Red Fang Style

Hi GMC!

Welcome to me new lesson covering a band that I’ve discovered not long ago but that has become a part of my weekly playlist. I’m talking about Red Fang, a Heavy Metal / Stoner Rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 2005. The band consists of Bryan Giles (Guitar, Vocals), Aaron Beam (Bass, Lead Vocals), David Sullivan (Lead Guitar) and John Sherman (Drums) and has released 3 studio albums.

Music Style:
Their style can be defined as Stoner Rock but with strong Heavy Metal influences. They have really catchy songs that combine Sabbath style rhythms, with classic metal arrangements and really powerful vocals. I consider their guitar work very interesting and fresh for this style, and can compare it a bit with Mastodon’s guitar work. I’m particularly amazed by the energy that this band has on both studio albums and live shows. I tried to combine all this elements in a lesson to re-create their music style and to share some of their most used grooves and melodic phrases.

Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
This tune is in B minor and combines modes like Aeolian, Phrygian and Phrygian Major. You will also find some little modulations that I used to show how their songs move from one tonality to other just moving the exact same melodic idea or riff to another root. This creates an harmonic “jump” effect that is part of their style. The use of pentatonic scale in their riffs and melodies show a strong classic rock influence that is normal in Stoner bands, starting with Kyuss and all the bands that came after them.

Techniques:
This lesson combines power chords, single note riffs, melodic riffs and also some soloing. This means that there are many techniques involved as only downstrokes, alternate picking, palm muting, vibrato and legato. You will find also very important to pay attention to muting correctly the strings that you are not playing in order to avoid unwanted sound and to make everything sound clear but rocking. It’s also essential to pay attention to dynamics, and how I go from a normal intensity to a more aggressive one in some sections.

Sound:
I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is Poulin HyBrit which is a Marshall Emulation. I also added a fuzz emulation before the amp to get that "Stoner" sound. Check out the settings:




Click HERE to download my Patch.

I used Cubase to record audio and midi, SSD 3.5 for drums and Trillian for bass.

Tuning: standard EADGBE tuning

Tempo: 160 BPM