Missed the edit window…
I cannot get over how fucking awesome Amon Amarth is to me.
Opeth has very few songs under 6 minutes, but their Damnation album is a departure. It’s a mostly acoustic-y set, with only 2 songs over 6 minutes (one is 6:20 and the other is 7:45). It’s an excellent album, and I’ve used it to show people that death metal isn’t everything they think it is.
Okay, now that we kind of know what you like, it’s easier to make recommendations.
***Melodic Death Metal
Dark Tranquility - Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive) (one of my favorite videos)
Carcass - Heartwork & No Love Lost
Afflicted - Tidings From The Blue Sphere
***Wicked Awesome Florida Death Metal
Atheist - On They Slay & Air (truly great progressive jazz death metal band from back in the day)
Cynic - Evolutionary Sleeper & The Space For This
Death - Painkiller & Lack Of Comprehension (RIP Chuck, we miss you man)
***Technical Death Metal
Origin - Finite
The Faceless - XenoChrist
Obscura - The Anticosmic Overload
Necrophagist - Only Ash Remains & Extreme Unction (has to be seen to believe that these guys can play this live!)
That should hold you for a while. Seriously, I can do this all day. I have well over 5000 albums in my music collection, and I love metal. I have dozens and dozens of different types of metal bands and genres, from technical to grindcore to deathcore to noisecore to math metal to hardcore to stoner to doom to pick a genre, any genre.
control-z mentioned a favorite of mine, so I’ll leave you with two bands and two genres you may not really have heard before.
***Stoner Doom Metal
Electric Wizard - Wizard In Black , Doom Mantia & Funeralopolis
***Doom Metal
Lair Of The Minotaur - Assassins Of The Cursed Mist & War Metal Battle Master
I found some short songs on their album Damnation, but it’s radically different from their other works. Well, I mean more like 4-5 minute songs, with one a bit shorter, as “short.” It’s a very soft, progressive rock, melodic type of album, with the vocalist doing quite lovely singing on the tracks. The companion album, Deliverance, has 10+ minute track lengths and seriously growly vocals.
:smack: Shows you what happens when the board hangs during when I’m trying to post - I got scooped!
Yeah, those were supposed to be released as one huge album, but some idiot at the record label couldn’t wrap his head around the whole light/dark dichotomy thing, so they got released as 2 separate albums.
Wow, looks like I guessed wrong on the Power Metal genre. I’m glad Snowboarder Bo picked up the right suggestions.
Opeth is easily one of my favorites. I would have suggested them originally if I thought Death Metal was a real possibility.
Anyway, some other possibilities based on what you mentioned:
Katatonia - If you like Opeth, I’d be surprised if you don’t like them. Their older stuff is very doomy, but considering that Mikael Akerfeldt (vocalist/guitarist of Opeth) said their new album (yet to be released) is possibly the best heavy album he’s heard in 10 years… I think you see my point. Pretty much any album is solid, and I’m particularly fond of Viva Emptiness, but you the album probably closest to the sound you might like is Brave Murder Day which is very Opethy.
Bloodbath - Super group of Opeth and Katatonia members and Dan Swano. If you like Opeth and Amon Amarth, it should be pretty straight forward. I would probably recommend either The Fathomless Mastery or Resurrection Through Carnage.
Meshuggah - I know someone else mentioned them upthread, but if you like the technical stuff, these guys are pretty much the best it gets when it comes to technical death metal. Their unusual rhythms and scales are a little much for some people though. None is probably the best album to start with.
Gorguts - Another technical death metal band, but a bit more straightforward and thoroughly brutal. From Wisdom to Hate is more straightforward and brutal, Obscura is a bit more experimental and suffers from some poor production, but both are good albums.
Nevermore - Yeah, not death metal, but they’re just too plain awesome and I can’t imagine someone liking a band like Opeth or Amon Amarth or many of the other suggestions (like Dark Tranquility, In Flames… did anyone mention Arch Enemy?) and not liking them. Based on what you seem to like, I’d try out the albums Politics of Ecstasy or Enemies of Reality.
