Heaviest standard tuning bands

[Anarkissed]

Opeth is one of the few bands that I can think of that have death metal vocals along with standard tuning.

So I was thinking - what other heavy (dare I say brutal) bands are there that use standard tuning? Or at very least, dropped D tuning (just the E down to D, not any other strings).

 

[Braighs]

Carpathian Forest

 

[Lothlorien]

Iron Maiden

 

[Alteredmindeath]

Emperor= standard E tuning Kings (except for last album which was used with a 7string)

*Cant stand Drop D bands like DevilDriver and Unearth.

 

[Tubbs]

Emperor doesn't sound heavy at all to me, just epic.

 

[rotten to the core]

What? You must be listening to stuff like Anaal Nathrakh all day long in order to find Emperor NOT heavy.

 

[all_sins_undone]

emperor isn't typically "heavy" pal

 

[Alteredmindeath]

For an E tuning, Emperor is heavy as fuck, just listen to Equilibrium or Nightside. Emperor does have some mellower parts also, but thats the diversity of emperor and yet its still Extreme music and that can automaticaly be considered heavy for some... but its not like Crowbar or Pantera Heavy no.

 

[opeth_353]

There's nothing wrong with Drop D in itself.. Just a lot of crap bands use it.

A lot of black/thrash metal uses Standard tuning..

 

[Slayer101]

Tool uses Drop D, that says something right there.

 

[Alteredmindeath]

There's nothing wrong with Drop D in itself.. Just a lot of crap bands use it.

A lot of black/thrash metal uses Standard tuning..

I can agree with that, some good examples of Drop D songs are Panteras "A new Level" off the Vulgar display of power album, and Metallicas "The thing that should not be" off of Master of puppets album.

 

[Tubbs]

What? You must be listening to stuff like Anaal Nathrakh all day long in order to find Emperor NOT heavy.

Anaal Nathrakh isn't that good imho

For an E tuning, Emperor is heavy as fuck, just listen to Equilibrium or Nightside. Emperor does have some mellower parts also, but thats the diversity of emperor and yet its still Extreme music and that can automaticaly be considered heavy for some... but its not like Crowbar or Pantera Heavy no.

I don't think the whole goal of black metal bands back in the day was to be heavy. I still don't find Emperor that heavy. There's plenty of heavier ones that use standard tuning (Don't feel like taking the time to think about them though). Even their later stuff sounds too clean if you ask me, to be considered heavy. By clean I mean the recording quality/lots of discernable, rather easily understood riffs. Some parts are heavy though.

 

[soundave]

Ghost Reveries isn't standard tuning,as I'm sure everyone knows... and this is kind of a weird categorization, imo. I mean, Zeppelin. Joni Mitchell, and Jonatha Brooke all use non-standard tunings. Not sure what that has to do with anything. What bands are you trying to rule out? Ones that use 7 vstrings? Excessive down tuning?

 

[hibernal_dream]

I've never really seen the point of downtuning at all to be honest. There's a reason when you learn guitar (or any other stringed instrument) you need to know all the notes on the fretboard. If you're going to play in non-standard tuning, play a non-standard instrument because guitar wasn't really made for it. It's almost as stupid as retuning the piano strings on a piano to move each note down a semitone.

 

[Seance]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Standard_Tuning

 

[Anarkissed]

I woudln't say the guitar wasn't made for down tuning. There's quite a few things you can change so that the strings don't buzz and sound like crap. I do believe that a lot of bands wouldn't sound anywhere near as intense without tuning down. A lot of metal is based on the 'bottom-end' - that's part of the reason why growling exists, as opposed to screaming/singing.

The main reasons why I asked for bands that play in standard tuning is that I like to play along to metal without having to tune down all my strings; as well as shear curiousity as to how 'heavy' you can get without ultra low growly strings.

Thanks for your replies so far!

 

[Lothlorien]

The main reasons why I asked for bands that play in standard tuning is that I like to play along to metal without having to tune down all my strings

Same here.

 

[Scourge of Malice]

I've never really seen the point of downtuning at all to be honest. There's a reason when you learn guitar (or any other stringed instrument) you need to know all the notes on the fretboard. If you're going to play in non-standard tuning, play a non-standard instrument because guitar wasn't really made for it. It's almost as stupid as retuning the piano strings on a piano to move each note down a semitone.

that is ridiculous. we wouldn't have so many great bands today if everyone just used their instruments as they were "meant to" be played.

 

[opeth_353]

Agreed, as a composer myself.. I find that my writing style totally changes when i write in E (and sometimes a whole step up for one of my projects) compared to say... Drop C or B.. Obviously the guitar doesn't change .. But changing to a lower or dropped tuning (for 1 finger powerchords) can change my perspective, as well as open up the slight chance for chords that would be too hard to pull off in a standard tuning.

 

[Don Corleone]

I've never really seen the point of downtuning at all to be honest. There's a reason when you learn guitar (or any other stringed instrument) you need to know all the notes on the fretboard. If you're going to play in non-standard tuning, play a non-standard instrument because guitar wasn't really made for it. It's almost as stupid as retuning the piano strings on a piano to move each note down a semitone.

BS