Best Online Metal Guitar Lessons

Seldom in the guitar tuition world can you find a legitimate product that really delivers the goods, particularly in the realm of heavy metal guitar lessons.

What Is It?
'Burning Metal' is the latest offering from www.heavymetalguitarlessons.com. It's an e-book containing a written tutorial and guitar tabs accompanied by audio examples, which gives the pupil a totally comprehensive run-down of the most fundamental techniques in heavy metal guitar playing. It offers no gimmicks, and no special 'amazing' time frame. It is, however, a very focused piece of tuition!

The Rundown From The Website

• Metal fundamentals from beginner to an advanced level


• A solid foundation based on timing, groove and feel


• Build speed, stamina, and strength


• Grasp difficult rhythms


• Learn galloping, speed picking, down-picking, and much more, as well as tons of fret-melting riffs!

The book is essentially about the very essence of rhythm playing, but it's not quite so straightforward as that. It concentrates very much on the 'groove' of a rhythm, something that I for one feel is missing from a lot of modern metal, as does the author of Burning Metal.

So, What's In It?
It's split into chapters, which take each technique and explain it in depth. It's written in an extremely fluent way, which really helps understand the theory. It's no-nonsense too, which I immediately took a liking to as I have the attention span of a fly stuck in a window! After the very fundamentals of rhythm and groove, such as palm muting and note timing etc, it delves into some trickier areas that are more physically demanding, but still in the novice realm, ending in some rather advanced examples that I enjoyed to say the least.

Audio Examples
Accompanying the written work/tabs are the audio examples, which are full guitar tracks of the tab, with drums and bass, and are fantastic fun to play along to once you have them down! Another thing worth mentioning is that the audio examples for some of the more thrash orientated work come in two varying speeds, one in half-time and the other at full tempo, which helped no end when getting it down tight.

Additionally, there are several click-tracks provided for you to practice the techniques freely at different tempos. It's important, as is stated in the e-book, to practice to a metronome or click of some description to get your playing as tight as possible and to further develop a much better sense of timing and rhythm.

Overall Rating
On completion my playing had improved ten fold. I've always been an avid metal lover, but never really dug so deep into the rudiments of what it took to play the riffs of my favourite bands. Admittedly I'm still at the foot of a very long road to virtuosity! But I couldn't have asked for a better kick-start.