There are many ingredients that go into making heavy metal brutal, aggressive, raw, pounding and even... melodic. However, the driving force behind the chaos is actually very calculated and controlled. The metal rhythm guitarist often has to synchronise his playing with elaborate kick drum poly-rhythms and negotiate off-kilter time signatures. He must use the guitar as much as a percussive accompaniment as a melodic and harmonic one.
So what are the key elements to heavy metal guitar? Well, depending on which sub-genre of metal you're playing in - death, black, thrash, grind, nu, power, speed, industrial etc. you'll most likely be inclined to emphasise certain techniques over others. However, the heavy metal sub-genres have now had well over two decades to borrow styles and techniques from each other. Grindcore, for example, used the blistering speed and technical intricacies of thrash and death metal, but also borrowed a little fury from the maturing underground of hardcore punk. As a result, guitarists in cross-genre metal find themselves using many different playing techniques to create diverse metal that attempts to avoid the pigeon-hole.
In my opinion the golden "rule" is always the same - arm yourself with an array of techniques so you can then draw from those creative options when you need them.
Palm Muting
Palm muting is a rhythmic, percussive guitar technique that dampens the resonance of the strings when picked. Under high gain or distortion (which heavy metal eats for breakfast), the effect is most often a bass-heavy thump or crunch that can be repeated to support the kick drumming or provide more definition in the note/chord/powerchord. I can't think of one metal genre that does not use this technique.
Palm muting is most effectively used when contrasted with unmuted playing in a particular rhythmic pattern. E.g. (where M = muted and U = unmuted):
M - M - U - M - M - U - M - U
It shouldn't really be called "palm" muting, because you don't actually use your palm to mute the strings. Rather, you use the edge of your picking hand, the meaty section along and below your pinky finger.
Tremolo Picking / Machine Gun Picking
Speed and thrash metal weren't the first genres to use tremolo picking, but they certainly made it a staple rhythm guitar technique in metal. Focussing on the lower strings/notes of the guitar, you can apply fast alternate picking to create an underlying "chainsaw" effect. By also using palm muting, that chainsaw sounds more like a machine gun (which is a name that has been given to palm muted tremolo picking used in metal).
This technique requires good stamina in your forearm and picking wrist, as you are building and releasing tension constantly, especially when the fast picking is interrupted with other dynamics. The skill lies in picking accuracy. On the low E string, this technique can be used quite casually, as there are no obstructions for your picking sweeps. On the A, D and treble strings however, your picking window is reduced dramatically as you have unwanted strings obstructing you above and below. When changing from string to string, all the time remaining constant with your tremolo picking, it gets even more tricky. Thankfully, the distortion masks a lot of subtle sloppiness (that is not an excuse to be lazy though!).
Galloping and Pick Groupings
By using palm muting and alternate picking together, you can effectively group your up and down pick strokes into short blasts of sound. This, again, is often used to compliment the double-bass kick drumming. The galloping refers to the most common pick grouping - down up down - 1 2 3. This is similar to the rhythm a horse would tred the ground with during a race. Iron Maiden use this galloping technique most famously in the verse of Run to the Hills, and on many others.
As more extreme metal genres started to use this form of rhythmic attack, the typical galloping horse rhythm was built on and new formations created. E.g. (where D = downstroke and U = upstroke)
Standard galloping:
D - U - D------D - U - D------D - U - D------D - U - D
Interrupted galloping:
D - U - D------D------D - U - D------D------D - U - D
Extended galloping:
D - U - D------D------D - U - D - U - D - U - D------D - U - D - U------D - U - D------D - U - D - U
So by simply grouping your alternate picking blasts in different ways, you can create a more dynamic rhythmic undertone to your metal.
This technique is used predominantly in thrash and its derivatives.
Other Key Ingredients for Metal Guitar
With heavy metal, the scales that work most effectively are the exotic and tense scales. These include, but are not limited to: Phrygian, Locrian, Harmonic Minor, Spanish Gypsy, Byzantine and other flat 2nd, flat 6th and maj7 based minor scales. Also, don't forget good old pentatonic (maj and min), blues (for southern sludgecore influenced metal) and the natural minor scale (Aeolian).
Moving powerchords in intervals around those above scales also works well, which is why you hear a lot of chromatic semi-tone movements in metal. There's also the tri-tone which comes out of the Lydian mode, with the sharp 4th providing that devilish tonic interval.
Vibratos, bends and hammer-ons/pull-offs tend to be more aggressive and emphasised in metal than other genres. Pantera's Dimebag (RIP) added a virtuoso effect to his bluesy metal soloing by utilising wild harmonic vibratos. Finger tapping also feels right at home with the faster forms of metal such as thrash.
Rules? What Rules?
There are no rules when it comes to metal! There is only an unspoken, voluntary conformity to a set of musical standards. I've just touched on what has made metal what it is over the past 3 decades. How will heavy metal evolve in the coming decades? One thing's for sure, the techniques covered in this article will never be outgrown by the genre, but rather built on, twisted, mixed around and reconstituted. They are the foundation elements of what makes metal so satisfyingly cathartic.
What's important is how you personally use these raw techniques to create original music.
heavy metal guitar lessons
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