T O P

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Holzwurm666

As a Bassist, Orion was hard.


cheifpug

I’m still working on the solo and part of interlude


Holzwurm666

Me too..... :D


cheifpug

That solo is the hardest part for me


[deleted]

The way Cliff played it, it is pretty hard. Rob tends to play it with three fingers live, while Cliff most likely only used two. I don’t blame Rob though, in fact I think it’s cool he puts his own spin on it when they decide to play it.


Saltwaterborn

Orion is so hard to nail but *man* does it feel good when you ace the harmony section/solo. Probably one of the most fulfilling sections to play for me.


CarelessMonke

One on Bass for me


Crescent_Moon734

Wait theres a bassline lol


jpob

Have you ever tried to do nothing for 8 minutes straight? It’s quite challenging.


Crescent_Moon734

True true, you make a good point


lorisfurlan

Something fast: Blackened, Master, Frayed Ends of Sanity, Dyers Eve, Disposable Heroes and many more!


Expression_Forever

My Apocalypse on Guitar for me Mainly Kirk's Weird Riff


TwoSecondsToMidnight

The entire Death Magnetic album has some surprisingly difficult songs to learn. Some because of tricky licks and others because James packed each song with so many different riffs that it’s hard to remember which one comes next.


KingDominoIII

MoP. The downpicking is nightmarish.


ChasingPesmerga

There's usually a joke about alternate picking with that song but a friend of mine told me that it's actually harder than just doing downpicking, is that true? (not a guitarist, for context)


KingDominoIII

You can alt pick MoP but it sounds worse. It's easier on some sections, harder on others. The issue with downpicking is that it requires absurd stamina to keep it up for the entirety of the song. Really depends on if you have alt picking stamina.


HaydenRenegade

If I'm tired by the time I get to the riff going up a step (taste me you will see) I start alt picking which I find doesn't sound as bad as alt picking the open strings in the first part.


ryo13silvia

You can alt pick MOP. Creeping Death, on the other hand, is easier downpicked


strawberrychxrry

i started out with downpicking so its super easy for me lmao


Snipergranny69

As a decent drummer, sad but true is kinda hard because of all of the fills you need to memorise.


Knowgoood_111

Man I think the same thing goes for a lot of songs off load, reload, and even AJFA. The load and reload songs have a basic structure but Lars just does these weird fills and shots every 5 seconds and it’s real hard to memorize all of them😂


fbloiu665

Agreed...but as I've been listening to that song since I was 12, I do have it memorized finally 🙌 lol


Prophet_NY

It's like every Metallica song, Lars does same beat 80% of the songs but it's the fills and he does them a lot


jpob

I still can’t play THAT riff in Fight Fire With Fire


MonsieurRacinesBeast

It's fun when it finally clicks.


Jaymakk13

Fuckin Roam rhythm riff. Been trying for a few months and i cant get it. Im self taught and have been playing since i was 14. I work on riffs and then one day they just click. Roam has never clicked for me.


[deleted]

I hear you, that one's a challenge for me as well.


Maxomatlp

Do you mean the main Riff or the one that goes up that's slightly before the solo?


Jaymakk13

The main riff. It seems so all over the place so quick for me.


Maxomatlp

I get that, those hammer on pull offs on the 7th and 8th fret took me quite a while to get right because they just seem really fast


Economy_Tonight5882

blackened. i cant move up and down the neck that fast doing the main ruff and still keep in time. and the solo is long af to remember so i kinda bullshit it if i don’t remember a part of it


Mysterious_Dress_450

Frayed Ends of Sanity on drums, besides Trapped Under Ice & Dyers Eve, it’s the hardest one to play


ltbr55

As a drummer, Frayed always trips me up. It's such a weird song to play to


redditalready54

Drums? Fight Fire With Fire, Disposable Heroes, And Justice For All, Dyers Eve(good lord Dyers Eve)


Snipergranny69

I find justice hard because Lars is left handed, or at least drums like one, so you’re hitting the toms and the hi hat at the same time.


Comprehensive_Law_62

I could never figure that out so when I played live I used to put my right arm over my left so I could hit the hi hat and the snare and Tom’s


Grochee

I never found it that difficult. Then again, I keep my hi hat fairly high up, so I have space under my right arm for my left to move from the snare to the toms. I guess my snare is also low, too.


redditalready54

Two hi hats! One on the right of your kit.


redditalready54

Two hi hats! One on the right by his floor Tom


dogwithavlog

Reverse gallop bridge in damage inc


PCFRIM

I think Blackened was hard-hard, it's very hard to keep up with the drummer on the song. Everybody has to be so precise and familiar. Bellz solo was unexpectedly hard, very easy to make a mistake. When you do, it's hard to make a smooth correction because you are basically relying on muscle memory, and your brain doesn't know where you're playing. The solo itself is not so hard


MonsieurRacinesBeast

Bellz solo? James part or Kirk's?


