The Greatest Guitar Riff Ever: 1984

First Riffletter back in 2025 tackles the riffs of 1984 - we're back with some heavy-hitters, find out who wins Riff of the Week below

Hey gang. We’re back! Did y’all have a good holiday? It was pretty good back over here at HYLI HQ. Getting back into the swing of things back at work and, guess what, I want to be on vacation again! But going back to work means going back to the content mines, so I hope you enjoy some more riffletters and classic HYLI the next couple of weeks. Have a good one! Enjoy!!!!

Agnostic Front - Victim in Pain

Kinda thrash? Kinda hardcore? Kinda punk? A bit of everything? Vinnie Stigma might be the GOAT when it comes to crossover guitar and he came out on track 1 LP 1 absolutely ripping here.

Anthrax - Metal Thrashing Mad

Anthrax sucks. This song sucks. The riff sucks. I’m including it to be “objective.” Fuck this garbage.

Bathory - Hades

Black metal is so cool, dude. Just full-on cheese. All metal is cheesy but few subgenres fully embrace the cheese like black metal. God this rips. HYLI Andy probably knows way more than I care to know about this band but the production sounding like it’s coming from inside a tin can really adds to the riff here. It’s so tinny you can barely make out the riff but it doesn’t matter because you can tell it’s sick anyways. Love it.

Black Flag - My War

I’ve been pretty consistent about my love for Black Flag the last few riffletters and that will continue on through this week. I don’t love My War like some (it’s still Damaged and First Four Years for me) but the riff on the title track is probably Black Flag’s riff that does the most. This kind of invents sludge to me. The band delves even deeper into that on the b-side of this record but this track and riff take that production and guitar tone and meld it with the earlier catchy hardcore stuff in a way that really fucking works. All-timer track.

Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

Calling the guitar part here a “riff” would be a bit disingenuous but the bass is absolutely riffing. I love this era and genre of bass playing. Post-punk as it continued on kind of, with a few exceptions, lost the emphasis on the bass but the early 80s post-punk stuff really knew that was a key ingredient and this song is no exception. Throwing a little chorus on a bass riff with not much else going on sets the tense mood perfectly. Another all-timer.

Husker Du - Something I Learned Today

Peak guitar tone. Perfect “inside of a garbage disposal” distortion. Bob Mould is so fucking cool. 40 years after Husker Du began and dude still just fucking loves to rock. It’s so inspiring. Zen Arcade isn’t my favorite Husker Du album (we’ll get there) but “Something I Learned Today” is my favorite Husker Du song and it’s almost entirely due to Bob’s guitar sound and riffing here. Okay, his vocals rule too but c’mon.

Mercyful Fate - A Dangerous Meeting

In the interest of honesty, I kind of hate these vocals. What is bro doing. Way too high-pitched and just fucking annoying lol. But the guitar is fucking ripping. The production is also great in an 80s kind of sheen way that you don’t hear a ton from metal in that era and it really helps the riff shine. God, stop singing why is he singing like this.

Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Really an embarrassment of riff riches on this album. I could have gone with “Fight Fire with Fire” or “Fade to Black” here but, yeah, it’s definitely “For Whom the Bell Tolls” for me. The part at about a minute in where the bass dies out and Kirk and James just chug? Yeah, that’s what riffing is all about. Chugging with the bros. But the reason we went with this track is the verse riff. Without tipping my hand too much, this is just an all-timer kind of a riff. An entire subgenre of music essentially remains popular because of this shit. I don’t think that’s hyperbolic.

The Minutemen - Corona

Hello, my name is Johnny Knoxville, welcome to Jackass.

Prince - Let’s Go Crazy

Prince has been a tough artist for me to cover here. While he’s obviously a virtuoso and one of the greatest guitarists to ever live, so much of his guitar playing is confined to solos and not really riffs. The riffs that his songs do have are almost always done on keys, which just isn’t what we cover around these parts. “Let’s Go Crazy” definitely riffs though and, to my ear, it sounds like a modulated guitar part almost trying to mimic a synth? It’s cool, it’s fun, I mostly just want to shout out Prince as one of the GOATs even though I’m a little surprised there aren’t more guitar/bass riffs for me to pick from in his catalog.

