This breakdown elegantly deconstructs thrash metal's aggression into a sophisticated study of rhythmic and modal complexity. It reveals that behind the sonic chaos lies a meticulously crafted masterpiece of modern musical architecture.
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BLACKENED Guitar Tutorial/Analysis (Metallica) [Let's Learn ...And Justice For All EP #1]Added:
Hello, Metallica fans, and welcome to episode number one of the Let's Learn and Justice for All guitar and analysis series. Blackened like my hopes and aspirations for you, the viewer, to actually learn these guitar parts accurately. Blackened like a tuna fish on a Carnival Cruise Line. Blackened like Jason Newstead's bass part on this entire album. Moment of silence for Sir, Jason Newstead's bass part.
And also for every single note, every single time change, every single chord progression in a full detailed musical analysis of Blackened by Metallica.
Let's get it.
Blackened is the opening track to Metallica's 1988 album titled Injustice for All. And boy, what an opener it is.
The intro fades in with a short composition by, I believe, guitarist James Hetfield. Now, this introduction was so good that they decided to reverse the tape and play it backwards. And yes, I do actually believe it came out better by flipping the introduction around.
You'll see how it sounds forwards in just a bit, but I think this is another production move that we can credit to drummer Lars Olrich here. So, 0.1 for Lars. That absolutely iconic intro swells in with an increase of volume that eventually hits the first riff. A thrashy barrage of absolute carnage brought to us and composed by basist Jason Newstead. Now, of course, this duty has been relegated to the guitar.
And since the bass track has essentially been deleted from the album, we're not entirely sure who should take credit for it either. Just kidding. Point two for Lars. Aside from that, we get three different riffs that constitute the main idea, verse, and chorus sections, all alternating with different time signatures. With all that in mind, let's get into the introduction of the song.
But it's not going to be the introduction you're used to, people.
Remember how I said that they reversed the intro at the very beginning here?
Well, we're going to go over what was actually played that then became the iconic intro that we know today. So, take a listen to that. We're going to listen to all the parts first and then break each part down as we go.
So, as you can see, when all is said and done, we have four different guitar layers going on to build up that huge, lush, beautiful composition. The chords on the bottom and three harmonies up on top. Let's take a listen to the chords only and I'll meet you on the other side.
That is a very simple chord progression using power chords that descend using predominantly half notes to get through the part. Let's take a look. So we basically start on a low E. That's your one chord to D, the flat 7, C, flat 6, and the B.
Second time around, we have a change.
LISTEN, that's just a flat 3 2 one in the terms of E minor. All right. So, that's a 3 2 1 of the E minor scale. All right. Then on that E chord, we descend once again to D A.
And then the last time we go like this.
Ready?
We just end right on the beat.
All right. Now, ordinarily that would be a fade out, but that chord becomes the fade in of the actual intro. Let's look at the first harmony or the main melody part that comes in on the lead guitar.
A very cool melodic line indeed. And you can kind of hear shades of what was to come with the reverse intro that we're used to uh within these parts. So, let's get into it. We start on the root note E. So, this harmony outlines the bass, the root of this whole thing. Start on here, ninth fret of the G. Got some hammer on action here. Ready? 1 2 All right. So, some very creative use of the open B string at the end there. Now, we start on the root and we go to the second scale degree with a hammer and another pick. Then you do the same thing.
All those notes just outline the first three scale degrees of the E minor scale. The next one, the next part that comes in is the same guitar, but it goes up to the flat third or the minor third harmony now, while the other guitar remains the same. So check this out. We have It's basically doing Mary Had a Little Lamb on the guitar, right?
All right. I'm just kidding there. But it does actually use the same notes theoretically. Um, but in this context, it sounds badass and evil. All right.
So, who knew that James Heffield could make Mary Had a Little Lamb sound badass? Unbelievable. It's like Mary had a little lamb who wore sunglasses, smokes three cigarettes at a time, drives a motorcycle that blasts exhaust right into your face. American metal exhaust. That's what I'm talking about.
So, let's do that one more time. We got the second part.
All right. And that follows along the same chord progression. Check it out.
Ready?
All right. So eventually it winds up um resolving on the root note of that B chord. So very cool. Now the third part is very very very similar and it goes like this.
Check it out.
So that's not difficult. It basically just changes a couple notes around there. I'll play it one more time for you. Look.
instead of coming all the way down, it just flirts around with the 12th fret, that root note B there. All right.
Now, the final part uh is where it hits its peak melodically, and we go ALL THE WAY UP TO the flat third again, hammer, and then a nice half step bend with a pulloff down into that F sharp.
Now, let's just check take a look at what's going on melodically. This is the flatted third going to the fourth. So, that's the resolution there. But this basically an A going up to a B flat.
That's the blue note. All right. So, we're hitting the blues right there, which sounds very, very cool in context with the uh the harmonies. And you'll hear that when I start stacking them together. But uh yeah, basically blues blues and then eventually this becomes the fifth of the C chord and then resolves into the fifth of the B chord which fades off into the distance which fades in from the distance on the actual recording to start off this album. So this could actually be an album ender but it's the album opener. Now that we have the rhythm guitar and the main melody line, let's hear both of those stacked on top of each other for a two-part spread.
As you're playing this, you can feel the mutton chop slowly growing out of your face, just like James Hetfield had in the late 80s and early 90s. You know that badass haircut he had there? Super mullet. That's what I like to call it.
And ironically enough, he plays Mary had a little lamb in this introduction, so go figure. But this harmony basically plays a unison at the beginning. So I'll play through that and get get that over with. So here we go.
Unison.
Now instead of sliding into the flatted third, we slide back into the same note.
You play the same thing.
Then all right, that little bit is definitely different, but that creates a really, really cool harmony on top of everything else. So listen again.
Flat 3 2 1 flat 7 5. It leads down to that B chord absolutely perfectly. So those two harmonies in a vacuum kind of sound like this.
So, because of that descending line, we get a perfect fifth and an octave on the beat. That continues on with another cool variation. Check this out.
That caps off with a very attitudinal half step bend. All right? Or I should say a double half step. Check it out.
and basically resting on that F sharp.
That's the fifth of the B major chord.
All right. So, the harmony is pretty much perfect at this point. Um, now the last part, we basically come all the way and we change the harmony. We go to the the root. Actually, no, we're keeping the harmony the same. This is THE ROOT COMING UP onto the high octave at the 17th fret here.
So this one focuses on the root notes and basically goes 1 2 flat three on that E minor with a double bend and resolving into the D sharp which is the major third of the B chord. One more harmony we got to stack on top of there.
But let's hear the two harmonies and the rhythm guitar.
Now, that low harmony doesn't come in until the third pass of the chord progression. So it comes in a little bit more delayed and basically acts as a building point for all the other harmonies. All right, so you have the two harmonies building, but in this case we have the third harmony coming in making it a huge wall of sound and a beautiful, beautiful harmony at the end of the day. All right, let's just take a look at the individual notes. We start on a B.
That's awesome. And that's all it is. It just goes right along with that the middle harmony. All right.
Perfect.
Then we head up the higher octave like this.
Now that creates a whole [ __ ] ton of tension.
Oh boy. Now, that's a dirty harmony right there, folks. Flatted ninth.
That's more like a jazz harmony or a gypsy jazz harmony that would be played by the likes of Django Reinhardt.
Very beautiful, very emotional, very tender, very tense, extremely tense, dramatic. All right. So, basically, I mean, if you take that harmony and put it on top of the B, it sounds like this.
Oh, sorry. That was an F sharp. Let's try that again.
Doesn't really sound much better now, does it? Now, obviously, it resolves, but that actually happens on the down beat. A C on top of a B.
Woo. That's a B with a flatted ninth, a sus 4, and a flatted six.
I know you want me to resolve that so badly, don't you? Well, guess what? I'm going to leave you freaking hanging. But you can listen to the resolution on this full pass. Let's actually just take the harmonies and listen to those together.
All right. And then we'll add the chorus at the end so we can get one last harrah. And boom, boom, bam. We're done with this intro. Ma'am.
All right, everyone. Now that you have that all figured out, it's time to take those tape reels and it's time to flip them over and play them freaking backwards. How about that, folks? But well, now we actually get to go into the real song here. So, we're going to learn how to play that entire intro as it is on the album using the same articulations as are on the album, but we can't necessarily play it perfectly one to one. We have to relearn the whole thing. Trust me, I had to learn this thing twice because it's two completely different animals moving backwards than forward. So, let's take a listen to the whole backwards intro. It's basically going to be all the guitars you hear on the album. I'm just not going to fade them in. I'm going to come in real hot with a bam and just take a listen at everything that's happening and we're going to go through all four parts just like we did with the forwards introduction. So, here's the backwards introduction, all the guitars together, and then we'll break it down.
