Are These the TRICKIEST RIFFS on Megadeth's Rust in Peace? 

Believe it or not I planned to make this video today not knowing it was the 32nd anniversary of its release. Some serendipity there or something. :)

cant believe dave sat down and actually wrote the Poison Was The Cure main riff. that riff is so insane so me.

I love lucrecia, it's so out of the box. By itself you might not even label it thrash metal. I like how in RIP they were not obsessed with staying sharply within one genre

You could give me 50 years alone in a room with a guitar and I still wouldn't come close to coming up with something like the intro to Lucretia lol. It's so musical yet so unnecessarily difficult to play clean.

Tornado of Souls still has to be my favorite song. Every riff is really fun to play and the solo is just incredible, too. Marty Friedman was a genius!

I personally like the rust in peace polaris riff,very fun to play

Rust In Peace (The song) has a few tricky riffs as well. That and Hangar 18 were always my favorites

This was the album that grasped my soul. The opening chord progression of Hangar 18 still messes with my mind and my fingers. Playing heavy shit on all of those skinny strings? Dave Mustaine is an 👽. Seeing him play live substantiates my opinion. Rust In Peace is the greatest album released by Megadeth by the greatest line up of musicians that ever was a part of this band. All killer, no filler.

I've never thought of Hybrid Picking the Poison Was The Cure riff, that could definitely make it easier, regarding the right hand at least

Nice. Poison Was The Cure was pretty sick, and Lucretia had a lot more going on in it than I expected.

The whole last bit of Polaris is tricky as hell

I really love your drums tone, man

Just started getting into megadeth. Perfect video to keep this trend for me going.

That main riff of Holy Wars when "brother will kill brother" starts. Imagine that you were playing things like iron man, run to the hills, for whom the bell tolls, power chord riffs, since you started learning the instrument and you see that riff (!) That was an inflection point for me , my mind was blown away

Thank you for doing that! I'm impressed with how accurate that is. I also love the shirt! That brings back memories!!

I find the RIP Polaris riffs most fun and some of them quite challenging 😅

Always appreciate your tone effort And LOVE the shirt:))

Man! Loving all these Megadeth-related videos lately 👍🏼

I would definitely say the main riff in ...Polaris, it's just so crazy

Hey man, great job playing these (and drums!). Trickiest riff of any Megadeth song imo is the Mustaine riff in Hook in Mouth where he's doing the fast alternate/tricky picking stuff toward the middle (@1:40). I think it is technically a "Riff" because he plays it a couple times. Cheers.

poison was the cure would sound great as a country lick without distortion.

Great guitar playing and video

It's a pretty accurate top 8 in my opinion, I agree with almost all of the choices and their placement! It's still baffling to me how complex of a song Lucretia is, the rhythms are incredibly intricate and with many odd choices for a thrash metal song. Not to mention the guitar solo that to me is truly the best one on the album (yeah, I said it! even better than Tornado IMO)...the way Marty Friedman follows the chord changes with his arpeggios is masterful! Not to mention Poison Was The Cure, holy hell is that song insane! It starts pretty gloomy and dark before going on a roller coaster of freakish speed with that riff and Marty's final solo...another that is overlooked in my book! Great video, that was fun to watch and a reminder of what a compositional and guitar masterclass Rust In Peace is.

love your channel!!!! Never stop!

Would love to hear some commentary as to why you think they are tricky/ranked them the way you did. Great playing as always Mike.

I think the riff in the beginning of Take No Prisoners is also a good one for this. It's not a super complex thing, but it's fast and relentless.

Poison was the cure has a very early megadeth vibe, like first album vibe. It's the kind of riff that you find in songs like Last Rites/love to deth

Really enjoying these Megadeth videos

Dude you must make a turorial about all rhe riffs in "Take no prisoners"...

LOL... I was shocked to see that Holy Wars verse riff come in at #6. I had it pegged as #1 until you reminded me Poison Was the Cure existed. The chromatic riff near the start of Take No Prisoners is pretty nuts, too.

Where's "Holy Wars... The Pumicement Due" at? 😅 (Did anyone else notice how "Five Magics" was at the #5 spot?)

