One of the coolest things about contemporary metal is that its harmonic palette is wide open. It’s not uncommon for a great metal riff to jump back and forth from one type of harmonic environment to another, such as from the natural minor scale to the Phrygian mode to the Mixolydian mode to the blues scale.




Countless examples abound in the music of such great bands as Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, At the Gates, In Flames and others.


This month, I’d like to demonstrate a few different examples of rhythm-guitar ideas that jump around harmonically and also feature the incorporation of suspended chords, namely sus2 and sus4 chords.