Dark Suns - Yeah it’s a shameless plug because I love this band and I don’t think they get anywhere near the exposure they deserve. Their album Swanlike is sort of like a doomy Opeth/Katatonia sound, so that might work for you. Existence isn’t a death metal album at all, but is a truly brilliant album with similar themes and experimentation. Their newest album, Grave Human Genuine, does have some more interesting death metal influences and some growling, but lots of experimentation and technical work too. So yeah, maybe not so much for the OP, but if someone else in this thread checks them out and likes them, I’ll be happy.
Katatonia - Soil’s Song
I love this band. I like their stuff post-CMV better than their early stuff even.
Pantera!
Yes, yes, 1000 times yes. This is why we love the Straight Dope.
This strikes me as an excellent time to introduce another (classic) death metal band & song:
Bolt Thrower - World Eater
Boy oh boy my mouth is just watering over the thought of these songs.
Haven’t had the chance to sift through them yet, and probably won’t tomorrow (today??), but I’ll get to em eventually.
Until then Amon Amarth will hold me over
Glad you found some music you enjoy. I just came in to add my vote for Dark Tranquillity.
Monochromatic Stains and The Wonders at your Feet.
I’d also suggest looking into Machine Head. While not death by any means, they’re quite driving, IMO.
1995 was a very good year for progressive/melodic death metal, and there are three albums released that year that you absolutely must have if you’re a fan of the style: In Flames’ The Jester Race, Dark Tranquility’s The Gallery and At the Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul.
So far so good on the PDM stuff.
Dark Tranquility is doing me really well right now, and I’m about halfway through the rest of the list.
Which leads naturally to Orange Goblin. Why aren’t these guys more popular?
Love that Bolt Thrower song
I love’s me some stoner metal! This is my favorite OG song, tho: Beginner’s Guide To Suicide from Healing Through Fire. I really think they are better as a 4 piece than they were with Pete O’Malley on 2nd guitar.
Any slim chance anyone (Bo?) could throw me some more Melodic, and Technical.
Those were the ones that I seemed to enjoy most, and I’ve been through the links you sent and gave them all a chance…some were good to me, others not…but those to seemed to be my two closest genres.
Instead of my Amon Areth album (you bet I got it that day) I’d like another one of just random songs
Huh. That is absolutely not where I got my name from. I’m more in the Iron Maiden/Dream Theater camp, but an interesting link nonetheless.
Can do.
Go to Nuclear Blast Records and you can watch videos, listen to songs, download mp3s and order stuff. They generally send a sampler CD with every order. The latest one, Music Assault 2009 is 17 pummeling tracks of awesomeness.
Also check stuff out at Century Media Records. Same deal: videos, music, aural brutality, good times.
Peaceville is a UK label that is home to some awesome metal acts, as well.
For the record, I don’t particularly care for everything I linked for you. But I know that many people like stuff I do not, and I figured you’d be better off with a large sample, so you could find your music, not just listen to my music. (But hearing some of what grabbed your ear did make me smile, pump my fist and say “fuckin’ A”!)
Another thing I can highly recommend to keep your finger on the pulse of metal is a subscription to Metal Hammer magazine. Every issue comes with 1 or 2 sampler CDs, sometimes a DVD, sometimes stickers, sometimes all of the above, a calender every December, and loads of info on new releases, album reviews, concert reviews, video games, movies, books… I’ve had a subscription for years now, and it’s worth it’s weight in gold to me. Prolly my #1 source for new music.
Then the best thing to do is just browse teh intarwebz. Hit youtube, and start watching the stuff that is linked on the right hand side of the page. Check out bands you know at www.allmusic.com and then check out the bands linked at the bottom of the Overview page. I do a lot of browsing online, a lot of listening and reading, and I spend a shitload of money on CDs. If you want to ask about specific bands, I can prolly help steer you clear of bad albums (or even bad bands).
In other words, you’ve eaten today, my friend, but now it’s time for you to start learning to fish!
OK, I can’t resist! I’ll leave you 2 new bands who are fulfilling the promises made more than 20 years ago by others.
Airbourne (remember what AC/DC used to sound like?)
Blood Island Raiders (remember how good that first Danzig album was?)
Props to Blaster Master for showing me Blind Guardian!
They are so…different, but cool!!!