As an educated teacher, I must say that I absolutely love your approach to explaining different concepts in your Riff Analysis videos. It's highly interesting to watch and analyze. You're very methodical and you've done your research properly. So much better than 90% of the "wannabe" music teachers on KZread. It's definitely top notch work, and also the humor is on point!

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

@ThatPunkYT

3 жыл бұрын

As someone who has taught, is a metalhead and musician, I also appreciate your approach to all of this. Like, a student couldn't ask for a better teacher! Good luck with everything and looking forward to the videos to come! 🤘😁

@FreepowerUG

3 жыл бұрын

Oh hey Mr Gul! ❤️

@MrGul

3 жыл бұрын

@@FreepowerUG Oh hey, Daniel! Figured that a man of your impeccable taste would find himself on this channel eventually. :)

@FreepowerUG

3 жыл бұрын

@@MrGul Since video 004! It's fun meeting you in the wild :)

I knew they were going beyond human hand safety measures. Great content, as always.

What I liked most about this video was the cutting edge visualizations and engaging on-camera persona!!

Thumbs up for the psycroptic reference, observant is such a beast

How come youre not bigger yet? this is the exact type of content ive dreamt of doing but never had the technical knowhow to do. I`ve never even particularly like tech death, but your breakdowns are so ridiculously informative and wellpresented that I cant help but be enmoured with every video you do.

@Bennilenny

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly! And it's 10x better and informative than I ever expected

@sktrid

3 жыл бұрын

he's super new, i suspect hell get pretty big soon

Such a kickass song, the second solo with the big sweeps is spine chilling, evil as fuck.

i’m here for the lasers

Oh my.......The guitar is just pure perfection.....

The riff analysis is current my favorite series on KZread. You are a legend,

Would love to see a video on Ulcerate.

No one mentioned how amazing this song is. Each part is natural follow up of previous one. This song is just flowing for 4 minutes and ends with solid outro (that doesn't sound like 10 tech metal parts connected to create song). I listened it easily more than 100 times and every time i'm like wow.

I can see you getting up there with the likes of Rick Beato fast if you keep this up. Solid Primer on Tech death that honestly much-needed this is my fav genre and I'm composing stuff to this but it's to have a fundamental understanding so i can take that fundamental and manipulate it to where its my own take. Taking on the challenge to learn Inferi on guitar has really helped to learn other creative ways to approach Pedal points.

Great T-Shirt. Hope you will cover Nile riff some day

Really like your Videos! I am no musician and "only" a listener who likes complex metal stuff, but could never say what makes it complex in the first place. Your videos (binging them currently) make me understand what my guts, brain and nodding head want to tell me when they are not in sync, and why i like that! Thanks for enlightenment :)

I think pedal points are one of the most common movements in metal and I feel like they're barely ever addressed. It's one of my favorite compositional techniques for many reasons and I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about them too much. I love metalcore, especially early to mid 2000's stuff and pedal points almost defined the sound of the genre in that time period. It's literally string-skipping but (usually) not as shreddy.

Thank you for reminding me the human abstract is a thing

From Origin’s hometown and I can’t state how much they changed the musical landscape here. Even today so many bands play from this album’s groundwork (also a good deal of neoclassical/melodeath influence for some bands). Crazy how one band can change so much

I strive for that level of relaxation playing guitar

Man o man. Man. When I learned this tune years ago I used to struggle with the idea that the sweeps were like that. I just thought that that was due to the limits of my hearing capabilities. You've inspired me to relearn this song. Thanks for the video. And Hail Space🤘 🤣

@metalmusictheory5401

2 жыл бұрын

Best of luck!

Oh yeah. “Tech death bubbling laser gun sound object.” _That_ old thing. Sigh. 🤣

Nice analysis of one of my all time favorite tunes. Subnote: origin rules.

3:15 played those sweeps like it was nothing

Okay i can go all day but ill stop because i know my comments are obnoxious lol Anyway, I really like your channel, Friend. I will be sure to recommend it to a lot of metal friendos, Friendo. ❤

Early/mid period Deeds of Flesh albums are masterclasses in tremolo melodies

Thanks

Your channel is gold

Huh. That was much, much more interesting than I expected!

