Do you consider "heavy metal" actually heavy?
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Forum Name: General Music Discussions
Forum Description: Discuss and create polls about all types of music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=102028
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Topic: Do you consider "heavy metal" actually heavy?
Posted By: paganinio
Subject: Do you consider "heavy metal" actually heavy?
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 19:32
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Is "Heavy Metal" one of the "lightest" subgenre of metal? I mean, almost eveything that came after was heavier. But the genre was somehow called "Heavy Metal". Isn't that funny? ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 19:42
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Technically, it would be "traditional heavy metal," which is less heavy than "extreme heavy metal." Heavy metal was just shortened to metal somewhere along the way. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music 
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Posted By: ole-the-first
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 20:17
Is extreme heavy metal so extreme, btw?  Most of so-called traditional doom metal doesn't sound much heavier than Black Sabbath, and many black metal bands (not only progressive/experimental) emphasize on atmosphere rather than on heaviness, which (despite of using sreaming vocals) makes their music less heavy for my ears than, let's say, some Judas Priest albums like Painkiller. ------------- This night wounds time. |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 20:27
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I need more subgenres. ------------- |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 20:56
This message brought to you by the fine makers of hyphens. One can't have enough hyphens.  ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Barbu wrote:Posted By: twalsh
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 21:04
It is kind of funny. Time and music has changed so the names no longer make much sense. I grew up on metal and decided that I wanted more progressive metal in my collection. Between signing up here and reading Mean Deviations, I learned that I only like about the lightest 20% or so of current metal. I swear it was heavier once. Lol ------------- More heavy prog, please! |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: April 18 2015 at 21:49
------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
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Posted By: paganinio
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 03:52
I read somewhere that "Doom Metal" is considered "extremely slow", and that is an extreme. Because the general public is used to faster rock music. -------------
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Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 05:51
another thing that can be considered extreme with doom is the lyrics - solitude, death, mourning, depression are the usual themes. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 10:44
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Define 'heavy'....regarding music in general. Many of the bands here that get that tag don't seem all that 'heavy' to me, and I'm not even a fan of metal to begin with.  ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 11:49
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What's hard about Hard Rock? As is the trend on this forum, we are getting far too hung-up on the literal meanings of adjectives when used as nouns. Once the word pairing (adjective modifier plus noun) becomes the name of a thing the adjective part (Hard, Heavy, Progressive, etc.) ceases to be an adjective. It is even debatable whether "Heavy" was ever an adjective modifier to the word "Metal" in the music context at all. Prior to the adoption of the name "Heavy Metal" there was never a genre called "Metal" and there has never been a genre called "Light Metal". Before "Heavy Metal" there was only "Heavy Rock" (which was also known as "Hard Rock" in the USA). How and why the term "Heavy Metal" was adopted is uncertain - it appears as a noun phrase in literature (William S. Buroughs) and in chemistry (any metallic element denser than Iron), so it is quite likely that it arrived into music ready paired, as an apt name for the music developed out of Heavy Rock (metal being heavier and harder than rock). In the hippy and post-hippy vocabulary the word "heavy" came to mean deep, ponderous and serious (ref: Kate Bush's 'Them Heavy People' ... the lady isn't talking about sumo wrestlers). So Heavy music did not just mean loud or dense music, but could also mean deep and ponderous music. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Ozark Soundscape
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 12:10
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If by Heavy Metal you mean Black Sabbath, Rainbow, early Rush; that era of metal, then yeah, it's pretty light. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 12:44
------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
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Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 16:10
I was going to same something similar, but once again dean comes through and says it much more eloquently.  ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 16:12
I agree here too. While I definitely consider doom metal to fall under the 'extreme metal' moniker, I find most doom metal to not be doomy enough. (Though I'm no expert on it) Like you, it has to reach the funeral-doom stage for it to really get going like that. But I suppose since I know Sunn 0))) and drone stuff that already takes that sort of heaviness to its logical end. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Polymorphia
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 16:43
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^Yeah, Sunn O))) is definitely extreme. I couldn't call myself an expert either, but it's one of the genres I'm currently exploring. It's definitely more diverse than I thought it would be. Groups with a sense of humor such as The Melvins and Boris hardly have a doom-y aesthetic, but make their home among and are sometimes more sonically extreme than darker groups like Moss and Corrupted. ------------- https://dreamwindow.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My Music
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Posted By: mithrandir
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 18:49
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idk, there are some old Angel Witch songs that way heavier than most "extreme metal" to these ears. |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: April 19 2015 at 19:05
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Is Funk music still smelly after all these years? Is Hardcore punk still hardcore now that we had Stenchcore, Metalcore, Grindcore, etc...? Is Jazz still lewd? |