What's Pearl Jam's heaviest song?

mrussel1 said:

Funny, the difference between 'fast' and 'heavy'. Are there PJ songs that are heavy, but not fast? I think about Zeppelin and their ability to be heavy without being fast. Dazed and Confused is a super heavy song (not particularly fast) but Achilles Last Stand is very fast, but not particularly heavy. It was the beauty of zeppelin. Before them, (and Sabbath), heavy just meant louder. They changed the meaning.

So are there PJ songs heavy, but not fast?

Alone

PJ ain't heavy, but there is Brother. :-P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl5vi9ir49g

Mind Your Manners
Blood
Spin The Black Circle
Not For You

I would also say Blood.

DEEP

shetellsherself said:

Deep is the definition of a heavy pj song...musically, lyrically, vocal delivery, loud guitars A song can definitely be fast without bring heavy. Blood is very heavy too

Yes, Deep always seemed heavy metal to me. And, for me, that made it an ill fit for Ten.

blood imo

I think this discussion may need to be re-visited since there have been 2 full studio albums released since it was last talked about.

The word heavy is definitely subjective.  There's "Heavy" in subject matter, and "Heavy" in sound.  In this case, I'm going to mostly discuss "Heavy" in terms of sound.  Heavy, to me, could mean how much a song resembles a classically heavy metal song, of which I don't think Pearl Jam has very many.  They closer resemble Zeppelin or Sabbath than Metallica, though so they do have a classic metal side that's more late 60s / early 70s than 80s.  But the things I think about when I think about Heavy music, I think deep and dark sounding, and a lot of bass sound in the guitars, obviously high gain / distortion, loud, rhythmic, controlled, riffy, syncopated, not necessarily blaring chords, not necessarily wild.  I think that may even be the difference between "heavy" and "hard" where Pearl Jam has dozens of hard songs.  Blood is a great example of possibly being Pearl Jam's hardest song, but not its heaviest.  Spin the Black Circle is a bit less wild and a bit more syncopated, and a bit bassier than Blood (Blood is actually tuned up and it's deepest note is a G).  It toes the line between hard and heavy.  The one that wins the title for both being hardest and heaviest simultaneously is probably Habit.  In the context of their peers, Habit is probably the grungiest thing they've ever done.  I love all PJ, but the aggressive stuff has a special place in my heart.

But being compared to more metal music, I believe You Are may be their heaviest song.  It's just deep sounding, deeper tuning (I think it's some sort of C or Drop C tuning?), sludgy.  Honorable mention may to Dark Matter, the song.  Great grooves all over that one. 

Then of course, you've got Heavy in terms of both subject matter and sound... The title may go to Deep there.

I'm super grateful for this band and their amazing catalog that affords us to the pleasures to rock out and chill out and everything in between.  I love their diversity of songwriting.

 

on the live front the double of Go/Animal, esp. at the start of a set!