[For this lesson Alex is playing an Ibanez Prestige 6-string tuned from low to high: Bb G C F A D. This masterclass includes audio samples from a demo version of ‘Frak The Gods’ and does not include audio from  the new version featured on Periphery’s upcoming Icarus EP.]

Frak The Gods Main Riff & Octave

We play with three guitar players, so sometimes we’ll take a riff and add an octave above it. For the main riff in the song I’m actually playing it an octave up for some sections. It makes it a little bit thicker when you have the lower and the higher octave, as opposed to two guitars just doing the main riff:

Frak The Gods – Main Riff

Frak The Gods Breakdown Riff Technique

This riff is the closing riff, but it also happens in the middle. I think it’s really cool because of this technique that it uses where you come into a mute while picking down, and then pop off. Those mutes are there in the middle. It’s kind of percussive, it’s like slapping with a hammer-on that’s not actually being played.

Frak The Gods Breakdown Riff

The riff goes like this – it’s got a bit of slides and tapping going on, too:

Frak The Gods – Breakdown