Morbid Angel - Desolate Ways - Guitar Tab

About Desolate Ways

Unlike most of what surrounds it on the record, "Desolate Ways" strips the aggression back to a clean, fingerpicked acoustic piece, which makes it the unusual challenge on the album for a guitarist to nail. The tuning is Drop D, so your lowest string sits a whole step down and changes the voicing of every open-position chord you reach for. At 120 BPM the tempo is moderate, but the mood demands a controlled, even touch across the strings rather than any kind of forceful attack. The work here is in keeping the notes clean and the dynamics consistent, especially through any longer melodic phrases. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the trickiest phrase slowed down until your fretting hand can move through it without tensing up. Morbid Angel rarely gave breathing room like this in their catalogue, and within the world of Death Metal an acoustic interlude demands its own discipline to play convincingly.

• "Desolate Ways" is an acoustic piece, so the focus shifts entirely to clean fingerpicking technique rather than the distorted riffing typical of the album.
• The Drop D tuning lowers the sixth string by a whole step, affecting open voicings and requiring you to rethink familiar chord shapes.
• At 120 BPM the tempo is approachable, but maintaining even dynamics and tone across the full piece is where the real practice challenge lies.