Gonna have to go by genre
Tech Death:
Sorreption - King of undisputed nonsense
runner up: Necrophagist - Seven
Melodic Death Metal:
In Flames - Dialogue with the stars
runner up: At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
Death Metal:
Decapitated - spheres of madness
runner up: Bloodbath - So You Die
Progressive metal:
runner up: Opeth - Serenity Painted Death
Metalcore:
runner up: 🤔
I could probably come up with a top 5-10 for each genre. I could probably dig for 5 more genres. This is already a sick playlist.
Honorable mentions to Rage Against The Machine and Soilwork. Some absolute riff kings. Those two bands honestly trump the whole list/thread/whatever.
What about thrash metal?
Not a fan of most OG thrash bands, personally, so my top picks would be bands influenced by those bands.
I'd say top thrash riff pick would probably be
Children of Bodom - Lake Bodom
I'd have to revisit Kiuas's first 3 albums to pick out the thrash bangers. They're mostly power metal with some thrash, black, and melodeath.
If well allow Kiuas - Heart Of The Serpent as thrash, then yeah. But idk kinda more black/power metal than thrash.
I guess of OG thrash I do love sepultura... And Kiko Laurieo in general. Does Angra count by association? Or are they way too power? 😔
She's So Heavy - The Beatles. I know it's not "metal", but it's metal as fuck.
It's almost stoner or doom.
Something about Rammstein's Keine Lust always sends a ton of blood to my peen.
I love that song that goes ba duh duh dunna dun dun banananana duh duh buh buh
Follow the smoke to the riff filled lands
Proceeds the Weedian!
Bleak by Opeth. Heartwork by Carcass Sinister Mephisto by Arch Enemy
Bleak rules (fuggin Steven Wilson backup vox) but if I'm going Opeth on riffage, it's serenity painted death for me
Opeth - Serenity Painted Death
Like 2 straight minutes of neck breaker after neck breaker.
Man, I miss old Opeth.
I don't know about all time, but...
- Visigoth - Revenant King - the intro and all the variations on it throughout the song
- Eternal Champion - A Face in the Glare
- Unleashed - Midvinterblot - I know it's super basic but it gets me amped up regardless
- Opeth - Serenity Painted Death - Already mentioned but damn
Oddly most of my favorite stuff - like prog metal - I tend to not like a particular riff from.
Götterdämmerung by Zeal and Ardor, goes hard always gets me excited.
Intro to Mandatory Suicide
From Slayer, I'm partial to Raining Blood, but they have so many legendary riffs that you couldn't go wrong picking at random 😂
Serpents of the Light by Deicide gets me as amped up now as it did 25+ years ago 🤘
Maybe an unpopular choice, but Sabbath’s Into the Void
I'm having a hard time finding a better one. This might be tops. Tried a bunch of old riff kings like Cactus, Blue Cheer, Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo, but I don't think they can beat Sabbath. Never in My Life by Mountain comes close for me though.
easy choice for me, O Father O Satan O Son by Behemoth
That’s a great one. Mine would have to be either Satan is Real by Kreator (main riff), or I’m Broken by Pantera (also main riff).
This is an impossible question, how dare you. But I'm not gonna let you guys get away with not mentioning the Riff Beast himself, Kirk Windstein.
Crowbar - It Pours From Me usually comes to mind first.
Also, KoRn - Clown to this day has one of the most disgusting guitar tones I've ever heard.
I'm partial to doom riffs so I gotta give love to Electric Funeral as the granddaddy. It's simple but so good.
The Cromlech Gate by Enslaved is super heavy and maybe my actual favorite, followed by too many by Candlemass tracks to mention. Ocean Demon by Runemagick is a series of great riffs.
But Tony is god so I can't neglect Patterns by Iommi and Follow the Tears by Heaven & Hell which are good 'n' heavy too.
Photograph by Nickelback.
They are ahead of their time and won’t be understood for a couple more years.
The older I get the more I appreciate the simple brutality and precision of Metallica's "Battery" riff
Inflames - colony hits so hard!
My Own Grave - As I Lay Dying
