Blackened rhythm guitar

The opening rhythm guitar part with a verse part.

Not much to say except the usual story: I've always heard it differently from the version published officially. Now I got it right. I've found a clip in which Hetfield actually plays it slowly once or twice and it's become so obvious. Enjoy (PDF)!

Copyright infringement?

Just today I got an e-mail from Scribd that somebody had filed a copyright infringement claim regarding my transcription of Leper Messiah. At first I thought that Metallica's legal team got really bored, then I learned it was Hal Leonard publishing company

It doesn't take a a rocket scientist to notice my version has zero to do with theirs.So what prompted this action? I want to know so I have just written to Scribd.

In the meantime I updated the link to the PDF which calmly rests on some other drive.

Blackened - Guitar harmony played live

Live version of the harmony played by Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield in their (+ Jason Newsted's) song "Blackened" off of "...And Justice for All" album.

I tried to figure out the fingering watching them perform the song but I'll admit it, I haven't spent too much time on it. In bar 2 I noted possible best fingering though, and the way I feel most comfortable playing it. Generally, the fingering shows the melody can be played throughout three positions: IV, VII and X (i.e. frets). The shift from position IV to VII and back to IV may seem weird but then it allows to continue the melody in position VII for most of the time.

This, of course, doesn't limit possible other ways to place the melody on the fretboard. It's just the way I personally find best.

PDF file is at Scribd as usual.

Battery interlude

The interlude before the solo in Battery. It's the transcription I did listening to isolated an track. As it's usually the case with the pieces I publish here, it's a part that has bothered me for years because I didn't hear it quite the same as the official score for Master of Puppets album presented it. With the help of Internet now I can be sure how it should be really played.

PDF file is here.

The Lake by King Diamond

A King Diamond song recorded during Fatal Portrait sessions. It didn't make the album though. I've always thought it was a great tune. This has no tabulature or solos. Fills C and D are kind of best guesses as they aren't very prominent on the recording.

PDF file.

Torn to Pieces by Death

My transcription of the bridge section of the song entitled "Torn to Pieces" by Death. I was prompted to do it after reading the article "The promise and peril of Internet sources" by Stephen Hudson. I just couldn't let the challenge pass!

PDF file.

Despite the fact that my version is quite different from Stephen's, be sure to check his website, Metal In Theory - Sourcebook for Scholarship on Heavy Music. It's excellent!

Lepper Messiah

As promised, today I'm publishing my transcription of Lepper Messiah by Metallica. If you know the so-called official score book, you're in for a shock! The whole intro is different as well as many other smaller parts.

The truth is that it's really hard to get to the gist of the riffs when listening only to the studio version. I have found several interesting live performances, including few where only Rob Trujillo is heard - that made a ton of difference. Also, I might be wrong but I think Hetfield quad-tracked some of the parts in the studio.  Hence, this is more the transcription of a live version than of the studio one.

Link to the PDF file.


 


  

YouTube envy

Browsing YouTube, I found a guy claiming to have figured out the correct way how to play the second riff from Fight Fire with Fire. In the comments section someone asked him to show the harmony part from Fight Fire with Fire and Leper Messiah. As coincidence would have it, I had done both for my own pleasure, so I uploaded my transcriptions to Scribd.com and pointed the viewers to them. However, the channel owner probably didn't like it and promptly deleted both my comments without explanation.

Fuck him.

I thought I could record the songs myself but I have neither a good video camera nor video editing skills so it would be quite shitty looking. Then I remembered I had this very blog and decided to update it with some transcriptions of mine. That's how the previous post about FFWF came up and that's how the next one will come as well. Stay tuned and look forward to Leper Messiah!

Harmony melody from Fight Fire with Fire by Metallica

I'll be bold here: here's the correct way Metallica recorded and plays the harmony part in their Fight Fire with Fire song off of Ride the Lightning album, both guitars included. I have listened to multiple versions: studio, rehearsal, demo and live and YouTube, of course, has been of a great help with this. What I came up with is, in my honest opinion, the real way it is played.  It is different in several places from the songbook published by Cherry Lane Music.

I'm pretty sure the harmony was recorded by Hetfield alone - until Load or Re-Load, Hammett used to record only solos. Live, they do it together, of course, with Hammett playing the higher part.

The tabulature might not show the same fingering positions they would choose. It's just the way I play it. However, it's the sound that matters.

Hi-rez PDF file.

Metallica Corrections

YouTube's great! I have found a 5 minute video of Kirk Hammett of Metallica who was showing some riffs to a couple of their songs from Master of Puppets. After almost two decades of my playing those riffs I discovered not everything was transcribes as it should've been. Damn! 

