Taken from the article Dime’s Dozen – Pantera’s six-shooting Texas tornado, Dimebag Darrell, names the 12 fist- pumping metal classics that every self- respecting guitarist should know.

“I love Hammett’s lead playing, but Hetfield’s rhythm playing is truly phenomenal. He’s the god of chugging riffs, and ‘Motorbreath’ is a good example of tight, chunky, galloping speed playing. Man, when I first head that song, I didn’t know what it was! It was so heavy, but real clean. That song really taught me how to play clean, driving rhythms.

“I don’t know any guitarist that can down-pick like Hetfield, and ‘Motorbreath’ is a prime example of his expertise. I don’t down-pick as much as I use the up-stroke, mainly because I just can’t down-pick like Hetfield.”

I learnt Motorbreath as my first Metallica song, just after getting a guitar, to try powerlevel my downpicked riffage skill.

Check out my new cover version over at chaotimusic.com to see how my skillz hold up.

And if you ask nicely I might cover some Pantera…. or anything else you might ask for….

Graphic down-picked from here