The Metal Thread \m/

General General Discussion
1

Okay, so since the thread regarding Sweden tucking their tails between there legs over Islamic militants was evolving into a debate over which Scandinavian produced the best metal bands, I have done as suggested and started a new thread on this. I’ll repeat what I said there to kick it off. I love pretty much all the offerings of metal that Scandinavia has put out.

Out of Finland, I like Children of Bodom, Mors Principium Est, Wintersun, Catamenia, Kalmah, Norther, and Nightwish. Follow the Reaper is one of the best metal albums in history, period.

Sweden has the offering of the creators and undisputed kings of melodic death metal with At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames up until Soundtrack to Your Escape, when they turned into Swedish Korn (though Come Clarity was an awesome album). And I’ll mention Amaranthe again. I went to go see them last year in NY and, as I expected: 1) They were awesome 2) Elize is even hotter in person!

I appreciate Norway’s contribution to the metal world, though aside from Satyricon, which I love, I could never get into that low fidelity raw black metal like early Darkthrone (before they went punk), Mayhem, Gorgoroth, etc. I know that it was supposed to play into the Satanic ethos of black metal that “We make the music for ourselves and not for our fans”, but it still sucks to listen to. That doesn’t apply to bands like Dimmu Borgir and the others who “sold out” by defying Satan and trying to make some money and fans.

And since I mentioned Elize Ryd, I should also say that one of the other reasons to love metal is that the women of metal are 50 times more talented and about 1000 times more beautiful than any American slutty pop princess.

I stand by my opinion that Sweden narrowly edges Finland for the metal scene, as it’s just way to hard to beat the big 3 for melodic death metal. Throw Soilwork in there and it makes it just that much harder!

Anyway, so that’s my intro to the metal thread.

2

I’m a big fan of Dimmu Borgir, Lamb of God (saw them open for Metallica in Buffalo in 09), Metallica, Slayer, and a bunch of others.

3

I don’t know… Norway has Old Man’s Child and Opeth…

Soooooo ****ing good.

4

And Emperor!

5

I forgot how many good bands I used to listen too. Tomorrow is just going to be melodic death metal day.

Lots of Dimmu Borgir.

6

It’s nice to see other fans of the best music genre in the world. Metal has such a wide spectrum of sounds, styles and themes that for me is very mood dependent, then it’s especially fascinating to see how much crossover each of these bands have with each other and the sound each individual can add to an entirely different breed of the music.

Some of my favorites after a “quick” scroll through my iTunes.

Norway - V:28, Emperor/Ihsahn and his wife(Starofash, Peccatum, etc.), Hardingrock, Dimmu Borgir, Red Harvest, Arcturus, Borknagar, Ulver, Enslaved, The Kovenant, Old Man’s Child, Ram-Zet, Satyricon, Zyklon
Sweden - Ghost, Amon Amarth, Ancient Wisdom, Dissection, In Flames(1997-2004), The Project Hate MCMXCIX, At The Gates, Soilwork, Tiamat, Watain, Meshuggah
Finland - Catamenia, Norther
Poland - Behemoth, Vesania
France - Gojira
Hungary - Sear Bliss
Ukraine - Drudkh
Britain - Anaal Nathrakh
Canada - Devin Townsend Band, Devin Townsend Project, Strapping Young Lad, Casualties of Cool
USA - Nile, Ides of Gemini, Nevermore
Australia - Ruins, The Amenta

Currently I’ve listened to the leak of the new Ghost - Meliora about 6 times in two days and absolutely love every second of it, and just today finished my first listen to Nile - What Shall Not Be Unearthed.

[video]https://youtu.be/zz1h4yItb8g[/video]
[video]https://youtu.be/Cx01fOYsc6E[/video]

7

You’re welcome.

[video=youtube_share;YFBMyJUc_fU]http://youtu.be/YFBMyJUc_fU?t=1m17s[/video]

Probably the greatest Metal band of all time.

Once upon a time, I was obsessed with In Flames, until they went full-retard. The loss of Jesper Strömblad sent them straight down the toilet. (Side note, if you are not familiar with Sinergy, their first album had Jesper Strömblad and Alexi Laiho on git-fiddles).

While I have two tons of love for old In Flames, old Opeth (when Peter Lindgren was still on guitars, ATG/The Haunted, Soilwork, and Dark Tranquility, I am more fond of the Finns (COB, Norther, Wintersun, Kalmah).

A guilty pleasure of mine is Viking-Metal: Thyrfing, Ensiferum, Turisas, Korpiklaani, etc.

While I’m as red-blooded a patriot as one can get, American Metal, with the exception of Lamb of God, is for children. Scandinavians absolutely dominate the genre.

8

Still love me some Fear Factory. Slayer too. I like some of the foreign bands mentioned but alot of it is just “off” enough that i cant really get into it. i’m not really a “metal fan” though, just like certain bands and types of sounds.

