Victory
-Victory is a continuous punisher. The main riff I wrote while fucken around with Metallica's song, "Creeping Death." I am a huge fan of downpicking as I feel it really gives a pummeling effect to a song. The (next) verse riff was written with some heavy influences from Amon Amarth at the time. Amon is the pinnacle of death metal tremelo riffing/double bass synchronicity. This gives a very groove-laced effect that allows vocals to soar like an eagle over a stready and powerful undercurrent of guitar/drums. The soft bridge was written with influences from Tool and Faith No More (specifically the FNM song, "The Real Thing").
Enlightened Path
-Anytime you hear triplet picking technique in a mechanization song understand that Slayer is a huge influence on me. The verse riff of this song is a good example of this. The intro and the chorus I must claim as completely devoid of another artist's influence (outside of the fact that in some way everything I do is influenced by something engrained in my unconscious probably). The bridge riff is my weak attempt at some off-time structure stuff. Of course with my very organic and fast-n-loose style of guitar playing it turned out to be completely on time. I was thinking of a section in The Project Hate's song "Burn" off their Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate album in which the drums keep a very solid beat while the rhythm guitars just lay down a punishingly unusual groove. Oh well, I dig what ended up on their. Chalk up the clean intro and bridge parts to Opeth. I was just trying to convey a creepy "in the woods" feel, not using common chords but weird minors and such.
Broken Code
-HELLO SLAYER AGAIN. The main riff and verse riff are almost completely attributable to the fact that I played (and continue to play) Slayer's "Seasons in the Abyss" album constantly. I just love fast palm muted riffs. Throw in a little fancy fret work and you got the verse riff. The chorus was written with the intent to slow the madness down to a good wall of sound type of thing. Interestingly enough the first two chords played in the chorus of this song are the same as those from Biohazards "Black and White and Red all over." Who knows why the hell I would start playing that song while trying to write Broken Code, but there ya go.
Elixir of the Warrior
-If there was one song I could point to on this album where the main riff came from a "void" this would be it. This riff was old as fuck before we formulated it into what you hear today. It is without a doubt one of the strongest riffs on the album (of course, due to the drum pattern around it). The goal in writing riffs for this song was to keep it goin. KEEP IT GOIN, MAN! The bridge riff thingy is a 'hats off' to pantera, in particular the song "floods." Unless you're a guitar player you wouldn't know it, but the bridge riff chord/fingering is the same as the end of that pantera song.
Release
-Well I guess this is the feeble attempt at something acoustic and melodic, eh? The riff is the fucked up spawn of something I just happened to play in a rehearsal space once when terrorence and I were graced by a very special guest on drums: Jesus Christ himself. One of the two clean parts of this song comes from the Guns n' roses song, "The Garden". The pre-chorus of that G'n'R song holds the same chords as what I play on this song, however they are played completely different. Then the heavy metal kicks in on this song. The first heavy riff is nothing but a direct worshipping of Metallica's "One." You will know the part. The rest of the song sounds MUCH heavier now thank Christ to Terrorence's recent vocal changes. The solo at the end of this song is fairly pathetic I must say, but it holds a special place in my heart. That solo is what you get after a lot of beers and a yearning to pretend that you can play lead guitar well.
Metal Skull
-Very basic guitars on this song because quite simply that is all that is needed. However the main/chorus riff has all kinds of funky chords on it. I think they're called "diminished chords" or something but that hardly matters. The point is I was aiming for something simplistic, consistent, and heavy in order to provide the space necessary for the BEST vocal arrangements on the entire album. We were trying to get "tricky" in the studio with weird numbers of chords at times of this song, but again I think it's something we'll look back on a few albums down the road and laugh at our novice nature. Or at least my own when it comes to guitar. Less is more.
Stated Principal
-This song will forever be in my mind as the one where Lord K commented about the main riff, "This riff is so cheesy you should work in a cheese factory." I love that guy and his honesty and I can't say I disagree, it's very simplistic and straightforward. However I think it's now morphed into a bit of a monster given the arrangements that follow it along with the vocal delivery. In Flames "Worlds between the Margins" was quite influential to me when writing the segue into the middle section of the song. This song is hacked up into so many guitar parts I loose track at times. There are riffs in the middle of this song that were written back in the early 90's playing in a friend's garage. For some reason a few of those just never left me. I considered it an honor to resurrect these riffs into this song. The end was influenced by some kinda black-metal riff that I had just heard the day before. Why not? Mechanization knows no bounds.
Contract
-What can I say about contract that I can't say about my own penis? I love it. Hands-down the most fun I'll have playing a song on this album. I absolutely love the riffs on this track. From the intro attention getter to the battering chorus (heavily slayer influenced there – song "Payback" from God Hates us All). The verse riff is perhaps a personal fave simply because I worked an artificial harmonic into it. This alone will keep me on my toes and demand that I keep my practice up. The song is just so thrash that I feel I'm in the back-alley of CBGB's in 1985 or something. Add the galloping ending riff and you got yourself a beautiful little metal tune.
Thanks for reading,
HMT