R.E.M. - So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)

God, Peter Buck is so cool. I love Rickenbacker guitars and especially Rickenbacker six-strings since the 12-string can get overused a bit and Buck is one of the preeminent users of that guitar, so he’s a GOAT in my book. Calling this a riff might be a bit unfair as the part doesn’t really repeat in the song at all once the intro ends but, like, it’s a riff, right? Like, I say “the riff to ‘So. Central Rain’” and it’s obvious I’m talking about the intro. Don’t well actually me here. We’re calling the intro a riff and that’s final. Boy what a riff it is.

The Replacements - I Will Dare

How fucking cool does this sound? What is better than this? I get hit with such a wave of nostalgia every time I hear the rhythm guitar riff from this track every time I hear it, which is goofy considering it came out five years before I was born lol. The song gets bonus points because the verse riff (which rules) cuts out and immediately goes into a fresh chorus riff that is such an earworm. Two riffs in one little pop song. What is better than that?

The Smiths - Pretty Girls Make Graves & This Charming Man

I’m grouping both “Pretty Girls Make Graves” and “This Charming Man” together because, while off different releases from the same year (The Smiths and Hatful of Hollow, respectively), they both represent that two sides of the coin from what I love about the Smiths. No, neither side is Morrissey. But the former represents the great rhythmic groove that so many Smiths songs have thanks to bassist Andy Rourke and the latter has the chiming prettiness of the guitar playing from Johnny Marr. Ask me any day which style I prefer and my answer will change but, for today, it’s “This Charming Man.” Few guitarists from this era, at least outside of metal, are true all-timers like Johnny is and, IMO, this is his shining moment as a guitarist.

Spinal Tap - Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

Fake band but a real ass riff. I’m doing research on this album that I have never listened to from a movie I’ve watched twice and the actors performed all the songs on the album???? Is this a fact people know?? Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, the same people who made the dog show movie and seemingly aren’t musicians otherwise, recorded all of This is Spinal Tap? What the fuck??? I definitely just assumed it was a case of the actors acted in the movie and studio musicians laid down the riffs. That’s fucking sick, brother.

U2 - Pride (In the Name of Love)

We are still, IMO, in the era where it is okay to like the band U2 before they fully dive into The Cheese. This song just fully rocks and it’s almost all just guitar. The Edge is one of the funniest dudes living solely because of his performance in It Might Get Loud being maybe the least self-awareness shown by a musician in a rock doc, which is really truly saying something, but he fucking cooked on all of this album and this is the most guitar-forward track on The Unforgettable Fire. If this band broke up after Achtung Baby I fear that history would have been much more kind to them.

Van Halen - Panama

I’ve been on the record about not really liking Van Halen because the vocals but this song is undeniable. Just a fucking good time. Have guitars ever been this loud and this catchy? This might be the loudest and most fun straight down the middle rock record I can think of and this track is the most fun song on the record. This guitar riff is pure sugar cane candy.

What is the Best Riff of 1983?

It’s no disrespect to Peter Buck, Johnny Marr and The Edge here - two of my favorite guitarists of all-time and also the Edge - when I say this pretty clearly comes down to Metallica and Van Halen. This is so Guitar Center of me. I feel a bit gross doing it, but like, it’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Panama” lol. What, am I gonna be like *pushes glasses up nose* “well actually the riff of the year of 1984 is “Heartbeat City” by the Cars.” Come on lol. No. We aren’t doing that here.

I definitely prefer “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as a song and I think I would go as far as to say that I prefer Ride the Lightning as a riffing album to 1984. But, just on a song-against-song basis, I think “Panama” takes it over “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” I don’t feel great about this choice but that’s because it’s two Hall of Famers pitted against each other. Usually, it’s a David v. Goliath situation where I have a personal fave vs. a Guitar Magazine fave and I usually pick my personal choice as the winner. These are both personal faves and both guitar magazine Mt. Rushmore riffs. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” would probably win every other week I’ve done this so far. Them’s the breaks.

Does it top the previous Best Riff?

Best Riff of 1984: Van Halen - Panama

Best Riff Previous Champion: Metallica - Seek & Destroy

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a better riff than “Seek & Destroy” and “Panama” takes it over that song so, yeah, “Panama” is the new Riff Champion belt holder. See ya next week, this one was fun.