In this lesson, Nate Richards shows you how to play Holy Wars verse riff on guitar. Complete song tabs linked below:
Holy Wars Complete Guitar Tabs
Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, David Ellefson, Nick Menza – Wow, what a lineup! In Megadeth’s 1990 classic, and in my opinion the greatest thrash metal album of all time, Rust in Peace, the opening track “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due” is a blistering masterpiece of thrash, incredible transitions, smooth tempo changes, and unbelievable guitar work in both rhythm and lead realms.
The Onion completely nails it (with satire and humor) in this article. Hilarious because it’s truth! Haha
Nate shows you the intricacies of Dave Mustaine’s Holy Wars verse guitar riff, which is a long, melodically driven, rhythmically punishing, and harmonically rich composition. A pure guitar tour de force, the energy built from the right-out-of-the-gate, show-no-mercy intro section of blistering guitars, bass, and drums propels the audience directly in to the verse via a beautifully seamless transition.
We plan to release a complete lesson series containing detailed instruction on all rhythm guitar parts and all lead guitar parts for Holy Wars… The Punishment Due so stay tuned and stick around!
If you haven’t yet listened to this album in it’s entirety, you owe it to yourself to do so. I have it on vinyl, which has brought me the joy and bliss of experiencing this magnum opus in hi-fidelity sound, as well as spending time viewing and reading the original jacket and inserts. Whichever format you listen – it could be an old cassette tape, for crying out loud – the following track listing will blow your mind right out of your skull:

SIDE ONE:
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
SIDE TWO:
Poison Was the Cure
Lucretia
Tornado of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust in Peace… Polaris