Marty Friedman on Black Sabbath's "Into the Void" - Hooked

The former Megadeth lead guitarist and shredmeister remembers being dumbstruck by Master of Reality's imposing sound.
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[@godzillasimpson8357]

I heard him talking about his signature Jackson and I heard a demo and he’s right! That guitar sounds amazing and full.

[@kingv911]

Geezer's bass was hugely important to their heaviness. Tony had the sharp, trebly guitar tone and Geezer's warm, fat bass thumping behind it really brought the riffs to life. Then of course Bill Ward's thundering and somewhat jazz infused playing, and Ozzy's signature voice. Yes it was a perfect combo.

[@UnitedElectric]

Amen. His stacked fifth on the the tail end of the intro riff (before the legendary chunka chunka part) on Into the Void makes that part of the song special.

[@garyshepherd9226]

Live it was the bass that was the loudest thing - it grabbed you in the gut and pushed you back.

[@nckhed]

Black Sabbath used to be a jazz band called Earth.

[@eyellgeteven9928]

@@garyshepherd9226 Live in person, Sabbath gives heavy music a whole different dimension...you really can feel it blasting right through your body. I've been to literally a couple hundred concerts in my lifetime and I swear NOBODY is heavier than Sabbath...Geezer's bass is really something to be experienced live, it takes your breath away. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

[@43captrexkramer]

Been a guitar player for 20+ years and love good drummers, and Bill Ward is my favorite. People like to throw around the term the GOAT, in my opinion Ward is the GOAT.

[@jackgreenwood1817]

This riff changed my life when I first heard it

[@monocyte2210]

mine too. it just gets heavier over the years too

[@beerdrinker8514]

I remember I got crazy goosebumps when I first heard it. Insane

[@RÅNÇIÐ]

Ancient times: What's that thunderous sound? Must be the gods... 1970s: What's that thunderous sound? Must be the gods...

[@quitthecircuit]

Oh no! Marty is in The Black Lodge

[@premierguitar]

Twin Peaks!

[@canaan_perry]

I learned this tune in standard and just played it in C#. The other thing with Sabbath is how much space Geezer filled up.

[@andywitch666]

Let's not forget Bill 'the Thunder God' Ward... the might of Sabbath is the sum of all parts !..!

[@kyleolin3566]

Agreed. Sabbath is a perfect example of each member creating their own space, yet all working together to make a huge sound. So glad I got to see them on their last tour, albeit without Bill Ward.

[@AlnicoBoots]

I could learn a thing or two from Marty about anti-aging. He looks the same way as he did in the 90's.

[@DSchea]

That Japanese diet and lifestyle will do it

[@darkestfugue]

he has, he is just ageing well, his hair hasnt aged though lol,

[@jvahausstudios1276]

Try sushi, unagi and some wagyu beef

[@mikedegrazia]

Marty telling stories about why Sabbath were gods, Me; puts on Rust in peace.. wonders same thing...

[@rendyandrian7149]

Moral of the story. A god sometimes doesn't realize he is a god himself. Off course that's joking. There is no god is music.

[@mikedegrazia]

@@rendyandrian7149 i was thinking the prince of darkness aka sabbath, or maybe alien life form... 👽

[@Gforceracing20]

'Speed Metal Symphony' was one of my favorite albums back in the day! Thank you and Jason for such an epic guitar album.

[@fallen969]

Yeah that ones awesome!

[@portalface7167]

My dad used to live with Marty back in the late 80s and he was showing me photos of Marty and he still looks really young!

[@TimothySweeney]

"when I was a kid, there was nothing heavier than Black Sabbath" Dude - there still isn't anything as heavy as Black Sabbath

[@davidmerlin6787]

That's correct

[@darkwizard2651]

Electric Wizard and Sleep come close, especially the former. Iommi is still the master though.

[@snow15243]

Sleep?

[@eyellgeteven9928]

@@snow15243 Yeah, the band Sleep is VERY Sabbathy.

[@onnyt60]

I just posted the same comment LoL

[@onnyt60]

"When I was a kid there were nothing heavier than Black Sabbath"...and today there still isn't.

