# Characteristics of Black Metal



## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

So I am not a big Black Metal listener and not true kvlt. I do however like some songs when they cross paths with me and I end up liking them. I would like to apply some of the uniqe charasterics though Black Metal has and especially want to emulate some of it since I created a gloomy riff.

I know they down tune their guits, but is it possible to do some of these things in E standard? One of the things that I am trying to emulate (Please provide examples since I do not know what the fuck this is called so sorry if I sound like an idiot) is when they start chugging and then they hit notes that sound like they are clashing and have a lot of dissonance and is usually used to build up the tension (how I feel about it) in the BM songs I have heard.

If you guys could provide some examples of it and also how to emulate that on the guitar I would greatly appreciate it.

Also if you guys could keep it in laimen terms since I am not the wise in music theory, but I am trying to learn and I would like to know how this sound in Black Metal is accomplished.

Thanks guys


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## The Omega Cluster (Apr 23, 2018)

I don't think down-tuning is a characteristic of black metal, many black metal bands use standard tuning. I think it's only a minority who use lower tunings. Also what BM songs have you heard? Chugging is not a BM technique, although it can be used in BM songs, but you wouldn't see that in traditional black I believe.

The things that sound black to me is the extensive and prolongated use of blast beats on drums, and tremolo picking on guitars. Tremolo picking meaning that you pick high-pitched notes very fast. The chords and chord progressions don't usually vary too much from regular metal although they can have a lot more influence from romanticism and classical music. But if you mention chords clashing together maybe you've listened to some recent dissonant black metal. I like this style a lot, too. Basically they use chords that are dissonant, like chords with a flat-2, flat-5, minor-6, but you can get creative.

BM is not necessarily a vocal genre, but if you go for a vocalist, try to find someone whose shrieks are high-pitched, it seems to be more standard in BM than low-pitched grunts and growls of death metal.


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

The Omega Cluster said:


> I don't think down-tuning is a characteristic of black metal, many black metal bands use standard tuning. I think it's only a minority who use lower tunings. Also what BM songs have you heard? Chugging is not a BM technique, although it can be used in BM songs, but you wouldn't see that in traditional black I believe.
> 
> The things that sound black to me is the extensive and prolongated use of blast beats on drums, and tremolo picking on guitars. Tremolo picking meaning that you pick high-pitched notes very fast. The chords and chord progressions don't usually vary too much from regular metal although they can have a lot more influence from romanticism and classical music. But if you mention chords clashing together maybe you've listened to some recent dissonant black metal. I like this style a lot, too. Basically they use chords that are dissonant, like chords with a flat-2, flat-5, minor-6, but you can get creative.
> 
> BM is not necessarily a vocal genre, but if you go for a vocalist, try to find someone whose shrieks are high-pitched, it seems to be more standard in BM than low-pitched grunts and growls of death metal.




I think I might have mistaken some characteristics of BM for Death Metal?



Skip to 2:46 and you will see where he is chuggin and then plays those two 'clashing' notes as I like to call them.

If you could clarify on that that would be great.


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

**** AN ALERT, I MIGHT HAVE MISTAKEN SOME OF BLACK METAL FOR DEATH METAL****


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## bostjan (Apr 23, 2018)

JustinRhoads1980 said:


> **** AN ALERT, I MIGHT HAVE MISTAKEN SOME OF BLACK METAL FOR DEATH METAL****



Yeah, that's a death metal riff. The two genres are related to each other, but the part you are pointing toward is definitely one of the characteristic sounds of death metal.

Tune your guitar down, chug your open power chord two times with plenty of palm muting, then play the first fret power chord with the same palm muting one time, then play another muted open power chord, and repeat three total times, then play some screechy notes four times way up on the first and second strings, a few frets apart with the lower fret on the first string. While you do this, whoever is doing vocals should go a false chord growl for as long as the breakdown goes, or as long as possible if the breakdown is too long. Have your drummer follow your chugging on his kick drum with quarter notes stuck on a crash or maybe china cymbal. Snare on two and on four. Bonus points to your drummer if he or she switches to triplets on the kick drum halfway through the breakdown.

That's the basic formula for probably 80-90% of slow DM breakdowns in the 21st century. Fast breakdowns, on the other hand, is more where DM and BM overlap a bit, but in my mind, Death Metal singers either sound like "GRWOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!1!1!1!!!1one!!!11!!e!even!!!!1!!!" or "BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!", where black metal singers sound more like "SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!". It's like the difference between a minotaur or pig monster and a serpent or lizard monster. 

