Top 10 Heaviest Albums Recorded in Standard Tuning
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After watching hundreds of down-tuned metal bands live, I’ve come to the conclusion that tuning down has little correlation with heaviness. Bands tune down to B and even A these days, and I don’t get the sense that they’re so much heavier than when I was growing up, in which tuning down even half a step was exotic. Heaviness is a totality that includes playing style, musical material, band dynamics, and, in the case of recordings, production.
For proof, here are 10 of the heaviest albums ever recorded in standard tuning. These bands used the same tuning as Buddy Holly, yet blew motherfuckers away with the power of the riff. I still play in standard tuning myself. I love the string tension and sonic definition. If standard tuning was good enough for these bad-asses, it’s good enough for me.
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TOP 10 HEAVIEST ALBUMS
RECORDED IN STANDARD TUNING
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10. Cro-Mags – The Age of Quarrel
As a turning point from straight-up hardcore to metallic hardcore, this record isn’t heavy in the conventional sense, i.e., low end. It’s heavy because of subject matter and conviction of delivery. But it does slow down at times to get its chug on. That’s the metal starting to talk – and the blood starting to spill. Cro-Mags put the “hard” in hardcore; the end of “It’s the Limit” is practically a command to goose step.
Heaviest moment: “It’s the Limit” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_CROMAGS.mp3]
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9. Pestilence – Malleus Maleficarum
A death metal record in E standard? You’d best believe it! Pestilence hadn’t gelled as a unit yet – that would come on Consuming Impulse – so Malleus Maleficarum is a delightfully ramshackle assault. “Bacterial Surgery” is a kitchen sink of tumbling drums and E triplets trying to catch up. It’s a klutz with an armful of knives.
Heaviest moment: “Bacterial Surgery” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_PESTILENCE.mp3]
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8. Sepultura – Arise
No click track, either, for Arise-era Sepultura. Tempos wavered all over the place, but no matter – when Sepultura’s most complex songs found grounding, the results were devastating. Near its end, “Dead Embryonic Cells” bunches up for a breakdown in E, then uncoils into a half-time stomp that damn near snaps my neck each time.
Heaviest moment: “Dead Embryonic Cells” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_SEPULTURA.mp3]
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7. Pantera – Cowboys from Hell
“Domination” has, to me, the best breakdown of all time. Diamond Darrell’s solo spirals towards the edge of a cliff, then divebombs into a caveman stomp that someone somewhere in a pickup truck is headbanging to right now. Dig the reverb on the hard-edged drums; it’s such an early ’90s sound. Heaviness needs space in order to operate.
Heaviest moment: “Domination” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_PANTERA.mp3]
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6. Megadeth – Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?
Megadave Mustaine has worked in E standard for his entire career, except for Youthanasia. Admittedly, Megadeth has never been the heaviest band, often focusing on speed instead. However, add in the big, rounded drums of mid-’80s metal production (see also Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets) and a surprising leash on speed, and you have an eternal headbanging anthem in “Peace Sells”. The verse riff is heavy, but the song really gets down to business with this deadly descending figure over an E pedal tone.
Heaviest moment: “Peace Sells” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_MEGADETH.mp3]
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5. Anthrax – Among the Living
Scott Ian is the best argument for heaviness being in a player’s hands. He brings the picking hand chunk like no other; some of my favorite Anthrax moments are the intros where he lays down big blocks of chugging chords. Those are all over Among the Living. The title track is a master class in how to be heavy in E.
Heaviest moment: “Among the Living” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_ANTHRAX.mp3]
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4. Obituary – Slowly We Rot
Another death metal record in E standard! Not only that, its heaviest riff was in A – not down-tuned A, but the same ol’ regular A in which Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” bounced so blithely. Here A runs through a swamp full of fuzz, then drops into a down-and-dirty crawl in E. I bet a few (unfortunate) babies have been conceived to this song.
Heaviest moment: “Slowly We Rot” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_OBITUARY.mp3]
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3. Metallica – Ride the Lightning
Master of Puppets, with its over-scooped tones, is actually heavier. But its heaviest song, “The Thing That Should Not Be”, is in drop-D tuning, disqualifying the album from consideration here. So we have no slouch of a substitute in Ride the Bitching Gibson Tones. The heaviest moment, of course, is “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Most guitarists will never write even one riff this bad-ass.
Heaviest moment: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_METALLICA.mp3]
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2. Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales
It’s a toss-up between Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion. The latter has conventionally heavier production, but Morbid Tales has “Dethroned Emperor” and “Procreation (Of the Wicked)” – so it wins. Tom G. Warrior did not need to tune down to anything to craft one of the heaviest riffs of all time. I put it up there with “Ride of the Valkyries” and the theme to Beethoven’s 5th, no joke. 27 years later, this motif is still larger than life.
Heaviest moment: “Procreation (Of the Wicked)” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_CELTICFROST.mp3]
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1. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Black Sabbath’s first two albums: standard tuning. ‘Nuff said. I will add that, despite my preference for dead embryonic cells, the intro to “Electric Funeral” makes me want to procreate (with the wicked). There’s a classic rave tune called “Women Respond to Bass”. Well, men do, too.
Heaviest moment: “Electric Funeral” (excerpt)
[audio: STANDARD_BLACKSABBATH.mp3]
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