10 Greatest Metallica Riffs EVER
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls
At the time of Ride the Lightning, the boys were still on pure thrash mode. After practically inventing the genre on Kill Em All, fans got a few left turns on this album, including the first proto ballad in their discography with Fade to Black. However, if there's any song that shows Metallica staking their claim as metal overlords, it has to be For Whom the Bell Tolls.
And no...I'm not talking about the guitar riff. While most of the song is centred around the sweeping nature of the chords and the atmospherics behind the story, any Metallica fan knows that the best riff in this song isn't even played on guitar.
Contrary to the normal hard rock band scenario, the entire song is centred around Cliff Burton's bass performance, which leads every single melodic passage.
Being one part King Crimson, one part classical, and one part metal, every single strike Cliff hits feels like doom coming to your door ready to tear you apart. It usually got even heavier live, like in the footage from the Day on the Green festival where Cliff practically uses the song as an opportunity to shred on his four-string. The major labels might not have been calling just yet, but there was no way you could deny something as heavy as this anymore.