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Metallica - The Four Horsemen - Guitar Lesson

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Key E minor
Metallica - The Four Horsemen guitar lesson video
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Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
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Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
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Metallica Thrash Metal E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About The Four Horsemen

Few Metallica tracks reward methodical practice quite like this one. "The Four Horsemen" is built on a relentless series of riff changes in E minor that demand both right-hand stamina and clean left-hand transitions. The opening gallop riff sets the tone: alternate picking at a driving tempo across the lower strings, where any sloppiness in your pick attack becomes immediately obvious. There is also the mid-song breakdown, a slower, almost swaggering section that many players underestimate until they try to lock in its feel precisely. That section in particular is worth isolating with the Practice Toolbar, looping it slowed down until the rhythmic groove feels natural before you push the tempo back up. Metallica packed a lot of tonal ground into one song, so treat each distinct riff as its own exercise rather than rushing through the whole thing from the start.

  • The song features a prominent mid-track tempo shift into a cleaner, slower riff section that requires a noticeably different right-hand touch than the galloping verses.
  • Played in E minor, the main riffs sit heavily on the low E and A strings, making precise muting technique essential to avoid unwanted string noise.
  • The fast alternate-picked riff passages are a solid test of pick consistency, and practicing them in short loops slowed down will expose any uneven strokes quickly.

How to Play The Four Horsemen

Key: E minor · Tempo: 204 BPM

Loop the hardest passage and creep the speed up from around 70 percent until it holds at 204 BPM.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Kirk Hammett's vintage 1959 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard delivers warmer, more dynamic PAF-style tones that contrast his EMG-equipped ESP guitars, adding organic sustain to his lead work. This guitar's traditional construction gives his solos a thicker, less compressed character than his signature models.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

While not Hammett's primary choice, the Les Paul Custom shares the Les Paul's warm PAF pickup character and thick body resonance, offering heavier players an alternative to Strat-style designs for achieving Metallica's crushing rhythm tones.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

James Hetfield's early Gibson Explorer established his signature angular shape and thick body tone, delivering the aggressive midrange attack essential to Metallica's crushing rhythm style before his ESP signature models became his primary tool.

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

Kirk Hammett's Dual Rectifier heads provide the high-gain, midrange-forward aggression that lets his solos cut through Hetfield's scooped rhythm tone, creating definition and clarity in Metallica's dense wall of distortion.

EMG 81
Pickup

EMG 81

Hetfield's bridge EMG 81 delivers the hot, compressed output with tight low-end that defines Metallica's palm-muted riffs, the ceramic magnet and active preamp cutting through heavy arrangements with focused, aggressive attack.

EMG 60
Pickup

EMG 60

Both guitarists use the neck EMG 60 for warmer, more articulate rhythm tones and smoother lead voicings, balancing the 81's aggression with clearer note definition across Metallica's dense arrangements.

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