Dragged into Sunlight and especially their debut "Hatred for Mankind" remains an extremely heavy record for me. The tracks "Volcanic Birth", "Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death", and "I, Aurora" in particular are such beasts of tracks.

Agreed with those mentioning Suffocation. Dying Fetus and Tomb of the Mutilated era Cannibal Corpse are also good shouts.

Teitanblood.

Filthy, disgusting, downtuned to hell, fast as hell most of the time but with doomy moments, and a crushing, oppressive atmosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzgKvRp5yso

Didn't know about this band, thanks for mentioning them! They sound pretty nice.

Black Tongue's Nadir album is pretty damn heavy by my definition. Not exactly what you'd expect clicking on what originally was a "downtempo/deathcore/beatdown" band but I just love the oppressive, crushing atmosphere while still having riffs and overall being pleasing to the ears. Often when bands try to be heavy as possible just for the sake of it, it can start sounding like noise after a few minutes.



And of course there's always stuff like Primitive Man:

Good band man, and another cool thing, theyre from Spain! Dont know many spanish metal acts, and btw most acts are great who are signed to the Norma Evangelium Diaboli label

Corpse Molestation

the intent is heavy

Tryptikon. I guess there isnt heavier than that

Possibly. Guess the guy with the Bon Jovi shirt isn't very heavy though.

Has anyone heard the story that a single pair of that guy's underpants would use up the space in the washing machine? I'm not making this up, it's actually mentioned in a book on the local punk culture, with that Gang Green anecdote thrown in from one of their tours.

Not trying to be a dick (really), but how is this even remotely "heavy?" There's nothing going on in this song. Like at all.

The common listings notwithstanding (Black Sabbath, Swans etc), I'd go with Fushitsusha. Check out the 15/16 album. If you don't care for abstract music, don't waste your time, but if you're interested in hearing another variation of heavy as fuck, have at it.

Depending on where you want to take it, it wouldn't be out of the question to consider Arvo Part or Iancu Dumitrescu to be some of the heaviest music. Or something like Thomas Koner's Permafrost or Daniel Menche's Legions in the Walls. Music that will vibrate dust from the rafters.

I mean, just listen to it. Not sure I can explain it, apart from saying that it is about as lumbering and strained as it gets.
I can understand people not liking early Swans (it isn't for everyone), but they're clearly a 'heavy' band.

I'd personally say that Swans can be considered a heavy band, but not really heavy in terms of extreme music. Certainly like sonically intense and harsh, but for its own standards. The amalgamation of those lugubrious vocals with a noise sound on the background, always accompanied by the cymbals is surely a good combination to conceive such a punishive atmosphere. This song is pretty elucidative on that regard:



It's pretty much for that way that either Swans or drone doom bands are considered heavy and extreme. Surely a dense experience for its specific standards, but not really brutal extreme music. This wouldn't be the first thing one would think about when a random non-rock music listener asked you to show him/her the heaviest band/song you know.

In that regard, I'd vote for Demolition Hammer. Other thrash bands, like Dark Angel, Kreator, Morbid Saint, Gammacide, Bio-Cancer and early Slayer would be just behind.

In terms of noise/experimental music, there's a bunch of them, Utarm, Masonna, Merzbow, The Sodality and so on would take the cake.

Heavy music exists outside of metal. Swans is exceptionally heavy music, maybe not heavy metal. There are power electronic bands that are also exceptionally heavy without being “extreme” in terms of say death or black metal. But heavy as fuck nonetheless.

If this topic is specific to heaviest “metal” bands, then yeah, maybe Swans do not qualify. Otherwise, they are fair game. It’s also subjective? To me, Power for Power is more “extreme” than say Cannibal Corpse, but for very different reasons.

Swans (at least in the earliest incarnation) were heavy, brutal and extreme.

Has extreme been re-defined for this site? If not, Swans was absolutely extreme. What a dippy term anyway.

Yes. Confused by the controversy here.

This sparked my curiosity, can you share a song by them that you would consider to be extreme, heavy and brutal?

Well, that one you shared above, for starters.

I understand. We surely have a personal distinction when it comes to categorize something as extreme, in this case. Although my use of "extreme" may vary a lot, being it centered mostly on the vocal style or the instrumentation, I wouldn't certainly consider Swans as extreme. This would be, as the name implies, bands that push their heaviness edge to the extreme, either it being metal or rock, noise, power electronics, punk, electronic music, certain forms of rap or darkwave, among others.

Power for Power. Even the vocals. For context, this was the early 80s. Can still hang with the most extreme of extreme even today.

I was going to write it but someone told it before me and I'm glad someone did. Obituary is fucking heavy!

Fuck yeah man, at least I got some support for Obituary, everyone's always waxing Incantations carrot in threads like this, so it's always good to see that something like Cause of Death just blows most of that crap away in terms of just sheer brutality and the nightmarish quality of that album, God, so fucking heavy, total soul draining stuff.

I off course love Incantation too, but come they always get the nod as the heaviest and most morbid, I'd put stuff like Leprosy and Consuming Impulse up against OTG in terms of sheer brutality and morbidity, and OTG would certainly be having a run for it's money imo

That Swans song could be considered "emotionally" heavy I guess, for some people. But that's about it. Surely it isn't brutal. When I think of "heavy" music (after all, "heavy metal" is the genre we love so much), I think of the physicality of the instruments. The speed, the riffs, the arrangements, the drums, the vocals, the guitar tuning etc. I am not one of those people who can listen to something like Enya and say "wow, that's pretty heavy." I just don't feel it. So on that note, I'll throw in Strapping Young Lad's City as one of the heaviest albums in existence. Anyone else agree??

