Toughest riff in the Metallica catalog?

[Chad]

I've been working on Damage Inc. and man playing the bridge riff (starts at 3:14) correctly is one tough sucker. I think I'm about to get it, but I've been about to pull my hair out. I don't know the theory side of music, but can say I'm guessing it is difficult because my brain is programmed to usually do triplet trots on one string whereas with this you have the first 2 beats on the A string and the 3rd beat on the low E string. It's all backwards from how I'm normally used to picking. This could be the most challenging riff in the Metallica catalog.

Thoughts? Tips?

[slayer32390]

Well I have never heard the song in question but based on your description of the riff I think just picking triplets like A,A,E, is easiest to play with a down, up, up picking instead of straight alternate picking. Did I just make any sense at all? Well I hope you figure it out, good luck.

[Chad]

I've been doing down, up, down........I might have to give down, up, up a try.

Here is the first part of the riff:

E------------------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--------------7-7------8------5---------7-7-----8-------7-7--------8---
E---0*---0*-------0*-------0*-----0*-------0*------0*------0*-----6---


* = PM

[VitaminG]

I'm not familiar with the song either. How fast is that passage? Could you down stroke the entire thing?

[DarkSaga]

Here is the riff and how I pick it:

E----------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------------
A--------------7-7------8------5--------7-7-----8-------7-7------8--
E---0*---0*-------0*-------0*----0*-------0*------0*------0*---6--
____d___d____d_u_d___d___d__d_d_____d_u_d__d__d___ d_u_d___d


Ahhh yes... the Damage Inc riff It is one of my favorites and was a bitch to play, but i sat down one night and just played it slowly for about 45 minutes and finally got the damn thing down!! The tricky part is that damn triplet (7-7-0). Just play it really slow and perfect and you'll get it in no time!!!

-Jeremy

[RacerX]

Heh, I remember when this came out - I was a HUGE Tallica fan back then!

How fast is that passage? Could you down stroke the entire thing?

It's pretty quick.... IIRC 168 bpm or so...

[Special-K]

I must say the St.Anger riff is also one tough Mother...
I found it in a James Hetfield workshop and it`s freakin˙ hard

[Endrik]

Disposable Heroes is the toughest IMO

[Nazgul]

Chad, why don't you play the triplet thing all on E string? It's the same note anyway .

[Special-K]

Chad, why don't you play the triplet thing all on E string? It's the same note anyway .

Exactly my though

[Tashtego]

That's the best metallica song. I'm inspired to go after it now. I don't really have any tips except of the hat for reminding of it. I usually use the go slow and train the hands method for tricky stuff.

[ambitotpuphang]

Toughest Metallica riff is MoP imo. Down strokes at 220bpm.

[Special-K]

Toughest Metallica riff is MoP imo. Down strokes at 220bpm.

Come on` you can train that!... I can play it with no problems after
I`m warmed up, I even played with the Trivium version which is a little
bit faster

[toejam]

Chad, why don't you play the triplet thing all on E string? It's the same note anyway .

I've always played the triplet part on the A string.

[nateb]

Toughest Metallica riff is MoP imo. Down strokes at 220bpm.

yeah... alternate picking, no problem. I want to strangle Darksaga every single time I watch him play it all downstrokes. Pisses me off that I was such a alternate picker, sounds 10 times better when you play it all down. Retraining yourself out of 20 years of playing is a bitch.

-Nate