All right, chords first. Once again, these are very easy. We actually start off by holding out that B chord like this.
Now, I don't think there's any volume pedal in the world that can give us a long fade like is is on the actual album. But hey, if you have enough sustain on your guitar and you have the patience to try and figure that out, go for it. I just hit it and just let it rock until basically it comes into the C chord.
D E B C D and then here perfectly backwards.
See that?
Remember on the other introduction the forwards it went like this.
Well, here it's going right then hitting the B chord again.
So, it's really really cool. And it's kind of crazy how it worked out so perfectly because I hear it like this.
That's just the way it is on the album.
And maybe it's because I'm biased cuz I'm used to hearing it like that. But in all honesty, I think it sounds better that way. And it's just so iconic. I always remember this.
It just sounds so epic.
But yeah, that basically just goes one more and then here we hit the final E chord which basically swells even louder. They use volume automation and whatnot to make that happen. So don't worry about that. Just hit the damn chord and hold it out for a couple beats, would you? Now let's take a listen to the first harmony that comes in. So unlike before, we're going to start up in the high register. So, let's just take a listen to that solo first.
Once again, I hope you have tons of sustain on your guitar because yeah, the tail end of this has to be just as loud as the beginning. Now, I'll admit I didn't spend all the time trying to get the perfect amount of sustain here. I could have gotten my f my Fernandez guitar out and done the sustainer thing, but I figured eh, let's just go organic with it here, folks. We'll use the John Patrrui Ibanz for all this crap. So, here we go. We start up here, and then here is C D E.
Now, in this case, we're doing a sus4 resolution into the flatted third. Okay?
Much like we heard in the forwards part, but this time we're hitting it at the end of the cadence instead of at the beginning. So, go figure. It's a reverse guitar part. What else do you want from me, folks? The second part goes like this. We actually slide down to a B.
And you want to make that slide just like that and hold it out. And then basically, like I said, it's a reverse version.
And then basically instead of doing the slide downward which we did before, we do a slide upward and do the same melodic line twice.
And then to end it out, I'm actually not going to play the open B string because I don't think it sounds as good and I didn't use it when I recorded it myself.
So we're going to play it like this instead.
And that's the big crescendo that comes into the main riff of the song. Uh, but basically we're hitting the B and the D sharp. That's the root and the major third. And then this, a freaking awesome Lydian style idea, which then eventually resolves into the one of, well, the one chord.
All right. So, let's get all that one more time. Fading in and the C chord hits slide up.
It just sounds so triumphant, right?
Just incredibly epic and absolutely awesome. Let's do a quick chord melody of that. Starts between the B and the F sharp. That's the root and the fifth.
And then here, that's playing along with the fifth and the six.
And that's basically a half step bend there. So really, it's going up to the flatted seventh of the C.
and then the fifth and the flatted six of the D.
So it's actually more dissonant than in the forwards version which gives it a lot more life and flavor. And then that's that sus 4 I was talking about.
And then basically we go into here and then that's so cool.
And then we basically hit the almost sounds like a Beatles song when you play it like that. super super melodic and awesome. And yeah, James Heetfield deserves a golden ticket award for all this great music that he's come up with. Absolutely incredible. You can really hear the spirit of Cliff Burton singing through this introduction, I believe. Rest in peace, Sir Cliff. Jason Newstead, he's a cool guy, but he wasn't really included on this project very much, now was he? All right, let's listen to the rhythm guitar and that first harmony stacked on top of each other.
Now it's time for the second harmony to come on in.
Now, that harmony comes in on the D sharp, which is the major third of the B chord. All right? Except we're up here in this octave here. Ready? So we got D sharp 3 4 and C chord extends.
Then we basically drop down into the F sharp that is essentially well not essentially it is the fifth of the B chord. And then we have this harmony which goes right along with the top part.
All right. And then basically we rise up from down here.
We go into the fifth once again. Same thing.
And then it's capped off with the same thing that the first guitar plays, a unison.
Now, doubling a guitar part serves to add a little bit of extra weight, little bit of extra body onto something that would ordinarily be thinner. All right.
So, this is sort of creates the illusion along with the automation of the volume as it's going from a studio perspective.
Um, this adds the illusion that the thing is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and better as it goes on, even though we're losing a guitar in the process. By this point, there's only two harmonies playing and they're both in unison and the rhythm guitar. Um, where when it begins, it's three harmonies.
So, go figure on that one. Let's play that one more time. Ready? Start on the D sharp.
The back to the front.
Big old crescendo. Wow. So with that dominant, we are on the D sharp, the major third here. So we fade in the C chord comes, some Lydian stuff.
Then we just got to slide down to the F sharp. That's the perfect fifth. More Lydian.
Then that goes into the ninth with another ninth resolution. And then fifth, same thing.
And then the unison, which is exactly the same.
I just can't get enough of playing that.
It's so awesome. Hopefully you don't mind me repeating myself because this is a lot of fun to do. All right, let's get those two harmonies and the rhythm guitar stacked on top of each other.
All righty. One more harmony and we're getting the hell out of this damn intro.
Let's listen to that solo. This is the low harmony that comes in right out of the gate this time around.
This time we're starting right on the rigy route. All right. So, we're on a B way up here.
All right. This completes the B major triad that we fade in on. And then we come into this.
Now, you want to be careful and make sure that you're actually doing full step bends there. Whereas the other guitars were doing half step bends. This one's got to be a full step. Otherwise, it's just going to sound wrong. So once again, root note fade in C chord.
And we're also we're pulling off into the 16th fret there.
That's the fifth of the E minor chord.
All right.
And then here we're going and then it's basically done by that point. It basically fills out the harmony that we have. So if you think about it like this, that's really what's going on between the three guitars.
Just a cool little thing. Let me play the first three guitars down here as a sort of a melody here. So, we got full B triad going into a C triad, but real quickly.
So, instead of this just going down a whole step like it was just for that, it goes down the minor third.
So, it can truly encapsulate an E minor chord. This is basically an E minor triad in second inversion. All right, so everything checks out there. All right, so just like with that forwards introduction, let's listen to just the three harmonies playing together so we can get a good feel for that nice harmonic atmosphere that's being created here. And it's very very Bachike. Think of the greats, the great composers of all time. Just take a listen.
Now, after that big old swell, we got a hit into the actual first riff of the song. But there's one measure of a band entrance that occurs before that riff is even played. Let's just take a listen to the guitar right there.
Now, here comes the odd time signatures already. If you didn't notice, just before hitting that riff, the E chord right beforehand is a measure of 2 4 instead of 44. Okay, so that's the first time change. Then when this comes in, that's a measure of 54. That's right.
Let's count that out. 1 and two and three and four five and then right into the main riff. Now admittedly it's rushed. So Lars played this quite sloppily. Let's listen to the drums real fast.
So as you can see he rushed those last notes that occur, which is basically a mute on James Headfield's rhythm guitar, which goes like this.
It's basically one extra note before starting the riff. All right. So, let me play it in context.
You hear that little mute just before the riff comes in. That basically makes it a 54 measure. Now, after that part, we hit into the first guitar riff where basically it's playing by itself. All right. So, I'll play that portion first.
Let's take a listen.
So, we're all by ourselves here on the rhythm guitar. All downstrokes, James Hetfield style. That's what we're looking for. And basically, we're starting the riff on the open E string.
All right. And basically, you're pinging ponging between the open E and a note on the A string. And sometimes it goes to the D string as well, but you'll find that out here. So, let's play it super slow. And let's take a look at that curious timing as well. So, here we go.
So, we're going to go All right. So, basically what's happening here is we have a time signature of 74. That's right. The main riff of the song is in 74. It doesn't feel like it's in an odd time signature, but it literally is. So, we got to get used to counting this out. So, let's do that super slowly. Now, basically what we have to do is we need to start counting on the first open E. So, this is beat one. Everything in between is an and. One and two and three and four and.
Okay. Then the next three beats, you can actually separate this into four plus three if you want. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and. And that'll give you the bar of 7 4. All right. You can do that for both parts and it'll feel perfectly fine. But 4 + 3 7 al together.
1 and 2 and 3 and four and five and six and seven. Now, basically, let's take a look at some of those intervals here.
Most of it is around E. That's our root.
But basically, we do this suspension and resolution or tension resolution on the flatted two. That makes this a frigian riff, at least for now.
All right? And that flatted two is incredibly tense and diabolical. All right? So you got to get used to hearing that it's an F on top of an E and it's just begging to come back down to that root note. The second half of the riff goes up to a tritone. Oh wow.
So we have a flatted fifth perhaps a sharp fourth but that sounds like this.
Let's listen to that against the E. Now that is actually known as the devil's interval. All right. So back in the day, you get burned at the stake, they think you're a damn witch trying to cast a spell on some [ __ ] And that's the whole idea here.