This channel has a lot of potential. Awesome premise. It's hard to find content like this.

Dude, if you could do a Slaves of Nil, Hordes in Devolution or Diamond for Disease analysis I will die a happy man. Or maybe like a Bolt Thrower jam like For Victory because it has the heaviest outro riff in existence. Love this channel man!

gr8 vid, just wanted to say i love the sound of that sweep riff so much hearing it on its own it's so unique & just really really cool, i like Origin but hard to listen to for long the relentless grav blasts i listen to heavy stuff but Origin is full speed & texture almost all the time, cool band tho 4 sure, pls do a Nile vid bro they're my fav :D EDIT also like that u hav the music really low while playing over it cos too often u can't hear the cover that clearly over the song

may you achieve your final form

I really like how you basically justified an impressive condensed short form cover by explaining all the music theory and playing technique. You're doing a great thing by giving breakdowns of extreme metal. 💪 You should not get off SO EASY, though. Is there a cover video I'm ignorant to? If not, make me ignorant until I noticed you've posted it! You nailed the riffs in your analysis! You have the gear!

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Haha thank you! There are always little mistakes that people who put more time into the playing don't make! kzread.info/dash/bejne/oICMl5tpmMXdprQ.html

This way of sweeping honestly reminds me of how Camille Saint-Saëns uses these incredibly fast piano runs in "Aquarium". In that case they're not even there to display virtuotic techniqe, but solely for the bubbly texture, representing - well, an aquarium. Of course the Death Metal equivalent are bubbly laser guns, which are way more Metal :-P

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

ooh nice link

Kevin Hufnagel from Dysrhythmia recently released a tabbook for The Veil of Control. I bought it and its got some absolutely stunning riffs, specifically the title track. The natural harmonics in the beginning can make an interesting lesson about harmonics, obertones and the basic physics behind music theory. The tabbook is just $10 from Bandcamp and I think it would be an awesome topic for a video. Cheers dude, I absolutely love these videos, I haven't subbed to a channel in years and yours is the first to which I do so in a long time!

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'll have to check it out!

i just want to say thanks for all the work you put into your content. im an old (metal) guy, but a new student of music theory, and im just getting to the point where i can understand the language musicians speak, and follow along with these videos without getting a headache. your videos are easy to digest, thorough, concise and you cover a lot of really interesting niche topics i dont see a lot of other channels covering. the icing on the cake are the cutting edge visualizations and humour. i am fully engaged with the on-camera persona and i really appreciate these extremely valuable lessons

Love the shirt man!!!! Nile rules!!!!!

Yo! Thank you for doing these analyses man, they're so genuine and informational. The Faceless could be a band to discuss in terms of form. There's all kinds of cool stuff off of Planetary Duality. I did a quick form analysis of Ancient Covenant and the section at 1:49 with all the half step chugs and the tremolo picking develops in an interesting way. Also, I would love to see a transcription and analysis of the first solo as it pertains to the harmony/bassline in the rhythm guitar/bass, could be some cool harmonic/melodic theory there.

I saw a comment in a forum years ago "it doesn't get much heavier than Origin" and that's how I was introduced to them. Still a pretty valid statement too

Keeping in line with the “notes becoming more than just notes” timbral type of thing (micropolyphony even?), I think I’d classify the majority of the tremolo parts here as just being 16th note triplets on top of 32nd note drums - to me it has a rhythmic basis BUT, like you say, it combines into a mushy timbral whole rather than being perceived distinctly as 4s or 3s. I’ve noticed specifically the 3-over-4 thing being really popular for tech riffs, not the least because picking 32nds at that speed would be ridiculous lol. BTBAM also do this in the main riff of Telos, for example.

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

For sure! There's definitely a physical limit to how fast people can pick that plays a role in how these riffs get written.

MMT is possibly the best human that ever lived.

Favourite example of technique 2 is in spawn of possession’s ‘apparition’ breakdown, would love to hear your take on it! Especially as it builds really heavily on that motif. Awesome video as always dude.

