Give me metal.

[Red Baron 0]

If you are going to black metal, I urge you to stay away from Dimmu Borgir. I mean to pick up a CD look at their album titles and song titles, then you get to listen to a polished black metal CD.

 

I also recommend Megadeth's Rust In Peace, a solid thrash metal album, with some of amazing solo's between Mustaine and Freedman.

 

For vintage, get Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest, probably their best album released.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

for Nile, you do pretty well with nearly any of their material, but I would mostly recommend their 'In Their Darkened Shrines" album. Probably the most atmospherically crushing album I've heard. The use of egyptian influence comes to full fruition and the effect is heaviness via instrumentation and music, and not implied acts and technicality. The latter is a major plague on most death metal offerings. Listening to Unas, Slayer of God, Churning The Maelstrom, and I Whisper In The Ear Of The Dead is spellbinding.

 

For bands like Burzum, Immortal, Emperor etc, I could probably upload a few songs onto yousendit and link you for investigation.

Much obliged. Limewire is being less than helpful tonight.

 

Pitchfork has a Cephalic Carnage review. I was surprised by this.

 

What about bands with hardcore influence? Everybody I've asked tells me Mastodon is half-hardcore, and I keep trying to figure out which side of the metal/hardcore line Between the Buried and Me fall on most of the time. I really dig both bands and wish to hear more that sounds like them.

 

K.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

If you are going to black metal, I urge you to stay away from Dimmu Borgir. I mean to pick up a CD look at their album titles and song titles, then you get to listen to a polished black metal CD.

 

redbaron only knows of the new century Dimmu Borgir. The stuff from about 1996-98 ish is worthy of listening to.

 

Much obliged. Limewire is being less than helpful tonight.

 

Most of the bigger p2p applications are pretty lousy for selection of this type. Few people have it and everyone who's looking crushes them with their queues for hours and days on end.

 

What about bands with hardcore influence? Everybody I've asked tells me Mastodon is half-hardcore, and I keep trying to figure out which side of the metal/hardcore line Between the Buried and Me fall on most of the time. I really dig both bands and wish to hear more that sounds like them.

 

I don't know shit about hardcore really other than Sick Of It All, which isn't really full hardcore anyway.

 

EDIT: For a lot of these bands, you might be shocked and or dismayed at the production value of the recordings. For many of these bands, the music came first, then production value worries...of course some less honourable acts used bad production as a means to be considered "true".

[Guest Fire and Knives]

Yeah, I'm wishlisting shit on Amazon and I'm not coming up with too much for Emperor/Immortal/Darkthrone etc. I'm surprised; first time I've ever been unable to find something on Amazon.

 

Speaking of new Dimmu Borgir, which I have seen on shelves and laughed at, what's some shit I should absolutely avoid? There is nothing I despise more than ending up with an album I grow to hate a month after I buy it.

 

K.

[Red Baron 0]

Cradle of Filth.

 

It's pretty trendy these days.

 

Oh, and probably most power metal, I can tell.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Speaking of new Dimmu Borgir, which I have seen on shelves and laughed at, what's some shit I should absolutely avoid? There is nothing I despise more than ending up with an album I grow to hate a month after I buy it.

 

Well, this might happen with any BM you come to. Avoid any Dimmu Borgir albums after Spiritual Black Dimensions. Albums previous to this are more accurate representations of their BM vision. Everything else is fast carnival music basically.

 

Cradle Of Filth is perfectly worthwhile if you, like Dimmu, stick to earlier albums made before they started making money from it. "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh", "Dusk And Her Embrace", "V Empire Or Dark Faerytales In Phallustein" are your best bets for both bands.

 

For Black metal, really...avoid anything post 2000 or so until you get a grip on the conept of, and whether or not you like, black metal because new millenium stuff is a big show and tell on genre innovation that rarely works out as far as holding any real meaning and spirit.

 

As far as non bm/dm genres, I'm not the expert I claim to be on them, so I'll leave those to others to recommend/warn against.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Recommend me some Nile to grab.

 

Immortal and Emperor both intrigue me. I suspect Burzum will take time to grow on me, but I see promise there as well.

 

Does there ever come a time when DEP no longer sounds like a car crash in my head? I've tried very hard to like Calculating Infinity before and couldn't really manage. Is the Patton EP or Miss Machine any better?

 

Also: many of my friends enjoy Bongzilla. I have trouble taking this band seriously because their name is fucking Bongzilla.

 

I'm just gonna leave Leviathan in the car for a couple more days and see what happens.

 

K.

Nile-In Their Darkened Shirnes.. is far and away their best, so I don't know if you'd want to listen to that first or not, actually. Amongst The Catacombs of Nephren-Ka is good too. I might start there, then hear the most recent one, just because it's so destructive. If you care to venture earlier than those two, get Black Seeds of Vengeance and stop, unless you're REALLY curious as to what they sounded like in the early days.

 

Bongzilla is the worst band on Relapse. Not even worth scoffing at.

 

Dillinger-As for your car crash analogy, not really. That's half the point. Judging from this though, you would definitely like the new album best. Much more accessible than Calculating Infinity, and there's riffs that sound like songs. They get mathy, too, if you're into that sort of thing. The Patton EP is fantastic, all around.