So two of the most diabolical and extreme intervals that you can have back to back being played well back to back.
All right. So minor 2, flatted 9inth and a trionee in the same riff. So, pretty damn cool. Um, and with an on time. So, this is about as awesome and cool as you could possibly get. Uh, the second half we hit the same thing, but we take that trionee down an octave into this register.
So, we're still hitting a trionee, but it's down an octave. All right. So, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and.
And that's basically all there is to it.
Let me play it at a faster speed here.
Ready? 1 2 3 4.
Oh yeah.
I just can't get enough of that [ __ ] man. Freaking awesome. Now, you're going to have to get that right hand really moving. Maybe practice uh not masturbating. Don't practice masturbating with like this speed.
You're going to rip your dick off. Don't do it. Okay, you might want to practice just simply holding the pick and using your wrist to go in extremely fast motion. All right, maybe just practice going like this over and over again. All right, then eventually incorporate the A string, but you have to move that quickly. This is basically a tempo of 192. All right, so the eighth notes are moving incredibly fast and you are guaranteed to get tired. So, you're going to want to warm up before even attempting this.
Okay, so that's about it for that portion. Now, let's listen to the second half of this intro and where the snare drum comes in. Now, it's the same riff, but there's a very concerning difference that we have to go over. Let's see what Lars brings to the table here.
He's literally just using his snare drum as a metronome. Now, this is all well and good except for one crucial detail.
He's becoming a metronome on the wrong beat. He has essentially flipped around the down beat and the upbeat that we were used to having prior. If you remember, the guitar riff started on beat one with the open E.
Well, we got to throw that out the window temporarily because Lars is treating the A string note of the guitar riff or the second note being played, which is usually on the upbeat, as the downbeat. Now, on the surface, it doesn't seem like Lars is doing anything wrong because he's just doing the quarter note as a snare drum. But the problem with that is that the guitar has to add an extra note in order to compensate. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and five and six and seven and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 six and 7 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 You see how there's that bit there's that extra low E string in there that adds a seventh eighth note onto that measure and it's all because Lars played the wrong freaking metronome on this part. Damn you Lars. But quite honestly, it makes the song the way it is. It actually wouldn't feel right if he didn't do that. If he didn't [ __ ] up royally on the timing because guess what? Lars has been known to do this.
Fight Fire with Fire is another great example of a song that has a specific timing, but the way that Lars plays the drums, it makes it sound like it's uh the downbeat is in a completely different spot. All right, same thing is happening here, but only temporarily because he plays the groove perfectly the next time around. And he even switches it up later on, which makes me think he's a little smarter than uh than I think we're giving him credit for. So, this is another point for Lars, by the way. What are we on? 4. Four for Lars, zero for Jason. That's pretty funny, isn't it? The ending of the first half of the intro basically just has a couple of power chords at the end. It's So, at first I always thought it went to the F sharp both times because it does that toward the end of the song or toward the middle of the song, I should say. But really, we actually start on the G and then it goes to the F sharp, which actually sounds way cooler now that I think about it. And I would have not realized that unless I dug into the isolated track. So, let me just play that uh that first half of the intro all by itself. Here we go. So, we got it.
It doesn't even feel like there's an odd time signature in there now, does it?
Probably because it's moving so quickly.
Now that we're finally out of the introduction, let's get into the verse riff, or I should say the setup to the verse.
Now, this riff is in 64 timing, which can be split up into two bars of three if you'd like. Let me just play through it. It repeats the same thing four times before getting to the actual verse. So, check this out. Slow it down.
Nice. So, basically what's going on here is we have the open E power chord.
That's the one. Okay. So, our root and that's basically 1 and 2 and 3 and so that could represent the first half of this 64 measure. And then we do the second half like this.
Okay, that's 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and five and six and one. All right. Now, a lot of tabs on the internet say that you play a pulloff there.
But I was listening to the isolated tracks and guess what? It doesn't sound like there is a pulloff. It's all just James Hefffield's motorboat arm going up at full speed on downstrokes, every note.
Now, the intervals that we're playing here, we're basically going from the E chord, which is the one, right into a trionee. All right? So, the root and the flat five are being explicitly outlined. And then basically using something very simple or similar, not simple, similar to the intro except instead of hitting this and using the F chord. It's just going B flat and kind of doing a blues thing. After that, we head into the actual verse riff, which has a couple changes in it.
Really, just one major change. Let's take a listen.
So when the vocals come in, we play the same riff twice just like we saw.
And then we kind of go into it a third time, but we have to change the ending.
Check this out.
And then we play the same ending as well. So take a look at that. We just still do the B flat thing or actually we don't do that B though.
We go B flat and then basically slide from the second to the third fret into a G chord.
So all all together this is basically creating like an E diminish sound. All right. So check this out on the the very last time slide power chord and then again.
All right. So it's basically ending number three and it's the only different one. All right. So let's hear it in context. So we have E, E flat blues, E blues, sorry.
Here it is.
And it transitions into that slide seamlessly. So you got to make sure you get that. Now, the very last time around, all right, when it goes, when we play this last riff here, it basically ignores the last uh those last three notes in favor of a slide, which then goes right back into the introduction. So, just be sure to be careful and check that out. The next section is a short transitional riff, which is basically the intro riff that goes straight into the chorus. Now, all that really happens here is it plays through the riff and then it basically does a measure of two four as a buildup into the chorus. So, let's just take a listen. I'm going to include the riff just prior and uh it's going to play through the chorus section and then we'll go over it.
So, I basically have three bars of seven and then a bar of 2, four, just straight eighth notes that leads us into the chorus. Check it out. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 and 2 and So it's basically just eighth note chugs on a measure of 2 4 right into this. Oh yeah.
All right. All right. So, a super cool riff. Once again, there's no shortage of amazing riffs here, people. It's Metallica for Christ's sake. Jesus. So, we're basically starting, okay, after that buildup. 1 and 2 1 2 3 4 and 1 and 3 and 4 is the da da da da.
So essentially we have this sort of structure going E which is the one chord and then basically going from A.
Okay. And you want to do the full power chord. You're going to mute it. 1 2 3 4 and 1.
Okay, now that's D. That's a D chord.
The flatted seventh chord. And then 2 and 3. Okay. 4 and 1.
Now that's basically a G palm muted to a C palm muted. That's a flat six chord.
Using the G again to go down a half step. very dissonant interval, by the way, which is an F sharp. That's the two of the scale. Now, ordinarily the two naturally would find its way in there as a diminish chord. But here, it's just a regular old power chord because you know what? It sounds cool. And this is heavy metal, so no one gives a [ __ ] We're going to play power chords on everything, you dumb asses. Now, here we go. 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 and 3 4 and 1 2 3 4.
Then we go to the flat third, the G.
Okay, that's basically just those are 16th notes followed by an eighth and all right or 1 3 and then we go back again. D triple F sharp and of course our 1 and 2 and 3 and four. Now, this is another opportunity to talk about Lars's drumming or his lack of skill in terms of the metronome department, which really doesn't matter at the end of the day because he's a creative powerhouse and we have to acknowledge that. And on this album especially, he really made it known that he was the dictator here. Okay. Now, basically that last triplet is extremely excruciatingly dragged. All right? And it was done that way on purpose. And there's no way to really mark that on a piece of sheet music uh super accurately. You basically just have to say drag these triplets in all capital letters. All right, triple it up 2 3 4 and then right to the ending there. So that's about five points for Lars on the board here and zero for Jason Newstead.
It's basically going to be a competition between those two and by the very end we're going to see who comes up on top.
Now Lars is about to get another point on the board because take a listen to this.
So as we can see that's basically just the guitar riff and the drums. But guess what? The actual bass track does cut out there. If you listen to the isolated bass track, which I'm not sure actually exists. I'm not even sure if it's real, folks. But I've heard it. It's online.
You can look at Jason Newad's isolated bass track. here. He stops playing entirely. All right. So, it's almost as if the bass track is not even there to begin with, but then it's removed again.
So, Lars basically took the bass out once and the bass is self- removing itself again. So, basically, this is a double win for Lars. So, two more points for Lars. He's at seven. And a double loss for Jason. So, he's in the negatives. 7 to -2, which you look at that, huh? And also, James Heffield takes an L here, too, because half of the guitars that make up this wall of sound drop out as well. All right, so the guitar thickness is gone in favor of Lars's double bass, double kick drum, I guess, just so you can hear it more.
Wow, what an ego trip that guy Lars was on during this time. But guess what? I wouldn't have it any other way, cuz by the way, it's my favorite Metallica album. So, go figure how the bass is just completely missing. It's all guitars, all mid-range crazy [ __ ] I love it. So, the form basically goes verse, riff, chorus, riff, verse, riff, chorus. But on this chorus, we actually play the tag or the ending two times with an added chord at the end. Let's see if you can spot it by listening to it.
