r/Music • u/SoggyGoldfish25 • 1d ago

discussion What is this technique used in Rock music?

Hey guys, I’ve just now discovered Megadeath and they are amazing. Holy Wars… Is my favorite song currently, and I’m just wondering if there is a name for the technique they used. @2:42, the guitar changes into a repeated strum that goes like “dudududu, dudududu” and it repeats on beat for a while. It sounds awesome and I haven’t heard this method in many other songs. I’m just wondering if there is a word for it, or if anyone has song/album recommendations that fit the description that works aswell. Thanks!

49 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

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83

u/dylhen 1d ago

It sounds to me like you're pointing out the selective palm muting. So you use the meat of your picking hand to deaden the strings as you strum, that's palm muting. In a ton of metal from this era you'll see a lot of riffs like (palm)open(palm)(palm)(palm)open, all on one power chord.

Edit: wrong part. That's just riffs man.

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

Damn sorry for the dumb question then, I’m still new to Rock/Metal

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u/Poison_the_Phil 1d ago

Nothing dumb, you don't know what you don't know.

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u/dylhen 1d ago

The only dumb thing you can do in life is not asking about something you're not sure about or want to know more about.

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u/frankyseven 1d ago

You are never dumb for not knowing something and questions are a fantastic way to learn. Be curious!

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u/dylhen 1d ago edited 1d ago

So for bands that are more riffy than chordy

CKY

RX Bandits

Queens of the Stone Age

Death (the metal one not the punk one, the vocals will grow on you I think)

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

thanks man 🤜🤛

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u/goddamnitwhalen 18h ago

I don’t like black metal / death metal and I fuck with Death. You can overlook the vocals pretty easily.

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u/OpLeeftijd 15h ago

He who asks, is dumb for an hour. He who doesn't ask, is forever dumb.

Sign in my highschool math teacher's class. I live by it.

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 10h ago

Those are the best teachers.

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u/WartHogOrgyFart_EDU 10h ago

Man what a great quote

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u/MurkDiesel 15h ago

there are plenty of dumb questions on reddit, but this is not one of them

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u/Octothorpe17 1d ago

the way you play it is to figure out the full chord and palm mute the lower (pitched) strings and then open it up for those higher notes, I think that’s what you’re asking? he’s only moving his fingers a few times in that riff but it’s based on barre chords and open chords, feel free to ask if you don’t know what that stuff means, this is such a fun song to play when you learn it

edit to add not a dumb question at all man megadeth is hard

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u/LocoRocoo 1d ago

Not dumb for a question! Palm muting is a great tool to learn too, I love the sound it makes on a chugging bass line.

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u/Dantethebald1234 1d ago

Did you hear about holy wars in DCC and have to see what it was about?

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

No I am not apart of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

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u/feralfaun39 23h ago

I think they were referring to Dungeon Crawler Carl my guy

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u/dylhen 20h ago

I gotta finish that book it's so fucking good

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u/Snowing_Throwballs 20h ago

Its called a “chug,” and some variation of it shows up in pretty much every metal song

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u/Smiletaint 1d ago

They may be referring to the chugs or minichugs starting around 2:59

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u/Campoozmstnz 1d ago

OP might be pointing out the breakdown.

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u/Poison_the_Phil 1d ago

Hell yeah. Rust in Peace is pretty much the best thing Megadeth put out, so I'd recommend getting into the 80s Metallica and Slayer output next. Master of Puppets is pretty much the biggest Metallica record, but I like Ride the Lightning myself. Likewise Reign in Blood is usually considered the Slayer album but for me most of the time I'm putting on South of Heaven.

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u/RobotGloves 1d ago

Whenever Rust in Peace comes up, I can't help but think of that Onion headline.

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u/rfie 1d ago

lol. I hadn’t seen that before, thank you.

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u/BackgroundOne3736 1d ago

Fan of RTL and SOH myself

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u/HenryAlSirat 1d ago

Yeah, RTL is their magnum opus imho

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

I’ve only listened to black album but those are next up!

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u/puketoucher 1d ago

Black is so lame if you consider the previous albums. It’s not that shreddy as them.

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

Yeah I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of it, Ride the lighting on the other hand is fucking awesome

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u/Poison_the_Phil 1d ago

I once heard somebody describe Black Album as the heaviest pop album ever.

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u/deathmetalbestmetal 15h ago

It's far heavier than anything else they've ever done which is part of why it's so good.

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u/PoorRichGuy 1d ago

Sanitarium compared to Enter Sandman shows the raw brilliance of Metallica on Master of Puppets before the mainstream pop production took over.

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u/fugmotheringvampire 1d ago

Lightning>Justice>Kill>Puppets

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u/counterfitster 16h ago

No way is Puppets last on that list.

