Hey! Today I’m excited to teach you the most crucial parts of my new song ‘Gone Too Far’. This song I dedicate to Cliff Burton. If you’re here, you’re f*cking awesome, since you do care about my music! \m/
‘Gone Too Far’ had been in progress since July 2017, and it turned out to be more complex than I expected. As one man said, songs write themselves. Nevertheless, I had to set some limitations to get it done and not go astray in the songwriting process.
One of those deliberate limitations was ‘I have only two guitarists‘. Although ‘Gone Too Far’ may sound oversaturated, it is possible to performed it only with 2 guitars and 1 bass! Call it “a pragmatic philosophy of orchestration”.
All started to build upon the main riff (arpeggio in Am) and the pre-chorus chord progression. I wrote them in 2013 together. The chorus’ opening chord used to be Am, but then I changed it to Dm to add some tonal movement. So, we have three sections that hesitate where to gravitate to along the way, but eventually all gets back to Am.
As you could notice, there’s no much bass in the first minute of ‘Gone Too Far’. And even the existing licks don’t sound bass-ish: they are all performed using natural harmonics. The intro part is simple: just 5th frets.
But the next bass fill is much more sophisticated, since it involves multiple harmonics that hide on a single fret (something you might’ve not been told, right?). Check out the bass fill’s audio and tabs:
The heavy part is based on the main riff and pre-chorus, but I had to come up with distorted riffs that wouldn’t sound like the light part. In the process of writing them, I naturally altered some chords in order to keep it well-phrased (e.g. A major chord instead of C in the 2nd heavy section).
The interlude. A tricky one. The very first version was way different, and there’s only the C#-B-A tale remaining from that. This section combines guitar and bass parts that complement each other, and they are in different tempos: guitar licks are slowing down, and bass’ playing more-less constant speed. It was very difficult to transcribe, and what you’re seeing in my tabs (the notes durations) isn’t correct, but adjusted. Just feel that section and trust your ear.
The pre-chorus chord progression was also used in the outro, transposed down 3 semitones to E, to meet the ending of the interlude. You hear a reversed version in the song, that’s why it sounds nothing like the pre-chorus. It’s one of several references to Cliff Burton’s masterpieces, namely the intro from Damage Inc. Initially the outro was also distorted, but I accidentally turned off the effect, and it worked even better!
If you want to learn the bass and clean guitar parts (the core of the song), here are their tabs:
Full tabs (with heavy and acoustic guitar), instrumental version, and isolated bass track are bonuses when you get the whole release on Bandcamp and on my Patreon.
If you like my music and want new songs to come more often, please consider to become my Patron, or by my music and merch. It really helps and motivates me!
By the way, can you find all the references to actual Metallica songs in ‘Gone Too Far’? One you already know – the outro. As I mentioned before, this song is my tribute to Cliff, and I left a few Easter Eggs in it.
Thank you all for support! Music is my life, and your feedback means a lot to me. Be in metal \m/