Ky-Fi

Never been a big metal fan. My first love of music was punk/new wave, and I sort of adopted that ethos of stripped down, shorter songs, short/no solos, no fantasy lyrics, etc. And I like catchy, poppy, hooky songs. My favorite genres all seem to have that: punk, new wave, synthpop, British invasion, classic country, ska, reggae, folk. Also, as a guitar player/songwriter, I don't know how the hell metal guitarists even remember all the sections to those songs.

That being said, I do like some of the hits from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden--and for some reason, I've always like a lot of Mustaine's songwriting: (although I'm so behind the times, this is now probably called "wuss metal" and is for 10 year old girls. )

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DaveWadding

The Sword and Mastodon are the two best current metal bands, in my opinion.

PerryD

Arch Enemy, Devildriver, Children of Bodom, plus Overkill and Kreator are still releasing great music. The latest from Testament and Exodus are pretty good too.

beavis69

The Sword seem to be hit or miss for me. Gods of the Earth from start to finish is incredible (and who doesn't love some Game of Thrones songs). Their other albums have some good songs here and there but I feel his voice only fits a certain sound.

If you like Mastodon I would check out the band Trudger, very similar to their early stuff. As far as cleaner vocals go Machine Head is pretty good, I haven't listened to their new album though. The Contortionist's "Language" album from last year was fantastic and combined a little bit of the growling and clean singing.

Phodg

That's where a lot of newer bands lose me. I can't stand the clean/growling mix. Either do one or the other.

The only band that I could sort of tolerate it in was older Opeth, but I think they're better now they've pretty much gone completely prog.
Currently listening to the new Prong album. Very very good.

The Black

They've certainly toned down the shouting/screaming and heavyness, but that's a good thing. Album after album of that would have been tremendously boring.

Traxan

I always referred to death metal as "horror movie metal" because that was pretty much the inspiration for early CC, Obituary, etc. The black metal scene of Europe seemed to grow out of anti-religious sentiment, and northern Europe is about as devoid of religion as it gets. I think Norway has about 5% church attendance.

I loved the melodic death metal scene from Gothenburg but the vocals did ruin it. I grew up on singers -- Halford, Dickinson, Tate, Dio -- and just hated that awesome music wrecked by cookie monster vocals.

These days I find myself drawn to Japan's amazing all-girl power metal scene. There has to be at least a dozen all-girl metal bands regularly releasing music. I don't just like it because they are cute (that helps), they are GOOD.







Not power metal but just so much fun.

Hiro11

I'll give you Mastodon, but The Sword's output is spotty at best.

B5Erik

I've been a Hard Rock and Metal fan since the late 70's and I've never understood the appeal of Death Metal, either. The vocals are so non-musical as to render the songs as something of a bad joke.

Give me a true singer like the late, great Ronnie James Dio any day...

JZ1276

IMO Slipknot is speed metal, not death metal or Nu-Metal like someone else said. The only Slipknot material I am familiar with are the 'hits' like Wait & Bleed, Left Behind, Duality, & Before I Forget.C Taylor def doesn't have the cookie monster voice in those songs and they actually have melodies.

joeblow69

Btw, those who are lamenting that they wish these metal acts would just release albums with no vocals, there are plenty of instrumental metal acts. Most I know of fall in the post metal/rock category, like Red Sparowes, Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, Russian Circles ... but some are more metal, like Year of No Light, and Bongripper

I think these bands tend to have limited appeal though ... I bet they'd get more recognition with a vocalist. I can certainly hear where some screaming type vocals would fit perfectly over that Bongripper CD.

Phodg

Too many breakdowns in their songs IMO to put them in a speed/thrash metal category. I'd definitely throw them in nu-metal. They may have moved on from that a bit now, but their early stuff is downtuned, no solos and with the occasional rap. Definitely not speed or thrash metal.

Traxan

Slipknot is nu metal, and Jordison was the most overrated drummer I've seen in ages. Music must be really dumbed down for kids to think he was something great when he sure wasn't, especially compared to the really great drummers around his age like Chris Adler and Brann Dailor.

JZ1276

Nu metal to me are bands like Limp Bizkit, I'd put Slipknot in the same category as Pantera who is def not nu metal.

mndtrp

Sure, there are tons of them. However, those bands are writing songs specifically as instrumentals. I like a lot of them, but I'm interested in instrumental versions of songs that originally had vocals, the song structures are different. Guitars that are kind of hidden and don't add a whole lot to a song with vocals takes on a completely different vibe when the vocals are removed.

Juzylle

Big fan of Epica...it's can get death metally, with the growling and whatnot. But great female vocals. With symphony and a choir! Heavy songs with an operatic theme...the drummer is killer on certain songs.

It's about the most growling I can take from a band. Others are just too much.

kefrank

If you want to read some dark and disturbing stuff, check out the wikipedia article on Early Norwegian Black Metal.

I don't listen to a ton of metal and I have no idea what subgenre they're supposed to fall into, but for me, nothing beats Meshuggah:
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creekdipper

Well, that made for some interesting reading.

Surprised that there hasn't been a narrative movie based upon the more outrageous events (not counting the bunches of documentaries available). Kinda makes Sid & Nancy seem tame.

hdnmickey

Same here. It's what more they bring to the table that's the key. If you haven't already, you should check out Kamelot, Stratovarious, Within Temptation, Nighthwish, and Therion

EddieMoney

Heartwarming, isn't it?

RichC2

I'm not metal enough for this thread.

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That's what I like about metal bands, they're ridiculously over the top, not just vocally but instrumentally I think the show Bastard!! with the original metal names put back in place made me think "apocalyptic fantasy" with every passing song.


Apparently "Swedish Extreme Metal", I always considered them Thrash Metal.

Hiro11

Yeah, those guys were (are) genuinely crazy. I have very mixed feelings about that scene. I think it's irresponsible and even dangerous to laugh them off as absurd teenagers as some have. The bands were (are) tangled up in a seriously disgusting and bizarre neo-Nazi/pagan/satanic ideology which makes it really hard to find them anything other assholes peddling extremely offensive ideas that they took seriously. It's also hard to deny their conviction: they were genuine criminals who did some genuinely awful things.

On the other hand, bands like Mayhem and Gorgoroth were (are) talented and it's hard to deny the power of some of their music. In particular, despite being an completely awful racist terrorist (not a word I use lightly), Varg Vikernes is also undeniably an influential musician who refuses to go away.

How do you value people who you feel revolted by but are clearly talented? Honestly, I'd like to simply find them repugnant and wish that they'd disappear but that's dishonest...

joeblow69

I would say that if you have to listen to their music, steal it.

Why So Blu?

I like Repugnant but they're cool cuz Tobias Forge, rumored to be Papa Emeritus I & II of Ghost, sings. He's very underrated. He went from Repugnant to Magna Carta Cartel, Subvision, and now Ghost. Ghost isn't even death metal they're considered "Doom Metal."

Jason

I have to admit I'm not very familiar with Slipknot, so I just went and familiarized myself with their music. I'd describe it as a frothy mixture of Pantera and every bad idea in metal in the last 20 years.

Seriously, it's very derivative. Blast beats, grunting vocals, quiet passages with angst filled nu-metal vocals, even their appearance is a half hearted attempt to copy GWAR.

Pass.

But it's not death metal.