Metal Reviews

idk any time I've gotten a good brootal distorted sound out of a guitar even major and minor chords sound pretty terrifying.

Yeah Noodles, same here. any chord I try sounds good if not better than it does acoustically

I mean Alex Lifeson uses the most insane chords imaginable and he had an insanely thin distorted and overdriven sound from P/G to Roll the Bones. I'm just not buying that distortion makes non-power chords sound dissonant.

Lead melodies? Like arpeggiated chord sequences?

How to make a power chord sound dreary? Easy, go from an E power chord up to an F or A# power chord. You don't need a complex chord, just an out of key interval.

And a tri-tone isn't a chord, it's an interval, so I'm not really sure what you are talking about.

And unlike you I don't claim to be an expert on music theory, this shit can be picked up by reading 'Music theory for dummies'

Holy shit man, it doesn't fucking matter what picks you use, a real artist could pick up any guitar and pick and make it sound good.

I meant Triad, which should have been fairly obvious, but it's my mistake, not anyone else's to figure out. So I apologize for not getting the word right.

I don't think you understand what I am saying either. The note or chord should have it's character independent of everything else. Pitch is not the same as, let's call it "note" since we don't really have a word for that. Playing off key fundamental notes for the purpose of creating mood or tone is ridiculously out of whack. Red and Yellow make Orange, not red and yellow swirl when mixed together, just like notes. and none of this has anything to do with pitch. Pitch is relative. Notes are not relative whatsoever.

I don't claim to be an expert. I claim to be proficient for the genre (rock) I play in. A buddy gave me one of his 3rd year books from when he was going for his BM degree. None of us know anything, not even Dream Theater except maybe Jordan.

Nope. That's why the pick companies made different tip shapes because it affects the attack. If you want a dull attack you use fat softer picks, if you want a razor sharp attack you use sharp picks like certain Jazz III's all the metal and shredders use.

A real artist knows his equipment matters.

Dude seriously. You basically just insinuated that a real artist can make a rosewood fingerboard sound like a Maple one, or a Fender sound like a Les Paul. Come on now, really?

Dream On: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txlXcJDtDwM
Don't Close Your Eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcEu47mR43U

I know there are tons of other, similar piano intros.

Not a guitarist, I hope. Picks matter. A lot.

No that's not what I insinuated at all. A guitarist can't make a rosewood fingerboard sound like a maple one, but it doesn't really matter. Only sound nerds who want to give Rush fellatio care about that kind of shit.

Rush isn't Metal, dude. The distortion used on any given Rush track is nothing compared to something from Aborted. Using big weird fully-voiced jazz chords with Death Metal levels of distortion would be a waste of time, because that much distortion would kill all the things that make that chord sound good. It would actually sound pretty ugly.

...but if you're aiming for ugly, then hell yeah, go for it. It works for Gaza, Converge, and Deathspell Omega.

I have never heard anyone disagree about this lol

I used google and found some sciency sounding stuff on the topic

Uhh, go listen to Middletown Dreams and get back to me on that. The chords are not "heavy" but they are extremely distorted. They go to 11.

That is why me and apparently Alex Lifeson pick softly. It creates much less oscillations and distortion in the actual sound waves and keeps the volume on the strings very consistent. To me, A fatter string at the same tension should vibrate with the same string excursion as the lighter one.

You guys are aware that you can bend unwanted oscillations (notes beating together) out of a chord right? AC/DC do this selectively at times even with standard chords.

That kind of technique is so advanced it is practically impossible to use for most. In fact I have found that it is almost never discussed since it is something you can't teach. You can't teach someone how to hear notes, you can only tell them what sort of mood or feeling a note or chord has and hope they can hear it. This is why Alex is the guitarist I think has the most technical ability out of anyone ever. Bar None. I don't know if Yngwie does this or not, but a scalloped neck is ideal for this situation.

It really makes no difference what the pitch is on notes that are not the fundamental of the chord since they doing nothing but adding their individual color to the note.

These colors are like light. you can mix and match by bending pitch to get the exact color you want to. an F# that is a bit flat sounds a lot like an F#, but just a little bit like an F too. The nasty sounding oscillation that would occur would in turn cancel out another nasty oscillation.

I would also quickly add that there is not a single chord or unison that uses the modern even temperament system that is consonant in the strictest sense.

Those two terms are not absolute. They are opinion based. They can not "be" either, they have to be "considered"

Wow. It just gets better.








Carry on.

Shouldn't it be Hallowed Be Thy Name that got ripped off by Papa Roach. It's closely more similar than Infinite Dreams.

I thought it was Ghengis Khan?

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