Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson solo is a little more open to exploration but mostly jump between E standard and Drop D, last album they’ve been using a 7 string here and there, 4 times they’ve used Drop C which is as close as they’ve been to Drop D
On the contrary Mastodon prefer D standard (or at least they did early on) and they’re like the heaviest prog band known to man (or at least they were early on)
I was gunna say, this is expertly crafted rage bait since majority of butt rock, numetal and metalcore is in drop tunning where as most metal is in E/D/C/B/A and nowadays G standard tunings (with the exception of like groove and melodeath)
Couldn’t agree more. My latest album was written and played entirely in E standard and people are often surprised when I tell them that. I think songwriting is always more important than relying solely on tuning or gear to the pull the weight for you.
I think Bongripper and a lot of heavier stoner metal also kinda falls within that realm though.
Extremely low tunings work when the riffs are really slow to create an all-consuming monolith of noise.
When bands tune absurdly low just to be heavier, but still play fast, the notes just get lost and it sounds like shit, because guitars can't get clean notes that low.
Sylosis, Metallica, Slayer... The only good reason IMO is to better suite the vocalist but otherwise I find it pointless. The 7 and 8 string guitars usually don't sound any better either. 5 string base, sure, but guitars don't need it.
C# standard is the sweet spot for me! Techy riffs that sound good in E standard don’t turn to mush in C# but it’s still very heavy, and my limited vocal range has more to work with
But of course, that’s where it was popularized - considering all of these bands these days have Human, Individual and Symbolic in their DNA and half of them don’t even realize it.
Death, Metallica (on some of theirs stuff), Cradle of Filth, Sepultura, Swallow the Sun, and heaps of other great bands, those are just off the top of my head. Man, such a great tuning.
Drop tunings are only really understandable if you're Dave Suzuki or Karl Sanders and need to play a couple power chords in between 250 bpm sweepy technical bullshit, or if DGBE is in key but CFAD isn't (which I think is why Vital Remains went from D standard to drop D on Dechristianize).
If you're a fucking pop punk band or a nu "metal" band that only plays power chords anyways, just learn to play them properly instead of being lazy.
It's strange when you're so into metal that hearing pop music actually hurts, while, to many people, hearing metal actually hurts. I listen to some pop music and actually have a physical reaction, a revulsion I sometimes can't explain and that might not be healthy.
playing fairly fast slamming 0-1-3-1 riffs is a fucking chore in standard, get over your cheesy metal stuff and embrace smashing different power chords with all 4 fingers instead of thinking drop tunings are actually there to cheat by moving your 1st finger about 2 thick wires
also mention the inversions that basically allow you turn every regular power chord into a pumped up 5-string stacked 5ths + 3rd boi, but whatever, why would I expect a metal player to know anything about inversions or optimising the physicality of playing. 250 bpm downstrokes all the way.
don't take me too seriously though, I just fuck around
tbh I think each of them has I'ts perks and I'ts really depends on the players style to choose what tuning is best fitting. Drop tuning makes for faster busy Groove/djent like playing while standard makes up for more traditional thrash like riffs and traditional usage of scales
I think it's easier to play heavy in standard because inverted power chords are easier. I'd say heaviness is 80-90% how the riff is constructed, but tuning does play a small factor
Standard tunings are just as heavy as drop tunings it's all about how it's written. It's just easier to write heavy riffs in drop D. Personally I play in D standard or drop C# depending on the goal
It's quite opposite. I've met some dudes who play in standard tuning and... You should've seen their faces when I told them that I play in Drop tunings.
Lol wanna sound heavier without sacrificing the little dignity you have left playing power chords? down tune everything. Drop D is for when power chords are too hard and you wanna just use one finger. I'm being catty because the meme is being catty. I love you all. Even the bassists <3
Woke metal discord this way -> invite only people afflicted by the virus can join
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Wouldn't the drop D guy just need to wash a single finger...
Yes, but that's for other reasons we don't talk about.
Oil check
that whereof one must remain silent
😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Cannibal played in e flat standard on their first 4 records brah…
Deicide used standard for a lot of songs
specifically, the entire legion album
Also morbid angel
Imagine if they played c standard
Pretty sure Cattle Decap plays in E or E flat as well.
A lot of Gwar is in E flat too
You know that drop D is usually the butt of the joke, right?
So fucking stupid like just use D standard, Eb standard or E standard
And use 2 fingers? Who am I Yngwie?
Heh, what are we, some sort of “every good progressive metal band has played in D standard thanks to Death: the video game”: the movie series?
