Necrophagist - To Breathe in a Casket (lesson incl. cover)

(You can find my original cover here: • Necrophagist - To Brea... )
Since this song doesn't have any good tabs out and I had to figure out some parts by ear I promised to make a lesson for it a good while ago after receiving several requests. This video also includes a playthrough/cover from a "pedagogic" angle that allows you to see it from the guitarist's point of view. I then guide you through every note of the song from start to finish.
I didn't find any good Power Tab or Guitar Pro tabs, so I had to go with this text tab: tabs.ultimate-g...
It's not very accurate and I had to tab a lot by ear and by just looking at Necrophagist's live performances, in which case I'm mostly playing Muhammed's parts.
Guitars were recorded August 24, using a Shure SM57 (straight at the center of the left bottom speaker) through an E-MU 0404 USB 2.0 audio interface.
Recorded using a Sony HX100V. Edited using Sony Vegas Pro 12.0 x64 and rendered as a 1920x1080 50p (same as the original footage) MP4 video using 1:1 pixel ratio, 2 reference frames, "High", 10Mbps CBR, CUDA-encoded, with 48 kHz and 320kbps audio.
(The vocal parts are taken from the camera's audio recording. Since my guitar was in C-standard, I simply raised the pitch in Cubase afterwards and switched to the camera audio channel in Vegas everytime I start talking.)
Guitar: Jackson Warrior WRMG (with EMG 81/85).
Amplifier: Peavey 6505+ and an Ashdown Peacemaker 412A cabinet with Celestion G12E-50 speakers (one of them, the speaker used, is a Celestion V30).
Pedals: ISP Decimator.
Strings: D'Addario EXL148 (.012, .016, .020p, .034w, .046w, .060w).
Pick: Dunlop Jazz III.
Pre: 5.9
Low: 3.7
Mid: 4.7
High: 5.9
Post: 1.2
Resonance: 5.0
Presence: 5.8
If you rate it, please motivate and write a comment too. Thanks for watching!

[@MultiNormal1]

Thanks a lot, I can finally learn this song without getting confused by all those confusing and wrong tabs! (Too many notes in the song for me to learn it by ear haha)

[@Hagroth]

Hehe, I know the pain. It's hard to wrap your head around this one as it is!

[@MultiNormal1]

***** To be honest, the unavailability of accurate tabs is the main reason I don't bother learning stuff by Necrophagist (song difficulty is the 2nd reason). It's just too frustrating to spend so many hours learning notes only to realize they're "off", and then "un-learn" it all. Please upload some more Necro tutorials, they are a beacon of hope in this sea of guitar inaccuracy!

[@Hagroth]

I found pretty accurate tabs for all of "Epitaph" - I had to tab a lot of the solo of the song "Epitaph" by ear, but otherwise I learned them by tab, IIRC. You can find the tab I used for each song at the bottom of the respective cover's description. I'll start covering more off "Onset of Putrefaction" soon since I'm done with all of "Epitaph" now, so if I encounter more tricky songs without good tabs I'll probably make lessons for them :)

[@puregroove5171]

LOVE the Turkish rug! :D

[@Hagroth]

+Captain Bassist Hahaha :P

[@DecapitatedOwns666]

One of my favorite songs as well for the same reasons

[@DragisaBoca]

Thank you very much, you mighty viking you. :) Can't wait to get on with it, you are THE MAN! :)

[@Hagroth]

***** I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks for subscribing! :)

[@warhammer265]

holy fucking downpicking... incredible! great lesson too man, thanks a ton!

[@Hagroth]

Glad to hear you liked it mate!

[@Pedram_Pazouki]

TNQ very much... i was looking so long for this

[@youcefounane2504]

thanks a lot man can you make more of Necrophagist lesson. cheers

[@Hagroth]

Cheers! I did this one mostly because there weren't any good tabs for this song at all, so I had to figure it out myself and might as well share it :)

[@IntricateDolphin]

The angle of the camera is making it tough to see what your fingers are doing but I can work out what I need to by ear. I'm not complaining though. Thanks for taking the time to do this man.