@metalmusictheory5401

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Got a Spawn of Possession video on the way (though not about Apparition) that follows up on some of these ideas about technique and speed!

@OCNmeticadpa

2 жыл бұрын

@@metalmusictheory5401 awesome, look forward to it man. You’ve helped push along a lot of my theory knowledge so really appreciate your channel and the work you put into it.

It’s scary. It’s like you’re making content just for me love it as always

One of my favourite bands and this is fast becoming one of my favourite channels. Thank you!

You're doing great job, i always wanted to learn techniques used in tech death and this video helped me with one particularly with pedal point thingy. It would be cool , if you can analysis on bands like obscura, archspire and necrophagist. Thank you man.

Man you are insane. It's just insane the quality level of your videos.

My friend, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the format of these videos! So much to chew on in your analysis. Thank you for all you are doing, we are loving it.

I was just jamming this album yesterday! This is probably the best video the algorithim has gifted me in quite some time. Instant scrub, and super stoked to check out the rest of your content.

Man, your channel is the best thing I've come across on this site in YEARS. You're perfectly articulating what I love about my favorite bands and riffs. Would love to see some Obscura and Alkaloid stuff on here!

on a side note, I also think they've got some very well developed downpicking technique. I listened to 3 older albums 2 days ago. Which inspired me to also work on my downpicking more consistently.

@metalmusictheory5401

2 жыл бұрын

Definitely! I definitely don't have those sort of chops, I take shortcuts playing this type of stuff a lot of the time

Thanks, great vid and explanation

This is perfect

Brilliant, brother. Brilliant. Originally found out about your channel a few weeks ago from a group I belong to on Facebook. Amazing, thought-out, and well-delivered analysis. The Hughes and Kettner tone doesn't hurt either, I must say. I hope your videos inspire more metal musicians to create similar-minded videos. Godspeed.

Thank you for giving an identity to all these techniques :).

@gajindersingh5431

2 жыл бұрын

If you would ever do some suffocation - pierced, catatonia, thrones, etc , that would be so awesome.

This guy is a GOD !!!

This is Amazing, I have always wondered what the hell is happening admist the chaos of "The Aftermath". great video 😍

I argued with someone like 20 years ago that whatever music we were listening to didn't have sweep picking because i discovered sweep picking primarily from Origin, and didn't realize that they just played them at 1000x normal speed lol. Watched a DVD from Guitar mag with Michael Angelo Batio doing them and finally realized that, yes those were sweeps just not Origin sweeps

Origin is a great band and cool song man. I love your videos!

Absolutely great!!! Finally, I found what I really needed to understanding that explanation about tech-death. Btw, I was just listening that song yesterday and I felt unexpected while that song as example for that explain. 😆 Thanks for your good content... ✨

Def one of my favorite new channels! I hope u get to do Voivod or Xoth someday.

Awesome

Just recently discovered your channel and thank you for doing what you do! Hope to see some Blood Incantation, Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, The Berzerker and many more!

Sick paint job on that Ibanez

Fantastic video. And don't downplay your playing - tech death is seriously hard, and you did a great job considering. Sweeping is getting more hate nowadays as a cop out. But I love it - you get to voice chords that you just couldn't get away with putting into metal usually - it can often end up more neo classical.

Was brought here from a dudes post in discord, loving it. Would love to see an Ad Nauseam video in the future :3

the space footage goes well with the paintjob on the Ibanez but the real room bg goes against it. sweet technique and analysis

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I need a green screen

Hail space

I was also in love w/ that album when it dropped

🤘

Bravo

Could you do a Dying Fetus riff? They are also complex and amazing.

Sick video on a great song. Do a nile one!

Fantastic works as always! (watching a 6 minute ad as as sign of appreciation right now and I won't skip the second either). Only other thing I'd be curious about is scale choices and maybe even harmony. Not hugely into tech death, but it seems to me that diminished is what one hears most often (except for some melodic minor madness of certain bands).