I can totally get not liking early Swans. I'm not a fan of that era either except for the Young God EP. But claiming they weren't heavy? And then mentioning Enya? What the fuck is wrong with this forum?

Great links, thanks!

Enya is great.

It's like silence colored in.

Enya died for our sins

I'm not into Swans at all, but claiming they're not heavy is ridiculous, just like I don't enjoy Triptykon or Monotheist either, but a lack of heaviness is not the reason at all.

As for Anaal Nathrakh mentioned the page before, they're definitely a contender on the early stuff, The Codex Necro is an all time classic. I must admit I've got a bit bored of them making the same album over and over now, after ITCOTBW Vanitas is the only one that's come close to matching it, the clean vocals were cool the first time I heard them, they get a bit annoying now.

I'm also pretty bemused by people saying grindcore isn't heavy. When I first heard Insect Warfare as a teen that blew me the fuck away, and Last Days of Humanity is absurdly heavy.

I'd still probably give it to Monoliths and Dimensions by Sunn O))) and Putrefaction in Progress by Last Days of Humanity, but I'll also throw in Asphyx and Cianide, (alongside the already mentioned Incantation and Suffocation) I don't listen to the latter often for some reason but they always get me when they do, and seeing them live was an intense experience. I kinda agree with people saying Dragged into Sunlight, but their studio stuff seems relatively tame compared to when I first heard them, which was live.

This might be a "hot take" of sorts, but Flesh Cathedral by Svartidaudi is really heavy for a black metal album

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Enya but why was it mentioned compared to early Swans?

In what way are they heavy? The guy above you didn't answer, he just said he can't explain it. I'm not trying to knock it, honestly, I just think "heavy" is an absurd adjective to describe that song. Now, the band might have other songs that are actually heavy - I wouldn't know because I don't listen to them - but I'm just speaking on that particular song which was posted. Oh and the Enya comment is totally valid - Enya brings some people to tears because it's so emotionally "heavy." I actually like some of her stuff, especially for long drives on a stretch of highway at night.

Repetitive ultra slow riffs, harsh noise sections, 2 basses that sound like fire, loudest shows of the 80s... Swans were basically industrial border-line sludge. If your definition of heavy is Electric Wizard then early Swans is definitely heavy too. There's nothing emotional about early Swans, they were were pure raw energy with little to no control or direction.

https://youtu.be/nQ15VvpoMlQ

Lol you’re doubling down on Enya comparisons. This has to be a troll job at this point. You keep harping on about emotional heaviness, but Swans we’re sonically heavy as well. Strange and useless comparison.

You’ve made your point. You’re cool. Early Swans is as heavy as Enya. Amazing forum this is.

I've listened to "Power for Power" and my opinion is pretty much the same. It's sonically dense, has an unsettling and punishive atmosphere and it was surely an earthquake for its time. But I still don't find the extreme-ness on it, sorry, it just doesn't click on me as being it. It surely has to do with my personal perception on what "extreme music" is and Swans really don't make it for me in that regard. It's just a matter of opinions, after all, I guess.

Whitehouse, Hanatarash, Lou Reed Metal Machine Music, Diamanda Glass '84, Exclaim, C.C.C.C.

I revisited "Cop" today on the back of this thread. I've not heard it for a while. The whole album is even more brutalising, unsettling and unpleasant than I remember it being.
Much more so than any metal I've heard.
It is heavy too of course (even heavier than Enya).

I'm a pretty big Swans fan...so yeah, I acknowledge my bias, but I genuinely don't know how you can listen to any Swans up through Children of God and not come away with this stuff is incredibly menacing, crushing, and intense. If you want to use the terms brutal and extreme, fine. Term it however you'd like. Whether it is metal or not is inconsequential to my interpretation of what the music is and how it makes you feel. I can definitely see why people wouldn't like it, but to not recognize common qualities is odd. The sound is so absolutely huge. Even in a home setting without the insane volume levels of their live shows, the music gives every molecule in a room an unsettling, thick energy. You aren't going to put on a Swans record and not be affected by it.

Swans didn't really grab me until Children of God. When I heard that album, it all clicked, and then I worked backwards. Wrongly or not, it connected the power of 4AD bands like Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil with true industrial music. If you're into bands like Neurosis, I would think Children of God could be the gateway into Swans.

i made no such statement. If you were my student, I'd give you an F for your reading comprehension. And the comparison is not useless at all. "Heavy" is a subjective term (as everyone on this board agrees). Many people find music like Enya to be "heavy" because of the impact it has on them. How, exactly, is this difficult for you to understand?

Pretty much agree with all of this.
I think "Children of God" is the key album in their discography - from there you can work backwards to the early brutalism or forwards to the more majestic sounds. It's all good.
I can't think of anything else from 1984 that sounds as crushing as "Cop". If anyone knows of anything, let me know!
I think the band's influence on metal is subtle but solid. Early Godflesh of course ("Streetcleaner" being another contender for heaviest record of all time), and Sin NYC (from the Spine Wrench split). Can't think of many other metal bands who directly homage Swans. Neurosis is a good shout on their indirect influence.

Maybe some Neubauten, Glenn Branca, etc. but they were heavy in a different more noise and abrasive way. As you say, it wasn't until a few years later than that whole sound took off: Coil, Ministry, Godflesh, etc.