[@arpegio88]

Over the years, I've noticed that what makes Necrophagist brand of technical death metal different a lot of other tech-death band is something very simple and that is, whenever they solo, they solo over riff arrangements for the bridge whereas a lot of other bands (within the same genre) solo over standard chord progressions. This gives Necro a unique sound & edge over everyone else. Those two components together make them sound like thy are playing at blistering speeds that defy all musical and technical logic. Whenever I listen to a Necro tune, I always picture the inside of a moving watch or clock because there's always so much going on and moving including bass and drums which just seems to perfectly gel right in. Flashy arpeggios, sweeps, string skipping, legato, tapping, and artificial pinch harmonics over an already constantly moving riffing arrangement is a pretty unique approach and so far they are the only ones who pull it off effectively. Nice work here btw.

[@Hagroth]

Thanks! A very interesting comment, but I don't get what you mean by other bands soloing over "standard chord progressions" - tons of bands often solo over a rhythm established outside of the solo, if that's what you meant?

[@arpegio88]

Well what I just really meant is that no one else sounds like Necrophagist. Their musical formula is almost trademarked in such a way that I've never heard it truly replicated, its just so specific to them. Anyone would have an easier time ripping off anything from Arsis, to the Faceless to ObscurA, Meshuggah etc. than trying to approach their style. Necro's music is an anomaly compared to anything that came before or even after it. Its weird I can't quite describe it but its so tight, strategically systematic, and technically detailed to a point where it almost doesn't even sound like music; it sounds like a machine of some kind.

[@Hagroth]

To that I can agree! I think Necrophagist has that just right amount of technicality without going over the top (like Spawn of Possession and many others) and still make crazy riffs that are memorable and build off each other, with hooks and all.

[@Hagroth]

Also, there's this complexity without them changing time signatures and tempos and having too many weird pauses and making it sound "choppy" - there's a good flow, basically, and a structure that is sometimes pretty well hidden, like in this song which can be hard to decipher until you learn it yourself!

[@arpegio88]

Yes the technicality aspect seems to just come natural with them, they don't have to "try" and be technical and flashy just for the sake of it. Often times when I sit down to learn solos or other parts of Necrophagist songs it makes me wonder how did Muhammed even begin to think this up or even dream of this type of composition, and for that matter Christian Muenzner as well. Muenzner actually wrote a lot of the solos on the Epitaph album that he rarely ever gets credit for.

[@TheDriller64]

I was planning to learn how to play this song, or at least a few pieces of it, but looking at your lesson I can see that it is WAY out of my league lol

[@IntricateDolphin]

Yea that makes good sense to me. It's just that your hand goes out of the frame sometimes. It's a lot easier to just see what notes you're playing instead of deciphering it with the ear but watching your hands is a bit of a crutch. Although, working out a Necrophagist song purely by ear would be quite the endeavor for most people, I imagine.

[@lukef-cmusic7200]

God they don't call it tech death metal for nothing, the first 20 seconds is relentless!

[@Hagroth]

Haha yep, you really have to practice it a few times very slowly to wrap your head around it! Took me hours to learn just the intro IIRC.

[@Pedram_Pazouki]

plz teach other songs of Necrophagist too. i appreciate it

[@Hagroth]

+Pedram Pazouki You're welcome! I might just make one for "Epitaph" since there's no good tab for the solos in it.

[@bethwhitman1812]

+Hagroth charile you rock

[@thesk8kam]

awesome!!! did you connect the guitar to the computer to recording??

[@Hagroth]

Thanks! :) Yup, the guitar is recorded using a mic and audio interface as usual, but the voice is recorded with the camera's mic. In the video editing software I simply switched between the two audio tracks everytime I talked and so on.

[@davidshneider92]

Think you could do a tab of it? i would really apreciate it

[@janezpungartnik3149]

tough song. nice job:)

[@Hagroth]

Thanks mate :)

[@Th3Possessed]

This is fucking awesome

[@MorbidObscurity]

Nice man!

[@sjamiljahangir]

How did you make that tone?

[@Hagroth]

The gear and settings are in the description!

[@eddyray666]

Awesome.

[@eddyray666]

I know it's an old post but thanks a lot, man!

[@sanjinator17]

god damn dude, nice

[@Tyrant175]

Rock on you viking! \m/

[@INTELLIGENTHUMANCOCK]

You rock man. :)

[@INTELLIGENTHUMANCOCK]

I will be ready :) haha

[@yourockero]

Please, can You do Epitaph?

[@Hagroth]

Sorry, not so active anymore.

[@comadamage]

@@Hagroth :(

[@SepulturaLFC]

more bodom yo el

[@hermaeusmora2945]

With your accent i'm assuming Scandinavian...

[@SepulturaLFC]

you have a month or two that's all you get xD