Heaviest standard tuning bands

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No seriously, I think Opeth. Dream Theater's heavy, but I don't know if 7-string counts as standard.

7 String doesn't count as standard, since it goes far lower than E which is what 99% of heavy-sounding bands do. 7 String and BEADF#B are the same hax level of heaviness imho.
 
I believe Marduk and Dimmu Borgir only use Standard Tuning.

Darkthrone now seem to tune the whole guitar down a whole-step.

I've actually just recently tried C G D G B E. It's kind of cool - extends the lower range of the guitar, but keeps the top four strings in standard. Much heavier sounding, and allows you to play 5th chords on the 6th/5th strings, AND on the 5th/4th/3rd strings.

there is no right and wrong way to do it - sometimes you need a creative boost, and changing tunings can help.

But I also like to try to play along with metal bands, and find it difficult because it does seem like every other band is using some weird down-tuned setup.
 
imagine if Bloodbath played in standard...would NOT work at all.
down-tuning your guitar allows you to come up with trippy chords and i really enjoy soloing with lower tunings as well, it seems to make bends sound awesome eg. the baying of the hounds solo
 
alternate tunings allow you to get creative with chords, down-tuning just help with the bends and sounding br00tal.
 
help with bends? no... when you tune down you get higher gauge strings, the tension should always be the same
 
Well not excessive downtuning...I have a cheap guitar with heavier strings for like C standard and lower, but I use my main guitar for stuff only like a step lower - which seems totally permissible to me - and you can still notice a difference in the tension.
 
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.

uh

the reason alot of of fingerstyle artists downturn or even open tune is to produce different chord tones on the open strings. it makes it easier to approach harmony
 
Metallica's first five were all standard tuning, although the Black Album is not particularly heavy (it has its moments though).

I believe that they changed their tuning for Load and Reload, and these songs were least heavy of them all.

I can't keep all this straight, but I think that their more recent live performances include non-standard tuning even for the songs that were recorded in standard tuning.

Anyway, playing along with early Metallica is fun.
 
kill em all / ride the lightning were standard.
master of puppets was standard, except the thing that should not be (which is in D).
ajfa was standard.
self-titled was standard except sad but true (which is in D). dont remember but I dont think anything else is in alt tuning.
load / reload / s&m / garage inc (cd 1) are in D#. garage inc cd 2 is mostly E afaik, as I think all of those covers were recorded 83-89
st. anger is drop C iirc
death magnetic is E

everything live from late 94/early 95-present has been played in D#, except songs in D and the st anger songs