Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Beautiful Maladies]

It's always been a genre which I was mildly interested in, but it seemed too inaccessible to merely dive into alone. As such, i'd like some help in finding some good black/death/etc metal.

thanks in advance for any help!

[!!!CPAOI!!!]

Arsis

[Cartilage Head]

 Fintroll, Opeth, Therion, Katatonia.

[Storm Rider]

Arsis

Beat me to it, asshole. The bands HTF mentioned are good too.

Also, Arch Enemy (but stay away from their newest album), Edge of Sanity, Dark Tranquility, and maybe Into Eternity.

And of course Death. I prefer their later albums, but their earlier stuff is the more traditional death metal.

[NiMRoD420]

Into Eternity pwns everyone else...

[Johnny C]

Into Eternity pwns everyone else...

The more people say this, the more bizarre I feel it is. There are so many Regina bands which are much better than Into Eternity. There used to be a couple of superior metal bands though I don't think they play anymore.

[NiMRoD420]

It's just the whole package. Composition, melody, lyrics, heaviness, softness, variety. They're definitely one of the best metal bands I've ever heard.

[Gridgm]

can anyone help me out here

WTF is harmonic metal?

[David_Dovey]

I too wondered this. Maybe he means melodic death metal? Cos it has a lot of harmonised guitar lines? Or something?

[Beautiful Maladies]

I too wondered this. Maybe he means melodic death metal? Cos it has a lot of harmonised guitar lines? Or something?

sorry for the confusion. I actually did mean melodic death metal; a friend of mine refers to it as "harmonic metal" as a description, for some reason, and I wrote that as a force of habit.

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions! I now have a nice list to start my search with.

edit: fixed to help prevent any further confusion

[Ernest]

Well, you did say melodic metal, so I'm going to use this opportunity to recommend Witch, even though they're more doom metal. 

[Dimmukane]

can anyone help me out here

WTF is harmonic metal?

In a Metal Observer review of Anata - The Conductor's Departure, the reviewer declared it "melodic, nay, harmonic metal"
This was probably due to divvying up the melody in such a way that if one guitar was not being played, it would be a boring song;  with both guitars, the song becomes a beautiful harmonic melody. 

I know it's not what he meant, but he could've been referring to them had he known who they were.  Besides, that album was pretty good, I'd recommend it.

[Scytale]

Reccomended albums:

Melodic Death Metal:

Dissection - The Somberlain
Dawn - Slaughtersun
Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun
Carcass - Heartwork
In Flames - Lunar Strain

Melodic\Symphonic Black Metal:

Old Man's Child - Born of the Flickering
Dimmu Borgir - For All Tid
The Covenant - Nexus Polaris
Abigor - Nachthymnen
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk

[Caspian]

Well, there's all the early In Flames. Otherwise, though, here's some bands that no else has mentioned:
Arcturus (only have their newest album but it is teh awesome)
Borknagar- Kind of black/viking metal but still awesome
Ulver- their nattrens madrical album is possibly the best bm album ever (their later stuff is electronica, though, so be wary)
Bathroy- Under the Sign of the Black mark- Freaking AWESOME.
And i'd like to second the Carcass- Heartwork recommendation.

[Borondir]

In a Metal Observer review of Anata - The Conductor's Departure, the reviewer declared it "melodic, nay, harmonic metal"
This was probably due to divvying up the melody in such a way that if one guitar was not being played, it would be a boring song;  with both guitars, the song becomes a beautiful harmonic melody. 

Your description of two guitars playing different lines in harmony is what happens in pretty much every metal band since the NWOBHM. Since almost all metal bands use at least some guitar harmony, that reviewer is just stupid. And harmonic metal is NOT a genre.

As far as recommendations, I'm too lazy to carefully look whats been mentioned already, but here's a few:

Melodeath: Dark Tranquillity-Character and The Gallery, but everything is great
                In Flames-early stuff, like Whoracle
                At the Gates-Slaughter of the Soul
                Hypocrisy-The Arrival
                Amon Amarth-Fate of Norns (Viking lyrics, but the music is MDM)
                Opeth-only sorta melodeath, but still essential. Get everything.
                Into Eternity
Black: Enslaved-RUUN,Isa,orBelow the Lights for prog black, for more traditional bm, Frost
         Darkthrone-Transilvanian Hunger or A Blaze in the Northern Sky
         Emperor-Anthems to the Welkins at Dusk or In the Nightside Eclipse
         Ulver-for bm, go for Bergtatt and Nattens Madrigal
         Borknagar-Empiricism or Epic
         Arcturus-Aspera Heims Sinfonia is great symphonic black, but their more famous for avantgarde black, get Diabolical Masquerade and
                      Sideshow Symphonies
         Immortal-any
         And some more bands-Bal-Sagoth, Blut Aus Nord, 1349, Summoning

Albums mentioned are sometimes personal favorites, other times widely considered essential.