In addition to this, I got a hold of MOGG files which are Guitar Hero tracks rips. The game mostly uses real tracks that have been mixed into stems, that is groups of instrument tracks normally used for mastering. Here there are around 12 tracks: kick drum, snare, toms, high-hat and cymbals, lead guitar, rhythm guitars, vocals, backing vocals + some more. With a MOGG as hand, you can import it into Reaper (a low-cost but as professional as any other high-end multitrack audio software) and solo a given instrument to have a unique listening experience.

One of such tracks is Battery. Now the Interlude part that's haunted me for ages (I knew it had been poorly transcribed but had no idea how to improve it) became as clear as a day. I'll soon ad some transcriptions for all to enjoy.

Psychopathy Red corrected

Recently I was playing the tune along with an amp, which I had never actually done before and noticed some discrepancies. I mistakenly applied the rhythm guitar section underneath the second solo to all choruses and I misheard two notes in the last verse (the second bar). What is typical of Slayer, the aforementioned rhythm section sounds very alike the chorus but is played just half a step higher.

The link to the PDF file.

Can't Tell No One

The song I have today is Can't Tell No One by Negative Approach. We play it at a lightning speed making it sound like a speed metal from the 80's! Take no prisoners!

The lyrics are just as great:

People try to tell me what they think is right for me
They think there's some value to what they've gotta say
I won't listen to 'em, I don't need their advice
I wouldn't ever have it any other fuckin' way

Can't tell no one what to do

Rules are made for idiots - people that can't think
I'm treated like I don't have a mind of my own
Stupid fuckin' idiots with stupid fuckin' ideals
When will they ever fuckin' leave me alone?

Pretty straightforward - just as I like it. Have a look at the transcription here.

Black Flag - Police Story

Here's another cool song by Black Flag as performed by my band Mechanix. As with all previous songs, this one is also played in a Slayer fashion: fast & full of muted sixteenth.

The link to the file which is stored by a wonderful service, Scribd.com.

Handwritten

It takes me some time to learn a tune but it would be a very long time if I didn't write down music. I make notes, write down riffs, repetitions and a general flow of a song. It's not a very precise notation, but it serves me well. Once I have the song down, it's not a problem to play it at a rehearsal. Have a look at two songs I will transcribe soon in a more proper format, Necros's Search for Fame and Bad Posture's Get Tough.

Black Flag

Although I was going to some other songs, Nervous Breakdown by Black Flag got its chance earlier. It's an easy song which I'm going to play with my band, Mechanix.

Korn -Twist

A new treat for a lost surfer. This time it's an old song by KoRn entitled Twist. I actually transcribed it by myself with the exception of second bar played by James "Munky" Shaffer which I copied from a '96 issue of Guitar School containing an interview with both KoRn guitar players and a few riffs from their first two albums.

The reason for the transcription was a scanned Life Is Peachy songbook floating around the net which doesn't have this song. It's simple enough so I gave it a try.

A link to the PDF is here.

Something completely different

I just couldn't skip the chance to spread the news how to deal with a crippled mouse/keyboard usability for Warhammer Online, a new MMORPG I have been immensely enjoying for a couple of days now.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Mythic disregarded what they've done for Dark Age of Camelot and didn't include such a useful feature as mouselook (called also free mouselook, mouselook toggle or mouselook lock). The only way to freely change the point of view with a mouse while doing other tasks is to keep right mouse button pressed - so annoying when you're used to always looking around like that.

Until Mythic... sorry! ...EA Mythic fixes that that is to employ Autohotkey. Is that a change for good! Give it a try and you'll be amazed at how easily you can get back all your favorite key bindings. All you have to do is to install the software, copy/paste the following code into a text document (e.g. by means of Notepad), save it as a *.AHK file and execute the file (double click it).

Here's the script that binds the mouselook toggle to Control key.

Ctrl::
if not GetKeyState("RButton")
Send {RButton Down}
Else if GetKeyState("RButton")
Send {RButton Up}
return

Enjoy!

It's On! Psychopathy Red!

This is a place where I'm going to put some transcriptions of rock and metal tunes. They'll be the ones I either wrote myself or corrected if I wasn't happy with the "official", "authorized" or "note-for-note" versions.

Even when I try to come up with better transcriptions of something that has been done before, I'm not going to claim my versions are faultless - I'm only human, right?

The first song is a new tune by Slayer, entitled Psychopathy Red arranged for one guitar - no vocal or solos.

After I have transcribed it, I was alerted by my brother, who I play the song with, that the 1st and 2nd verse may actually be considered as the same. That would require a little change to the intro , that is including an odd-meter bar. I'll add that soon.