Best Musical Scales for Metal

Ah, music theory. If you don't know it, learn it. It's seriously one of the best things you can do for yourself as a musician. Also I'm mainly talking about guitar cause...you know...I play guitar. As my main instrument. Even though I can also play bass with relative proficiency, a bit of keyboard and a little drumming. But if you play any of the instruments mentioned here that aren't drumming, learning this stuff is incredibly useful to you. If you're a drummer, it's not necessary, but learn your tempos and your time signatures, and how to keep a damn beat. AND STOP PLAYING WHILE THE GUITARIST(S) TUNE(S).
The Top Ten
1 Hungarian Minor/Double Harmonic Minor

Darkest scale in music, to be honest. It's the same as harmonic minor but with the #4 of Lydian. On the root, you can build either a diminished triad, a minor triad, or a minor #5 triad, which is an inversion of the major triad you can build on the 6th degree.

You can hear this scale at the start of Save Me by Avenged Sevenfold. Also, it's the 4th mode of Byzantine/Double Harmonic Major.

2 The Diminished Scale(s)

The two octatonic (8-note) scales are built off alternating whole and half steps. You can build many types of chord progressions that you can't with diatonic scales.

If you play minor chords instead of diminished chords, you can compose some nice Danny Elfman-esque pieces. You don't even need to play any diminished or major chords. Every degree in the scales can form a diminished triad, and a diminished chord is just a minor chord with a flattened fifth. The fifth interval reinforces the root, so who says you have to play the flat five?

3 Byzantine/Double Harmonic Major

Ionian/Natural Major with a b2 and a b6. Its modes are Lydian #2 #6, Ultraphrygian, Hungarian Minor/Double Harmonic Minor/Gypsy Minor, the Oriental scale, Ionian #2 #5, and one of my favorites, Locrian bb3 bb7.

I can't include all of these on the list because it would be repetitive, but they're all amazing sounding scales.

4 Locrian

EVIL. Aeolian with a b2 and a b5. Second mode of Aeolian/Natural Minor and seventh mode of Ionian/Natural Major.

5 Phrygian

Not too dissonant or too major sounding. Fifth mode of the natural minor scale. Just Aeolian with a b2.

6 Aeolian/Ionian

These are the first scales every guitarist should learn, not the pentatonic scales. They should be taught the natural minor/Aeolian and natural major/Ionian scales first, and then the pentatonic scales as an extension of that, showing how they fit into minor and major contexts.

I put them both into the same entry to avoid repetition. Also, Ionian/natural major is the 3rd mode of Aeolian, and Aeolian is the 6th mode of Ionian. Shout-out to Dorian and Lydian for all my fellow Dream Theater fans.

To those who say Ionian can't be metal, listen to some Iron Maiden and pre-Painkiller Judas Priest.

7 Phrygian Dominant

Phrygian with a natural 3. The tonic chord is a dominant chord. 5th mode of Harmonic Minor.

8 Harmonic Minor

Aeolian/Natural Minor with a natural 7 degree. It's literally just every Yngwie Malmsteen song ever.

9 The Japanese Scale (Kumoi)

My favorite pentatonic scale. The intervals you're working with are the root, a b2, a 4th, a 5th, and a b6. It has a very exotic Japanese flavor and works best over minor chords.

The stuff I write isn't heavy on major chords, although major chords pop up plenty, so I love playing this scale. You can hear it in Home by Dream Theater, along with the Aeolian, Phrygian Dominant, Phrygian, and Harmonic Minor scales.

10 Major Pentatonic Scale

Ooh, here's one I forgot: Blues Minor Scale. At least, my version of it, which is hexatonic rather than pentatonic. I add a flat five to the minor pentatonic scale for that bluesy groove you hear in lots of Zakk Wylde, Tony Iommi, and John Petrucci solos.

It fits just fine in metal contexts since the earliest metal was blues-based, and you can get away with being bluesy in most styles of metal, aside from the abomination of a "genre" that is djent.

I don't like them as much as I used to because of how overused they are and because they're basically every mediocre guitarist's crutch due to their weak lead skills. However, they have their applications, and no one makes them sound as awesome as Synyster Gates does.

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