My favorite Metallica album! Check out my lesson videos at: www.the-art-of-guitar.com Patreon: Patreon.com/theartofguitar Thanks, hope you enjoy the vids as much as I do making them. :)
Hey everyone. Thanks for the comments. Once again I woke up to about 200 of them so it'll take some time to respond to everyone plus I'm practicing more riffs. haha. Anyhow I know I play Dyers Eve funny. When I was 15 I bought the AJFA tab book and it sucked but I didn't knot it at the time. The main riff for Blackened was literally written x 7 x 7 x 787 on one string. Anyhow I learned Dyers Eve from that same book and have failed to update it to the straight version. It's good to know that the real version is less difficult. ;)
There was an issue of Guitar World years ago where Kirk Hammett goes over a bunch of Metallics licks and almost all of them were different from the tab books.
Fantastic dude love your videos and tutorials AND your love and reverence for the mighty Metallica. I wish Metallica would do a heavier than hell itself rendition of Sabbaths “Lord of this World” - one of the heaviest catchiest coolest riffs /song ever by the creator Mr Iommi. Better yet- have Iommi join Metallica for the version! My head and ears would explode!
That's what I miss when looking for other technical thrash records in search of a similar sound, many albums like Contradictions Collapse can match AJFA for technicality, but they just don't have the melody and soul that this album has.
@@payblo2734actually you can hear the bass throughout the whole album if you have headphones with decent quality, but they basically removed all the bass out of the bass if you know what I mean and left the mids. So it’s like another guitar track which it makes it super hard to hear and he basically plays the same thing as James the whole time. You can clearly hear bass at the end of blackened as well
Frayed Ends of Sanity is THE ultimate riff song. It has so many excellent riffs w/ odd timing and pure balls. The "under the solo riff" is my favorite all-time riff and I'd never even noticed it till the Justice box set came out a few years ago. Really wish it'd had its own moment to shine.
I would have put the Blackend intro riff #1, one of the most chillful and memorable intros of all time! (I mean, the very first riff, even though it's on reverse xD)
Congratulations on getting past the most difficult Metallica album, riffwise. I've been super into each of these videos, as a guitarist and a Metallica fan, and while you nailed the first three albums, I have to admit I wasn't sure how you were going to single out or play the epic riffs of ...and justice for all. The good news is now you get to relax your wrist for the next 4 albums. I hope you continue on with every Metallica album!
Outstanding album, and I believe Metallica most powerful one. The loss of Cliff leads the band to pour out their hearts and become much more vulnerable during justice. I love it, great job man!
The bridge in One after the final chorus and before the double bass part is the best riff on the whole album. The harmonies. Mean, powerful, so much grit yet so beautiful.
i’ll never get tired of to live is to die’s clean intro riff. some of the best stuff james ever wrote to be honest. i prefer it over the clean bridge riff :)
The Frayed Ends Of Sanity is one of my favorite, if not my all time favorite song of all time, and in my opinion the one of the best, possibly even the best song ever written on the face of the earth. It’s dark, mysterious, ominous yet powerful and meaningful lyrics. The badass rhythm guitar, the outstanding drum solo before the bridge riff... but then again, ...AJFA is the most badass album in all of history, in my opinion, and host to my favorite songs of all time. Perhaps sharing that spot with Metallica songs from other albums.
I love your list. Mine would be a little different: 1) AJFA verse riff (E power chord into E and A open into E power chord then a rapid palm mute gives me the chills). 2) To Live Is To Die breakdown riff (clean). 3) Blackened main riff. 4) Blackened post-main riff. 5) Frayed Ends Of Sanity intro (the buildup is awesome). 6) ... I just realized how difficult it must have been for you to organize this list, I keep reordering things, so I'll stop here. Anyway, great job!
You are the "One of a Million" players and teachers!......Wish i had 10% of your talent!...... Please give us a few more lessons! You are our absolutely favorite teacher on RU-vid! Thank you very much for you time you spend for streaming your videos. You are amazing! Nice greetings from Vienna!
Every time you make a new Metallica video your tone improves. This is the best one yet. You’re getting that tight but big bass response and a lot of aggressive bite from the strings. I love the rawness of your passives pickups.
