Introduction
The "Riff Playbooks" column is designed to make you a better player. By gleaning some insight into the technique, composition, and execution of these fine riffs by fine SH artists, you are bound to make headway in your own playing. We cordially invite you to steal a page from our books in order to expand your own diabolical playbook of musical wizardry (not literally though, the books are expensive to create).
Posted — June 16, 2021
Revocation’s Dave Davidson is back for another instalment of Riff Playbooks! This time with a dual guitar look at a particularly wild section of the song Chaos Of Forms, from the book of the same title. This is a great example of Dave’s approach to orchestration. In a mere 10 seconds, Dave goes from a fully harmonized riff, to a quick rhythm and lead split (featuring a fantastically dissonant scale run), and finally into some sinister chords, which are doubled, achieving full punchiness and heaviness. This section could have been harmonized or doubled the entire time, but the back and forth between options gives the section much more character and momentum than either approach would have on its own. When it comes to Revocation’s guitar work, it’s clear that no short cuts are taken and no stone is left unturned. Grab the FREE tab here (download pack contains PDF + GP7 files!)
Here's a little insight from Dave himself on the passage & "Chaos Of Forms" at large:
"On Chaos Of Forms I really wanted to push the boundaries of extreme metal. Growing up I was a total disciple of progessive death metal bands like Martyr and Extol so the title track was my attempt to pay homage to them. I wanted this song to take the listener on a journey through several moods ranging from brutal intensity to ethereal serenity. The intro is definitely some of the wildest stuff I've written for Revo, so I thought this would be an interesting section to highlight. In the 8 bars featured in this example, the riffs move through a couple of different time signatures at a rapid pace, the two guitars frantically interact, creating some very bizarre counterpoint and dissonant chord voicings along the way. I hope you find this section to be a fun challenge, but most importantly, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired!"
If you'd like to learn some more about Dave's metal guitar mastery, check out "Chaos Of Forms - The Complete Guitar Transcription", or any other of Revocation's fantastic books at their artist page right here.
