Next week I'm going to go jam with a sort of math metal band (no vocalist yet). They play in drop C. I play in different tunings - E-standard, D-standard, A-standard, but I've never used drop tunings.

I've always thought of drop tunings as being sort of gimmicky. I associate it with metalcore and nu metal, and because of that, in my mind, drop tunings have the taint of lameness. But I hope to be wrong about this and change my mind.

So my question is; are there any legitimate metal bands (death, black, grind, thrash, heavy, etc.) that use drop tunings?

(I do like early Melvins stuff - Ozma & Gluey Porch Treatments - but y'know, that's alt metal at best, proto-grunge at worst......)

Nile do it. S.O.D. do it sometimes.

Yes, there are. There are also nu-metal bands that use standard tunings. Don't worry about who uses what tuning. Drop tunings are really great for using add chords (add9, add10, add11).

This ^ is the first time I hear a legitimate use for a drop tuning except "it makes power chords easier" do you know any others?

I always thought it sounded different than just tuning down all the strings, instead of just the E-string.

It makes things slightly easier if you're playing fingerstyle because you can do simple root - fifth basslines with the open strings. You can also play some nice stuff using the lowest two/three strings as a drone and moving around shapes on the higher strings. Dropped tunings are like any alternate tunings really. They make certain chords easier to finger and allow for different arrangement possibilities. I have no idea why some guitarists have such a snobby attitude towards them. Classical guitarists have been doing it for aeons.

one of the guitarists in a tech grind band I was in used dropped B. he was all over the neck and would do weird chords using the drop tuning... I'm still biased against it.

Alexander Vynograd does some fascinating things with an eight string classical guitar with the bottom end tuned to drop A - he plays power chord rhythms fretted with his chin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VkklI7xwE

Tunings can do whatever you do with them.

This thread has been enlightening. Thanks Zodijackyl.

My own band uses drop C. I don't really see the difference between this and standard tuning. They're different from each other, therefore some things will be easier in standard, others in drop. The whole "easier to play power chords" thing is silly and only actually applies if all you're playing is power chords and nothing else.

Trivium, Dimebag, not mu style but avenged seven fold. Metallica on death magnetic.

Well put.

I actually play in Drop A tuning a lot of the time. My practically defunct one-man project Dead & Dripping is played in Drop A, actually.

Wow, thanks for sharing this Zodijackyl ^^

Trey Azagthoth from Morbid Angel. I think he even dropped the tuning on the seven-string sometimes. When I play in drop tuning I like to bend the hell out of the power chords like Trey to get that wicked sound.

Hell, Dechristianize is played in Drop D!