Steven Wilson: Biggest Metal Mistake

Porcupine Tree songwriter/producer reveals what metal guitarists get wrong.
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Porcupine Tree studio footage taken from "Of The New Day (In Session at AIR Studios)" • Porcupine Tree - Of th...
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ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is the fast, easy and fun way to make music. Taught by multi-award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé wife Kate. Ray started teaching music theory in 1995, and has made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend, Ihsahn, and more!
CREDITS
© 2022 Revolution Harmony
Revolution Harmony is Ray Harmony & Kate Harmony
Script & all music in video by Revolution Harmony
All stock footage courtesy of Pexels

[@HackMusicTheory]

►Watch all the Steven Wilson videos in this series: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJquinV8oM5moas

[@RickEmc2]

This is why I play slayer on ukulele

[@rtdude1]

Now that’s something I’d like to hear!

[@Mike-rw2nh]

Best statement on KZbin this week! ✅

[@lebe220]

I heard you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXbSlaeNg5yLmJI

[@GrumpyOldGuy777]

Best comment

[@MrDivagation]

@@rtdude1 Check out Rob Scallon !

[@dragonmasterlance123]

It's crazy how a band like Opeth can play disgustingly heavy riffs in E standard (Drop D at lowest as far as I know). Or hell even the song Black Sabbath. 3 notes, standard tuning, recorded in 1969, yet somehow still heavy as balls. Metal has always been my passion and I have nothing against the tune everything to Drop Q stuff that has become very popular in recent years, but I do feel some of the heart has been lost along the way, trying to make everything as chunky as possible instead of letting it development naturally.

[@alexandremarchand8815]

The Ghost Reveries album was mainly in Open D tuning and the song Sorceress is in Drop A but yeah, they mainly play in standard tuning and a song like Heir Apparent is so freaking heavy despite being in E tuning.

[@DavidMacVicar]

drop q hahaha

[@rome8180]

I don't think it's the dropped C that's the problem. It's the songwriting and production. Obviously, this video talks about how everyone is using the same guitar tone. But it's not just the guitar. It's that every metal song is using the same drum samples too. Everything sounds way too polished and perfect. It sounds like it was made by a computer.

[@killinpurplebeats]

that old stuff sounds heavy because of different mixing capabilities imo. Opeth has muddier guitars so that can make them "heavier" while taking away from the clarity. The new drop Q stuff is very filtered and alot of harshness is removed for a cleaner sound, so that might make them sound not as heavy. Just my 2 cents

[@bagira1989]

Metallica also did great job in E standard. It is most balanced tuning because offers dynamic between low and mid sound so we perceive it heavy because of contrast combining those two ranges.

[@jremi]

Interesting. In fact, many of the riffs we've grown to love in the late 60s, early 70s, notably from Led Zeppelin, were played on a Telecaster without much distortion and, in combination with the bass and kick, it sounded very heavy indeed.

[@mrbungle3310]

Thats the perfection,if im listening to the white album and helter skelter comes thats a heavy fucking song,but if i listen to periphery lets say first 2 albums,you lose the heavy part of it,the new one is great tho

[@TheGreatConstantini]

Jimi Pages main and favorite guitar was a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard…just sayin

[@CanItAlready]

@@TheGreatConstantini He recorded Led Zeppelin I using a Tele, though. Also, "Page famously recorded some of his finest solos with the Telecaster, solos like in "Stairway To Heaven," and "Ten Years Gone" were done on the Telecaster, and huge parts of the album In Through The Outdoor feature the b-bender."

[@fredriksvard2603]

Lets be real here, it sounds thin as hell. Grating even, and not in a pleasingly heavy way. Heavy would be cc, gojira, humanitys last breath, that type of gear and production.

