Metal

[bwv 1080]

thanks to my Zune pass, I have been listening to alot of new (to me) metal bands, the best of my recent discoveries are (in no particular order)

Slayer (for some reason I never listened to them "back in the day"
Sunn 0))) (black sabbath meets xenakis)
Opeth (contrasts strikingly beautiful melodies with death metal cookie monster vocals)
Mayhem (attilla csihar also sings with Sunn 0))) and is the only heavy metal singer I am aware of who can do tibetan throat singing)
Agalloch (black metal from portland, heavily influenced by one of my favorite bands, the swans)
Enslaved (their recent albums are pink floyd / rush -ish viking metal)
Saint Vitus (grandfathers of doom metal (basically black sabbath-inspired sludge))
Electric Wizard (dopethrone is the heaviest doom album ever made)

[MN Dave]

I am over my metal phase. 

[Lethevich]

You might like Negură Bunget's latest, they have similar post-metallish influences as Enslaved:

http://www.youtube.com/v/46GhUrtrklM

[bwv 1080]

You might like Negură Bunget's latest, they have similar post-metallish influences as Enslaved:

http://www.youtube.com/v/46GhUrtrklM

cool, Romanian black metal

its funny - I cannot stand the 80s / early 90s schlock satanism stuff, but how it has evolved into some really interesting music

[Renfield]

Opeth (contrasts strikingly beautiful melodies with death metal cookie monster vocals)

That's a great description!

Mayhem (attilla csihar also sings with Sunn 0))) and is the only heavy metal singer I am aware of who can do tibetan throat singing)

Is that Mayhem-Mayhem (viz. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, since you mention Csihar), or post-everyone-dying Mayhem? In either case, may I recommend yet more Mayhem-Mayhem from their Leipzig Live before Death killed himself (!)?

They were a very singular band, even whilst being chock-full of 'schlock satanism stuff'. In fact, regarding Black Metal having become 'very interesting music', I'd say it was more a case of the withdrawal of overly in-your-face 'schlock satanism' exposing what was already great music, rather than the music itself becoming inherently better; although it definitely has evolved in many ways.

On the topic of contrasting beautiful melodies with cookie monster vocals, how are you with Dimmu Borgir*?

*By no means traditional Black Metal; or as downright prog as Opeth.

[Catison]

I am into this indie metal band Tod Haus Das Krieger Sonata

[greg]

You might like Negură Bunget's latest, they have similar post-metallish influences as Enslaved:

That was pretty decent.

On the topic of contrasting beautiful melodies with cookie monster vocals, how are you with Dimmu Borgir*?

...
excuse me, I have a search to do.

[Renfield]

excuse me, I have a search to do.

Their best work ranges between Stormblåst and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, which features the most effective integration of orchestral strings I'm aware of in metal, and is generally the one to hear first for prog-inclined folk (as in people, not folk music ).

[greg]

Their best work ranges between Stormblåst and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, which features the most effective integration of orchestral strings I'm aware of in metal, and is generally the one to hear first for prog-inclined folk (as in people, not folk music ).

Ok, I'll look those up later. I saw a youtube video of theirs and thought the music was okay, but the contents of the video not to cool, being so Satanist, anti-Christian, etc.
I'm trying to get some sort of mental list of bands to check out... mainly focusing on avant-garde, death, and doom metal.

Among those... Kayo Dot, Deathspell Omega, In the Woods..., and Nocturnus, for example.

[MN Dave]

Dude, metal is the music of Satan.

[Lethevich]

I'm trying to get some sort of mental list of bands to check out... mainly focusing on avant-garde, death, and doom metal.

Among those... Kayo Dot, Deathspell Omega, In the Woods..., and Nocturnus, for example.

I'm not huge on tech death, but the classic bands alongside Nocturnus were Death, Atheist and Cynic. I personally find Cynic too melodic for my tastes, but they are popular. You might get recommended mid-era Pestilence, but I don't think they're progressive enough.

More recent bands of note (seemingly half of which are French Canadian) to Youtube would be Quo Vadis, Gorguts, Cryptopsy (ignore the last few albums), Neuraxis, Origin, The Faceless, Textures, Neuraxis, Psycroptic, Pavor, Gorod, Obscura (Ger), Martyr (Can), Illogicist, Neglected Fields (not the most extrovert of styles, but very good), Lykathia Aflame, Iniquity, Anata, Spawn of Possession, Sleep Terror.

Not death metal, but you might like Spastic Ink, Watchtower and Spiral Architect too.

[Elgarian]

I'm not huge on tech death, but the classic bands alongside Nocturnus were Death, Atheist and Cynic. I personally find Cynic too melodic for my tastes, but they are popular. You might get recommended mid-era Pestilence, but I don't think they're progressive enough.

More recent bands of note (seemingly half of which are French Canadian) to Youtube would be Quo Vadis, Gorguts, Cryptopsy (ignore the last few albums), Neuraxis, Origin, The Faceless, Textures, Neuraxis, Psycroptic, Pavor, Gorod, Obscura (Ger), Martyr (Can), Illogicist, Neglected Fields (not the most extrovert of styles, but very good), Lykathia Aflame, Iniquity, Anata, Spawn of Possession, Sleep Terror.

