Riff of the week...Metallica, Creeping Death iconic bridge riff (played after the song main solo). (Update, I will upload the videos soon I'm still dealing with a little injury on my left wrist)

18d (edited) • Riff Of The Week Discussion

(Post to be finished soon... I still have to record and post the two videos playing and explaining the riff, unfortunately due to an small injury I will not be able to post the videos today, my apologies for the delay).

Hello everyone, today (with the permission of the administrators) I will bring you the "Riff of the week".

The riff belongs to the song Creeping Death by Metallica that is included on the band second album "Ride the Lightning" recorded on 1983, as a little background story Creeping Death is Metallica second most played song live (after Master of Puppets) and the riff we will be learning is one of the most iconic riffs of the band, this riff was written by Kirk Hammet (Metallica lead guitar) when he was only 16 years old, is what we may name a "bridge riff" and is played right after the end of the song main solo.

This lesson will include the riff guitar tabs, an mp3 cut from the original song of this riff and also an mp3 cut of the isolated guitar version of the riff too. Also I will record two videos playing and explaining the riff part by part.

A few tips for beginners:

1 - To play this riff using an electric guitar you don't need to sound exactly like Metallica, a distortion with a high gain is enough, also you can even play it on an acoustic guitar too.

2 - Metallica style during those years was pure thrash metal that means that all the picking will be downward all the time (that is something that remains through all the rhythm riffs of the song).

3 - I will be working on this post during the day so this will not be the final version of the post.

4 - Don't hesitate to send me a pm if you have any questions that may not be included on the post.

5 - This is not the main riff of the song I choose it because is not as difficult as the main riff, however if this post has a good reception I will make a post of the main riff next week.

Let's start by posting the riff cut from the original song and also the same riff but with only the guitars without the voice.

Now before I post the riff guitar tab I will give some important information, the speed of the whole song (to be played using a metronome) is 205bps, however this specific riff is played at 200bps and as I mentioned above all the picking must be downward that means that you will be moving your picking hand down all the time I will explain the motion on the videos I will post later.

I have the complete song gp file but to be honest is a complete mess specially if you are not familiar with the app, so I will not post it here, however if anyone is interested please pm me, the gp version I have of this song is the best version available with all the different guitars splits on different tabs.

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Riff of the week...Metallica, Creeping Death iconic bridge riff (played after the song main solo). (Update, I will upload the videos soon I'm still dealing with a little injury on my left wrist)