Favorite underrated 80s riffs?

ProgressiveRocco

ProgressiveRocco

Power User
What's up dudes! I’ve had people requesting this video on my channel for quite some time, so I finally decided to do it! ;)
I think there are loads of sick riffs from the 80s/early 90s that got little to no attention, so let’s give these guys some credit!
These are just 5 among my favorites, what are yours?
 
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Here's a quick 5 (mostly) from the early 80's that randomly popped into my head in a minute.

Y&T - Mean Streak - 1983 (Iconic intro riff.)
Akira Takasaki - Tusk of Jaguar - 1982 (Pretty much this whole album is amazing for me, every track is so different. Note : Disillusion by Loudness was one of the albums that inspired me to play guitar.)
Black N' Blue - Autoblast - 1984 (Oops, another speeding ticket...)
Gary Moore - Blood of Emeralds - 1989 (The first riff after the drums kick in is so monstrous.)
Queensryche - The Whisper - 1986 (Listen with a good pair of monitors LOUD. Such awesome stereo production. Still one of my favorite albums ever production wise. Bonus points for the riff in the heavy part of Roads to Madness from their first album. It's at about the 7 minute mark.)

*edit : Great job and riffs by the way! :)
 
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Here's my top 5 from the Eighties:

Dokken - In My Dreams
Van Halen - Unchained
Queensryche - I Don't Believe in Love
Killing Joke - Eighties
Guns 'n Roses - Paradise City
 
Here are some of my personal faves from the 80's

Badlands - High Wire
MSG - Into The Arena
Black Sabbath - Zero The Hero
Slayer - South Of Heaven
Testament - Practice What You Preach
 
Rocco - Not what I listened to either in the 80's but thats OK. Your playing is top notch and the sound...well, that is one of the tightest tones I have heard when looking for that type of tone.. I mean everyone looks for OD, crunch, dist, whatever you want to call it. But that sound is so "channeled" Just tight, tight, tight without sounding overly compressed or anything....Great job Man
 
I'm the one VH groove shuffle with loads of licks that coupled blues with shred.
Warren DeMartini -catalog of killer phrasing and legato shredding
Steve Vai with DLR and Whitesnake
Vivian Campbell 'Holy Diver' solo killer modal shredding

I put Steel Panther's solos up there with anything that came out in the 80's live he nails them. Their comedy factor makes them so much more entertaining than most bands you see live. Watch the 'Wacken' festival on you tube. They even win over the obvious death metal crowd with their humor and playing!
 
Great job as always, Rocco! A few of my favorite "under the radar" riffs from the 80s are "Sleepless Nights" and "Turn On The Action" by Dokken, "Bonecrusher" by Soulhat, "Soul Stealer" and "Ball and Chain" by Badlands, "1000 Eyes" by Loudness, and probably another million riffs that I can't think of off the top of my head! Lol
 
Hair metal, so not my thing. But well played, sir, well played.

While the Big 4 of trash metal and Iron Maiden could easily fill a top 5, one of my favorite forgotten bands of that era is Nuclear Assault. With the unique vocals of what a friend of mine called the screaming sucking pig John Connelly.



 
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