[Dez’s custom Wirebird guitar is tuned down to Drop D: D A D G B E.]

Beware The Leopard (1:33 – 1:44)

Dez shows us how to play the heavy section of ‘Beware The Leopard,’ which features some brutal vocals from Between The Buried And Me’s Tommy Rogers. While this foreboding riff is more traditionally metal than most of The Safety Fire’s material, Dez adds his own twist to it with some cool voicings and frantically ascending single note bursts. Beware the leap between chords and double-picked notes in the third and fourth bars – the higher pitch of that phrase makes it stand out, so nailing the transition in and out of it will really bring the riff together.

The Safety Fire – Derya Dez Nagle – Beware The Leopard (Jagwar) – Metal Riff

For more Dez, check out this lesson, where he shows us how to play parts of ‘The Ghosts That Wait For Spring’ and ‘Glass Crush’ – two songs which make great use of the open Amin7 tuning. To learn to play even more music from The Mouth Of Swords, check out the complete transcription book at SheetHappensPublishing.com

[Special thanks to Alon Mei-Tal for his transcriptions, Brandon Epling for his video closeups, and Chris Dingman for his editing assistance!]