Final Post

Hello readers. This will be my final post. I have a new riff from another Periphery song. The song is called Alpha. It is the title track to the first part of their double concept album Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega.

On a side note, these two albums not only show the extent of Periphery's musical talent, they show how talented their singer is at creating an engaging story with great lyrics. So if you enjoy metal, and a well crafted story, albeit a dark and gruesome one, I recommend you check it out.

After all, we all like Game of Thrones. So why not indulge in a story about an assassin raised by a religious cult that seems to be on to something?

Anyways, here is the clip.

I thought I'd end this blog on a good note. So I chose a relatively easy, but still fun-to-play riff.

I did make a mistake several seconds in. I accidentally hit a stray note, but otherwise the clip is pretty clean.

Unfortunately, I never got the point where I could comfortably tackle the challenging riff I mentioned in my very first post. So I apologize for leaving you guys hanging there. Maybe when I get my chops back, I'll come back and make another post.

Until then, thanks to everyone who checked out this blog.

Full Speed Attempt at Mile Zero Riff

Hello readers. I apologize for being a little late with this post; but I did manage to a get a decent take of the riff from Thursday's post. So I hope you enjoy.

I managed to play it at just about full speed. It's hard to tell without a metronome, or the song playing in the background.

As you might've noticed, I couldn't quite keep up the pace at the end. If you look at about the nine second mark, there is a quick and sizable jump that leads into a pretty complicated set of notes across multiple strings. This is what threw my rhythm off.

Keep in mind that this is the best of about 10 or 15 takes, so I obviously still need to practice more. I can definitely feel how my fingers aren't as relaxed—especially for faster material—as they used to be a few years ago.

But once again, with proper practice and enough play time, this will eventually sort itself out.

That's all for now. Thanks for checking in.

My Guitar Heroes

Hi guys. I'm back with a riff from one of Metallica's new songs.

Before we get into the clip, I just wanted to talk about some of the metal bands that shaped my musical preferences.

The first band I ever listened to on my own accord was Linkin Park. Although they are not quite a metal band, at the time they were pretty hard. I listened to them almost exclusively for quite sometime before I expanded my horizons.

Eventually in high school, after being exposed to Guitar Hero the video game, my interest in music began to truly take shape. That was when I discovered Avenged Sevenfold's album City of Evil, which I still hold in very high regards. It showed me a whole new level of technicality and progression that I wasn't previously aware could exist in music.

After that, I started to explore a great many of metal bands. I soon decided that I should put Metallica's discography on my iPod. When I became familiar with their work, and realized that they were writing quality metal as early as the '80s, I was amazed. I'm sure some of you are familiar with their song Fade To Black. It was released in 1984 with their critically acclaimed, genre redefining album Ride the Lightning.

So with the release of their new album Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, I thought I would show them some respect by covering a riff from their new song Moth Into Flame.

This was a fairly easy riff to learn. It only took me about 15 minutes. Although its not played perfectly, I think it's pretty close.

My picking hand still needs a little more exercise to be able to play something like this more smoothly. Another part that caused me some trouble, believe it or not, was the two power chords at the top of the neck. Switching between the two-finger chord and one-finger chord was somewhat uncomfortable because of the position on the neck. Fortunately, the discomfort mostly went away after the 15 minutes of practice I put into it.

That's all for tonight. I hope you guys enjoyed.

Another Mile Zero Riff

Hi guys. Today's post will involve another riff from the song Mile Zero by Periphery. It is a very fun and flowy riff.

I played it at slower pace than the original version, but I will work on it over the next few days, and hopefully have a faster play through for you on Saturday.

This riff, similarly to one of the riffs in my previous post, has a fair amount of string skipping, and is very scaly. This makes it a little tricky to play, but when you get it right it is very satisfying and fun.

I did make a few rhythmic mistakes, so I will also try and improve upon that in Saturday's clip.

On a side note, since this has been a metal-centric blog, I thought I would pay some homage to one of the most influential metal bands out there. Metallica has just recently released their new album Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, so I figured it would be a fitting time to play one of their riffs for you guys.

I'll have that uploaded for you tomorrow night.

Thanks for checking in.
Nick