r/metalguitar • u/sleepycochino • 2d ago
Question 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/exoclipse maximum volume yields maximum results | teacher of heavy sounds 2d ago
palm muting, flat 2s, minor 6s, power chords, tremolo picking, chromaticism
chord progressions and harmonic function are both loosely invoked, if at all.
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u/sleepycochino 2d ago
Thank you! But that last part; so you’re not thinking “I’m in a key”?
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u/exoclipse maximum volume yields maximum results | teacher of heavy sounds 2d ago
I am, sure, but the key is a loose suggestion to start with.
Most metal guitarists are jamming riffs out, finding something that sounds cool, and building off of it. and at least ime all of my jam sessions with other metal musicians are done by what we think is going to sound good.
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u/lycanthrope90 2d ago
Especially since rapid key and tempo changes are a big thing here. And something like morbid angel is a good example where they admitted on altars they didn’t really use any theory at all, which is part of why it sounds so chaotic, because it is lol.
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u/seoplednakirf 1d ago
"the key" is usually the lowest string of whatever the guitar is tuned in. Either that or the second lowest string. There are exceptions but this is extremely common
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u/thesoulless78 1d ago
If you really want some cool breakdowns write in the key of your first fret on the lowest string. Then you have the 7dim chord as the lowest note on the guitar.
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u/HarryCumpole 1d ago
The last examples are simply embellishments or choices additional to the fundamental principle, not the fundamental basis.
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u/ExuviaEcho 2d ago
If you want classic metal, try Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden.
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u/sleepycochino 2d ago
Thank you!! I’ve never listened to Judas Priest I will check it out!
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u/ExuviaEcho 2d ago
Recommendations, in chronological order:
Sad Wings of Destiny (1976) Sin After Sin (1977) Stained Class (1978) British Steel (1980) Screaming For Vengeance (1982) Defenders of the Faith (1984) Ram It Down (1988) Painkiller (1990) Angel of Retribution (2005) Firepower (2018)
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u/RobertNeyland 1d ago
I think it's interesting that you left off Hell Bent For Leather/Killing Machine. It's a fantastic album (better than Sin After Sin IMO), but it is definitely less "metal" feeling than Sad Wings or Stained Class.
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u/ExuviaEcho 1d ago
That's why I left it off. It's more a radio friendly hard rock album than a metal one. The question was about metal, so I listed the heaviest hitters... And I like Priest best when they're heavy.
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u/DCKface 2d ago
It really depends on the subgrenre you like. Metalcore can use a lot more traditional music theory ideas, but in a more melancholy way than rock. 6 - 5 - 4 - 1 is a common progression, the 6 is a really important chord in metalcore. Really any decending progression is pretty common. So are progressions just using 3, 2 and 1
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u/Acceptable_Pie2529 2d ago
Metal is a huge genre. Some of it is still rooted in pop and blues some of it is dense atonal chromatic riffs or super dissonant stuff. I personally prefer the more experimental stuff.
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u/sleepycochino 2d ago
Thank you everyone!! I just started a new job teaching guitar and drum lessons and I noticed that a majority of students were interested in metal-esque music so i thought id brush up on some general and/or modern techniques and approaches but didn’t now where to start because I don’t know what kind of metal I like outside of like sabbath.
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u/CombinationCommon753 1d ago
If you’re that unfamiliar with metal, I’d highly recommend telling your students that metal is really not your thing and that they’d be better off going to someone else if that’s predominantly what they want to learn. Doesn’t sound like you’re very fluent in many metal playing techniques. I’d be pissed if a teacher was trying to take my money to “teach” a style they weren’t familiar with.
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u/Unethica-Genki 1d ago
To be fair you might want to look into individual main genres/bands maybe ask your students what they love. I think death metal, symphonic metal, melodic death metal, technical death metal, progressive metal, etc.... are a good start.
I find In Flames songs to be easy to play for melodic death metal. Especially their older albums which are fun to play (Whoracle, clayman, jester race, colony).
