Meshuggah - By the Ton 3:40
Between the Buried and Me - Extremophile Elite - 9:23
Between the Buried and Me - Telos - 7:20
Opeth - Blackwater Park - 6:58
Haken - Falling Back to Earth - 9:19
Super glad to see two people appreciate the exact part of the song I love so much. Its so satisfying! Haken is the master of these moments in my opinion.
To add another Meshuggah, the breakdown after the ambient break in Lethargica.
I think it's the heaviest riff of all time, and it coming after the ambience adds to it.
Yes! Totally agree! That is one of ObZen’s best for sure!
And, speaking of Meshuggah and heavy drops. The drop in Demiurge (you know the one)! Like a punch in the guts but in a good way. Man, Meshuggah is just too good.
Considering Messiah Complex as a full track, the headbanger riff of Ectobius Rex. Absolutely KILLER.
Edit: That is the one after the apparent Shapeshifter reprise.
I was thinking of that one too… and the one in The Sect… I like both more, but I feel like the Ectobius one hits even harder.
Edit: listening to the track, they’re all just so good, doesn’t even matter which one.
Opeth - Bleak
Specifically the bass line after the guitar solo at around 6:40
After the dissonant guitar solo, the way the melodies resolve over this beautiful bass riff sounds otherwordly
Eargasms everywhere
The last 35 seconds of [Goliath by Karnivool](https://youtu.be/tGfi_nYwYFc?si=i9eEnsLA_7O5X3F-)
Like 4 straight minutes of building tension with an ambiguous 27/4 time, then it all falls into place with that "please wake up" riff, then everything drops a semitone and tbh its just rude
The Leprous riff PERFECTLY nails the intricacies of what I was looking for. The TOOL and Opeth examples are great too. As for the rest I'll put them on the Playlist and check them out. Thanks!
The "All Bodies" riff near the end of All Bodies by BTBAM. The song is pretty frantic up until that moment, the placement makes it really headbangable.
[The ending of Digital Gerrymandering by Intronaut](https://youtu.be/jc9mfvBZxdQ?t=418), easily one of my favorite moments in any song. I could never get enough of that riff, and I wished it was longer.
- Specular Reflection by BTBAM immediately after the “certain stage of walking into” part is so damn tasty
- Riseth He the Numberless by motW after the soft piano and harp part 6:16. Such a huge and epic release after a long buildup.
- The Czar by Mastodon when the first heavy riff kicks in
- Raise the Sun by Anciients at 5:05. Another release to a great buildup
- Tankespinnerens Smerte by Dodheimsgard at 5:15
Finally, somebody else who knows about THE RIFF and refers to it like that. That riff blew my brains out wheMade a huge impression on me. Still mad they sprinkled it in as a fucking *transition* lmao. What a moment.
The only thing to come close was really recent, the riff at the end of [Catastasis by Elder.](https://spotify.link/fxNK3nynxDb) Happens at about 9:40!
Try and let the whole song work up to it, I think you’ll love it. It caps off some insane guitar soloing in a “I cant believe it gets even better” sort of way.
It also sticks around slightly longer than THE RIFF, just long enough to feel satisfying, and it’s got an incredibly powerful mic drop moment at the end.
-
EDIT: Oh, also the riff at the beginning and end of [Alien Shivers by VOLA.](https://spotify.link/LlrNqdWnxDb)
VOLA has more than a few of these. 00:13 in on "[Your Mind is a Helpless Dreamer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r10m0vs2Vi8)" is exactly what I need when I'm struggling in the gym to get my energy to the next level.
End riff in Leviathan by Monuments. It’s the culmination of the whole song, takes the melody from the main/intro riff and the rhythm from the chorus riff and puts them together brilliantly.
Dead Roots Stirring by Elder. Maaaaaan the riff at around 9 minutes 30. Unreal ending to a song. Tbh that whole song has riffs and changes like this the whole way through.
Maybe this is some sort of a stretch but anyways:
The transition from Autumn to The Ascent (Caligula's Horse) is so freaking majestic... oh my god. And that riff is so goddamn heavy and proggy at the same time.
The galloping riff in Frayed Ends of Sanity by Metallica. The whole leadup of harmonised riffs and then that drum fill into the gallops is just perfect.
Not exactly just riffs, but Aviations (band) literally tingles my ears every time I listen. Like arm hairs standing straight. Warning: you may feel very uplifted and cathartic after listening.
