Gary Moore
Thin Lizzy
Died February 6
Guitarist for Irish rockers Thin Lizzy during several periods, Moore is more renowned and revered as a solo blues axman, whose playing reverberates in the six-string work of everyone from Slash to Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt. Metallica’s Kirk Hammett even cites him as one of his top five guitar influences, pointing to the solo in “Master of Puppets” and riffs he wrote for “The Unforgiven” as being inspired by Moore.

Phil Vane
Extreme Noise Terror
Died February 23
Vane made his name as the absolutely ferocious vocalist of pioneering UK crust-punk outfit Extreme Noise Terror, with whom he helped spearhead the late-’80s grindcore movement. He even briefly fronted grindcore originators Napalm Death, switching places with singer Barney Greenway, who appeared on ENT’s Damage 381 before returning to NP.

Mike Starr
Alice in Chains
Died March 8
The original bassist of Alice in Chains, Starr’s tense, throbbing bass lines underpinned classic grunge-metal albums like Facelift and Dirt. After splitting with the band while it was touring in support of the latter album, Starr formed supergroup Sun Red Sun alongside former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli, and later toured with Days of the New.

Scott Columbus
Manowar
Died April 4
Columbus was the longtime drummer of battle-metal barbarians Manowar, and his playing style was fittingly brutish: The skinsman pounded what he called the “Drums of Doom,” a kit made of stainless steel because his hit so hard that when he used standard kits, they had to be replaced too regularly.

Seth Putnam
Anal Cunt
Died June 11
The sick genius/retard behind Anal Cunt and grindcore micro-blasterpieces including “Women: Nature’s Punching Bag” and “Body by Auschwitz,” Putnam was extreme metal’s shock-rock provocateur bar none. He also famously feuded with Cannibal Corpse/Six Feet Under vocalist Chris Barnes (culminating in the AC tune “Chris Barnes is a Pussy”) and provided backing screams to songs on Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill.

Mario Comesanas
December Aeternalis, Low Road
Sirius-XM Liquid Metal, Revolver magazine
Died June 13
Hired in 2006, Comesanas was Revolver‘s longtime promotions director and our man on the road with Mayhem Fest from 2008 to 2010. A DJ on Sirius-XM’s Liquid Metal channel, he was a diehard champion of heavy music, as well as a musician in his own right, singing for death-metal outfit December Aeternalis and hardcore band Low Road, which was recording its debut with producer Joey Z, of Life of Agony, at the time of Comesanas’ passing.

Michael “Würzel” Burston
Motörhead
Died July 9
Guitarist for the mighty Motörhead from 1984 to 1995, Würzel laid down the licks on rumbling punk-metal landmarks like Orgasmatron and Rock ‘n’ Roll. He got his nickname while in the army, but Lemmy gave him the umlaut. At the time of his death, he was working on an album with his new band, Leader of Down.

Jani Lane
Warrant
Died August 11
One of the great frontmen of ’80s glam metal, Lane will probably be best remembered for the song and video, “Cherry Pie,” if not for bedding and wedding the clip’s smokin’ starlet, Bobbi Brown. In more recent years, the vocalist had gone solo, appeared on VH1′s Celebrity Fit Club 2, and toured with Great White.

Cory “Flattus Maximus” Smoot
Gwar
Died November 2
Adopting the role of Gwar’s red-faced, white-dreadlocked, dinosaur-shoulder-padded alien guitarist, Flattus Maximus, in 2002, Smoot was considered by fans as the “True Flattus” since he was the longest serving axman to play the character. He was also a major songwriter on the four Gwar albums he played on. After his death, bandleader Oderus Urungus announced that the character Flattus Maximus would be retired.

1. BLACK SABBATH, “Hole in the Sky,” from Sabotage, 1975
Trying to pick just one Sabbath riff as a favorite is tough because they wrote every good riff ever…even “Zero The Hero” has a killer riff. There are the obvious choices of “Paranoi,” “Iron Man,” “Children of the Grave” or the song “Black Sabbath,” which started it all, but this one opens my fav Sabbath record so it’s always stuck out for me. It might be the fact that it doesn’t start right away and you can actually hear Iommi turn up the volume on his guitar, put his hand over the strings to mute them then…BLAAADOWWWW! Get yer “G-word” on!

2. THIN LIZZY, “Chinatown,” Chinatown, 1980
The perfect song…I don’t know how else to describe it. Thin Lizzy were masters of the riff like no other. Each song a perfect tactical aural assault of endless guitarmonies and good times but this one captures the flag for me. Scott Gorham was the perfect Colonel for General Lynott's riff army. Whether he was battling beside Gary Moore, Snowy White, or Brian Robertson you can tell that he was the one leading the charge.

3. BLACK FLAG, “Loose Nut,” Loose Nut, 1985
A riff that manages to not only sound as sleazy and sloppy as the lyrics to the song but also manages to completely segregate the band from their raging punk output. That polarization started with the sludge fest that is the second half of ’84’s My War and of course ’85’s Slip It In is pretty much as sleazy as you can get, but it’s still filled with classic Black Flag sounding punk riffs. Loose Nut just changed it all. The whole album’s a mid-tempo face fuck to whatever poor kid would happen to be standing in the front row. It sounds like Nikki Sixx writing a Black Sabbath record. Grow yer hair and grind the air!

4. BUDGIE, “Napoleon Bona-Part 2,” Bandolier, 1975
It takes exactly 2:38 minutes to get through the whimsical, dream-like “Napoleon Bona-Part 1,” but once “Part 2” kicks in, look the fuck out! Yer welcome, Iron Maiden. Take this hammer to the back of the head, Metallica, and don’t fuck it up. Whoops, shit the bed there, buds! Budgie galloped like no other ever has or will…they did it best, hands down. There would be no N.W.O.B.H.M. or Bay Area thrash without Budgie, period. Unfortunately that also means we have them to thank for Dave Mustaine and the current influx of horrible, barely post-teen thrash-revival bands. Good job, Welshers!

5. (tie) MELVINS, “Revolve,” Stoner Witch, 1994 / HIS HERO IS GONE, “Like Weeds,” Monuments to Thieves, 1997
There are millions of awesome classic rock and blues riffs I would throw on this list, but in terms of influence on my playing, these two are huge. It’s hard to even break them down into “riffs” because they are both an endless barrage of awesome riff after awesome riff. I never thought I would ever talk about a crust song even having a “riff” but this His Hero Is Gone one has been stuck in my head for 15 years. Basically every single song I have ever written in one form or another at first was an attempt to create the perfect mix of these two songs. Sleazy/sludgey pop metal mixed with doom and gloom crust punk. Give me 10 more years and I bet you anything I’ll even be a 275-pound dude with an afro wearing a scotchguarded mudflap covered in spikes. UGH!

Honorable Mentions (because six riffs are never enough):

Van Halen, “I’m the One”
Rush – “Spirit of Radio”/“Limelight”
Captain Beyond, everything
Eagles, “Life in the Fast Lane”
Phil Collins, “Easy Lover”
Heart, everything
Kansas, “Carry On My Wayward Son”
April Wine, “Weeping Willow”
Replacements, “Bastards of Young”
Soundgarden, everything

Bison B.C. pic by Alex Divincenzo