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Megadeth - Holy Wars… The Punishment Due - Guitar Tab

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Key E minor
Megadeth - Holy Wars… The Punishment Due guitar tab video
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Master7
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Rust In Peace album cover
Rust In Peace
1990 6:36
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Megadeth Thrash Metal 1990 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

Few thrash metal tracks demand as much from a guitarist as "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" by Megadeth. The song opens with a deceptively clean, almost melodic guitar figure before erupting into one of the most aggressive riff sequences in the genre. Playing in E minor, the rhythm work leans heavily on tight, palm-muted down-picking and rapid string changes that will expose any sloppiness in your right hand almost immediately. The lead sections require fluency across the neck at high speed, mixing legato runs with precise picking. Tempo control is a real challenge throughout: the song shifts feel more than once, and locking in with those transitions takes focused repetition. Use the Practice Toolbar to isolate the opening riff and the transition passages, looping them slowed down until your fretting hand can keep up cleanly. This is a song where patience with the slow practice pays off more than almost anything else you could work on.

  • The opening clean guitar riff uses melodic phrasing in E minor and is a great entry point before tackling the full-speed rhythm sections.
  • Rhythm guitar throughout relies on precise palm muting and rapid picking-hand control, making it a strong workout for right-hand endurance and accuracy.
  • The song shifts tempo and feel across its runtime, so use the Practice Toolbar to loop each section individually and build transitions at a reduced speed.

How to Play Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

The song moves through: Intro, Main riff, Interlude, Half-time riff, Verse, Acoustic solo, Bridge, Solo 2, Solo 3, Harmonic Riff, Solo 4.

Key: E minor · Tempo: 170 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

The main riff at 170 bpm in Eb standard demands very tight alternate picking with consistent palm muting, and most players find it easier to isolate the opening riff and drill it at reduced speed before attempting full tempo. The mid-song acoustic solo section is a genuine change of gears, requiring clean fingering and a controlled touch after the aggression of the rhythm parts, so treat it as a separate piece to learn rather than an afterthought. The half-time riff that precedes the heavier sections trips up players who lose the pulse during the tempo feel shift, so use the metronome and loop that transition specifically. Marty Friedman's lead passages use non-Western melodic phrasing that will feel unusual to ears trained on pentatonic soloing, so learn those phrases note-for-note rather than approximating them by ear.

Loop the hardest passage and creep the speed up from around 70 percent until it holds at 170 BPM.

Gibson Flying V
Guitar

Gibson Flying V

Dave Mustaine's current signature Flying V delivers the V-shaped body geometry essential for accessing upper frets on his complex spider-chord voicings and fast lead lines. The guitar's thin, fast neck profile and fixed bridge provide the tuning stability and articulation Megadeth's precise, aggressive riffing demands.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

Mustaine built Megadeth's signature razor-sharp, scooped-mid tone on Marshall JCM800s, with gain around 7-8 to retain pick dynamics and articulation under heavy palm-muting. The amp's responsive tube saturation transforms hot pickups into the controlled, fast low-end aggression that defines thrash metal rhythm tones.

DigiTech Whammy
Pedal

DigiTech Whammy

Marty Friedman used the Digitech Whammy as a lead accent tool, adding pitch-shifting texture to solos without cluttering Megadeth's minimalist effects philosophy. The pedal's harmonic richness complemented his warm, vocal-like Seymour Duncan humbucker tone during the band's classic era.

ISP Decimator Noise Gate
Pedal

ISP Decimator Noise Gate

The ISP Decimator is essential for Mustaine's high-gain thrash setup, eliminating feedback and noise between palm-muted riffs without compromising sustain. This noise gate allows him to push the Marshall into aggressive saturation while maintaining the tight, articulate attack Megadeth's complex rhythms require.

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