Did you catch that? Let's play the whole chorus. Ready?
To begin with the dance of the day is the end to begin with the dance of the day.
Come along with black. Play it again.
black guns. All right, that's a nice F chord. That's basically the flat three to the two again. Flat three to two flat two, which is the F into the root once again. So that we can start up with the bridge section, which by the way is slow, it's dury, it's nasty, it's like I'm joining a funeral procession that doesn't even belong to me.
So, that's a pretty badass riff, too.
But before getting into that, let's talk about the four layers that exist underneath it, or maybe over the top of it that fade out as that riff plays. So, let's knock them out real quick. We have the first layer, which is an E5 power chord. That is the root note chord.
Nice and chunky. Then, we have a harmony, a mid-range minor third over the top of that.
Now, that's already quintessential Metallica, but we're not done yet. We have to do that same thing, but up two octaves from there. So basically, we're going to take that root note and go all the way up to this high register.
And that is going to be harmonized by another flatted third above.
And all four of them sound like this.
All fading out as the riff continues.
And those two high harmonies, they're actually sustained all the way through until the drums come in. It's very low volume and kind of hard to hear. And it sounds like a sustainer system was used to keep those notes going for the entire time. They almost kind of fade in too, but I think that's because the uh the other guitars have to fade out first before they can come in.
So, just another cool production trick.
And the reason why there's four of them, I believe, is because James Hetfield, he recorded four different guitars. He always quad tracked his guitars, especially on these early albums. I know Master of Puppets quad tracked guitars.
And Justice for All, no different. Quad track guitars. So, we have four layers now to sort of take up all this space in addition to the other guitar. All right.
And so there was probably another additional overdub that happened in addition to this. So pretty freaking cool. Let's get into the actual riff. We start off with a badass slide going into this.
That's ending number one. Ending two.
And that's going to make up a vast majority of that riff section. Okay. So, basically what's going on here is we have a lot of the same intervals that we had from the intro riff, but we're basically flipping them. We have the the trionee coming in there first. All right. So this riff is the root, the fourth, and then the trionee, the B flat, and the root once again. So we have a tri-onee jump right there.
It's a totally demented version of the blues. Then we go like this.
We chug E5 power chords in between. You want to really make sure you're digging in, really scraping that goddamn string.
And then we have these notes.
Now that we're playing the same one, the fourth to the flatted fifth and then we're going like this flat two right into the root. That almost sounds like space ghost or something like that. Some sort of old alien sci-fi m uh movie from back in the 1920s or whatever the hell was going on.
Silent sci-fi with a creepy soundtrack.
Maybe something a theramin would play.
You know what I'm saying?
That's basically what's going on. And that's pretty much the first ending. So, it's like this trionee tritone flat two. And you want to use these fingers.
You're playing in that spider position.
Finger number one gets the fifth. Finger number two gets the sixth. Finger number three gets the seventh. Finger number four gets the eighth. Boy.
Check it out.
Trion tone again. And this ready, we basically do the fifth fret here and then grace note into that trionee, that B flat. But this time, instead of playing a B flat chord, we play an E flat chord.
That's really, really nasty. And that's a big old power chord. All right. So that's a power chord going all the way down to the low E. So we have this low B flat, an E flat, a B flat again, and then an E flat on top, which sounds like this super crunchy sound. It sounds absolutely disgusting on top of that E already ringing out. All right, so we have basically this on top of this.
That sounds absolutely disgusting. Let's hear that again.
This is like CIA sound torture.
Imagine being a prisoner of war in United States prison and having to listen to that all day.
Absolutely nightmarish.
All right. But here, luckily, it's sort of like a dual focus because that note is already fading out by the time we get here. And uh this one kind of stands on its own. So, let's get to the second ending, which basically goes like this.
Okay, we got to do a nice slide to the root note. Tritone octave trionee. Okay, so this is explicitly just outlining the trionee.
Really another diabolical sound happening here. And then uh basically does the same thing again.
So, let's play all of those endings back to back to back to back. Here we go.
Ready? So, WE HAVE trone and E flat trione and and a lot of slides going in there as well. And those slides sound really cool coming in on the end of that riff.
That's another overdub. So, let's check that out. Here's just the end of the riff without the slides.
Here's just the slides.
And here's what it sounds like when everything comes together.
Awesome. Wouldn't sound right if it were played any other way. Let's talk about what Lars and Jason are doing with the drums and the bass here. Take a listen.
So, while the guitar is choking away on the riff, Lars and the bass are kind of gradually coming in playing different hits at the same time. Notice those accents coming in to sort of accentuate the riff itself.
This might be the first and only moment of friendship between these two band members. So after that, the full band finally comes in playing that whole riff from top to bottom. But there's a unique ending that happens. So let's take a look at that.
That's right. The transition coming out of that last E flat chord is basically a double slide. A super goofy one, too.
A very snake like slide.
It's like finding a copper head out in the middle of the desert here and uh getting bit by it.
And it basically goes to the trionee right into the E. So once again, we're really expressing our our diabolic tendencies here. Okay. So right out of the end of that comes right after the end of the third beat and that's what starts off the next riff which is basically the bridge verse. And guitar side it's actually very very simple and more simplistic than I even anticipated it to be. All right. And uh I'll elaborate a little bit more but let's listen first.
So, just like I said, we start off with those first two slides on that trionee like this and then head right into the riff. All right, which is basically just a bunch of E chugs going to the E flat in a very specific manner. Check this out. Ready?
1 2 and 3.
Then when you come back after the E flat, you just hit those three notes. All right? Or two notes, I should say. So 2 3 instead of going.
So I always thought it was like this. 1 2 and 3 da da 2 and 3 and then you hit it again.
But it's not. It's actually this 1 2 and 3 and 2 and 3 and down beat down.
So, it actually hits it one less time than I ever thought it and one less time than it actually sounds on the recording. All right. And then, of course, you basically go through that two times. And then you do the same ending and it goes here.
Does the same thing on F sharp, which then moves up to F, or I should say down to F. Theoretically, it moves down to F, but within the position, you have to do that big old slide all the way up. It's a basically a full tritone slide to the C, which then becomes the bottom note of that power chord, which is the same voicing basically. So, and then we hit the riff once again.
Yeah.
Except I [ __ ] it up there. But that's no problem because we got to talk a little bit about what the drums Well, not really the drums, what the bass is doing here. We got to talk about good old Jason. Let's just listen to the bass part.
As you can tell, this is far more busy than the actual guitar part, which is just chugging on the static chord.
He's actually moving through notes that exist within the previous riff.
This gives it a little more movement there. Now, I have to give him the win for at least trying to be included in some way, shape, or form on this album.
The part might not have made it into the song, and you sure as [ __ ] can't hear it on the actual recording, but A for effort. And you know what? He's down from being minus2 to being minus one.
How awesome is that? Before moving on to the next section, let's talk about some of my favorite drum fills during this part. There are three moments that really stick out to me here. The first of which happening just before the first bridge verse.
Just some very well-placed snare rolls to get us into that section. The next one is not as flashy, but also is an example of perfect placement.
some offbeat syncopated symbol crashes in between a couple of snare hitsa.
And the very last moment that really gets me going is the very ending of this section just before it goes into the melodic bridge. Check this out.
This is more so something I'd expect to hear in a rush song. Damn Lars, you whing out. So coming out of that final nasty drum field, the We hit one of my personal favorite moments in the entire song. An epic two guitar harmony on top of a third guitar playing chords. So, a nice symphony of Metallica related guitars that uh is in a bit of an on time signature as well.
So, let's keep the Prague rock flowing here. Take a listen.
So, as you can see, we have three guitars to go over. Let's go over the rhythm guitar happening on the bottom.
Now, it should be noted that this time signature is 64 and 74 alternating back and forth. Okay? And um I heard on an interview that Kirk Hammet said one of his big inspirations was Genesis and he actually uh this is on Rick Bott's channel by the way, you can go watch it.
Uh he talks about Turn It On Again by Genesis and this is the exact same time signature that exists within that song.
All right. So, a six plus seven time signature. So, let's find out how to navigate that with the rhythm guitar.
We're starting actually on this high E and going down this descending progression. It might look familiar.
Let's check it out. READY?
So it's basically relying upon how long you hold that B chord for. All right. So we have this descending progression.
It's the E one to D the flat 7 C the flat 6 down to the five chord which is B. And then we do a little 3 2 1 to get back down to E. But this time the E is low and it remains there the rest of the time. Um, so basically what's happening here is we have that descending progression. It's based upon the intro but the forwards version of the intro, not the backwards version.
Okay? So don't get it twisted. So that's pretty cool. We're bringing back a part that we've never even really heard in the song to come back here as a recap. A recapitilization.