Even though it seems mostly formulaic, it's still cool as hell, and to be fair, 99.6% of the music that's out there is just as predictably formulaic, if not moreso.


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## KnightBrolaire (Apr 23, 2018)

how to black metal:
play dick dale and other surf music with lots of gain
record said riffs with a tape recorder in the middle of the woods (free reverb yo)
smear black and white corpse paint on your face
screech about the left hand path/satanism and burn churches

In all seriousness though, black metal is basically super lo-fi recording, trem picking, a good amount of reverb, diminished and minor scales, and screechy Venom style screams.
Tremolo picking is essentially an electric guitar technique to accomplish tremolo (ie rapid picking of the same note to give a specific wavering/undulating effect). It's not specifically applied to any range of the guitar, though in black metal they tend to favor using the higher frets for it.


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## The Omega Cluster (Apr 23, 2018)

Yeah, Feared is 100% a death metal band. So, do you want to know about black metal characteristics but you were mistaken in one of your examples, or you were mistaken in the genre you are interested in and you want to know about death metal characteristics? If the latter is true I suggest starting a new post and deleting this one if possible).


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## bostjan (Apr 23, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> how to black metal:
> play dick dale and other surf music with lots of gain
> record said riffs with a tape recorder in the middle of the woods (free reverb yo)
> smear black and white corpse paint on your face
> ...



Bluntly said, but that is essentially what I think of when I hear "black metal."

Here's a contrast:


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

bostjan said:


> Yeah, that's a death metal riff. The two genres are related to each other, but the part you are pointing toward is definitely one of the characteristic sounds of death metal.
> 
> Tune your guitar down, chug your open power chord two times with plenty of palm muting, then play the first fret power chord with the same palm muting one time, then play another muted open power chord, and repeat three total times, then play some screechy notes four times way up on the first and second strings, a few frets apart with the lower fret on the first string. While you do this, whoever is doing vocals should go a false chord growl for as long as the breakdown goes, or as long as possible if the breakdown is too long. Have your drummer follow your chugging on his kick drum with quarter notes stuck on a crash or maybe china cymbal. Snare on two and on four. Bonus points to your drummer if he or she switches to triplets on the kick drum halfway through the breakdown.
> 
> ...




How would I make that screechy sound. I know how to do the breakdown part as I have implicated that into my song, but I think the icing on the cake is the screechy notes. How do I do those? I know it is on the b and e string. I tried to do that with a chord by adding a note up on the b string and I kinda got the vibe there, but not entirely


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

The Omega Cluster said:


> Yeah, Feared is 100% a death metal band. So, do you want to know about black metal characteristics but you were mistaken in one of your examples, or you were mistaken in the genre you are interested in and you want to know about death metal characteristics? If the latter is true I suggest starting a new post and deleting this one if possible).




I thought that the thing they did in the breakdown was a black metal thing. Guess my interest is more pointed towards Death Metal then


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

bostjan said:


> Bluntly said, but that is essentially what I think of when I hear "black metal."
> 
> Here's a contrast:




Hm seems like I would prefer death metal better. Though I don't like the cannibal corpse stuff where I cannot comprehend what they are saying.


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## NateFalcon (Apr 23, 2018)

Bands like: Bathory, Emperor, Immortal, Burzum, Mayhem etc...lo-fi recording, depressing/suicidal lyrical themes, hyper fast barre-chord style rhythm guitar over extended blast beat drums, lots of gain and chorus for the “frozen moon” sound lol, choppy mess lead work...some bands like Behemoth are “churching up” black metal and making it hi-fi and more technical, but classic Black Metal follows the same theme. You can spot the people at Wal-mart and Hot Topic at the mall looking for good sales on Halloween makeup and usually shopping in the children’s section because most of them all weigh under 90 lbs...Old stuff from Mayhem is a good example of straight up Black Metal


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 23, 2018)

NateFalcon said:


> Bands like: Bathory, Emperor, Immortal, Burzum, Mayhem etc...lo-fi recording, depressing/suicidal lyrical themes, hyper fast barre-chord style rhythm guitar over extended blast beat drums, lots of gain and chorus for the “frozen moon” sound lol, choppy mess lead work...some bands like Behemoth are “churching up” black metal and making it hi-fi and more technical, but classic Black Metal follows the same theme. You can spot the people at Wal-mart and Hot Topic at the mall looking for good sales on Halloween makeup and usually shopping in the children’s section because most of them all weigh under 90 lbs...Old stuff from Mayhem is a good example of straight up Black Metal




I like some of Venom, Is that a bad example of a BM band?

Also I hear people making jokes about black metal being recorded on a 2006 flip phone and such and I assume that has to correlate with lo-fi. What exactly is lo-fi?


