Riff Of The Week: Title Track Edition
- Riff Of The Week: Title Track Edition (5:05)
Last week, if you are unfortunate enough to be able to remember that far back, was our April Free-For-All Edition. Many entered the ring, a blood-bath ensued, and when the red-tide subsided we were left with three. Three decrepit battle-hardened dead old experienced men warriors. Pundits posit that it was the extra absorbent properties found in Danzig‘s diet of deep-fried kitty litter that enabled him to soak up more the voting public’s poop and take home victory.
For this week we asked for your favourite riffs from an album’s title track. Easy enough to source, tough as hell to sort. Let’s go…
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
Nine Inch Nails – ‘With Teeth’ (Riff @ 4:19)
With Teeth as an album is underrated as fuck, it’s got some genuinely inspired moments of brilliance one some of the weirder tracks like the opener All The Love In The World and Love Is Not Enough, while some of the more pure rock tracks are also pretty dank too, especially Only, that bass riff will be lodged into my skull until the day that I die.
However, the title track is sooo goood. The main guitar riff that plays throughout most of the song is already great, with a great high pitched tone and aggressive playing that really compliment the amazing work of the rhythm section here, (if you can say that noted one man band NIN even have a rhythm section outside of a live setting) but it’s at the 4:19 mark where everything explodes into a massive wall of noise is where the song peaks. That’s what takes it from being a great track to being one of the best on the album.
Lord of Bork
Eyehategod – ‘Take as Needed for Pain’ (Riff @ 0:24)
This riff boils down exactly why EHG (and sludge at all, really) is so fantastic. No frills, just that thicc guitar tone drilling that bluesy melody into your brain.
Tom Warrior’s Beanie
Nevermore – ‘This Godless Endeavor’ (Riff @ 2:09)
Goddamn I love Nevermore; This Godless Endeavor is at least in my top three albums of all time and the monster title track in a big reason why. The pinch harmonics at the end still give me goosebumps.
ZMapp
Rotting Christ – ‘Non Serviam’ (Riff @ 2:00)
REDEMPTION
Howard Dean
Story – “Kontroll” (Riff @ 0:17)
This riff probably has zero chance against the wave of big name classics that are bound to be submitted, but hear me out: Story is a super underground thrash (and occasional power) metal band from Hungary that released a pair of albums around the turn of the millennium. This riff from the title track off their debut is a ‘banger and a half. Stick around until 0:29 seconds to hear a killer offshoot of the main riff and to see the guitarist’s hair. For real, the guitarist of Story (one of seven guys in the band named Zoltan, of course) has the most amazing, luscious mullet I’ve ever seen in my life–bar none. Take a look. Seriously, look at his fucking hair! That riff and that hair… together?! Phenomenal.
Here’s a photo of those legendary locks. This guy invented partying.
Ian Rigg
Abysmal Dawn – ‘Leveling the Plain of Existence’ (Riff @ ?:??)
There are a few good riffs in this song. I’m going with the final riff. Give the whole thing a listen and enjoy the culmination of it all. This riff is groovy as can be and is impossible to not bang your head a little to. This is the riff that you hear as the plane of existence is leveled.
Iron Goddess of Mercy
Dead in the Dirt – ‘Fear’ (Riff @ 0:36)
Watching DitD grow from Atlanta’s heaviest local band to touring with the almighty SunnO))) was pretty special. “Fear” encapsulates everything that made this band great: speed, fury, and crushing riffs. All three members are doing awesome stuff, still. Blake stayed in this lane with Infernal Coil, while Hank’s new band Slow Fire Pistol will surely excite fans of 90s skramz, and Bo’s band Arbor Labor Union (fka The Pinecones) is just the best.
TheGranulatingDarkSatanicMilfs
Carcass – ‘Heartwork’ (Riff @ 2:22)
Excuse me. Do you have a minute to talk about our lord and savior Bill Steer?
Yarnhawk
Nile – ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’ (Riff @ 1:51)
Breakneck tempo? Check.
Shreddin’ guitar solo? Check.
Ridiculously low incomprehensible gurgles? Check.
Siqqqq riffs? Check.
And just to cap it all off, an outro that will be stuck in your head for days? Check.
Classic Nile at its finest.
vanNeun
Master – ‘The Human Machine’ (Riff @ 0:09)
That riff alone makes this album a go-to for me when shit needs to get done.
Lacertilian
Gorguts – ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ (Riff @ 21:12)
Been on a huge Gorguts kick the past few weeks. Never get sick of hearing the astounding diversity within these records. The riff that begins after the incredible volume-swell trade-off interlude around 21:12 has the band cast a dissonant shadow over an almost sludgy/doom death riff. This beast has a 40-fucking-second loop on it before the rest of the instruments kick in. Enormous.
Next week we’re asking you to dust off your heavily-thumbed and much vaunted Entomology textbook(s) as we’re getting invertebrate…d? Send me riffs from songs fitting the theme of Insects.
Submission details below.