[EricMM 0]

Does anyone else find the term "mathcore" to be just so odd?

[Slayer 0]

Re: Dimmu

 

Bollocks. The CE CDs may be a bit musically different from the older CDs, but they're just as good dammit... now if only they utilized Vortex's clean vox more

 

Re: Judas Priest

 

Best "peak-era" album is Screaming for Vengeance IMO, best overall though is Painkiller... amazing what a change of drummers will do to a band

[Nighthawk 0]

I'm just gonna leave Leviathan in the car for a couple more days and see what happens.

I crashed my car while playing that. True story.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Re: Dimmu

 

Bollocks. The CE CDs may be a bit musically different from the older CDs, but they're just as good dammit... now if only they utilized Vortex's clean vox more

 

In the realm of more purist black metal, no. I actually pretty much contend that they're two entirely separate entities anymore. The new stuff has all the aesthetic and form, but none of the heart. Vortex is a damned interesting singer though, I will agree on that.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I actually happen to like Death Cult Armaggedon myself....

[Steviekick 0]

If your likikng black metal, you might want to check out the Kovenant, although I'm not sure they are metal anymore...they've kind of created their own sound

[Nighthawk 0]

Also a Christian band on the Simpsons.

[Slayer 0]

Don't forget the "Jesus rock stylings of Testament"

[Steviekick 0]

I always thought it was funny, since the Kovenant is quite anti-Christian, and that was the name of the happy Jesus band...

[Slayer 0]

Same thing with Testament

[Steviekick 0]

Same thing with Testament

Very true. For whatever reason, I've never really been into Testament.

[Slayer 0]

Testament is tied for my favorite thrash band along with my namesake

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

For more "hardcore" stuff, check out Bury Your Dead, Zombie Apocalypse (though they may be more grind), Pro-Pain (but they're VERY iffy, as some songs are really fucking good, but others are atrocious and bland), and Darkest Hour (they definitely blur the lines of hardcore and metal).

 

Bury Your Dead recs:

"So Fucking Blues"

 

Zombie Apocalypse recs:

"The Dead In Queue"

"March On To Victory"

Everything else is under a minute long, so if you like those two tunes (and the end of "The Dead In Queue" is hard NOT to love), then pick up their album This Is A Spark Of Life!. It's only 11 minutes long, so it may be on discount.

 

Pro-Pain recs:

"Fed Up"

"Foul Taste Of Freedom"

"Take It Back"

"Make War Not Love"

"Death On The Dance Floor" (features Ice-T)

 

Darkest Hour recs:

"Oklahoma"

"Sadist Nation"

 

Also, since it hasn't been mentioned yet, STAY FAR AWAY FROM POST-WARPATH SIX FEET UNDER. The albums to stear clear of are Maximum Violence, Total Carnage, and Bringer of Blood. You might want to pick up Graveyard Classics just for the novelty of a death metal band covering classic rock, punk, and REALLY old-school metal songs (though the covers of The Scorpions' "Blackout," Savatage's "Holocaust," and Exodus' "Piranha" are quite solid).

[Guest Fire and Knives]

DEP sounds awesome now. Calculating Infinity is much more interesting than I remember it, and the Patton EP is lovely. "Hollywood Squares" is awesome scare your parents music. I love this shit.

 

Listening to Immortal's Battles in the North and the vocals are killing it for me, but that happened the first time I heard Opeth, too, so I'm going to try and stick it out.

 

K.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

You'll get very much so used to death growls and black metal screeches, maybe even to the point where you can't imagine music without them.

[NoCalMike 0]

Cradle of Filth was good when they started out. I am still a mark for the EP "Vempire" as it is only 5 or 6 tracks, but they are all solid. Now their stuff is kind of silly.

[Nighthawk 0]

Oh yeah, I remembered another cool band. The Berzerker.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Nevermore is a band worth checking out, if only to see if you like 'em. Everybody I know either really likes them or really doesn't, so you should check out a few tracks. The earlier stuff is really iffy, but Dreaming Neon Black and Dead Heart In A Dead World are amazing albums.

[Slayer 0]

Nevermore's s/t album is one of my top 10 favorite metal albums ever

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Corey Lazarus said some Six Feet Under was ok. This is wrong. Don't get any of that terrible shit.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Do not listen to Agent. Graveyard Classics is a must-own album for the sheer comedic value of hearing "Purple Haze" (Jimi Hendrix) and "TNT" (AC/DC) with death growls. Warpath also has some groovy tunes on it, as well, specifically "War Is Coming," "4:20," and "Revenge of the Zombie."

 

I own Nevermore's s/t album as well, Slayer. I can't say that it's better than Dead Heart or Neon Black, though.

[Slayer 0]

Any wonder why CC kicked Barnes out?

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Do not listen to Agent. Graveyard Classics is a must-own album for the sheer comedic value of hearing "Purple Haze" (Jimi Hendrix) and "TNT" (AC/DC) with death growls. Warpath also has some groovy tunes on it, as well, specifically "War Is Coming," "4:20," and "Revenge of the Zombie."

 

Absolutely not. You are wrong, and should be banned for this.

 

Just download the Savatage cover and you'll have all you'll ever need from them, since you'll have the only song that can even be considered average.