Herb Himes, lead guitarist with Knoxville’s space doom overlords NinjaWitch, told us about his love for a Savatage lick...
Herb Himes: This is so incredibly difficult because there have been many over the years that not only knocked me off my feet when I first heard them, but also went on to influence the foundation of my playing. Black Sabbath alone probably has 10 riffs I could pick, but I feel like that’s the case for any guitarist who plays heavy music. So I’m going to try and pick something that might be a little less expected, and that is the opening riff and verse progression in "Power of the Night" by Savatage.
As the album’s first track, the song starts with a little over a minute of spooky, expectation-building ’80s synth that has you waiting for the inevitable heaviness to kick in. When it finally does, it does not disappoint, delivering a driving, classic metal riff that, to this day, makes me want to break stuff when I hear it. This song is an anthem to the power and uniting force of metal, and young metalhead me felt every note as a source of pride and inclusion into something bigger than myself - the metal movement, which still means just as much to me today.
Criss Oliva was a masterful player, both lead and rhythm, whose playing had a distinctive bite and clarity that, in my humble opinion, no one else has been able to replicate. This is evidenced when the verse riff kicks in. The chord phrasings are clean and articulate and cut like a knife, while also being so heavy they punch you in the gut. Jon Oliva’s vocals over the top are the icing on the cake. That lead riff into the verse riff definitely blew my mind, and still does.
NinjaWitch's Frequency of Gods is out now.
