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new metalheads thread
- Thread starter Nevermore
- Start date
2011 Stuff
Mastodon - The Hunter
I can hear the backlash against this already. It's easily the most comercial ready thing Mastodon have ever put out, and it doesn't even have the technicality that prog-fest Crack the Skye did to fall back on for musical cred. Guess what? Don't give a fuck. Another fantastic album from one of the best metal bands of the 2000s.
Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift
First of all, props for the great album art, very visually striking. Second, I really enjoyed this album. They're still pillaging the remains of older Swedish death metal titans, but at least they're doing it in an interesting way. Almost all of the songs have multiple change ups in them, giving some of them an almost proggy feel, but that's just in the song structures. The actual riffing is straight DM, and man, I really like the riffs on this one. Good stuff.
Vomitory - Opus Mortis VIII
This came out a while back in April, but I'm only listening to it now. Apparently these guys have been putting out albums for a while now, but this is my first listen to them, so I didn't really have any expectations for this album. What I gather from reviews is that this is more mid tempo and groovy than their previous work, which to be honest sits fine with me, as the mid tempo songs like the excellent They Will Burn are my favorites here. No real reinventing the wheel going on, just a solid, heavy death metal release that I really enjoyed.
Old Stuff That's New To Me
Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead
A real gem I think. These guys were a heavy metal band with a bit of early doom metal influence too. They had a pretty interesting sound in my opinion, the bass is often as high in the mix as the lead guitar, which just gives them something distinctive to separate them from their peers. The other thing that gives them a distinctive sound is their horribad frontman, who honestly shouldn't have been singing for any band ever, much less a band this talented. However, the singing isn't bad enough to ruin the music for me, and man, these guys could PLAY. Check out the song Master of the Pit for a good example of their sound and style.
I downloaded a ton of random stuff recently, will probably be making some more posts once I listen to everything.
Mastodon - The Hunter
I can hear the backlash against this already. It's easily the most comercial ready thing Mastodon have ever put out, and it doesn't even have the technicality that prog-fest Crack the Skye did to fall back on for musical cred. Guess what? Don't give a fuck. Another fantastic album from one of the best metal bands of the 2000s.
Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift
First of all, props for the great album art, very visually striking. Second, I really enjoyed this album. They're still pillaging the remains of older Swedish death metal titans, but at least they're doing it in an interesting way. Almost all of the songs have multiple change ups in them, giving some of them an almost proggy feel, but that's just in the song structures. The actual riffing is straight DM, and man, I really like the riffs on this one. Good stuff.
Vomitory - Opus Mortis VIII
This came out a while back in April, but I'm only listening to it now. Apparently these guys have been putting out albums for a while now, but this is my first listen to them, so I didn't really have any expectations for this album. What I gather from reviews is that this is more mid tempo and groovy than their previous work, which to be honest sits fine with me, as the mid tempo songs like the excellent They Will Burn are my favorites here. No real reinventing the wheel going on, just a solid, heavy death metal release that I really enjoyed.
Old Stuff That's New To Me
Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead
A real gem I think. These guys were a heavy metal band with a bit of early doom metal influence too. They had a pretty interesting sound in my opinion, the bass is often as high in the mix as the lead guitar, which just gives them something distinctive to separate them from their peers. The other thing that gives them a distinctive sound is their horribad frontman, who honestly shouldn't have been singing for any band ever, much less a band this talented. However, the singing isn't bad enough to ruin the music for me, and man, these guys could PLAY. Check out the song Master of the Pit for a good example of their sound and style.
I downloaded a ton of random stuff recently, will probably be making some more posts once I listen to everything.
if it says anything (which it should), even i'm willing to look past the vocals of cirith ungol. terribad vocals are terribad.
listening to and rating all 71 of my 2011 albums atm. it's taking forever and so far decapitated - carnival is forever is winning (but i know others will beat it).
listening to and rating all 71 of my 2011 albums atm. it's taking forever and so far decapitated - carnival is forever is winning (but i know others will beat it).
