Bullet For My Valentine - Waking The Demon - Guitar Tab

About Waking The Demon

Drop D tuning and a key of C minor set a dark, heavy foundation for "Waking The Demon," and at 200 BPM the song demands that your picking hand is genuinely locked in before you attempt it at full speed. The low D string gets a serious workout here: the driving, palm-muted riff that opens the track relies on single-string pedal-tone picking, and even a small lapse in muting turns the tone to mud. That kind of fast, tight palm muting is where most players struggle, so isolate that riff with the Practice Toolbar, slow it right down, and only creep the tempo up once every note is clean and controlled. The lead work from Bullet For My Valentine sits in a melodic Heavy Metal tradition, with bends and vibrato that need to be accurate and expressive rather than sloppy. Get the rhythm parts solid first, then turn your attention to matching the phrasing of the lead lines.

• The entire song sits in Drop D tuning, letting you fret heavy power chords on the low string with a single finger while keeping the picking hand free for fast alternate picking.
• Palm muting precision on the low D string is the core challenge: at 200 BPM, any inconsistency in mute pressure produces unwanted ring or a choked, uneven tone.
• The melodic lead sections use vibrato and string bends in C minor, so practise matching the pitch of each bend carefully before working on speed.