Starting out is never too soon to learn guitar! This song offers a straightforward riff to learn quickly while providing simple chords that create a singalong experience for audiences.
Although death metal is commonly associated with harsh vocals and growled riffing, some bands have added melodic riffing and harmony for an appealing effect; this style is known as melodic death metal.
1. Sad But True by Metallica
Metallica’s 1991 hit Sad But True captures the feelings of disillusionment and pain caused by life’s tragedies in an unforgettable way. This song became an iconic metal anthem, inspiring many bands to write heavy tunes that explore real-life issues. Furthermore, Sad But True shows how metal music can blend heavy distorted riffs with lighter clean arpeggios to produce truly unique soundscapes.
Metallica songs can be challenging to learn for beginners, making this track one of the simpler options for learners looking to practice fingerpicking or stretching their pick and fretting muscles. Furthermore, this track boasts some of the most energizing riffs ever featured on heavy metal radio stations.
Venom’s “Countess Bathory” is another dark, sinister heavy metal song that explores the legend of blood-countess. The opening riff sets an unnerving atmosphere and transports listeners into gothic horror – while also featuring power chords – an essential feature in many metal songs.
2. Sea of Lies by Symphony X
Symphony X’s prog metal song Sea of Lies showcases the incredible guitar harmonies and tapping skills of guitarist Michael Romeo as well as heavy riffs that will send chills down your spine. If you’re learning heavy metal songs in standard tuning tuning, this would make a fantastic starting point!
Symphony X’s music was heavily influenced by early 1970s proto metal acts like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, yet went further by combining chainsaw guitar riffs, frenetic drumming, and new vocal styles that transformed classic metal wails into incomprehensible shrieking and gibbering.
Heavy metal bands were one of the originators of several spinoff genres, such as speed metal and thrash metal, while also helping shape melodic metal, which blends gothic rock with doom elements in order to produce an explosive and original sound. Symphonic metal also emerged as an alternative genre that combined orchestral textures from film soundtracks with heavy metal’s intensity; often featuring female vocalists instead of harsh male voices as seen elsewhere in metal music styles.
3. Duality by Slipknot
Duality by Slipknot is one of their best-known songs, featuring an infectious chorus and streaming success. The main riff can easily be learned, while palm muted chords help transition between different sections.
This song stands out for its use of structural acceleration, building up to a double breakdown. This technique is common among heavy metal songs and can work listeners into an emotional frenzy. This track serves as an exemplar of heavy metal’s potential as a genre that transcends violent roots to become universally appealing.
Slipknot followed the success of their debut album, Iowa, by going back into the studio to craft something truly groundbreaking while remaining true to themselves and their sound and lore. Vol. 3 achieved that while simultaneously solidifying Slipknot as modern metal icons.
4. The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden’s 2010 effort The Final Frontier is an underrated album in their discography. Though not reaching the heights of their 80s aesthetic legacy, this record still features some outstanding tracks worth exploring by metalheads. One such standout track is Bruce Dickinson’s power ballad Come Home which evokes touring struggles while showing his ability to express emotion through singing; another noteworthy track is Monsegur which depicts Cathar Castle Monsegur’s last siege and massacre with rhythmic riffs.
The Final Frontier contains some of the band’s most thought-provoking and poetic lyrics to date, while its increasing musical complexity shows off each member contributing nuanced details to enhance its main theme. Tracks such as Mother of Mercy, Isle of Avalon Starblind and The Man Who Would Be King boast memorable melodies as well as complexity that only real talent and experience can achieve.
5. Peace Sells by Megadeth
Peace Sells was one of the key albums in early thrash metal history. Boasting more refined sound, and fantastic songs that set it apart as one of its kind – Peace Sells was essential listening for fans of early thrash metal!
Riffs are faster, tempo shifts more acrobatic and leads more technical than any previous album from this band. But what truly sets it apart from its peers is its lyrical content. From sharp jabs against narcissists (“Celebutante”) and manipulators (“Killing Time”) to criticizing political figures like dictators (“Peace Sells”) Mustaine shows his range goes far beyond tales of debauchery.
Capitol Records’ Paul Lani took on mixing duties from Randy Burns for this album and is to be praised for making an album which stands up better than its predecessor despite Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland still struggling with drugs during this period. Standout tracks include Wake Up Dead with its iconic bassline and Good Mourning/Black Friday’s powerful serial killer tale as highlights.
6. Malleus Maleficarum by Pestilence
Pestilence’s album ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ stands as the signature death metal release and an example of great death metal music from 1989-’93, setting an incredible standard that many other bands struggled to meet.
It’s evident that this classic album remains influential, and should be required listening for all death metal fans. The powerful, chromatic riffs are met by fast drumming. Guitar harmonies are intense while lyrics depicting war’s pain and horror are powerfully expressed through lyrics.
Master this song in standard tuning to gain an idea of its brutal and intense sounds on an instrument capable of handling their intensity and brutality. Or try performing the guitar solo using drop A tuning (tuning third string half-step lower, F#) for an atmospheric tone and sound – an example of how heavy distortion chords can co-exist with lighter clean arpeggios to produce your own signature style!
7. Dead Embryonic Cells by Sepultura
Sepultura uses this song to lay down big blocks of E triplets and E-major pentatonic scale riffs to craft an anthemic and brutal track about war’s horrors, while simultaneously demonstrating their skill at crafting dynamic songs without using click tracks or bass drums as anchors; plus its stomping guitar rhythms make this an excellent song to practice using standard tuning tuning!
Metal icons like Black Sabbath often use standard tuning, yet the heavy riffs in this song show how their music can still be powerful at any tuning. Chugging chords and high-tempo single notes will challenge your picking hand to keep up!
Death metal music blends heavy distorted and clean guitar arpeggios together in order to produce intense music. For an example of melodic death metal, listen to Children Of Bodom’s hit track Downfall by Finnish band Children Of Bodom; this track will help develop your picking technique as you combine powerful chords with more complex melodies; try dropping the third string down half-step to F# for an eerie sound!
8. Black Sabbath’s Iron Man
Iron Man was one of Black Sabbath’s first major hits and remains an integral part of metal history today, frequently cited as an influence by every metal band and still sounding fresh decades after it premiered in October 1971. Its haunting opening riffs and dark lyrics remain just as impactful today.
Iron Man by Black Sabbath depicts a time traveller who sees the Apocalypse and attempts to warn an ingratitude-stricken planet about what’s to come, yet they treat him like an iron statue and eventually kill him all. Ozzy Osbourne himself never refers to Black Sabbath’s version as such.
It is easy to see why this song stands as one of the finest death metal songs ever; its slow, downtuned guitars and foreboding atmosphere would later serve as the basis of doom metal bands such as Saint Vitus and Trouble, while its cinematic opening and tectonic riffing helped create what would later become known as thrash metal.