[@fredriksvard2603]

@@CanItAlready none of that can be called heavy

[@brianbergmusic5288]

"Heaviness" is an extremely elusive term; also subjective. In Wilson's defense: Most heavy metal guitar parts that I encounter these days would sound just as aggressive if they were played by a bass guitar with clanky-treble turned way up or over-compressed (hard rock?). Those same rhythm guitar parts would also sound 'cool' in the anime-video-game soundtrack setting if the unison bass and guitar parts were remixed with DX-7 slap-bass or electro-bass samples (and probably only slightly less heavy). However, it seems that drum timbre and style also determines what makes a song hard hitting or not -- and moreso than most guitarists will admit until you demonstrate it succinctly. The early 90s Doom Soundtrack (Doom OST - E1M1 - At Doom's Gate), sounded 'heavy' even though they were basically using General MIDI that sounded like a garage-sale casio keyboard in most soundcards. They basically created a variation of thrash metal troupes which the culture at large easily translated with their imagination to something played by the thrash "Big-4". Concerning how this was achieved via the casio-guitar sound: it was that tritone and chromaticism that were their ingredients -- not the latest Neural DSP plugs.

[@SamBrockmann]

I think that what you said about drums is important. Without big drums on a heavy mix, you don't get things sounding how you want. I recently recorded an intro section where I really needed the Tom drums to be prominent, because otherwise the intro wouldn't "hook folks in". Drums and bass are the key to a solid, heavy, metal, whatever you're calling it, sort of mix.

[@martincaz7772]

Funny, I remember even though I had played Doom, in those years I went to a friend's house, he had music playing in the background, it sounded awesome, I asked him what band it was and he said, oh it's the music from Doom. I was like oh....huh? 😄

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

"A bass guitar with clanky-treble turned way up" - so, Lemmy?

[@mitsanut5869]

@@SamBrockmann I recently played one of my all time favorite albums, Jericho-Jericho. That album was recorded in 1972, not the best recording quality, but it always blows me away with it's heaviness and raw power. The reason why it sounds so heavy (much heavier than most music I've ever heard) is all the reasons you described in your comment, plus performers understanding the importance and impact of silence between notes. There is one bridge passage in first track where it's first part is played with bass playing almost jazzy climb, and then that same riff drops three or four tones down but instead of the bass repeating that same line, it switches tofollowing the guitar riff. The brutal power that comes out for those next 3 or four seconds is incredible. I always try to imagine how much better it could've sounded if the sound engineer wasn't high on acid. Somehow, that generation of musicians, even though hard rock was something new at that time, most certainly had a great feel for making impact with the gear available. I wholeheartedly agree with the assessment in the above video, and yours as well. I think that music will eventually return to it's roots and musicians will start learning the basics again, instead of jumping that knowledge and overproducing, this essentially destroying the foundations that made heavy music so successful in 70's and even 80's.

[@chameleon-dream-band-official]

Gotta agree. While the super compressed/gated, Neural DSP type thing was cool for a while, it's got a bit overused. At the risk of cries of "boomer", without some of the organic thud and grit of a pushed amp/cab, some of the heavier guitars are starting to sound like a synthetic pad.

[@thor-tas2110]

Sphinx from Gojira sound fucking heavy and was recorded with the signature plugin i think is more about the composition skills than the gear.

[@johannalvarsson9299]

Agree. But I would even go further: It doesn`t sound heavy because in "modern" productions, there is no grain of dirt left. Drums are sampled, bass is DI, everything is edited to be on the grid, every detail is audible. And with the distortion: It sounds fat and thick, but also pleasant, while an old-style marshall sound just slits your eardrums open.

[@jakobole]

The autotune of metal.

[@Bikewithlove]

I ended up getting the Boss DS-1 pedal instead of the Metal Zone for this reason. I genuinely enjoy the sound of the Metal Zone, but the DS-1 has a soul of its own and I could only pick one so there it is.

[@Nestorglass]

Compressed/gated digital guitars were totally a thing yeeeears before the Neural DSP plugins. And also you can make really grimy and nasty tones with digital software, if you don't know how to well that's on you.

[@M.Holland]

One of My favourite "Heavy" Albums is RATMs self titeld album. It#s played with a Tele in to a Marshall. not realy overdriven. but it's the aggression and emotions of the playing wich make that album so heavy. So it's not about the "djentin" tone, wich is boring anyway, it's about your attitude.

[@jessewest2109]

Dude, even the bass was distorted! Not true. Andy Wallace is laughing oh so hard

[@spitefulcrow5026]

When quad tracking guitars I find keeping the gain lower will give the guitars more thump and help to avoid that overly static flat sound. Modern metal sometimes forgets that guitar is a dynamic instrument that can sound soulless when there is too much gain and hi frequency buildup. That being said sometimes I like those hyper distorted guitar sounds as well.

[@bagre798]

I love this dude. As soon as I watched the first steven wilson video here I instantly knew ppl would love it. A lot of the heavy element comes from the rhythm, "dark" harmonies and scales etc, and not from the guitar distortion itself. King crimson, for example, managed to do that pretty well.

[@prasvasu4217]

@Gus Abstract, interesting you should mention King Crimson creating a heavy element with dark harmonies and scales. Could u give a few examples? are Ur refering to their earlier works? Islands? Court of Crimson King?

[@fentusiasta6575]

@@prasvasu4217 try Starless from the Red album

[@jessewest2109]

No. Dude. It's distortion. For real.

[@Flugmorph]

no its not, dude. for realsies schmlealsies ​@@jessewest2109

[@ChucksterOLove]

Reality is that heavy guitars seem alot heavier when you start out clean and build up to heaviness. TOOL is a perfect example, they rarely start off a song ultra heavy. They start out mellow and work their way up to being heavy. And when they do that, the heavy seems REALLY heavy because of the dynamics. There is a contrast of soft and heavy, which makes the heavy heavier. If you just start out balls to the wall heavy, there is nowhere to go but down. You have to keep up that same level of heaviness to even seem heavy. But, dynamics will make the heavy seem heavier if you start softer... 💯

[@federalagent9950]

Couldn't agree more, palm muting as well to add as a build up also really helps even if its a bit cliche.

[@rafx2014]

Take RATM as an example, overdriven tele tones combined with effective riffs, equals heavy.

[@byteresistor]

It's not "heavy" though. It's funky or groovy.

[@guitaristssuck8979]

Indeed they sound utterly boring

[@charizardmaster13]

how the hell does rage sound heavy? I love rage but they can even sound a little silly at times with the riffs.

[@3van660]

One of my favorite heavy riffs is the main riff in Tigran Hamasyans Drip, which isn't even rock but jazz, and it's played with mainly by a piano with no overdrive, but because of the syncopated rythm and complex harmonic content it's really freaking heavy

[@1macirone]

I just looked that up and I can't thank you enough for pointing me in the direction of Tigran Hamasyan!!!

[@Mike-rw2nh]

I’m loving these gleefully mischievous Steve Wilson snippets. He has worked with the monstrously musically gifted/gently humble Guthrie Govan. For the love of God, if you can get Guthrie Govan on board, that would be beautiful. He is a sweet, funny, intelligent and thoughtful educator/interviewee.

[@orchidcolors]

2 things: Thing 1: The sound still sounded pretty heavy to me, but metal is not my thing, so I'll presume that's why. Thing 2: I found out how to put distortion on my piano one time and cackled my bum clean off, so...I can vouch for using unexpected combos of instruments and effects. :D

[@ikerzuazaga6218]

Steven Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt are synonyms of good taste. 80% of what they compose we like and surprise us. It's one of the reasons I keep buying and listening discs from Porcupine Tree and Opeth.

[@Tsudkyk]

“Heavy” isn’t about cramming tones of distortion into your rig and scooping mids. Heavy tone is about harmonics, texture and touch of the guitar player. Too many “heavy” tones lack a real musical sound and I believe this is because people “scoop” frequencies and the organic frequencies range is squished in the pursuit of aggressive tones.

[@greigallan5845]

I love listening to Steven talking. So intelligent and knowledgeable about music and sound.

[@guyincognito5663]

I am in full fanboy mode with Steven Wilson ❤️

[@correametal]

Diversity and experimentation are the names of the game! Thank you so much guys for bringing us these amazing and truly inspirational videos!!!

[@Nurhaal]

Steven is actually right. I think however it isn't so much the tone/sound itself, but the lack of a heavier rhythm. To me, even Steven's own work doesn't sound as heavy as it could be because the rhythm in Rats is too quick and temperamental (thanks to the polyrhythm). A great example of a very heavy track that actually FEELS heavy thanks to it's methodical and slower rhythm, that actually lets each beat and each "chug" settle in as if it has mass, is "Los" by Rammstein. That song sounds heavier than a LOT of common black or dark metal because the BPM isn't even all that high, the rhythm isn't chopped up so it's easy to groove and the "chug" following mostly 8th notes settles. It actually feels like it's so massive that you couldn't move it any faster, play it any faster or listen to it any faster. At the same time, it's so heavy that it also feels unstoppable, hence the ease of the addictive groove it brings. And that's all done with mostly clean tones. IN fact it works just as heavy playing a clean, only slightly over driven (tiny bit) acoustic! I think THATS how you know when it's truly heavy. If you're wanting a HEAVY song in Metal, if it cannot be played on a clean tone and not still come across as heavy? Then you're doing it wrong. That's my opinion anyway. Steven is amazing.

[@unduloid]

Someone needs to tell this guy that you can overdrive a Tele as well.

[@Nurhaal]

You didnt listen to a word Wilson fuckin' said did you lol

[@KurtStoffer]

it does not seem heavy to me

[@JiriPrajzner]

It's the single coil guitar combined with trebly bass, making it closer to the guitar. Genius.

[@danielbersabe666]

The 3:50 mark of 'Walk The Plank' off PT's Closure/Continuation sounds heavy, and I always give that 'hate face while slowly headbanging' expression when that section kicks in.

[@0liver0verson9]

Sorry, no. Clean Teles do not sound "heavy" at all.

[@ogulcanyolcu8714]

depends on how you fill the song. 4 power chords in 4/4 wouldn't sound heavy, yes.

[@electricwhiterabbit]

Sounds pretty heavy on that track (Rats Return) to me.

[@frankmarsh1159]

Although there were fuzz pedals and boosters as far back as the sixties the first true distortion pedals didn't start coming out until the late seventies. Master volumes on amps started coming out in the mid seventies but it wasn't until the eighties that channel switching on amps became standard equipment. Yet the organic classic guitar tones of the seventies are still considered to be some of the best ever recorded. They tend to be much, much cleaner and dynamic sounding than modern rock tones.

[@sashabagdasarow497]

What I'll say as a metal guitarist is that downtuning with distortion really gives you a heavier sound, it just doesn't mean that you need Just the downtuned guitar to sound heavy. The riff has a lot to do with it too.

[@d.l.loonabide9981]

I had a steel body resonator guitar, so literally made of metal. It was quite heavy.

[@jmarq2283]

😏

[@jessewest2109]

And if you would have played kill em all, someone would chuck a beer at you

[@janijszentkiralyiofficial]

Im so happy Dimebag didn't used a Telecaster!

[@canepaper967]

The music under this video kinda proves Steven's point

[@Eden21425]

One thing I learned from doing nail the mix projects, is that in many metal contexts, the guitars don't have to be heavy if the bass is. Especially with bands where bass and guitar parts are very similar like meshuggah, you can cut lots of the low end for the guitar, so it sounds horrible by itself, but if you have a good bass tone, it still sounds massive and is more punchy because the lower frequencies aren't as muddy. My favorite trick for punchy basses, is to run the DI into Parallax for the main tone and a high passed version into Archetype Tim Hensons acoustic amp sim, because it gives a little more "punch" to it. Sounds surprisingly good.

[@jakobole]

Right on the money - we gotten so used to what's that "heavy-sounding" , it's not "heavy" anymore. (Btw, Blending a clean "tele" on top of distorted guitars is great - 1 in the same octave, and 1 above. Greets from Sonic Peak Studio)

[@SamBrockmann]

Realistically, to me, it's not about "How heavy can we get a single guitar? How heavily can we distort this?", it's about crafting a specific sound with 2 or more guitar tracks. (You need a minimum of 2 tracks to create that wide, stereo guitar sound.) I also hate that the general metal "cultural tone" has become so overused. I never aim to sound like everyone else. I try to sound like me, like my song. And to me, one of the biggest components is actually the bass. Not even the guitar. If your bass mix is garbage, your mix will sound thin and be garbage.

[@nitroanilinmusic]

I'd believe (nearly) every metal record uses multi tracking already. And that ain't much of an option live.

[@francescoporcari8597]

Nuclear Blast are you listening ? I do agree with you!

[@SamBrockmann]

@@nitroanilinmusic , you missed the point. Multitracking is a given on every single guitar record EVER. I was very specific with what I said: /creating a specific tone/. You're looking for a sound that fits the song. And that sound shouldn't necessarily be just what is currently popular. For example, maybe you want a warm tone reminiscent of AC/DC, but more modern? Maybe you want a dark tone with some bite? Maybe you want nasty, grunge-y tone? Maybe you want a tone so ugly that the Grindcore legends beg you for your disgusting sound? We have a wide plethora of guitar tones available to us these days, and the key is using that.

[@rome8180]

I wouldn't say the guitar tone in Rats Return is clean or even "almost clean," though. It's just not ultra high gain. It's still got a decent amount of grit to it though. Jmo. I do agree with his overall point though.

[@mrbungle3310]

Djent riffs yes,but chugs i still find them heavy,and the original djennters Meshuggah still tingle my spine

[@byteresistor]

That's 0% heavy. This is some weird hipster take.

[@craigroaring]

No, that's the take of someone who's spend decades listening to heavy music.

[@mikedamisch]

Mikael Åkerfeldt probably agree with this. I'm not sure I do. One thing is for sure though. Really good music/riffs is good no matter the "tone".

[@threepe0]

This has been a pretty common idea for decades now; Go back and listen to the "heaviest" guitar tones you can remember. The individual tracks don't actually have near as much gain as you might think. The overall product has a ton of weight to it. Pretty much any song by Lamb of God, or the beginning of White Washed by August Burns Red. There's not all that much gain, but seemingly tons of emotion and aggression. I suspect originally this might have been done to avoid a ton of fizz on layered guitars. Unfortunately I can't help but roll my eyes when I see these Steven Wilson videos lately. Most of them are him not saying much, or saying pretty non-controversial things as if they were, with some inexplicable and unsupported gravitas behind the words.

[@AceRazor]

The best metal guitarist usually know that "heavy" isn't just down tuning or overprocessed sound. All about texture!

[@DopaLink]

At the end of the day it's all subjective and if it sounds good, it sounds good. It's also got to do with the goal of the musician, producer, composer, etc. Are you gonna tell someone who wants some heavy distorted guitars that 'nah man, it would sound way gnarlier clean' if that's not something they are looking for? If someone is experimenting with new sounds are you gonna recommend them getting a Neural DSP plug in and slap on a preset? It's all in the context of creative process and purpose. If someone wants a sound that works, is tried and true - great, if someone wants to step out of the boundary and spin a hollow tube on a metal record - fantastic.

[@Bikewithlove]

I was listening to Change the Locks by Tom Petty today, and my thought was that it’s very metal. What the song’s about and how it’s pushed out by the musicians is all about being violated. Granted, there’s some serious gain in the guitars, but it’s still a clear sound - lots of tube sound in it. Without being metal, it surpasses metal.

[@russellszabadosaka5-pindin849]

Another way of looking at this, the “heaviest” tone ever created won’t have any impact if it’s applied to a happy unicorns & butterflies riff. The heaviness is in the fingers, the down strokes, mutes, rhythms and notes. The tone is just icing on the death cake.

[@kdawg789]

I think it's more three issues. Very similar tone, mixing/fx, and songwriting. I think it sounds heavy, but if it's dynamically flat and samey the ear will tune out. You mix guitars tuned to e, in a well arranged song, it will bang! And I use tunings as low as drop e on 8s.

[@maninalift]

Layers of compressed distorted guitars become sludgy. They no longer have the dynamic range because everything is maxed out, so they have no attack. Clean, or near-clean guitars can certainly be more abrasive. Some people wouldn't call it heavy because heavy is so associated with lots of distortion and low-end.

[@ozanatak7457]

I don't agree. Yes it's a bit creative to use a clean tele caster to play these riffs. But I don't think they are heavier than a distorted version of same stuff. It feels heavy for sure because the structure is metal. But calling it heavier...I don't know...

[@notan23]

A good example of this in extreme metal is the band Baring Teeth. Relatively very clean guitars but it's the chords and the way it's played.

[@TheSteveGainesRockBand]

That's an interesting idea and I'm going to experiment with it. But I still think distorted guitar is a great sound, but used with discretion, not just swamping the song in distortion, although for some songs that works, too.

[@JoeDoig]

Heavy is nearly all in the transients and attack, along with a selective analogue clipping of distortion to give the illusion loud and heavier. Heavy means of great weight. What are the acoustic cues that are perceived as emanating from a large heavy source? Dynamics or the ear gets bored. It starts with the hand, not the box. The heaviest and most frightening sound is air itself. Creep up behind someone and GENTLY! blow directly in their ear. Remember to duck!...and I'm not just talking about compressors!

[@mattsonrobbins281]

there’s more to a riff being heavy than what the guitar tone sounds like. the way its played and how it fits in relation to the rest of the instrumentation is way more important imo

[@WDeeGee1]

Are we going to collectively ignore he's talking to an alien life form?

[@crankydragon]

One my top 5 bands right now is, Baroness and they use Telecasters and Strats with the odd Jazzmaster here and there and that's some of the best sludge out there.

[@FrankZen]

I love Teles! Although mine has high gain rails in it but still sounds like a Tele-ish...

[@woodhengerecording]

steven is right. i learned my tele absolutely killed all my heavy humbucker aspirations? dead on. he’s so right…. the brightness equals what most of us thought was “gain”. it’s not gain. it’s brightness. overdrives an amp into euphoria?

[@wickedlee664]

Yes. There are punk bands that sound very agro and punchy by playing cleaner guitars and really pushing the right hand. Metal bands tend to use “correct” technique even when trying to sound brutal. I’ve always said that the best way to sound angry and intense is to play with anger and intensity. Overdriven/distorted guitars don’t respond as well to attack. A twangy guitar that breaks up when punched is a great conduit for unease. Rage, tension and fury are all aspects of extreme music that aren’t necessarily best represented by a chunky buzzy midrange distortion. Born Against used some great clean tones while playing full bore.

[@flavio5046]

Finally someone who agrees with me. These tones today sound more like a fart than a punch. Palm mutes have less attack, so it's less heavy

[@casaroli]

One big problem when we describe music is we always use words that have nothing to do with sound. What is a heavy riff? A lot of bottom end, so it sounds like it’s “pulling” the music down? Is it distorted? Is it dissonant? It is loud? I would ask Steven if Meshuggah is heavy. It’s everything he said is not heavy anymore.

[@nandakoryaaa]

it's bottom end, distorted and dissonant

[@guitaristssuck8979]

He was inspired by them

[@guillaumekalfon9117]

love the thinking

[@pawlpoche8736]

Led zeppelin is a perfect example! They sound heavy, Without the guitars being heavy I stick with a Tony Iommi tone, and work my volume (while amp is maxed, Eddie Van Halen taught me that) When I kick in a solo I go for def lepperd delay tone It might sound weird but it’s my fucking sound and it’s killer

[@flavio5046]

Metal would benefit massively if mixed with edm timbres. Edm has some really heavy sounds

[@MrJasonodonnell]

I played with a guy few years back, He ran a Gibson SG, messa stack, Wah & EQ, that's it. God it was nice to play with someone talented that's not just a a metalhead NPC.

[@davidoliva1036]

for me...the gain rotary goes lower and lower with the passing years, but the attitude keeps being the same. One of the thing i love the most on my Les Paul it's that even when being almost clean it still has some kind of "frying" growl when you play on a certain way and thats the only thing i need. i happened a lot that i listened riffs from old recordings with similar sounds that sound heavy as F* even with this kind of sound then i realize there is more on the attitude, the groove, the dynamics and notes more than in the gain itself...like saying the music its one dimension and the tone of the sounds its another different one.

[@Outer0Heaven]

Heavy is the music itself. Like Drop-D can be as heavy and make you do a Meshugga face, same as Drop-E. It's the music that's heavy, and I say this as playing the same thing in D might not be heavier in Drop-E and vice versa. Amps, guitar and plugins doesn't matter. I've heard heavy clean riffs.

[@chazzzzzzz]

Interesting how Mikael Akerfeldt has the same approach in Opeth’s latest albums :)

[@MrHutto1]

Funny I stumbled on to this. I was just laughing to myself how much ive backed off the gain over the years.

[@buxeyotl]

Gotta lower some things, like gain, AND have a semihollow guitar to get a fat heavy sound, really do it

[@chattanoogachop5154]

I don’t necessarily disagree, sometimes a riff can be real heavy without distortion, but on the other hand shit like that don’t work for bands like Pantera and Slayer.

[@tamasser]

I have always thought distorted single coil has such a badass sound. "Bite" is excellent word for it. Just listen to Deep Purple's Mad Dog. That's Ritchie Blackmores brassy stratocaster doing its thing.

[@helleeno]

But that's exactly the current aestethics of heavy music: trebly bass and tele-like mildly distorted guitar sounds.

[@kylepickus5712]

This is something punk figured out pretty early on.

[@ewaremusica]

Almost every single guitarist these days is sounding that metal way. It was pretty nice for a while, but currently that’s boring and predictable as it’s become standard, specially because Kemper. There is not difference between guitarists due to this.

[@liohrt]

So many artists nowadays using "signature guitar" in their "signature amp" driven by their "signature overdrive" and their overpriced signature "strings". Albums after albums, everything sounds the same. Not even talking about that "wall of sound" thing whete modern album have to flood ALL the frequencies, all the time. Nothing is breathing, even some instruments lost in the mix during the process... The heaviest album i've listen to in my life are actually all older. Not because of that "older music is better" thing, but because without that modern recording way, artists had to rely a lot more on good riffs, atmospheres and musicianship instead of increasing the distortion or the layers. Nowadays riffs are really less intersting for the most cause it makes musicians become lazy in the way they compose

[@7riXter]

0:41 which song is he referring to? Don’t get it…

[@adam872]

Heaviness for me is not just about the tone of a guitar. It's the cadence of the riff and the intervals used. A tritone played on an acoustic guitar sounds as nasty as it does on an overdriven electric. This is why Black Sabbath is still so heavy after all these years. Listen to Children of the Grave, especially the middle section, and it's dense and heavy and flat out awesome. Metallica's The Thing That Should Not Be sounds heavy with that acoustic intro. It's because of the tuning and the cadence of that riff.

[@HAZARDOUS88]

So very interesting, thanks!