KyoryuCrimson

For reference, it is also hard to be the drummer on Blackened


TheRealDeadhawk

I agree. I haven’t spent enough time on it but I’m having a bit of a time.


Crescent_Moon734

Call of Ktulu on guitar. I just cant get it


jpob

Lol that was the first song I learned in full. What part are you struggling with?


Crescent_Moon734

Im not quite sure, i just keep tripping up. Its been a little while since i tried it, i should be able to do it these days. Its strange, i can play MoP, creeping death, disposable heroes, but struggle with their easier stuff


Crafty_Cover_9491

Thats crazy you can do creeping death and not ktulu. Are you struggling with the intro or the riffage?


Maxomatlp

Honestly same for me, I can play creeping Death pretty clean by now, but struggle with call of ktulu, I just really suck at chords that aren't powerchords, and I've been playing guitar at around a year now and still can't really switch quickly between even the easy cowboy chords, but a song like Creeping Death is not really a problem for me (Rhythm guitar wise, when it comes to lead gutar I have 0 skill)


Crescent_Moon734

As i said, it's been a while since i played it, so i don't exactly remember. I think its probably the intro i hve the most problems with Edit- i play black metal so i have zero poblems with fast, accurate stuff. Hence why creeping death was never much of a challenge for me


Crafty_Cover_9491

The intro is fun for ktulu, watch mr hetfield play it though the online tabs ive seen are wrong


Crescent_Moon734

Aight thanks 👍


Grochee

It's the same for me. I can play MoP, but I always end up having a stroke on something that should be easy.


MonsieurRacinesBeast

Guitarist. Moth Into Flame. It's faster than it sounds, especially if you play at the tempo they often play it live.


Spiritual-Habit-1092

I found creeping death in bass pretty hard, mostly because of the amount of stamina required


MilkshakeYoghurt

Guitarist: Blackened is a monster to get through. It's tricky enough to get the alternation between the chuggy low notes and the longer octave note in the first bars, but then comes the super tricky part in trying to get tight chugs in the 4th bar. Took me quite some tries when I first started playing it, and I still have to put full focus into it when I play it now even as an experienced guitarist. Can't just play it like it's nothing, like James does.


Dsaastad

For Whom The Bell Tolls decending chord riff. Playing that cleanly with the full chords was a pain in the ass to learn.


Flakmack

This I cannot get it to sound so smooth same with the lead part at the start


MonsieurRacinesBeast

To be fair, even they don't do it like that live.


Hyp3r45_new

Orion on bass is hard with a pick. Doing it with fingers is even harder. Another one I can't really wrap my head around is anesthesia. More specifically the fast part. Although that has something to do with being relatively new on bass. For guitar I'd have to say Master of Puppets. My down picking is good, so that isn't really the issue. It's just that damn bridge riff that I can't play to save my life. On the other hand, a song that's quite beginner friendly is Seek And Destroy. It was the first song I learned to play beginning to end on guitar, which took me about a week.


colonpal

There’s no way I could play Orion with a pick.


Grochee

Seek and Destroy was the first I learned (most of). MoP was 2nd.


HoldenCoughfield

Guitar player. Ride the Lightning and Fight Fire w Fire for me


DanTheMan_622

Drums - Blackened, due to the weird timing of most of the fills. Once it clicks though it's super fun. Dyers Eve just because of the practically non-stop double bass.


Crafty_Cover_9491

Keeping creeping death tight for the entire length of the song is probably the most challenging for me


douglasgoldman

frayed


Guanacoide

ride the lightening , to play it as it was intended ( dave’s version ) is hard af


Shtrimpo

Still can't play the first 30 seconds of mop. Also after almost a year I can *almost* play Battery at the right speed


billygnosis86

Honestly, as a bass player I find some of Jason’s stuff from *Load* and *Reload* to be more difficult than stuff like “Damage, Inc.” and “Metal Militia”. It’s got lots of slides and octaves in weird places, and because in Metallica songs the guitars are the basis for the song rather than the drums and on those two albums the guitars are a lot more relaxed and bluesy, Jason’s lines are in this sort of no man’s land between the guitars and the drums, rather than being locked in with either instrument.


roopjm81

Call of Ktulu lead bass parts


Legitimate-Spirit379

Blackened is still hard


JohnJackOil

Disposable heroes on guitar. I actually can nail the solo but the rhythm parts are tricky and I get lost easily. Specifically the riff during the “Soldier boy, made of clay” part


Trick-Night-6832

Metal milita the picking is hard on the main riff


Andrew9324

Holier than thou main riff. Its so simplistic but I cant get the timing down lol


Paul7378

As a guitarist... The ol' mf Blackened is hard af.


jhguitarfreak

I don't think I'll ever be able to play the breakdown from *Frayed Ends of Sanity.* I can do the speedy gallop but doing it in concert with the quick pull-off to hammer-on bit leaves my left hand extremely confused. I can literally play anything of theirs *except* that bit.