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## bostjan (Apr 23, 2018)

JustinRhoads1980 said:


> Hm seems like I would prefer death metal better. Though I don't like the cannibal corpse stuff where I cannot comprehend what they are saying.


Haha! Well, extreme metal of whichever sort might not be your bag, then, if you actually want to be able to understand the lyrics.

Lo-fi, or low fidelity is just a really low quality recording. A lot of Black Metal from the 1990's and 2000's was recorded on extremely low budget, so the sound quality just isn't any good, usually sounding tinny and harsh.

Those two notes shouldn't be difficult to find. I don't have a guitar with me, or I'd try to help you, but honestly, you should be able to find it through trial and error in 2-3 minutes. It's a mainstay of modern metal to play two notes a half step or sometimes a whole step apart, up high, to affect the same sort of clashing dissonance.


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## KnightBrolaire (Apr 23, 2018)

JustinRhoads1980 said:


> I like some of Venom, Is that a bad example of a BM band?
> 
> Also I hear people making jokes about black metal being recorded on a 2006 flip phone and such and I assume that has to correlate with lo-fi. What exactly is lo-fi?


Venom and mayhem are the perfect examples of early black metal.
lo-fi = low fidelity (ie sounds like shit). It's a product of the time and equipment available to black metal groups at the time of its creation and basically became a signature part of the black metal sound, just like the boss hm2 is a staple of the swedish death metal sound or how fuzz is a big part of the stoner/doom sound.


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## TedEH (Apr 23, 2018)

I've always been under the impression that "black metal" was more about the culture or politics of the band than any musical characteristics. I've heard lots of stuff get called 'black metal' that doesn't sound similar at all, and any similarities between bands I figured was more tangential than central to the "kvlt-ness" of the metal. As in, you wouldn't use lo-fi recordings because that sounded cool, you would do it because high production values don't fit the values of the culture.


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## KnightBrolaire (Apr 23, 2018)

TedEH said:


> I've always been under the impression that "black metal" was more about the culture or politics of the band than any musical characteristics. I've heard lots of stuff get called 'black metal' that doesn't sound similar at all, and any similarities between bands I figured was more tangential than central to the "kvlt-ness" of the metal. As in, you wouldn't use lo-fi recordings because that sounded cool, you would do it because high production values don't fit the values of the culture.


the culture evolved from the inability to actually make music with high production values, and the fact that they were emulating the early venom works (which were quite lo-fi). There's an interview on youtube with one of the members of Darkthrone where he talks about the history of black metal and how emulating venom's lo-fi shittiness was kind of a deliberate choice


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## TedEH (Apr 23, 2018)

I don't doubt that those are deliberate choices, and there are certainly defining "black metal" musical characteristics, I just mean that for many of the bands I've encountered, the musical style was secondary to the philosophy behind it. That very well could just be the people I've run into happened to take it a little more seriously than some.


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## NateFalcon (Apr 23, 2018)

True, the obnoxious qualities are about not “selling out” with the mantra of that genre. Bad recording quality is intentional and desired. The music is usually written around a theme more than a defined sound, and the imagery and lyrical content is usually meant to conjure thoughts of suicide and despair. I’d say early Black Metal is more of an art process than a musical focus. Suicide was a shocking affront to the religious collective in Norway, so church burning and encouraging suicide became a theme to sway younger people away from and disrupt fundamental religion...in a nutshell


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## Bobro (Apr 24, 2018)

I think one political aspect of black metal and death metal that gets overlooked is the bold statement of solidarity with old-school feminism (like, Rosie the Riveter kind of thing), because how is that blast beat double kick bass drum not the sound of an industrial sewing machine? Whenever I hear this stuff (I lead a metal workshop every Saturday in the multimedia arts institute I work in) I am reminded of how my American grandmother worked in a factory sewing parachutes during WWII.


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## TedEH (Apr 24, 2018)

^ Not sure if kidding....? Somehow, I'm not sure I'd qualify any of the black metal dudes I've met as being feminism-friendly. If anything, and I know this is anecdotal and meaningless, but if there's anyone who I think could use a bit of feminism in their lives, it would be some members of the black metal crowd I've heard stories about. And I'm far from being a feminist myself, by modern standards.


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## Bobro (Apr 24, 2018)

TedEH said:


> ^ Not sure if kidding....? Somehow, I'm not sure I'd qualify any of the black metal dudes I've met as being feminism-friendly. If anything, and I know this is anecdotal and meaningless, but if there's anyone who I think could use a bit of feminism in their lives, it would be some members of the black metal crowd I've heard stories about. And I'm far from being a feminist myself, by modern standards.


