What is Heaviest?

[ibanezjunkie]

in metal, what speed/tone do you think is 'heaviest' ? fast/shred and lots of treble, or slow and chuggin' with hell loads of low end?

[pes_laul]

all depends on the bass, drums, and singing.

[FrankenFretter***]

Melvins!

[tunghaichuan***]

This is the heaviest album I've ever heard:



Praxis Sacrifist

That album is like a jackhammer pounding a hole in your skull. It makes Slayer sound like John Denver. :

tung

[Plank_Spanker]

This is the heaviest album I've ever heard:



Praxis Sacrifist

That album is like a jackhammer pounding a hole in your skull. It makes Slayer sound like John Denver. :

tung

The brootalz?

[tunghaichuan***]

The brootalz?

Teh brootalz.

[Suhnton]

all depends on the bass, drums, and singing.

Well put Kris. I don't think Guitar plays much of a role in determining heaviness.

[Tig***]

Well put Kris. I don't think Guitar plays much of a role in determining heaviness.

...unless you're playing 8-string beasts

like Meshuggah.

[Suhnton]

...unless you're playing 8-string beasts

like Meshuggah.

See that's the thing. I think Meshuggah are quite brutal, but "heavy", I'm not too sure. I'm an old fart, but to my mind, heavy means "slow and plodding".

[Tig***]

See that's the thing. I think Meshuggah are quite brutal, but "heavy", I'm not too sure. I'm an old fart, but to my mind, heavy means "slow and plodding".

Yep, I see (hear) what you mean. I remember in the mid-70's hearing early Black Sabbath as a kid and thought that was as heavy as it could get. It even scared me some!

For (semi)slow and plodding, I'd lean toward my favorite sludge metal band, Mastodon. "Iron Tusk" gets nice N heavy at 1:30 into the song.

[pes_laul]

...unless you're playing 8-string beasts

like Meshuggah.

Oh balls! Instead of playing that why foesnt he just play bass:

[Tig***]

Why, The Heaviest Matter in the Universe, of course!
OK, there's plenty heavier in various forms, but between the title and the depth of metal, I had to nominate this Gojira song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEy2ZwzOu2w

[ibanezjunkie]

ahh but...heavily distorted, slow palm muted chords are pretty heavy...along with the right bass and drums...but clean fingerpicked fills even with metal backing wouldnt seem heavy

[marnold***]

In a lot of really heavy bands these days, the bass player is almost superfluous. When the guitarists are playing in drop-D two steps down, there's not much sonic room for bass. Some songs that define "heavy" for me wouldn't necessarily for others. Here's a few from my list:

Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath"
Judas Priest "The Sentinel"
Metallica "Seek and Destroy"
Megadeth "Wake Up Dead"
Dio "Last in Line"
Anthrax (with Public Enemy) "Bring the Noise"

I've never been much into black/death/doom/"Hi! I live in Norway!" metal, which is usually what I think of when "teh br00talz" are mentioned. Cookie Monster vocals are usually mandatory. I'm more of a power metal guy (even though none of those tracks I listed are power metal). I much prefer my metal with the mids intact. That along with a good bass player has more sonic impact to me than the whole downtune/scoop thing. But to each their own.

[ibanezjunkie]

i go my own way with my metal...like Marnold i like my mids pretty high

[ibanezjunkie]

i think Slayer - Raining blood is a pretty good example of heavy,


especially that long triplet riff after the intro.

thats some real chuggin' stuff - as kerry king puts it.

[tunghaichuan***]

[Robert****]

Hey, that's Fredrik, my old pal from back home! We used to jam a lot back in the day. Meshuggah sure chews and grinds pretty good.

[Robert****]

Umea has about 75,000 people. Lots of heavy bands from there, yep. My old home... I am going back for a visit next year.