Recapation. Recapitulation. That's actually how you say it. Um, so that's pretty cool. We've never even heard the forwards intro in the song, but we're hearing it now. Uh, basically being paid homage to in the form of this great section. So, I think that's absolutely awesome. Anyway, let's get back into it.
So, really, we have this dotted quarter note syncopated chord line going here.
Okay, so we hit the first one on the down beat. 1 and up. Okay. So, it's basically alternating down beats and up beats. Listen to that again. Down, up, down, up.
Now, on that 64 measure, you're going right into that descending line right after the B. One more time. 1 2 and uh 6 and 1. So, those last two notes are on beat six. Now, for the alternating measure, we got to hit it the B chord a little bit longer. So, it's like this and down, up.
All right. So, you basically just hold it out for an extended period of time.
Now, let's take a listen to the first layer that comes in on top of that.
We're just going to listen to it solo without anything else but that low harmony. This is the Hetfield harmony, by the way.
So we have sort of this gradually increasing range going on here until eventually we wind up in the middle register of the guitar. So, we start kind of low in like the middle low register. We're sliding into the 12th fret and of course following those alternating time signatures. Um, and there's also a dynamic of palm muted notes versus not palm muted notes. So, we're going to take a look at that. So, here's the first part. Ready? I'm just going to go through the uh basically the first uh little section here. So, mute not mute mute mute mute mute hammer pull off and then pull off.
That's on beat six. All right. So, 1 2 3 four five six. And then it starts over again. And we basically go with the same thing here. And then here we start. We go up a little bit higher outlining that C natural, which is a flatted six. A very, very, very tense interval.
All right. And then we hit this.
That's one little hit note there. That's on beat seven. All right. So, this is that extra beat that happens. So, essentially, we play the same thing and then just tag on the extra beat. So, check it out. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
And then we finally go up to the fourth and the fifth to the flatted six. All right. So, we're dealing with 1 2 3 4 5 flat 6.
and the flat 7 down at the bottom. All right, so eventually we get up the entire scale, you know, whether we realize it or not. So that's kind of cool. And it's all just within this one little position here. Now, when you're going like this with between the 12th and 12th here, I actually like to switch to my ring finger so I can get ring, pinky, and pointer. It's just easy to play easier to play those notes rather than barring with the pinky. You can do it either way, but I find that to be the uh the easiest way. Uh, let's keep going. We got to go up a little bit higher now.
Now we're going into the next harmony.
Okay. So, start on the root. Now, we're going to the flat third. So, now we're going to be going 3 4 5 on the harmony.
Check this out. Ready?
That's pretty cool, right? So, we're basically going flat three, fourth, and fifth.
That's almost G major. then to the C, which is almost like a sus 4, but we're still in E minor. So, all right, we'll call it the flat third, but it really is like a G major sound when you play it by itself.
Very bright and happy, almost triumphant, right? Triumphant. Very odd uh syllable placement there. So, we got annunciation.
Okay, so we only do that for the first measure. And then on the seven, we go up again. We go.
So that's essentially just one time on the original 3 four five and then we go to the next range which is outlining the flat 7th to the root. All right.
And then basically going up to the ninth and just kind of hopping down that little pentatonic idea. So let's get that again.
four five six 1 2 3 four five six seven and here now it's like the low note always changes right so at the beginning we had the root this one we had the flatted third on the bottom and then as we keep moving up the low note becomes the fifth and then basically we hang there and then we go up to the next range where it finally ends. Now the final resting place here is back on the root.
So we come full circle. All these harmonies outline the root, flat 3rd, the fifth until we get back to the root but in the higher register. So that's pretty cool. Um so let's just listen that one that one part right there. We have 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and start of the guitar solo. NOW, LET'S GET that entire section nice and slow here. And I'll count it. Ready? One, two, ready.
And 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. And 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and 1.
All right. Nice. So, let's get the rhythm guitar and that first layer being played together.
Okay, now that we got the bottom layer harmony, let's get the top layer harmony. Let's take a listen to that.
All right. So since the last one started on the root, this one's starting on the flatted third and we're up a a minor third in terms of harmony. So we're starting basically where the second, you know, the lower harmony goes up to its second phase.
1 2 up to the root and then back down.
See that?
up and then basically what happens after that is it stays in that range. So now we're in the fifth range of the uh of the E minor to the ninth up.
So that's where the other harmony ended, right? So basically all the shapes are going to be the same up until that point. But uh now we reach a brand new part. So check this out. Ready? So we got 5 6.
So that's the very ending once again. So we're starting on the root. We're going 1 2 3.
And that's basically the original one.
See?
But it's up an octave.
And then essentially we go up here. 2 3 1 4 5. Look at that. The fourth, the fifth.
So just for fun, let's just listen to the two guitars harmonizing with each other.
So although this harmony mostly uses very consonant intervals as harmonies, minor thirds, major thirds, and perfect fourths, there is one part in here where it actually hits a trionee. And I'll show you. Check this out. So we have those are thirds.
But once we go up here, check it out.
Those are the fourths which I just described. But when it does the hammer on and the pulloff, it actually has a trionee in there. So it has a really nasty interval in there without even realizing it. You know what? Everything else is so loud and the notes are moving so quickly, you don't even really notice it, but it's there.
And it's very hard to play, too.
So, check that out. Ready?
And then here it is.
So, it doesn't even sound bad when you have that, but it is pretty tense and it is there. So, I figured I would point it out for you. All right, everybody. Now, it's time to get into most likely the most anticipated part of this entire song, and that is Kirk Hammet's legendary guitar solo. But first, we got to go through an entire unique rhythm guitar underneath the whole thing.
So, there are four distinct sections to this rhythm guitar part and to the solo in general. So, we're going to split it up into four. Um, starting with that first riff that happens. This one, it's sort of like a It's like Dracula walking through a haunted castle. Let me slow it down.
Now, Dracula's drunk.
MAYBE A LITTLE BIT TOO much loud.
You know what I'm saying? Those oldw world sedatives.
Basically, all that's happening here is just the open E power chord to the G, open E to the F sharp. That's all that's happening. It's just going 1 2 3 4. And on the last time you go E, G, and then B, C. Just single notes like that.
So pretty simple. And the very last time you hit two two power chords at the very end.
Okay. And then of course we hit this.
All right. Now, I do have a little bit to say about the drums for this section.
Okay, so Lars does a little bit of uh creative control here. So, let's take a look. Take a listen to the drum part and listen for how it progresses and becomes slightly more interesting as it goes along. Those little four note snare fills become more frequent as time goes on. This gives us a sense that things are progressing into a different direction. As you can see, toward the end, he does it way more frequently. in fact, twice in a row.
And then, of course, closes off with a completely different groove than what we're used to. Also, get a load of this.
Listen to these tom fills here.
Now, the first one was pretty good, but listen to that second one once again.
Damn, Lars, you really wanted to get through that, didn't you? That's right.
Lars Olrich. Once again, either he's going too slow, dragging the tempo, or he's going too fast, rushing the tempo.
Now, in this particular instance, I can't be as forgiving towards Mr. Lars because it's just so flagrantly fast.
It's not like it sounds bad in the song, but it is actually pretty sloppy and pretty uh it's pretty rushed. Very, very, very rushed, I must say. So, we're going to have to take a point away from Lars for this section. I'm sorry, Lars, but hey, you're still way up ahead in the rankings here. You're up six points to Jason Newstead's negative one. What can you say here? So, let's get into the next part of the solo rhythm. This is more slash slashy thrashy, not slash.
We're coming into a big old PA. That's right. Happy Louis and the PA family will be absolutely proud to hear this moment. And of course, it's a thrash beat. I'm just kidding people. But it does kind of remind me of PA music in uh to an extent here.
A lot of clarinets in the C. Anyway, we're going to go like this. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and that's on the root. Then 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and that's on the flat 7th. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and that's on the flat two. So that interval is coming back. So, we're kind of leading ourselves back into the main idea, but gradually in a more unique pass here.
Then we come back.
So, that one you got to do three of them. One and two and three and four.
And that last one, that four and is a hammer on and it's extremely tight. You have to make sure you land it right in the exact spot. So, listen all that total. 2 and 3 and 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and Now, of course, when it's going fast, you don't have as much time to really think about it. You have to basically go 1 2 3 4 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and then of course at the end we have a build which then goes into the third section of that. Okay, so basically we're just hitting the chorus the same rhythm twice and we've SEEN THIS ALREADY.
BUT AT THE very end, it hits a measure of 58 before it hits the next section, which we're going to listen to all that. We're going to listen to the chorus bit and the 58 transition into the next section or the final section of this uh solo here.
That's right. There is a 5A transition.
