I remember listening an interview from Metallica and they said they would come up with riffs and then choose the best ones and go from there

My question is...do riffs always have underlying chords behind it? Or is that not the case? For example master of puppets from Metallica and holy wars from megadeth play so much notes I dont know if any chords behind those riffs make sense

So I am assumming riffs do not follow any chords in particular, is this correct?

 

So a riff combines melody and rhythm.
But it's main focus is the groove the rhythm.
Metallica And Megadeth play many notes , but that doesn't have anything to do with the chords .
Metallica master of puppets the entire song is 1 chord. Megadeth the same way .
It's 1 chord per song music ( sometimes 2 or 3 chords per song )
So a riff always does describe the harmony underneath .
But the harmony has nothing to do with how many notes or how fast the notes are.
The harmony is like a cement foundation that a building site on.
Riffs definitely are laying out the song structure the chords underneath.
It just happens that a Metallica or Megadeth song
They use 1 chord for the whole song.
But a riff does not have to do that.
A riff can layout a advanced chord progression.
Heres example of Metallica song .

Emin7/Emin7/Emin7/Emin7/ X 8

That's what the riffs are showing.

However you could write riffs based on this for example .

Cmaj7/ F#dim7/ Dmin7/ G7alt/

Bmin7b5/E7b9/ Amin6/ Amin6/

Cmaj7/ F#min7b5/ B7b9/Emin6/

Cmaj7/ Gmin7/ C7b9/ Fmaj7 /

Fmaj7/ Fmin7/ Bb7b9/ Cmaj7/

Bmin7b5/ E7b9/ Amin6/ Amin6/


So in summary , yes a riff always describes the harmony underneath .
Next the speed of notes changing does not say anything about how advanced the harmony is.
A riff is a Melody combined with rhythm .
However the rhythm is more important in a riff.
A lick is a Melody and rhythm where the melody more important .
Finally you can make riffs or licks as harmonically advanced as you want .

I will share with you s more advanced music here
( More advanced than metal much more )
However its just a couple steps more advanced so it's not too overwhelming compared to very advanced harmony.

Find part of video where the band plays together.
You'll notice that it's not " flat" like metal
It's three-dimensional .
1 dimension melody
1 dimension rhythm
1 dimension harmony .
See in metal all the instruments act like the drums to give you high energy .
( But the price paid for the higher energy is flat sound where the music portion sits still nothing is happening musically .)

Here's different kind of riffs , but amazing riffs

And here, I'll share with you the highest quality riffs I know of , ( just happens to be 100 years old )
It outlines pretty advanced harmony ( 100 times more advanced than metal though )

This is musicianship of godly level.

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2019

Holdsworth was the man RIP

 

I guess any riff or melody can instigate chordings.