[kokeyjoe]

Carcass - Heartwork

That was one of my favorite albums when I was in junior high.  Still kicks ass, actually.  I'll never forget seeing the video for the title track on Beavis & Butthead, thinking "I must own this album."  Same way I got into Slayer, too, thanks to seeing "Seasons in the Abyss" on B&B.  Ah, good times.

[Dimmukane]

In a Metal Observer review of Anata - The Conductor's Departure, the reviewer declared it "melodic, nay, harmonic metal"
This was probably due to divvying up the melody in such a way that if one guitar was not being played, it would be a boring song;  with both guitars, the song becomes a beautiful harmonic melody. 

Your description of two guitars playing different lines in harmony is what happens in pretty much every metal band since the NWOBHM. Since almost all metal bands use at least some guitar harmony, that reviewer is just stupid. And harmonic metal is NOT a genre.

As far as recommendations, I'm too lazy to carefully look whats been mentioned already, but here's a few:

Melodeath: Dark Tranquillity-Character and The Gallery, but everything is great
                In Flames-early stuff, like Whoracle
                At the Gates-Slaughter of the Soul
                Hypocrisy-The Arrival
                Amon Amarth-Fate of Norns (Viking lyrics, but the music is MDM)
                Opeth-only sorta melodeath, but still essential. Get everything.
                Into Eternity
Black: Enslaved-RUUN,Isa,orBelow the Lights for prog black, for more traditional bm, Frost
         Darkthrone-Transilvanian Hunger or A Blaze in the Northern Sky
         Emperor-Anthems to the Welkins at Dusk or In the Nightside Eclipse
         Ulver-for bm, go for Bergtatt and Nattens Madrigal
         Borknagar-Empiricism or Epic
         Arcturus-Aspera Heims Sinfonia is great symphonic black, but their more famous for avantgarde black, get Diabolical Masquerade and
                      Sideshow Symphonies
         Immortal-any
         And some more bands-Bal-Sagoth, Blut Aus Nord, 1349, Summoning

Albums mentioned are sometimes personal favorites, other times widely considered essential.

yeah, it's not a genre, he's kinda stupid, but Anata does do things a little differently.  Most two-guitar bands in metal have a rhythym and lead, or dueling melodies.  With Anata, they intersperse the notes of a single melody between two guitars, and if you took one away, there wouldn't be a very coherent melody.  If you can't figure out what I mean, listen to Spiral Downwards and then look at the Powertab for it.

[Der Turm, der Leute frass]

Brutal stuff
Hate eternal
Cryptopsy
Iniquity
Panzerchrist
God Dethroned
Nasum
Neaera
Heaven shall burn
Cannibal Corpse
Carcass
Fleshgore
Krisiun
Kataklysm
Obituary
Suffocation
Terrorizer
Brodequin
Mumakil
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Arch enemy
Vader
Disbelief
Hypocrisy
Pain Killer
Exhorder
Morbid Angel
Yyrkoon
Converge
Japanische Kampfh?rspiele (german grindcore/Punk)


Technical/Jazzy wtf Metal
DEATH
Atheist
Cynic
Watchtower
Martyr
Lunaris
Psyopus
Mekong Delta
Pestilence
Intronaut
Behold... The Arctopus
Orthrelm
Gnostic
Ephel Duath
Twisted into Form
Linear Sphere
Necrophagist
Psycroptic
Spiral Architect
Spastic Ink
Believer
Coprofago
Protest
Meshugga
Frederik Thordendahl's special defects

more melodic:
Agalloch
Solstafir
In The Woods
Therion
Hypocrisy
In Flames


Black Metal:
Negura Bunget
Immortal
Myrk
Svartskogg
Massemord
Carpathian Forest
Satyricon
Arcturus
Eisregen
Enslaved
Summoning
Root
Ackercocke
Ulver



Progressive Metal
Psychotic Waltz
Power of Omens
Dream Theater
Liquid Tension Experiment
Queensryche
Ayreon
Nevermore
Star One
Opeth
Dead Soul Tribe
OSI
Mastodon

