What is heavy to you?
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Forum Description: General metal music discussions (no polls)
URL: http://www.MetalMusicArchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10648
Printed Date: 04 Jan 2025 at 9:09pm
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Topic: What is heavy to you?
Posted By: Polymorphia
Subject: What is heavy to you?
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2015 at 11:00pm
| All the time, I come across people claiming such-and-such release as one of the heaviest things they've ever heard. Many times I don't even think it's that heavy or even heavy at all. That said, many might not think of what I listen to as very heavy either. What does heavy entail to you and what are some examples? |
Replies:
Posted By: Vim Fuego
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2015 at 11:05pm
Poison Idea. Heaviest band in the world... Except they lost a few hundred pounds after Pig Champion died.
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Posted By: siLLy puPPy
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2015 at 11:29pm
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Some of the so-called war metal like Blasphemy is pretty heavy, but really there is so much super heavy metal these days it's all kind of a speculative affair. Gorguts, Behemoth, Darkthrone etc I'm sure anyone could name 1000 bands that are heavy. Maybe grindcore, metalcore and death metal are the most unrelenting subs though. Black, prog and other forms of metal have their light side ------------- 
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Posted By: Unitron
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2015 at 11:39pm
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This is one of those questions that I've wondered myself, I honestly don't really know what the 'heaviest metal' is, because things can be heavy in different ways. Stuff like Sludge and Doom is usually heavy in a slow punching way, while Thrash is heavy in a ,well, thrashing way. However, I can safely say that this song is still what I find to be among the most intense songs: ------------- If I say fuck two more times that's forty-six fucks in this fucked up rhyme |
Posted By: Vim Fuego
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 12:17am
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Instead of mucking around, here's a couple of suggestions: Exit-13. Environmentalist grindcore which bottoms out your speakers occasionally, and have produced a noise track with warnings it may damage your stereo. Sunn0))). Drone doom stuff. Bolt Thrower. Check Realm Of Chaos or Warmaster. Heavy and clear sounding. Today Is The Day. Intense as fuck, and the singer sounds like he's about to have a stroke at times. Regurgitate. A sick kind of heavy. Sea Bastard. Only heard 'em a while ago. Slow, slow doom. Anthrax. Persistence Of Time is one of the heaviest thrash albums you'll ever hear. Benediction. Dark is the Season. Very heavy lyrically, and heavy as hell musically.
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Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 1:01am
I suppose production is one aspect. When people tell me something like Disturbed is heavy (where the vocals are very upfront, the guitars are heavily gated, and the drums are very compressed), I have to disagree. When I listen to stuff like that, I tend to find it very stale or dry. Kind of wimpy even. Then again sometimes murky production makes the heaviness lost on me. Secondly, sometimes things are unrelentingly heavy and others are made heavy by dynamic contrast, soft sections making the louder sections seem louder. Context within album, too, is another thing to think about. A track may feel even heavier because the album builds up to it in a satisfying way. A couple tracks I think of as heavy (I have to post links because I can only seem to post one video per comment; probably a good thing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMPvknyczCE" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMPvknyczCE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huBz_ss9F5U" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huBz_ss9F5U (at least towards the beginning) |
Unitron wrote:Posted By: Bosh66
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 5:17am
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"A track may feel even heavier because the album builds up to it in a satisfying way." The oldest trick in the book. Sabbath were masters of it (as well as of Reality  )Sometimes a dose of unrelenting metal can be cathartic, and the heavier bands from the 'core subs (including sludge), brutal death and others can be completely unrelenting. Love that brutal stuff but can only listen for a while. To me, a more balanced soft/hard dynamic can feel much "heavier" and certainly more satisfying.
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Posted By: adg211288
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 5:43am
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I tend to judge based on what the standard seems to be per sub-genre rather than metal as a whole. German power metal bands like Blind Guardian, Grave Digger and Rebellion tend to be a lot heavier than other Euro style power metal bands for example. Epica have always seemed heavier than average in the symphonic metal field too. Probably one of the heaviest non-extreme metal albums I have in my collection though is Avatarium's debut. ------------- Earn Money Online (NOT a scam): https://premium.gg2u.org?referrer=adg211288" rel="nofollow - GG2U https://adamsfilmcorner.quora.com/" rel="nofollow - Adam's Film Corner on Quora |
Posted By: Nightfly
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 11:37am
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I normally find the slower stuff is heavier, doom being the obvious example and the dark sounding riffs employed in that genre. Some of the faster stuff loses heaviness in comparison, especially when the riff might be just hitting a couple of strings at a time which is not going to compete with a downtuned power chord for sheer heaviness. One of the heaviest albums in my collection is the Heaven & Hell album, "The Devil You Know". Tony Iommi once again proving he's the master of heavy riffing.
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Posted By: Psydye
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2015 at 11:49am
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When I think of heaviness in metal music, bands like Electric Wizard, Sunn O))), and other stoner/drone/sludge type bands usually come to mind. The slower, bassier, and more down-tuned, the more "heavy" I think it is. Of course, I also think of brutal death metal bands for sheer drumming intensity and low, grunted vocals. It's easy to think of "heaviness" in different terms though, as others have said. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2015 at 12:45am
| Another thing is that some types of vocals can draw comparisons to things that are totally not intense, thus nullifying their heaviness. The vocalist for Human Improvement Project, for instance, sounds to me like the sound of sipping that last bit of Dr. Pepper from a straw. |