@Raptoricus

3 жыл бұрын

Yup. Diminished and Harmonic Minor is the basis of most tech death - with some chromatacism thrown in usually. You have to bear in mind that with harmonic minor you have modes just like you do the major scale though - so there's actually a really wide pallet there.

@matrefeytontias

3 жыл бұрын

You should check out Blotted Science and everything Ron Jarzombek has ever done if you want some variety in scales. The dude came up with a couple writing systems that he uses to write with all 12 tones, arranged in arbitrary blocks that make up arbitrary scales. It's pretty wild. He has extensive videos on all this stuff in his series "Dissecting Bugs".

@YavorArseniev

3 жыл бұрын

@@Raptoricus Thank you for the confirmation! Don't think I've heard more than harmonic minor and phrygian dominant, though.

@YavorArseniev

3 жыл бұрын

@@matrefeytontias Absolutely love Ron's work! Wouldn't classify it as tech death though, it really is something beyond.

@matrefeytontias

3 жыл бұрын

@@YavorArseniev yeah fair enough haha. I find enough qualities of tech death in it to call it that I reckon, notably the freedom in melodies and harmony. I think that's part of what tech death is too

Found your Prancer vid then saw this in the suggestions, you like all the best music man! If this is your first death metal album you liked, then you must go back and check out Portal by origin, or anything off their self titled debut.

@metalmusictheory5401

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah I got into all their older stuff soon after this, this was just the first of their albums I really got into!

Cool stuff as usual. I was half hoping you would talk a bit about necrophagist. I think they are one of the early pioneer of this genre.

I love the state of tech-death right now. We live in a world where Cryptopsy, origin, and techn9ne have been blended together and given us Archspire.When I found out Archspire (via tabs) instead of a quarter note pulse play with eighth-note pulse blew my fucking mind, it made sense to me how the band is clocking in at 300-350 bpm. So if dean Tobi and Jared are playing sixteenths then spencer is playing 32nd notes like what the fuck or is that inaccurate?

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

There's definitely a limit to what people can hear, and it's easy to get lost in the levels! General rule of thumb is that a tenth of a second is the fastest thing that people can treat as metric (people can play faster than that of course, but most people can't treat something faster than this as a pulse if that makes sense). I find there are some bands (Archspire, some Cryptopsy, Spawn of Possession) that are really good at finding that boundary where if they went faster, it would be easier to zoom back out and hear stuff as faster subdivisions of a slower beat, but because they pick tempos where they do and the way they fill stuff in it just feels really fast. I'll do a video about this at some point!

BRO THE HUMAN ABSTRACT PLEASE MAKE SOME CONTENT ON THEM

Do the riff at like 3 minutes in "Withered and Obsolete" by Ulcerate

Do "Scorched" by Spawn of Possession >:^)))

Would love to hear your thoughts on Crimson Massacre's The Luster of Pandemonium, because at least compositionally, I think that album takes the whole 'blurring of the rhythmic grid' thing another step beyond, and one where, for people who are more cynical about sweep-picking, sweep-picking hardly ever shows up at all. Keep up the good work, man!

Thanks for another great video! When I discovered your channel, I watched everything you had posted right away as it was something really different from normal to me and really educational and entertaining at the same time. Have you listened to Zero Hour's album The Towers of Avarice? There's definitely material for a video there in addition to it being a stellar album

Do the verse riff in "It's not Safe to Swim Today" by Veil of Maya

Dude, I totally love what you are doing here, as a metal head, it is amazing to see someone super educated go at it. I have watched most of your videos, killer content from top to bottom. And the high tech, super futuristic video editing is bad ass hahaha. But buddy, you look.... man, have you tried sitting on a stool, or in a chair? because you just don't look that comfortable standing there. Again, the content is FXXKING AWESOME, but you just do NOT look satisfied standing like that. Anyways, badass riffs, catch ya next vid :)

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Haha I think most of it is I hate filming lol. Slowly getting more used to it.

Do the instrumental break in the middle of "Concepting the Era" by Decrepit Birth

1:40 Wait, does that mean that in tremolo picking these fast notes are hit with no timing precision, kind of like in a random way as long as the texture sounds fine?

