Riff Of The Week: Big Energy Edition
E X P E N D
Last week we traversed the temporal tides back 20 years to visit 1998. While we normally get some pretty solid competition, the number of big name bands who were submitted certainly didn’t go unnoticed. In the end it came down to a duel between Death and Meshuggah for the top spot, with Chuck n co. just jagging the win over Jens and the ‘chuggahs.
This week ATP is key, as I asked for B I G E N E R G Y riffs. Does that have a specific meaning? No. Judge these on how pumped they make you and vote for your fave at the bottom.
And just a reminder, please only vote once. While it wouldn’t have changed the standings too much on last week’s polling, there were a few people spamming votes for single entries. We can see who was doing it, and rather than publicly shaming you, or turning CAPTCHA back on, it would be nice if you weren’t a dick about winning a prizeless/fun competition.
Positronic Brain
Nuclear Assault – ‘Critical Mass’ (Riff @ 0:25)
“Another oil spill, atomic waste displaced. Another forest dies, bring on the acid rain.”
Watched this video, with its various railings against Big Energy with my dad back in the day, and he was like (paraphrasing here) “but their guitars are probably made of exotic woods, right? And I bet their tour bus burns a ton of oil and diesel, and the process for making the tubes in those amps is brutal on the environment too, which is why they have to make them in China and Russia where there’s fewer environmental laws.” So much for young idealism.
tigeraid
Dio – ‘Stand Up And Shout’ (Riff @ 0:00)
When I think “big energy riff,” that means a killer, high-paced riff accompanied by soaring vocals. So The Greatest of All Times fits the bill. Riff begins at 0:00 while Ronnie does his thing.
Hans
Night Viper – ‘Exterminator’ (Riff @ 0:27)
Been looking for an excuse to send this in. Pretty much every song on this album has at least one riff that will make you want to get moving. This one happens to be the catchiest of the catchy to me. I recommend checking out the whole thing to anyone remotely interested in classic metal. The debut was no slouch, but how good they are on the second one seems downright unfair.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
Deftones – ‘My Own Summer’ (Riff @ 0:33)
OK, so the main reason for submitting this is pure self indulgence. I went to 2000 Trees in Cheltenham last weekend, and after all the bands had finished on Friday, one of the things you do was Karaoke, and take a wild fucking guess what I picked to sing.
I have no idea how it went, all I know was that I had to sign a release form afterwards, and people lost their fucking shit to the Deftones song. (I highly doubt it was my singing/horrific attempts at screaming)
So, yeah, completely self indulgent pick here, apologies for that, but I do have first hand experience of seeing a crowd simultaneously lose their shit to this riff from the absolute best place to see it, so I know it’s power.
God this made me sound like a twat. I’ll see y’all in the void.
Yarnhawk
Death Evocation – ‘Relentless’ (Riff @ 0:26)
I first heard this song on one of the monthly Patreon playlists, and it’s been pumping me up ever since! Only hard part was picking between this and the chorus riff.
p00pf4rt5
Enslaved – ‘Lightening’ (Riff @ 4:26)
I could never fully tell if they really wrote a song about lightning but spelled it with poor English or if it’s a song about lightening things. For the purpose of this, we’re going to assume it’s about fuckin lightning: mother nature’s big energy dong pounding the earth. Can’t get bigger energy than that. Yeah…
Lacertilian
Sepulcher – ‘Corporeal Vessels’ (Riff @ 5:10)
Was very stoked to see this upcoming bangfest from Norwegian death maniacs Sepulcher turn up in the ol’ inbox this week. While the record is a bit less erratic than their previous album, the building passages make the parts where they let rip feel more off-the-chain. Stab play at 5:10 and try to focus on that fucking awesome cover art to keep yourself from destroying the surrounding environment.
Next week’s theme is Reptiles.
Send me squamous shred, crocodilian chug, testudine tremolo, sphenodontian slides, or whatever reptilian-related riffing you like.
Submission details below.
