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Metallica - To Live Is To Die - Guitar Tab

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Key E minor
Metallica - To Live Is To Die guitar tab video
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...And Justice for All (Remastered) album cover
...And Justice for All (Remastered)
1988 9:48
Listen on Spotify
Metallica Thrash Metal 1988 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About To Live Is To Die

Built around a riff that Cliff Burton wrote before his death in 1986, this nearly ten-minute instrumental from Metallica is one of the most demanding pieces in the Thrash Metal catalogue to learn properly. The song moves through several distinct sections at 120 BPM in E minor, each with its own feel and picking demand, so treating it as one long run-through will slow your progress. The central Burton riff has a lumbering, open quality that rewards attention to palm muting and note separation. As the track shifts into its heavier passages, the rhythmic tightness required from the right hand becomes unforgiving, particularly in the transitions between sections. Pick out the section that gives you trouble, set a loop in the Practice Toolbar, and work through it slowed down before pushing toward full tempo. James Hetfield's spoken word passage mid-song also serves as a useful reset point to reorient yourself inside the arrangement.

  • The central riff was composed by bassist Cliff Burton, and learning it on guitar reveals its strong melodic bass-line origins that sit low on the neck.
  • At just over nine minutes, the song spans multiple tempo feels within its 120 BPM framework, so navigating the section changes cleanly is the main technical challenge.
  • E Standard tuning and E minor key keep everything familiar, but the slow, heavy passages demand precise palm muting control to avoid a muddy low-end tone.

How to Play To Live Is To Die

The song moves through: • Spanish RIFF, • Octave Theme Kirk, • Shuffle RIFF, • Bend Theme Kirk, • Kirk Guitar Solo, • Bend Theme Variation, • Epic Theme Kirk, • Clean Finger style, • James Guitar Solo, • Final Section Kirk, • Final Section James, • Main Nylon intro / outro, and more.

Tuning: E Standard · Key: E minor · Tempo: 120 BPM

The arrangement runs through 12 distinct sections, and the solo is the steepest jump, so isolate it on its own.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 120 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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