And no, this is not a Dream Theater song. This is Metallica's opening track off And Justice for All. And it's also not Rush. It's not any of those Prague rock bands that you're thinking of. It's not Genesis. It's Metallica. Okay. So, Metallica, one of the most well-known metal bands. Probably the Beatles of metal, we can call them. All right. And they're doing 58 measures, time changes out the wazoo. Very complicated music here. All right. So, let's just get into it here. So, right at the end of that that chorus section here, I'll play the last time through.
2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 and then you go right back into that really fast pula beat. So check that out. 1 2 3 4 5 Yeah. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 and then right into that. So one more time cuz I can't understate this here.
You have to count five beats. 1 and 3 4 5. Right into this. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 2 and 3 and four and. One and two and three and four and. One and two and three and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and four and.
After the 58 measure, you got to hit it to this. Okay? So, it's an E with an E to an E. So you're ping ponging between root to root. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and trione on the bottom.
Now a lot of tabs they say to do the seventh fret like this and do this chromatic thing. That is not right people. I listen to it a whole bunch of times. It's the open E first.
Three and four and to the trionee then to the A. So this is an A power chord.
All right. So we've gone to the four chord. Okay. So we got one flat five to the four 3 4 then down to G. The flat three chord. 1 2 3 4 1 2 up to C and then back down to G. All right. So 4 1 and 2 and 3 and four and. Then back to the same thing with the trionee. 1 2 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and. And then we just palm mute power chords. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 1 2 3 4 5. All right. Well, basically actually you got to hit an open E at the end. So it's 1 2 3 4 5 right before hitting the next riff, which you all know what it sounds like, but yeah, I'm not even going to go there yet. So let's just play through this one more time. I'm going to play it a little faster now while counting. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 2 and 1 2 3 4 5 That's right. Let me do it even faster now. Ready? 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 and 2 and 1 2 3 4 5 All right. Anyway, people, now it's time to get on to the actual solo. It's one of my personal favorites. I think back to back the last melodic section we did with the three guitars and then this solo is probably my favorite Metallica moment of all time. All right, so let's get into it. Section number one of the solo. Let's hear it.
So, although this is only one section of the solo, there are six unique parts that make it up. So, let's get on to the first one. I'll play it nice and slowly.
It's how the solo starts.
That's it. So, we're just going to stop right there. It's basically the the root, second, and flat third scale degree. So the first three notes of the E minor scale does not get any easier than that. Very effective.
And then right on that point we hit the second part which essentially goes like this.
You really got to make sure that you begin this correctly. All right. So coming off of that seventh fret, you hit the 12th fret, but then you do a double 13th and that starts a drop down from the note C, which is the flatted six. So a very tense note.
So the doubled up notes are something that Metallica are known for. All right.
And it's just an added little, you know, an add little depth to the rhythmic structure here. And uh yeah, a lot of doubled up notes and it's just super tight. So listen from that part before.
That's section one. Section two, double up.
And then we come down all of those notes from the flat 6 to the fifth to the fourth to the flat 3r to the second to the root to the flat 7th and the natural six. And you have a little bit of a pulloff there at the end too until we finally resolve into the root note. All right. So flat 6, fifth, fourth, flat, third, 2, 1, 7, and the natural 6. Now this C sharp is not the same as this C natural. Yeah, we got a C natural up top. Look, if you play those two notes together, that's what you get.
So that kind of dissonance actually exists within this solo. That C sharp is actually creating a Dorian scale, the E dorian scale. Whereas a C natural is an E natural or aolon scale. So now basically what you want to do picking wise is you want to hit the double down up down up down up down up down up down up down down up pull off and into there. So, when you're doing string transitions, sometimes you have to do the opposite picking in order to make it work, right? Because if you go up, down, up, you're actually getting closer to your goal, rather than doing down, up, down, where that would bring you further away from the Gstrip. Now, the next section, section three, is where things really start to heat up. Let's check this out. Ready? I'll play it slowly.
Wow. Okay. Okay. Well, that's interesting. One more time. There we start on the C sharp. Now, so we've kind of changed everything.
We've also added some accidentals in there like the A sharp and the D sharp, but we have the D natural and the D sharp in there at the same time. So, we're adding a whole bunch of notes that shouldn't even be in there. Keep in mind the E minor scale just has an F sharp in it. All right.
Okay. So, putting the C sharp makes it Dorian.
Putting the A sharp in there makes it a Dorian with a sharp fourth.
So, if you want to say it's E, it would be E Dorian sharp 4. But then the D sharp makes it major. So, we're just going all over the place here. And this could have actually just been like a a happy accident.
But then he goes right back to playing D natural anyway. So, I'm just going to say that it's a uh a B major scale shape just thrown in there and then it just happened to work and then right back into B minor. So, we start with this.
Ready?
You want to make sure you're doing a hammer on pull pick.
Okay? So, you got to alternate pick all the way through those faster.
Okay? So, don't miss that. Then you have to repeat that pattern once again, but with those notes. So you're starting on this F sharp hammering into the G and then back pick add the A sharp in there.
So you have the first one, the second one, and then we go into the third one, which actually caps it off. So we have all the notes are the same so far. You know, we're still using the C sharp to the A sharp, but then here we have to shift positions and go from E, D sharp, and then back to the D.
Very, very strange.
And that's what finishes off the whole thing. I'm not saying that Kirk Hammet knew like as a total genius what to do here, you know, in terms of the modes and like, oh, I'm hitting a Dorian sharp 4 and this and that. I more so think that he was using the B harmonic minor scale because that's synonymous with that E dorian sharp 4. The E dorian sharp 4 is actually the fourth scale degree of the B harmonic minor scale. So if we look at this, that is the B harmonic minor scale to be fair. The only thing is in the rhythm guitar, we're not hitting a B, but we are hitting an F sharp, which if you have an F# major, you have a major third built in, that's an A sharp. So that that actually uh explains the A sharp there. So look, play an F sharp. There it is.
It's basically like a five chord that doesn't really resolve. So you can think of it like that. You can think of the rhythm as now centering around F sharp, which creates a B harmonic minor type of idea. This next lick that comes in is probably for me the most identifiable part of the solo. Not only is it fingertapping, but it's a very demented type of sound because it's using a lot of notes that really don't exist within any easy key or any easy arpeggio here.
It's just sort of a pattern that Kirk Hammet came up with and just kind of rolled with. It's quite dissonant, but it's also pretty exotic sounding as well. So, let's just go through this really slowly. We have 1 2 3 four basically f uh four different shapes here going like this. So, check this out. All right, we have the first one like this at the 19th fret, ninth, and 12th fret.
So, and basically what you want to do with these is you want to tap and then do a hammer on and a pulloff.
So, a lot of the times the tabs just read as straight down, tap, pull, pull.
But here, you're not going to get the right sound if you do it like that. You have to sort of do like a tap and then a trill like this.
and do that twice.
Just like that.
Okay. And then you have to go down one fret with the pointer to 18 10 and 7.
So all already we're starting to sound a little crazy here. Then we go down here.
And then we go down here. And then this last one.
So let's just do those slowly. Watch this. Ready? So 19 9 12 then 18 7 10 then 18 stay on the 18th fret with the tap and go down to 6 9th 69. Wow.
And then 18th on the B string to 9th and 12th on the B string. So basically starting where you were on the E string but on the B string this time.
Okay, that's a pretty dirty sound.
And then we have this. We actually have four notes here straight in a row.
And you got to basically play that all in a row.
Now, that actually is all pulloffs on that one. So, we kind of break the cycle on it. Not like that guy Aaron Lewis.
So, we're going to go like this. Check it out. Here's all four of them, right?
Back to back.
It's very hard to play slowly, but I'm going to attempt to do it again. Check it out. Ready?
Pretty awesome. It's really some crazy sounds being formed with that. So, think of this as being in B. All right. Even though the uh the riff is pitting It just sounds right on top of it for some reason. So C# sharp minor 7.
And then we go down the fret here. We go.
Wow. Okay. So that's a this is a B minor with a major 7th or a B minor major 7th chord.
It's extremely jazzy sounding actually.
Check out how those two chords sound together.
It's perfect, but it's it's really really crazy. It sounds like I have holes forming in my brain. Gypsy jazz holes, if you know what I'm saying. Jazz holes. Gypsy jazz holes. That's what I'm talking about. Then basically the left hand moves down.
So that makes more sense. This is almost as if you're hitting an F sharp chord because you have the A sharp, that's the major third octave down. And then the C sharp, that's a fifth.
All right. So, basically C# sharp minor 7 over over the E to here B minor major 7. Wow. Okay.
To the F sharp. And then here we hit an F natural. F diminished being tapped.
So, an F diminished over a B, which does make sense, you know, but it's still not over a B. It's over this.
We're still assuming that this F sharp is the source of all of this B minor and B harmonic minor shenanigans going on.
So, wow. Really awesome. It's just a Yeah. And you have that G sharp and the B. The G sharp doesn't really occur naturally in uh in this idea, but it does create a fully diminished B7 chord.
