10 Best Hard Rock Guitar Riffs From The 2010s
5. I Sat By The Ocean - Queens Of The Stone Age (2013)
By the time the Queens of the Stone age released ...Like Clockwork, they had already been around for a good long while, but they hadn't lost any of their potency. Josh Homme was still delivering stellar vocal performances, along with some of the tastiest guitar licks of the decade.
It's all about the slide guitar on his track. A difficult guitar technique to master, and if done sloppily can lead to a track feeling like its had some old blues tropes chucked on it, for no other reason than to imbue a bit of bluesy nostalgia.
It doesn't take much for it to become over powering, so when deployed with restraint a guitarist should be commended. Too much, and a track can sound like it's had a cacophony of whale samples dropped onto it.
Not so with this song, Homme nailed it. With the rhythm guitar creating a base of chords for the slide to glide over, the combination of the two guitar parts came together to create an instantly recognisable riff.
It's just an incredibly satisfying sound. Go for a drive along the coast, wind your windows down and turn this track up.