What is heavy? How about I provide you the heavy. The House Band in Hell that is!
For people into heavy metal (and every subgenre that comes with it).
For people into hard rock (and every subgenre that comes with it)
For people into punk rock (and every subgenre that comes with it)
For people into industrial music (and every subgenre that comes with it)
For people into hip hop/rap (and every subgenre that come with it)
For people into anything experimental that may fall inside or outside the above ...
Here is the real question!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HEAVY IS?
DOWN TO THE MOST CENTRAL AREA OF THE MARROW INSIDE THE INNERMOST REGION OF YOUR BONES... DO YOU KNOW WHAT HEAVY IS? ... If you don't, maybe read this and you'll soak up a thing or two. If you do, maybe read this, and compare a thing or two.
Oh man, dood! SLAYYYERRR!!!! Nah man, black metal... Satan! Satan? Satan's not enough, bring on the extreme death, the corpse, Cannibal Corpse. Come on, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, they "really" started heavy metal, and they are the initial truest of heavy. Immediate and separate group response to last comment, uhhhh Black Sabbath? Black Sabbath was probably the original DOOM, but how about the modern purveyors of DOOM. Well, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest perfected, influenced and made the onslaught of heavy continue to move forward people. Obviously, Motorhead kept it real. Give me industrial debauchery! Hmmm, but Slipknot are the biggest modern beasts. Immediate and separate group response to last comment, uhhhh Korn? Jesus all you idiots, Metallica made it mad-size huge and kept it mad-size huge!!! Of course, Bon Jovi. Shit! Wrong column.... What the absolute f$!k citizens, heard of punk much? Or hardcore? Or post hardcore? Or the most obscure and insane? All cool and all fair, even with JBJ's band, if you're mildly demented and detached from reality. Just opinions on top of opinions deep fried inside a delicious deep fried opinion tostada with a side of deep-fried opinion ice cream... But what makes your brain disturbingly and fantastically rattle, not just for moments, but for days and weeks damn it? Makes you love bad things or love good things violently? Makes you act out incorrectly or so appropriately correct, yet unaccepted. Makes you mentally or physically retreat to dark places? What band has honestly and continuously brought that kind of heavy? WHAAATT???!!!
Definition - Heavy Music (The Truth) (reference Zero Gramz of Fat Dictionary: Volume 1, 2023)
Noun ... Music that applies the combination of sonically crushing your ears while emotionally crushing your soul. The effects create a physically extreme and long-lasting atmosphere in your head and skeletal system.
Sure, you can have an artist's material lyrically or melodically grab an emotional hold of you, but does it make your organs fist fight with each other? Basically, it's meaningfully powerful but sonically sedate. You can also have punishing aural hand grenades pounding your eardrums, but is it just that and any other long-term substance be damned? Basically, it's sonically explosive but with empty calories, no substantial guts.
Quick peek inside my head: I believe The Cure's "Pornography" is heavier than any glam metal record released in the 1980s. That doesn't mean I put The Cure, as a whole, in the category of "heavy band", but: 1) The Cure damn well have their moments. 2) Glam metal, although having produced some quality art, can never claim the mantle we are discussing
Now that we got all that pomp and circumstance over with, let's commence with the wind-up and the pitch. Let's drop down into London, England. The year is 1979. The embryo became a fetus and then was provided a day of birth. The #1 export from the district known as Notting Hill was not the romantic comedy "Notting Hill", but something entirely the opposite. Instead, I would like to serve you... Killing Joke. In my eyes, they not only go down as our planet's heaviest, but one of the planet's best. Still active to this day, they remain very relevant. It is my opinion that there is no band in history that has musically navigated and unapologetically morphed their sound for such an extensive period of time, all the while pushing recording/performance boundaries and maintaining musical intensity. Their music has infiltrated more racket-producing bands from a wider range of genres than you probably know. Maybe you do know, and you fully appreciate, which would make us fast friends.
If you wanted to define Killing Joke with one word, that word would be "tribal". Whether relentless or subtle, it's undeniably TRIBAL! Without question they offer some of the most signature biting guitar noise and combine it with vocals that rise up from the iron core of the earth, but it's the pure rolling or pounding rhythms from the drums and bass that have kept Killing Joke's power consistently intact for the ages... ok, and also the songwriting excellency.
There is a continuous air of agitation bordering on the ominous and sometimes arriving at evil that definitely flows through Killing Joke's music, whether it is subtle or dropped like an anvil on your skull. Now that we already simply defined the rhythm section, let's add the unmistakable guitar tone, going from piercing precision to full on assault. Sometimes you feel like you can physically see the guitars while listening. Then with Jaz Coleman, you have one of the most powerful vocalists of our lifetime. From a lower key talk-sing to a mid-level streamline delivery to the most crushing roar known to mankind. Outright fury. You get it all, and it always sounds like the truth. That truth is: dystopian future, the nasty abyss of politics, war, apocalypse, death and the joys that they feed us all. That package is conveyed with intelligence, depth and reality, which is what makes the material even darker and thought provoking.
Re-read everything I stated since I initially typed up the words, Killing Joke, and scatter the word "heavy" amongst the nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and conjunctions. I just want to make sure you remind yourself why we entered into this column in the first place. You may be able to argue a band into an equal airspace of heavy. I will afford you that opportunity, but you will never convince me there is a band that carries or has carried more weight than Killing Joke.
Many years ago, I designated Killing Joke with the supreme title...
"House Band in Hell"
Here are a few proper bites of the apple:
"Money is Not Our God" - soundtrack for societal collapse
"Aeon"- beautiful rage
"Loose Cannon" - thick, nasty, destructive groove