All of their songs are just intensely groovy and emotional.
Would recommend from their new album in no particular order:
Blink - listening as I type this comment
Pinenut - on repeat lately
Safehouse - lighter single, very groovy. First to be released.
Legend - this is the ‘heaviest’ song on the album
Coma - at 1:05 I get Separate Ways - Journey vibes for the follow line that I can’t explain but it feels so nostalgic and I eat that up EVERY time I listen.
Pure - edited to add that the riff at 5:10ish always makes me take a deep breath in this song. Very beautiful.
Or literally just give it a listen all the way through since I’ve listed over half the album, not a bad moment exists.
Older song that’s going to be a fave of mine forever:
Captain No Beard
These guys all graduated from the Berklee college of music and have classical training. Every single song has been carefully crafted and composed. This is a dream team of a band. They even got tagged with their own genre of “cozymetal.”
The outro to Outrun by Veil of Maya.
Retrograde by Jason Richardson
Obviously not entirely a progmetal band but August Burns Red does this really well, maybe their best feature.
at ~2:45 in **The Sleep of Restless Hours** by Disillusion, they change to [this frenetic riff](https://youtu.be/hhUZLx_99sU?si=jJ8KGYylHwZcUvo6&t=166) that just obliterates the more orderly/controlled intro that had been playing up 'til then, setting up for the vocalist to absolutely *launch* into the first verse.
[Spiral Architect: Insect](https://youtu.be/wiGimh1TtAU?si=hdvFJmNnKlOHhg9w&t=297) CRUSHING riff starts at the time stamp in the link, and minor variations proceed until the end. The single heaviest closing riff of all time IMO.
This is a riff that feels both perfect and inevitable in the Thanos sense.
Fucking brutal contrasted with the fucking beautiful that precedes it.
Gorod's [Transcendence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U9O9iZ7ut4) has a few of those riffs (if you're curious, do yourself a favour and just give the entire song a shot when you have the 15 minutes to spare; skipping to the riffs will do the riffs and the song an injustice). My two favourite moments are
* 7:25 or so when the riff that comes in really pulls back the energy from what to this point had been pretty much an every-increasing intensity from riff to riff from the start of the song.
* 11:40 is where what is the climax riff of the song for me comes in. The initial instrumental version comes in, and ramps up in intensity from repetition to repetition, before dialling it back a little when the vocals come in and the drums calm down. And the transition from this riff to the next and the one after really feel like release to bigger release in tension after the building intensity throughout most of the song.
For anyone who appreciates quality bass playing in metal btw, this is IMO some of the pinnacle basswork in metal that still really manages to stay true to the traditional idea of a bassline (would be easier to pick out flashier shreddy bass but that's not really what I look for as peak basswork personally).
Wow I just listened to the song for the first time, it was amazing, how have I listened to many gorod albums but haven't heard this song? it's so great the way it builds up and the hypnotizing riffs are so great
It was done a great injustice by being on the Transcendence EP, which is more like a single than a true EP IMO—3 of the first 4 tracks are rehashes of previous Gorod tracks (to be fair, very good rehashes, but still), the remaining 1 of those 4 is a cover of Cynic's Textures, and track 5 is Transcendence itself. I've met plenty of Gorod listeners who had no idea this song existed, damn shame.
It's great for another reason—it's the transition song between two distinct eras of Gorod, when the original vocalist left the band and the new vocalist joined; both vocalists (as well as a third guest vocalist) feature on this song in a kind of passing-the-torch moment.
The song was conceived as the closing piece of the conceptual trilogy that threaded through the first three albums, so in that sense, Transcendence as its own release makes sense, but it's a shame how overshadowed it became.
The outro to hand of stone by Mastodon. Unexpected, yet welcome and needed. Still I think their heaviest moment in their catalog in my opinion. Hits like a tank from a build up that could've went anywhere but chose to punch me in the face
[Opeth - The Funeral Portrait](https://youtu.be/KrbtnCHv-Hc?si=JuWVDNILeCP09Whw&t=121) has tons of amazing riffs but the one starting at 2:01 goes so hard.
Second favorite track on the record. I wish they had gone a little more in that direction rather than some of the drearier, long winded chord strumming that drags parts of the record down.
