CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: xnor on June 24, 2013, 11:01:28 PM
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In the spirit of other "The XYZ Thread" I open the
headbang Metal headbang Thread.
Post your favorite metal albums and artists. Every kind of metal is welcome.
Try not to post just a cover but the also the artist/band in text and maybe some description why you (don't) like them/it.
Let the metal flow....
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So let me start with:
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3d/Dream_Theater_-_Six_Degrees_of_Inner_Turbulence.jpg/220px-Dream_Theater_-_Six_Degrees_of_Inner_Turbulence.jpg)
Released in 2002, this imo is a great progressive piece. It definitely got me hooked on DT.
War Inside My Head headbang .. they played it live last year in Vienna and it was awesome.
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DT is cool. My favorite albums are Awake, Images and Words, and Octavarium. Talking about progressive, have you tried Tesseract? The Altered State album is cool. A little poppy I guess but still very nice. I do love the more alternative sound ala Porcupine Tree though so YMMV
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(http://image.lyricspond.com/image/i/artist-isis/album-oceanic/cd-cover.jpg)
I mentioned this album in a different thread. Isis - Oceanic
One of my favorite metal albums, and albums period, of all time. It flows from track to track seamlessly. Think a hard edged metal band that knows how to groove like a post-rock group. I think this album stands out both thematically and technically. It knows when to be heavy, and it knows when to be softer; easy for me to get lost in the emotion and pacing. I think it's required listening for all metal heads! headbang
Let's keep this thread going!
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One of the cool things about writing for a metal based blog is being able to talk with bands during the production process and maybe try to influence them into thinking more about sound quality than they might otherwise would have. I can't name any names, but Metal-Fi is helping a certain funeral doom band master their next release. The last one was DR6 if I remember correctly, and we've made it clear that we want to see dynamic range in double digits this time. VERY few bands have the guts to master their CDs that way, and we've made it our mission to convince them to treat CDs the same as vinyl masters, which for the most part haven't changed since the end of the pre-Loudness War levels of the early '90s.
As for specific albums, my #1 album of 2012 was Bilocate's Summoning The Bygones. Jordanian progressive death with some Gothic and eastern influences. Freaking stellar. All production work was by Jens Bogren, who's one of the best engineers currently working in metal. It's dynamically smashed as most metal CDs are, but Jens is very good at making the most of a very limited amount of range and you can tell that when listening, the sound really isn't too bad at all. That said, it's a crime that it's not available on vinyl because musically it's such a great album, and when a Bogren mix is allowed full dynamics the results are usually fantastic.
Listen to the track "Hypia" which has Dan Swano providing guest vocals. It could've been a B-side from Crimson or Crimson II. Sooooo good.
(http://www.thisisnotascene.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Bilocate-Summoning-The-Bygones.png)
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My favourite "metal" artist of all time would have to be Devin Townsend. I first discovered him in The Devin Townsend Project and I backtracked enough to listen to Strapping Young Lad. I honestly liked a lot of his/their releases and are definitely a great listen. He's been quite experimental in The Devin Townsend Project especially with Deconstruction and Epicloud though he hasn't lost his original sound. :)p7
As a word of caution he intentionally brickwalls his music though I think it works well with his intended "wall of sound".
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Although not a fan of black metal, I gave Bilocate a quick listen and I'm pretty impressed.
I have got the Tesseract album but haven't had time yet to give it a proper listen. Yeah it's got rock and pop elements in it.
Now for something completely different .. a mix of Jazz, Progressive Metal and Funk:
Panzerballett - Tank Goodness
(http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/0884860062527.jpg)
I really love those guys for their crazy ideas. Really smooth tempo changes on the one hand but completely unexpected stylistic changes on the other. Soft plucking followed by hard metal riffs. Just out of this world.
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If you want to try some epic Black metal try this...
(http://www.bestblackmetalalbums.com/data/news/images/debut_caladan_brood_album_out_now_15_02_2013.jpg)
Think Summoning but less cheesy and more epic!!!
