Metal musicians were asked to pick the heaviest riff of all time. This Metallica riff was the (not so clear) winner

In a recent clip, Revolver asked a diverse group of rock and metal musicians performing at the Louder Than Life festival to pick the heaviest riff of all time.

If you’re going to take on the controversial topics, it makes sense to go to the authorities, and indeed, the list of players interviewed includes members of everyone from Halestorm, to Baroness and Gwar, right through to punishingly heavy acts like Suicide Silence.

As you might expect, the resulting nominations are as wide-ranging as the musicians that made them. However, one riff comes up repeatedly: Metallica’s Sad But True.

“As far as like heavy, weighty and aggressive – Sad But True,” comments Halestorm’s Arejay Hale, following a prompt from Lzzy Hale. “That is one of the heaviest riffs of all time.”

Orbit Culture’s Niklas Karlsson and Richard Hansson agree. “I’m an old schooler, but I have to go with Sad But True,” says Karlsson. “Hearing that riff 30 years later, it’s like the best riff you can write.” “If Lars can pull it off!” adds Hansson, with a grin.

Aussie hard rockers Airbourne agree on the Metallica side – but cast the net a bit wider: “Fuel’s pretty fucking heavy. Master Of Puppets is heavy. The entire Metallica discography is the heaviest riff of all time. There you go! Except for the whole Lulu thing…”