Metallica: 10 Hardest James Hetfield Riffs You Can't Play
6. One
Ballads are normally the moment during a show where the band can take a breather and play their music without having to worry about being physically strained. It's incredibly rare that anyone would find a ballad by a band to be one of their hardest tracks to pull off. On the other hand, most guitarists aren't James Hetfield...
A good 60% of "One" is actually fairly straightforward with clean guitars and a chorus that gives way to hard power chords. Sure, there is some difficulty in mastering the arpeggios, but the other parts are pretty smooth sailing. Once the song turns a corner though, you start to realize that the first half was just the tip of the iceberg.
There's nothing to the heavy riff's power chord stylings, but the actual speed is what will really wreck your arm muscles. The basis of the riff is on 16th notes, which are performed in a lock step fashion that makes it almost feel like a death march. After 30 seconds, you seem to have it down pat, but then you realize that this process has to go on for another 3 minutes straight. This might be a typical thrash fest for Hetfield, but what he sees as a walk in the park is everyone else's marathon run.