That was so cool. Great job man. Excellent execution in lecretia. That one is tuff for me to get that vibrato just right & the feel just before. Should have kept going on that five magics riff. I really wanted to Dr you play it as I think I’m off on it. If you teach those accurate riffs or have tabs I would be happy to pay you for such services. I really want to get back to playing that record. Solos are to tuff for me but I can hang with rhythm guitar. Thanks for this post. I would say take no prisoners riff is my hurtle to get right. That’s because I haven’t attempted poison😆 I’ve made up to tornado on the record & never made time to get into the last third of this amazing album. I’m buying an Aprilia Tuareg 660 adventure motorcycle with an acid Gold paint job & plan on putting a RIP decal on it to compliment it. People in the motorcycle community are going to know my favorite thrash record of all time. Cheers man. 🍻

Ahh was waiting for the classical solo intro on "Holy Wars And The Punishment Due" that's my favorite song off this album besides Tornado Of Souls!

excellent riffs perfect cover

The #8 hangar 18 riff is much harder and nuanced than one would hear. Glad to see it on the list.

fun fact: if you listen to the isolated guitar track for poison was the cure you can hear the edit point where the riff was looped on the record

Cool story, I caught Black Sabbath back in 07 I think, in Tempe AZ & it was my first show with Dio, no clue who was opening & the curtains roll back & Megadeth rips out Holy Wars to start the show. I guess living here locally at the time Dave got in on the show but only played the one song. It was a great surprise for me having never seen either band before. Toni guitar tone was nasty & crushed like I had never heard before. Dio was awesome belting out angry Dehumanizer tracks. That was my first album discovering Dio with sabbath & still to this day my favorite show. So grateful I got to witness that lineup before it was to late.

Hell yeahh awesome video! Love megadeth so much

I just knew it had to be Poison was the cure 🤘

Killer! Rust in Peace...Polaris is probably my fav, but that whole album is super rad. Definitely my favorite of theirs! 😎 Wish you'd play through all of these.. I'd love to learn them! 🤘

Take No Prisoners is extremely tricky. I think that it is all alternate picking except the pull offs in the descending part (Take his life, but won't take his...) The rhythm is also tough with the offbeat downstrokes on the F# power chord and starting right after that on the offbeat upstroke (0) to land on downstroke (3-0-2-0-2-5) -> this results in inside picking which I suck at :p Ben Eller made a great video on the intro part of that song. The Five Magics riff you showed is nasty. I always played it without the hammer on, but going back to the guitar tracks I can hear something like that but picked. I also don't play G-G in the last two notes but D-G (inverted power chord 5th fret). I guess Dave and Marty are the only people that know how to play it correctly. Poison Was The Cure is very hard, so I don't blame them for only recording it once and copy-pasting instead of recording multiple measures. There's also a hidden riff under that one when Dave sings. The Lucretia riff under Marty's solo is one of the best riffs of the whole album. It's really difficult to catch what notes they're playing exactly but it sound amazing. Another great riff is the riff from Polaris. You know, the one near the end. Again it's hard to tell when they do pull offs and when they pick the notes. It's a very fitting ending to a fantastic album.

Dang, always forget how insane the guitar is on Poison Was the Cure until I hear it again. Not that it's my favorite song or anything but it just shows you how insane Dave is as a musician to be able to play that while singing. Rust in Peace really holds a special place in my heart. It's definitely one of my favorite albums of all time.

i remember having trouble with holy wars main riff when i was beginning, was really tricky for me at the time

I was expecting the first riff of Polaris to be there, the picking gave me some trouble when I was younger

poison was the cure was cursed when I first heard it. but after some trial it quickly became my go to riff because of how fun it is to play

I would’ve guessed the last 2 minute of “Rust in Peace…Polaris” because of how intense it gets towards the end.

Once the chorus repeats on poison was the cure, that’s when my hand really starts cramping up lol. It’s almost like they made it just barely long enough to be playable.

I recently fell in love with Megadeth these riffs are absolutely insane.

I've never tried to learn any of these riffs. They all look and sound like differential equations.

