# Death metal riff writing?



## zach7000

I've been trying to write death metal riffs, i always get stuck, or just cannot think of anything to start from. Im wondering if theres any tips or something that anyeone could give me. I never have really been able to write a full song. I love bands like Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Decapitated, ETC. I can write metalcore riffs, more melodic stuff fairly easisly, but when it comes to brutal riffs, i always get stuck and cannot think of any. If you can give me any tips or anything that would be awesome.


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## hutchman

This is a good mate of mine. He kind of explains how he approaches his riff writing.


YouTube - Progressive death metal lesson (P1)

YouTube - progressive death metal lesson (P2)


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## leftyguitarjoe

Dont try to write a certain style. Just play man. What comes out is what comes out.


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## lcsper

Joe said it but if you are looking to write death metal riffs focus on diminished, hungarian minor or phrygian.


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## Daggorath

Jam with a drummer. Honestly, death metal riffs are all about rhythm.


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## ShadyDavey

Chords, Progressions, Rhythm, attitude. As Daggorath points out it is all about rhythm - the little idiosyncracies of style are the added spice one you have the curry ready to eat.

With that laboured analogy, I shall make a cup of tea


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## RideFour15

Daggorath said:


> Jam with a drummer. Honestly, death metal riffs are all about rhythm.



QFT

I write the best stuff when I'm with my drummer jamming.


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## TheMasterplan

leftyguitarjoe said:


> Dont try to write a certain style. Just play man. What comes out is what comes out.



This. If you just try to write in a certain style off the bat, you're setting yourself boundaries from the get go. Just start playing and when you find something you like you can start to experiment with it to change the style/atmosphere on a micro scale. When I tried to just "write death metal" even if I like something once I listened to it a few times it just got stale cause it was lifeless because instead of getting into it myself, I was just doing what I thought I should.


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## matty2fatty

I would say just try to learn a bunch of songs by the bands you mentioned. That way you'll see what they're doing, and get your chops up to speed at the same time.


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## Splinters71987

im just a beginner guitar player, but heres my two cents...

theres one technique i see a lot in death metal where you play a sequence on higher strings and skip down to the lower strings after striking every note. Before started to play i always thought it was one guitar playing the melody and one playing a background thing.

im playing a lot of black dahlia murder because it sounds pretty cool and the riffs arent completely impossible to play, but they use this technique all the time. ive also heard it in tech death, necrophagist definately, but most tech death is too complicated for me to understand whats going on... for now.

Also, dont let the notes on the upper strings ring, just tap them so its a quick burst, took me a while to realize that.

A riff from TBDM - Miasma

c ----------------------------------
G -------------------------------------
Eb -------------------------------------
Bb --7-7-7-6---------3-3-3----------
F -----------7--------------5-3--------
C ----5-5-5-5-5-8-5---1-1-1-1-1-5-1----

or

TBDM - I worship only what you bleed (no string skipping, but the same concept)
-------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
--10---9---10----9---7---9---7---9--
----777-777--777-777-666-666-666---

But yea, this is one of the only 'techniques' i know... and i see it all the time. I tried to write the tabs from memory so i hope i got them right.

Just found an example from Necrophagist, the ending riff in Diminished to Be... (D Standard tuning)


End Riff
Q=176
3/4
Gtr I
||--------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||o-------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||--------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||--6-------6---|-6-------6---|-6-------3---|-3-----2---3|
||o-------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||----4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---1-|---1-0---0--|
|
| Gtr II
||--------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||o-------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||--------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||--6-------6---|-6-------6---|-6-------3---|-3-----2---3|
||o-------------|-------------|-------------|------------|
||----4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---1-|---1-0---0--|


Gtr I
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-6-------6---|-6-------6---|-6-------3---|-3--------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---1-|---1-0----|
|
| Gtr II
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|-6-------6---|-6-------6---|-6-------3---|-3--------|
|-------------|-------------|-------------|----------|
|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---4-|---4-4-4---1-|---1-0----|


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## Razzy

Here's the best death metal riff tip ever.

Tremolo pick as fast as you can, one note, one string at a time, and choose notes that don't sound good together on purpose.


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## Eptaceros

lcsper said:


> Joe said it but if you are looking to write death metal riffs focus on diminished, hungarian minor or phrygian.



Yeah, if you want to sound like every shit deathcore band out there. The best death metal is death metal that _seemingly_ makes no sense, but has certain interweaving patterns. These patterns can be melodic, rhythmic, or (this one's common in death metal) patterns that follow the ways of the fretboard. The guitar is a weird instrument in terms of how the notes are laid out on the neck, so look for weird patterns that are outside of melody, but focus on patterns across the fretboard.


