Metal

[bwv 1080]

Yep. Knew about those. Thanks. 

How about Electric Wizard?

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/sO7VP34n2Ps

[MN Dave]

Yep. Thanks. I like Witchcult Today by them.

[MN Dave]

If you like Sabbath, you might want to sample these blokes.

http://www.myspace.com/hourof13doom

[jowcol]

I'm not one to get too hung up on categories-- but stuff like Electric Wizard I'd rank among the Doom Genre.  If it's okay to explore beyond the "norms" of metal, allow me to suggest some Stoner/Psychedelic bands that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of , and may appeal to those on this list who obviously like music as music, and aren't locked into the verse-chorus-verse approach.  Although Doom has some great attitude and weight, I get tired of the beats and lack of variety after a while, and Stoner tends to scratch that itch for me.

The grand-daddy of stoner bands has to be Kyuss—they took the Black Sabbath down-tuning, and added some psychedelia into the mix.  Welcome to Sky Valley would be the first album I'd recommend—it's gathered into 3 long suites mixing songs with longer instrumental bridges.  The other great album of theirs Blues for a Red Sun is also quite solid.  The youtube link is a very representative song of theirs— high energy start, stoner shuffle, note the coda at the end that starts taking the tune in another direction. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfWI-yV7TUY


My favorite band in the stoner/psychedelic genre has to be the German band Colour Haze.  Yes, there is some heavy power riffing, but mixed with it is a classical since of proportion, some healthy psychedelia, and almost a jazzy, minimalist feel.  In addition to the standard 60s-70s rock influences, they pull from jazz, Indian raga, and have a tune in whole tone.   Very tasteful playing—and the drummer and bassist have some very sophisticated licks. They also go for long, hypnotic, slowly building instrumentals.  Albums to get Periscope, CO2(which may tragically be out of print), Ewige Blumenkraft (ditto), Los Sounds de Krauts, self Titled and All—there is a lot of great music on each.  This is a quick sample of what I could find on Youtube, although I could not find versions of two of their best instrumentals (CO2 and Plazmakeks) . 
Love  (Slow intro, but a gorgeous riff kicks in in around 4:16 or so)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygvHZkkc62g

House of Rushammon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11KPI6wjtNw&feature=PlayList&p=242A7DD06D11BBAB&index=5

Did El It  (Whole Tone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF3rDQdZpN8&feature=PlayList&p=242A7DD06D11BBAB&index=8

Periscope Brief Return
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_DpiSNnR8&feature=PlayList&p=4DDCA363B4253A15&index=24

Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXOVrqVvtnM&feature=PlayList&p=4DDCA363B4253A15&index=23

The guitarist for the band, Stefan Koglek, is a really cool and approachable guy who is also a big Webern fan and has been trying to get the band to do a serialist work.  His record label at http://www.elektrohasch.de/ has a lot of this stuff, and some other interesting bands as well.  I particularly like the Satya album by My Sleeping Karma that mixes stoner riffs with minimalist circular structures and Tibetan Buddhist interludes.  This is a cut off that album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmn7rqKS5gU

Probably the other most indispensible  band of that genre for me is Los Natas.  Ciudad de Brahmin is one of the most cohesive, consistently inventive rock albums I've ever come across.  From what I gather, this argentine band was started by three music students that pull together a weird blend of Santana, jazz, and ultra-heavy Black Sabbath.  All of their albums are pretty strong, and they did two purely instrumental "Toba Trance" albums that are quite good.  I haven't been able to find anything on youtube that matches the sound on Ciudad de Brahmin.

While this stuff doesn't deliver the heavy dark of Doom, it layers lot of variety over some of the deep riffage Doom lovers appreciate. 

Although, as they say, your mileage may vary.

[greg]

I recently acquired all of the Electric Wizard albums, so that's on my to listen list... 

Speaking of Bartok-like metal that was mentioned earlier in this thread, this one actually sounds pretty cool and reminds me a bit of the 6th String Quartet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/zu8_OjubSbA&feature=player_embedded

[MN Dave]

I don't usually enjoy death metal but I picked up a Nile album because it sounded interesting. They mix elements of doom in there.

[Elgarian]

They mix elements of doom in there.

Sounds like Life in General, really.

[MN Dave]

Sounds like Life in General, really.

Actually the "doom" is the part where you get to mellow out for a second. 

[greg]

Yeah, doom metal has some of the slowest tempos of any music genre.
I guess the video I posted last would be a good example, though there are better ones.

[Renfield]

Yeah, doom metal has some of the slowest tempos of any music genre.

But it's so... I said 'angry' above, but I think 'angsty' is more appropriate.

[greg]

It's like walking through an autumn forest during sunset and reflecting upon the calm stillness of the lake in front of you while watching shadows of the deceased fade into the approaching, eternal reach of the wings of night.


Or something like that. 

[jowcol]

A very good resource for all sorts of non-commercial heavy rock is www.stonerrock.com.   (They do "stoner" , new psychedelic, doom, death, etc)  They have a very active community, much like GMG.   (Although the discourse is not always as cerebral and refined).  They also have a very good mail order business that will provide you access to stuff from indie's that may be otherwise hard to get.   You should be able to pick up similar bands to Electric Wizard by looking up the threads on their albums. The "best of listings" for each year may be worth exploring-- this is not a top-40 community by any stretch of the imagination.    You can also listen to sample tracks by most of the bands they feature.   They also seem to have a deep knowledge of very obscure 60-s 70-s heavy rock, and addition to focusing on heavy rock from the last couple decades. .  I haven't been active there in a while, but I used the same handle I do here. 

Although not my cuppa tea, if you want doomy/heavy and long, you should also check out Sleep.  Their album Jerusalem is  one long work. (Which, as it turned out, was the edited version they were forced to release.  The "directors cut" is the longer 'Dope Smoker' which fans of ultra-heavy really seem to like. ) 

[greg]

Anyone ever listen to Behemoth? (or their album "Evangelion")?

Just finished listening to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4j3yJekvA4

which is quite impressive (the genre is death metal, btw). Really heavy stuff that just sounds good. 

[Lethevich]

They kind of lost me after Demigod, it felt like they were re-treading the style somewhat. Previously each of their albums represented quite a strong evolution but The Apostasy and Evangelion were technically immensely impressive but a little so-so conceptually. There also seemed to be a bit of an over-reliance on blastbeats and fast tempos for the sake of it which killed some of the atmosphere. Belphegor has some similarities to recent Behemoth if you dig that style. They're instrumentally more primitive, but a lot of fun - any band with an album called Bondage Goat Zombie can't be bad.

Zos Kia Cultus and Demigod's bouncy little march tunes could be really interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/v/LTIMlBtt0no http://www.youtube.com/v/TZ720jR-ff4

Edit: I respect the singer Nergal for being a decent ambassador for the genre, though. He can appear on mainstream talkshows and not come across as a complete idiot, plus has a sense of humour.

[greg]

Nergal's guitar is pretty cool, at least.

http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_nergal.html

Those two sound kind of similar, but with a little less heavy sound, I guess...

[westknife]

The origin is unknown. One theory is that it derives from the lyric "heavy metal thunder" from Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild".

[snyprrr]

What are the politics of a band like Slayer or Megadeth, that tend to deal with global type themes? Are they all Lefties,... and what about Skrewdriver (seeing as Nazis WERE Socialists)?

nevermind

Looking back, Sabbath did this kind of thing, but now I'm thinking: Hey, they did 'expose' things, but then they just seem to sit on the sidelines and whine about the Oppressor, instead of doing something?


For all of Metal's supposed 'social conscience', I'm not seeing how this translates into anything in the above Underground world.

[Kontrapunctus]

Morbid Angel is my overall favorite metal band (although their new CD has some alarming elements--techno???). I also like tech death bands such as (old) Cryptopsy, Necrophagist, Obscura, and Decrepit Birth. I also like some prog bands, too, such as Dream Theater and Symphony X.

Here is a hilarious video of Hitler reacting to the new Morbid Angel CD!! (Too bad the spelling isn't better, but it's still funny!)

http://www.youtube.com/v/8HQGqV1Ho4k

[ibanezmonster]

I wish Necrophagist would hurry up with their new album. It's been 7 years since their last one, and they are going to use 7 strings with 27 frets on their new album.

[Kontrapunctus]

I wish Necrophagist would hurry up with their new album. It's been 7 years since their last one, and they are going to use 7 strings with 27 frets on their new album.

Yes, that would be nice! I keep forgetting about them--are they still a functioning band? I know they've gone through a lot of members over the years.

I'm also eager to hear the new Gorguts (Luke, their lead guitarist, is a huge fan of Penderecki, Schnittke, et al!), and I'm also pleased to see that Coroner has reformed. There are some wonderful videos from a recent show in Lausanne.