That holy wars riff is nuts, it blows my mind that Dave sings over that

Great Choices 🤘🤘🤘

I was expecting for the opening riff to Five Magics to be on the list

That Poison was the cure one always blew my mind because I'd always figured Marty handled that part, but nope, it's Dave and he sings while playing it IIRC. Also have to mention the chromatic intro barrage in Take no Prisoners. That's a real finger twister

Lucretia is a helluva humdinger to (attempt to) play, as it's so unconventional - good luck figuring that one out by ear! 🤯😎

That riff from Tornado of souls was actually the first riff so ever learned to play. I appreciate Megadeth for kickstarting my guitar journey. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

I would say pretty much any riff from Take no Prisoners should have been included on the list, especially those at the beginning like the chromatic one. That song is insane. Nice to include the verse riff from RIP, that's really tricky, and just thinking that Dave is also singing while playing that, crazy.

I read that Dave said the poison was the cure riff was so hard the main riff is a loop of the best take. Also never found that 5/8 riff of five magics hard at all but I can’t play most of these riffs. Brilliant guitar as usual Mike👍

The middle section of Take no Prisoners is just nuts.

The Hangar riff and some others remind me of Mercyful Fate.

1:54 I'm dead. Suffering from arthritis.

Love that Lucretia got two riffs on the list.

Tornado of Souls' main riff was actually one of the first riffs I sat down and learned how to play properly when I first started learning guitar. Definitely not something I'd recommend for everyone to do lol, but it really forced me to step my game up from an early point in my playing. It also helped me visualize the blues scale that is very prevalent in Dave's writing. Made learning future Megadeth songs waaay easier.

The riff in rust in peace is probably the coolest riff ever written.

That Hangar 18 riff drives me insane. My hand needs an ice bath after playing it.

Definitely one of my Favorite Albums of all time.

Rust in Peace Polaris has some hard ass riffs

You make these look easy. Rust in peace ... polaris is a deceptively hard song that I rarely see people play

Man those are some good riffs! Gotta say take no prisoners takes the cake for me riff wise

Dear Mike Will you be getting into Trivium breakdowns in the future? Are they even on ur radar ?

the verse for holy wars is so hard idk how Dave plays it and sings to this day.

Just as a matter of interest, what do you normally play through for metal vids dude?

My man is starting the shorts

That Tornado of Souls riff is pretty hard, but man once you get a feel for it, its actually really fun to play.

30 seconds into the video and I am reaching for my guitar. no other metal record has this effect in this magnitude for me

funny how poison was tbe cure solo is also the hardest one in the album

Love Lucretia but my Fav is Tornado of Souls. Iconic riff with most beautiful 😍 solo

Lucretia's intro is pretty tricky too, according to my boyfriend that is. I can't bother learning those type of picking intros.

The ending section to the title track Rust in Peace is another real tricky one. Especially since it drags on for a bit. It really tires out your fingers

My number 1 trickiest riff is also like yours, main riff from the poison was the cure, it's so hard to play it, so I decided to leave it for some time. :D

Now imagine playing all that live while singing. That's megadave

I'd place Holy Wars intro riffs as way above Tornado. It's fast, and if you want to get it clean, for me at least it's much much harder. Getting the clean doubles and quads with skipping off the low E to the A and D is not a walk in the park.

Rust in Peace is such a good album. That was the best lineup Dave ever had,

Legendary Riffs On Legendary Album.

Tornado of souls and hanger 18 are the hardest riffs for me that I'm trying to learn all the way through 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘👨🏽‍🎤👨🏽‍🎤👨🏽‍🎤👨🏽‍🎤

I have a question, and I know it is not related to this particular video: could you do a lesson video on learning songs by ear, but figuring out is it in standard tuning or drop tuning? Like, is that song in D-standard or Drop D? How can you tell just by listening if there are no videos available? Thanks!

dave is really genius

I always struggled with the chorus riff on Polaris

here's my choice for hardest riff: the entire ending to "rust in peace...polaris". It's like megadeth took a medium-difficulty riff and cranked up the speed to eleven

A TDK VHS branded tshirt??? Interesting... Lol

My favorite metal album ^^

Tornado of souls took me so long to get up to speed, man that really says something that it's only #8 in terms of difficulty lol

Lucretia was a good one, but the intro riff is even trickier than what you picked, I'd say.