I’m realizing this attempt at a meme might have the opposite effect I intended lol
TLDR; standard good, drop bad
Tool has left Drop D once as far as I can think of and it was for BEDGBE
Tool plays in DROP D? Or D standard?
Drop D exclusively
DADGBE
Gross
Drop D is the prog metal tuning if you ask me
Opeth’s tuning besides E standard I think (also use DADFADE and occasional Drop C and once AADGBE)
Helmet as well if you consider that prog
Rishloo/Kolm/Soen/other Tool worship bands I’d imagine
Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson solo is a little more open to exploration but mostly jump between E standard and Drop D, last album they’ve been using a 7 string here and there, 4 times they’ve used Drop C which is as close as they’ve been to Drop D
On the contrary Mastodon prefer D standard (or at least they did early on) and they’re like the heaviest prog band known to man (or at least they were early on)
DADFADE is what happened with my dad went out for milk and didn't come back
Gojira uses D Standard and Drop C, with the occasional AADGBE I think or something along those lines.
That’s parabola, they also did BADGBE for prison sex
I had to go drop D when I cut my finger and got stitches. D or C standard is definitely my favorites, but you can definitely write heavy stuff in E.
D Standard is the tuning of kings.
Why yes, that is indeed the correct answer
... which leads to drop C which is chef's kiss.
The opposition to drop tuning will never not confuse me.
I was gunna say, this is expertly crafted rage bait since majority of butt rock, numetal and metalcore is in drop tunning where as most metal is in E/D/C/B/A and nowadays G standard tunings (with the exception of like groove and melodeath)
Even in groove Pantera is still the biggest band and they play in standard too
Hmm i recall Walk being in drop D
Nope, d standrd
All of these are in drop D
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/search.php?search_type=title&value=walk
Not exactly a smoking gun but they do sound like barchords for most of the song
I mean Ultimate Guitar is also a pretty bad reference for correct tunings
Largely true, but almost every Dillinger Escape Plan song is in E standard
Edit: missed the word majority, but Dillinger always deserves a mention
Among E plebs, sure
D standard. The end
Fr I first thought that "ok I see the point I guess tho black metal" but than I realised it says " DROP D" and I was like ewww
If your riff isn’t heavy in E standard it’s not heavy it’s just low tuned
"But I'm nothing without the low tuning."
"If you're nothing without the low tuning, then you shouldn't play."
Couldn’t agree more. My latest album was written and played entirely in E standard and people are often surprised when I tell them that. I think songwriting is always more important than relying solely on tuning or gear to the pull the weight for you.
You can make a low E sound like the depths of hell if you use it right.
This.
Highjacking top3 comment to remind you jerks anything below E2 is the b*sslands. We do not go there.
If you tune anything below E flat you are actually a b*ssist
what if i am a bassist
Shhhh they havent noticed yet we infiltrated this sub
I think it really depends on the riff, depending what you're playing sometimes you really need those punchy thick low notes to get the feeling across.
Yeah but there are some riffs that simply do not work in higher tunings.
This is pretty much just extreme doom genres though, and even then the riffs are still good in E, if not as crushing.
If you're tuning lower than Esoteric or Mournful Congregation and you're not playing funeral doom, you need to reevaluate your playing.
I mean, Bongripper tunes down to F std, and they're not funeral doom. Instrumental though, which helps IMO.
I think Bongripper and a lot of heavier stoner metal also kinda falls within that realm though.
Extremely low tunings work when the riffs are really slow to create an all-consuming monolith of noise.
When bands tune absurdly low just to be heavier, but still play fast, the notes just get lost and it sounds like shit, because guitars can't get clean notes that low.
Lmao basically
Yep!
Yup
Opeth enters the chat
Some of the most brutal standard tuning riffs.
Master's Apprentices and Heir Apparent will melt your asshole.
Serenity painted death
Dropped on to say this.
Beat me to it
Here's me playing in B Standard (7 string).
Heres me playing B standard (6 string).
B Standard 6 string gaaangggg
Baritone is king 🕶
lmao heavy E standard riffs usually sound way cooler and more impressive than drop D.
Representing heavy E standard, Summoning The Lich:
https://youtu.be/25omoUK_JLI?si=ntmeEdXcaaBdqglh
Antithesis of Light - Evoken . another extremly heavy E standard band
You get it
Sylosis, Metallica, Slayer... The only good reason IMO is to better suite the vocalist but otherwise I find it pointless. The 7 and 8 string guitars usually don't sound any better either. 5 string base, sure, but guitars don't need it.
