Sylosis - "Servitude" Guitar Lesson With TABS | SUPER HEAVY

On the list of Heaviest Riffs Ever, “Servitude” by Sylosis has got to be there somewhere. When you consider the fact that the song is in E standard tuning of all things, well that just takes its ranking up a few notches. 

Over the years, I’ve noticed that a lot of people have different ideas of what “heavy” means as it relates to music. To me, I think that heaviness consists of crushing, chugging riffage that's usually played at a slow to mid-tempo. 

Of all the heavy E standard songs out there, only a handful come to mind that even compare to the brutality of this guitar work by Josh Middleton. 

Grab your axe, take a seat, and join me as we play the heaviest E standard song ever.

Tones

If you're a tone-chaser, my setup for this song is fairly simple. I'm running my guitar through my interface, which then plugs into my computer. Reaper is my digital audio workstation. In this case, I'm using Amped Roots by ML Sound Lab as a digital amp simulator.  

Intro & Verse Riffs

The intro and main verse riffs for this song occur back-to-back.  Creative songwriting can be recognized due to the strong similarities between these two riffs.  Even though the rhythm and melody of both riffs are essentially the same, each riff produces a drastically different effect.  The single-note intro is more ambient while the main verse riff is more crushing.

Reference the tab below to learn the intro riff.  This particular riff allows us to ease into the song and get a taste of what to expect from its motif.  Note how the intro has two guitar parts that occur harmoniously.

Once you've got the intro riff down, it'll be easier for you to learn the main verse riff that follows it. Pay close attention to the use of palm-muting and slides that occur in both riffs. The verse riff consists entirely of dyads using perfect 5th and inverted 5th/perfect 4th intervals. The tab for the verse riff can be referenced below.

Chorus

The chorus riff is perhaps the easiest riff to learn in this lesson.  It consists entirely of octave shapes that dance along the fretboard.  Note how the E octave shape includes the open low E string and the 2nd fret of the D string.  For this specific shape, I find it easier to incorporate hybrid picking by using my ring finger to pluck the 2nd fret of the D string at the same time the open low E string is being plucked with my guitar pick.  This method allows only the two E notes to be heard since you don't have to worry about muting the A string, which you should be doing with the other octave shapes.  If you struggle to mute the A string when strumming through the other octave shapes, you could simply use hybrid picking to play those shapes as well.  Reference the tab below to learn the chorus riff.

Breakdown Riff (Unbelievably HEAVY)

Finally, we arrive at the biggest, most powerful riff in the song--perhaps one of the heaviest riffs of all time.  Reference the tab below to learn the breakdown riff.  There, be sure you're paying attention to the use of slides and palm-muting wherever they occur just as they did in the main verse riff.  What makes these riffs sound heavy is the use of palm-muting, perfect 5ths, and inverted 5ths/perfect 4ths.  I strongly recommend using these devices if you want to make E standard tuning sound MASSIVELY heavy!

Conclusion

The heaviness of this song speaks for itself. The use of palm muting, perfect 5ths, and inverted 5ths maximize the effectiveness of E standard tuning to result in something that is truly brutal. Just because a song isn’t played in a lower tuning, it doesn't mean the song can't be heavy. I'd argue that E standard songs like “Servitude” can be even heavier than songs in lower tunings. Stick in, tackle this song one riff at a time, and before you know it, you'll have a super heavy tune to play at a moment's notice.

Watch the full lesson here: Sylosis - "Servitude" Guitar Lesson With TABS | SUPER HEAVY