These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the November 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
One of the coolest things about contemporary metal is that its harmonic palette is wide open. It’s not uncommon for a great metal riff to jump back and forth from one type of harmonic environment to another, such as from the natural minor scale to the Phrygian mode to the Mixolydian mode to the blues scale.
Countless examples abound in the music of such great bands as Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, At the Gates, In Flames and others.
This month, I’d like to demonstrate a few different examples of rhythm-guitar ideas that jump around harmonically and also feature the incorporation of suspended chords, namely sus2 and sus4 chords.