Now that I’ve watched this a few times. It sounds similar to the demo tone they used. Go listen to the demos and see what I’m talking about. Nice job mike.
I had an SG for my first guitar. Thanks Dad. It's amazing how well the SG can replicate all the heavy rock sounds. And of course your skill as well. Thank you.
You're doing an amazing job, man. Nice choices, although the Blackened main riff would always be my number one from this album. Again though, keep up the good work.
Can’t help tapping along to these videos. Reminds me of the hours spent trying to learn these albums in my room with an epiphone sg and a laney amp 20 years ago. Great stuff. Made me pick up my guitar instantly.
Thank you for playing the Bb note on the Blackened bridge riff. Almost nobody I’ve seen on RU-vid plays that note, and it sounds 100% heavier when you play the Bb/Eb instead of just the Eb. Oh, and when I like to play the pre-verse riff for The Shortest Straw, I like to stick some chorus on top of the distorted guitar sound. IDK if the guys intended to do that in the studio, or if they were so full of beer that the tracks just aren’t tuned as well (it can happen lol), but it’s got this chorus-like effect that makes it sound cold and deadly and even more cool.
I've enjoyed this series. Many others have too. You're an awesome teacher, and you've motivated thousands upon thousands of guitarists. I speak on the behalf of others when I say I appreciate and am inspired by your work. Don't stop what you're doing.
As a combat vet of Iraqi Freedom and having not made the transition from rap to rock until I made it back home in 2005. Then I grew up, bought a $150 guitar and started my self education with the only band I knew and kinda liked...Tallica! I'm 39 and can unequivocally say Justice.. is by far my favorite album, alot of the messaging was things I directly struggled with (PTSD namely), so by teaching myself to play and having the Godfathers of Thrash/Metal as inspiration gave me a purpose. They saved me from the self termination that many of my squad mates and battle buddies suffered as a final fate...Married for 10 years with 4 beautiful kids, and again all that to say THIS album provided the electricity and relatability that afford me an escape, my sanity, and a bad ass new skill that took/takes lots of hard work and dedication. You sirs, are MY heros and for providing the light that led me from the dark places, Justice...For All is that album makes me feel indebted to the band for what it did for me personally. Thanks dudes🤟😝
I just want to say thankyou for making the video, even if it wasn't designed as a lesson, it helped me learn some riffs that I don't have the ability to figure out by ear (mainly the clean bit from 'one')
Thanks for the video, very good list and guitar tone. 6:38, I think that riff starts with open power chord every second time, it makes it sound much better and you get that circular riff effect
Thank you for doing those. I’ll always have to put the Frayed Ends pre-solo as number one. But I’m surprised you didn’t put the Blackened (post solo) riff in there. SO powerful when it comes back in.
And Justice for You,you're the Man who have the balls to make a top 37 of this freaking album! And you played Flipping Off the others just like Kirk Hammett plays! You're Awesome
Are we going to get the black album next? I know it’s not a popular opinion but imo Metallica’s heaviest album, it has some really fun riffs. Also these videos are great because they helped me notice a couple of mistakes I’ve been making when playing these riffs. Edit: Number 10 is probably my number one favorite riff from the album, and favorite riff of all time.
Taking everything into consideration, I think AJFA is the best Metallica album. James is at his peak topped off with an amazing rhythm tone, Kirk’s solos are outstanding, drum tone is good, my only complaint is about the lack of Jason’s bass, but the album is just too perfect to describe. Blackened has the best main riff of any Metallica song, and the frayed ends of sanity is such an underrated masterpiece. Of course, all the songs are great with headbangers such as One, To Live Is To Die, and Dyers Eve. Long story short, AJFA is awesome. You rock, Mike.
5:52 number 10 is my favorite probably. Also really like the solo in the song after that part which I believe is played by James if I'm not mistaken...!
YES!!! That Blackend riff is very much deserving of the #1 spot. Justice is (my opinion) one of the best albums Metallica has ever dropped on us and that opening song is up there as one of... If not THEEE HEAVIEST tracks they ever wrote. Good on you mate!
