10 Best Hard Rock Guitar Riffs From The 2000s
1. Supermassive Black Hole - Muse (2006)
Like Queens Of The Stone Age, Muse flooded the airwaves with tasty guitar riffs during the 2000s.
Although Plug In Baby might have had a more technically sophisticated riff (and was certainly one to impress your friends with) Supermassive Black Hole has to be their best from the decade.
The whole track had the feel of a Prince number if he'd turned up his rock sensibilities to 11. The song just oozed cool. The drum beat was industrial hip-hop, the bass sounded like something from a Gorillaz record and Matt Bellamy's vocals gave the whole track a saucy attitude. But the guitar riff was the thing that pulled all these components together.
Technically there was nothing particularly impressive about it. You can fumble your way through the different parts with a basic command of the fret board, but unless you've got an ability to impart a bit of swagger into your playing it's not going to sound like Mark Bellamy.
Rock music never sounded so futuristic as when muse played it. People often quote that tired old saying "rock is dead" that wasn't true when Muse started to innovate in the 2000s and it isn't true now - all it takes is a few basic riffs with enough originality to keep the genre going.