Can Tuning a Guitar UP Still Sound Heavy?

These days it’s grown increasingly rarer to find metal bands that play in a standard E tuning. So many bands use seven and eight string guitars to achieve maximum brutality, but even those who stick to traditional 6-string instruments tend to tune down a half step, a full step or even more to make themselves sound all the more heavy. The result is that when a band does actually use a standard tuning it sounds straight odd, even happy, and yes, less brutal.

So YouTuber Pete Cottrell expanded that observation and put a theory to the test: will metal still sound heavy if played on a tuning that’s HIGHER than standard? The answer, of course, is yes: even bands who don’t use standard tunings play songs in keys higher than E quite often, and those sound plenty heavy. Plus there are plenty of other qualities besides tuning that affect a song’s metalness: distortion, the style of playing (guitar and drums), the vocal approach, etc. Cottrell used .07 gauge strings tuned G# C# F# B D# G# (two full steps above standard) for the trial.

So the question then becomes… does it still sound BRUTAL? That I’m not so sure… but you can debate in the comments.

Watch the video below, via Gear Gods. Cottrell also produced the wildly popular cover of Meshuggah using only sugary snacks and drinks, which you must watch if you missed it.