Even if it is not intentional, that is the message I personally get from blast beats. But, for example, where most people hear "sad" in a piece of music, I hear "beautiful", so I guess things are very subjective. Lots of people hear what is in Pop terms "angry" and "dark" as "strong" and "uplifting", so I know I'm not alone.


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## JustinRhoads1980 (Apr 24, 2018)

Bobro said:


> I think one political aspect of black metal and death metal that gets overlooked is the bold statement of solidarity with old-school feminism (like, Rosie the Riveter kind of thing), because how is that blast beat double kick bass drum not the sound of an industrial sewing machine? Whenever I hear this stuff (I lead a metal workshop every Saturday in the multimedia arts institute I work in) I am reminded of how my American grandmother worked in a factory sewing parachutes during WWII.




That is a very interesting statement.......


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## KnightBrolaire (Apr 24, 2018)

Don't read too much into the music dude


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## Bobro (Apr 25, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> Don't read too much into the music dude



LOL, I get what you mean! But my reading things into music is like an after-action report and analysis- I believe that music is NOT some kind of literature; it is primarily a physical experience, more like a kinetic interactive sculpture than some kind of book or coded message. Basically music is physically boning your earholes. This is why I also call the endless foursquare boom-chick of pop music asexual, and disagree that "complex" rhythms are "intellectual". No, they are more feely and and emotional, not "itnellectual" at all. I think the "messages" of music are physically inherent in the music and its performance itself, not in the lyrics and certainly not in the claims of the musicians or critics. For example, I don't like punk at all, because the physical message of punk is laziness. The true proletariat working class music is metal, because what defines the working class? Hard work. Metal is hard work, punk is lazy. So in spite of its claims to be proletariat, punk is really a rich oppressor's vision of the working class, whereas the real working class works hard and makes metal. It's like the difference between a guy who can steal your car, and the guy who can rebuild your transmission. Hate grafitti for a similar reason- the real proletariat is the guy who built the fucking wall, which is probably a Mexican guy in the US and a Bosnian or Albanian guy where I live, not the kid who comes along and shits on it.


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## Eptaceros (Apr 25, 2018)

This thread is implicitly too vague, there are just too many factors that "define" a genre--could be musical, political, aesthetic, etc. The OP started this thread with the intention of focusing on the musical fundamentals, so I'm going to stick to that.

All that being said, I think this rigid establishment of musical rules is bullshit and completely ignores the development of the genre over time. So many black metal bands nowadays that don't entirely fit the molds described in this thread: Deathspell Omega, Aosoth, VI, Blut Aus Nord (and that's just the French!), etc.


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## KnightBrolaire (Apr 25, 2018)

Eptaceros said:


> This thread is implicitly too vague, there are just too many factors that "define" a genre--could be musical, political, aesthetic, etc. The OP started this thread with the intention of focusing on the musical fundamentals, so I'm going to stick to that.
> 
> All that being said, I think this rigid establishment of musical rules is bullshit and completely ignores the development of the genre over time. So many black metal bands nowadays that don't entirely fit the molds described in this thread: Deathspell Omega, Aosoth, VI, Blut Aus Nord (and that's just the French!), etc.


Don't forget behemoth or Ackerkocke, they both started out as more typical black metal and have mutated into black/death metal (with behemoth straying more towards symphonic lately).


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## Eptaceros (Apr 25, 2018)

Oh there's so many. Ulver, Emperor, Enslaved, Leviathan, the list goes on. Then there are black metal bands from the early 90's that were already bending the genre, like Ved Buens Ende!


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## NateFalcon (Apr 25, 2018)

I wouldn’t look too deep into genre pigeonholing with black metal, it’s just an image really... 

...Leviathan ...Very ‘Black Metal’ but Jeff Whitehed produces some of the worst music ever to be heard by the human ear


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## Eptaceros (Apr 25, 2018)

NateFalcon said:


> I wouldn’t look too deep into genre pigeonholing with black metal, it’s just an image really...
> 
> ...Leviathan ...Very ‘Black Metal’ but Jeff Whitehed produces some of the worst music ever to be heard by the human ear



I've been listening to Leviathan for 13 years and will continue to do so until the day I die.

Also, your dismissive view of black metal is extremely ignorant. If you don't have anything useful to say, fuck off.


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## sirbuh (Apr 28, 2018)

JustinRhoads1980 said:


> So I am not a big Black Metal listener and not true kvlt. I do however like some songs when they cross paths with me and I end up liking them. I would like to apply some of the uniqe charasterics though Black Metal has and especially want to emulate some of it since I created a gloomy riff.