I'm admittedly a pretty big Mastodon fan, but I'm still not really sold on the new album based on what I've heard so far. Haven't heard the whole thing yet though since I don't have internet at my apartment yet. Will soon though.
i don't think i'll even bother.
This year I never thought I would hate a metal album from a band that has at least one album I enjoy more than St. Anger. I honestly gave up hope on a band I enjoy something from releasing a worse album than St. Anger, then my wish came true. Morbid Angel, my favorite death metal band, the band that released my favorite death metal album Altars of Madness, released Illud Divinum Insanus. Illud Divinum Insanus is WORSE than St. Anger. Metallica listened to Illud Divinum Insanus and thought, "Hey, no one is going to make a worse album than St. Anger and take our crowning achievement, we will make one worse!".
Seriously! "The View" is the worst thing I've ever heard Metallica related, that says a lot! It is worse than any song off of St. Anger or Death Magnetic, and worse than even Destructos vs. the Earth / Attack and Radikult.
Killing cops > James Hetfield as a table.
A table has way more use than James Hetfield in today's world.
kinda wish i chose a different username. don't like Nevermore nearly as much as i did when i made it. ) :
also props to doomvendingmachine for the Morbus Chron, i've been listening to a lot of death metal like that lately. Bastard Priest, Repugnant, Obliteration, Maim, Kaamos, Coffins, Tribulation, Miasmal, Revolting...
all recommended for those looking for death metal, and for those who think the genre died in the 90's. especially fans of the Swedish stuff.
never could get into Vomitory though, unfortunately, there's just so many better Swedish death metal bands.
oh, and Ivan Starr made a decent enough death/black metal list. but more (there might be some repeat mentions):
death metal:
Asphyx - Last One On Earth
Entombed - Clandestine (Left Hand Path is better but Clandestine is more accessible)
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos
Cryptopsy - None So Vile
Carcass - Necroticism (Symphonies is better but pretty grindy and i know TEA_DEMON/Dion will not enjoy that)
Cianide - The Dying Truth
Incantation - Onward To Golgotha
+Pestilence, Dismember, Necrophobic, Autopsy, and Sepultura from Ivann's list.
black metal:
Absu - Tara
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines And the Rest of This Really Long Album Title I Can't Be Bothered Remembering
i'd recommend a different Inquisition album if i'd heard more of them, but at the very least that one is good. i want to recommend Destroyer 666 but i don't think you'd like them.
also who even gives a shit about Metallica anymore can't we just let that shit die and stop bringing it up all the time jesus
also props to doomvendingmachine for the Morbus Chron, i've been listening to a lot of death metal like that lately. Bastard Priest, Repugnant, Obliteration, Maim, Kaamos, Coffins, Tribulation, Miasmal, Revolting...
all recommended for those looking for death metal, and for those who think the genre died in the 90's. especially fans of the Swedish stuff.
never could get into Vomitory though, unfortunately, there's just so many better Swedish death metal bands.
oh, and Ivan Starr made a decent enough death/black metal list. but more (there might be some repeat mentions):
death metal:
Asphyx - Last One On Earth
Entombed - Clandestine (Left Hand Path is better but Clandestine is more accessible)
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos
Cryptopsy - None So Vile
Carcass - Necroticism (Symphonies is better but pretty grindy and i know TEA_DEMON/Dion will not enjoy that)
Cianide - The Dying Truth
Incantation - Onward To Golgotha
+Pestilence, Dismember, Necrophobic, Autopsy, and Sepultura from Ivann's list.
black metal:
Absu - Tara
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines And the Rest of This Really Long Album Title I Can't Be Bothered Remembering
i'd recommend a different Inquisition album if i'd heard more of them, but at the very least that one is good. i want to recommend Destroyer 666 but i don't think you'd like them.
also who even gives a shit about Metallica anymore can't we just let that shit die and stop bringing it up all the time jesus
nope yep yep yep yep nope nope yep yep yep
much more successful than ivan starr's list, ty.
What's wrong with Asphyx? On a side-note, I will never understand the love for Cryptopsy.