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Anyone into the other DT? Dark Tranquillity? They have a new one out. I haven't heard the whole thing yet but saw the trailer on youtube and it seemed interesting enough.
dark tranquillity - construct
(http://www.discorder.com/images/covers/b/M/3/M38302.jpg)
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(http://image.lyricspond.com/image/i/artist-isis/album-oceanic/cd-cover.jpg)
I mentioned this album in a different thread. Isis - Oceanic
One of my favorite metal albums, and albums period, of all time. It flows from track to track seamlessly. Think a hard edged metal band that knows how to groove like a post-rock group. I think this album stands out both thematically and technically. It knows when to be heavy, and it knows when to be softer; easy for me to get lost in the emotion and pacing. I think it's required listening for all metal heads! headbang
Let's keep this thread going!
This and Animals As Leaders, my next purchases...
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My favorite band by far (and not just my favorite metal band) is Opeth. Started with "Ghost Reveries" with "Watershed" being the second album I really got into from them (I started listening somewhere in between there). I have since then expanded and love all of their albums, though I have never been able to get into their first two.
Mikael Akerfeldt is a truly fantastic musician/composer. I don't know what it is about the music he creates (whether it's with Opeth or not), but it just really fits my style. Granted, I had to listen to "Ghost Reveries" about 10 times all the way through before everything clicked and I started loving it. It can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around their style of music, or progressive music in general, if you're not used to it (I wasn't at the time).
Though it might not technically be their best, my favorite album is their latest, "Heritage." The dramatic shift in sound without a loss in quality blew my mind. Plus, it's a hell of a fun album and recorded/mastered pretty well compared to most modern music!
They also put on a fantastic show. Akerfeldt seems like a goofball compared to most metal musicians, which I approve of.
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I like Opeth too. Is Åkerfeldt having problems with his voice? It would explain the shift in style.
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Anyone into the other DT? Dark Tranquillity? They have a new one out. I haven't heard the whole thing yet but saw the trailer on youtube and it seemed interesting enough.
It's ok, kinda bland. The last one, We Are The Void, wasn't great either, and sounded god awful. The last really solid DT album was Fiction.
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I like Opeth too. Is Åkerfeldt having problems with his voice? It would explain the shift in style.
Didn't sound like it when I saw them in May. They played a lot of heavy material at that show and the tour in general. It seems as though he just genuinely wanted a clean vocal album.
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Yeah Opeth have some serious Deep Purple worship going on, and they wanted to do a classic '70s style progressive album for awhile. A lot of people HATED Heritage, I thought it was pretty good, but it pales in comparison to the real thing.
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I mentioned this album in a different thread. Isis - Oceanic
One of my favorite metal albums, and albums period, of all time. It flows from track to track seamlessly. Think a hard edged metal band that knows how to groove like a post-rock group. I think this album stands out both thematically and technically. It knows when to be heavy, and it knows when to be softer; easy for me to get lost in the emotion and pacing. I think it's required listening for all metal heads! headbang
Let's keep this thread going!
This and Animals As Leaders, my next purchases...
I dig these guys as well!
No one's mentioned Tool yet. They're an essential band within the genre IMO. Lateralus is definitely my favorite of their work.
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Deep Purple partly created the Metal sound. Deep Purple en Uriah Heep on the other side of Atlantic showcased how important synergy between singer and band was. Ian Gillian and Dave Byron were impressive for their day...
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Yeah Opeth have some serious Deep Purple worship going on, and they wanted to do a classic '70s style progressive album for awhile. A lot of people HATED Heritage, I thought it was pretty good, but it pales in comparison to the real thing.
I've heard a lot of people say that about "Heritage" and Steven Wilson's latest album, "The Raven that Refused to Sing," in that they're more tribute/copy albums from 60s/70s progressive music and that the original stuff is better.
Given my young age and experience with music, I'm not really familiar with bands Akerfeldt/Wilson draw inspiration from, so their new albums sound fresh to me and don't really have comparisons I'm familiar with. Akerfeldt also definitely has his own style of writing and playing despite his inspirations, and it just happens to mesh well with my tastes almost perfectly.
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Opeth is definitely cool. I loved the concert DVD thet featured the acoustic album by the way.
So now lets get to the more heavy side of metal... Death Metal
Autopsy, Immolation, Infester, Incantation, Atheist, Grave, Nile, Vader, etc... I love this genre.
To recommend a raw KVLT classic here we go
(http://www.metal-archives.com/images/3/3/9/5/33953.jpg)
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If you like Opeth and DM, have you listened to Bloodbath? :))
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Bloodbath is okay. The Dan Swano type stuff is overproduced for me. In DM I like the more raw sound which is why I gave the Infester example.
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"More raw" is an understatement. It's so raw, it reminds me of the stuff that is coming out of a meat grinder. Not my cup of metal. :-\
Btw, I never really understood black metal, satan worship and sometimes quite ridiculous looking makeup/paint in face. Being opposed to religions I can understand, but Satanism?
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Satanism is a fun subject because it tends to create fear and makes a lot of people get into metal LOL
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If you like Opeth and DM, have you listened to Bloodbath? :))
I only listened to a little bit...definitely wasn't my style.
Another metal band I'm very fond of is In Flames. Their albums before "Reroute to Remain" are fantastic...some of the best melodic metal I've heard. It's no surprise they were one of the pioneering bands for the genre and directly and indirectly influenced a lot of metal that came after. Some of their newer albums (RtR and beyond) have some decent material. Their latest to me felt like a step in the right direction and reminded me of "Clayman" in many ways, just not as good. Except Anders really needs to stop trying to do whatever he's doing with vocals...lol
Check out "Jotun" and "Gyroscope" from their Whoracle album if you haven't. Then check out the version of "Jotun" by a band/group of musicians called Slaughter of the Bluegrass. ;)
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Btw, I never really understood black metal, satan worship and sometimes quite ridiculous looking makeup/paint in face. Being opposed to religions I can understand, but Satanism?
Not all black metal is Immortal or Marduk. For the most part I'm not a huge fan of the genre either, but there are some absolutely stellar bands playing one form of black metal or another - Agalloch, Enslaved, Shining, etc.
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My favorite form of black metal is the shoegaze type like Alcest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=85c-P9hbmBg
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One of my favorite bands growing up was Guns N' Roses. I occasionally play Welcome To The Jungle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg) from their Appetite For Destruction album. Love the intro. Brings back memories.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514mefj4A8L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
I remember watching their MTV videos with my buddies... FU FU FU ... :)p13 ... headbang headbang headbang
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My favorite form of black metal is the shoegaze type like Alcest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=85c-P9hbmBg
Alcest isn't really shoegaze. If you want Black Metal/Shoegaze, listen to Deafheaven. "Sunbather" is one of the 3 best albums released last year, in any genre.
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Is that really 'black metal'? Sounds more like emo metal or something. I grew up with only speed and heavy metal pretty much so I'm not intimately versed in the thousand or so subdivisions these days. However, I always thought black metal was more akin to something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk
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Yah Alcest sounds like shoegaze like the alternative bands catherine wheel and ride for example with its own Black metal touch. So far as straight up black metal is concerned, I love stuff like love Emperor! Nightside eclipse is awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tccZs_veliA
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Is that really 'black metal'? Sounds more like emo metal or something. I grew up with only speed and heavy metal pretty much so I'm not intimately versed in the thousand or so subdivisions these days. However, I always thought black metal was more akin to something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk
That Dimmu video is not really Troo Black metal anymore. Thats Dimmu's more electronic sounding stuff. Their first few albums were more standard black metal. Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and Stormblast were great black metal albums for example...
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Is that really 'black metal'? Sounds more like emo metal or something. I grew up with only speed and heavy metal pretty much so I'm not intimately versed in the thousand or so subdivisions these days. However, I always thought black metal was more akin to something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk
Black Metal is a bit of a misnomer. It's technically an offshoot of hardcore punk characterized by screeching, often distorted vocals and raw production, on top of other hardcore staples.