Your first complete metal piece, in E minor with a dark Phrygian touch from the F (the flat second). It's all eighth notes, so you can focus on clean muting and solid time.
Form (10 bars)
- Intro (2 bars): E5, G5 and F5 power chords, left to ring, then E5 held.
- Verse (2 bars, played twice): palm-muted open E with short jumps to G, F and A, closing on G5 and F5 stabs.
- Solo (2 bars): E minor pentatonic box at the 12th fret, with a whole-step bend from D to E on the 15th fret of the B string.
- Outro (2 bars): four chugs, two accented stabs, then a final E5 that rings out.
Playing tips
Use three-string power chords: index on the root, ring and pinky on the two notes above. For the verse, rest the side of your picking hand on the strings right at the bridge and play all downstrokes. Lift the palm for the accented chords so they bark. In the solo, bend that 15th fret with the ring finger backed by the middle, and check the target pitch against the 17th fret on the same string.
It should sound heavy and steady, like a march, not rushed.
Most common mistake: letting the open E ring into the chords and the solo. Mute it with the palm, or let the fretting hand touch the low strings lightly.
How to practice
Learn each section alone at 70 bpm until it's clean four times in a row, then raise the tempo. Next, join two sections at a time: intro into verse, verse into solo, solo into outro. Count "1 2 3 4" out loud across the joins so you don't drop a beat. Finally play the whole piece in order, verse twice, at a tempo you can manage without stopping.