Hardest Metallica Songs to Play
No matter what instrument you play. just choose the one that really makes you sweat.
Dude, the riff is insane. Fight fire with fire is simple. I actually know how to play fight fire with fire, battery, master and dyers eve, in fact I know the whole list all the way to blackened. My list would be this (easiest to hardest) Fight fire with fire, one, master, battery, blackened, then dyers eve. The rest of the top 10 I don't know. But as someone who knows all these, dyers eve is insane.
The riffs are fast and difficult, but what really makes this song the hardest are all fills and flourishes, plus the fact that it includes tons of time signature changes thrown in all over the place and all the subtle variations on the main riffs throughout the song that have to be timed perfectly due to the speed. Amazing how tight and fluid James and Kirk make it sound...
How is Battery harder than Dyers Eve? Comparing the two, it's very easy to play Battery cause most of it just seems like Open E Palm-muted Triplets and the same Power Chords being played over and over again. Whereas Dyers Eve has an alternate picking between 2fr and 3fr on the A string and a BIG mix of Power Chords and wacky stops here and there in the riffs. Dyers Eve seems like it has WAY more ingredients than Battery.
After playing stuff like Annihilator, Megadeth or Death Metallica's feels like a joke. However there are songs that aren't as easy on hands such as this one. The solo is one of Kirk's hardest (he's still Kirk so easy as pie), the riffs have many different rhythmic patterns that can confuse you and it's one of Metallica's fastest songs.
by the way, MOP hard? LOL
The only reason I'm throwing in Blackened is because the intro riff around 30 seconds. Reason being, the timing and getting the palm mutes in between the 7th/8th on the A are a total bitch to get down.
I can play almost the songs here (on Rhythm, solos for some) I personally think Blackened should top this list. The downpicking and the solo are absolutely insane!
Blackened has the most difficult riff. It's timing is very odd and the riff is fast and complicated.
Easy song to graps and learn.
However, the song itself is lightning fast with down picks and relentless back to back riffs.
Dyers Eve may be hard, but Battery is just… Battery. It has an incredibly difficult riff thanks to triplets at high speeds, and let's not even talk about the solo(s). You have to hit the triplets perfectly for it to sound right, and setting the tone can be a bit difficult (scooped far more than any other Metallica song, and ultra tight). If you miss a triplet, it'll sound wrong. Triplets are difficult enough at regular speeds, but add in a BPM over 200 and you have a recipe for disaster. And that's just playing it. Trying to even mumble the lyrics is insane, let alone actually singing them.
If I told you that you had to play battery or dyers Eve perfectly for 1 million which would you pick? I would pick battery in a heartbeat. I've tried dyers eve at least a thousand times and hit it only twice. Battery hundreds of times.
Mad song, cannot comprehend how the picking pattern is so quick. When I do it, I feel as though I am relatively quick (coming from someone who's been playing for 1.5 years), yet this just blows me out of the park.
It's so hard because of the speed throughout the song, the amount of triplets being downpiked by James Hetfield is incredible, and then there's the guitar solo!
This may be a generic pick but I can play all of the other ones in the top ten, in this one I can't barely even play the intro, there's so many damn changes you wouldn't even notice, and the first solo is a lot harder than you might think
It's too easy, I covered this as my first song on electric guitar while everyone's first song is smoke on the water. I'm not trying to show off because I'm not that good but this song isn't really that hard or complex.
Yeah, all these people saying they can bail this every time. See, they're all alternate picking. To really play MoP, you can only downpick. So stop talking about how great you are, there's probably only two people on this entire website who can downpick this.
I can only do the first riff while sitting, play it while standing is the hardest thing for me so I get my leg up the amp so I can play it right, if not it just sounds like crap
I heard that a person had a interview with Kirk and he said what is the hardest song for you to do he Fight Fire With Fire it is one of the fastest. Quickest best solos Metallica has done. Then he asked Kirk what is the hardest to remember answer Fight Fire With Fire. Last question which comes out of your heart answer Fade To Black... And Justice For All One Master Of Puppets thank god for Cliff
How did One or Fade To Black get on here? I guess the solos are semi-hard, but seriously. But Master of Puppets is kinda hard, but this is SO much harder.
Guitarist of 6 months here to say that this song really isn't that difficult compared to other songs on this list. The main difference is very manageable and is just basic bar chords and the ryhthm isn't complicated at all. It's just chugga chugga DUH chugga chugga DUH chugga DUH DUH DUH.
this song is insane on the bass guitar. All the riffs on there are so amazing that it's scary. I don't imagine how Cliff does it
This song and Battery are the hardest for right-hand! For Master of Puppets I can cheat down-picking sometime with alternate picking, but for this one there's no way out than playing the triplets!
There are a few parts that just are to fast for my brain to even understand what frets to use (I've only played guitar for maybe a year so it might be easy for other people)
The only tricky part about this song (other than the insanely good solos that could give master of puppets a run for its money) is purely having the stamina to continuously switch between the alternating/galloping riff and the verse riff and any down picking. The riffs themselves aren’t hard, it’s a matter of how long you can last
Dyers Eve is probably the hardest but singing along this or Battery is quite tough. Still, my vote goes to Heroes as it doesn't get enough love.