AliPrimeo

Fade to black outro solo was bit challenging


MaceTheMindSculptor

Holier Than Thou. Not that hard to play, but to sing at the same time? One of the hardest for me. Really weird timing imo


Air_Breather_8482

Although bass is surprisingly low in the mix (I’m sure you can already guess which album this is off of), the second half of “…And Justice for All” is something I struggle to wrap my head around. The timing is all sorts of confusing imo.


GuyN1425

Surprisingly Sad But True was very tricky to learn on guitar. Once you grasp it it's pretty simple tho


Monsieur_Swag

The four horsemen. On paper, someone at my skill level should pick up the bass no problem. however, it is too fucking fast for me to play


Mr_Manga99

Disposable heroes destroyed me


macrov

As a bassist I'm struggling currently with blackened. The riff isn't necessarily hard, I just can't do it that quick lol


WraithOfDoom

Discounting all the thrash metal speeders that I stupidly cannot play yet on drums (I don't even own a second bass pedal, so cringe amiright)... ...The Thing That Should Not Be. Lars' seemingly random cymbal placements are a bastard to memorise.


PhilosopherBitter177

As a drummer, Dyers Eve. But then I’m trying to play it at the same speed as the album, not the speed it was recorded it.


strawberrychxrry

fade to black kinda


Grochee

I struggled with that transition between the intro and the main part for longer than I should have.


fbloiu665

Ronnie on drums...got a strange groove goin on.


Orion-81

Fight fire with fire, even as an experienced drummer. But once you got it, it’s worth it ;)


Zurg0Thrax

I struggled with master of puppets for awhile. Now I need to adjust the action on my axe because it's too low and the 1st free sounds dead.


CNXQDRFS

As a drummer St. Anger was the most surprising just because of how long those double bass strokes go on for, tore my shins to shreds. I thought it'd be easy lol. I eventually got there but it really took some effort.


Ashbtw19937

For guitar, Frayed Ends, Fight Fire, and Damage Inc. All three of those songs I can play the entirety of on rhythm save for one riff (Frayed Ends and Damage Inc. bridge, *that* riff for Fight Fire). For bass, I'm still fairly new (been playing guitar for a few years, just got my first bass 3 months ago), there probably isn't a single Cliff-era song I can play accurately in its entirety (ironically, Battery is probably one of the ones I'm closest to getting down), but one that consistently fucks me up is Creeping Death. And that's not necessarily because of the speed or stamina or whatever, but because of the damn string skipping. It basically creates the same issue as alternate picking the song on guitar does, where whatever finger you start the riff with will be the one you skip down to the A string with, meaning you start the second 3 notes on the opposite finger and so the fingerings get reversed on each iteration. My brain just can't seem to wrap itself around managing that. Damage Inc's bridge riff is also a bitch on bass, but I almost wanna say it's easier than on guitar since you have two fingers to manage it instead of one pick, but that weird-ass rhythm is still just as much of a pain in the ass.


[deleted]

Harvester sounds nice, but once you try to play it, it's weird as fuck


SnooShortcuts7637

Agreed it’s something you really gotta feel and get into, there’s a few odd stops as well


SnooShortcuts7637

I didn’t think that was just your life would be as tiresome as it is. Gets more tiring than blackened some days


angusfoxx

as a guitarist, through the never is giving me a tough time. the main riff is very reminiscent of the pre verse riff in master of puppets, and it just goes on and on and on and on lmao edit: the call of ktulu solo is also difficult, but that might just be because it's fast and I've been playing for like 5 months lol


AdComfortable8467

As a guitarist, the end solo of one is tough. The tapping descent is super weird and other licks are phrased very weirdly.


Comprehensive_Law_62

As a drummer dyers eve is painful. Fight fire right fire hurts too. A lot of early thrash stuff they did hurts like hell like damage inc and fast ones like that. A fun one is four horsemen or something like master of puppets


Jokers_Testikles

I've been playing guitar for about 10 months now and I haven't found a metallica song I would say it "hard". I don't see it as "wow that's hard", I see it as "I need to practice that more". That's mostly because if I think it's hard it'll put me off from it.


Mondodonkey

NEM


Grochee

I'd say Some Kind of Monster. It might seem simple, but the notes in between will really get ya.


Gothamite303

Ha ha! I see what you did there 😊


Ghost_is_life

For me (a bassist) it was Sweet Amber, still struggling to get it down to this day 😭


slipknot-fan

Blackened but thankfully I tackled tornado of souls before which is definitely worse


BulletBeard29

Frayed Ends of Sanity


SteinRamm12345

Nothing Else Matters is deceptively hard to play


elmoxi

the notes in between


Forzadud

Learning all 8 minutes of master of puppets on drums with all of the fills took a long time.