The Evolution of the Devil's Tritone

There is a reason heavy metal sounds ominous. Bands utilized what is known as the devil's tritone or triad. This combination of three tones produces an eery, unnatural sound.

The Devil's tritone is made when a musician plays either the chords or independent notes C, E, G. Together these three notes create the Devil's Tritone.

Black Sabbath, the Fathers of metal music, was one of the first bands to experiment with the Devil's tritone, which subsequently lead to the band being labeled as "Devil's music". In retrospect the band's name didn't help, but that is beside the point. Black Sabbath paved the way for heavy metal by writing dark, dismal songs which influenced rock bands for years to come. They found the sound the youth craved and parents despised, a recipe for destruction.

Black Sabbath's self titled song, Black Sabbath, was the first song anyone ever heard there band play. The song was placed first on the rotation of their first album, which was also self titled Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath opens the song with the Devil's tritone and this is when rock n' roll was revolutionized. A door was opened to hell and there was no turning back. Without Black Sabbath there is no Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine, Bring Me the Horizon, etc.

Slayer was the most notable of these bands to consistently use the Devil's tritone. virtually every single one of their songs uses the Devil's tritone. Now it is most evident in their song Raining Blood. This of course being their most commercially successful song.

Without the Devil's Tritone metal music would not exist today. It is the key dividing factor between blues influenced rock, which moves along the pentatonic scale, and heavy metal, which while structured around the pentatonic scale introduces the diminished 5th note. To generate this sound from a tablature point of view, one would strum the 5th, 7th, and 8th fret in any sequence on either the A or D string on a guitar.

Modern use of the Devil's tritone is found in modern metalcore bands like Bring Me the Horizon, Blessthefall, Asking Alexandria, Issues, Memphis Mayfire, etc. Bring Me the Horizon's earliest music is composed strictly around the use of the Devil's tritone. The song, Slow Dance, which is an instrumental on the bands first album, Count Your Blessings, emphasizes the Devil's tritone's importance to the modern metal sound.

Though the Devil's tritone may only consist of three notes, heavy metal bands have mastered the art of composing diverse songs each independent of the other. With each generation the Devil's tritone manifests itself in new forms and new sounds, all while maintaining its sinister presence.