If you have to tune down, you aint heavy?

I'm just wondering what other WL think regarding this?..it's obviously been a trend for quite some time for metal/heavy rock bands to detune in the pursuit of heaviness, but to me it just creates this generic sort of tone that doesn't even sound that menacing.

When I listen to older metal bands I hear a rich diverseness of tones and musical timbre that most modern metal bands just don't seem to have.

I mean, look at Megadeth, Slayer et als earlier output and you don't want for aggression and power (I realise they downtune now, but that's purely due to their vocalists aging voices no longer being able to sing in standard tuning)

Maybe I'm wrong, after all Black Sabbath themselves downtuned after all (though due to practical reasons regarding Iommis fingers), and I am partial to a bit of Drop D ( I adore Kings X)

Not trying to be confrontational at all, but would welcome others opinions on this.

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I don't think one needs to tune down to be heavy but I also don't feel like a band is less heavy if they are tuned down. It's just an option. Lots of music sounds great tuned down. Other bands sound great and rich in standard. I think it's all personal choice and there's no right or wrong answers. Anthrax, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Megadeth all played in standard tuning and have great songs. Even Pantera played some songs in Drop G. Alice in Chains is one of my favorite bands and they play in E Flat. Slipknot plays in Drop B and I think their tuning matches their songs perfectly. Tuning is just another way to create a mood. I feel like guitar tunings are like singers. You have baritone, bass, alto, soprano, tenor, mezo soprano...these are just vocals in different tunings. Doesn't make one better than the other. It just comes to personal preference on how you want your music to sound. :) I don't think there's a right and wrong way as long as you create! 🤘🏻

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It's a good topic. Makes sense that the standard string tension would give a more definite tone variety than detuned instruments. Imagine detuning that big B on a 5 string bass LOL .. I can't get a solid sound out of my B on my 5 string with normal tuning .. too sub sonic for my taste .. not very useful for me. I don't play it much because of that. Guess that's a different topic altogether tho :D

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Oh don't get me wrong, there are no rules, that I agree with!...I was just thinking that to my ears, modern metal seems to use that as a device rather than as a tool to vary things up...a lot of the time, bands are using software to detune rather than actually manually altering the pitch of their instruments which makes said instruments behave in a completely different way to how they would without the digital manipulation.

I think it creates a kind of homogenous "soup" of tone which makes varying things harder....as has been said, many artists have varied tuning to great effect (Joni Mitchell anyone?)

It's all personal preference, but strictly imo I would like to see a return to using standard a bit more (or even half step down etc) rather than at present, but I suppose, like all things, tastes change and it will probably cycle back at some point.

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i don't think i paid much attention to tuning down. most the bands i grew up with were hair nation 80s bands, all standard tuning typically. one of my favorite albums that a friend turned me onto is Carcass - Heartwork, which i believe is tuned down, although i never tried to play any of their stuff, there's no way i could lol :D

on the surface, i do like that low end soup haha, but i don't have the gear to participate, i got one strat tuned to drop C, that's about as low as i can go.

[img]https://media.tenor.com/Y9DmrNiai_0AAAAM/sanchez-reunion-reunion.gif[/img]

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