I was listening to a Spotify-generated power metal playlist recently, and a song by the Italian band Temperance made me do a double take. And by double take, I mean, imagine me snorting my drink out of my nose, making the widest eyes I can make, and saying to myself, “Did that really just happen? Holy shit.”

What was it that caught my attention? Nothing less than the most audaciously prolonged riff turnaround I think I’ve ever heard in my two decades of listening to metal music.

Some of you might ask, what’s a riff turnaround? And what difference does it make if one is long or short?

Some others of you might ask, what were you drinking? Did you really snort it out your nose? Did that hurt? I’m not answering those questions, but I will tell you what a riff turnaround is.

In metal music, a riff is a distinct melodic or rhythmic (or both) idea that is repeated or looped to form the basis for a song or section. (This definition has a lot of consensus behind it, such as Walser 1994, Pillsbury 2006, Elflein 2010 or my 2021 article.) But riffs aren’t always literally or exactly repeated; often, they have little variations or more substantial “cadential figures” (Fast 2001, 117) added to some of the repetitions. These variations or figures often help mark off multiples of riffs to structure a longer section of repetition. Normally, these figures fit within the amount of time the riff would normally take, rather than adding extra beats or measures (see Susan Fast’s analysis of “Wanton Song” by Led Zeppelin, on the page cited above).

I call these figures “riff turnarounds” because they aren’t really “cadences.” They don’t have to lead to the tonic note, they just have to lead nicely into the start of the next riff. This makes them more like what jazz players call a “turnaround,” which is a chord progression added at the end of a song’s main section to make it lead back better to the head or top of the song. So I call these figures “riff turnarounds.” (I’m writing a chapter about riff turnarounds, which will appear in the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of Metal Music Composition, edited by Lori Burns and Ciro Scotto, which is supposed to be published in 2024).

Here’s what “The Last Hope in a World of Hopes” would look like if Temperance had used riff turnarounds that stay within the amount of time the riff would already take, and don’t add any extra beats or bars. The last measure of each 4-measure riff phrase has a single-measure turnaround that melodically leads to the first note of the next riff on the next line.

But that’s boring! For decades, prog rock and metal bands have been adding extra beats and/or measures to the ends of some of their riffs. This gives your brain this delicious feeling when you listen: the expectations you might have had for when the next riff starts get interrupted or jarred, and you have to wait a bit longer. When done right this can be pretty exciting, and it feels like the song is powering up, breaking through to a new plane of mind-blowing magical prog arts. This phenomenon is the subject of Gregory McCandless’s excellent 2013 article “Metal as Gradual Process: Additive Rhythmic Structures in the Music of Dream Theater.” Here’s his analysis of a passage that adds extra beats in Dream Theater’s “The Ytse Jam” (2:46-3:46):

Below is another imaginary recomposition that shows what the opening to “The Last Hope…” might have looked like if Temperance were a boring prog metal band with no sense of adventure. On the fourth repetition of the riff, I’ve added a slightly longer riff turnaround that extends the original riff turnaround by repeating its cool syncopated figure, and then settling on a lowered scale degree 2 to set up an ominous return to the tonic.

But like I said, Temperance is not a boring prog metal band. The actual opening of the song is quite a lot more audacious, with an extended riff turnaround that adds an extra 5 measures to the fourth riff before it finally arrives at the next section:

The feeling this creates is like the musical idea spills out of its container, overflows the capacity of the song’s phrasing and expands into space like an exploding supernova in a cheesy sci-fi movie. When it gets to the Fb, it’s like they add a riff turnaround to the riff turnaround, launching into another transitory musical idea. What a trip! That riff turnaround alone is pretty stunning.

But Temperance are just getting started. The next riff module (starting at 0:30) has an even longer mega expanded riff turnaround after only 2 repetitions of the riff. This one is so long that you start to forget you’re in a turnaround and think this is just a new riff section. But eventually, after careening into the void for what seems like an unimaginably long amount of metrical time but is actually only about 20 seconds, there’s a moment of suspension like the zenith of a rocket before it comes crashing back down to earth, after which the song leads back into the first chorus at 1:00 (see below).

Check out the full song below. It’s cheesy power / symphonic / prog metal at its finest. But more important than that, Temperance wins the Olympic gold for audaciously prolonged riff turnarounds. Enjoy listening.