[@WizardOfArc]

I'm loving this series btw

[@nihilitys]

where's the full interview?

[@fredfox3851]

I feel the same way about Cookie Monster vocals. They don't sound heavy. They sound stupid and unimaginative.

[@spekenbonen72]

"Heavy" is not a "sound", a "tuning" or an amp setting... A composition can be heavy though. Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights. Heavy as F....

[@BrianFosterdrummer]

Someone call websters Looks like we’re changing the meaning of yet another word!

[@smallfaucet]

Key words: "To me".

[@flux1940]

epic ! I love this guy and you guys

[@edelcorrallira]

Maybe its my age, but I disagree. That sounds seemed mellow, though a bit jarring. I mean listening to Peace Sells, Tempo of the Dammed, Vulgar Display of Power... Or Savage's Loose and Lethal and Whiplashs Power and Pain? Those last two can be considered terribly produced, and maybe they are, but the sounds are energizing, they just bring a little controlled insanity to the table. Those arent played on Telecasters at all. And I don't think they sound thin either, we can say they sound terrible perhaps but man thats part of what makes them what they are (and why I love them) I see where he's going, and he has an extremely valid,point and all the credentials to back it... But this is a trend I hear in current metal that I frankly don't like. I think this search for perfection has made it safe, and often boring. Kind of like technical diving, where there is tremendous pressure and any mistake will kill you. Yet, there is less to see and,hear than closer to the shore. This is of course an opinion, but go listen to those horrible sounding albums and check your heart rate. Then listen to a masterfully produced album and checkyourself. Music is subjective, of course, and we all ought to strive to make what we can. I love his remasters, I think he's one of the best producers ever (and that is the hat he's wearing in this interview), and for a more Peggy sounding piece it could work. Still, I think something can then be said about focus in the 70s vs a contemporary equivalent done completely digitally (with no click, we are talking about tone and balance) Anyway, thought Id throw that thought out there

[@charizardmaster13]

ironic hes saying it like its a fact when heaviness is by far one of the most subjective things ever. to me im so used to lower tuned stuff that higher tune songs now just naturally sound less heavy to me. I think there's cool heavy grooves and riffs in higher tuned metal but to me guitars only keep getting heavier and at least im not framing it like its an objective fact. ngl this guy has some terrible takes

[@ericv7720]

Modern metal sounds are very cookie cutter. That's why I like the whole NWOSDM thing, bringing back big amps and cheap pedals of yore. Unscoop your midss, turn up the volume and get your palm off the bridge for five seconds!

[@vitorpombo8439]

The music of the end of the video is a song? It sounds amazing

[@paulcollins8353]

What's the background song????

[@DarkTrailsExplorer]

What's the music at the end?

[@theozamparo]

Yeah the telecaster is the heaviest sounding guitar ever and that's no news

[@bluematrix5001]

A not so distorted gtr sounds bigger and heavier than a super distorted one.... compare an AC/DC tone with a very Metal one..... but at the end as all are sounds and vibes you are looking for

[@soulstudiosmusic]

Why did they get Voldemort to interview Steven Wilson?

[@grapejuice2589]

SO FUCKING TRUE. It's fucking sad man.

[@agstudioband]

its not the guitar in metal, which makes it sound heavy. its the bass

[@Luca84v]

will you merge all these bits into 1 full lenght video? please 🙏🏼

[@markovcd]

0:13 it's my exact guitar

[@donhaskins1671]

A great example of a song that sounds heavy but is played very clean is Wild Eyes by the Stampeders .

[@oscriadocomandosancto2898]

Say that to King Buzzo

[@overseer_grimal]

Drums with a bunch of compression make guitars sound heavy

[@OurTrio]

I don’t know how to start heavy! Maybe turning knobs the creative way will do so…🙉😝😋, hackmusictheory the best!

[@terrymtbnurse4760]

SW is a genius.

[@CryptoKaiser]

He's right,ya know