Not death metal, but you might like Spastic Ink, Watchtower and Spiral Architect too.

This post has entirely made my day. I don't know how to begin to express how this reads to someone so completely out of the loop as I am. How I would love to be recommended mid-era Pestilence! And Sleep Terror - oh, I want that, I want that! Just bury me in Psycroptic Iniquities and leave me to the dizzying mercies of Spiral Architect. Glorious, glorious stuff.

[Lethevich]

This post has entirely made my day. I don't know how to begin to express how this reads to someone so completely out of the loop as I am. How I would love to be recommended mid-era Pestilence! And Sleep Terror - oh, I want that, I want that! Just bury me in Psycroptic Iniquities and leave me to the dizzying mercies of Spiral Architect. Glorious, glorious stuff.

Fortunately he wasn't looking for grindcore, or the suggested names could've been even more bizarre. Perhaps the only genre where a band can be admired under monikers such as "Anal Avomit Vomit".

Correction: it seems that my subconscious sense of decency caused me to typo that band name.

[Elgarian]

Fortunately he wasn't looking for grindcore

Sounds to me as though Grindcore will eventually find him. 

[bwv 1080]

On the topic of contrasting beautiful melodies with cookie monster vocals, how are you with Dimmu Borgir*?

*By no means traditional Black Metal; or as downright prog as Opeth.

is that not schlock satanism in spades?

and why is it that satanism is so big in the wealthiest, most progressive & secular society on the planet (norway)?  you could probably write some sociology treatise on the subject, but to me its just stupid

[greg]

I'm not huge on tech death, but the classic bands alongside Nocturnus were Death, Atheist and Cynic. I personally find Cynic too melodic for my tastes, but they are popular. You might get recommended mid-era Pestilence, but I don't think they're progressive enough.

More recent bands of note (seemingly half of which are French Canadian) to Youtube would be Quo Vadis, Gorguts, Cryptopsy (ignore the last few albums), Neuraxis, Origin, The Faceless, Textures, Neuraxis, Psycroptic, Pavor, Gorod, Obscura (Ger), Martyr (Can), Illogicist, Neglected Fields (not the most extrovert of styles, but very good), Lykathia Aflame, Iniquity, Anata, Spawn of Possession, Sleep Terror.

Not death metal, but you might like Spastic Ink, Watchtower and Spiral Architect too.

Cool! Thanks for the recommendations.

Sounds to me as though Grindcore will eventually find him. 

I'm not sure I've heard Grindcore before, but if it's a musical style mainly consisting of 16-year old punks who think they can make music, I'll pass. I prefer music made by more serious musicians who are more often in their late 20s, 30s (at least) and are very often non-American... hmm 

[greg]

is that not schlock satanism in spades?

and why is it that satanism is so big in the wealthiest, most progressive & secular society on the planet (norway)?  you could probably write some sociology treatise on the subject, but to me its just stupid

I've been wondering the same thing (I have the impression that it's not just Norway, but all of the Scandanavian countries). Is it just that there is a strong tradition of paganism or what...?

[MN Dave]

I've been wondering the same thing (I have the impression that it's not just Norway, but all of the Scandanavian countries). Is it just that there is a strong tradition of paganism or what...?

Yep.

[Renfield]

is that not schlock satanism in spades?

and why is it that satanism is so big in the wealthiest, most progressive & secular society on the planet (norway)?  you could probably write some sociology treatise on the subject, but to me its just stupid

I've been wondering the same thing (I have the impression that it's not just Norway, but all of the Scandanavian countries). Is it just that there is a strong tradition of paganism or what...?

It's a flavour issue.

It used to be more than that (if you look at the early 90s church burning, and various murders and suicides - least of all around Mayhem and Emperor), but nowadays - and even back then, for those not involved with the aforementioned deeds - it's just stylistics.

Which could otherwise have been clad in other things than explicit satanist iconography, even while still being iconoclast in some way.

And Norway, being a) a secular country, yet also b) a country with strongly polarised prior religious traditions (pagan, then christian), which also c) had strong youth rebellion tendencies in the early 90s, was a natural cradle for this sort of music specifically targeted against religious sanctimony. Though speaking of Cradle, Britain had its fair share, even arguably starting the genre (see: Black Metal.


All in all, I think that if you are not religious, and yet able to appreciate christian religious music like Bach's B minor Mass without offense, I don't think the satanist, or pagan, or zoroastrian (e.g.) imagery should be specifically relevant to your appreciation of Black Metal, assuming of course that you actually like the music (not necessarily the case for appreciators of the B minor Mass)!

And even if you are religious, you might choose to look beyond the cover.


One more thing, about death (vs. black) metal: I don't like it.

It's quite angry, but seems mostly bland. And not because it's often not melodic, as I'm quite happy with that.

[secondwind]

How I would love to be recommended mid-era Pestilence! And Sleep Terror - oh, I want that, I want that! Just bury me in Psycroptic Iniquities and leave me to the dizzying mercies of Spiral Architect. Glorious, glorious stuff.