[@wizardofahhhs759]

Master of Reality is one of my favorite Sabbath albums.

[@dillan2976]

You could tune down to zero. Wouldn’t matter. The first 2 albums were in standard tuning. The song Black Sabbath is still all about note sequence and feel of entire band at once , recording in real time. And the contrast between that SG and Jazz bass. As for all there songs.

[@cosimobaldi03]

Geezer always used a p bass, with flatwounds I think

[@jsepps73]

Marty on a tele, that's beautiful

[@guitarguts666]

I loved that riff as a kid. Marty is so right about that sound too. It was massive and heavy!

[@ltxr9973]

One of the best riffs ever

[@Frip36]

1:21 can't help himself, plays it too fast, and loses the very Sabbath heaviness he's trying to demonstrate.

[@majurbludd]

I have been using that tuning for maybe 15 years . Its almost expected in metal nowadays.

[@rodrigofonseca6241]

Into The Void is also my all time favourite Black Sabbath song. And Marty is my number one guitar GOD!!

[@amirhossein8469]

Even after detuning one and a half step you still can't touch the heaviness of that beast of a song. Praise Iommi.

[@hearpalhere]

Haha! Awesome story :-) Marty Friedman's awesome and it's nice to know that he was inspired so much by the same band! Black Sabbath were one of the greatest ever and Into The Void really is one of the heaviest songs of all time (IMO).

[@joeantolak4629]

I really like angry again , that riff

[@Turba80]

This song is so f’ing heavy without having crazy heavy distortion; it’s that interacting of a bass that is spitting fire, a dark riff made of steel and balls, from young guys who didn’t have it easy in life and needed to let that aggression out through their music.

[@47279J]

One of the greatest riffs of all time. Tony worked real hard on getting things heavier with just him alone. You can hear his playing solo some of his riffs and they are HUGE. Him and his guitar. And all that's augmented by Geezer and Bill, so together they are even more incredible. It's no accident that Sabbath's heavy as hell.

[@DoomRoomRecords]

Tune down ok, but the heaviness of Sabbath's riffs comes a lot from Iommi picking hand in my opinion

[@k14brb]

How is that?

[@DoomRoomRecords]

@@k14brb that's the Sabbath Magic! Also, the swing of Bill Ward, imho adds tons of weight and mystery to their sound (I can't even listen to their own version of 'Black Sabbath' played by Vinnie Appice, great drummer but too 'metal' and square for that song)

[@k14brb]

@@DoomRoomRecords well said i agree

[@godzillasimpson8357]

They invented metal songwriting styles. They weren’t the 1st band to sound heavy but they changed metal with their darker style.

[@UsTheMusicTVOfficial]

Same here Marty! I wondered the same thing about other bands that I was trying to play. I had no idea that my favorite bands were tuning down. Cool to know other famous guitarist went thru this too!

[@Yupppi]

Sometimes I get extremely impressed how heavy some bands sound at just Eb, D or drop C compared to all the bands playing seven-strings etc.

[@mikeriesco6174]

Master of Reality is really the only Black Sabbath album you need. All knowledge is in there.

[@zedcarr6128]

Marty says that Black Sabbath were Gods. In that case you are also a Metal God too. Us Brits are in awe of your playing style and technique and it's a joy to watch. XX

[@puremetal68]

We have Into The Void in our set in the cover band where I'm the bass player. My choice to do that song. But funny enough it wasn't the original version that got me HOOKED on the song but when Exhorder made an excellent version on their album The Law.

[@uncleremus5046]

Iommi still to this day writes the heaviest riffs & is the greatest metal rhythm player ever!

[@mwyatt222]

They also recorded their guitar parts on their stage amps at high volume according to Tony. 100 and 50 watt Laneys dimed w/ dallas arbiter treble boosters. Thats a big part of their sound. Tony didnt believe in Fender champs and gibson skylarks. Ted Nugent was the same. He recorded his guitar parts at volume through 185 watt supertwins in the early 70s.

