Can standard tuning still sound brutal?

[TimSE]

Opeth
deicide still use standard or Eflat i think

 

[playstopause]

Has Meshuggah been informed?

The exception that confirms the rule! Imho, low tuning is really a part of their sound. But you know, i was manily thinking of those kids that thinks "omg!!!, I got to tune very low so i can be brootal".

 

[Ancestor]

Just tune down. That's what poor bastards like me do. My low string on my six is Bb.

 

[budda]

no, dont tune down.

you want standard to sound brutal?

dial in a brutal tone.

opeth - master's apprentice. what a fine example of heaviness in standard it is!

 

[Metal Ken]

Opeth
deicide still use standard or Eflat i think

All the old florida death metal (Like Deicide -- Which is far more brutal than anything listed in this thread so far) tuned in either Eb or D. The most death metal album ever to come from Florida, Malevolent Creation's "Retribution" is in D Standard.

 

[philkilla]

Don't forget Morbid Angel ole Schectwhore.

Gojira is only in D, and like Morbid they use a lot of 4th chords while the bass adds a lower 5th..so that usually helps.

 

[stuh84]

What about Testament?

 

[NeglectedField]

Low tuning is not the key to 'brutality', it's in the riffs. And of course your amp!

 

[TemjinStrife]

Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi is in standard (or half step down) for many of their tracks, and holy shit is that heavy.

 

[Unknown Doodl3.2]

Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal is in Eb... but is freakin heavy as hell
Heathen - Victims of Deception is in E, and that's equally brutal

 

[Sebastian]

A lot of Pantera's songs are in standard... maybe not a lot.. but bad ass for sure

Mouth for war... CFH ... Fucking Hostile

 

[Mastodon]

I think Megadeth Opeth and Dillinger Escape Plan all sound brutal and they play in standard.

Edit: Though I'm viewing brutal in 2 different ways. I wouldn't consider these bands to be the crushing kind of brutal.

 

[Nick]

as many have said opeth get a pretty brutal sound in E

check out deliverance off of....Deliverance.

the main verse riff i find to be br()()tal lol

 

[intereo_luuk]

..and the last riff is nice (= brutal) too! Angel of Death is almost in standard E tuning, it's in Eb, right? That song is pretty brutal..

 

[OrsusMetal]

I'm pretty damn sure Mors Principium Est uses standard tuning, and they're amazing.

 

[Nick]

B standard lol

not E

One of them used to play a 7 string but i cant remember whether or not it was the guy that quit, i think it was

 

[TomAwesome]

You don't have to detune for teh br00talz..?

This whole forum is a lie!!!!!

erm... Pantera anyone?? after CFH, anytime dime did something in 'E' he tuned a quarter step down, but its still more or less standard. and by fucking christ is it brutal!!!! some of the shit on Far Beyond Driven is still a benchmark for brutality, and a lot of it's in standard. It's all in the tone too.
Generally speaking if you still want a tight brutal tone in E you have to scoop a lot of mids and add bass. If yuo try to use the same settings on low tunings though it sounds poop and muddy, so you need to dial the mids back in a touch and roll the low end off a tad, which is quite annoying when you're swapping guitars a lot haha.

Eh? That doesn't make much sense. Shouldn't a tone made for low tunings be less susceptible to mud? Even on a 7 or detuned 6, wouldn't it then sound like crap on everything but the low string? I play a lot in Eb and E (and yes, for once I'm talking about standard and a half step away rather than an octave down ), and my main distortion patch sounds just as good in E as it does in Ab or sub-octave Eb.

 

[BlackMetalSins]

Deicide's Scars of The Crucifix is pretty brutal for Standard. I think the whole Pantera album Cowboys from Hell is in Standard, except Primal Concrete Sledge which is in Drop D.

 

[neon_black88]

Nevermore - The whole Dreaming Neon Black album is in E flat, THAT album is actually HEAVY AS SHIT.

I find myself really wishing I could go lower on a 6 now, not because lower=brutal-er, just because that area in the B range just sounds "right" for where my rhythm playing should be, it sucks not being able to use that range.

Deicide's Scars of The Crucifix is pretty brutal for Standard. I think the whole Pantera album Cowboys from Hell is in Standard, except Primal Concrete Sledge which is in Drop D.

But its really a quarter of a step down

 

[noodles]

"Brutal" and "heavy" are descriptions we gave to music that sounds and feels a certain way. It has everything to do with songwriting and delivery, and nothing to do with tuning.

Lower tunings can help, but they are simply another tool in your arsenal. It is what you do with that low tuning that matters. What we've really come up against is the increasing difficulty of sounding heavier, more brutal, or more evil than that which has come before. Sabbath comes along, and makes everything sinister. Judas Priest comes along, and they make everything heavy. Maiden comes along, and ups the ante by playing everything faster. Thrash is next, and they add ferocity. Then death metal takes that right to the edge, adding more dissonance and weighty riffs.

As far as I'm concerned, that is as far as we've gotten. No one has pushed it past that point yet, no matter how low they've gone. So, you get stuff like Opeth, which makes the heavy stuff sound heavier, by nature of contrasting it with lighter stuff. That was something that several million kids missed out on the first time around when they were bitching about the slow part in the middle of Master of Puppets. You also get bands like Necrophagist, that just throw very melodic parts right over the top of it, or Arsis, who push the technical boundaries right to the edge, to give everything a frantic quality. But more brutal? Nah, things haven't gotten more brutal in a while, since simply being brutal 110% of the time takes the edge off of things.