Riff Writing Techniques

Metal is a rich, varied, and sophisticated genre of music with its core values including ambition, virtuosity, complexity, and intellectual and emotional expression.

The analyses below strive illuminate these qualities:

• Parallel Dyads in Megadeth’s Holy Wars
• Tonality in Mastodon’s “Blood and Thunder”
• Proto-metal in Captain Beyond
• Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast”