Is Sleep's Dopesmoker still the heaviest album of all time?

of sleep dopesmoker Mythologically heavy. On any halfway decent sound system, this will rattle your ribs. It's like being slowly attacked by a massage chair. In 2015, Guitar World It was named the heaviest album ever recordedEthan Varian wrote, “You certainly won't find anything heavy.”

On November 6, for no special reasonI was in the right mood to accept that challenge.

I wanted a crack that would flatten me. I listened to 26 super heavy albums recommended by friends and strangers. Four challengers advanced to the semi-final round, where I heard them one by one dopesmokerOne album was so heavy that I listened to it three times in a row.

And I have to say: I've got some heavy stuff.

But to begin with we need to discuss Heavy As an aesthetic. heavy, somehow, not like that Cruel Or aggressiveThe issue is getting worse: rhabdomyolysis, osteolysis, being left crushed on the sidewalk.

dopesmoker This is the standard I'm measured against. It's such an intense album that if I'm listening dopesmoker, That's all I'm doing. The 2022 edition of the album, a remaster for streaming services, includes two songs: “Dopesmoker” and “Hot Lava Man.”

The song “Dopesmoker” is over an hour long. It is characterized by a fast megalithic riff, which varies slightly on each iteration. This is probably the loudest minimalist composition I have ever heard. The guitars are downtuned two steps below standard tuning, making their sound denser. It has a ton of bass that often echoes the guitar and makes it sound even heavier,

The song moves as if the granite statue has come to life. The guitar, bass and vocal tracks all move together like a hymn. It takes eight minutes to reach the iconic first line: “Get out of life with a bong in hand.” The voices sound like chanting. The drums are hidden in the mix – the cymbals are the most noticeable – and are quite simple.

“Dopesmoker” thickIt is also slow. That's what makes it so visceral. The guitar solos, while excellent, don't really account for the heaviness. Mostly, they make the riffs heavier in comparison.

During my quest to match or surpass this standard HeavyThe most common suggestions I found were from Electric Wizard dopethrone, Bonegripper's Satan is worshiping the apocalypse, and boris's Strengthening worship. I put all my suggestions into a Spotify playlist and noted down suggestions I needed to listen to on Bandcamp. Some bands, such as Sunn O))) and The Body, had multiple entries.

It was slow to listen to all 26 albums I collected because I Only heard. This was not background music. Usually, I sit down and focus on just one album a day.

If I had to single out a common musical lineage of all the albums in controversy, it's Black Sabbath. (Oh?) There's a kind of puritanical quality to Sabbath Worship, especially from Church of Misery and the stoner metal subgenre. One of the other albums under consideration was from Godflesh. Street cleanerWhich was influential in this context; It was surrounded by material from which it was clearly inspired. Two other bands I'd point to for exploring heaviness are the Melvins and Sunn O))), which was the only band that upset my cat.

The heaviest tracks I heard during my search were aggressively anti-commercial; It's hard to imagine them being played on corporate radio. black boned angels Vardan There is one song which is approximately 52 minutes long. Khanate's self-titled album seems completely disinterested in concepts like “grooves,” “song structure,” and “sanity.” shallow north dakota mob wheel Was mumbling.

Famously, dopesmoker It was not initially released because it had no commercial potential. London Records had Sleep promised complete creative control And then, after listening to the album, turned it off. (This was one of the tensions that led to the breakup of the band.)

That slowness is what makes the music really heavy, in contrast to TikTok-based music, which generally gets faster if it's not already upbeat. It was refreshing to hear music that felt insistent as an experience in itself.

After I listened, four contenders emerged: Boris K. amplifying worshipof hell live in roadburnbonegripper's Empty, and The Body/Thu collaboration Continued from Love/You, Whom I've Always Hated.

Looks like I'll get it dopesmoker There was pinnacle by default – evidence of an aesthetic that no one was trying to achieve anymore. But Empty is from 2024, live in roadburn was released in 2018, and Continued from Love/You, Whom I've Always Hated Is from 2015.

To handle the semi-finals, I listened to each album back-to-back dopesmokerWhich made the decision surprisingly easy. amplifying worship, Empty And freedom from love Were thrown out almost immediately.

it left me in hell live at roadburnIt's an odd choice since it's basically a live version of Hell's self-titled album, but it's definitely heavy, especially the songs “Subodin” and “Machiquitos.” This may be partly because the live songs work differently than the studio versions – not least because Matthew S. Williams, rather than a band that records as MSW, records all the parts himself. Does.

live in roadburn No Heavier Than Hell's self-titled debut; This is heavier than Dopesmoker.

So, what presents roadburn Heavy? For starters, the guitar is tuned literally lower – I think of it as dropping an A rather than dropping a C. And though the songs go on roadburn Often using repetition, there are also variations on tempo, which usually slow down (“Helmsmen” stops in a way). There is an even more ambiguous response.

But the deciding factor are the drums, which are very much in the mix. roadburn from on dopesmoker, which means i can feel Bass and Tom. Particularly on “Machiticos”, throbbing drums underline and thicken a guitar solo.

To guitar purists, my verdict may be questionable. After all, I'm caring drum one in riff based medium. However, there are plenty of ways to get HeavyWhich makes the drum the equivalent of the full-body swimsuit, which was banned in the Olympics for making swimmers go too fast. roadburn Would probably still be heavier with lower drums in the mix – Perhaps – but the drums make it decisive.

Listen to both albums back to back on good speakers. (Headphones will not work here.) Feel it once. roadburn In your sternum, I don't think there will be any room for logic. Spending two hours listening to music as an activity – while doing nothing else – is something people should do more often. Music is still powerful if you want to pay attention.