[@UnforgivenIV]

@mwyatt222 Yeah, sometimes there's no substitute for a cranked up valve amp. See also any of the countless stories about Hendrix recording sessions where the amps were up at earsplitting levels. Serious technique and control is needed for that, and the recordings of the likes of Sabbath, The Who etc are testament to that.

[@andredegiant3876]

It's kind of a shame that their best songs are overshadowed by "Paranoid" but ya know what? Just leaves the best for the rest of us 🤘

[@Skoora]

Not for a long time. Sabbath is too big to be constrained by what classic rock radio does or does not play. Especially with all the streaming options people use vs. terrestrial radio.

[@sagvjc2525]

Paranoid is great song. You just don't like it cause its popular. So, in turn you into the popular belief that somethings sucks cause its popular.

[@andrewhigdon8346]

@@sagvjc2525 well put. I love great songs. Whether it’s Madonna or Lady Gaga or Ween or Steel Pulse or Carcass or Gojira. Just because something becomes popular doesn’t take away it’s greatness.

[@sagvjc2525]

@@andrewhigdon8346 agreed.

[@guitaristssuck8979]

Paranoid is a rushed up song, they put more effort in the other ones

[@AlbertMarv11]

What made me tune down my guitar a whole step and a half was Machine Head’s “I am Hell” song. Even though I was aware that Black Sabbath also tuned down to that step, it was Machine Head that for me into playing that way. It was just so heavy. I have a lot of fun playing that step down.

[@finishin.my.coffee8780]

Marty never gets old.

[@morningstar3188]

My band covers allot of Sabbath as well as a wide range of rock in general. I immediately decided to just get a pitch shifter pedal instead of dealing with 5 different guitars lol. It's the MVP on my board (most valuable pedal).

[@dmitryowens]

I thought the same thing in 1986 when my friend and I were trying to figure out the riffs for S.O.D.'s Speak English Or Die album, then years later I realized a lot of it was in drop D. We didn't know anything about alternate tunings back then.

[@richardedwards9349]

electric funeral also a cool heavy riff, guitar one side, guitar with wah pedal on other side makes it twice as heavy.

[@Sxuk]

So true.

[@jayteesgear]

Still soundin fabulous Marty Man

[@wraith1117]

Quite a few so called 'riff masters' back when. But to all of us hard rock/metal heads Tony, and Geezer, were the gods that put us all on track to play that sort of thing. JMHO.

[@jibicusmaximus4827]

That sabbath riff is sick, kinda like same notes as brand new Cadillac, the song the clash covered, same notes different styles, the clash one is rock a billy lol.

[@Peterplayingguitar]

Thanks Marty!

[@VlrGuitarWorld]

Man got to learn this song now...to bid farewell to 2020..

[@irmasil3]

So honest from Marty!! I also remember thinking Nuno's guitar was something special because its had 1 more bass note than mine.....Eb.

[@deut3ron10]

I’m very proud to be the guy who made this video have 1K

[@nippe1538]

Mickey Rourke playing guitar, cool

[@richard8su]

I'll never forget the moment I found drop D. 1993 Holy shit I'm old!! 14yo found the god chord. Nobody to teach me so I thought I WAS God. Thankful for detuning and distortion. I don't know how I would've gotten my hatred out.

[@buzzcrushtrendkill]

Doing a direct input sounds so much better

[@Coolnesski]

Also check out The Melvins super sludgy live version here

[@davidyates8880]

haha, being of a similar vintage to Marty, I can 100% relate to this.

[@logancipparone596]

Am I supposed to ignore how dusty that dudes laptop was from the ad at the beginning? 🤮

[@errflow]

"ad" hahahahahahaha

[@beetlesazer]

Marty is back on jackson guitars

[@edoslacker]

Stoned Marty is best Marty

[@Skoora]

Lol..plays an opening riff and licks that he does in his sleep and I look at the 5 years of disciplined practice I would need to come close. All praise Marty and all praise Tony Iommi.

[@vintagepipesnightmares]

Yes de tuning was their secret.

[@vintagepipesnightmares]

@@creamwobbly yes Fender came from the factory with 12-56 gauge.