May I add Götterdämmerung (Zeal & Ardor) to the heavy ass E standard?
Pestilence
Accept
King Diamond
Vektor being heavy tuning higher than E standard
My Band plays in D Standard, checkmate
D standard chads unite!
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
A true gentleman's tuning hahaha.
Discovered that it's easier for my singing voice so I've switched to that in recent years.
I've done the same thing, but tbh D still kinda strains my voice so I keep at least one of my guitars on C standard or C# Standard.
C# standard is the sweet spot for me! Techy riffs that sound good in E standard don’t turn to mush in C# but it’s still very heavy, and my limited vocal range has more to work with
Why # but not standard?
Do you mean why C# and not C?
I dunno, I just like it lol. I feel like going further than that starts to make big chords sound muddled and strings get flabby
Get thicker strings. I use 10-56 (just throw out the 1st one).
The literal, single best tuning that exists. It’s mathematically and sonically perfext
proven by the metal god Chuck Schuldiner himself
But of course, that’s where it was popularized - considering all of these bands these days have Human, Individual and Symbolic in their DNA and half of them don’t even realize it.
Death, Metallica (on some of theirs stuff), Cradle of Filth, Sepultura, Swallow the Sun, and heaps of other great bands, those are just off the top of my head. Man, such a great tuning.
Mathematically?
I believe in C# Standard supremacy
Drop G here, you all suck!
same here ... in 6 strings
Based
Domination breakdown
It’s criminal I had to scroll this far down to see this answer.
laughs in drop C
Scrolled too long to find this. Its my personal favorite as well.
Other way around
Dillinger Escape Plan play in standard
Drop tunings are only really understandable if you're Dave Suzuki or Karl Sanders and need to play a couple power chords in between 250 bpm sweepy technical bullshit, or if DGBE is in key but CFAD isn't (which I think is why Vital Remains went from D standard to drop D on Dechristianize).
If you're a fucking pop punk band or a nu "metal" band that only plays power chords anyways, just learn to play them properly instead of being lazy.
I'm normally in standard tuning but I will say that you do have access to some nice chords in drop tuning
It's strange when you're so into metal that hearing pop music actually hurts, while, to many people, hearing metal actually hurts. I listen to some pop music and actually have a physical reaction, a revulsion I sometimes can't explain and that might not be healthy.
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You think.. drop tunings are.. just easier ways to play power chords?
I'm not, but a hell of a lot of bands seem to use them that way.
I mean sorta? It changes how riffs work together
Playing music isn’t a competition lmao, who gives a fuck what tuning people use
playing fairly fast slamming 0-1-3-1 riffs is a fucking chore in standard, get over your cheesy metal stuff and embrace smashing different power chords with all 4 fingers instead of thinking drop tunings are actually there to cheat by moving your 1st finger about 2 thick wires
also mention the inversions that basically allow you turn every regular power chord into a pumped up 5-string stacked 5ths + 3rd boi, but whatever, why would I expect a metal player to know anything about inversions or optimising the physicality of playing. 250 bpm downstrokes all the way.
don't take me too seriously though, I just fuck around
(old) Sylosis would disagree
That's thoughtful of the drop-d guy to wash his hands before playing the e-standard guy's guitar.
Drop D players haven't discovered the inverted power chord.
Peasants...
Right? Perfect 4ths sound nasty. I love em
Somebody's gone too long without listening to Emperor again..
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Drop C would like a word
It took far too long for this to come up!
If the strings aren’t clapping the pickups, is it even heavy?
Tuning my standard normal gauge strings down to G for that real droopy metal wire slapping sound
Use Drop A like Nile
Check out the new Plasmodulated, E standard.
Just use 8 strings in drop E
A person who thinks all the time, has nothing to think about - except thought
All of you are wrong, C standard is best
Absolutely not
The best use of drop D I have heard is Shunq by Nervecell
/uj The best use of drop D i have heard is the intro to whatever you want by Status Quo
D standard is superior to both
laughs ass off in drop A
The joke is the other way around lol
drop tunings usually suck, just downtune the entire guitar bro
Meanwhile Rob Troijljo:
> casually makes Drop D Riff
> Doesn't Elaborate
> All Nightmare Long
Lmfao we still arguing over tunings in 2025
I saw the meme and thought it was funny and people would be big mad about it. I admit to the trolling, but this is a meme sub!
c standard players:
https://preview.redd.it/gs0jtzmz2n7g1.png?width=474&format=png&auto=webp&s=d70f4c093dfdbda0b41e35a51e6e0f8c9b418458
B standard player are washing their hands after shaking with anyone.
