12 Best Ever Hard Rock Riffs

After getting a few guitar hooks under your belt, there's always that one riff that will push you a little further down the rabbit hole. While many people learn all they need to know from the gospels of Judas Priest or Black Sabbath, your riff arsenal is never fully complete without some UFO.

While many great musicians have filled the guitarist slot in this group, it simply doesn't get any better than Michael Schenker, whose way with riffs almost seemed to channel a different side of existence. On a song like "Rock Bottom," everything seems to come back to Schenker's guitar, which saunters across the fretboard with the greatest of ease. Many musicians talk about "riding" a riff on any song, but the presence of the music is so great that it's almost as if the riff rides you.

Even if the band received widespread praise in rock circles, the mainstream never gave the band the proper time of day in other parts of the world. Thankfully, the right guitarists were listening, with everyone from Mike McCready to Kirk Hammett holding Michael Schenker in the top tiers of guitar gods. They might not have been the brightest stars of the 70's, but without Schenker's conquering riffs, modern hard rock music would look and sound completely different.