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Metallica - Fade to Black - Guitar Cover

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Key B minor
Metallica - Fade to Black guitar cover video
Kfir Ochaion
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Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
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Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Ride The Lightning (Deluxe Remaster) album cover
Ride The Lightning (Deluxe Remaster)
1984 6:57
Listen on Spotify
Metallica Thrash Metal 1984 B minor
Capo Advisor 0 B minor · Original key

About Fade to Black

Few songs in heavy rock demand this kind of range from a single guitarist: "Fade to Black" opens with clean, fingerpicked arpeggios in B minor before building through overdriven chords and landing in one of the most celebrated lead sequences Metallica ever recorded. The clean intro is where most players struggle first. The picking hand needs to stay relaxed and even, because any tension shows up immediately in the tone. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop that section slowed down until the notes ring clearly without buzzing. From there, the song shifts through several distinct moods, so you are really learning multiple pieces inside one arrangement. The rhythm work in the heavier sections asks for tight palm muting and precise pick attack to keep the chords from turning to mud. The lead passages reward careful attention to phrasing and vibrato, so practise each phrase in isolation rather than always running the whole solo at speed.

  • The clean intro uses fingerpicked arpeggios in B minor, making right-hand accuracy and a relaxed touch the first real challenge to solve.
  • The song moves through clean, crunch, and full-distortion tones, so understanding how your guitar's volume knob affects each section is genuinely useful here.
  • The solo section contains several distinct phrases at different tempos, so isolating each one with the Practice Toolbar slowed down is more effective than running it straight through.

How to Play Fade to Black

Key: B minor · Tempo: 110 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

The clean arpeggiated intro in B minor is where most intermediate players stumble: the fingerpicking pattern requires consistent right-hand control to keep notes ringing evenly, so isolate that section and loop it before moving to the heavier distorted riffs. The song's core challenge is managing those dramatic dynamic shifts between the delicate clean passages and the full-gain rhythm parts, as sloppy volume or tone knob work between sections will undercut the arrangement. For the solo, Kirk Hammett's phrasing leans heavily on the B natural minor and pentatonic scales with sustained bends, so nail the pitch accuracy on those bends before chasing speed. A common pitfall is learning the intro and solo in isolation without practicing the full-song transitions, which is where the real difficulty lives.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 110 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Kirk Hammett's vintage 1959 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard delivers warmer, more dynamic PAF-style tones that contrast his EMG-equipped ESP guitars, adding organic sustain to his lead work. This guitar's traditional construction gives his solos a thicker, less compressed character than his signature models.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

While not Hammett's primary choice, the Les Paul Custom shares the Les Paul's warm PAF pickup character and thick body resonance, offering heavier players an alternative to Strat-style designs for achieving Metallica's crushing rhythm tones.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

James Hetfield's early Gibson Explorer established his signature angular shape and thick body tone, delivering the aggressive midrange attack essential to Metallica's crushing rhythm style before his ESP signature models became his primary tool.

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

Kirk Hammett's Dual Rectifier heads provide the high-gain, midrange-forward aggression that lets his solos cut through Hetfield's scooped rhythm tone, creating definition and clarity in Metallica's dense wall of distortion.

EMG 81
Pickup

EMG 81

Hetfield's bridge EMG 81 delivers the hot, compressed output with tight low-end that defines Metallica's palm-muted riffs, the ceramic magnet and active preamp cutting through heavy arrangements with focused, aggressive attack.

EMG 60
Pickup

EMG 60

Both guitarists use the neck EMG 60 for warmer, more articulate rhythm tones and smoother lead voicings, balancing the 81's aggression with clearer note definition across Metallica's dense arrangements.

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