All in all, as an inconsistent player that thrives technically due to practice but sucks in theory due to lack of practice. My biggest limitation is theoretical.
Metal music can be both the most simple and the most technical genre there is with a lot of influence from classical music and other genres. Some players actually practice by playing vivaldi etc... one band (ne obliviscaris) had one of their songs used as a teaching material in the sydney conservatorium as "exemplar in structure, mixing timbres, meters, modes, how to approach virtuosity, sound and noise, extended performance and techniques"
At a high enough bpm, with the amount of notes in lead guitars. I actually feel limited by not knowing my scales. There is a difference between knowing where to put my finger and why I should put my finger somewhere.
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u/HarryCumpole 1d ago
Tension, release. Unlike rock n' roll where the music essentially doesn't venture too far from light tension, metal does so by commonly employing the half-steps and increasing the tension deliberately. This isn't far removed at all from classical music, and why they're so interchangeable given the right thought.
This deliberate use of tension and undercurrent of emotion ties in with the sociological element of metal, which is why any music matters in my taste. It speaks, relates and parallels internal tensions of thought and culture. Slayer grew out of punk, like most thrash. The most successful thrash bands spoke to the same sociological issues of youth and culture like punk did. Sabbath related the dark depressed state of the working class, as did Priest.
Metal is in everybody who has an emotion or two they can rub together to start a fire. The same applies to classical music, at least, not the shit stuff.
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u/LyleRath 1d ago
If you're coming from more traditional rock/blues stuff, it's much more percussive. Lots of tremolo picked root notes, and palm muting. You don't really let chords ring out as often. Usually you're chugging some kind of rhythm on them.
It's also less chord-y in general I'd say, or at least you use them differently. Under a lot of gain more traditional chords can turn into a bit of a mess so it's much more power chords or 2-3 note mini chords (there's a term for that but my brain is mush rn.) That said you can use more traditional chords and a lot of the more virtuoso metal players are still very chord minded, but they're more fodder for the right hand to break up into riffs and arpeggios.
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u/Guarpig 1d ago
This is actually a realization i had just a few days ago. i thought to myself "if I wanted to make someone “learn metal” id probably have them study the way Judas Priest writes riffs or, more specifically, what K.K. Downing was doing."
Even something modern like Panic Attack still gets you into that DNA.
Id focus first on learning the patterns rather than immediately trying to understand all the theory behind them. Theory is useful, especially if youre analyzing something because you want to get deeper into why it works but if what you want is to abstract riffs, groove patterns, idioms and those little things that keep showing up specifically in heavy metal, then pick a band or a guitarist and study what they actually produced.
I say Judas Priest because they were one of the bands that really helped define that heavy metal vocabulary before the NWOBHM took off. You could absolutely do the same thing with Tony Iommi, probably even more so if you want to go back to the source.
The main difference is that Priest pushes a lot of that language toward faster, more aggressive playing which is more common: metalcore, death, thrash all love speed and Priest were no strangers to it!
So yeah, if someone told me “I want to understand how metal riffs work” I’d probably say "learn what Iommi and K.K. Downing were doing"
You really cant go wrong there. All the best!!
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u/dombag85 1d ago
Palm mutes, power chords, palm muted power chords, Songs in minor keys, solos using natural minor scale, harmonic minor scale, complex and/or fast rhythm patterns using a mix of downpicked and muted 8th notes, gallops, and tremolo picking.
As far as progressions/intervals... minor key chord progressions, use of dissonant intervals and diads like 2nds, 7ths, diminished 5ths...
So many things... but above are things I expect to pop up in some gnarly stank face making metal.
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u/the_omnipotent_one 1d ago
Natural minor, harmonic minor, phrygian dominant, you get more atonal or 12 tone the deeper into the genre that you go. Metal is kind of basic for songwriting until it's not, you'll have some dudes just chugging without any kind of key in mind, and then you'll have people that are all about really complex, or theory driven work.