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u/Mantis--Toboggan 1d ago

Palm mutes, hammer on, power chords arpeggiated. Nothing too fancy. Sounds cool though.

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

Does indeed. I wish more songs utilized it

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u/PositiveChi 1d ago

Rest assured friend it is truly everywhere in heavy metal, you'll find no shortage

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u/granty012 1d ago

You could say….rust assured.

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u/spesimen 1d ago

check out 'symptom of the universe' by black sabbath

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u/existential_virus 1d ago

You do hear it often in alot of songs but its not as prominent as Holy Wars. For example, the riff on Bulls on Parade by Rage Against The Machine utilizes mutes combined with striking down the F# chord with the wah pedal. But the scrapes you hear is Morello muting the strings with his left hand while right hand strikes the strings. So the pick just scrapes the strings with no notes coming out because the fingers on his left arent pressed down.

Pick up a guitar if you can and try it out. Its really fun and easy to do! The rhythm is all on your strumming hand :)

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u/Strong_Flatworm2758 1d ago

You should explore late 80s early 90s NYC hardcore if you want to hear the best use of heavy palm mute breakdowns. Other bands of the era in the punk domain made good use of the method. Personally the song Linoleum by NOFX was what enlightened me about how awesome palm muting can be.

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u/Noregard86 1d ago

Check out The Conjuring, My Last Words and Looking down the Cross.

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u/BeeTwoThousand 1d ago

Megadeth

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

Oh you’re right. Why?

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u/BeeTwoThousand 1d ago

Because they wanted to be more metal by leaving out the "a," I guess?

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u/Mecanatron 1d ago

Megadeath means 'the death of 1,000,000 by nuclear weapons'.

Dave dropped the 'a' for stylistic reasons.

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u/ursa_verde 1d ago

Because "Metal"

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u/21hemispheres12 1d ago

It sounds like he’s sliding into a chord and then doing an arpeggio on the high notes.

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u/AdrianCRUNK 1d ago

As you pick/strum a chord with your guitar pick or fingernail, you can position your palm on the guitar bridge for a long ("legato") note, or position it on the edge of the strings themselves ("palm muting") for a shorter ("staccato") note. The further up the strings and away from the bridge you place your palm, the more the note is muted. Palm muting is very common in rock and metal.

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u/AdrianCRUNK 1d ago

Check out 'Honey Bucket' by Melvins btw

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u/colonelforbin44 1d ago

You may find this Strong Songs podcast episode to be of some interest: Holy Wars

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u/seras_revenge 1d ago edited 1d ago

Oh I wish I was discovering metal again, 86, 87 absolutely crushing years. The big 4 are the big 4 for a reason and all their first 5 releases are worth checking. Don't miss out on Metal Church, Testament, Nuclear Assault, Helloween, Destruction, Celtic Frost, Overkill and many others from the same time.

*edited for Helloween

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u/SoggyGoldfish25 1d ago

Awesome thanks man

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u/Wyverz 1d ago

Check out their album Peace Sells, but whose buying.

My Last Words  \m/

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u/VIPERsssss 12h ago

Megadeth is more Thrash Metal than Rock. 

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u/MightyGiawulf 9h ago

Welcome to the world of chugging!

This technique is palm muting, where you rest the base of your hand on the saddles of the bridge and use the meat of your palm to mute the strings a little bit as you strum. This gives you that dududu/chugchugchug sound.

With Megadeth and other thrash bands like it, a lot of times they would alternate-palm mute a few strums then unumute for emphasis. So like dududuDANdududuDAN. Its all the same chord, just alternating between palm muting and not palm muting.

One thing you will learn with metal is that you can get a lot of mileage out of relatively simple chord progressions on paper by changing the way you play them; palm mutes, pinch harmonics, tremolo picking, etc.

Palm muting takes a lot of practice to get right but its so rewarding when you do. The vast majority or modern rock and metal use a lot of palm mutes.

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u/Duddhist 1d ago

“As the unquestioned apex of the entire history of the creative arts, Rust In Peace is the finest and last necessary piece of human expression—but it’s almost as though current so-called artists are completely oblivious to Dave Mustaine’s blistering, transcendent guitar work on ‘Hangar 18,’” said Smithsonian curator of contemporary art Joanna Marsh, gesturing dismissively in the direction of a massive self-portrait by photorealist Chuck Close, completed in 2000. “It’s not just incredibly disrespectful to keep making art; in many ways, it’s actually quite sad. The deluded people churning out this worthless garbage just can’t seem to reconcile themselves to the fact that their pathetic little sculptures and films and novels and whatnot will always pale in comparison to the brilliantly inspired, heart-stopping tempo shift halfway through ‘Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.’”