It's Getting Dark In Here Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

There are many different approaches to give a riff a feeling of darkness or fear.

Check out Lian's new lesson, Brutal Death Metal, and then post a reply to today's topic.

As Lian said in his lesson, using an unexpected chord at the end can be one way of achieving an extreme metal effect. What other tips do you use to help create the same atmosphere?

[Ben Higgins]

This was a great lesson from Lian, as always

Dissonant chords and notes can be an effective way of creating a dark and menacing sound. Clever use of the whammy bar can sometimes also add an unexpected touch.. like emulating a scream if it were a high note.. or low rumbling could suggest a monster or something ominous... 'Jugulator' by Judas Priest is a good example of the latter (in the beginning and end of the song)

Constant notes that climb up and down in pitch in a smooth fashion can also sound like a wailing banshee or some sort of tormented spirit, like in the bridge section to 'Baying Of The Hounds' by Opeth.

They're just a couple that spring to mind.. but it's a very interesting question and I'd be very interested to hear other people's ideas.

[Todd Simpson]

There is always the "Tritone" Diminished 5th approach. This was actually banned during the middle ages as it represent "The Devil in Music" it is practically a mainstay in modern Metal though. Employ at your own risk as early on it was thought to invoke Satan himself. Here is a bit on it from Wiki.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritone
The tritone is a restless interval, classed as a dissonance in Western music from the early Middle Ages through to the end of the common practice period. This interval was frequently avoided in medieval ecclesiastical singing because of its dissonant quality. The first explicit prohibition of it seems to occur with
the development of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal system, which made B♭ a diatonic note, namely as the fourth degree of the hexachord on F. From then until the end of the Renaissance the tritone, nicknamed the diabolus in musica, was regarded as an unstable interval and rejected as a consonance by most theorists.[13]
The name diabolus in musica ("the Devil in music") has been applied to the interval from at least the early 18th century. Johann Joseph Fux cites the phrase in his seminal 1725 work Gradus ad Parnassum, Georg Philipp Telemann in 1733 notes, "mi against fa, which the ancients called "Satan in music", and Johann Mattheson in 1739 writes that the "older singers with solmization called this pleasant interval 'mi contra fa' or 'the devil in music'".[14] Although the latter two of these authors cite the association with the devil as from the past, there are no known citations of this term from the Middle Ages, as is commonly asserted.[15] However Denis Arnold, in the The New Oxford Companion to Music, suggests that the nickname was already applied early in the medieval music itself:
It seems first to have been designated as a "dangerous" interval when Guido of Arezzo developed his system of hexachords and with the introduction of B flat as a diatonic note, at much the same time acquiring its nickname of "Diabolus in Musica" ("the devil in music").[16]
Because of that original symbolic association with the devil and its avoidance, this interval came to be heard in Western cultural convention as suggesting an "evil" connotative meaning in music. Today the interval continues to suggest an "oppressive", "scary", or "evil" sound.

[Ben Higgins]

There is always the "Tritone" Diminished 5th approach. This was actually banned during the middle ages as it represent "The Devil in Music" it is practically a mainstay in modern Metal though. Employ at your own risk as early on it was thought to invoke Satan himself. Here is a bit on it from Wiki.

Yes, the beloved Tritone.. all hail it's magical metal qualities !! Thankfully I've managed to avoid invoking Mr Satan so far !

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Tension can be created in various ways, by using dissonant chords, contrasting harmonies and rhythmic figures. Usually a very contrasting change in groove or rhythm can sound brutal, and it is often used in modern metal genres.