Chorus riffs

[CW14]

Songs such as Master of Puppets, Seasons in the Abyss, Aces High, and others have choruses that just consist of power chords. I was wondering what order they are normally put together in; vocal melody first or chords first?

Is the vocal melody usually left to the vocalist to come up with?

[Superhuman]

I used to play in a few different bands in all different genres (of metal/rock that is!) and the guitarists or bassists allways came up with the music first then the vocalist added his own melody on top of that. Of course once the basic structure is in place, the vocalist can always direct the music much the same as the drummer would. I always worked on the premise that too much thinking about structure usually ruins the song, just imagine what sounds best first rather than trying to stick to a formula. It's much the same as playing lead, just do with your voice as you would do with your axe.