10 Hardest Metal Songs To Play On Guitar

Rush has always been heavy metal adjacent since the start of their career. While they have always fit snuggly in the more progressive sides of the rock spectrum, their run of epic material in the late '70s certainly rubbed off on the metal community, from bands like Tool to Kirk Hammett singing their praises. Though their complexity remains off the charts, there's something about La Villa Strangiato that doesn't even seem human.

Make no mistake, this song could be considered a workout for virtually every player involved, with Neil Peart setting his drumming benchmark and Geddy Lee giving his colleague Chris Squire a run for his money on the low end. The real emotion behind the song is Alex Lifeson, whose solo almost sneaks up on you. Up until this point, the riffs have been pretty standard for a Rush album, and even the solo itself starts off slow and controlled.

On the other hand, this kind of track is an exercise in dynamics, as Lifeson builds it up into one of the most feral guitar solos ever conceived in the '70s, almost like the guitar itself is crying for mercy. It even proved to be too difficult for the guitarist proper, who eventually recorded the song in three parts to get it done right. Rush may have been the rock band for music nerds, but you know you're on another level when you wrote something that you can't even play properly.