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When I saw Isis last summer, Threshold of Transformation was so heavy I almost shit my pants. The first few minutes of that song made me think my chest was gonna implode.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-LzfiBLuY[/youtube]

As a serious answer... I've been right up front for both High on Fire and ISIS, and both of them were heavy as shit. Especially HOF.

mid-70s Hot Tuna, Merzbow, My Bloody Valentine. in that order.

As far as non-gazing bands go, I'd say The Chariot.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCAWc-n_CX4[/youtube]

Also, Every Time I Die were fantastically heavy last time I saw them.

Maybe this is a lame question, but how are we defining 'heavy'?...It's kinda subjective, so I guess that's just up to the individual here?

I think of it as "If it feels like your heart beat's rhythm may be changing" it's heavy.

Well, by that criteria...even Rush were pretty heavy....or maybe just really frickin' loud

I've never actually been to a metal concert, so I don't have any experience there, but as far as albums go, Buckethead's "Cuckoo Clocks from Hell"
and Becoming the Archetype's "The Physics of Fire" are probably the top two in my collection right now

StudioShutIn wrote:Maybe this is a lame question, but how are we defining 'heavy'?...It's kinda subjective, so I guess that's just up to the individual here?

When you can feel every note jumpstart your heart and slam it into your back?

Heavy moves you. Not every band that plays stupidly loud is "heavy".

To be heavy you gotta be heavy.

to me "heavy" implies more than mere loudness, and doesn't necessarily depend on musical tropes, e.g. Neil Young riffage, which i love dearly, is not particularly "heavy" to me, nor is early Black Sabbath. both have too much air and space in them to be really heavy. heavy-ness entails extreme volume, but it also requires density, aggression, a bit of sadism, and a calculated attempt to fuck up peoples' perceptions via sonic means.

Heavy is the new love... you can't describe it, you just have to feel it

jfrey wrote:I think of it as "If it feels like your heart beat's rhythm may be changing" it's heavy.

This! Not necessarily just volume, but that feeling that your innards are shaking around, maybe in unhealthy ways!

Jucifer delivers on all criteria. Your chest feels like it may cave in, you check your ears for random bleeding, and you can no longer think logically while engulfed in maelstrom of sound they create.

High On Fire and Isis are also good candidates, as suggested above.

My favourite heavy bands are Crowbar and Morbid Angel... for me, heavy means a certain kind of crushing palm mutes and slow hugely distorted power chords that just have this sound of being 'heavy'. It's not about being loud or fast and it doesn't really matter what the vocalist is doing either... just guitars and drums for me, super distorted, slow, and delivered in a way that is aggressive.

Ryan wrote:My favourite heavy bands are Crowbar and Morbid Angel... for me, heavy means a certain kind of crushing palm mutes and slow hugely distorted power chords that just have this sound of being 'heavy'. It's not about being loud or fast and it doesn't really matter what the vocalist is doing either... just guitars and drums for me, super distorted, slow, and delivered in a way that is aggressive.

Crowbar

I still stand by Meshuggah being the most heavy though

Haha fair enough, Meshugga is super heavy!