Im like Thanos out there collecting them all. Got drop A, B, C and D covered.
We all know drop C is superior to both of em.
Just fucking listen to sylosis
inferi is a blast and I think they play mostly E standard, jus to say one
D Standard FTW
E std riffs can be heavy as fuck. See: Sylosis
Quick reminder that knocked loose plays in e stamdard
Emperor, King Diamond and Metallica say hi and want you to know that you're an idiot.
As someone who plays in an E standard metal band, I gotta say: E standard let's the bass WORK.
I implore you to listen to 43% burnt by The Dillinger Escape Plan.
E standard guy cant even play disturbed’s “down with the stiffness”
D standard for the win (B standard is a favourite of mine too)
As an E standard player, I'd say it's the exact reverse of this. Drop D is for "alt metal" dorks.
Drop D is for lazy guitarists MOST of the time. "Look at me, i can play power chords with one finger!"
Brah, the only bands that play in drop D is like Disturbed and Asking Alexandira and a countless more metalcore bands
Lamb of God?
Tool?
exuce my condolences,
tbh I think each of them has I'ts perks and I'ts really depends on the players style to choose what tuning is best fitting. Drop tuning makes for faster busy Groove/djent like playing while standard makes up for more traditional thrash like riffs and traditional usage of scales
Opeth
Be'lakor, Blackwater Park er Opeth, Psycroptic, Helmet
Absolutely backwards.
Drop D "riffs" are anti-technique bullshit.
Easy sus2 chords are nice to have though.
Gimme drop a lets not be coy
Anything above drop C is weak
drop A# breakdowns in the corner:
Sortilège played in E standard and are heavier than every generic drop D djent band
Laughs in Sylosis
I don't think I listen to a single band that regularly uses Drop tunings
Dude... sabbath...
Listen to Broken Torso and then tell me E standard ain’t heavy. It’s all about riffs and production brah brah
D tuning for banjo is pretty sick
I can name a fuck ton of e standard bangers. I usually cringe when I have to drop tune for a song. What year is this?! 2001?!?!
Drop A players: …
wait till you hear about c standard..
opeth entered the chat
*laughs in C standard*
Vektor can do heavy riffs in F standard bro. Skill issue.
I think it's easier to play heavy in standard because inverted power chords are easier. I'd say heaviness is 80-90% how the riff is constructed, but tuning does play a small factor
Vektor plays in F standard. They're the only band I know of that actually tunes up.
There’s a meme somewhere in this sub that showcases this..
Meanwhile, C standard players:
https://preview.redd.it/wssnxflpdr7g1.jpeg?width=719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a98212870b8f0fa4d000f79d433b16cacffb49e2
Drop D is good for double quints (octaved quints? dunno) tho
The one that can't write in E, does not deserve the D
Lots of heavy bands play in E Standard. Skeletonwitch for example play in E Standard and they fuckin rip!
If winds of plague could be heavy in e standard, so can you.
Isn't most of Show No Mercy in E Standard?
Standard tunings are just as heavy as drop tunings it's all about how it's written. It's just easier to write heavy riffs in drop D. Personally I play in D standard or drop C# depending on the goal
laughs in drop Bb
Summoning the Lich plays in E standard..
It's quite opposite. I've met some dudes who play in standard tuning and... You should've seen their faces when I told them that I play in Drop tunings.
Lol wanna sound heavier without sacrificing the little dignity you have left playing power chords? down tune everything. Drop D is for when power chords are too hard and you wanna just use one finger. I'm being catty because the meme is being catty. I love you all. Even the bassists <3
C standard
Congrats, drop D players, on discovering soap.
If you can't write a good riff in E standard, you don't deserve to use alternate tunings.
I'm a big fan of drop C, but have y'all heard sylosis? I think all of their songs are standard tuning and they rip!
D standard is way better
Drop D is for middle schoolers! C standard is the true heaviest tuning.
Drop tunings are for lazies.
Drop B says fuck the handshake I will KILL YOU
Drop C is coming to the room - they just go away...
Tuning don’t really matter if the tone slaps and the tunes are good
D# standard>
Drop D? I don't think I've listened to anything tuned above A for a good number of years...
Me with my perpetually drop G tuned guitar
Drop tunings are for 0-0-0-0-0 breakdown spam
What if you’re a drop E player? (Low e baritone)
Tune everything down a step cuz suck it DAD!!!!
DADGAD enters the chat
Fucking noob, play in a tuned up drop G for truly brutal metal