It is pretty safe to say that everyone loves a good cover of a classic track. Note the words 'good' and 'classic', very important. This article is in terms of metal, so forgive the one who holds the pen if this doesn't cover the reader's genre of choice.
Two amazing covers that come to mind would be Decapitated doing Slayer's “Mandatory Suicide” and The Forsaken covering “Blackened” by Metallica.
To The Stealing...
Now, the crux of the matter. Stealing riffs for one's own use, done tastefully, is acceptable and bears the same homage as a cover. A few selected cases of the good riff thieves is what is on offer here. Also admitting that there are some stolen riffs may wash some of the red off hands, like Nasum on Human 2.0 (2000).
For us metal heads, pinpointing a stolen riffs originator from a huge mental back catalogue of stored melodies, licks and solos can be rather difficult, and can take long periods of time to mull it over and finally work it out, unless one haplessly stumbles across the riff during casual listening, which is a joy.
British thrash legends Sabbat have been pilfered in one of the sadder tales in the riff stealing saga, the opening scale from “Hosanna in Excelsis” was bastardised for the opening of the hit song “Unholy Confessions” by beacon for all things ‘cool’ - US band Avenged Sevenfold.
Despite being sincere, balls to the wall heavy metal, Sabbat have little limelight these days, let alone back in 1987 when this stuff first hit the shelves. 99% of Avenged Sevenfold kids would not have heard of Sabbat. Which is the superior is subjective of course - a choice between raw thrash and girly, touchy-feely, ballad boy-band, faux metal generica can't be a easy one can it?
Good Bands Stealing From Better Bands...
Carcass chose to raid the classic thrash album Coma Of Souls (1990) by Kreator for the title track of their Heartwork (1993) album, which came out as quite a classy nod to the Germans. Similarly Portuguese black metal act Sirius paid tribute to one of their influences Emperor with a use of one of the kick ass riffs in “Night of the Graveless Souls”.
The use of well thought out bit of riff larceny can be exciting and exalting at the same time, and listeners should cherish these moments. Caution must be taken however when the riff may be taken out of context and dissatisfying results may be the outcome.
