Pantera - Floods - Guitar Tab

The Great Southern Trendkill

1996 7:00

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About Floods

Few Pantera tracks demand as much range from a guitarist as "Floods." The song moves between brooding, clean arpeggiated passages and crushing heavy riffs, so you need real control over both your picking dynamics and your tone. The clean intro and outro sections are the emotional core of the piece, built on fingerpicked or hybrid-picked arpeggios in D minor that require a steady, unhurried touch. Dimebag Darrell's guitar solo near the end is widely regarded as one of his most expressive, leaning heavily on legato phrasing, wide vibrato, and careful note choice rather than sheer speed. That solo can be deceptive: the notes are not always the hard part, the feel and the vibrato are. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop those solo phrases slowed down until the bends and vibrato feel natural rather than forced. Pantera wrote this as a slow, patient piece, and rushing any section of it will cost you everything that makes it worth learning.

• The clean arpeggio passages in D minor require precise picking dynamics, as any tension in the right hand will kill the delicate tone the song depends on.
• Dimebag Darrell's closing solo prioritises expressive vibrato and legato phrasing over speed, making it a strong exercise in emotional note control.
• The song shifts between clean fingerpicked sections and heavy rhythm guitar, so setting up two distinct tones before you practise is worth the preparation time.