Riff of the Week MONTH is Back
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe teaches us: new ideas are for suckers.
Eenzy here, bringing you another blast from the past with the word “riff” in the title. When I first started reading the terlet, one of my favorite things we did was Riff of the Week. Apparently several other readers on discord also have fond memories of pitting riff vs riff in a battle to the death. As much as I wish I could pull this off every week, every month seems to be a better fit for my geriatric writing speed. So, for now, welcome back to RIFF OF THE MONTH. With apologies to Lacertilian.
RotM will be slightly different than RotW. It starts the same though: first you email your riffs to the email below by the second Friday after I ask for riffs. Then I’ll post an article with the riffs everyone submitted and a poll where people can vote on their favorite riff. After 2 weeks, the poll is over and I’ll post the results and ask for more riffs. Then 2 more weeks for riff submissions and 2 more weeks of voting. Rinse and repeat. As always, no Iron Maiden riffs. They’re not fair, don’t even try.
The theme this week was one that felt fitting but was deceptively annoying to pick a riff for: When the riff comes back but slower and nastier
And we got a hell of a menagerie of riff submissions so let’s get to it.
Kennoli, Snaccc of a Generation (aka Kenstrosity or Spongefren)
Wormhole “Delta Labs” @ 1:12
“50% TECH, 50% SLAM” -Karen, Plankton’s Computer Wife
Count Bathory
Ukko’s Hammer “Ukonmila” @ 0:53
Ukko’s Hammer – a Denver-based gang of lefty punks – plays some of the most intense and pummeling crossover I’ve ever heard. Ukonmila is the eighth song on their 2025 self-titled full-length, and is one of the notably few parts of the record where the band lets off the gas. The mid-section of this track borders on doom metal, and provides welcome contrast to a stellar debut.
Brerlapn
Tribal Gaze “The Grand Arrival” @ 0:30 and 1:28
In 1937, the US aircraft industry produced roughly 3000 planes, most of which were small personal aircraft. By the end of WW2, the US had produced 325,000 aircraft and had tuned its manufacturing processes so efficiently that, rather than reduce production of excess planes and risk losing the perfectly honed, immense industrial capacity, enough excess planes to create several spare Air Forces would be flown from the factory directly to aircraft boneyards. Tribal Gaze layers such a saturated, enormous output of monstrous grooves that it’s hard not to wonder how many death metal bands could form by collecting the riffs for which Tribal Gaze simply has no room left. The Grand Arrival riffs go fast, then come back slow, then go fast, and come back slow again. If you think this analogy is overwrrought, just remember – this beast of a track didn’t even make it onto the initial release of their Godless Voyage. It was added when Maggot Stomp reissued the EP so that you could have a little bonus riffs, as a treat.
Hans
Strapping Young Lad “In the Rainy Season” @ 3:10
I guess strictly speaking this isn’t the riff coming back, but most of the riffs before this are BRRRRRRR and CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG, so can we really be sure? In any case, after Pantera and Machine Head had already ended songs with big-ass breakdowns, it was only a matter of time until a not shitty person tried their hand at it, and this is probably my favourite example of the… trope? Stay tuned till 3:25 when the vocals come back in. Lovely.
Iron Goddess of Mercy
Guns Up! “Won’t Change for Me” @ 1:15
In 1993, Entombed made the error of bringing back the riff but faster on classic “Demon.” 12 years later, Guns Up! decided to help ’em out and bring back that riff but a little bit slower this time around. Or, as the band wrote, “Thanks again to Entombed for the da da da da da da da OOOOH.”
Spear
Frozen Soul “Morbid Effigy” @ 3:08
Frozen Soul riffs are all pretty slow and ignorant to begin with, so how do they make it nastier? Simple: cut the tempo in half and get John Gallagher to do a guest spot. This shit will cleave your brain in two.
Tyler
Cryptopsy “Benedictine Convulsions” @ 3:05
When the riff beginning at 2:26 reaches its frenzied apex at 2:50, you may wonder how this could possibly get any sicker. Your answer comes at 3:05. You know you made the face.
Skelet’al
Kruelty “Manufactured Insanity” @ 3:32
The riff at 1:08 has a brief break and shout at 1:32 and then it slows and grooves a bit harder. It comes back again at 3:32ish for another rounder of even slower riffage. The whole album is great. Heavy riffs with many groovy parts for a fantastic slammy death metal experience.
Rolderathis
Bloom Filter “Down and Side” @ 1:57
Bloom Filter’s Closed Sets is fittingly chaotic for an album reflecting on dementia and homelessness. Avant-garde flourishes and punishing dissonance abound, as well as something I didn’t expect: SLAMS. Unsatisfied with a single beatdown (and brief foray into crust) the band later necros the riff ; the tempo shift lands like an out-of-body experience, a missed step on the stairs in the dark. This is all before session drummer Robin Stone does whatever the heck he wants for a while, captured perfectly by none other than Colin M’arston.
P.S.: From their BC page: “Half of the sales of this album will be directed to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness.” The whole thing rips, go buy it for a good cause.
Zocktal
The Dillinger Escape Plan “Limerent Death” @ 3:40
The riff comes back but gets faster 
Eenzaamheid
Cult Leader “I am Healed” @ 1:14
This track hits like a freight train as the opener to A Patient Man. This song (and album) does a great job of pacing the intensity and breaking it up with slower interludes. That is to say: this shit rips.
Please remember to vote by next Friday, 27 March
Anyone can vote
Only one can win!