Doom
Confessor
Shape of Despair
Electric Wizard
Ahab
Anathema
Paradise Lost
YOB
Mourning Beloveth
My Dying Bride

Groovy stuff, thrash metal, industrial metal etc.
Textures
Exodus
Anthrax
Machine Head
Death Angel
Fear Of God
Lamb of God
Clawfinger
Sepultura
Testament
Godmack
Fear Factory
Ministry
Between The Buried and Me
Pantera
Criminal

weirrrrrrd
Unexpect

[NiMRoD420]

Now there's a nice comprehensive list, and the boundaries are well defined as well. *pats back*

If only I wasn't so goddamn LAZY

[KharBevNor]

How the hell do Clawfinger, Ministry and Between the Buried and Me go in the same category?

How are In the Woods and Therion in any way similiar?

Most pertinently, how the singing fuck are Die Apokalyptischen Reiter brutal?

I like the lists obscurity, I'm amazed to see a person on this board who's not me even acknowledging the existence of bands like Negura Bunget and Myrk. However, it's all over the place, the taxonomy doesn't make sense and there are some things there that are quite frankly, for better or worse, NOT METAL.

Easiest route in to extreme metal, if you already listen to metal, is probably backwards through the discographies of Edge of Sanity, Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates, Satyricon, Emperor, Sigh and Dimmu Borgir. That's pretty much how I got into it when I was all 15 and DEATH METAL 4 LYFE, only with some worse bands. Do you listen to thrash? Sodom, Destruction, Sarcofago, Venom and Bulldozer should feed you over pretty well, then you can start listening to thrashier BM bands like Abigail, Nazgul (the Polish one I think), Absu, Legion of the Damned and then on to things like Carpathian Forest, Horna, Impaled Nazarene and Nattefrost. Also, it's worth mentioning that you should definitely be listening to Cryptic Wintermoon and The Count Nosferatu Kommando (Now The Cosa Nostra Klub or just CNK, though I think their seminal Ultraviolence Uber Alles is still under the original name), because they're far too underknown and kick all kinds of arse.

[Scytale]

Yeah I got into extreme metal through Sepultura and a lot of melo DM albums as well.I remember getting dragged to an Impaled Nazerene concert when I was 16, had no idea wtf was going on. It wasn't till a friend lent me Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Blood Fire Death and Dol Guldur that everything really clicked.

[Borondir]

yeah, it's not a genre, he's kinda stupid, but Anata does do things a little differently.  Most two-guitar bands in metal have a rhythym and lead, or dueling melodies.  With Anata, they intersperse the notes of a single melody between two guitars, and if you took one away, there wouldn't be a very coherent melody.  If you can't figure out what I mean, listen to Spiral Downwards and then look at the Powertab for it.

I know what you mean, but that's not harmony if the notes are being played separately, its just exchanging the melody between voices (in the harmonic sense)

As for the comprehensive list, yeah that's a lot of great bands, but its not that helpful to a newcomer because there are so MANY bands on it.  Plus, your genre/style distinctions don't really always make sense...Hypocrisy and Arch Enemy sure don't sound very brutal to me, sure they are death metal, but brutal death is a whole nother cup of tea. Also, I know from experience its helpful to have albums to go for when you just start checking bands out.

Edit: just to make things clear, like Khar, I do approve of the thoroughness of the list and your mention of obscure but great bands, but have my reservations about how useful a list like that is.

[TheFuriousWombat]

just listen to envy. they don't fall into any of those three categories but i find it hard to imagine a metal fan not liking them. screaming, really talented japanese teenagers is just where it's at.

[Scytale]

Gallhammer Japanese excellence

[Cartilage Head]

 How about Deathmole? (Serious suggestion!)

[Der Turm, der Leute frass]

How the hell do Clawfinger, Ministry and Between the Buried and Me go in the same category?

Waaaaaaaiiit...I didn't put them in the same category, I was just too lazy to make more spezific categories, so I made one named "Groovy stuff, thrash metal, industrial metal etc." where I listed all the Bands, wich didn't really fit one of the other categories.  Of course you're right and Clawfinger, Ministry and Between the Buried and Me are totally different.

How are In the Woods and Therion in any way similiar?

Well...I just made a "melodic"-Category and In the woods and therion are just melodic. They don't play the same kind of music, but they're both melodic

Most pertinently, how the singing fuck are Die Apokalyptischen Reiter brutal?