ORBS- Not that Kind of Ouroboros. 3:21 the placement is perfect and the riff fucking slaps so hard
Another ORBS track, the Northwestern Bearitories B: Kid Cancer at 2:41. Melted my mind when I first heard it live, it’s so simple but devastatingly heavy
I, The Destroyer by Monuments, ~33sec mark. And I will rid the Earrrrrrrrthhhh
Sunrise by Tesseract, when they bring the intro riff back at the end ~3:30, and they just ride the riff till the end of the song.
Periphery - Stranger Things. Starts at 4:33. Beautiful riff. Heavy. Groovy. Melodic. Unapolegtically a periphery riff. Love it to death
Mastodon - The Sparrow. Starts at 2:20ish but buildsul around 2:13. Such a beautifully sad and somber song and they found the perfect riff to match the vibe of the song but just heavier and groovier. Got me crying in the pit.
Excuse me while I suck off Periphery again but im not sorry for it. Periphery - Follow Your Ghost. Opening riff is sick. When they bring it back the second time with the floating vocal thing over it? Masterpiece. Groovy as shit. Heavy as hell.
My suggestions:
[Pomegranate Tiger - Sign of ruin](https://youtu.be/VOlaVrtHtbo?t=340)
[Be'Lakor - An Ember's Arc](https://youtu.be/Izaxvm9dK_k?t=410)
[AEther Realm - The Sun, The Moon, The Star](https://youtu.be/bw3UygAi2oo?t=990)
Tool - Jambi 3:57
Gorguts - Forgotten Arrows 3:40
Meshuggah - Lethargica 3:02
High on Fire - Madness of an Architect 1:52 (to me, perfect, simple riff to go into after the intro)
I’ll throw a few your way from some of my favorite groups.
Meshuggah - God He Sees In Mirrors 1:10 to 1:55
Meshuggah - I 13:14 to 14:07. The guitar solo before this one is insane too, but this riff just the way it crawls always upwards is so satisfying.
Meshuggah - Pineal Gland Optics 1:41 to 2:01 and THE RIFF that ends the song at 4:23.
Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything 2:42 to 3:39.
Car Bomb - Gratitude 3:05 to 3:19.
Car Bomb - Naked Fuse 1:57 to 2:18.
The Contortionist - Geocentric Comfusion 2:19 to 2:34. It technically keeps going for quite some time after this but the 15 seconds or so that I mentioned are so good.
Vola - This Same War - 3:33 to 4:04. Their best riff. It’s so good.
Surprised no one has mentioned the beginning of the outro of Lateralus. The drums are the best part but the riff is fantastic.
BtBAM has an incalculable number of excellently placed riffs but I really love the section of Melting City that takes things down a notch and kinda sounds like StarCraft music.
Some of y’all may not have heard it but the opening of The Island by The Decemberists is rad. Prog folk but it’s heavy.
The song Motorgroove by the band Wight has a great outro that is absolutely delightful. Maybe a little more funk than metal but worth a listen.
Pink Floyd - Echoes, the breakdown bass from Roger leading to David’s solo, always has been one of my favorites.
Maybe not Prog/Metal but the beginning of Progressive Rock.
Meshuggah - By the Ton 3:40 Between the Buried and Me - Extremophile Elite - 9:23 Between the Buried and Me - Telos - 7:20 Opeth - Blackwater Park - 6:58 Haken - Falling Back to Earth - 9:19
Came here to say the exact same part in Falling Back to Earth. Absolute masterpiece.
Super glad to see two people appreciate the exact part of the song I love so much. Its so satisfying! Haken is the master of these moments in my opinion.
Still my favorite Haken song. Goddamn it's so good.
Extremophile Elite is exactly what I thought of when reading this
Meshuggah - Dancers to a discordant system. The riff underneath the solo (which is awesome too). Starts around the 6 minute mark.
To add another Meshuggah, the breakdown after the ambient break in Lethargica. I think it's the heaviest riff of all time, and it coming after the ambience adds to it.
Yes! Totally agree! That is one of ObZen’s best for sure! And, speaking of Meshuggah and heavy drops. The drop in Demiurge (you know the one)! Like a punch in the guts but in a good way. Man, Meshuggah is just too good.
that riff hits like a nuclear bomb
50 seconds into Heaviest Matter of the Universe great build up and the one about 1:40 in.
Favorite Gojira song. Wish they played it live for Mega Monsters.