So that does exist within there. So that's, you know, that's one way of uh justifying and rationalizing that.
But then we move right back into the previous key that we were in now tapping E on the top. So we're going back into E, but with the A sharp. All right. So, so this can be seen as a couple different things. This can be seen as going back into that sort of E Dorian sharp 4, but it just sounds too maniacal for that. So, I'm going to say this is outlining an Fsharp 7 with a flatted ninth.
So, it's kind of like a chord that sounds like this. Check it out.
All right. So, very much a tense idea and you know, really embracing that harmonic minor sound, but using an arpeggio instead.
And then basically it just ends like this.
D uh E D to E, which is just the root and the flat 7th of E. So, it's like we're just doing all this crazy stuff and then just coming back into E like it's no problem. It's very, very hard for me to rationalize this any other way than, you know, listing out everything that happens. And then, you know, trying to tie it up is no easy feat here. But I'm going to say it's a B harmonic minor type of idea with a B diminished fully diminished seventh going back into E.
So, it's kind of crazy the way that this works. But one more time here, let me play it uh at an actual speed here.
Wow. Unbelievable, guys. So, yeah, we got to move on. The final part of this section one is basically some bends and we're going through that same idea. We have the B harmonic minor scale once again.
So, let's just look at that real quick.
All right. So, I'm going to count all this as one being the same section, but let's just look at that. So, you're bending up whole step into F sharp, working your way into that raised seventh scale degree of the B. All right? So, if you have your root here, everything's related to that.
You have a bend to release and a little pull off in there coming back into the E.
Then pull off. Pull off or hammer pull.
THEN SO OKAY, right into that note. Nice and tense. And then immediately from there we have to do this.
So, let's take a look at that. We're going all the way up into here.
So, same notes. It's still that B harmonic minor idea, but we're bending that high note into the C sharp. So, it's still as if we're we're outlining the F# chord instead. So, on top of that lick, we have another high harmony that comes in at the exact same time. playing all the same rhythms. So, let's check out what that's doing.
It's starting over here on the 17th fret of the high E string with a full step bend.
So, it's basically doing the exact same pattern as the lower part, but the frets kind of change as you hit the B string.
All right. So, in comparison, the E string notes are the same, but once you hit the B string, the fret orientation changes, but the intervals remain the same.
To keep them all in a perfect fourth interval. All right. Now, immediately after that note, we have to slide all the way up to the 22nd fret. do a whole step bend.
That's what it plays at the end there.
Right. So, right out of here.
Look at this.
So, this actually goes outside of our B harmonic minor idea because look, we're going from here. That's the minor third.
That's the second. That's the major 7th right there. Usually, it skips down another third, but we have the skip here.
Now, it's basically skipping down the same intervals as the other one.
All right. Now, I don't think he used a har a harmonizer on this because the intervals change, right? They're basically playing thirds on top of this now.
But then it goes down to the A natural. That's essentially a sharp ninth on top of this F# chord, which is interesting cuz look, you have the the major third, which is a very common thing, right? That's the harmonic minor. And then we also have the minor third.
Now, when it goes down to the 20th fret like this, that's creating a flat ninth interval.
Look at this. Ready? Check this out.
Ready?
That's what's happening harmonically on top of that. And then it goes and slides out of that to let the other guitar take over. So, some really cool parts here, man. Just a little cool filler thing to uh add a little bit more life to that guitar solo, which already has tons of life to begin with. So let's just put those two parts side by side and see what kind of intervals we have.
So that first part is utilizing perfect fourth harmonies and the second half utilizes all minor third harmonies except for the very last note.
So, because of all these parallel intervals changing, this makes me think that he did not use a harmonizer for this. But that exotic gypsy jazz sound still makes me feel like I have holes in my brain from listening to it. Let's just put those two guitars back to back or up on top, side by side, hop on pop, Dr. Seuss style. Top them up together, boys.
Now, here's the final part. It's just one recurring tripletish pattern. You'll see some of the rhythms there. You kind of have to gradually speed up as you get to the end, but essentially, we're playing this shape 10 times in a row. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.
And that very last one, you kind of slow down the last two notes to hit along with the uh the guitar chords and the crashes on the drums in the background. So, you really have to listen to the rhythm track here. But 5 6 7 8 9 10 right ON THAT 10TH ONE. AND THEN A big slide going downward. Now, if you have some extreme delay, I'd put it on right there and just have it repeat add nauseium. Um but, you know, you don't actually have to. the rest of the band takes over at that point anyway with all right. So sounds like this and then basically resolving to the B.
But it's just kind of silly because we're hitting the last chord on a C.
So it's actually ending on a C major 7 instead of a B chord uh proper. does hit a B chord, but it's a dominant function because we're still thinking in terms of E minor while thinking in terms of B harmonic minor while thinking in terms of E Dorian sharp 4. Man, my brain has had enough from this first part of the solo. Please tell me you have something easier for me waiting around the corner.
All right, now onward onto section two where things really pick up speed.
Now, a lot of this stuff is a basic uh basically Kirk Hammet being himself. All right, so we've seen this on plenty of solos that he's played and uh sort of just uh following suit with his past self. All right, so we're kind of bringing back shades of Kill Them All, Ride the Lightning with this. And I'm not sure if anything on Master of Puppets does this, but you'll just have to watch all the videos I did on that series to find out. Go watch all the videos I've done. I did kill them all up through here. So, what are you waiting for? Anyway, the very first one is very simple. It's just a static bend, right?
You have a static 15th and a bend like this with some good vibrto going in there.
That's basically creating an E minor 7th. All right. So, you're bending up into the B. You have a D. Very Leonard Skinnardesque. Okay. Got a lot of southern rock influence in there.
Okay. And then we got to slide all the way up here.
This part's incredibly difficult to play slowly, by the way. So, I'm going to try my best. But we're going all the way up to THE 22ND and then to the 19th fret.
That's your pickup into this. You have shape number one, which is just whole steps from the 24th.
Okay, that's regular, you know, E minor scale. Then the 21st fret. That's a C sharp. That's a Dorian scale again, which is kind of funny because we have a flat two on the bottom. So this is like friian, Lorian, sharp four, whatever the heck, natural six, Dorian, it's frigian, and Lorian and Dorian all at the same time here. Uh, but it sounds cool because everything's moving really quickly. But yeah, now basically what you want to do, I have it written as 24 22 and then with two 20s.
Okay, it's not exactly that. You're basically making the transition in between like this. But you're still only holding down three notes, which is why I broke it up like that. All right. So, you're holding three notes down, but then sliding into each one um as that last note hits. So, and then you go down another whole step.
Same thing. Then you just go down the E minor scale proper once again.
So all that is E minor proper after that Dorian thing. So check that out again.
24 21 19 with the half step there that time. 15 14 12 14 12 10. And then we got to do this. Watch.
We do we switch it up. We have a half step whole step 13 12 10 and then 10 8 7 and that ends it off. That actually goes back into E minor. This is kind of like the friian and the dorian and the regular scale all at the same time. So check it out. Ready?
That's it very slowly. When you can bring it up to speed, IT'S LIKE THIS.
THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET ALL THE WAY DOWN NOW.
Full tremolo picking, all those notes being hit. So, like I said, if you just focus on the three notes at a time and then slide get to that first note in the sequence on the down beat 3 4 1 2 3 4 and that's going to be easy and no problem for you. All right. So starting from here now 2 3.
Okay. Then we hit this little bit of it's almost like a B minor blues ideal with some passing notes. But we have this.
So that's kind of cool. Look at this.
Right.
We're basically bending into that B. We can say that that's the fifth of the E or the root of the B.
Well, we do wind up hitting E. So, you know what? I think I'm just going to relate everything to E again. Although, this is once again, this is creating like a B minor over E type of idea, which is something that Kirk Hammond has done all the way down the line. Just not as extreme as this. All right. And then we go straight blues mode. Watch.
Okay. Okay. So, that's straight up a B minor blues lick on top of the E. So, like I'm saying, it's just B minor on top of E. Just add no add nauseium here.
All right. So, let me play it. Uh, actually, you know what? We have one more thing we have to do with this little harmonic fifth fret natural harmonic like this being raised up with the bar. So, if you don't have a Floyd Rose or a floating bridge, you're going to be in trouble with this one, pal. So, let's hop into section three while we still have our fingertips here.
Now, this one gives us a little bit of a break and we're actually coming back into the chorus section and sort of giving shades of the vocal melody as well, but of course with more motion here. So, let's take a look. We're just going to play it from there. We have this part.
Let's just look at that. All right. So, that follows all the chords going through that chorus section. And effectively, we're coming out of that right when you hit back down, you got to hit that 12 12, which is basically an E minor 7th. All right? So, that's why it sounds so damn cool. And you got to mute this seventh fret, which is the same note that's being muted on the bottom, by the way. But we're going that's basically just the E minor scale going down from the root and then a little triplet there.
