Favorite underrated riffs from the 80s/early 90s?

I kinda cut guitar teeth on 80s metal, but much of the stuff I used to like, I cant stand anymore.
Ive actually found stuff very recently from back then that Im floored by. But you never heard of it back then.

Ok, Testament wasnt obscure, & they had some well deserved recognition, like Disciples... great riff. But the 1st album wasnt very recognized & The Haunting was a great song with a great riff with great harmonies & a great evolution.... Its just too bad their production was so poor back then.



Exhorders Slaughter in the Vatican album had so much epic brutal riffage that was ahead of its time, that its hard to pinpoint one riff... the whole damn album makes me hard. Tragic Period, Desecrator, Slaughter are all chock full of great, fast, bludgeoning riffs.. Its too bad the production wasnt better. So many 80s guitars sounded like they used cheese graters for speakers.




Ahh... Terrorizer was amazing.. Fear of napalm had some great riffage..
 
Purpleibby":pijst3nz said:
How many awesome riffs can you have in one song? You could just take the entire Coroner albums No More Color and Mental Vortex and be through lol:
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I was never much of a fan of Mental Vortex, but I'm right there with ya on No More Color. An absolute riffsterpiece! Die By My Hand absolutely crushes.
 
cool topic but from my POV if you want to reach a wider audience edited it down without all the talk and just the riffs as most people, myself will not watch a 7 and a half minute clip
 
Purpleibby":1luxwsl1 said:
oldmtlhed":1luxwsl1 said:
Since when is Paul Gilbert or Megadeth "underrated"?


\:D/
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These days, all of them are underrated/underappreciated...
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Underrated RIFFS, not the player is how I took this thread to be about.
No one in their right mind would say Gilbert is underrated. He's one of the best ever.
But, as ibby pointed out maybe under appreciated.
 
Racerxrated":2hamsjzq said:
Purpleibby":2hamsjzq said:
oldmtlhed":2hamsjzq said:
Since when is Paul Gilbert or Megadeth "underrated"?


\:D/
Click to expand...
These days, all of them are underrated/underappreciated...
Click to expand...
Underrated RIFFS, not the player is how I took this thread to be about.
No one in their right mind would say Gilbert is underrated. He's one of the best ever.
But, as ibby pointed out maybe under appreciated.
Click to expand...

yep, strictly talking about riffs here
 
Shawn Lutz":3nelda1v said:
cool topic but from my POV if you want to reach a wider audience edited it down without all the talk and just the riffs as most people, myself will not watch a 7 and a half minute clip
Click to expand...
thanks for the suggestion but to me it makes more sense to give some sort of explanation before showing the riff. I'm aware people have an attention span of like 10 seconds nowadays but I prefer to do it my way :)
 
I read the thread title and H. H. Boogie was actually one I thought of before I watched the video, love that song. Same with It's Showtime, that and Drop in the Bucket off that album are just killer.

The riff from Drop in the Bucket he plays around 23 seconds in here with the big stretch (you can see/hear it real well here when played clean) always gets me. It just has this great groove and bounce to it, always gets stuck in my head when I hear it...




Another good one, Skid Row - The Threat...

 
Great video man. I really love your channel it always has good stuff. Keep it up you kept the best for last on this video.
 
Shawn Lutz":21p7mksi said:
cool topic but from my POV if you want to reach a wider audience edited it down without all the talk and just the riffs as most people, myself will not watch a 7 and a half minute clip
Click to expand...

:loco:
 
It's hard to just single-out a "riff", unless you set up a camera and mic's, and PLAY it.
Otherwise, we have to post a link to a song that is on YooToob.

It's cool to be able to make nice videos of your playing, but not everyone can do that. :(

Having said that.... I always liked how Jeff Waters does it:



( Jeff Waters = heavy riff machine ) :uzi:
 
Sick playing man!!! Sounded great! Those were some great riffs.

Some of my favorites:

Loudness - Crazy Nights
Ratt - What You Give is What You Get
Extreme - Decadence Dance
TNT - 10,000 Lovers in One
Scorpions - Sails of Charon (sp?)
 
Heavy Metal Movie Soundtrack - A bunch of songs on there
Iron Maiden - Two minutes to midnight or wrathchild
Scorpions - blackout
The Scream. - you believe in you
Aerosmith - let the music do the talking
VH - house of pain
Most everything Spyder Giraldo played anytime
The knack - my Sharona
 
Nice vid. I started thinking of riffs and then it just became too much! Too many riffs! Off the top of my head

Saxon- Machine Gun
Motorhead - Love Me Like a Reptile tied with Built For Speed
Duran Duran-Girls on Film
Discharge-Protest and Survive
Bad Brains - Most of Quickness but Soul Craft especially
Fugazi-Waiting Room (bass intro)
Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love (under-rated as Mick gets few guitarist accolades)
Killing Joke - Eighties
 
Tora Tora - Cold Fever (& every other Tora Tora song)
Steelheart's first two albums
Angel Witch - Angel Witch

Don't Damn Me by GNR has a pretty cool riff actually.
 
Coroner was mentioned but I'll pick one: Mistress of Deception...but I might take the riff in the middle (the chuggy one lol).

Run for your Life by Loudness is a good one too.
 
I see a few I came here to post

Monkey Business - Skid Row
Double Talkin' Jive - Guns 'n Roses
Hooligan's Holiday - Motley Crue
Beautiful Disaster - 311
Without Warning - Dokken
 
So many great ones already mentioned. One of my faves from that era that I never see anyone talking about is:

Ratt - Enough is Enough (particularly around 1:00 when the distorted riff kicks in)

 
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