Originally published in Guitar World magazine · November 2021
favorite Black Album highlights (excerpt)
By Why Nothing Else Matters
Article1 min read
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As you ponder your own favorite Black Album guitar highlights, check out these choices by 16 guitar greats, from Jerry Cantrell to John Petrucci to Mark Tremonti to Diamond Rowe
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John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
The riff that starts at about 22 seconds into ‘Sad But True’ is a perfect example of one of the ultimate guitar sounds ever recorded. The percussive “chunk” sound that occurs when palm-muting a power chord with all down-strokes is such a signature quality of the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ amp used on this album, the same amp responsible for the guitar sounds on ‘Master of Puppets.’ Once described by a dear friend of mine as the sound made when “smashing a steel pipe against a brick wall,” that specific tonal quality can only come from that amp and was captured flawlessly on the recording and in the performance of this song. The Black Album epitomizes the perfect balance between memorable, heavy riffs, incredible songwriting and stellar production. It showed that a metal band can write an album filled with crushing guitar tones and still achieve overwhelming commercial success. It showed the world how Metallica would pioneer the next phase of guitar-driven metal and bring their signature sound to more people than ever before without compromising what we all loved about them.