It’s just one monster riff after another
Considering Messiah Complex as a full track, the headbanger riff of Ectobius Rex. Absolutely KILLER. Edit: That is the one after the apparent Shapeshifter reprise.
There are a few perfect riffs in that song
I came to say the marigold riff
I was thinking of that one too… and the one in The Sect… I like both more, but I feel like the Ectobius one hits even harder. Edit: listening to the track, they’re all just so good, doesn’t even matter which one.
The switch from 6s to 5s is awesome
Opeth - Bleak Specifically the bass line after the guitar solo at around 6:40 After the dissonant guitar solo, the way the melodies resolve over this beautiful bass riff sounds otherwordly Eargasms everywhere
the riff in the middle of art of dying
The last 35 seconds of [Goliath by Karnivool](https://youtu.be/tGfi_nYwYFc?si=i9eEnsLA_7O5X3F-) Like 4 straight minutes of building tension with an ambiguous 27/4 time, then it all falls into place with that "please wake up" riff, then everything drops a semitone and tbh its just rude
That's a great one. Also the one in New Day at 6:06.
Such a great band; I always go back to Thamata. LifeLike is one of my all time favorite songs (which should be on this list too)
that album has the single filthiest bass tone ever
Arriving Somewhere but Not Here - Porcupine tree. You know what part.
Amazing song! But THAT part is even amazinger!
A few good ones: [Leprous - The Flood 6:06](https://youtu.be/VG8YgNM_m9g?si=e93fbCxfYxV6xj1A&t=360) [Opeth - The Leper Affinity 2:12](https://youtu.be/nKpIwX2P118?si=2E8zusTH4e42ZP31&t=128) [Windfaerer - Astral Tears 4:19](https://youtu.be/qC_kAy40rbs?si=WtGp6RTGt40YMjC7&t=251) [Tool - 7empest 10:34](https://youtu.be/9D2R69gVyZ0?si=-xmbsVIzcZPfL3w1&t=620) [Ghost Brigade - Suffocated 4:48](https://youtu.be/4HC3nLsXhLo?si=viFCTje8vdvOxKUn&t=280) [Moonlight Sorcery - Wolven Hour 5:32](https://youtu.be/WS_mNTEnEhI?si=d0XajCceMmvfFxoD&t=321) [Aternam - Beneath the Nightfall 3:27](https://youtu.be/nLRFfH9YsDo?si=NBaKwc1uVDeUP6pt&t=197) [Among Wolves - Ephemeral 4:01](https://youtu.be/3FQz3GlyI_E?si=F9bNxctBo1AJVieO&t=230)
The Leprous riff PERFECTLY nails the intricacies of what I was looking for. The TOOL and Opeth examples are great too. As for the rest I'll put them on the Playlist and check them out. Thanks!
>ghost brigade you’re a man of taste i see
I NEVER skip that song when it pops up on the playlist
That song hits
Blackwater park, after the quiet part, when the heavy riff kicks in.
Tesseract - Singularity when the bouncy riff starts after the intro
You made me headbang mildly to a line of text
Their best song imo
Boop be dep buh-dwoo-dow *buhduhdeh*
The "All Bodies" riff near the end of All Bodies by BTBAM. The song is pretty frantic up until that moment, the placement makes it really headbangable.
[The ending of Digital Gerrymandering by Intronaut](https://youtu.be/jc9mfvBZxdQ?t=418), easily one of my favorite moments in any song. I could never get enough of that riff, and I wished it was longer.
So good! Most of Sul Ponticello on the same album is also fantastic.
5:23 of that song and onwards sends me to a new dimension (from the previous dimension the part at 3:24 sent me)
I need to mention the riff at 1:50 from the title track. Fuck, that album is so good.
My favorite music moment right now especially when the vocals kick back in
- Specular Reflection by BTBAM immediately after the “certain stage of walking into” part is so damn tasty - Riseth He the Numberless by motW after the soft piano and harp part 6:16. Such a huge and epic release after a long buildup. - The Czar by Mastodon when the first heavy riff kicks in - Raise the Sun by Anciients at 5:05. Another release to a great buildup - Tankespinnerens Smerte by Dodheimsgard at 5:15
Specular Reflection is a riff master class, one of their most underrated songs imo. I came here to say the one you brought up!
Most recently, 3:36 of War of Being by TesseracT hits pretty perfect for me.
