20 Greatest JAMES HETFIELD Guitar Riffs | Tabs

Dave mustaine, even with the beef with his former band mates, admits that James may be one of the best rhythm guitarists of all time; means a lot coming from him, in a number of ways.

The inclusion of the Guitar Center riff is so clever. You wouldn't expect it in a Metallica top, but it's still technically a James Hetfield riff. Great selection!

What surprises me is the way James play this riffs while singing it live. The guy's a monster

''KIRK HAMMETT: James would show Cliff and me the riffs, and we'd build the songs from there. Some I'd already be familiar with. The main riff in ''Battery'', for instance: the first time I heard James play that was iin England, on his acoustic guitar. We were watching THE YOUNG ONES on the BBC, and all of a sudden he started messing around with this sort of galloping rhythm. I said, ''Wow, that's cool''. And so when it came time to start learning stuff, I'd often hear a riff and say, ''Oh, okay. I know that one."" "JAMES HETFIELD: The ''Battery'' intro happened pretty much out of boredom. I remember sitting on the couch at Carlson, not being able to sleep. Back then, when channels signed off at night, they'd play the national anthem, but Channel Four in the Bay Area played a classical piece [Faure's ''Pavane'']. It was such a great melody. I'd grab an acoustic, play along, and eventually wound up with a chord progression that got me thinking, WHAT WOULD BE THE ULTIMATE INTRO? I wanted something with a lot of build that would raise your hair up and give your goosebumps. The acoustic part starts, and it's building like an approaching storm. Something's coming. You can feel it. It starts off soft and quiet, then boom! The heaviness takes you to another level. I thought, 'Oh, man. This is how I want to start the record. This is how I want to start the show.'" "KIRK HAMMETT: We were drinking at the Carlson house one night, and Lars turned on the tape deck: "Listen to this, man. Fostex Multitrack Mesa/Boogies with James playing the heaviest riff ever!" It was the main riff to 'Master of Puppets', which had been quadrupled on all four tracks and sounded super heavy. And I knew it immediately as this joke riff that James would always play on the D string. He just dropped it down to the low E string and it was suddenly this whole other thing." "HAMMETT: I’ll tell you how the main [descending] riff to “Master of Puppets” came about. On the Ride the Lightning tour, James would always play the riff in the dressing room, but on the D string, and I’d play it simultaneously on the G string as a parallel-fourths harmony line. It sounded really dorky and funny. Then one day at rehearsal, James said, “Let me show you this really heavy song intro,” and proceeded to play that exact riff on the low E string. I said, “Ah, so you finally found a use for that dorky little thing!” It’s anything but dorky now."

Hetfield has been the king of metal rhythm for a long time. He is a machine and I think it gets forgotten many times how great he is overall. He is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, because it shouldn't come down to only primary lead players being great.

You never forget that James besides this sick riffs sings along 🤯

The transition from Master of puppets to The Shortest straw is fucking epic 🤘🏻

GUITAR CENTER RIFF IS SO GOOOOD Thanks for including it

James' ability to downpick fast is amazing, makes some of these songs hard to play if you dont have a lot of stamina like master of puppets or creeping death.

Beginner guitarist just hanging around in youtube....kickass riffs...i'll come back in couple years ;)

Love the inclusion of Fixxxer, such an overlooked gem! If that was a Tony Iommi riff it would be one of his greatest

That bass tone is killer

This reminds me of something that left me perplexed about the verse riff in Moth Into Flame. I want to preface by saying that I have the utmost respect for Kirk Hammett. Now, in the interview he did with Rick Beato, he talks about that riff talking about how James still comes up with new ideas. Then, he says something along the lines of "like the verse riff of Moth Into Flame, it's like a pull off gallop mix, nobody has ever done that before, that's James creating new ways of playing". He says this dead serious. Like. Brother. How.

Man all of these transitions are flawless

battery is easily one of the best metal riffs ever

Your channel is awesome to jam along with. Nothing but tasty riffage!!! Ive been binge jamming along to your vids last few days. Thanks for such great content!!!🤘

Thank you so much for including that last one, i used to go to the guitar center video just to hear that riff over and over

The riff from "Damage, Inc.", and the one created by Kirk, are one of the most menacing sounding riffs I've ever heard. That song is in my top 3 favorites from the MOP album

Something about that guitar center riff man, just sounds amazing🔥

Amazing video, and amazing playing.👏👏👏👏