You're right, their last three albums arent brutal at all, but "Allegro Barbaro" and "all you need is love" can IMO be called brutal.

the taxonomy doesn't make sense and there are some things there that are quite frankly, for better or worse, NOT METAL.

I don't know the meaning of the word "taxonomy", but I don't see one band In my list (except Converge) that doesn't play metal . (ok, Bands like Neaera, HSB, Japanische Kampfh?rspiele don't "behave as metal-bands", but I don't care about that at all)

[KharBevNor]

Godsmack are grunge, Clawfinger are rap-rock, Between the Buried and Me are metalcore, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter I've always grouped from what I've heard (two albums and seen them live) with Subway to Sally, In Extremo, which are some wierd medieval industrial rock hybrid which I personally am tremulous to call metal, though I'd be prepared to argue that.

Your list just seems messy and random.

[NiMRoD420]

Just how in the hell are Godsmack grunge?

Post-grunge I could see. Hard rock, even simpler, is a better description. But straight up Alice In Chains / Soundgarden / Mudhoney / Gruntruck / Green River, those are grunge bands. Not Godsmack.

[KharBevNor]

By post-grunge do you mean 'shit grunge' because that I can see. Godsmack had two tolerable songs as far as I remember.

Whatever way you cut it, metal they ain't.

[NiMRoD420]

Admittedly, I liked them in high school. Their first album still holds some value to me, songs like "Timebomb" and "Moon Baby." But they're not worth shit to me now.

And metal, we agree, they ain't.

[Dimmukane]

Orthrelm

Negura Bunget

Unexpect

Fuck yeah, someone else knows about them...

[Der Turm, der Leute frass]

Godsmack are grunge, Clawfinger are rap-rock, Between the Buried and Me are metalcore, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter I've always grouped from what I've heard (two albums and seen them live) with Subway to Sally, In Extremo, which are some wierd medieval industrial rock hybrid which I personally am tremulous to call metal, though I'd be prepared to argue that.

Your list just seems messy and random.

Godsmack are everything but Grunge.....theyre at least new-metal  (and good)

Clawfinger are cool, no matter what their music sounds like (besides it does NOT sound like "rap-rock" to me)

Die Apokalyptischen reiter have NOTHING to do with shitty bands like Subay to sally and In extremo. Die Reiter played some sort of Melodic-grindcore

MY LIST IS NOT MESSY

Orthrelm

Negura Bunget

Unexpect

Fuck yeah, someone else knows about them...

Orthrelm and Unexpect are quite unknown, rigth. But here in Switzerland and Germany, Negura Bunget got some attention (and very good reviews) for their brilliant new album

[KharBevNor]

Die Apokalyptischen reiter have NOTHING to do with shitty bands like Subay to sally and In extremo.

I saw (parts of) them all on the same stage at Wacken Open Air and it sounded very much like they did to me. I will try out DAR's death metal albums, but from the way it looks, the majority of their material has been under their new style and they've completely abandoned the old, so you should at least have mentioned that they are brutal 'but only on like half an album' or whatever.

Godsmack started their career as an Alice in Chains cover band. Of all the things they aren't, it's nu-metal.

[kokeyjoe]

I was under the impression this thread was just for some casual music suggestions for someone looking to expand their collection, not have the ultimate, most comprehensive, overly-compartmentalized bible of heavy music in existence.  I think regardless of which bands are listed with others, they're still being recommended to someone under the general guise of "heavy" and that's the most important thing.

On that note, I'm in the mood for Devin Townsend Band today, so I'm recommending their album "Accelerated Evolution" to the original poster... because it's my favorite thing to listen to during the winter.

[KharBevNor]

Dude, of the things in this world that I really care about, proper categorisation of metal subgenres is just above 'The AIDS pandemic'.

[kokeyjoe]

At least the subject matter is more interesting, that's for sure.

[NiMRoD420]

On "Accelerated Evolution" -

Deadhead is one of the greatest songs ever written, or that ever will be written.

[MadassAlex]

I'm not sure if it counts as "melodic" but Strapping Young Lad is an awesome and sometimes hilarious death/thrash metal band headed by Devin Townsend.

[kokeyjoe]

No pun intended, but I love the song "Love" (or possibly "Love?") by SYL.  I'm not a big SYL fan, but that song just makes me wanna punch someone in the face.  And the video makes me want to high-five Devin Townsend.

[MadassAlex]

but that song just makes me wanna punch someone in the face.  And the video makes me want to high-five Devin Townsend.

This, but for all their songs and videos.