Riffs/Songs You Can't Imagine Writing

[MFB]

Almost everything I listen to really. I can kind of PLAY it, but can't imagine if I wrote it.

 

[Floppystrings]

Listen to the magic:



He was younger than I was...he didn't even have side dots to look at...what the HELL.

 

[ddtonfire]

They've been mentioned before, but Animals As Leaders and Planet X. How do you even?

 

[piggins411]

Most everything by BTBAM. Pretty much all of it makes my head explode

 

[Jake]

pretty much everything on this album

May not be as technical as some of the other stuff in here but its still awesome and difficult haha pretty stoked to be playing with these dudes next week

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

Anything by Btbam, Sikth, Periphery, The Safety Fire, and Animals as Leaders.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Yeah, I should have clarified, nothing really about technicality but the whole thought process of it. Like how the melodies work in SoP.

 

[linchpin]

Simple and yet so effective... i wish i wrote this riff.

 

[groph]

The intro riff mainly but even most of the album is full of amazing riffs that sounded like an entirely new genre of metal the first time I heard it



The big intro drone riff is the most scared I've ever felt listening to metal. This song alone got me into Monotheist and that is just... fuck.



The first 1:08 of this song is full of some of the most savagely brutal shit ever. DEM TREMOLO RIFFS AT 0:39 and 0:51 CHRIST that makes me want to ruin shit. That's what good metal does. It starts sounding like the descent into hell and then when the tremolo savagery starts up, it's like you're rocketing through the halls of damned souls seeing nothing but bodies being shredded, red mist and organs flying literally everywhere and you're going all "HOLY BALLS HELL IS METAL AS FUCK." It sounds fucking diabolical and like a slaughterfest at the same time. Win and win. It's not just the torment and gloom of hell, it's the pain and torture as well.



This whole song sounds like hurling through a galaxy as it is being created, the riff at 1:11 is descending into the atmosphere of a planet, soaring through the clouds and watching volcanoes going off and then flying back up and watching the grandeur of the swirling nebulae. Chaotic but transcending beauty. The sense of movement of this song is amazing, I don't even listen to these guys. I should.



This is one of the few songs whose intro riff makes me want to beat my chest and punch some fool in the face with brass knuckles. And I'd never think to write something as basic yet badass as fuck as this.



Not the tapping wanky shit, although they use it well in this album but the fast tremolo riffs in this song was the first time I ever heard metal that sounded like a computer but at the same time also sounds like your flesh is being flayed away by spinning saws. The picking dynamics in the higher notes mask the actual pitch of the notes and replace it with a shrieking tonality that just works. The riff isn't complicated, it's just the way it's played that I'd never think to do. Then of course you're moshing your ass off by the time the chuggy breakdowns come in.

 

[Eptaceros]

Ulcerate, hands down, some of the craziest riffs I've ever heard put together. Luckily 2 guys on Rivers of Gore tabbed out a majority of We Are Nil, allowing me to fix up some parts and get it down as close as possible to the original insane riffs.



Even after learning that, the song that always has my mind in a twist is Withered and Obsolete.



Whole song is a structural and melodic mindfuck, but that riff at 3:21 always baffles me.

 

[MrGignac]

i hear what you mean about spawn of possession, i could barely keep up when i saw meuenzner play live with obscura. the SOP stuff must be insane. I always respected crazy-clean alternate pickers like paul gilbert and rusty cooley. i want to learn that frantic disembowelment riff now too

 

[Demiurge]

Stuff like this:

It's just so savage, raw, and pissed-off- what metal should sound like. Even for a relative fogey like myself, it's really hard to undo the influence of the tidal wave of compressors, noise gates, processing, and gloss over the past 10 years or so and get back down to the basics: making fucking noise that people will think that you're mentally-ill for liking.

 

[Gren]

Even after learning that, the song that always has my mind in a twist is Withered and Obsolete.



Whole song is a structural and melodic mindfuck, but that riff at 3:21 always baffles me.

SECONDED. That riff is my favouritest thing in music ever.

 

[MF_Kitten]

most music that i really like is stuff that makes my brain go "what the hell, how did they come up with this stuff?!".

Meshuggah, Sikth, Gojira, ETC ETC ETC.

 

[Cyntex]

Dream Theater - Breaking All Illusions


most of Ewan Dobson's stuff:


Blotted Science two last songs on Machinations of Dementia, they are exactly mirrored. Blows my mind everytime:

 

[Metal_Webb]

This song....
The arrangement is so sparse but so damn effective it's absolutely brilliant. Only problem with it is the guitar tone and drums sound like arse on the rest of the album.

 

[MatthewK]

The opening lead riff to Black Sheep by Sonata Arctica comes to mind for some reason

 

[handmetheaxe]

Impact Fuze, this album is crazy good! Mad chops! I wish I could write something as genius as this, but I wouldn't know where to start.

 

[GTailly]

Plenty of riffs by Sikth and Meshuggah.
I can totally understand their riffs (musically) but I just don't see how they come up with such things. Brillant.

 

[CyborgSlunk]

Blows my mind.