Written by LethargyMan on 19.11.2008 at 22:54

I have asserted in the past that Gorguts's Obscura is the heaviest metal album of all time; I have yet to revise my opinion. The album is a barrage of wailing dissonance and unsettling structure that has yet to be matched by any other metal artist.

More extreme albums have been released, but these will often fall under the genres of harsh noise or power electronics or some other label. Obscura succeeds in being distinctly a "metal" album, bringing technicality and abrasiveness to a level beyond other metal artists.

It's the only album that I've ever felt genuine discomfort listening to. It makes no attempt to appease the listener with familiarity. Obscura freely jumps between a pummeling death/grind or a torturous doom, leaving little room for prediction.

It's pretty good.

Pretty true. I had had to listen to it for three times before I figured out what was going on and that it wasn't just random bullcrap. However, it's still very hard to listen to it.

...hmm...there's alot of heavy albums but idk which one could be the heaviest...there's a couple i found really heavy when i first listened to them...now they're not that brutal but somehow they're still heavy...uhm...i can't only think of these few options at the time...

- pitbulls in the nursery...lunatic
- spawn of possesion...noctambulant
- necrophagist...onset of putrefaction

Welcome To Hell by Venom. What people don't seem to understand is that heavy is a feeling, not a sound quality. As I believe KK Downing once said (may have been Glenn Tipton, not 100% sure), "A powerful riff will sound powerful even if your playing without an amp". This is why bands like Hellhammer, old Venom, etc will always be heavier than bands like Slipknot, despite them having "heavy" production.

People will obviously have differing opinions on what is "heavy", but to me heavy=brutal, so I would have to say Origin - Antithesis.

Written by Doc G. on 20.11.2008 at 09:14

Welcome To Hell by Venom. What people don't seem to understand is that heavy is a feeling, not a sound quality. As I believe KK Downing once said (may have been Glenn Tipton, not 100% sure), "A powerful riff will sound powerful even if your playing without an amp". This is why bands like Hellhammer, old Venom, etc will always be heavier than bands like Slipknot, despite them having "heavy" production.

True. Heavy is not just what is being played, but what it sounds like and the emotion that the musicians put into it (using musician in the broadest sense, especially talking about Venom). For me a raw production is essential for something to be truly heavy because then you get all those little imperfections in the sound and the feeling comes through.

Written by Doc G. on 26.08.2008 at 19:03

The 2 first Black Sabbath albums or Venoms Welcome To Hell. People dont seem to get that heaviness is a feeling, not a sound you can get through certain production. A truly heavy riff will sound heavy no matter how its recorded.

That is why I have said for years and years that the heaviest album I have ever heard is Led Zeppelin II. Of course there are bands that are "louder", "faster" or "brutaler" than that album, but the heaviness of that album was decades ahead of its time and spawned Heavy Metal as we know it (along with a few other albums so don't flame me with your Black Sabbath masturbation).

Written by Doc G. on 20.11.2008 at 09:14

Welcome To Hell by Venom. What people don't seem to understand is that heavy is a feeling, not a sound quality. As I believe KK Downing once said (may have been Glenn Tipton, not 100% sure), "A powerful riff will sound powerful even if your playing without an amp". This is why bands like Hellhammer, old Venom, etc will always be heavier than bands like Slipknot, despite them having "heavy" production.

wow i have a million things to say about that comment as it was so profound my friend

ummm.....without an amp on electric guitar cyan't really be heard with a big crowd around so I'm not that that sure what them Priest guitarists meant

and.....it's without doubt that Venom and Hellhammer are more METAL than Slipknot (No fvcking DUH), but Slipknot use distorted vocals when the other two don't so i dunno.....

I know Venom makes me headbang faster than Hellhammer or Slipknot (who don't really make me wanna headbang much at all), but are they truly heavier?

Written by Dane Train on 27.12.2008 at 23:22

Written by Doc G. on 26.08.2008 at 19:03

The 2 first Black Sabbath albums or Venoms Welcome To Hell. People dont seem to get that heaviness is a feeling, not a sound you can get through certain production. A truly heavy riff will sound heavy no matter how its recorded.

