Heaviest riff known to mankind (your opinion)


Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in Cm

I should've been more specific. What I was thinking was more like the time period from when Marty Mcfly invented rock and roll ( :D lol) up until today.

If the above examples were allowed then none of these other suggestions would stand a chance. My bad, good suggestions though. :)

if I made a list of even the top 10, it would have at least 3 more Black Sabbath riffs on it, because BLACK SABBATH!

Hells yeah brother! :D
 
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Adult Swim did a marathon of Metalocalypse last night, which reminded me of this.


Bonus - they showed Doomstar Requiem, which I've never seen. I recorded it when it first aired, and my DirecTV DVR died. I bought the Blu-Ray from Amazon UK, but it turns out to be region locked (meaning it will not play on a region-free player, only on a player set to the same region).
 
The Swedes own this and you haven't touched any of them.

These gentlemen played at the beer-soaked memory that I believe was Experience 2012. Surely y'all remember? They played this as the finale and it just f!?king ruled. The euphoria in the parking lot started at about 11:55 (in this clip) after a 2-hour performance. It sounded kinda like this, though admittedly this clip starts slow. The song begins mellow but does not end that way:


Paul's reaction?

hazexperience.jpg


Same guys, this is one of my favorites evar, again weirdly(?) it climaxes at about 11 minutes. These guys do loooong songs with light and shade if you hadn't noticed that already, so there's big contrast between the not-heavy and heavy parts.


But wait, the Swedes get even heavier, here's the archetypal metal band's metal band: Meshuggah. These guys go for the jugular.

Here's a slightly funky one:


That aside, let's get serious:


These guys are so terrifyingly tight that the studio recordings only sound different in EQ and mixing.

Then there's Bleed. This changed my world when I saw the offical video. This live clip is not that, but it shows the entire song, which the official video does not. This IMHO, is the benchmark for heaviosity:

 
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This was tougher than overcooked steak. To me, a heavy riff get's it's heaviness from where it sits in the song and has a melodic element to it. My entry would be Bison B.C.'s song Wendigo Pt. 1 (Quest For Fire) at the 5:10 mark. It follows a slow down in the song with some atmospheric noise and starts off as a single note guitar riff as a precursor to the heaviness that hits at 5:41 where the riff is played with chords. It's a great song overall.
 
So many good mentions. I would lose my trash card if I didn't mention my extreme love of Testament. Though I am big time plus on that mention for The Haunted. Few bands make it happen like those guys. LOVE THEM.

Two of my all time favorite openers are from Testament. Come out of the gates swinging!


 
My vote goes to the heaviest thrash metal song of all time: Smooth by Santana (feat. Rob Thomas).




Eat your heart out, Big 4.
 
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