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance (Slightly NSFW album cover)
Where to start on these guys. I see them listed most often as atmospheric sludge metal, but I'm not sure if the guitar sound is sludgy enough to really qualify for that. Either way, they make an extremely atmospheric brand of whatever it is they play, very textured. The vocals shift between cleans and black metal shrieks, though there is no black metal in the riffing at all. On a few of the songs they show off some rather bluesy licks, which provides a nice change of pace and isn't something I've heard often from this style of music. It's a fairly consistant album all the way though, and one of my favorite metal releases of 2011 (ATM my favorite 2011 metal albums are Disma's Towards the Megalith, Mastodon's The Hunter, Morbus Chron's Sleepers in the Rift, and this, roughly in that order).
Favorite song: 25s & The Royal Blues
Where to start on these guys. I see them listed most often as atmospheric sludge metal, but I'm not sure if the guitar sound is sludgy enough to really qualify for that. Either way, they make an extremely atmospheric brand of whatever it is they play, very textured. The vocals shift between cleans and black metal shrieks, though there is no black metal in the riffing at all. On a few of the songs they show off some rather bluesy licks, which provides a nice change of pace and isn't something I've heard often from this style of music. It's a fairly consistant album all the way though, and one of my favorite metal releases of 2011 (ATM my favorite 2011 metal albums are Disma's Towards the Megalith, Mastodon's The Hunter, Morbus Chron's Sleepers in the Rift, and this, roughly in that order).
Favorite song: 25s & The Royal Blues
Inquisition aka the best metal band of all time
trve kvlt riffs
trve kvlt riffs
and another thing dion, since you gave Dismember a tentative yes, their best album is "Like An Ever Flowing Stream", but "Massive Killing Capacity" and "Death Metal" are their most accessible, especially for people not into death metal.
some track recommendations would be Of Fire, Let the Napalm Rain, Override of the Overture, Skin Her Alive, And So Is Life, I Saw Them Die...
one of the best death metal bands really.
with all that being said, None So Vile was a really difficult album for me to get into and it's not for everyone.
some track recommendations would be Of Fire, Let the Napalm Rain, Override of the Overture, Skin Her Alive, And So Is Life, I Saw Them Die...
one of the best death metal bands really.
they started a lot of the bullshit you get in bands like Dying Fetus and other "brutal" death metal bands, a lot like Suffocation, but the first two albums and especially None So Vile are really great. None So Vile is great for so many reasons- every instrument on that album shines, the riffing is really weird (not so much with all the clones around now, but still) with tons of really heavy but still really melodic stuff, and not to mention Lord Worm is pretty much the best death metal vocalist ever. only people that could compete are Martin Van Drunen and Peter Tagtgren (even if you don't like Hypocrisy he seriously has some of the best vocals in the genre). John Tardy is great too, but i don't care for any of the work he's done aside from the first two Obituary albums, so i just can't really think as highly as him. my only real problem with him is his lack of variation, but i do like that his vocals are just random and they go along with the music.
with all that being said, None So Vile was a really difficult album for me to get into and it's not for everyone.
i'm not sure if you're being facetious or not, but Ominous Doctrines has started to grow on me a lot. it has a really weird atmosphere and tracks like "Desolate Funeral Chant" are fucking hypnotic. Dagon's vocals have actually grown on me too- they used to make the music almost comical to me but they work pretty well with it.
Realm of Chaos is your Bolt Thrower pick? It certainly isn't a bad a album, and has one of my favorite Bolt Thrower songs, World Eater, on it, but I would rank like, 3-4 other Bolt Thrower albums over it. MY personal favorite is The IVth Crusade.
I'm not. Inquisition is amazing.
I haven't heard Ominous Doctrines yet though, but everything else is A+ black metal that I would recommend to anyone.
the first three Bolt Thrower albums will always be my favorite.
then after that Mercenary and Those Once Loyal are best.
Realm of Chaos > In Battle There Is No Law = Warmaster > Mercenary = Those Once Loyal > Honour Valor Pride = ...For Victory = The IVth Crusade
all of them are good though. the main reason i like the first three more than the others is that they aren't as samey and change tempo more often.
but i like IBTINL for different reasons than any other Bolt Thrower album so i don't like trying to rank it with them.
