112 replies to this topic

[cetera]

dear metal people: calling you out today.

what the fuck does heavy mean to you anymore?

when you listen to a song that makes you go: "that's heavy as fuck, son (or bro)"
...what made you just say that.

to me, metal hasn't been any more heavy than itself for years.
the only changes i've seen are stylistic and production-wise. over the years, people have crafted more power chordy / louder mixed stuff.

but that doesn't explain why a metal guy can listen to 2 similar modern metal bands and go "yo, band number one is heavy as shit, man"

sometimes, i think all you are hearing is "newness." logic: i've not heard this band ever, or i've not heard them in a while, and it's impacting me, and my simple-ass brain is calling this heaviness. ah man i got the munchies, fool

or maybe it's your way of forgiving non-interesting metal bands. logic: eww i wouldn't listen to this, because the lyrics are about junior archaeology, and the singer sounds like if a dumpster had feelings. but i'm a metal guy, and i don't want metal to die ever, because that is what i put my time into, so i will validate this horrible band's existence by saying they are heavy as fuuuuck and therefore important to the scene.

i am so on the verge of calling bullshit on this whole operation.

[Moniker]

Dude, that post was EPIC.

[M-H]

lol. I rarely ever think in terms of how "heavy" something sounds. I usually just focus on whether I like a band or a song or something. When I was younger, I associated how scooped (like, the mids are EQed out) sounding the guitars were with how 'heavy' a thing was.

New topics:
explain "punchy" perfectly
dear recording industry people:

explain "hipster" perfectly
dear hipster-hating people:

[cetera]

New topics:
explain "punchy" perfectly
dear recording industry people:

explain "hipster" perfectly
dear hipster-hating people:

i am down with these too!

although the shizz has tried pretty hard to explain hipster and ended up fighting

[LordMachino]

True heavy is stuff like Weakling that weighs you down and makes you feel like a fat turd for the rest of the week.

[Shervz0r]

True heavy is stuff like Weakling that weighs you down and makes you feel like a fat turd for the rest of the week.

[cetera]

thank you for citing an example




listening to this i hear something very noisy. not very powerfully mixed. i am listening on crappy speakers and its really not coming through.
the vocals are screamy but not effected and a little obscured. i cant understand any of the words.
i understand the roots of the actual musical content and appreciate what they are doing in the metal world. this is the fucking champs on steroids.

i imagine this band would play very loudly live. because it is recorded with that sort of attitude like "dude, just come fucking see us live, recording is expensive and hard, we guarantee tinnitus at a show or your money back"

thats all i'm getting off it.
im not feeling any weight. do i have to actually be fat for the music to make me feel that way? do i lack a soul?
what am i missing?

[Rocquero]

Heavy

[LordMachino]

listening to this i hear something very noisy. not very powerfully mixed. i am listing on crappy speakers and its really not coming through.
the vocals are screamy but not effected and a little obscured. i cant understand any of the words.
i imagine this band would play very loudly live. because it is recorded with that sort of attitude like "dude, just come fucking see us live, recording is expensive and hard, we guarantee tinnitus at a show or your money back"

thats all i'm getting off it.
im not feeling any weight. do i have to actually be fat for the music to make me feel that way? do i lack a soul?
what am i missing?

I think it sounds futile. It's all minor tonality, an unrelenting wall of sound, and keyboard patches that loom over the rest of the mix. I guess it puts you in your place?

Man, you should know this. Casual Friday is heavy. It's all gritty and sketchy. I can't listen to it and not be depressed and thinking about Robocop for the rest of the day.

Edit: Marty McFly could explain it better than I.

[Djinnocide]

Heavy is going to be different things for different people. Personally, it's riff based for me, with a proper mix of tone and tuning. That's not to say that I haven't heard music that was heavy without the assistance of down-tunings and distorted tones. In that same regard, I've also heard music that was so low and distorted that it sounded like mud was pouring out of my speakers yet it still had no balls at all.

I feel I should also mention that the rhythm section of a band takes center stage when it comes to making a piece of music sound heavy. The way the bass/drums interact with one another is important.


This is heavy...

[Magicalyardgnome]

Palm muting is a big part of it.

[cetera]

yea im getting about 3 different angles here of what is heavy

machino: heavy/weight is an emotional response evoked by the gestalt of the recording, as interpreted by a gifted empath, having very much to do with non-musical elements.

dJinn: heavy comes from the ass of the band, it's hard to explain, but some bands get it right and others don't.

yardgnome: throw some chugs in that mofo and crack a beer. party over here

a guy on facebook that i respect a bunch, who is in some known bmore metal bands had this to say:
there are so many different sub-genres. And it's all a matter of personal opinion. I would consider Suffocation to be one of the heaviest metal bands on earth because they're "brutal death metal", and then Exhumed is heavy as fuck because they're "gore metal". But then you have bands like Isis, Neurosis, Converge, etc. that are extremely heavy, but I wouldn't necessarily consider them "metal"

[Ryan8bit]

Heavy is 0:45 in xoc's "Billy's Office" from the Gremlins 2 EP.

The mixing doesn't matter really. It's a matter of contrast in this instance, being sort of half-time, especially with the way the kicks are.

[Magicalyardgnome]

Heavy:





Not heavy (but still great):

[cetera]

cc