[@chucksullivan6035]

I was concerned that the way I hold my picking hand was hurting my technique. My guitar teacher brought up a YT video of Marty and said look at his right hand, do you think his right hand is holding him back? Lol...nope.

[@chaospoet]

This reminds me of the saying/joke that the biggest problem every metal guitarist has is wanting to come up with the heaviest riff ever then remembering Black Sabbath made "Into The Void". Or even the old Henry Rollins joke that weather events and Earthquakes should be named after Black Sabbath. "Bakersfield, California was destroyed today by Black Sabbath!" He was right. That riff could level my town right now. Sabbath isn't a band or a sound but a force of nature like a super volcano. All crumble before their might!

[@nonyafourthreetwoonezero7350]

I would try to make it look less “metal”, but i like the way the white outlines the guitar. Very interesting design.

[@UnitedElectric]

Cool whole tone flurry at the beginning.

[@robertrowan9893]

There's not a human being alive who's never looked back at a practical application and wished in hindsight, 'Damn, if only I'd not back then that...!' God knows, using that reference again, guitar playing is a text book example, if any was needed. But we strove on regardless and that's what's really important. For we were the mere mortals, as opposed to...

[@droondaddy]

wtf are you getting on about lol?

[@grahf9436]

C# right?

[@13AK98]

Don't listen to anyone who says Marty is a Diva, It certainly isn't. They're just jealous of him.

[@yourdrummer2034]

Marty's sig. Jackson axe is sharp!

[@fernandogonzalez-ng4kn]

marty friedman on megadeth the bets solos

[@jordao420]

is there any weed in japan?

[@chickenbeek]

same

[@doric_historic]

I like my Jackson Dinky...

[@the72u7h4]

I was born in '75, in 1986 when I was 11 I had a stupid peavy guitar in with a case amp. Yes, it was a guitar in a case. The case was also an amp. When I got the guitar, I had some tuner forks - yea those ringing things. Well, the one I thought was E was actually D, so I tuned to that which happened to be lower. I couldn't play along to many songs as I had to bar chord or capo alot of crap lol. Happy accident, because I have many of my 6 string guitars in D.

[@wardka]

I always thought both Iommi and Butler bending the notes at different times made it a lot heavier too, Sometimes it seemed like Iommi would bend a note upward but it wouldn't quite reached the target note because the riff was just too heavy for even the gods to pull off, and certainly too heavy for mere humans to comprehend. That's what it sounds like to me anyway. But then other bands bend notes too without sounding as heavy.

[@43captrexkramer]

My question has always been where do these endless library of riffs they wrote come from? Some times I'll get in a rut and just put it down for a while or pick up my bass. But these guys have the entire history of metal in their songs.

[@Hue_Nery]

Is he baked? He seems baked. But yeah. Incredible guitarist.

[@kylebell6955]

You did make a correct assumption...Sabbath were (are) gods

[@LorriSanga]

I think Marty may have missed some open string overtones here. AKA Whole Lotta Love, if your hitting just fretted notes.....unlock the power.

[@xaptronic]

How hard to pick? Marty "yes"

[@fabienlamour3644]

The end of this song is apocalyps....

[@valuedhumanoid6574]

I am not one of those tone snobs, but even though Marty's playing is still epic, it sounds like he's playing through my grandma's AM radio. You know the type. One 3" speaker in a desktop box with an inverted coat hanger for the antenna? The audio is shit. Too bad, Marty is a beast.

[@thrashedd]

He was most likely recording with only the phone/cam mic

[@wlcrutch]

surprised that, despite not being familiar with the idea of detuning, you wouldn’t just HEAR that it was detuned

[@thecommenter9267]

Most people don't know this but one of the key factors that makes Marty's sound unique is his strange right hand. The flexed curvature is basically a modified form of the rare Gypsy Jazz style picking, which was invented to create a louder, more aggressive pick attack. He leverages a massive downward pickslant and uses circular thumb picking to get around the string change issue (for example when the pick is below the string and he needs to move to the string above). You can't reach as much consistent speed output with Gypsy style picking as you can with traditional picking but you get MUCH more power. Think of it like the difference between an AK47 and a metronome. AK47 shoots extra fast and clean in short bursts but then soon gets out of control if you keep shooting without rest, but the sound is dynamic and powerful while a metronome maintains consistent high speed, but the sound is rather weak and mechanical.

