Funny story: when I was in my early teen years, my brother was like 20+ and he was listening to Helloween and UDO and Iron Maiden, you know, the second wave of heavy metal, mostly. And I just discovered Korn. So we tried to listen to Korn album with him. He wasn’t impressed, so he switched the tape to some kind of Cinderella album or something and I was like “nah, that’s too heavy to me”.I don’t even remember what I was referring to. Maybe the density of instruments, like how layered it is. I don’t know. But he was shocked, because Korn was much heavier, meaning the downtuned and very very distorted guitars.
Yeah, what I am trying to say is that it’s all in our heads! Heaviness and whatnot is just a concept that pretty much depends on the definition. For the pre-Who\Led Zeppelin\Uriah Heep\Deep Purple generation it was more about volume, I guess. The louder it is, the heavier it seems. SO when these bands came around, it was pretty heavy or seemed that way. Now it’s THAT and also downtuning and walls of sound and whatever. Later it could be something else… Like speed. “Hey, man, check this song out! The drummer is so insane, he plays 440Hz on his tripple kick pedal” (I bet it would be Gene Hoglan).
Yeah, I don’t spend much time trying to put labels on music. But, heavy for me in my teen years was Iron Butterfly. I could be misremembering, but I think the early uses of “heavy” as in “heavy rock” or “heavy metal” has a bit to do with “heavy metal elements”. “Iron” Butterfly, Le(a)d Zeppelin, “Gold…” and “Silver” and “Mercury”. I remember the vernacular of the time of Cheech and Chong, “That’s heavy dude”.
well, yes and no. “heavy metal” doesn’t mean much of anything, but if someone tells me a band is like some micro-genre it conveys a little info. I expect “stoner doom metal” to be very slow and down-tuned. I expect “blackened gaze” to have elements of black metal like maybe blast beats, and for sure a lot of tremolo picking, as will as shoe-gaze elements (pretty droning harmonies?).
So, yeah, labels are kind of dumb, but sometimes are useful shortcuts…
btw, Circle claims to the “The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal”. I think that’s a joke? But a good one.
Hahaha! Not my taste though… But well, at least they didn’t do the ‘’'Kom as you are"
*WOuld be really nice if Macy Gray did a cover of this song, btw. Call me crazy and I can’t describe it, but she has something in her voice that is similar to what Kurt had.
Had the Totems Flare album playing at work today, so this is well-timed 
