TECH DEATH CLASSIC: Spawn Of Possession | Dead & Grotesque | Guitar Cover

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Here’s another tech death classic that I wholeheartedly recommend as a practice song! Even though the song is a bit faster than the golden standard of 240bpm (the song is 140/280bpm), it has a lot of beginner friendly riffs. Beginner as in tech death beginner, not some random person just picking up a guitar for the first time. It’s Spawn Of Possession after all. Keep that in mind!

Here are two links for tabs. One is the official tab with an additional solo by someone else and the other one is the riffs arranged as a picking exercise tab, with all the fingerings and right hand patterns I use. Since you guys LOVE exercises, höhö. The official tab does have a few mistakes, that I didn’t change, so be aware of that. I also didn’t use the solo part of it. I just transcribed it myself for the video and added a few improvisations where it was impossible to tell what’s being played.

Official Tab as a GP file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wccxo0ZtRVasSlRgufH-2u5TQzQKmWES/view?usp=share_link

Exercise Tab – GP:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S-hAIdXGeS1P2UhZhIvbbe9RneWJJBQ6/view?usp=share_link

Exercise Tab – PDF:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pYwNF9RrjAK-7IEpa7lBEesiNUoDdeAP/view?usp=share_link

The exercise tab contains all the riffs that make tech death what it is. Alternate picked single note riffing at around 240bpm. That’s what I’d call a distinctive feature of that genre. Here it’s just a bit faster, but with easier patterns for the most part (compared to Necrophagist for example). The only exception is the Grotesque part that comes later in the song (Exercise 7 in my tab). You probably already know which part I mean, without checking the tab.

Depending on the way you play it, and what your goal is in terms of playing quality, so ranging from 90s death metal that sounds like it was played by humans, to 2000s tech death that sounds like guitar pro, the difficulty of that part also ranges from intermediate to almost impossible. If you play it with sound of the band in mind, and some small changes to the fingering, that part is quite doable, even for someone who is not that experienced in the genre. If your goal is Necrophagist tightness, well, you’re basically f*cked. Then it’s just git gud. Spawn Of Possession are the Dark Souls of Tech Death after all.

I have three versions of that part. Difficulty-wise, the easy version is on par with the rest of the song, since I changed the three string arpeggios to two string ones. You can even add a pull-of, if that kind of picking is too much for your current level and then it’s definitely a managable part. The official fingering is the hardest one, because it only uses three string arpeggios, that also sound like there were alternate picked, and not sweeped. I personally play a mix of both versions for two reasons.

1.To show you that you can play those three string areggios with alternate picking and because the official fingering also contains those

2.To save stamina and make it a bit easier for myself. The part comes pretty late into the song, and stamina management is crucial for that. While those parts don’t eat up that much stamina, your precision and accuracy will suffer, if you have some form of fatigue from the parts that come before that. The song features a bit of tremolo picking, and that technique loves to eat up stamina, even if it’s only used briefly here

And I’m truly sorry, but there’s only one secret to that part, and that is: practice. Yeah, there’s no real shortcut or trick in that part. It’s just regular alternate picking at a high tempo and difficulty. You just have to put in the work. Sure, you could use sweeping, hybrid picking or other techniques that make this easier, but in the end, it’s still an alternate picking part. If you want that sound, you have to play it accordingly. I’m a very strict player when it comes to covers and I already consider different fingerings a form of cheating haha

But I do have a tip for the other part you’re probably curious about. You know, those legatos on the fifth fret. Bryssling plays those by jumping to each position with the tip of his index finger, like you would fret a regular note on each string. I find this very awkward without a sideways motion, like going from one fret to a higher fret. So I’ve always played this as a barre chord kind of thing. Even when I learned the song the first time, like ten years ago.

There’s two tricks to that:

1.When going from bottom to top, your right hand blocks all the previous strings from ringing, similar to a sweep motion. Not exactly the same motion, but it has the same purpose

2.When going from top to bottom, you have to lift the lowest part of your index finger just a tiny bit, so it blocks the B string from ringing, and then the same thing for the D string.

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37 thoughts on “TECH DEATH CLASSIC: Spawn Of Possession | Dead & Grotesque | Guitar Cover”

  18. Great seeing you killing it again! Dropped you words of support on IG and will repeat myself here: stay healthy and thanks for the inspiration and motivation, Kevin!

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  31. General question: who is interested in a regular Stabwound cover on the original tempo? The reason I've been thinking about it is because a lot of people approach that song with way too much emphasis on efficiency. Like they see my 125% version and think that's how you play the song. But that's how you play the song at 125%, not at 100%. You have to view it as a completely different song. At the original tempo you can and have to put in a lot more force.
    Here's some food for thought: if you play the song at original tempo with the same efficiency and force I use at 125%, where are those 25% extra supposed to come from? The right amount of efficiency is a sort of skill that people have to learn. You can't get faster through efficiency if you're already "too" efficient. I know it sound wrong, but that's how it actually is. (At least in my opinion)

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