SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser was asked at this past weekend's Wacken Open Air what actually makes a riff great. His answer had nothing to do with technique.
"That's a hard one," he told Paolo Phoenix of Magenta TV. "Definitely it's not technical element. It's something that touches you. For me, it's riffs like [IRON MAIDEN's] 'Number Of The Beast' or [METALLICA's] 'Fight Fire With Fire.' It's something that really drives me. It takes me to a different level. Of course, technically you go there and you learn how to play and how to pick and everything, but there's something else, not only the technical aspect. You feel it was written with truth."
He then described the specific thing he hears in those recordings: "You almost feel the METALLICA guys in the small room working the riff, James and Lars and Kirk and Cliff playing that riff for the first time. Can you imagine the excitement? And that's what we feel, that excitement that you cannot explain."
Asked to name the last riff from a modern band that stopped him in his tracks, Kisser did not hesitate.
"Yeah, I think GOJIRA," he said. "GOJIRA, it's a band and a guitar work that is very original. In a sense, they build their message around that new element of using the tapping or using that kind of groove. It's really hard to describe, but I think they brought something new to the guitar riffing and guitar playing, for sure."
Kisser is speaking from the closing stretch of his own band's history. SEPULTURA's final show takes place November 7, 2026 at the Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu in São Paulo. The bill includes METAL ALLEGIANCE — with Mike Portnoy, Alex Skolnick, Chuck Billy, Phil Demmel, Troy Sanders and founder Mark Menghi — plus KRISIUN and SACRED REICH. Former members and long-time associates are expected to appear, among them Jean Dolabella and Jairo Guedz, the guitarist Kisser replaced in 1987.
The band recently released a new EP, The Cloud Of Unknowing, via Nuclear Blast Records, and is assembling a live album from the farewell run — 40 songs recorded in 40 different cities, billed as a "massive compilation of our best, most energetic moments on stage."
SEPULTURA's farewell tour began on March 1, 2024 in Belo Horizonte, the sold-out show doubling as the live debut of drummer Greyson Nekrutman.