Burning Metal Review
Volume 1 - Heavy Metal Rhythm

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the first volume in the Burning Metal Series to review. Matt Crawford is developing this series to take you right from beginner through to advanced playing, and we begin with the rhythm guitar techniques that give heavy metal its unmistakable sound.

Any heavy metal fan knows that the driving force behind the genre is the raw aggression of the rhythm guitar and the pounding kick drumming. Burning Metal shows you exactly how to work with the percussion, such as blast beats and off-kilter groove timings, to really lay the solid foundations for your metal technique.

It also guides you through mastering each of the essential metal guitar techniques - palm muting, down picking, tremolo picking and advanced techniques such as galloping and string skipping. All this is demonstrated clearly through the e-book and high quality sound tracks you can jam along to.

Let's just break down the entire volume so we can see exactly what we'll learn...

1. Warming up (2 tracks + click tracks)

Some simple yet very effective finger warm up techniques and exercises designed specifically to prepare you for playing heavy metal. Click tracks are provided to really help you build your speed and stamina (important!).

2. Tunings

All you need to know about tuning for different types of heavy metal.

3. Palm Muting (5 tracks)

Takes you expertly through the palm muting technique from beginner to more complex poly-rhythms. The exercises and tracks provided allow you to jam along to help time your playing with a drummer.

4. Groove (3 tracks)

This was definitely my favourite part of the volume. I cannot stress how essential the techniques taught in this chapter are to heavy metal guitar.

Groove is about understanding the dynamics of the music, and the theory behind those dynamics is dissected brilliantly in this chapter. I came away with a new understanding of the "groove factor". You may think you know it already, but once you've been through this chapter, and jammed with the tracks provided, you will know you know it!

This is definitely a chapter for the more bluesy metal fan (e.g. Pantera, southern sludgecore influences etc.)

5. Downpicking (4 tracks)

At first, I wondered why down-picking was as far down as chapter 5. However, the exercises provided in this chapter focus on really building that forearm stamina with faster and more interrupted down-picking rhythms. Click and drum tracks are again provided to help you build up speed and expert timing. There are also exercises to help you merge down-picking and alternate picking riffs seamlessly (important!)

6. Alternate Picking (5 tracks)

Looks at the fast tremolo picking styles used in thrash and death metal. Some great jam track exercises in this chapter to test your speed rhythm playing and fast fret movements. Master these, and your physical attack will be effortless.

7. Advanced Techniques (9 tracks)

Final chapter which looks mainly at "gallops" - a playing technique that groups alternate picking into triplets and other patterns. This chapter shows you how to attain pin-point accuracy (ala Fear Factory) with your kick-drum co-ordination, and short, sharp blasts of tight rhythm playing.

The jam tracks really help with kick drum co-ordination and you can't beat being able to play over a real band to hear how your own guitar playing melts into the soundscape.

Conclusion

The great thing about this course is that you come out a well-rounded heavy metal rhythm guitarist. We all know that the metal sub-genres borrow styles and techniques from each other, so it's really beneficial to have such a wide range of metal playing techniques under your belt. This allows you to create diverse, dynamic and progressive heavy metal, opening up your creative options.

That, in a nutshell, is why this course is so valuable, and why it has been receiving such positive feedback. With just a portion of your spare time devoted to this course, you will reach the level of playing you can be truly satisfied with and proud of.

So after reviewing and thoroughly enjoying Burning Metal Rhythm, I strongly recommend it to any guitarist, beginner-intermediate who wants to be able to confidently churn out explosive heavy metal riffage whenever the mood takes them. After all, that's what it's about isn't it?

A special thanks to Matt for creating this fantastic and unique course, without us having to fork out for expensive private lessons!

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