Every metalhead remembers the first riff. Not the first song. The first riff. The one where your left hand did something and the amp did something back and suddenly you understood why Tony Iommi kept playing with two missing fingertips.
Kevin Balke put together something I wish existed when I was fourteen. Fifteen metal riffs. Tabs on screen. No talking. No twelve-minute intro about his pedalboard. Just riff after riff, clean and slow enough to follow. Under six minutes.
The selection
The list runs from Paranoid to “Seek and Destroy” to “Am I Evil.” That is the holy trinity of first metal riffs. One commenter under the video nailed it. Those were the exact three songs he played at his first garage jam in high school. Everyone who picked up a guitar in the 80s or 90s knows the feeling. Power chord. Palm mute. Heads nod. You are in a band now.
What sets this apart from every other “easy metal riffs” video on YouTube is the Annihilator pick. “Alison Hell.” That is not the obvious choice. It is the right choice. Jeff Waters wrote riffs that sound harder than they are. Exactly what a beginner needs. Something that impresses your mates without shredding your fingers. Most tutorial channels would have put “Enter Sandman” there and called it a day.
Why this matters
There are thousands of beginner guitar videos online. Most of them teach you “Smoke on the Water” and “Seven Nation Army” and call that metal. It is not. This video teaches actual metal riffs from actual metal bands. The difference between learning “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and learning “Wonderwall” is the difference between becoming a metalhead and becoming someone who brings an acoustic guitar to a party. Choose wisely.
Who this is for
If you are a 35+ metalhead with a kid who just picked up their first guitar, send them this video. Not tomorrow. Now. The sooner they learn “Symptom of the Universe” instead of whatever TikTok is pushing, the better off everyone will be.
And if you are a 35+ metalhead who never got around to learning guitar yourself. Five minutes. Fifteen riffs. No excuses left.
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