Death Metal Riff Writing

[cotd666]

no matter how hard i try, i just dont seem to be able to write good death metal riffs. i have tried playing other songs (by cannibal corpse, necrophagist, etc) to work out how they do it but i still dont have a clue. i love slow, heavy riffs and fast technical riffs and i want to be able to combine them in my playing. are there any scales i should learn? i tune my guitar to BEADGB. is there a better tuning? (i hate drop tunings but if i have to play in one i will). i have tried listening to my favourite bands for inspiration but it doesnt seem to work. even in my low tuning all my riffs sounds like shitty metalcore. i need some tips.

PLEASE HELP.

i am going away on holiday in a day or two, so i mght not reply for a bit if you answer me. thanks in advance for the asnwers and i will reply to you when i get back. :beer:

[MetalThrashingMad]

Use chromatic for death metal.

[cotd666]

thanks. anything else? any tuning ideas?

[Requiem]

Have you heard of Power Tab Editor?

Google it.

[cotd666]

yea i have power tab editor. why?

[Me himself]

Harmonic minor and diminished scales are always fun.

[Requiem]

yea i have power tab editor. why?

Just check what scales the bands you like use.

[cotd666]

thanks, ill learn harmonic minor, i already know diminished.

[cotd666]

Just check what scales the bands you like use.

and how would i find out what scales they use by looking at the tabs? i suck at scales i probably couldnt work it out just by looking.

[Soeru]

Um, well the only way to learn scales is to look at tabs of the patterns, the same way you'd look at a tab of a song. Check cyberfret.com for a bunch of basic scales and modes. What are you doing on a tab site if you can't even read tabs? :p

Edit: Oh nvm, disregard the above paragraph completely, I didn't read your post right. If you're familiar with a bunch of scales you should be able to simply hear what they're already playing in.

But really, if you want to play death metal or any form of mostly atonal music don't really go too crazy over "methods" or tips as to how to go about doing it, I mean come on, many of the most popular death metal bands generally have complete disregard towards theory, conventional playing and techniques in almost every way imaginable.

Harmonic minor and diminished are used a lot but then again a lot of bands take a lot of liberties with said patterns. Sure using these scales or patterns will work and help you pull out some cool sounding riffs pretty fast but you don't want to end up sounding like other bands that also use the same patterns and arrangements right?

A different tuning isn't going to help you play better death metal or anything either. :p All I would suggest is learn new stuff that may not necessarily have anything to do with metal, work on technique, tightness, consistency while playing, pick up a few scales and listen to a large variety of music, and then just rely on your imagination.

[Sycophant]

Most of the best death metal riffs display complete disregard for any conventional harmony, resolution, or resemblance to normal music for that matter. Yet, it's amazing. This is why bands like Suffocation are so inspiring to me not only in a "guitaristic" sense but a musical sense as well. There is no "secret" or "key ingredient" for writing death metal riffs. Just like there is none of those things for pop guitar riffs. Just write good music and the rest will take care of itself.

[Requiem]

Just listen to a lot of Decrepit Birth.

[cotd666]

cheers for the replies guys. im looking into learning another style of music instead of just copying what cannibal corpse are doing. im actually doing better already. thought of a few decent riffs. mght post them up on this forum some time to what people think.

Just listen to a lot of Decrepit Birth.

ill look into them.