1 Maiden And The Monster
The opening track on Portals certainly sets the scene well – its otherworldly discordance notably more soundtrack in feel than your typical instrumental guitar album. The opening movement starts with a C# and G#, presumably played on the fourth frets of the A and high E strings in standard tuning, against the pedal tone of the open B string. The fretted notes then descend chromatically from the fourth position to the third (the bass note moving from C# to C) and second (from C to B) before coming back up, while the open B string continues to ring throughout. When the lead guitars come in, Hammett sticks with C# minor pentatonic pattern – occasionally incorporating a flat five ‘blue note’, in this case a G. After three and a half minutes or so, Hammett then introduces some C# Phrygian ideas, very occasionally implying the fifth mode of the F# harmonic minor scale (C# Phrygian Dominant) by raising the E to an F, as well as sweeping through some C#m and F#m arpeggios. The bluesy riff in F# at the end brings its seven minutes and 17 seconds to a fiery conclusion.