Ishahn did a series of lessons with Guitar World "Left Hand Path" that is on youtube. 
I recommend watching those and going from there.


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## Necris (Apr 28, 2018)

Bobro said:


> I think one political aspect of black metal and death metal that gets overlooked is the bold statement of solidarity with old-school feminism (like, Rosie the Riveter kind of thing), because how is that blast beat double kick bass drum not the sound of an industrial sewing machine? Whenever I hear this stuff (I lead a metal workshop every Saturday in the multimedia arts institute I work in) I am reminded of how my American grandmother worked in a factory sewing parachutes during WWII.


Ideologically the early black metal scene was vapid and consisted largely of incoherent posturing with musicians attaching themselves to whatever seemed "evil". Despite that, speaking with broad strokes judging from interviews with the bands/their lyrics/etc. if you were going to try to pin down an ideology for the early scene certain strains of far-right fascism would probably be a far better fit than feminism. Contempt for the modern world, idealization of pre-modern civilization, idealization of ones heritage, a longing for the return to the "old ways" (pre-christian religions, pre-modern society), a general division of people into either the "elite" (the black metal musicians themselves) or the "inferior" ("average" people outside of the scene), occasional outright anti-semitism and racism, homophobia (multiple murders of gay men), etc.


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## Bobro (Apr 29, 2018)

Necris said:


> Ideologically the early black metal scene was vapid and consisted largely of incoherent posturing with musicians attaching themselves to whatever seemed "evil". Despite that, speaking with broad strokes judging from interviews with the bands/their lyrics/etc. if you were going to try to pin down an ideology for the early scene certain strains of far-right fascism would probably be a far better fit than feminism. Contempt for the modern world, idealization of pre-modern civilization, idealization of ones heritage, a longing for the return to the "old ways" (pre-christian religions, pre-modern society), a general division of people into either the "elite" (the black metal musicians themselves) or the "inferior" ("average" people outside of the scene), occasional outright anti-semitism and racism, homophobia (multiple murders of gay men), etc.



All very teenager kind of shenanigans! Not that I should be pointing any fingers, my religion is also a pre-christian religion (Starverstvo, the Old Faith, Slavic paganism) and I've got tats and long hair, lol.


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## TedEH (Apr 30, 2018)

Necris said:


> Contempt for the modern world, idealization of pre-modern civilization, idealization of ones heritage, a longing for the return to the "old ways" (pre-christian religions, pre-modern society), a general division of people into either the "elite" (the black metal musicians themselves) or the "inferior" ("average" people outside of the scene), occasional outright anti-semitism and racism, homophobia (multiple murders of gay men), etc.


This sounds a lot more like a lot of the black metal guys I've encountered.


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## blacai (Apr 30, 2018)

5:35-->

You might not find this guy funny(don't worry, it's normal) but he does point out some typical characteristics


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## gunch (May 4, 2018)

Thought these were neat and simple enough that I understand them


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## Spaced Out Ace (May 5, 2018)

JustinRhoads1980 said:


> So I am not a big Black Metal listener and not true kvlt. I do however like some songs when they cross paths with me and I end up liking them. I would like to apply some of the uniqe charasterics though Black Metal has and especially want to emulate some of it since I created a gloomy riff.
> 
> I know they down tune their guits, but is it possible to do some of these things in E standard? One of the things that I am trying to emulate (Please provide examples since I do not know what the fuck this is called so sorry if I sound like an idiot) is when they start chugging and then they hit notes that sound like they are clashing and have a lot of dissonance and is usually used to build up the tension (how I feel about it) in the BM songs I have heard.
> 
> ...


Most black metal bands do not downtune their guitars. I think all or most of Darkthrone and Immortal's albums are in E standard.


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## chopeth (May 5, 2018)

Spaced Out Ace said:


> Most black metal bands do not downtune their guitars. I think all or most of Darkthrone and Immortal's albums are in E standard.



yeah, and Emperor, already made clear in an earlier post.


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## Cynicanal (May 6, 2018)

Spaced Out Ace said:


> Most black metal bands do not downtune their guitars. I think all or most of Darkthrone and Immortal's albums are in E standard.


Immortal's second album is tuned *up* a half-step, to F!


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## bostjan (May 7, 2018)

Estradasphere normally plays seven strings in standard, but when they did a black metal song on their second album, they used six string guitars.  I think it was the only song from the Schimmel-era that used a six string solidbody electric.

Definitely the perception of BM is that guitars are tuned standard, or, if Immortal is tuning up, then, umm, not-downtuned.


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