Metallica, Hendrix and Ozzy Osbourne Make Greatest Guitar Riffs Of All Time List

15. "Enter Sandman," Metallica (1991): Metallica's oh-so-sinister riff in "Enter Sandman," the first single from their self-titled fifth album, is one of their heaviest and most ominous, which is saying a lot from a band who defined heavy and ominous. But what really makes "Enter Sandman" a master-riff is just how catchy it is, which explains how it quickly became one of, if the the, signature song from the kings of thrash metal. The bottom-heavy and propulsive riff grabs you buy the throat at the very beginning and never releases. Sleep with one eye open, indeed. � Sean Patrick Dooley

14. "Purple Haze," The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967): This wonderful, woozy rock and roll song purportedly originated when Jimi Hendrix's manager, Chas Chandler, overheard him playing the riff backstage in 1966 and persuaded him to flesh it out with lyrics. "Purple Haze" appeared the following year on Are You Experienced. "I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," Hendrix told New Musical Express in 1969. "[Purple Haze] � was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea." � Ellen Barnes