I call them mind expanding riffs

Rust in Peace, my fav Megadeth album

Poison Was The Cure is basically Hit The Lights on meth

Surprised Dawn Patrol didn’t make it on here 😅

I'd have Rust In Peace... Polaris ahead of that Tornado riff, personally. My first thoughts were Poison and those tricky Lucretia bits, so glad to see both of them on here!

For me: 1. Take No Prisoners (IMO, the hardest Megadeth song to play) 2. Poison Was The Cure 3. Polaris (Rust In Peace is pretty straightforward, but I can't play Polaris for the life of me) 4. Holy Wars 5. Lucretia 6. Hangar 18 (the Big Riff in the ending) I can see the 5/8 riff in Five Magics being tricky, but that's just a disco-prog bassline :P I don't find Tornado Of Souls to be all the tricky, even by non-Megadeth standards. The solo is tricky as balls (my hands are too damn small to do the 17p10, jfc Marty!), but the riffing is fairly tame bluesy and mid-tempo power chords. Like, if I had to play Dave's parts in a Megadeth song to win money or prevent a demilich from taking over the world, I'd pick Tornado Of Souls :)

I posted it before on a Bradley Hall video and I will repeat here again: Let me tell you how Rust in Peace (the album) became my favorite metal album of all times. I discovered Megadeth in 2002 when I was 16. I am from Brazil and, as always, metal was not exactly popular down here. So, if we wanted to buy a CD from a metal band that was not Iron Maiden or Metallica (bands that were "popular enough" for the labels to decide to print their CDs in Brazil), for example, we had no choice but to acquire imported CDs, which would cost me all the money I had for a month. Thus, my friends and I used to first download the songs of a given band through softwares like Napster, Kazaa, Emule and only after we were 100% sure that a certain band was worthy, we would then spend our limited cash to buy that band's CD. Well, back in 2001/2002, when you searched for a given bands song in one of those softwares like Kazaa, you would get MP3 files named such as "Metallica - One", or "Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills", following the pattern "Band name - song name". Therefore, when I was "discovering" ("downloading" cough, cough) Megadeth I had a folder filled with individual songs in MP3 format like "Megadeth - Hangar 18", "Megadeth - Holy Wars", "Megadeth - She Wolf", with no information whatsover about from what album each song came from. The thing is that, from all the Megadeth songs I have downloaded, after one year I had my personal Top 5: "Megadeth - Holy Wars", "Megadeth - Hangar 18", "Megadeth - Take no Prisioners", "Megadeth - Lucretia", and "Megadeth - Tornado of Souls". I thought these songs were awesome, the guitar playing was out of this world (I never heard those scales and that riff creativity), and somehow had a magic element that other Megadeth songs did not have. I did not know all these songs where from the same album. To be honest, I only found out that these 5 songs were from the same album 2 or 3 years after I had establisedh my top 5 best Megadeth songs. What was my surprise at the end of 2004 when I found out that, not only all my favorite Megadeth songs were from the same album, but also there was one extra major song, which beared the same name of the album: "Rust in Peace". After I found out all these 5 songs belonged to the same album, Rust in Peace was already one of my favorite albums ever. I recall I that my expectations were very, very high when I finally got to listen "Megadeth - Rust in Peace" for the first time. After five minutes listening to that song, I was completely baffled that Megadeth had surprised me again: not only Rust in Peace was a great song, it was a thrash metal master piece, I had no choice but to turn my top 5 Megadeth songs a top 6. So, not only all my favorite Megadeth songs back then were from the same album, but this album was so damn good that it made me discover another thrash metal jewel "Rust in Peace... polaris". After discovering this last song, "Rust in Peace" became my favorite metal album of all time, and still is. Like a good wine, Rust in Peace is aging very well. If you google now "best metal album of all times", Rust in Peace will appear among the very best, where it belongs PS: Yes, and I ended up buying not only the Rust in Peace CD but the entire Megadeth discography ;)

What Jackson is that? It sounds so damn heavy and awesome:)