Anyone like Hell? They are an old traditional heavy metal/NWOBHM that formed in 1982, had some demos and a few singles, were slated to record their debut album sometime back in 1986, but their record label went under the week they were suppose to record, then the band broke up. Their original lead singer Dave Halliday killed himself in about 1987 because of frustrations of nothing ever coming out of the band. He taught Andy Sneap of the UK thrash metal band Sabbat how to play guitar, whom has said Hell was a big influence on him. Andy Sneap produced and played on Hell's Human Remains release from this year.
Anyone who digs NWOBHM should definitely give the album a listen! :)
http://[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpkuYxyYM2A&ob=av3e=url Hell - On Earth as It Is in Hell
Anyone who digs NWOBHM should definitely give the album a listen! :)
http://[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpkuYxyYM2A&ob=av3e=url Hell - On Earth as It Is in Hell
re: hell, this dude singing is really awkward during the chorus but holy hell is the music great !!
unrelated the new skeletonwitch is pretty great, though the last song feels less like a finisher than the ones on beyond the permafrost/breathing the fire. still rules, though !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=why2EoRQzzE i may just be weird but the intro sounds like heavy metal neil young for a split second
unrelated the new skeletonwitch is pretty great, though the last song feels less like a finisher than the ones on beyond the permafrost/breathing the fire. still rules, though !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=why2EoRQzzE i may just be weird but the intro sounds like heavy metal neil young for a split second
holy shit i hear it too
well that's fucking weird
also do you listen to any metal bands beside Skeletonwitch because that's all i see you post about?
didn't even know they got back together.
that was actually really bad and half of it sounded nothing like NWOBHM. shame, never heard their demos but i heard they were pretty good. Angel Witch's s/t will always be far and away the best NWOBHM album, though.
but yeah, for traditional heavy metal in general i'll stick with Manilla Road, Angel Witch, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath.
yeah i do. arsis, arch enemy, and most of the other stuff people already know about (iron maiden, slayer, blah blah). though next week i might go see this band excrecor ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbwodqWIbE ) for like 7 bucks. i apologize though, but not much i listen to hasn't been gone over a million times already by people who can speak on the subject better.
also this hell album, i may just live with the weirdo vocals because that really was some nice playing. plus, it's like 10-15 bucks on amazon ! interesting.
also this hell album, i may just live with the weirdo vocals because that really was some nice playing. plus, it's like 10-15 bucks on amazon ! interesting.
Thought I'd come in to just say I love the new Mastodon Album.
I'd also like to point out how many comments there are about this album saying "fuck the haters" and I haven't seen any real amount of hate. So... lemmings are fun?
That is all.
I'd also like to point out how many comments there are about this album saying "fuck the haters" and I haven't seen any real amount of hate. So... lemmings are fun?
That is all.
SURGO POST!!!
Since I started sitting at a desk with a computer all day at grad school I started listening to metal again, specifically, the power metal genre. It's an...interesting genre. Pandora's given me a bunch of different artists, many of which I then individually checked out.
One problem I've found is that a lot of power metal can end up sounding either cheesy (sticking too heavily with the fantasy hero theme seems to be the big problem) or, worse, samey. How the best bands get around this is varied and interesting...
My favorite, Kamelot, seems to get past it by being some of the best songwriters in the industry on top of also being the best talent in the industry. Of course when you think of them you immediately think of Epica and The Black Halo, really the pinnacle that every band strives for, and the songwriting there is incredible. Tell a compelling story, set to a clear and clean sound with strong vocals (and great backup vocals to really set it apart). Nobody can accuse these guys of being cheesy. Roy Khan leaving the band is an enormous tragedy; Kamelot can certainly survive without him (all the members of the band are individually great talents), but he was the perfect singer for the sound and all the songwriting had him on it.
