Riff Of The Week: Top Riffs Of 2017
We asked for your favourite riffs of the year and now it’s time for you to choose the winner!
Before we get into the final Riffening for 2017, let’s take a quick look into the results from last week’s Food Edition. While the big ol’ poop pie was divided quite evenly, there were a few favoured slices which proved more slightly more sought after by the ravenous riff regiment. In the end it was Sepultura‘s ‘Hungry’ that satiated 15% customers and took home the bacon. [*salivates profusely*]
To finish off 2017 in style, this week we asked for your favourite riffs of the year from releases covered on the site. A few surprises snuck in here, and some notable omissions. Remember, if you do the knob move of posting your pick in the comments below with some inane excuse as to why you didn’t submit officially, you need to prepare for scorn and silently accept that you’re a useless flaccid dildo. Now, on to the rifffffffffffffs!
Hans
Flesh of the Stars – ‘III’ (Riff @ 0:04)
Featured on a round of mini reviews back in February, this could’ve been the doom album everyone was talking about – if it hadn’t been for those meddling Bell Witch kids.
Flesh Of The Stars on TovH
Positronic Brain
Spirit Adrift – ‘Curse of Conception’ (Riff @ 1:19)
Best and most headbangingest riff of the year.
Spirit Adrift on the TovH
Nukenado
1476 – ‘Winter Of Winds’ (Riff @ 0:00)
As Donald Trump would put it, “Sad! Very sad!”
1476 on the TovH
WhamBamSam
Hellripper – ‘Within The Everlasting Hellfire’ (Riff @ 1:32)
Hellripper’s Coagulating Darkness was my absolute favorite album of 2017. You could hit play at any random point on the record and stand a decent chance of landing on a Riff of the Year candidate, but I’ll go with the one starting at 1:32 in “Within the Everlasting Hellfire.”
Hellripper on the TovH
Yarnhawk
Engulf – ‘Aeons of Hate’ (Riff @ 0:00)
This riff is everything that is good in metal. If you don’t like it, I don’t like you. Although, I think Lacertilian summed it up best in the original post: “Hit play on “Aeons Of Hate” below and if within 10 seconds you’re not stomping on your merry way over to the Buy Now/Download button, you’re a fucking muppet.” For the record, I only needed 3 seconds. [Lizard Note: Place vote here]
Engulf on the TovH
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
Converge – ‘I Can Tell You About Pain’ (Riff @ 1:52)
Yeah, I know… basic choice. Welp, I haven’t listened to much metal this year (shame, I know), so this is the best you’re gonna get. Not that that’s a problem, as the closing riff to this song of the choice as fuck new Converge joint is, to quote the coolest cat of our times, GRAAAANNNTASTIC!!!!! The high pitched guitar squeals just work so well with the breakdown riff here, and it elevates it into the stratophere. As for awesome shit that wasn’t featured on the site or isn’t metal, The Spark by Enter Shikari is the best album of the year, Element by Kendrick Lamar is the best song of the year, Who Dat Boy by Tyler, The Creator has the best production of the year and if you haven’t watched Blade Runner 2049 you are *insert super hypobolic insult that’s the result of the film tanking at the box office here*.
Converge on the TovH
Howard Dean
Death Worship – ‘Superion Rising’ (Riff @ 1:52)
So depending on who you ask, the Death Worship EP was released at the very end of ’16 or beginning of ’17. However, pretty much all full versions of the EP went live in January-February 2017, so I tend to view it at as ’17 release. This is a bestial supergroup formed by members of the great triad of war metal: Conqueror, Blasphemy, and Revenge. This EP is fucking awesome. Now you’ll cowards probably don’t think of the riff when you think of bestial/war metal, but this EP here has ’em in buckets. And this one is my fave. This is a true bludgeoning headbanger, not safe for the weak or frail. This clears the hall, buffs and shines the floor, refills the paper towels in the bathroom, let’s everyone back in, and then burns the hall down with everyone inside.
GRUMPDUMPUS
Unaussprechlichen Kulten – ‘Sabbatical Offering’ (Riff @ 2:22)
IN A PROPER FINAL CRESCENDO TO CULMINATE THE FECAL FRENZY OF 2017 THIS RIFF FROM UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN COMES FROM DOWN UNDER THE EQUATOR AND LOOSENS MY FERMENTED BOWELS LIKE AN INTESTINAL CUECA
MY COLON BECOMES NULL AND VOID AT 2:22
Unaussprechlichen Kulten on the TovH
Lacertilian
Suffering Hour – ‘The Abrasive Black Dust’ (Riff @ 1:20)
Since Yarny has already submitted what would have been my pick, this frees me up to post this mind-altering intoxicant from what was far and away my fave album of 2017. Couldn’t even guess how many times I’ve listened to this throughout the year, and the recurring riff theme that starts around 1:20 is one of the main reasons why. Each time it resurfaces in the song it feels slightly more deranged, and each time I’ve heard it, I do too.
Suffering Hour on the TovH
[yop_poll id=”400″]
Next week we’re kicking the year off with a theme I’ve had in mind for a while now. We’re only going to be accepting a band’s first riff. However, I will be lenient and if the band has a demo/EP that came out before their first recognised album, that will also be valid. Submission details below.
