For years, metal guitars in general have been tuned to something high like E, D, or C. This is the most brutal way to get a metal sound & the brutalness. Although bands such as Nile & Cannibal Corpse use a rather more brutal tune in the baritone B tuning of drop A on a six string.

This is a great way to emphasize the brutality & metalness of the songs. But sometimes you can even drop the baritone A tuning down to an even more brutal drop G#, which is what I Declare War uses. This tuning has alot of extra bass to it, to where it'll shake the whole f***ing room.

Having a low tuning is awesome to get that low depth, but higher tunings will make it still sound very brutal.

Uhm is this supposed to be a discussion or something?

Yea multiple tunings are used for various different styles within metal. I do the same with my projects that range from D to G just depending on what I'm trying to convey.

The whole one tuning is more 'brutal' to another is really in who is playing and what they are playing more than the actual tuning.

Indeed, the heaviness is in the riff, not the tuning.

The production is also more important. Like someone here posted before, dimmu borgirs puritanical euphoric misanthropia is in E standard but it sounds pretty heavy.

The tuning of a guitar affects primarily what notes you have access to. Other qualities are achieved by, say, the tension and thickness of strings.

But in general, alternate tunings on guitars are just different ways of making playable the things you have written. If you write something that requires an A an octave lower than what you have, you had better seriously adjust your tuning. But it's of course compatible with lots of different tunings. And you can tune down to drop-whatever and only play high things.

I just... don't understand. Are you trying to say something about lower notes sounding better, or more 'metal'? Then guitarists would do well to just pick up bass guitars.

Death's Human is tuned to D and sounds heavy as shit. Production has a lot of impact in the overall heaviness, although I think the heaviness itself is on the riffs and the playing.

Wasn't Deicide's Stench tuned to Eb?

I have always tuned to D standard! I used to play in a band (Plague Divine) that tuned to E standard and it still sounded heavy!

But I always thought that D is a good middle solution and we all know D is for Death!

I believe it was Dave Mustaine who said that if you need to downtune in order to make your riffs heavy, you need to write heavier riffs. But yeah, Eb is my favorite tuning though I have used Drop D and C# on occasion.

I started playing guitar mostly because a band I was doing vocals in needed another guitarist. The first guitarist tuned to D-standard, so I did too, and that's what I learned on. I've just stuck with it. But at some point in the future, I'd like to get a 7-string or baritone guitar. I don't solo, and I like big chords. I'm interested in doomy stuff though, a style for which it is helpful to have access to low notes. So that, you know, you can make those chords that sound like "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM". That said, I'll also experiment with just using my bass + distortion of some kind to get similar effects.

It's interesting though. D-standard is looking more and more like "the new E-standard" for metal -- it's almost a default tuning nowadays. It makes me worried about the arbitrariness of it, but it's ultimately harmless. I'm just much more likely to use that low D than I would be to use that high E, 24 frets up. I've never written anything that came close to calling for something so high.

I've read a lot of god damned stupid posts on this forum, but this really takes the cake. #1 dumbest post ever award.

Could be a troll, you know.

I don't really think it's a troll cause it's point is so confusing. I'm not even sure if the op knows what he was saying. But if it is a troll it's doing a very bad job at it.

What I was implying was that the tuning differs the brutalness of it all, and most of you that said it are correct, that the riff bases the brutalness, and the tune/riff is what sets the mood.

It's not a troll and.....yeah that's basically it.

No one said "the/riff is what sets the mood". People provided counter-examples (but you actually did that on your own), and i repeatedly noted that the tuning affects only what riffs you are able to play. Remember, riffs are not to be abstracted from their pitches. Transpose a riff anywhere else, and it's a different riff, at least in my terminology.

Seriously? I always thought it was in D standard. Damn, that is a crazy heavy sound for E.

OP sucks.

But I play in B, because I can play in B, and then in E, just by going up a string, which is why I really want a 7-string.

Haha, I use D standard all the time too. Not too low, not too high. Plus I get to play stuff by Mastodon, Necrophagist, Obscura, Death, etc if I feel like it.

I do like the idea of a 7-string, though I don't really know what I'll do with the added string, aside from br00tul breakdowns/slams that I tend to write at times.

I like D standard as well. It's not as bright as E and you can add a little chunky heaviness when necessary.

I've tried downtuning to C standard and D standard (which I occasionally still use), but with a heavy enough guitar tone I've always preferred playing in E standard. The clarity always made it sound cooler to me, in some way.

i use drop C as my main tuning for playing around/writing in, although i also use C standard and drop A# occasionally. you can get a pretty good metal sound with drop C if you're riffs and tone are heavy. when playing in E standard the problem is that it sounds too punky or thrashy and not really the style i generally go for (death/grind).

I know what you mean dude, being able to play power chords like that lets you insert a good deal of heaviness into more complicated riffs, as well as go for an expanded range of sounds by adding different notes into a typical 1-5-1 chord with your pinky or whatever.

Riffs truly make the heaviness. Its the distance between the notes that matters the most not really the lowest note you can play. People down tune because it offers a greater range but downtuning doesn't mean your riffs will be more "heavy" or "brutal". Also tone is a pretty big factor.

Also you can down tune as much as you want it won't make it any more bass-y. The thing that controls the EQ is the amp so if you want more bass then downtuning might not work because an amp might not be loud enough or even capable of handling certain frequencies.

I was all like, hails metal brother! Together we stand, united in the cause of broodleness.