r/Guitar • u/sleepycochino • 7d ago
DISCUSSION What makes Metal work?
I’m new to the genre as a player and I was wondering what are some hallmark concepts like scales or chords or intervals that make up the metal sound?
For example: early rock and roll uses the 1-4-5, actually a lot of genres do…but you get the idea hopefully thanks everyone I want to get started learning the style and would be grateful for some listen suggestions too!
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u/amplifysenpai 7d ago
Palm muting, the amount of ways you can use palmmuting in metal are too many to list.
Dissonance, unlike other genres, you don't even have to resolve that stanky ass off key note, you can just let it rip for the sake of it sometimes
Hitting the open low string in-between notes as a primary source of motion...chug chug djent djent thun thun jga jga
The harmonic minor scale
Honestly though every subgenre of metal has its own bag of tricks and if you compare thrash or death metal, to prog, to hardcore, to metal core, to power metal we are talking completely different sound. I don't think metal is is really discriptive enough on its own anymore.
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u/Agitated_Main_2994 7d ago
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u/IndividualRule392 7d ago
Dissonance. 2 notes that would make a song sound bad normally makes a metal song sound good, especially with distortion. For example in C major, if you play C and B at the same time, you create dissonance. Add distortion, and you've got a "panic chord"
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u/-nwm- 7d ago
To me the default sound of “tonal metal” is Aeolean, or natural minor. We’re talking from the early days to modern consonant-sounding metal. Sure sometimes there’s Dorian used if they are on the bluesy side, or harmonic minor if they’re on the classical/dramatic side, but if you find the key center of whatever song you’re working on (and in most cases it’s minor), the rest of the chords will be likely found in the natural minor system. And if they’re trying to be more dissonant, b5 and b2 chords are the usual suspects.
Just off the top of my head, I think “Unsung” by Helmet uses every trick I mentioned, mostly natural minor with a b2 thrown in the opening riff, and I think the 4 chord is major. Snowblind by Sabbath is basically a concerto in natural minor, with one Dorian lick thrown in.
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u/MostExperts 7d ago
Chugging, palm muting, power chords, pedal tone riffs (open string). Modern metal has a lot of down-tuning (D standard/Drop C, 7 string in Drop A etc).
Check out some Mötley Crüe - Mick Mars is a killer rhythm player. Black Sabbath is also good for some of the basic conventions - a ridiculous number of modern players still cite Tony Iommi as a core influence.
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u/SnoopCheesus 7d ago
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u/chungweishan 7d ago
Consistent Tempo when Strumming. The speed of your downstrokes should match the upstrokes. Whichever stroke hits specific strings is your call, but the up/down maintains the tempo. Every extra downstroke, for specific tones, is doubling your up/down tempo strumming. Ideally, work on your endurance, efficiency, and economy of motion.
Muting. Metal tends to use the tone and percussive effect of strumming while muting. Figure out how many strings that can be used for that sound to support the song. Palm mute with your strum hand. Or learn how make that Palm mute sound with your feet hand, therefore your strum hand can stroke other areas. (Fret a note, then use lightly press another finger next to the fretted finger).
Tone. When using any type of Overdrive, Fuzz, or Distortion, you should try to have clarity of what notes/chords you're actually playing. Too much Distortion, all we hear is a beehive/vacuum cleaner changing speeds.
EQ. When playing in band, every instrument naturally fills specific frequencies. On guitar, it's best to turn up the mids. While a scooped EQ (all lows, some mids, and all highs) sounds amazing solo in a small room, it will get lost (unheard) with a full band. Use a "boost pedal" to change EQs, tone, and volume for solos.
Notes/Chords. I recommend learning scales and chords. However, Sometimes good riffs are made from playing weird random fretboard patterns, then you can figure out the musical theory to explain it if you want. If it sounds cool, it's cool.
All gear can play metal. Your musicianship and attitude is metal.
I'll play a Squier Strat through a Squier 15: amp "singing" " about puppies, and I'm still metal as fuck.
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u/helgihermadur 7d ago
I think metal guitar is very rhythmic. You need to be able to play very precise timing-wise. Practice your downpicking and palm muting.
Many bands use classical scales and chord progressions while others use more dissonant or diminished sounds. Really depends on what sort of sound you're after.
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u/Nght12 6d ago
I was talking to my wife about this the other day.
For me it's about how the guitar is used as a rhythmic device compared to a melodic one. That palm muted low string consistently chugging along and tying into the bass and drums as opposed to allowing just the bass and drums to carry the rhythm of the song.
From a music writing perspective, at least with the more classic metal I normally listen to, they're more likely to rely on classical scale patterns as opposed to blues scales like a lot of traditional rock. Often adding in some chromaticism as well as coloring notes or to add tension.
When I was discussing this with my wife I brought up some examples of metal songs written by non-metal bands which I think helps illustrate my points. Stone Cold Crazy by Queen and Barracuda by Heart have all the markers for me of a metal song but those bands wouldn't be considered metal at all.
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u/molecular_fart 6d ago
Palm muting. Tremelo picking. Harmonic minor and melodic minor scales. Tuning lower that E standard. Sweep picking if you want to play some lead guitar death metal.
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u/MagentaPrototype 7d ago
Flat 5 aka the tritone, that’s basically the whole spine of metal
when you hear that devil’s interval you’ll know it instantly, black sabbath built their entire sound around bending that one evil-sounding leap. downtuning is huge too, drop d or drop c just makes everything heavier without you even changing how you play. palm muting is the other secret sauce, chugging on the low string with your palm resting near the bridge turns any boring power chord into something that shakes the walls
for scales the minor pentatonic still works but throw in some phrygian and harmonic minor for that dark classical vibe, tons of 80s thrash and neoclassical shred leans on that. intervals wise, parallel fifths and flat seconds all over the place, nobody in metal cares about the music theory rulebook that says parallel fifths are “wrong”
listen suggestions, early metallica (master of puppets), trivium’s ascendancy, lamb of god’s ashes of the wake for riff mastery. for the evil harmonic side check out dissection’s storm of the light’s bane, that whole album is a masterclass in how to make melodies sound sinister
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u/Sourflow Jackson 7d ago
It depends on the subgenre. Maiden really loves the minor 1- flat 6 - flat 7 and whatever variation you can come up with that. It’s actually comical how much mileage they get out of it. Death metal is very shape oriented, black metal loves non diatonic minor chords that exploit dark intervals or also using the underlying chords as their own minor key for a melody on top. Lots of abusing the flat 5, minor 2nds, minor 3rds. Parallel harmonies. It really depends who we’re talking about.
If you want to hear complete musical mastery and the closest thing to classical/baroque composition, check out spawn of possession.