The Heavy

[shakahislop]

There are different textures of heaviness too. You take something like the above or that Fall tune and there's a grit and growl to it that emphasises the weight but then you can also get a rounded, spongey sort of heaviness, e.g. Hokusai - 'Black Rose'.

the bug that we've spoken about on here before (and whose probably been discussed multiple times on this forum over the years) is pretty outspoken in interviews in aiming for bass heaviness. interesting thing with him is that he's also pretty engaged in making it accessible i think, with hooks and lyrics and so on.

actually find it hit or miss live, sometimes he seems more interested in high frequency washes that basically just hurt, but he's got a way with heavy bass. but interestingly though it may be inspired by it, i find it totally divorced from anything jamaican in execution

 

[shakahislop]

a lot of heaviness or at least how we're talking about it in this thread is a lack of spaciousness i think. frequencies saturated, no empty space between beats.

 

[Mr. Tea]

frequencies saturated, no empty space between beats.

 

[shakahislop]

i can't see this video, its just a black square, because for some reason its been banned by the authorities

 

[linebaugh]

theres definitely still an element of space though. there's got to be a space from the heaviness to move through and hit you. its more about the arrangement of frequencies than total saturation. the drums turned way down in the electric wizard song, the bass guitar being the vehicle for both low end and high end. temporal space aswell.

 

[linebaugh]

no mids but the highs and lows cranked

 

[woops]

i have a long standing interest in the country of finland where i'm told, whereas here in london we may walk into a shop & they greet you with the strains of some pop cheese, over there they'd be playing metal such as the following (never visited though)

 

[Mr. Tea]

i can't see this video, its just a black square, because for some reason its been banned by the authorities

So heavy it was banned!

Try this one instead?

 

[shakahislop]

i have a long standing interest in the country of finland where i'm told, whereas here in london we may walk into a shop & they greet you with the strains of some pop cheese, over there they'd be playing metal such as the following (never visited though)

one thing i love about america, or perhaps its just something i don't like about england, is that generic background pub playlists are a bit less common. i went into some bar, not a metaller bar or anything, in boston a few years ago and they played a Sleep double album, actually the only part of their discography that @Leo didn't post in this thread already, start to finish

 

[jenks]

Was thinking of something like the Deep Listening band which has the drone element which comes from the use of acoustic space.
Tried to find some Peter Brotzman but nothing much matched your description.
African Headcharge were the other band that came to mind.

 

[shakahislop]

So heavy it was banned!

Try this one instead?

same issue. the mystery of what these black boxes hold will be revealed when i leave this totalitarian regime. its cool that the taliban (or alternatively the guy who deals with the internet where i'm staying) permits music now, just not all of it

 

[shakahislop]

'heaviness' is quite often mistaken for aggression i think. to me its something else, they're not the same thing

 

[woops]

12 days too late but soundgarden are by far, the best grunge band for the very reason that there the heaviest, they make stone temple pilots sound like teenage fanclub, this song feature's some of the most detuned electric guitar ever committed to recording:

 

[Leo]

As teenagers, we used to think Sabbath was the ultimate heavy. I guess "iron man" still rates but it was probably for lack of anything else that came close. Like, Deep Purple were just a rock band with loud guitars, not crushing in any way.

 

[Leo]

12 days too late but soundgarden are by far, the best grunge band for the very reason that there the heaviest, they make stone temple pilots sound like teenage fanclub, this song feature's some of the most detuned electric guitar ever committed to recording:

the first SG ep is still pretty great, even before they had any money to spend on heavy production.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Maybe the least dissensus friendly concept by my estimation

dissensus people mostly only like heavy if it's weird or nominally fwd or etc, not for its own sake

possibly in part bc heaviness isn't really the point of dance music

deepness certainly can be but it's not quite the same thing, even when serious bass weight is involved

you're trying to get people moving, not crush them into a sonic abyss

 

[linebaugh]

black sabbath is still heavy. I love the bit at :31 where the riff lags behind being on time for just a half second. like the sound is so heavy it takes an extra concerted heave before things get rolling.

 

[Mr. Tea]

As teenagers, we used to think Sabbath was the ultimate heavy. I guess "iron man" still rates but it was probably for lack of anything else that came close. Like, Deep Purple were just a rock band with loud guitars, not crushing in any way.

For bands of that era, hard to beat Sabbath for crushing potential. Led Zep, when they wanted to be, were pretty heavy, but more in a sort of oceanic, overwhelming sort of way, rather than crushing per se:


Sabbath get huge credit not just for their own output but for starting pretty much the entirely of stoner/doom/sludge, in that you can draw a line from their debut LP straight to this:


(heaviness starts around 7:00)

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

As teenagers, we used to think Sabbath was the ultimate heavy. I guess "iron man" still rates but it was probably for lack of anything else that came close. Like, Deep Purple were just a rock band with loud guitars, not crushing in any way.

Sabbath isn't the ultimate heavy - the founders are always surpassed by devotees - but they are the sine qua non of heavy

their first four LPs - really, Paranoid and Master of Reality - are the quintessential documents

Sleep is essentially everything good about those 2 records compressed into the density of a black hole

the distinction between heavy and "just a rock band with loud guitars" is a crucial one

 

[pattycakes_]

another type of heavy here. frantic upper layers hurtling down into the chthonic depths on a rickety track in a minecart without a brake lever. propelled by dave holland's relentless bass loop, the tension never ceases. heavy way to start an album. this one doesn't get the same attention as live evil etc, but it's a personal fave. also when they finally let up and miles runs the voodoo down comes in, it's just a monumental release of pressure = another type of heaviness in itself, contrast.


edit: listening now, the rapid repetition of the bass loop is the heaviest element here, as demonstrated by 3:07 when it drops out for a minute. without that low-end pressure, it just doesn't hit you anywhere near the same. then 3:28 rolls along and then you're back in the minecart