Slayer - War Ensemble, palm muted fast shit
Slayer - Postmortem, downpicking and tremolo, I still can't play it without getting tired.
Slayer - Mandatory Suicide, easy but good exercise.
Slayer - Angel of Death, its fun.
Metallica - Master of Puppets, gotta play it...downpicking galore.
Cannibal Corpse - Sentenced to Burn, downpicking.

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Haha yep, many people say its one of their first songs, but no way... That downpicking gets tiring, and the trem picking isnt easy either

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I'm worrying about my downpicking technique though, theres now way in hell I can play without a bit of my arm moving as well as my wrist. Theres on position that work so that only my wrist is moving but it is awkward as hell and I look like a moron.

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Errr, all this is great, but maybe instead of listing songs, you guys could incorporate them into my list? And could someone provide a decent shredding/soloing LIST (I know that there many good enough guitarists around here do make one)

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I think we should keep this thread going and going ... I like the idea of it.

"I Am A Viking" for your first Yngwie song.

"Devil's Slide" by Joe Satriani, for advancing your legato technique.

I'll add:

Between the Buried and Me - Coulrophobia (very tiring downpicking)

Between the Buried and Me - Camilla Rhodes (very fast song)

Between the Buried and Me - Aesthetic (for sweeps)

The Black Dahlia Murder - Funeral thirst (fast tremolo and alternate picking)

Pffft fags.


Pantera - Cowboys From Hell.

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For mad tapping skills... start out on Van Halen "Eruption"... that will build strength and speed... then get a hold of Steve Vai's "Rescue me or Bury me"... the last tapping section of that will be super hard... but its fucking tight as hell if you can pull it off.
Flat picking speed and strenth....Metallica's "Master of puppets" is gold for flat picking exercise...
Alternate picking.... Metallica's "Fade to black" outro solo is pretty good practice,... even "The Call of Ktulu" has an awsome solo peice... that will build lots of strenght in your picking hand as well as control while skiping strings... almost too easy though because of the predictability of running one whole scale down the neck... but always good to start out on.
Fret hand speed.... Just about any classical peices... get a hold of a song called "Eugene's Trick Bag"... its on Steve Vai's Elusive Light and sound album... Its a solo based on Paganinis 5th Caprice.. but then... Joe Satrianis solo in "Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness" is relatively short,... but pretty challenging.. not much picking.. .but lots of fast finger movement....

cheers, mine's too man.

Speaking of Pagannini ... learn all of the caprices. Then you'll have technical facilliation rivaled by very few.

And to become proficient in odd time signatures, Steve Vai's "Incantation" or Tool's "The Grudge" is certainly good work.

Sorry to dig up this old dog but I figured I'd add my own opinion to the mix and this thread could be useful for beginners.

Steve Vai - For The Love of God - Good for improving a melodic ear
Paganini - Caprice #5 in Am
Children of Bodom - Deadnight Warrior, Children of Bodom, Everytime I Die
Anything by Yngwie Malmsteen
Necrophagist - Stabwound
Necrophagist - Only Ash Remains
Lamb of God - A lot of their stuff is good for developing disciplined picking.

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Try classical gas or some blackbird picking to bone up on fingerpicking. That or blackstar/disciples from hell. I remember those being hard when I started.

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As far as incorporating songs to your list, I would say "Seven" by Necrophagist would go right above foul body autopsy. This is an excellent song to develop string skipping accuracy and speed!! Plus the solo in it is fairly decent

And for solos, I don't know where to put this on your list, but the solo from "Dimished to be" - Necrophagist is probably one of their easier ones that they play.

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Ensiferum - Iron

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here's one with pretty hard to do "finger-stretches"... I learnt it a while ago and it still hurts (my left hand) to play it for long periods..

Old Man's Child - God of Impiety

another stupid song to learn but that still practices alot is the boss batlle song from final fantasy (6)

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allmost any cob

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In my opinion its all very personal. When you see a song that is out of your reach, all you need is determination and perseverance. Just say too yourself "Man that's fucking hard, I wanna play that" and over time youll learn the tab (since going at it straight might put you off)

To contradict myself, Psycroptic songs get you to that "higher level" (unless you blast Necrophagist all day, which most of us dont, so it is worth a mention)
Psycroptic = heaps of tremolo picking, nice doomy riffs, catchy, and awesome.. give it a shot!

looks like this hasn't been mentioned

King Diamond - The Family Ghost
or
King Diamond - anything off the Abigail album

that shit fucking rules...

also Toxik, Necrophagist, Megadeth, and Metallica to improve picking/solos/playing in all generalities

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They have awesome,unique sounding riffs.