This song is all over the place and the timing gets pretty hard plus this is one of their hardest and best solos of their career in my opinion it is just simply hard especially to play and sing.
Most of it is easy for me but there's a spot where it feels like all hell breaks loose
This song's solo makes me glad I play rhythm... enough said.
The solo is so hard at the end but is so nice
Just go listen to the riff under the solo. Yeah.. this one is full of riffs with weird rhythms and changes. I can assure you that you will mess up only 30 seconds in, the riff before the verse goes on for longer than you think, the sudden stops, tempo and rhythm changes...easily Metallica's hardest song. Not the hardest solo nor riffs, but the most difficult timing wise.
Progressive song, compass changes, with many and different riffs!
So many different riffs!
I can play this riff and for my age, you might thinks this is not real for this age, but I play this riff, one of my favorites but no one that I've met, can touch the solo, maybe not even the rhythm but I can, but when I started a few months ago, I could not do this, this One (pun intended) is one that you need to wait to start, oh, and I'm a beginner so this one takes the cake.
Generic pick maybe, but this is harder than you might think, there's lots of changes, it's hard not to mess up on the verse riff, and there's three fairly difficult solos
Very good I only know the intro but I can not find a slower video for the solo and how old were you when you did this
It was my first song what I learned on guitar :D It took 4 months because I had no idea about guitars :D Great song to practise and learn a bounch of techniques!
This would certainly be one of Metallica's fastest songs, I don't know how to play it, but I know that most of the riffs are about as fast as Slayer
Fast and relentless. Is one of the hardest riff wise.
Not their hardest song (everything before the solo is actually relatively easy for me) but that solo man. It doesn't sound too hard but the timing is actually really weird to get down right!
This song is fast and the rhythms are pretty difficult too in the verse
This is the only song I cannot do on expert.
This song is so fast really hard to play
So let it be down-picked. So let it be done. I've tried to down-pick this whole song. So let it be down-picked. So let it be done. To kill your entire entire hand. It's creeping death!
This song is very fun to play but the down picking is no joke. If you want to learn a fun song and spend hours destroying your hand, this song is for you.
Dyers Eve is still the hardest however Creeping Death should definitely Ben in the top 10 that's why I voted it
Everyone knows which riff I am talking about those who alternate pick find it easy but try to downpick it!
This was the first song I learned on a guitar, great song to practice, but the solo's are so hard en you need to play them super fast to let it sound like kirk does it and yeah that's a tough job
It sounds really easy, but I can't get the verse right for some reason. It's not their hardest song, though.
The solo's so tough!
this song is pretty hard and when it gets to the solo its deathly difficult... and btw the one solo really isn't that difficult all it is is a line of hammer ons and pulls offs
Why is this not number one? The solo is nearly impossible and the riff just before it is LUDICROUSLY difficult, Dyers Eve solo still isn't harder than this one.
Took me a while to get the rhythm, its funny, once you learn the picking pattern, the song gets considerably easier.
This is hard I don't understand any of it I can play all the way through but God it's some hard stuff
I think this should be at least for the top ten for the sheer size of the song alone, some of the riffs are easy but it's still a difficult song for an expert player to master.
Main reason. It's A LONG SONg
Well well well, don't you dare call me a prodigy, but I am 5 months in to my guitar playing journey, I got me a bass the other day and I just looked at thr bass tab and I can play all the hard bass parts but the thing is I play with a pick maybe its hard to play with fingers
To get this thing right with your bass guitar you must be a master not only with your playing skills but also with distortion and wah, Cliff Burton's stuff isn't a joke
Solo seems pretty hard. Also hard to play on bass.
How could you forget about the bassist Bruce Dickinson? Also the voice of the vocalist Steve Harris is high pitched this time.
I don't know how Kerry King can play this. Hands down hardest Anthrax song
Same about david ellefson on drums and lil wayne on guitar. best anthrax song covered by nickelback
This is the hardest riff I have ever played in my life. Battery, Dyers Eve, Fight Fire, and Damage Inc. have nothing on this song! Too fast, too complex, not musical enough, way too technical... Nothing Else Matters should totally be number one
Come on, this is by far the easiest song of metallica, this shouldn't be even in this top
Its hard to play and even harder to sing while playing it. If you are trying to down pick the whole song get ready to have cramps for the rest of your life.
Seriously seven minutes of riff variation and wah. Not for the faint of heart.
The bridge though. I got it down once and couldn't do it again. Hard-ass song to play solo-wise.
To the person who said the solo makes you want to die, which one?
Very had song on guitar, not to mention bass.
Dude, the solo... it makes me want to die
Yeah this is BY FAR the hardest Metallica song to play
Absolutely, it's the hardest song I've ever seen
Hardest metal song ever in my opinion
Why is Trapped Under Ice so far back? Sure the rhythms might not be too difficult but the solos are blazing fast!
I can not beat this song. I can do every GHM song on expert except this one. It's the SOLO. I am at 10 years old and I've compete in several Semi-Finals Guitar Hero tournaments
That riff is very hard