But instead of resolving on a note that actually sounds pleasing, we're resolving on an F sharp. Then we hit a nice barrage of notes that sound like this.
So let's take that slow.
Let's just go one bit at a time. We have go we're still going up just the E minor scale here. So there's no weird notes attached to this. But here's the pattern.
That's where you want to get down first.
Okay? And then you got to do the same thing but on the B string.
So watch.
So that time you have a couple extra notes you got to slam in there.
So that's really the double uh pattern there. So watch.
All right. So one more time. Super slow.
So nothing too crazy. And then we got a slide up here.
That's a really cool line right there.
So it's you're just coming up from the high E and then using legato to get down to the fifth. So it's root to fifth.
And then basically we follow along with the chords once again with this.
That's a super cool part, too. Just basically the uh the open A and then a pulloff on this perfect fourth idea.
And then it's still you're going from basically a tension release to both of those chords. All right?
You're going E to D and the chord is D.
Then the second one you're going D to C and the chord is C. So that makes sense.
You just got to make sure you go pom mute A and slide down palm mute E and then palm mute E again. And then we have this.
So that's actually a little fancier than normal. You actually have to set your pinky, ring, middle, and pointer like this. 12, 10, 9, 8, like that.
So we get that little chromatic resolution down to the F sharp. All right. So we're hitting the F# melodically once again.
So before we had this, but this time we have it's the same thing, but with a little extra chromaticism. So a lot of consistency in terms of the composition.
All right. So, let's get this whole section. I'm going to go from the harmonic. Ready? We'll play it slowly.
All right. Let me get a better one on that.
Triple bone.
And then we end this off with a nice dive in the measure of 58, which then transitions very nicely into the next section, which sounds like this.
For this final thrashy section, we basically have a series of hammer ons and pulloffs. So, a lot of left-hand motion here, very legato, but just pulling off into the open string and then with an ending ripping on that big old whammy bar bend, the big wave at the end. So, let's just kind of check that out. So, we come right off of that dive.
12 11 9 16 14 12 then 2 4 5 4 7 9 and then into the big old Anyway, but we'll get to that. I don't want this guitar going out of tune here.
For some reason, when I really bring it back and destroy the whammy bar going all the way back, I'm basically taking it to the extreme that it can handle.
Um, it actually does kind of go out of tune a little bit, which is very unfortunate. But then again, this is not the original bridge on this guitar. I'm trying to find one. I'm trying to find an original Ibanz Edge tremolo tremolo that I can get on this bad boy. So, if anybody's got any leads to an original Ibanz Edge tremolo system that was on the late 80s and '9s Ibanz guitars, let me know, please. And one with the uh sort of the stamp on here as well. It's black. All right. Black colored. Anyway, let's take a look. We got one and one.
You got to do that one.
One, two, three, four, five, six. Six times. And then the the last time the last two times are going into the 11th fret. All right, that's F sharp flat 3r 2 1.
And then we have this. That's the fifth down to the the flatted third again. Or that's G major. So you can see it like this. E minor to G major.
Very nice melody, right? And then coming down here, we're going down to A. This is the fourth, fifth, flat 6, down to the fifth until eventually we get back to the root. But since a lot of the rhythm guitar is on G, it's basically uh G major at this point.
All right. So you can consider this as being like the second, the third, the fourth, and the third. So like a sus4 type of idea. So that's on every beat, by the way, until that very end part. That's on two beats. So let's just do that slowly once again. 12 11 9 2 3 4 16 14 12 2 4 7 and then big old wave. Okay, so one more time, I'm going to play that quickly.
Ready? 1 2 3 and if you listen to the isolated track of Kirk Hammet playing this solo, you could tell that there's a hard tape cut right in the middle of it because it's a little sloppy. All right, I'm actually going to play that for you right now.
Did you happen to notice that? All right, let's take one last run through this guitar solo. Just take a listen to it front to back and then uh you know, we're going to put it all together and just have a happy jubilation at the end of the day.
Heat. Heat.
bump.
Heat.
What an absolute monster of a solo. We basically have four distinct sections going through different tempos starting in the tempo of that bridge and then moving back into the thrashy parts of the intro. We even hit the chorus section again. So really, it's a real roller coaster ride of dynamics and well, everything's pretty loud, I will say, but dynamic in the sense of tempo shifting and going through, especially that harsh transition back into the thrash that happens with the D. And uh not to mention, we have all these different modes, right? We have the E minor scale. That's to be expected. But then we also have the E Dorian scale.
That's not to be expected. But then we have the E Dorian scale with a sharp fourth. That's certainly less to be expected than what we already did not expect. Then we also have the B harmonic minor scale, which is the same and synonymous, but it's even less expected.
We kind of tied it to the F# major, but we never hit a B ever. But he's using B minor as sort of like the proving ground for this whole solo or the proof of concept of this entire solo that you can play B harmonic minor over what's it's seemingly an E progression, right? But there's a lot of slight of hand going on. It's a magic trick. Um and then we blast into just some classic Kirk Hammet, you know, single string going all the way down the scale. Allah creeping death um with some more stuff. B minor blues all over the E tonality and then some really cool gimmicks at the end with those hammer ons and pull-offs on the open strings. So A+ solo. It's probably my favorite Kirk Hammet solo of all time. Probably the most difficult of his to play as well, I will say. Um so anyway, we got to move on to another difficult part. And uh this one we're not going to so much listen to the isolated guitar like we normally do.
We're going to have to bring the drums into the fold as well since well the riff is familiar. It's the same thing which we saw as being in 74 timing, but the way that the drums are played makes it completely different than that. Let's listen to the guitar and the drums being played on that first time through.
The first note of the guitar riff, the open E, is actually seen as a pickup into the new downbeat of this section.
That's right. Because of where Lars decides to start the beat, he is actually shifting the downbeat focus.
So, where the upbeat was originally is now the downbeat. So coming out of that last measure 1 2 3 4 that's the pickup note. The fifth note of the previous measure which is that measure of 58 is now a pickup into this.
That's where the down beat lies now. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 and then right into that again. So basically we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. So it's basically a bar of 74 and then two bars of 78 to line that up.
Coming in on the second time around, the very ending, Lars decides to flip the beat around once again to where it normally was.
So, if you notice on that first time, he hit seven snare hits before going back into the beat. This time, he's hitting only six before returning to the same exact beat. Simply changing the focus of where the down beat is. So, really at this point, Lars is changing the timing and the feel completely. And that basically goes back into the 44 feel.
with two bars of three in there as well.
So, he's trying to make it feel like 44 as much as possible, but it ain't easy.
But Lars, god damn it, you managed to do it. So, you know what? You get another point on the board. That's seven points for you, Lars. Lucky number seven. Jason is still at minus one. Anyway, we continue on with the ending of the song.
We basically just go through another verse, another reintro. It's all the same with the never, never, and blackened and all that stuff, but the final chorus is a little bit different.
So, I'm actually going to play the uh the very last time through the chorus section where we have some time changes yet again.
So just like in the solo section, we have a measure of 58 that brings us back into the beginning of the chorus once again for a double. So let's just check that out. So we have five to begin the dance of the day to begin the dance of the day. 1 2 3 4 5 There it is. Okay. So it's just using that boom. Just cutting off the last beat so we can get back in. And uh it feels perfectly natural. I I wouldn't have it any other way.
and right back in.
And then we do this.
That's actually a bar of three four on there, which we haven't seen yet either.
So there's 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 and then 1 two bar of three, a bar of four, and a bar of two before hitting the riff at the end. All right. So let's just make sure we really get that. So it's 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 and that's basically the ending there.
So let me just play that whole chorus once again. So we got to begin.
1 2 3 4 5 is the outcome.
Open the humanity.
1 2 3 1 2 3 4 2 All right, everybody. That's going to be the end of this video. Thank you very much for sticking around. If you like the content, please be sure to subscribe to the channel. I have a Patreon and a subscribe star. If you really like the stuff, you can pay a little extra to get a little extra stuff. You know what I'm saying? I also give private lessons. So, you can go to my website, www.romanovusic.com, and you could take private lessons with me, people. Trust me, it's well worth your dollar. All right. So, anyway, uh you can also leave a tip on the PayPal tip jar. And uh yeah, hopefully everybody enjoyed this. This has been a really fun one. One of my favorite albums of all time. Lots of stuff going on in this song. We had a forward intro.
We had a reverse intro. We had a nasty guitar solo with all unique riffs strown across. We had a slow and dury section.
We had a fast thrassy section. It's basically dynamics out the ass when it comes to tempo. All right. So, all right everybody. I'll see you around on the next one. And please like, subscribe, and leave a comment if you really enjoyed it. Thank you very much.
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