That is why I have said for years and years that the heaviest album I have ever heard is Led Zeppelin II. Of course there are bands that are "louder", "faster" or "brutaler" than that album, but the heaviness of that album was decades ahead of its time and spawned Heavy Metal as we know it (along with a few other albums so don't flame me with your Black Sabbath masturbation).

I'll agree, and as much as I hate to pull out of the "greatest hits" card, 'Whole Lotta Love' could even be up for heaviest song of all time. The bass track on that is ball-crushingly thick, it almost makes my eyes water every time I hear it.

Written by Guest on 28.12.2008 at 00:24

Written by Doc G. on 20.11.2008 at 09:14

Welcome To Hell by Venom. What people don't seem to understand is that heavy is a feeling, not a sound quality. As I believe KK Downing once said (may have been Glenn Tipton, not 100% sure), "A powerful riff will sound powerful even if your playing without an amp". This is why bands like Hellhammer, old Venom, etc will always be heavier than bands like Slipknot, despite them having "heavy" production.

wow i have a million things to say about that comment as it was so profound my friend

ummm.....without an amp on electric guitar cyan't really be heard with a big crowd around so I'm not that that sure what them Priest guitarists meant

and.....it's without doubt that Venom and Hellhammer are more METAL than Slipknot (No fvcking DUH), but Slipknot use distorted vocals when the other two don't so i dunno.....

I know Venom makes me headbang faster than Hellhammer or Slipknot (who don't really make me wanna headbang much at all), but are they truly heavier?

Well what I'm saying is, if you were to play the riff without an amp to say a friend or yourself, you would say "holy fuck, that will sound ball-crushingly heavy through an amp with some bass behind it. It will bring tears to peoples eyes".

What is the heaviest album ever?

It depends on the sound of your speaker

This is a conundrum for me. There are so many ways to define "heavy." Take for instance the first time I heard Paradise Lost's, "Gothic." The music on that doom-masterpiece seems like it weighs 900 tons. On the other hand, when I think of something like Grave's "Into the Grave"... Shit that album still gives me goose bumps haha.

Well three albums come to my mind :
1- Kreator - Pleasure to Kill -
2- Bloodpath - Nightmares Made Flesh -
3- Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis -
alot of other gr8 heavy albums but these are the ones on my mind now.

I'm going to have to go with Load by Metallica, man that shit is HEEEEEEAAAAVVVVYY!

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Music doesnt get heavier then old Sabbath!

Written by Kratos on 01.09.2009 at 07:15

I'm going to have to go with Load by Metallica, man that shit is HEEEEEEAAAAVVVVYY!

Written by Son of Odin on 01.09.2009 at 11:28

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Music doesnt get heavier then old Sabbath!

If you put on viny pacage thet iron cross what Iomi wear , maybe then Sabbath be heavy, but First 2 Sabbath are heavyer of all Ozzy works, Dio days was moust heavyer BS works

This is why music is great, everyone has their own idea of what "heavy" is or what it means to them. For me it doesn't necessarily have to be the fastest, brutal death metal. To me the heaviest means their is this "wall" of sound that blows you away when turning up the home stereo volume past 7 or saying to yourself "holyshit this is so frickin loud!" I will name 3 for me:

- Godflesh / StreetCleaner
- Rosetta / The Galilean Satellites
- Carcass / Symphonies of Sickness

Written by tea[m]ster on 03.09.2009 at 11:54

This is why music is great, everyone has their own idea of what "heavy" is or what it means to them. For me it doesn't necessarily have to be the fastest, brutal death metal. To me the heaviest means their is this "wall" of sound that blows you away when turning up the home stereo volume past 7 ...

I agree with you on that.
I for one have never found brutal death metal to be heavy at all.
For me heavy music is music that crushes me into a nice little pulp.
Such as Corrupted, Today Is The Day, Godflesh, some drone, some extreme sludge that sort of thing and of course Neurosis live

Heavy albums.... this is difficult. first of all i agree with tea[m]ster and Marcel about whan heaviness is.

the most heavy band i've heard till now is imo DEICIDE. Heavy, Rabid, Evil. They have it all. And THE STENCH OF REDEMPTION i think that has to be the most heavy and violent album i've heard in a long time. it is really brutal, really heavy.

i'll just mention some other really heavy albums imo:

individual thought patterns/scream bloody gore-death, litany-vader, arise-sepultura, consuming impulse-pestilence, covenant-morbid angel, extreme aggression/hordes of chaos/pleasure to kill-kreator, reign in blood-slayer, fiction/character-dark tranquillity, draconian times/icon-paradise lost, kill em all-metallica, slowly we rot-obituary, summerian deamons-septic flesh, tomb of the mutilated-cannibal corpse.

sorry but i couldn't deny some of them in order to write not so many.

