Slayer - Raining Blood Pt.2 - Chords/Rhythms - Guitar Lesson

About Raining Blood Pt.2 - Chords/Rhythms

Few songs in Thrash Metal demand as much rhythmic precision as "Raining Blood," and this chords and rhythms arrangement puts that demand front and center. The song is built on tight, palm-muted riffing in E minor, where the picking hand does most of the heavy work. Staying locked to the groove while keeping the mutes clean is the real challenge here, not the fretting hand. Slayer co-writers Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King layered rhythm parts that feel brutal partly because of how controlled and precise the attack is underneath the noise. The transitions between the open-string chug sections and the chord stabs are where most players slip up, so isolate those moments in the Practice Toolbar and run them slowed down before trying to connect everything at full tempo. Getting the right amount of pick aggression without losing definition in the lower strings is the tone puzzle this song keeps asking you to solve.

• The rhythm parts rely heavily on palm-muted downpicking in E minor, so building right-hand stamina is essential before attempting full-speed runs.
• Chord stab timing is critical throughout: even small hesitations between the chug sections and accented hits will make the groove fall apart.
• Using the Practice Toolbar to loop the transitional passages at reduced speed helps lock in the pick-hand precision this arrangement requires.