Since the extreme metal genre seems to hold a special appeal for musicians, it would stand to reason that there should be no scarcity of resources for extreme metal musicians, right? I’ve already posted about the upcoming musician-oriented Execution Magazine, as well as the excellent Scattered Ashes tablature book by Emperor. Sites like MetalTabs.com (before it was targeted by the NMPA), SickDrummer.com and others are also amazing resources.

But what about guitar tablature books? Aside from the Emperor book, there don’t seem to be very many of these that cater to extreme metal, and those that do seem to be of varying quality. Here are a few others that have been published:

• Mastodon - Leviathan Tabs/Sheet Music Book
• Mastodon - Blood Mountain Tabs/Sheet Music Book
• The Best Of Opeth (Guitar Recorded Versions) Book
• Lamb of God - Sacrament Tabs/Sheet Music Book
• Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake Tabs/Sheet Music Book
• Shadows Fall - Threads of Life Tabs/Sheet Music Book

The common thread seems to be that the books were produced with little or no input from the bands, and thus the quality suffers. Nevertheless, the speed and complexity of metal often makes it very difficult to transcribe by ear, so having a book with tabs that are not quite 100% correct can still be quite helpful.

Because of the underground nature of extreme metal, you’re probably not going to be seeing many tab books for your favorite bands from companies like Hal Leonard. Fortunately, some bands have elected to release official guitar tabs to the public themselves. For example, the At The Gates website has a zip file containing tabs of all their songs that is free to download.