[@Melvinator]

Tony Iommi God

[@thepeter3116]

Starting from zero, i wonder how many hours it would take to play this myself

[@jacobpetersen7219]

Not too long it’s challenging but it’s not the hardest riff start with paranoid

[@Vale65ntin]

the pull off/hammer on part would be pretty difficult for a beginner, but as long you learn it properly and dont try to rush, you'll get there eventually.

[@bluematrix5001]

MARTY LOOKS LIKE THE CHILD OF GARY CHERONE AND PAUL STANLEY!

[@marzbitenhaussen]

Marty is high, hahah

[@SteveSterlacci]

Just saying, I'm the guy in the vidami commercial 🤣😅

[@josef2012]

Eyyyyy! 👏

[@adhamsalem9121]

Now I know what inspired Marty to write "symptoms of the universe" when he was 18 years old.

[@zGollum]

If this is his favorite song, why don't he know how to play it right, there's an incorrect note at the end of the line every time he plays it

[@murphyto69]

Genius. ( 22 dislikes )

[@SaberToothGary]

everybody's a fuggin critic, hey? haha

[@mattfleming2287]

Sorry to tell you Marty, Sabbath didn’t always tune down. Tony Iommi IS a god of guitar.

[@brentstewart59]

666 views 🤘

[@gueroloco510]

What happened to Marty?

[@TIGERGUTS]

rosacea

[@J1O2C3K4E5S]

But you love pop rock? 🤔

[@howardcunniffe8738]

I have to disagree with this video. There were lots of bands that played heavy in them days. Not just Black Sabbath. There was Jimi Hendrix, Uriah Heep, Spooky Tooth, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin and Blood Rock.

[@thereagauze]

but they were the heaviest album after album until the mid 70s, no one else really embraced heaviness the way they did.

[@howardcunniffe8738]

@@thereagauze I'm just going with my beliefs. I truly believe that the bands I posted were as heavy as Black Sabbath. Plus Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 so that should say something.

[@DeadRingerMachine]

Playing Sabbath on a Fender?! Verboten!

[@adiohead]

0:36 The Simpsons

[@neilevans6965]

Lydian mode.

[@absoluteego]

after all that he still can't play it right.

[@mayniac5.09]

LOL. Marty doesnt play the verse properly.. it isnt an open/e minor hammer on.. 🤔

[@carlbryce4547]

I'm Alone 😍😥

[@stiffrichard2816]

I don't think Iommi tuned down 1 1/2 steps, he just went down to Eb and dropped the low string to C#. Geezer stayed in standard tuning.

[@davemoskot1776]

Stiffy is correct, he played Eb.

[@loganwhetzel2069]

The first 2 albums were in Standard tuning (yes, the guitars were slightly sharp on some tracks). Once master of reality hit, that and the next few albums were about 99% C# standard. Not drop C#. Sabbath never played in a drop C# tuning, but they did play in a C# standard tuning.

[@stiffrichard2816]

@@loganwhetzel2069 I dunno, have you ever tried it? It's ridiculously slack, especially on a shorter-scale Gibson and light strings like 9's. I used drop down a full step, and sometimes drop the low string to C. I had to use 10's to make it workable.

[@nckhed]

@@stiffrichard2816 I've used 12's for C# standard, but I like a lot of string tension. I use 11's for Eb, lol. Having said that, I'm pretty sure Sabbath tuned down a whole step and a half on "Master of Reality".

[@loganwhetzel2069]

@@stiffrichard2816 oh, yes it’s absolutely light down to C# standard with 9 through 42, but this helped Tony because of the situation with his fingers. The lighter tension allowed his fingers to feel less stress from playing and also gave the band a heavier sound.

[@giorgio1943]

if a guitar were female, he would be the best lover

[@tonyanderton3521]

She would be the best lover.

[@Morbid.Angel710]

He? Lol

[@snicker576]

Haha the why this guy is trying to play the main riff 😂