The style that I am writing my songs in is a thrash/heavy metal style, similar to the ‘Ride the Lightning’ album by Metallica. This means I’ll be using fast tempos, aggressive rhythms, double bass drum pedals, and a whole lot of distortion to achieve this sound. I will be listening and looking into how similar artists such as Metallica construct their style of playing and writing, and I will be looking into how artists go about writing melody lines over the top of a rhythm section.
Heavy metal on the whole has a huge amount of stand out characteristics, as I have briefly mentioned, and I will be using a few of these techniques to write in this style.
Here is a brief list of a few of the techniques I will be using.
The first and probably most obvious is the use of power chords. A power chord is simply two notes; The route note and it’s fifth almost always played on a guitar, and this type of chord gives rock and metal its distinctive driving and powerful sound. A power chord is neither major or minor as it does not contain a third, therefore the same shape can be used for any note on the fret-board. (as seen below)
Fast tempos are a big part of this genre, in particular heavy metal. The combination of having the fast pace and driving power chords define this genre from others. Most of the time the rhythm will be playing muted/dampened power-chords at quavers or semiquavers to add to the drive of the song, creating these aggressive rhythm sections.
The speed of the tracks also effects the drums and how the drummer plays. In metal and rock the drums are playing on the beat to drive sections along with aggression; more often than not the base drum becomes much more active than in other genres, particular in heavy metal. A standard rock drum beat has hi-hats playing either crochets or quavers, with the base drum landing on beats 1 and 3, and the snare landing on beats 2 and 4. (as seen below)
The drums in this genre then tend to start using much more of the bass drum while still staying somewhat near to this basic beat. Here is an example:
The drums in any genre can vary in pattern and rhythm with countless combinations, however I am interested in the use of a double bass drum pedal. Typically Heavy metal and rock is the only genre where this technique is used frequently. A double pedal does exactly what you would think, and allows the drummer to hit the bass drum twice as fast producing a ‘machine gun’ like sound that really compliments the style. My personal favourite example of this is in Metallica’s ‘One’ at from around 4:30.
The final point that I should mention is amplifier settings for my guitar. Metal and rock guitars are almost always distorted, with more treble than bass. This gives the guitars that raspy ‘angry’ tone that defines the genre. I will also be using a clean sound occasionally to give my tracks some variety. For my clean sound, I will have more bass end than treble, so that the tone of the guitar maintains its depth.
To summarise the specific sound I want to produce, here is the song ‘Creeping Death’ from Metallica’s ‘Ride the lightning’ album.
This is the sort of sound I am aiming to produce as I really enjoy playing it and listening to it, and the techniques I have mentioned will help me achieve a similar sound.