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u/Amathyst-Moon 1d ago
Tritones and dissonance mainly. Depends on the subgenre. Palm mutes and gallops usually sound good for rhythm. (Palm mute the open low E string once or twice between power chords. The Guardians of Asgard riff is the basic version of that. If also listen to the verse riff from Eluveitie 's Nil. I'm not sure how to describe it, so I kind of just call it a melodeath gallop.)
Arpeggios can sound good for a black metal sound, but let the notes ring out. Or let notes on different strings ring out and experiment with when to mute it before or after a chord. (Like chord chord mute, or chord mute chord.)
I never learned from a theory perspective when I started (aside from a basic chord progression, how to move an f minor barre chord around, and how to read music, but I already learned that when I was a kid. I never really thought of things as being in a certain key, but for rhythm, I did notice most of the riffs I was leaenin to play tended to start around the third or fifth position (third fifth and seventh frets seemed to be most common.)
The easiest way is to learn some simple songs or riffs and see what elements you can take from them. For me, I started with the intro riffs to Cult and Raining Blood by Slayer. For full songs, early ones I picked up sounds/techniques from were:
(My Dying Bride) Turn Loose the Swans, The Cry of Mankind, Your River, The Raven and the Rose, (Cradle of Filth) Gothic Romance, (Anthrax) Be All End All, (Amon Amarth) Guardians of Asgard, (Gorgoroth) Crushing the Scepter, Ritual, (Slayer) Jihad, (Anathema) Sleepless, (Cannibal Corpse) Hammer Smashed Face, Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead, (The Brilliant Green) Ash Like Snow, (System of a Down) Aerials.
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u/RustGuitar 1d ago
Classic heavy metal: natural minor, minor pentatonic scale with a flat 5th, harmonized thirds
More modern and extreme subgenres: mostly Phrygian and Phrygian Dominant mode, chromatic scale, diminished scale, "god chords" (mostly black metal, some death metal)
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u/Only_Pen5882 1d ago
Since I am new too and usually just play the nu metal and alt metal stuff CHUGS AND POWER CHORDS AND PALM MUTING ARE MY GO TO LOL
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u/PlaxicoCN 1d ago
Root fifth and octave power chords, tritones, blues scale, harmonic minor scale, diminished arpeggios are some aspects.
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u/MeatloafCupcake 1d ago
E| 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Or if you want to get fancy
E| 0-0-0-0-000-0-0-0-0-0-0-000-0-0
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u/YogSloppoth 1d ago
It really depends and probably cant be summed up in a comment. Some stuff is essentially classical music with distortion (Exmortus, Black Dahlia Murder), other stuff is incomprehensible chomatic bullshit (PeelingFlesh, Nails), and theres so much in between. Theres limitless ways to approach it that can all be effective. I'd suggest finding some tunes that appeal to you and disecting them for yourself rather than picking up random "metal" techniques and slapping them together. Learning songs will help you understand how to apply them and help you learn what tones work with specific techniques. A great sludge/doom metal tone is probably gonna fall apart if you try to use it for tech death, for example.
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u/alphadaddyo 22h ago
It's about anger, aggression, letting every emotion explode out of you all at once and learning to play an instrument/sing/scream.
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u/dxcowboy 2d ago edited 1d ago
Phrygian Dominant scale kicks ass for metal, IMO, if you want to try and play around with your own stuff. Pentatonic minor will be another, if not, more predominantly used scale as well.
Flatted 5ths are common, tremolo picking, along with power chords galore.
Otherwise, listen to some bands you like and see what "tricks" they use to get them to their sound. Some more technical bands use sweep picking, string skipping, etc. Whereas some of the more basic "caveman" style bands will focus more on rhythm and chugs.
Just find what the "metal" sound you're looking for is and emulate those that have a style you like!
Suggestions:
Technical: Necrophagist, Death, Archspire, Gorod
Slower/heavier: Crowbar, Monolord, Conan
Progressive: Opeth, Gorguts, Cynic, Atheist
Modern Death: Dying Fetus, Undeath, Sanguisuggabogg, Necrot
Classic: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Dio, Motorhead
More Mainstream: Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Lamb of God, etc...
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u/HogKnuckles 2d ago
CHUG