to give up all my musical ambitions because there's no way in hell I could ever touch such fucking excellence.

The bouncy chorus riff off Testament's "Disciples of the Watch", you know the one that goes DISCIPLES OF THE WATCH! da-da-DAH da dididididi-dih DAH da da DAH da da DAH da da DI-DI-DU-DUH

Last riff of Entombed "Left Hand Path" with the synthesizers... I know they ripped that from some horror movie or something and that it's just a couple of power chords but fuck...

There's so many more...

 

[JayKeeley]

I'm thinking lots of stuff from various songs in "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"... Back in the days you could regularly read in interview with Euro how the songwriting was taking so long because he threw away most of the riffs he wrote because he wanted each one to be perfect. Well, it shows.

Yes, I can imagine that. There are certain albums where the whole record can be considered a lesson in riffs. Examples:

Mayhem - DMDS
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
King Diamond - Abigail
Gamma Ray - Land of the Free

and so many others...

 

[bloodfiredeath]

Top 10? Could never do that. I'll just mention some candidates off the top of my head (and from glancing my CD collection)

Agreed.

Obituary - Body Bag
Pestilence - Out of the Body

That's off the top of my head, I'll have to look and maybe add more...

 

[lurch70]

Obituary ... The End Complete (the song)
Decapitated ... Spheres of Madness
Carcass ... Corporeal Jigsaw Quandry
Slayer - Raining Blood

 

[Hell Mike]

Metallica - Disposable Heroes
WHY
Am I dying?
KILL
Have no fear

Fucking killer riff before/during that part

 

[NAD]

Cannibal Corpse - Orgasm Through Torture intro riff
I love that perfectly placed pinch harmonic, this brief riff is the pinnacle of this great band for me.

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
DAH, duh-dah-duh-DUH DAAAN!!! DUHHHHHHH DUUHHHHHHH DAAAAHH (repeat)

 

[JayKeeley]

Metallica - Disposable Heroes

Also happens to contain one of Kirk Hammet's greatest solos.

 

[Erik]

You mean there's actually several DIFFERENT Kirk solos?

 

[JayKeeley]

Yes, there are three:

Disposable Heroes
One
Blackened

The rest all belong to Dave Mustaine, Joe Satriani, or his wah-pedal.

 

[NAD]

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs first riff
MORE COWBELL!!!

Corrosion of Conformity - Clean My Wounds the riff that is repeated 900 times
5 notes, 1 power chord, and some effective palm muting can be a wonderful thing when done right.

Edge of Sanity - Blood Colored verse riff
It's pretty basic, but it's heavy as fark and that little fill at the end is awesome.

Danzig - She Rides first riff
Sometimes it sounds evil, other times bluesy, but nearly always like a strip club. In fact, it seems every time I go to a strip club this song comes on!

There are so many great riffs out there, I could never make a top 10.

 

[Erik]

Yes, there are three:

Disposable Heroes
One
Blackened

The rest all belong to Dave Mustaine, Joe Satriani, or his wah-pedal.

I was thinking his wah-pedal recorded one in co-operation with Kirk and then they just pasted that onto most/all songs out of laziness. Huh, sure proved me wrong!

 

[Erik]

Edge of Sanity - Blood Colored verse riff

Shit, there are so many great riffs in Crimson. Like the "main riff" with that great great melody line and then the other one that's playing underneath "coming forth on desert ground / the incarnation of a king in sleep profound"...

EDIT: Maybe there's no "main riff" in Crimson but I'm thinking of the one that starts around 28:34 or something. That's not the first occurence but well.

That album just rules. I'm going to listen to it... Right now.

 

[NAD]

My favorite riff from Crimson is around 12:00 (I think), the "Another self-proclaimed king..." part. Makes me grab beer and go

That whole album deserves a mention though, every riff is so memorable.

 

[Erik]

A couple more I just thought of in the shower:

Mayhem "Deathcrush" -- possibly the catchiest riff ever
Skyclad "Skyclad" first/main riff

 

[NAD]

Hypocrisy - every riff on Abducted and the self-titled

Hypocrisy - A Coming Race
That song could contain my favorite guitar work ever.

Rollins Band - Shame
The bassline during the "chorus" rules. The "at least I don't lie..." part. I've ripped off Melvin Gibbs bass work more than I'd care to count.