OK folks, here it is – the ULTIMATE Slayer Raining Blood Guitar Tutorial! I have a complete guitar tab linked above, so get ready to pummel your guitar with blistering, searing, screaming, crushing guitar riffs!
When Slayer released their thrash metal masterpiece album Reign in Blood in 1986, some called it “the loudest album ever made.” Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. What I do know is that this album influenced the next several decades of thrash and metal genres. The “bookend” songs Angel of Death and Raining Blood opened and closed this album with crushing force, ferocity, and speed. Tom Araya delivered an intense vocal performance, Dave Lombardo punishing drum tracks, and Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman blistering guitar riffs and screaming guitar solos in a barrage of thrash metal that only lasted 28:58 (original release).
Here are some tips:
- Warm up your pick hand gently, and slowly work up relaxed speed. Don’t play this song the moment you pick up your guitar. You’ll be shot in 3 minutes. Practice? Over. Do some easy picking exercises, light scale work, maybe an easy power chord song. But attack the strings gently, and take it easy.
- Bend your thumb knuckle on your pick hand. This will turn the pick at an angle, and limit resistance when attacking the string. Basically, the angle will help the pick “slide” off of the string, rather than having to power through it at a flat-attack angle.
- Use only the very tip of the pick. “Scrape” the top of the string. Again, the more pick hits the string, the more resistance, the more tension. the less speed. We’re going super-fast here people! Think of if like scraping the very tip of the pick on the top part of the string, just barely hitting it. The ferocity of the music will bring out the intensity more than enough – don’t make it harder by trying to overdo your pick attacks.
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