On the Backs of Angels: Authentic Guitar TAB

This TAB collection captures one of modern metal's most compositionally ambitious albums in note-for-note accuracy, giving serious players a direct roadmap to Petrucci's exact fingerings and interpretations. For advanced guitarists, studying these transcriptions reveals how a master builder constructs layered arrangements, navigates extreme technical passages, and maintains clarity across dense polyphonic textures.

Intricate, demanding, and intellectually engaging. The music sprawls across registers with sudden dynamic shifts, intricate countermelody work between guitar and keyboards, and passages that require both precision picking and fluid legato phrasing. Playing these songs demands focus but rewards it with passages of genuine melodic beauty underneath the technical surface.

Advanced and intermediate guitarists pursuing technical mastery and who want to study authentic Petrucci voicings and interpretations rather than approximations. Private instructors working with students on complex meter, advanced picking techniques, and progressive metal vocabulary will find these transcriptions essential references.

• Isolate the rhythm guitar parts first. These establish harmonic foundation and timing; locking them down prevents getting lost when the lead lines enter over shifting meters.
• Mark your meter changes in advance. Songs like "Build Me Up Break Me Down" shift between time signatures; annotating the TAB saves mental processing during performance.
• Use a metronome set to quarter-note clicks rather than beats. This keeps you anchored when measures contain 5, 7, or 9 subdivisions.
• Record yourself playing individual sections and listen back without your instrument. Hearing your own execution reveals timing inconsistencies and note clarity issues that are harder to catch while playing.

Feature these pieces in advanced student recitals or showcase performances where technical display and contemporary metal composition add variety to a program. Guitarists preparing for college auditions or performance ensemble placement can also use these transcriptions as etudes for developing control across extended technical passages.

• Reading complex time signatures and meter modulations (5/4, 7/8, mixed meters within single phrases)
• Hybrid picking and sweep picking accuracy at tempo
• Interval recognition and fretboard visualization across extended ranges
• Finger dexterity and stamina for sustained passages with minimal rest
• Listening for harmonic function within chromatic and modal contexts
• Coordinating complex rhythmic figures between left and right hands