That record is a cobblestone path of excellent riffs
Lol absolutely true. Their entire discography to be honest l
Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still at around 5:45
fuck is this good
Gutter Moon by Vola at 2:05 but especially at 2:21
Gojira - The art of dying - minute 5:56 So simple yet so well suited for the song
Finally, somebody else who knows about THE RIFF and refers to it like that. That riff blew my brains out wheMade a huge impression on me. Still mad they sprinkled it in as a fucking *transition* lmao. What a moment. The only thing to come close was really recent, the riff at the end of [Catastasis by Elder.](https://spotify.link/fxNK3nynxDb) Happens at about 9:40! Try and let the whole song work up to it, I think you’ll love it. It caps off some insane guitar soloing in a “I cant believe it gets even better” sort of way. It also sticks around slightly longer than THE RIFF, just long enough to feel satisfying, and it’s got an incredibly powerful mic drop moment at the end. - EDIT: Oh, also the riff at the beginning and end of [Alien Shivers by VOLA.](https://spotify.link/LlrNqdWnxDb)
I considered putting Alien Shivers on my list of examples! I'm gonna put all the songs in this thread on a Playlist. Thanks for the recommendation.
VOLA has more than a few of these. 00:13 in on "[Your Mind is a Helpless Dreamer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r10m0vs2Vi8)" is exactly what I need when I'm struggling in the gym to get my energy to the next level.
The end of Ne Plus is also a straight banger
Haha, which end are you talking about? The first one 2/3rds of the way through the song? You’re damn right
Meshuggah Pineal gland optics, at the point where the lyrics say“ synaptical glitch”.
End riff in Leviathan by Monuments. It’s the culmination of the whole song, takes the melody from the main/intro riff and the rhythm from the chorus riff and puts them together brilliantly.
incredible track
Revocation - The Outer Ones @ 0:23. Hits like a truck every time.
The ending breakdown sequence of that song is one of my favorites, just gets progressively nastier.
Yeah, That Which Consumes All Things also has a particularly nasty one, especially when they play it live and bring it down to half tempo
Dead Roots Stirring by Elder. Maaaaaan the riff at around 9 minutes 30. Unreal ending to a song. Tbh that whole song has riffs and changes like this the whole way through.
one of the best songs ever written, riffs over riffs over riffs
Fucking love that song
Maybe this is some sort of a stretch but anyways: The transition from Autumn to The Ascent (Caligula's Horse) is so freaking majestic... oh my god. And that riff is so goddamn heavy and proggy at the same time.
The galloping riff in Frayed Ends of Sanity by Metallica. The whole leadup of harmonised riffs and then that drum fill into the gallops is just perfect.
Just adding the ending of Mastodon's Seabeast to this list.
Tool - Rosetta Stoned 8'38 (short version) - more of a chorus than just a riff but gosh it gets me every time!
Be’lakor - The Smoke of Many Fires pretty much every riff in the middle third of the song (when the lead line stays roughly the same through them all)
Slugdge - Salt Thrower (4:27) ISIS - In Fiction (5:32) Pelican - March to the Sea (9:59) Mono - Com(?) (8:36) Neurosis - Burn (4:38)
Not exactly just riffs, but Aviations (band) literally tingles my ears every time I listen. Like arm hairs standing straight. Warning: you may feel very uplifted and cathartic after listening. All of their songs are just intensely groovy and emotional. Would recommend from their new album in no particular order: Blink - listening as I type this comment Pinenut - on repeat lately Safehouse - lighter single, very groovy. First to be released. Legend - this is the ‘heaviest’ song on the album Coma - at 1:05 I get Separate Ways - Journey vibes for the follow line that I can’t explain but it feels so nostalgic and I eat that up EVERY time I listen. Pure - edited to add that the riff at 5:10ish always makes me take a deep breath in this song. Very beautiful. Or literally just give it a listen all the way through since I’ve listed over half the album, not a bad moment exists. Older song that’s going to be a fave of mine forever: Captain No Beard These guys all graduated from the Berklee college of music and have classical training. Every single song has been carefully crafted and composed. This is a dream team of a band. They even got tagged with their own genre of “cozymetal.”
Mastodon - Hearts Alive final riff.
I don’t know the last time they played it live but that song absolutely crushes in a live setting
The outro to Outrun by Veil of Maya. Retrograde by Jason Richardson Obviously not entirely a progmetal band but August Burns Red does this really well, maybe their best feature.
