Death Metal = Scales?

[Barking Pumpkin]

Sorry.....but In Flames (old In Flames, since now they're just nu-metal) are melo-death. They are one of the classic examples of the Gothenburg sound, and most melo-death bands I know have growling vocals. They're melo-death, not death metal. The genres use different scales and have very different sounds.

 

[D-KOM]

I am really wondering that nobody mentions Behemoth from poland when it comes to technical Death metal. They use the egyptian scales and it sounds pretty interesting. Also check out Augury, they seriously recorded a Death metal opera...

 

[FauxPerspicacity]

Cryptopsy seems to use a lot of half-step diminished scales in their writing.....

That's....half-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, etc.

By the way, those are called octatonic scales.

 

[AyrtonSenna]

In listening to a fair amount of metal, I find "idioms" or certain melodic moves tend to dominate over "scales". Each band and guitar player seems to have their own take on soloing, some guys using overthought scale moves and other dudes using "bullshit licks" (finger exercises moved around the neck and strings with minimal attention). The use of root to flatted 5th and interval jumps of 2 and 3 frets without attention to scale seem to be present in everything that people don't call "commercial" and "wimpy".

If you want to branch out and experiment, one the Guitar Grimoire books has a @#$%load of scales, lots of crap that 99% of the players never think of using.

Happy Picking!

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Diminished (1 b2 b3 3 #4 5 6 b7) Altered(1b2 b3 3 #4 b6 b7) Phrygian#3(1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7) Harmonic Minor(1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7)Lydian b3 b7(1 2 b3 #4 5 6 b7)

are some fun ones that seem to be common. but more often it's based of a sequence rather then a scale. for example (this is a musical phrase not a scale) 5 b3 #4 2 4 b2 3 1. and this includes normal minor scale for the first pair of notes (5 b3) then lydian flat 3 flat 7 for the second pair (#4 2) then phrygian (possibly sharp 3) with the next pair (4 b2) and then defiantly phrygian sharp three with the last pair (3 1) the interesting thing is that all it is, is a major third starting on the fifth of the key going down and then moving that shape down chromatically and even after my over analyzing it is still sounds sufficiently evil (\m/ \m/) and almost any two notes can make a good sequence is you do it right. AND, it doesn't have to be chromatic! also moving a longer shape like this 2 b3 4 5 4 b3 down a half step b2 2 3 #4 3 2 b2 and then resolving it (cause even metal can use some resolving occasionally) at 1.

The safest thing to do is a fully diminished arpeggio. it doesn't matter which one either! starting on 1 it's obviously just straight diminished sounding b2 it's b2 3 5 b7 which comes from phrygian #3 or starting on 2 it's 2 4 b6 7 which sounds harmonic minor and that's all there is cause starting on three is the first inversion of 1.

Also, stupidly and obviously chromatic is in it's own special kind of retarded way a sequence. 5 b5 4 3 b3 2 b2 1. Duuuuh it goes down in half steps. break glass incase of emergency on that one I think it's boring if used for more then a measure or two for a long shred run. or stomp riff.

playing two notes at once is cool. especially cool if it sounds "bad" or as we call it "evil" specifically tri-tones kick ass. they kind of hurt to listen to but a little pain means it's working. like mouthwash. also one could play those pairs of notes from my first example *(5 b3) (#4 2) (4 b2) (3 1)* together as a series of four thirds that would sound equally cool and could be used as a variations on the first one in a song. What's that you say? "Theme and variations? FUCK THAT!" I know I know... maybe for in flames, Bob Dylan or something about that heavy. (joking)

Sorry about the length. I'm a huge nerd about metal theory (Which is a limited existence at this point) and I can get carried away.

 

[Day_Before_Dawn]

I am really wondering that nobody mentions Behemoth from poland when it comes to technical Death metal. They use the egyptian scales and it sounds pretty interesting. Also check out Augury, they seriously recorded a Death metal opera...

Cheers for mentioning that band Augury man, I'm very impressed with these guys. Almost like Necrophagist mixed with opera.

 

[RideForVengance]

Necrophagist fucking owns. I'm finding that I can write pretty good DM with a harmonic minor scale and lots of passing tones. In the song "Stabwound" (Necrophagist), alot of the song is based around a C harmonic minor.

And yeah, a #4 or b5 is pretty cool sounding. Gotta be carefull not to overuse em though, when people use the same intervals over and over it can get kinda cheesy / boring.

 

[D-KOM]

@DbD After listening to the song "Beatus" I was totally blown away. Unfortunately I still didn´t have the whole album... :-(

 

[Vital Remains]

Insane chromatic patterns can sound robotic if used right. They really spice it up if you can play something bucket-head-ish

 

[Kutryer]

What's really fun to do sometimes is take a jazz song or something with tons of crazy chords, then turn on the distortion, arpeggiate the chords, mix them around, and do it fast. That helped me find a huge amount of ideas. Do that with any song with wierd chords, and I guarantee you will come up with some good ideas. Or you can always just flail up and down phyrgian b5 dominant triplet butthole 7 or whatever, but just using scales gets boring after a while, so I would suggest playing with arpeggios and mixing things up.

 

[asterisk211]

Why do you need theory to write DM tunes? I never learned theory and to date, I haven't found the need for it in DM.

A good muisician (I'm not saying you're a bad one) learns his theory. It helps in all styles of music, no matter how much you think you may not need it. Scales are a real big help in any kind of music, whether it be country, indie, or death metal. It let's you know what key you're playing in and all that good stuff. Plus, it keeps your imagination open to new and creative sounding riffs.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Looks pretty br00tal to me

 

[Thidrek]

A good muisician (I'm not saying you're a bad one) learns his theory. It helps in all styles of music, no matter how much you think you may not need it. Scales are a real big help in any kind of music, whether it be country, indie, or death metal. It let's you know what key you're playing in and all that good stuff. Plus, it keeps your imagination open to new and creative sounding riffs.

yeah and what is if you want to make some twelve-tone music since tonal music just limits your scopes?

 

[~Derek~]

I've been told I use blues scales in my death metal band but I don't know shit about scales so it's purely accidental.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

I've been told I use blues scales in my death metal band but I don't know shit about scales so it's purely accidental.

Ill advice, you would want to use jazz if nothing else.

 

[Death Aflame]

the stuff I write is heavily influenced by old ATG and early Eucharist so I often find myself playing around with pseudo counterpoint concepts. Of course I know nothing about actual music theory so I base it off what sounds good. However recently I have been having a bit of a writer's block and haven't really fealt inspired to write much new stuff. It's frustrating to say the least!