Editorials
Top 25 Guitar Riffs That Make You NEED To Headbang: 25-21
I’m a guitarist and have been playing for over 14 years now. So when I hear a guitar riff that makes me want to snap my neck whilst headbanging, it’s a special moment for me. So I decided that I wanted to share my Top 25 Guitar Riffs That Make You NEED To Headbang. Keep in mind that these are guitar RIFFS and not SONGS. I’m going to put down the album and the exact time that the riff I’m thinking of comes in.
Another theme you’ll notice running through this list is the idea of the “build up”. You see, for me, a headbang worthy guitar riff rarely comes at you straight off the bat. Instead, the music builds and builds until that crushing moment when you can’t help but throw you head back and forth, straining the very tendons and ligaments that keep you whole.
So join me below as I begin a full week of guitar riffs that will make you headbang like a madman!
25
Tenacious D – “Master Exploder”
Album: The Pick Of Destiny Soundtrack
Start of the riff: 1:13
Starting off with a fast-paced acoustic guitar and some blues soloing, this doesn’t seem like the type of song to make one headbang. Suddenly, 1:13 into the song, after a big drum fill, electric guitars, bass, and drums all coalesce together to create one helluva guitar passage that simply rocks. No, correction. It simply RAWKS! Tenacious D is a master at exploding my spine!
24
Sepultura – “Ratamahatta”
Album: Roots
Start of the riff: 0:34
Tribal drums? Yeah, that’s always a good sign on my end. Toss in some ethnic drums and I’m ready to throw myself about like I’m in my own mosh pit. Throw in Max Cavalera’s frantic “OI!”s and this is a riff that has me seeing red.
23
Rob Zombie – “Demonoid Phenomenon”
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe
Start of the riff: 0:22
The perfect intro for any horror fan, this song immediately throws itself into the realm of heavy with blistering staccato guitar chugging. However, the riff 0:22 seconds in is all the more intense because of how open it is. Four sustained chords that are just undeniably evil, this is a moment that inspires the most Satanic of headbanging.
22
Symphony X – “Wicked”
Album: The Odyssey
Start of the riff: 0:05
It’s the simple drums here that make this guitar riff so damn effective. Sticking to the modern rock beat, the guitars have full opportunity to shine with a syncopated riff that is just so damn deliciously heavy and groovy. This song comes on and I feel like I need to strut throughout town like a totally badass.
21
Deadlock – “Virus Jones”
Album: Bizarro World
Start of the riff: 0:16
Sometimes it’s not what the guitar does that makes a riff so heavy and catchy but the open spaces in between the notes that cause such chaos in the mosh pit. This is a perfect example of one such riff.
Tune in tomorrow for riffs 20-16!
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The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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