Acoustic metal?

[Tangled]

Ive been writtg alot of songs lately, really started growing into my playstyle and Ive discovered some things I find interesting. I realize I enjoy and am much better on acoustic then electric (partially because can get a good percussion sound ith the techniques ive developed, and because I really love the purely natural tone I get). I play a really wide range of music, and I love metal. Ive sorta been messing around with trying to come up with some really wicked acoustic metal type of stuff. I use alot of really odd rythmic shuffles with really dark riffs...

and I sing with a mixture of softly sung vocals and very unique death grunts. The songs ive written seem to remind of black metal. Its sort of a fusion of unaccompanied acoustic black metal. Does anyone else do this kind of thing? Do you think metal stricktly has to be electric guitar? Is it possible to consider an all acoustic ablbum metal? Cause what it sounds like to me is some pretty heavy fuckin shit.

 

[False Joe]

I've not heard anything purely acoustic sound metal.
Sure, The Bards Song is ace, but it doesn't sound metal. It's just a fucking ace singalong.

Fancy giving some sampled examples of your work?

 

[Vitor]

Ive been writtg alot of songs lately, really started growing into my playstyle and Ive discovered some things I find interesting. I realize I enjoy and am much better on acoustic then electric (partially because can get a good percussion sound ith the techniques ive developed, and because I really love the purely natural tone I get). I play a really wide range of music, and I love metal. Ive sorta been messing around with trying to come up with some really wicked acoustic metal type of stuff. I use alot of really odd rythmic shuffles with really dark riffs...

and I sing with a mixture of softly sung vocals and very unique death grunts. The songs ive written seem to remind of black metal. Its sort of a fusion of unaccompanied acoustic black metal. Does anyone else do this kind of thing? Do you think metal stricktly has to be electric guitar? Is it possible to consider an all acoustic ablbum metal? Cause what it sounds like to me is some pretty heavy fuckin shit.

this is the essence of the metal.

you do acoustic songs or you do metal songs with some acoustic parts, like opeth or atheist.

 

[waif]

Impaled Northern Moonforest?

 

[wandering_taco]

Record something if you can, I've wondered about similar ideas. Accoustic death metal would probably be sweet as hell if done right. I'm quite interested in hearing what you have.

 

[Einherjar86]

I don't believe you can do acoustic metal. It's just not metal.

I play primarily acoustic guitar as well, but I do folk music. Personally, I believe that folk and metal have a great deal in common, and the closest you can come to metal on an acoustic guitar is playing folk.

The Bard's Song is a great example. It's a folk song. Nothing more.

 

[~Neurotica]

Green Carnation have an acoustic album (Acoustic Verses). I don't think it's metal though...

 

[Deicidal]

I guess acoustic metal could be achieved. But it'd have to be a cover of a metal song.

I bet acoustic covers of Black Sabbath songs would be cool.

But the typical metal is distorted riffs, not acoustic guitars.

 

[cannibal corpse]

I've been messing around with an acoustic of No Remorse, but it just doesn't roll, you know? Not metal.

 

[Deicidal]

I've been messing around with an acoustic of No Remorse, but it just doesn't roll, you know? Not metal.

It would probably sound like country, I imagine.

 

[XSASweet]

I think, if you have an electric guitar playing along with the acoustic, like Death - Voice Of The Soul, it MAY be considered metal. I dunno though.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Doesn't exist, sorry.

 

[thrashgirl]

"Ahhhh! You mean grandpa's guitars?"

Haha, j/k. I'm interested, let's hear it.

 

[Tangled]

you do acoustic songs or you do metal songs with some acoustic parts, like opeth or atheist.

Both, but generally just acoustic. Im gonna try to experiment with somethings to make the acoustic sound more metal. Ive thought of getting custom made strings acctually plugging the acoustic into an amp and distorting it. I dunno!

I would rather not yet post any of my recordings because I dont believe in myspace. Ill try to post a demo in the next few days though.

 

[False Joe]

I would rather not yet post any of my recordings because I dont believe in myspace.

Sendspace/filefactory/megaupload/rapidshare/etc are your friends.

 

[The Ozzman]

If it's fully acoustic, it's not metal

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

Acoustic metal.

Well, it's my first metal effort of any sort (let alone acoustic metal), so it's fairly juvenile. But you can get a very good idea of the direction I'm talking about. Every sound is acoustic except for a bit of feedback from the mic on one or two songs. Check out Not Through Learning pt2, it's probably the best example. This album is kind of metal/post-rock/noise, oh and there are 3 folk songs on it ('cause that style's so easy for me). My next one will be pure metal.

I think there's a lot of potential for acoustic metal. The acoustic guitar is fucking ace and modern music only taps a tiny little bit of its potential. It can play hard music that is typically given only to the electric guitar. Acoustic and electric guitars aren't all that different. My example of some very fierce, fluid and 'electric' acoustic guitar music is Bob Dylan's self-titled debut album. I mean, it's a folk-blues album from 1962. But it's harsh. Not heavy, but very intense.

When I started getting into metal one of the first things I looked for was acoustic metal but Impaled Northern Moonforest was all I could find. I don't consider a band like Agalloch or Opeth to have much to do with acoustic metal -- they're just bands that include non-metal acoustic parts.

 

[False Joe]

^ Not fucking metal.
no matter what vocals you use on it.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Exactly, it just isn't.

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

^ Not fucking metal.
no matter what vocals you use on it.

Well, there's metal in there. All the riffs are based on metal guitar playing and I stole a lot of shit from Dimmu on here. Like I said, it's an amalgam of styles. But it begins to show what I'm talking about with acoustic guitar being able to do more 'electric' style music.

You can get feedback and distortion from an acoustic guitar, it's just more subtle.