9

Agreed. Much of modern American heavy metal has roots in hardcore punk as opposed to thrash and power metal. Metalcore/melodic death hybrid bands like As I Lay Dying (before Tim tried to kill his wife), Still Remains, and Unearth put out some good stuff, and they openly admit that their biggest influences are the Swedish and Finnish melodic death bands. One trend I like from the American metal bands is that many of them do covers of pop songs and make them listenable.

Another country’s metal that doesn’t get enough love is The Netherlands. Granted, Dutch symphonic metal is more of rock/metal, but it’s good if you’re in the mood for something lighter than MDM or black metal. Within Temptation and Delain are amazing bands!

10

I’ve never been able to get into Lamb of God and just cringe when they pop up on Pandora. In a whole that’s true for the majority of “metal” out of this country for me. Aside from Warrel Dane/Nevermore/Sanctuary, Iced Earth, Dragonlord and a handful of others I really can’t think of any American metal that has made much of an impression to me over the years.

http://youtu.be/Qqg8bsDayak

[video=youtube_share;9Ba-2ag3tgo]http://youtu.be/9Ba-2ag3tgo[/video]

11

Surprised no one mentioned Arch Enemy yet. Or witchery.

Some other euro/Scandinavian metal I like not mentioned above:
-vomitory
-benighted
-aborted
-defeated sanity
-necrophagist
-spawn of possession
-severe torture
-flesh of apocalypse
-aeon
-Incision
-torsofuk

Good American metal is vast!
-The Absence
-lamb of god
-dying fetus
-suffocation
-cannibal corpse
-origin
-disgorge
-devourment
-cryptopsy (okay Canadian, but that’s North American eh?)
-deeds of flesh
-skinless
-vital remains
-napalm death
-decrepit birth

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I know there are tons more- just have to look through my vinyl collection.

I could go on and on. There’s a TOn of underground stuff most have never heard.

There’s also some amazing stuff coming out of Brazil, Japan, China, Malta, Nicaragua and Australia.

I’ll list more later when I have more time.

12

Never got into Arch Enemy much. I don’t like female screamers. Not to say that they aren’t good though.

Good American metal is vast!
-The Absence
-lamb of god
-dying fetus
-suffocation
-cannibal corpse
-origin
-disgorge
-devourment
-cryptopsy (okay Canadian, but that’s North American eh?)
-deeds of flesh
-skinless
-vital remains
-napalm death
-decrepit birth

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I know there are tons more- just have to look through my vinyl collection.

I could go on and on. There’s a TOn of underground stuff most have never heard.

Basically, the Norwegians burn churches, the Swedes and Finns write abstract poetry, and the Americans like to eat and have sex with corpses (in that order).

For the good American acts, don’t forget Morbid Angel.

There’s also some amazing stuff coming out of Brazil, Japan, China, Malta, Nicaragua and Australia.

I’ll list more later when I have more time.

Universum is an awesome Australian melodic death metal band, and Blood Stain Child is an excellent Japanese group!

13

I’m not sure where they are from, but my top bands are Amon Amarth, Insomnium, and This Ending, of which the drummer is same as AA.

I think they are Finnish?

14

Swedish. Amon Amarth is my favorite band by far. Met them several times and there great guy’s. Very laid back.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

15

First three albums were a male vocalist, then Angela Gossow came in at Wages of Sin(the only album of theirs I care for) until recently where she stepped down to manage and selected a new female, more of the same meh sound.

Saw them with Enslaved last year, loved finally seeing them live. Then saw King Dude and Ghost a couple weeks later.

//youtu.be/m9LpMZuBEMk

16
  • Pantera
    -Lamb of God
    -Down
  • Crowbar
    -Tool

…'Murca

I do love Meshuggah, and Cavalera Conspiracy, though.

17

I never liked Angela as a vocalist or member of the band- I much preferred Johan. Angela is all vocal processor and boobs- NOT metal!

The Amott brothers are ****ing amazing guitarists- best metal guitarist duo ever. They could banish your soul to hell with the brilliance of their arpeggio skills alone!!!

18

For metal bands that do female vocals, I prefer the operatic vocalists like Tarja Turunen, Sharon den Adel, Dianne van Giersbergen, Simone Simons, etc.

The Amott brothers are ****ing amazing guitarists- best metal guitarist duo ever. They could banish your soul to hell with the brilliance of their arpeggio skills alone!!!

No argument there, though Jesper Stromblad and Bjorn Gelotte during In Flames’ pre-Soundtrack were a very close second.

19

Texas Metal . . .

I grew up with these guys and their axe man and I went to school together. They’re the reason I have rock-n-roll hearing.

//youtu.be/QQF4FPOX9Rs

20

I caught one of their sets when playing shows at SXSW some time ago and was impressed, they play loud and the vocalist is pretty brutal- funny guy too.

There is tons of good American metal, all genres of metal- most of it is somewhat underground though and most people only know of the big guys.

Some of the best metal I’ve seen was in a basement or at an old car garage gutter punk slum venue with 10-20 other people.