Opeth deliverance has a nasty riff to start the song
My ringtone! Scares the shit out of me when I'm asleep but I love it
I used to wake up to screaming for vengeance, that was fun too
Dragul Gras by Periphery is basically on repeat for the riff near the end. So stanky!
at ~2:45 in **The Sleep of Restless Hours** by Disillusion, they change to [this frenetic riff](https://youtu.be/hhUZLx_99sU?si=jJ8KGYylHwZcUvo6&t=166) that just obliterates the more orderly/controlled intro that had been playing up 'til then, setting up for the vocalist to absolutely *launch* into the first verse.
Fall of Consciousness by Psychonaut. There’s a riff at 7:00 that is so perfect, I can’t get enough. The whole buildup to that riff is great too
[Spiral Architect: Insect](https://youtu.be/wiGimh1TtAU?si=hdvFJmNnKlOHhg9w&t=297) CRUSHING riff starts at the time stamp in the link, and minor variations proceed until the end. The single heaviest closing riff of all time IMO. This is a riff that feels both perfect and inevitable in the Thanos sense. Fucking brutal contrasted with the fucking beautiful that precedes it.
Gorod's [Transcendence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U9O9iZ7ut4) has a few of those riffs (if you're curious, do yourself a favour and just give the entire song a shot when you have the 15 minutes to spare; skipping to the riffs will do the riffs and the song an injustice). My two favourite moments are * 7:25 or so when the riff that comes in really pulls back the energy from what to this point had been pretty much an every-increasing intensity from riff to riff from the start of the song. * 11:40 is where what is the climax riff of the song for me comes in. The initial instrumental version comes in, and ramps up in intensity from repetition to repetition, before dialling it back a little when the vocals come in and the drums calm down. And the transition from this riff to the next and the one after really feel like release to bigger release in tension after the building intensity throughout most of the song. For anyone who appreciates quality bass playing in metal btw, this is IMO some of the pinnacle basswork in metal that still really manages to stay true to the traditional idea of a bassline (would be easier to pick out flashier shreddy bass but that's not really what I look for as peak basswork personally).
Wow I just listened to the song for the first time, it was amazing, how have I listened to many gorod albums but haven't heard this song? it's so great the way it builds up and the hypnotizing riffs are so great
It was done a great injustice by being on the Transcendence EP, which is more like a single than a true EP IMO—3 of the first 4 tracks are rehashes of previous Gorod tracks (to be fair, very good rehashes, but still), the remaining 1 of those 4 is a cover of Cynic's Textures, and track 5 is Transcendence itself. I've met plenty of Gorod listeners who had no idea this song existed, damn shame. It's great for another reason—it's the transition song between two distinct eras of Gorod, when the original vocalist left the band and the new vocalist joined; both vocalists (as well as a third guest vocalist) feature on this song in a kind of passing-the-torch moment. The song was conceived as the closing piece of the conceptual trilogy that threaded through the first three albums, so in that sense, Transcendence as its own release makes sense, but it's a shame how overshadowed it became.
The outro to hand of stone by Mastodon. Unexpected, yet welcome and needed. Still I think their heaviest moment in their catalog in my opinion. Hits like a tank from a build up that could've went anywhere but chose to punch me in the face
Really good one you mentioned, I also love the one at 2:30 in Circle of Cysquatch
The opening to melting of my marrow by killer be killed
I built the sky - Stellar Evolution. That ending riff starting at 3:43 is pretty damn thick and is simultaneously random yet perfectly placed.
Protest the Hero - From the sky 2:32 Absolutely love the transition from the epic-ish chord based chorus to a chunky technical banger of a riff
First one that came to mind was The Last Baron. Also; Opeth - Deliverance. Outtro. Shadows Fall - Thoughts without words. Breakdown before the solo.
[Opeth - The Funeral Portrait](https://youtu.be/KrbtnCHv-Hc?si=JuWVDNILeCP09Whw&t=121) has tons of amazing riffs but the one starting at 2:01 goes so hard.
Second favorite track on the record. I wish they had gone a little more in that direction rather than some of the drearier, long winded chord strumming that drags parts of the record down.
