Whereas the examples from “Creeping Death” demonstrate a variation through the addition of a transposition and chords, Metallica also will change a riff by subtracting material. This type of variation occurs in the opening riffs from the song “All Within My Hands” from the album St. Anger. The first riff is in C minor and includes a descending pattern of power chords on G – Gb – F – E – Eb, with the first two chords alternated between chords on the tonic. The progression is subdivided into two parts, motives x and y.