Edit: shame on me i forgot Monotheist from Celtic Frost...

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 03.09.2009 at 18:41

Written by tea[m]ster on 03.09.2009 at 11:54

This is why music is great, everyone has their own idea of what "heavy" is or what it means to them. For me it doesn't necessarily have to be the fastest, brutal death metal. To me the heaviest means their is this "wall" of sound that blows you away when turning up the home stereo volume past 7 ...

I agree with you on that.
I for one have never found brutal death metal to be heavy at all.
For me heavy music is music that crushes me into a nice little pulp.
Such as Corrupted, Today Is The Day, Godflesh, some drone, some extreme sludge that sort of thing and of course Neurosis live

You nailed it Marcel!
If I want to be lifted off my chair gimme Industrial Sludge Metal over Death Metal any day - not taking anything away from Death Metal - but everyone should get a pair of 100 watt speakers and sit in a comfortable chair and turn on Cult of Luna REAL loud .... and enjoy!

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 01.09.2009 at 17:05

Written by Kratos on 01.09.2009 at 07:15

I'm going to have to go with Load by Metallica, man that shit is HEEEEEEAAAAVVVVYY!

Haha I kinda agree with the dude, Marcel. (Although if I do know MS right, he could be sarcastic.) I'm not saying it's the heaviest shit out there, but as Dr.Rock said, heavy is a feeling. And I really love "Load" - if you wanna know why you could ask for that boring story - and can feel the heavyness from it.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 03.09.2009 at 18:41

I for one have never found brutal death metal to be heavy at all.

There's many times I've been listening to some new bands on Youtube and related videos will pop up like "ultra brutal technical death gore grind from chile"... yeah... but is it heavy? Nope. That's what I was getting at in my original post. You're right, it doesn't have to have 300BPM blastbeats in to be heavy.

I still stand by my first choice with Realm of Chaos, but another album I've been listening to a lot recently is Retribution by Malevolent Creation. That one just makes me involuntarily headbang violently on every single riff, great stuff.

Different albums for different definitions of "heavy":

Black Sabbath's Paranoid has some of the heaviest riffs I can think of (Iron Man, War Pigs, Hand Of Doom)
Immolation's Failures For Gods was very poorly produced, and it has their signature: dissonant riffs and deep vocals
Sunn O)))'s Oracle is just drones, tuned so low it'll literally shake your windows.

Im gonna go with Reign In Blood, heaviest album i got, and i love it.

For me, it would be Anaal Nathrakh's "The Codex Necro"...fark that is a hard hitting album!!! I get scared just thinking about it...

Maybe the notion of "heavy" fails me but from my personal perspective I find Electric Wizard's "Come My Fanatics" and "Dopethrone" weighing down on me like God's anus. And I mean it in a good way.

For me, oh god I have no idea...I am going to go with classic albums I suppose, because today, any bimbo can pick up a guitar, crank it to some crazy level of distortion, and its heavy.

Blue Cheer- Vinces Eruptum

When I think of "heavy" I think of the use of vocals,drumming and guitarwork to be played in such an extent that I am affected by the song, be it intimidated or pumped up etc. Not many albums managed to do this but :

Slayer - Reign In Blood
Strapping Young Lad - City
Death - Leprosy

I can't think of that many more right now though.

Written by Doc G. on 20.11.2008 at 09:14

What people don't seem to understand is that heavy is a feeling, not a sound quality.

For me, heaviness is a feeling and more related to attitude and music being relentless than just a simple matter of sound. I think lots of people confuse heaviness and 'weighty sound'.

Neurosis - through silver in blood !

KILL EM ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!