Slayer - South of Heaven - Guitar Lesson

About South of Heaven

Compared to the relentless pace of their earlier work, "South of Heaven" sees Slayer drop into a slower, heavier groove that puts a different kind of pressure on your picking hand. The song opens with a clean, arpeggiated guitar intro that demands careful finger placement and controlled dynamics before the full band explodes in. Playing in Eb Standard at 120 BPM, the riffs sit in E minor and carry a dark, churning quality that comes from tight palm muting held consistently through each downstroke. The mid-tempo feel is deceptive: keeping that mute locked and your picking even throughout the verse riffs is harder than it sounds when the tempo has this much space in it. The lead work requires attention to phrasing and vibrato, so use the Practice Toolbar to loop those sections slowed down until the articulation is clean. This is a great song for building the kind of pick control and muting discipline that Thrash Metal rhythm playing depends on.

• The song is played in Eb Standard tuning, dropping every string a half step and giving the riffs a thicker, darker resonance than standard E.
• The opening clean arpeggiated intro is a key section to isolate and practise slowly, as precise finger placement and even volume between notes are both required.
• At 120 BPM the mid-tempo palm-muted riffs demand consistent right-hand muting discipline, since the slower pace exposes any inconsistency in your technique.