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## nojyeloot

Do a lot of pinky trills in different positions, followed by some chuggs, then a pinch harmonic, for starters


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## All_¥our_Bass

Razzy said:


> Here's the best death metal riff tip ever.
> 
> Tremolo pick as fast as you can, one note, one string at a time, and choose notes that don't sound good together on purpose.


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## Tomo009

Eptaceros said:


> Yeah, if you want to sound like every shit deathcore band out there. The best death metal is death metal that _seemingly_ makes no sense, but has certain interweaving patterns. These patterns can be melodic, rhythmic, or (this one's common in death metal) patterns that follow the ways of the fretboard. The guitar is a weird instrument in terms of how the notes are laid out on the neck, so look for weird patterns that are outside of melody, but focus on patterns across the fretboard.



haha, I'm sorry, while your advice might not be bad, that first part made me actually laugh in a way people over the internet never do. 

Diminished scales are great for death metal, though you wouldn't simply do scale runs, often the thing that makes a riff truly prosper is when a "wrong" note, usually used in a chromatic sequence is used at the right time to really draw attention. But really, writing death metal seems mostly about just feeling it and going for it. Don't go in with no direction at all, have a scale of some kind in mind but it is not easy to manufacture heaviness, the thing that makes it sound so heavy is the flow and groove (though this can be straight forward as well). 

Just listen to the bands you usually do and take it all in, learning some of their songs can't hurt either, you can take note of what makes their sound theirs, but don't copy it or you'll just sound like them.

EDIT: Just to add, a couple of other base scales I like to follow are harmonic minor/Algerian mode and the double harmonic minor/Jewish scale as well as Phrygian and Phrygian dominant


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## Eptaceros

I don't know if your laugh was in agreement or not, but it seems like you disagree. What's the point of following guidelines? That's not what music is intended for. Yeah sure, if you follow the guidelines to a genre, you're gonna sound like a band in that genre. The main question is, are you going to sound good/original?


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## Mr. Big Noodles

Eptaceros said:


> I don't know if your laugh was in agreement or not, but it seems like you disagree. What's the point of following guidelines? That's not what music is intended for. Yeah sure, if you follow the guidelines to a genre, you're gonna sound like a band in that genre. The main question is, are you going to sound good/original?



To be fair, he's _asking_ for guidelines. There's no reason to sound good/original if you're just trying to figure out how to do things. Once you have experience and familiarity with music is when you can start being intentionally original.


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## Tomo009

Eptaceros said:


> I don't know if your laugh was in agreement or not, but it seems like you disagree. What's the point of following guidelines? That's not what music is intended for. Yeah sure, if you follow the guidelines to a genre, you're gonna sound like a band in that genre. The main question is, are you going to sound good/original?



No, at the fact that you think that using any kind of scale would make you sound like a Deathcore band..... You can think of it as guideline, but you could use any scale as a basis. Totally atonal can work, but its not easy and not the sound I go for, also its next to impossible to write any good sounding leads on top. I hate Slayer/Nile type leads as much as I love their songs.


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## CrushingAnvil




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## chucknorrishred

leftyguitarjoe said:


> Dont try to write a certain style. Just play man. What comes out is what comes out.


 


lcsper said:


> Joe said it but if you are looking to write death metal riffs focus on diminished, hungarian minor or phrygian.


 


Razzy said:


> Here's the best death metal riff tip ever.
> 
> Tremolo pick as fast as you can, one note, one string at a time, and choose notes that don't sound good together on purpose.


 

the diminished scale, trem picking, 3 note thrills, palm muted power chords, sliding power chord riffs, single note riffs with harmonies

heres an example


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## Eptaceros

Tomo009 said:


> No, at the fact that you think that using any kind of scale would make you sound like a Deathcore band..... You can think of it as guideline, but you could use any scale as a basis. Totally atonal can work, but its not easy and not the sound I go for, also its next to impossible to write any good sounding leads on top. I hate Slayer/Nile type leads as much as I love their songs.






Death metal is not about the leads.


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## Tomo009

Eptaceros said:


> Death metal is not about the leads.



I never said it was =S. That was just another point. If what you do works for you then thats great but there ARE plenty of ways to use theory.


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## All_¥our_Bass

OT, but I think Nile's and Slayer's leads fit their music perfectly.
I would definitely call those solos "good" but not in the same way I would say David Gilmour's solos are "good", and _*certainly*_ not for the same reasons.


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