I checked out Rhapsody of Fire because their lead singer has been touring with Kamelot (filling in for Khan). I don't think his voice fits with Kamelot much at all, but it's perfect for his own band. These guys have just completely embraced the cheese-factor. They're on some seven-plus album epic about some fantasy world or other with enormous battles only matched by their enormous and fast sound. One of their albums is called Power of the Dragonflame, for God's sake. Anyway, they've managed to avoid falling into the pit by just completely embracing this. They want to be some cheesy epic and love every minute of it. That sets them apart and, by knowing what they want to do, make sure to vary up the sound a bit.
I kinda like Edguy as well. Pretty good singer, if not as clear a voice, but he has a good range. Their songwriting is nowhere near the caliber of Kamelot and they aren't particularly trying to tell any stories, but they like to include joke songs on their albums to lighten the mood. It's hard to accuse a band of being cheesy while they're singing about having sex with a flight attendant while a cross-Atlantic plane trip is currently on its way into the ocean due to engine failure -- all while being set to those ridiculous speed riffs that lesser bands abuse so heavily. Also they have a side "superband", Avantasia, where they do concept albums and the caliber of songwriting is higher. Not so sure how I feel about The Scarecrow though -- that shit be weird yo.
Special note goes to Nightwish, who can get away with being as dramatic in their songs as they want because they have an opera singer. At that point, you're doing something wrong if you aren't awesomely dramatic.
I think the distinction in all these cases is really the vocals. Strong vocals are what set the good power metal bands apart from the bad ones. Sometimes they can cover up for somewhat boring sound, but most of the time they compliment the sound and bring out the qualities that make power metal such an exciting genre of music in the first place.
Now for some stuff I didn't like...
HammerFall -- ehhh. They were okay, I guess. I just could not get excited about these guys at all. The vocalist does nothing here. Most of the time when they came up on Pandora I skipped them.
Gamma Ray -- one time, I was driving home to New Hampshire and it was very late (10PM). I had Gamma Ray on the radio. I actually had to stop my car on the side of the road and turn on Edguy so I could stay awake. That's how boring I found them. This is a true story.
Sonata Arctica -- I feel bad putting them in the same category as Gamma Ray, because they really are okay. I've only listened to Reckoning Night, and it has a few quality songs that set it apart (My Selene, Don't Say a Word, White Pearl Black Ocean). The problem is that's all the good I've found on the album. I think part of this is songwriting (My Selene actually has a different songwriter than the rest), but Tony is obviously good at putting music on the page because of the other two. I've heard that their earlier releases really fell into the power metal same-y trap, and that includes this one, and their later stuff (Unia and Days of Grays) is a bit more exploratory. If that's the case I really look forward to checking out their later stuff.
DragonForce -- thanks to the magic of Guitar Hero, everybody and their mom knows this one. And admittedly the song they had there was pretty good, if super cheesy. Too bad that's their only song. Thanks to me liking it on Pandora I get a bunch of other stuff from them showing up, and it all sounds exactly the same except not as good. The lyrics are similar. The backing sound is almost identical. The vocal style and range could have been copy/pasted. Cheese isn't a bad thing, but Rhapsody of Fire these guys are not.
So, what do you guys think about these and other power metal bands? Most of the thread seems to revolve around death metal and black metal and such, which I'm not really big into (the growled vocal style never really did anything to me). There's a lot of additional stuff that comes up on Pandora but then I'm dumb and never write any of it down (and Pandora web app doesn't save my listening history). It's how I get through the day.
Since I started sitting at a desk with a computer all day at grad school I started listening to metal again, specifically, the power metal genre. It's an...interesting genre. Pandora's given me a bunch of different artists, many of which I then individually checked out.
One problem I've found is that a lot of power metal can end up sounding either cheesy (sticking too heavily with the fantasy hero theme seems to be the big problem) or, worse, samey. How the best bands get around this is varied and interesting...
