Riff Of The Week: Insect Edition
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Last week we pitted some epic eponymous stuff against each other in our Title Track Edition. Things were pretty even between a few of the biggest names in death metal with Gorguts just pipping Nile and Carcass at the post. However, I’m awarding victory to that donk mullet from the bogan-looking bloke in Story. May his ute have a clear path to the bottlo each morning for the remainder of the week.
Originally I had planned to get this biological series done earlier, but when I looked it had already been over a year since we did the Big Dumb Bird Edition RotW. So in continuation of that concept, this week I asked for Insect themed riffs. We got a big ol’ swarm of them shits here for you to choose from, let’s go…
Hans
Bokor – “Mosquito Dreams” (Riff @ 2:19)
Can’t quite pinpoint why I like this band so much. Also not sure what to call the style. Sounds a bit like Disillusion mixed with Tool, maybe? Anybutt, both their albums are great, go check them out.
Positronic Brain
Unravel – ‘Reign of Wasps’ (Riff @ 0:22)
That sick tremolo riff and that OH MY FUCKING GOD bass tone a few seconds later. Wasps still frighten me; a reign of them would be terrifying indeed.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
The Cure – ‘Lullaby’ (Riff @ 0:00)
The Cure turned 40 this year. Their masterpiece, Disintegration, turns 30 next year. The main guitar riff kicks ass without needing to be distorted as fuck. If you don’t vote for this, Peter Parker will have you for dinner tonight.
TheDeathDog
Nailbomb – ‘Cockroaches’ (Riff @ 2:20)
Just a song about being fed up with society and wanting to go on a killing spree. Solid riff to head bang to and make you want to fight. Gets the blood fuckin’ pumping, sick bass riff with the guitars coming in full force.
Wesselbr
Bloodbath – ‘Trail Of Insects’ (Riff @ 0:28)
I will probably be chastised and cast from the ranks of metal elitists for this opinion, but in my ears Bloodbath, a band that once started as a hobby project to pay tribute to the classic Swedish death metal bands, fucking crush most of their sources of inspiration. This sledgehammer of a song is only one of many testimonies of that.
Howard Dean
Butthole Surfers – ‘Sweat Loaf’ (Riff @ 1:26)
Locust Abortion Technician is one of my favorite albums. This off-kilter re-imagining of a classic Black Sabbath riff is fucking deadly. And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, be sure to tell her… SATAN, SATAN, SATAN!!!
Megachiles
Unravel – ‘Reign of Wasps’ (Riff @ 0:07)
There are 100,000+ species of wasp on this got dang planet, and they likely first appeared in the Triassic. That’s ~250 milllion years of wasps predating, parasitizing, pollinating, evolving sociality, perfecting hyperparasitism, giving rise to the ants & bees, and generally reigning over everything before Homo sapiens showed up and began selectively breeding perfectly good wolves into pugs, and inbreeding grass so hard it turned into dang ole corn.
Celebrate the good run wasps and pretty much every other group of organisms had pre-humanity with this new(ish) jam from Unravel! Riffz start at 0:07 and never let up, just like our assault on anything we can’t extract food or resources from!
ZMapp
Mastodon – ‘March Of The Fire Ants’ (Riff @ 2:27)
Remember 2002? Good old Mastodon? Well I don’t since I was in diapers. Still, this riff whips wack, and I could literally choose any second of the song for the very same effect.
Spear
Alterbeast – ‘Throne of Maggots’ (Riff @ 1:09)
This riff is so good they gave us three permutations of it in a row. We get the big introductory build up version followed by the DANK SLAMZ rendition, then closing it all out with its super jamming final form.
Lacertilian
Earth – ‘The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull’ (Riff @ 0:12)
Since Posi and Megachiles must have caught my less than subtle telegraphing the past few weeks here on the site and preempted my Unravel choice, I’ve reverted to the complete opposite-end of the spectrum with the serene album closing title track from psych-drone legends Earth. Ride the weekend out with this sweet n gooey masterpiece.
Next week I want you to send in riffs from bands whose name features a VERB. Basic, but that should give you all plenty to choose from.
Submission details below.
