Replacing Dave Mustaine as Metallica’s lead guitarist in 1983, Kirk Hammett cut his teeth on Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. So it’s unsurprising that he lists Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys and Zeppelin’s ...

Epic riffs by Van Halen, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy Osbourne are sure to inspire the "devil horns," the universal symbol of ...

Heavy metal certainly had its origins prior to Black Sabbath's 1970 debut album – and more specifically, the intro riff to the opening song "Black Sabbath" – but the genre certainly came into form at ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Quentin Singer is music journalist who covers rock and heavy music. While there’s not much debate regarding which lineup of Black ...

The riff. It's everything to metal. You can strip away pretty much any other element that has come to define the genre over the years - haunting atmospherics, scorching wails and guttural screams, ...

Tony Iommi is the undisputed champion of the heavy metal riff. He earned that title in the early ’70s, as his memorable guitar riffs — short, repeated chord progressions that help form the rhythmic ...

Metallica's Kirk Hammett named one particular guitar riff that he believes "shifted heavy metal." "The first three Black Sabbath albums are like gospel. Everyone kind of universally agrees. They ...