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"Heavy rock" as a term has been around since the mid-'60s and was once used interchangeably with "heavy metal" and "hard rock", especially when people wanted to distance themselves from the 'heavy metal' label. However, as its own term, it never really went anywhere until just very recently with the massive surge in popularity of stoner rock/metal. See that thread. In recent days, I've been seeing more and more attaching themselves to the "heavy rock" label to differentiate themselves from these other genres. I'm not the biggest fan of labels, but I'm not so pretentious as to think they don't serve a purpose or that humans are magically capable of not labeling themselves/others. Sonically, "heavy rock" can be easily confused with hard rock, heavy metal, stoner rock, grunge rock, and a few other styles precisely because there's so much overlap. However, there's one band that acts as a maypole for the whole style:  Perhaps you're starting to see why stoner rock fans in particular started calling themselves heavy rockers. But the thing about heavy rock is that it's not obsessed solely with Master of Reality or the slower, doomy aspects of the early Sabbath sound. It's really more or less hard rock with a larger focus on riffs and a quasi-metallic sound. For example: Soundgarden and Wolfmother can easily be considered heavy rock, but Three Days Grace and Chevelle have nothing to do with the style. They're a completely different subgenre of hard rock. It's yet to really 'catch on', but there's even a visual style coupled with it. Going as far back as the late '70s, heavy rockers were identified by shaggy hair and denim and occasionally leather. Heavy metal (especially glam metal) ran with that, and thrash metal tried staying true to the roots. Grunge rock started as a throwback to late '60s/early '70s garage rock filtered through punk rock. They said "gently caress spandex and hairspray, we're wearing cheap denim and shagging our hair." So the "look" revived with them until the alt-rock style started really taking off. Plenty of the early '90s alt-rock bands were very much heavy rock, however. Even the likes of Rage Against The Machine for their debut. I'm guessing that the reason why heavy rockers love long, shaggy hair and a lot of denim is because it invokes the days before hard rock and heavy metal sold big. When you're just a few kids playing in bars and your garage, you slap on whatever's in your closet. And rock music was known for long hair back in the '60s and '70s (for reasons I still don't fully understand), so it can also be a throwback to when rock music was at its "purest" form. No one's really using the style either, so heavy rockers are going with it. Here's what I mean by "heavy rock". You can definitely see the overlap, and a lot of bands have played with the style. Brats - B-Brains Soundgarden - Superunknown Orange Goblin - Alcofuel Alice in Chains - Died Black Sabbath - Paranoid Orchid - Mountains of Steel Wolfmother - 10000 Feet Iron Claw - Skullcrusher Buffalo - Sunrise (Coming My Way) Nebula - So It Goes Iron Man - I Have Returned Pentagram - Much Too Young To Know Witchfinder General - Friends of Hell Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera Judas Priest - Dissident Aggressor Queen - Dead On Time Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy Thin Lizzy - Holy War The Machine - Pyro Heavy Eyes - Iron Giants Radio Moscow - Summer of 1942 Deep Jimi & The Zep Creams - Whales and Snow I know Graveyard and Radio Moscow are keeping it up, and I've got a lot of love for Royal Blood. But I'm still scouting out for more.
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Jun 2, 2017 20:05
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:24 |
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More examples: Soundgarden - Rusty Cage Blue Cheer - I'm Gonna Get You Sweet Savage - Killing Time Blue Öyster Cult - Godzilla Soundgarden - Gun Iron Claw - Claustrophobia Yuli Ban fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Jun 3, 2017 |
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Jun 3, 2017 20:06
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A human heart posted:this is all just hard rock or early heavy metal I pointed that out already, though. It's hard rock, but the term "hard rock" goes fast and loose these days and can describe a wide variety of styles. This is hard rock. So is this. As is this.. But only the third can be considered "heavy rock" if we're going by the modern usage of the word.
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Jun 4, 2017 04:30
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Remember early Tool? Tool - Cold and Ugly When I rediscovered Tool seven years ago back in 2010, it was through this track.
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Jun 8, 2017 22:23
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Speaking of Boris, I just found out they're releasing a new album this year. And by "this year", I mean next month. Funny, I could've sworn they had said they released their last album, but I guess that's sort of like when classic rock bands say they're going on their 13th farewell tour.
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Jun 13, 2017 23:44
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I can't believe I almost forgot about this band The Atomic Bitchwax - No Way Man
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Jun 14, 2017 16:55
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Diamond Head - Streets Of Gold Good riffs on this one.
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Jun 18, 2017 04:20
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But can you roll?
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Jun 25, 2017 04:01
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Bored, so here are some riffs with instruments optionally attached. Witchfinder General - Shadowed Images Witchcraft - Hey, Doctor Rush - Finding My Way Budgie - Guts
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Jul 10, 2017 09:01
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:24 |
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I believe the point of contention is that a lot of material here could fit in the stoner rock/metal thread, but a lot of it couldn't. I'm not exactly sure I'd get away with posting Queen, Rush, Buffalo, Thin Lizzy, or Alice in Chains in there, for example, despite these bands possessing several rifftastic, Sabbathy tracks. And I could post them in the Hard Rock thread... but my intention was to have a thread basically dedicated to riff rock. And the term I've seen passed around for this general riff-centric style, ranging from classic hard rock to grunge to stoner rock, is "heavy rock". Whether it's from the mouths of the original grunge artists or '90s stoner rock bands themselves, they tend to prefer calling themselves 'heavy rock'.
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Jul 10, 2017 23:29
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