Hi GMC!
Welcome to my new lesson covering the style of Anthrax, an American thrash metal band from New York, formed in 1981 by Scott Ian (Guitar) and Dan Lilker (Bass). They are considered one of the big four Thrashers with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. They released 10 studio albums and the current members are Scott Ian (Guitar), Charlie Benante (Drums), Frank Bello (Bass), Joey Belladonna (Vocals) and Jonathan Donais (Lead guitar).
Music Style:
Their style is pure Thrash Metal. They are one of the leaders and founders of this style so If someone asks you how Thrash Metal sounds, recommend him Anthrax’s first albums. In this lesson I took their most popular songs, analyzed the riffs, rhythms and scales used and created a tune using those concepts. The tune starts with a classic harmonized melody, and continues with many powerful riffs and progressions that could be found in any of their albums.
Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
This lesson is part of a big series covering Thrash Metal bands, so if you have been following my lessons, you will surely be familiar with the most used scales in this style. I’m talking about minor scales like Phrygian, Phrygian Major, Aeolian, Locrian, Harmonic minor and even diminished. This lesson is in E minor and some of those scales are combined to get the different riffs. Check out the following video parts for more info about each riff.
Techniques:
This is a rhythm metal lesson that starts with a melodic introduction. The techniques that we will be covering are alternate picking, only down strokes, palm muting, vibrato and legato. It’s a fast lesson so it’s a great training for those that want to have a more advanced rhythm metal technique. The lesson includes slower backing tracks as always so please start at a tempo that you feel possible / comfortable and focus on getting a well-defined sound of each note.
Tuning: standard EADGBE tuning
Tempo: 200 BPM
Sound:
I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is Poulin HyBrit which is a Marshall Emulation. I also added a tube screamer emulation before the amp. I used Cubase to record audio and midi, SSD 3.5 for drums and Trillian for bass.
Click
HERE to download my Patch.