GET THE SOUND
Everything you need to know before playing ‘Fade To Black’
Recorded at Flemming Rasmussen’s Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, (which the band would return to two years later for Master Of Puppets), Metallica’s sophomore album was more progressive and stylistically greater in scope than the all-out thrash assault of Kill ’Em All. Fade To Black features acoustic guitars, melodic solos and a non-standard structure more akin to the Stairway To Heaven school of songcraft.
Regarding the song’s epic outro, Kirk Hammett recently told TG, “When guitar players first started incorporating arpeggios into their playing, before the whole Yngwie sweep-picking thing, arpeggios were played on two strings – not three or four strings
– and so that was what the vogue was at the time in the 80s… Before the Yngwie sweeppicking thing, it was to play arpeggios that way and so I have been playing those for a long time and I use my middle finger just to anchor my position on the neck, at the 12th fret or 17th fret, 19th fret, whatever.” Thanks for the tip, Kirk!
For Ridethelightning, James Hetfield used his white $200 Epiphone Flying V with a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup in the bridge and Kirk opted for his black Gibson Flying V. In place of Hetfield’s Jose Arredondo modded Marshall JCM800 head, which had been stolen after a show in Boston, producer Flemming Rasmussen sourced a stock 1984 JCM800 2203 and paired it with an Ibanez Tube Screamer. The distorted tone is thick and bassy, generating a proper ‘gut-punch’ on palm-muted powerchords. The clean guitar parts are doubled with a 12-string acoustic. If you’re playing solo, use a chorus effect or try a 12-string emulator such as Digitech’s Mosaic pedal. The original is roughly a quarter-tone sharp but our backing track is at standard A440 pitch.
Kirk’s first solo stays in the B natural minor scale (B C# D E F# G A), elevated by the colourful open string riff played by James. The final outro solo is played over a progression that echoes the intro riff, but adds a BM/G sound and layered harmonies. Kirk uses B minor again, pulling out the B minor pentatonic (B D E F# A) notes. He also throws in the interval, transforming the scale into B Phrygian mode (B C D E F# G A).