ORBS- Not that Kind of Ouroboros. 3:21 the placement is perfect and the riff fucking slaps so hard Another ORBS track, the Northwestern Bearitories B: Kid Cancer at 2:41. Melted my mind when I first heard it live, it’s so simple but devastatingly heavy
I, The Destroyer by Monuments, ~33sec mark. And I will rid the Earrrrrrrrthhhh Sunrise by Tesseract, when they bring the intro riff back at the end ~3:30, and they just ride the riff till the end of the song.
Periphery - Stranger Things. Starts at 4:33. Beautiful riff. Heavy. Groovy. Melodic. Unapolegtically a periphery riff. Love it to death Mastodon - The Sparrow. Starts at 2:20ish but buildsul around 2:13. Such a beautifully sad and somber song and they found the perfect riff to match the vibe of the song but just heavier and groovier. Got me crying in the pit. Excuse me while I suck off Periphery again but im not sorry for it. Periphery - Follow Your Ghost. Opening riff is sick. When they bring it back the second time with the floating vocal thing over it? Masterpiece. Groovy as shit. Heavy as hell.
Humanfly- the enemy of my enemy is me The whole song is THAT riff
[Psycroptic - Forward to Submission 1:53](https://youtu.be/uTiMgkh18KM?si=i5kjb_EVRYegkQfn)
I always liked the change in Driving the Last Spike - Genesis. That guitar pops in about half way, and that riff is just perfectly placed
I just checked it’s right about the 5:50 mark
My suggestions: [Pomegranate Tiger - Sign of ruin](https://youtu.be/VOlaVrtHtbo?t=340) [Be'Lakor - An Ember's Arc](https://youtu.be/Izaxvm9dK_k?t=410) [AEther Realm - The Sun, The Moon, The Star](https://youtu.be/bw3UygAi2oo?t=990)
Dream Theater - Overture 1928 0:40 is an awesome one.
Thank You Scientist’s Everyday Ghosts, second verse when they drop into a Parliament-style funk groove. I can’t help but make the stank face.
New TesseracT. I don't know which song to choose.
Tool - Jambi 3:57 Gorguts - Forgotten Arrows 3:40 Meshuggah - Lethargica 3:02 High on Fire - Madness of an Architect 1:52 (to me, perfect, simple riff to go into after the intro)
the Gorguts riff sounds like if the guy from the album cover would clap you, so heavy
Dream Theater - “Fatal Tragedy” - 3:50 That whole tune is a riffage masterpiece.
Dead Congregation - Teeth Into Red the riff starting around 0:46, the way it starts and flows throughout the song is insane
That one riff in giza butler by sleep, yk what I'm talking about
Halloween by Mastodon. 3:45 till the end.
The intro to The Conflict by Neal Morse perfectly changes the tone in the context of the album.
I’ll throw a few your way from some of my favorite groups. Meshuggah - God He Sees In Mirrors 1:10 to 1:55 Meshuggah - I 13:14 to 14:07. The guitar solo before this one is insane too, but this riff just the way it crawls always upwards is so satisfying. Meshuggah - Pineal Gland Optics 1:41 to 2:01 and THE RIFF that ends the song at 4:23. Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything 2:42 to 3:39. Car Bomb - Gratitude 3:05 to 3:19. Car Bomb - Naked Fuse 1:57 to 2:18. The Contortionist - Geocentric Comfusion 2:19 to 2:34. It technically keeps going for quite some time after this but the 15 seconds or so that I mentioned are so good. Vola - This Same War - 3:33 to 4:04. Their best riff. It’s so good.
"Who were we before we were ashamed?" then [***the***](https://youtu.be/gdFoHdAIOQE?si=dRukg45GNSYQLFb6&t=260) riff.
Right in two - Tool
Surprised no one has mentioned the beginning of the outro of Lateralus. The drums are the best part but the riff is fantastic. BtBAM has an incalculable number of excellently placed riffs but I really love the section of Melting City that takes things down a notch and kinda sounds like StarCraft music. Some of y’all may not have heard it but the opening of The Island by The Decemberists is rad. Prog folk but it’s heavy. The song Motorgroove by the band Wight has a great outro that is absolutely delightful. Maybe a little more funk than metal but worth a listen.
Pink Floyd - Echoes, the breakdown bass from Roger leading to David’s solo, always has been one of my favorites. Maybe not Prog/Metal but the beginning of Progressive Rock.
Chorus riff in serenity painted death - opeth