Do "Legion of the Serpent" by The Faceless

Do "Émergence" by First Fragment

Amazing video as always. Do you happen to have any advices on books I could try reading to start learning more about music theory ? Harmonization, rythms, etc ? I learned everything through youtube and the internet but I think I could use some reading to make sure my basis are right. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! When I teach it's from Laitz "The Complete Musician," which is a textbook and expensive (but you can find a pdf of older versions if you know where to look) and very classical centric but is generally good! I also think I learned the most from learning jazz harmony. Mostly learned from teachers, but "The Jazz Language" by Dan Haerle is a good starting point for that!

@raikageremy

3 жыл бұрын

@@metalmusictheory5401 Thank you so much, I'll look into that :)

I love the texture of those laser sweeps, I've thrown em in a few songs lol. really good playing man, was that all one take in the middle?

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Took lots and lots of takes I was so rusty lol

@kirbypufocia

3 жыл бұрын

@@metalmusictheory5401 I know the feeling! I always have pages of videos to delete by the time I say "ok close enough" lol

You should analyze idle promise by invalids or just invalids in general. Id love to see what you have to say

Google has a simple and decent metronome if anyone is grinding sweep techniques btw, just search metronome and it will show up

Bro i love origin and abusing a bit of your comment section regarding tremolo picking how does nile uses it in the context of barra edinazzu and black seeds, I’m more of a guitar pro/midi composser and trying to build something influenced by that old school nile but i haven’t been able to capture that hnnnng, i believe that has to do with the fact that i think more in straight 16th or 32nd notes instead of tremolo, what would you recommend. Also have you tought in providing theory and harmony lessons for other metal musicians?

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

I think for a lot of Nile it's the same sort of thing as here, where it's the buzzy thing where it's so fast you can't tell what the grid is! Though a lot of it has to do with guitar tone, which is a much more complicated thing and something it will be really hard to get with MIDI.

@inquisidor1

3 жыл бұрын

@@metalmusictheory5401 currently i’m less worried by technicalities like tone but i’m gonna try to do what you explained in here

Could you analyze the song "Atomic Age" By Imperial Triumphant?

So if it's not the index finger you would recommend not rolling your fingers over the same fret with another?

Can you do analysis on Vildhjarta - Regnar Bensin?

I think the breakdown could be added as well. How it doesnt strictly line up to the naively expected beats. As for your formative albums, I hope you have not skipped Necrophagist for sweeps and pretty much everything else. That would have been an incredible shame. Finally, it may be just me, but the volume in your spoken sections feels much lower, than in the music sections. Too much. I know, I like blasting Origin loud as well, but the spoken sections feel too jarring, when they are so comparably less thundering. I do get that Origin, are one of those bands that DEMAND loud volume to be properly enjoyed, because otherwise you wouldnt be able to hear whats going on at all, but the theory should be the spotlight here, I think :D.

@metalmusictheory5401

3 жыл бұрын

Was definitely jamming and learning Necrophagist around this time too and will do a video about them down the road! Love the breakdown in this song and the subtle switch to 6/4, and will do a video about breakdowns and other metal formal sections at some point! And my bad, I try to balance the talking vs music but sometimes I get lazy and don't check on more than one set of speakers lol. Thanks for watching!

'Controversial opinion' - the whole sweeping trend led to a fuck load of decidedly boring musical parts which generally weren't all that technical but allowed a lot of guitarists to pretend that they were technical masters of their instruments because it was easy to fit a load of arpeggios into a generic metal track over a tried and tested chord progression.

@_Stroda

3 жыл бұрын

@@1as6asdw45a a) scare quotes b) it doesn't really paint many who are into the whole 'woo, technicality' thing so well.

I think Origin play in drop B if I am not mistaken.

Origin and Beneath the Massacre are greatest bands

@MRLDsxn

3 жыл бұрын

Please analyse BTM riffs old and new albums pls 8 ) O:) ^^ thx bro {} mindfive!

Tech death bubbling laser gun sound object should be a scientific term

I love it when politicians can play guitar