A hot stone massage isn’t a different massage so much as a different way into the same one. The stones — smooth, flat basalt, heated in water to a temperature well short of uncomfortable — rest on and glide over the muscle first. Basalt holds heat longer than most other stone, which is the actual reason it’s used rather than just tradition.
That heat does real work before a hand ever presses down: it brings blood to the surface and lets the muscle relax on its own, so the deep-tissue pressure that follows can go further without the tensing-up that makes a cold deep-tissue massage hurt. It is why people who find regular deep tissue too intense often do fine with the hot stone version.
You will still feel firm pressure during the hands-on part. What is different is how you get there — warmed into it, rather than straight into it.