Originally Posted by: SilimtaoOK, found a vid of Slipknot on youtube. Not my cup of tea, but I'm not a snob. I'm kind of forced to listen to some metal 'cause my son plays guitar hero, and now teaching him guitar. So, I'm learning some metal tunes to keep him interested. I admit I like some of the stuff- the only way to really listen to metal is LOUD. I really like Zakk Wylde- what he can do with a pentatonic scale is really cool. Is Black Sabbath considered metal? I was into them when they came out with their first album (have the original on vinyl!) Their later stuff wasn't crazy about. If I have to listen to Iron Man one more time, I think I'll pull my hair out, but the chords are easy, so I want to keep my son interested.

I know this is off-topic, but I guess my point is, if you keep your mind closed to new things, you wont grow. I call it the "wow" factor. Zakk- wow. Henry Garza, from Los Lonely Boys- wow. Carlos Vamos- super wow. Google Vamos, and you'll see some insane finger tapping on an acoustic.

There's a whole new breed of metal players I've heard, and they're not just banging out power chords. These guys seem to really know their theory and modes, etc. But a lot of 'em seem to sound alike to me.

Just so this post isn't a total waste of your time- only thing I can add to your getting the "chug-chug" sound, other than what was already stated by ZakJenkins, is practice slowly at first. When you're palm muting, or muting with your fretting hand, you really have to have both hands in sync, otherwise, you'll get strings ringing when you don't want them to. I think there's a video tutorial on SRV doing Rude Mood, but he's muting with his fretting hand. I call it the "chunka-chunka" way of rhythm playing. I think Henry Garza was probably influenced by SRV, and that Tex-Mex way of his playing is really cool imo. OK, I'm blathering. Later!

I must be weird because I do ALL my muting with my left hand. Right hand palm muting is not very economical - I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. My right hand is free, floats and is stable.