My favorite, Kamelot, seems to get past it by being some of the best songwriters in the industry on top of also being the best talent in the industry. Of course when you think of them you immediately think of Epica and The Black Halo, really the pinnacle that every band strives for, and the songwriting there is incredible. Tell a compelling story, set to a clear and clean sound with strong vocals (and great backup vocals to really set it apart). Nobody can accuse these guys of being cheesy. Roy Khan leaving the band is an enormous tragedy; Kamelot can certainly survive without him (all the members of the band are individually great talents), but he was the perfect singer for the sound and all the songwriting had him on it.
I checked out Rhapsody of Fire because their lead singer has been touring with Kamelot (filling in for Khan). I don't think his voice fits with Kamelot much at all, but it's perfect for his own band. These guys have just completely embraced the cheese-factor. They're on some seven-plus album epic about some fantasy world or other with enormous battles only matched by their enormous and fast sound. One of their albums is called Power of the Dragonflame, for God's sake. Anyway, they've managed to avoid falling into the pit by just completely embracing this. They want to be some cheesy epic and love every minute of it. That sets them apart and, by knowing what they want to do, make sure to vary up the sound a bit.
I kinda like Edguy as well. Pretty good singer, if not as clear a voice, but he has a good range. Their songwriting is nowhere near the caliber of Kamelot and they aren't particularly trying to tell any stories, but they like to include joke songs on their albums to lighten the mood. It's hard to accuse a band of being cheesy while they're singing about having sex with a flight attendant while a cross-Atlantic plane trip is currently on its way into the ocean due to engine failure -- all while being set to those ridiculous speed riffs that lesser bands abuse so heavily. Also they have a side "superband", Avantasia, where they do concept albums and the caliber of songwriting is higher. Not so sure how I feel about The Scarecrow though -- that shit be weird yo.
Special note goes to Nightwish, who can get away with being as dramatic in their songs as they want because they have an opera singer. At that point, you're doing something wrong if you aren't awesomely dramatic.
I think the distinction in all these cases is really the vocals. Strong vocals are what set the good power metal bands apart from the bad ones. Sometimes they can cover up for somewhat boring sound, but most of the time they compliment the sound and bring out the qualities that make power metal such an exciting genre of music in the first place.
Now for some stuff I didn't like...
HammerFall -- ehhh. They were okay, I guess. I just could not get excited about these guys at all. The vocalist does nothing here. Most of the time when they came up on Pandora I skipped them.
Gamma Ray -- one time, I was driving home to New Hampshire and it was very late (10PM). I had Gamma Ray on the radio. I actually had to stop my car on the side of the road and turn on Edguy so I could stay awake. That's how boring I found them. This is a true story.
Sonata Arctica -- I feel bad putting them in the same category as Gamma Ray, because they really are okay. I've only listened to Reckoning Night, and it has a few quality songs that set it apart (My Selene, Don't Say a Word, White Pearl Black Ocean). The problem is that's all the good I've found on the album. I think part of this is songwriting (My Selene actually has a different songwriter than the rest), but Tony is obviously good at putting music on the page because of the other two. I've heard that their earlier releases really fell into the power metal same-y trap, and that includes this one, and their later stuff (Unia and Days of Grays) is a bit more exploratory. If that's the case I really look forward to checking out their later stuff.
DragonForce -- thanks to the magic of Guitar Hero, everybody and their mom knows this one. And admittedly the song they had there was pretty good, if super cheesy. Too bad that's their only song. Thanks to me liking it on Pandora I get a bunch of other stuff from them showing up, and it all sounds exactly the same except not as good. The lyrics are similar. The backing sound is almost identical. The vocal style and range could have been copy/pasted. Cheese isn't a bad thing, but Rhapsody of Fire these guys are not.
So, what do you guys think about these and other power metal bands? Most of the thread seems to revolve around death metal and black metal and such, which I'm not really big into (the growled vocal style never really did anything to me). There's a lot of additional stuff that comes up on Pandora but then I'm dumb and never write any of it down (and Pandora web app doesn't save my listening history). It's how I get through the day.
Rhapsody Of Fire is so cheesy you could put them on a burger and eat them.
Also, the only other power metal band I really like is Alestorm and they're pirate-themed and kind of odd.
Also, the only other power metal band I really like is Alestorm and they're pirate-themed and kind of odd.