Metal Music Discussion

[Tancred]

I just have to ask this... Does anybody mind giving me a small list of let's say 10 or 15 of their fave 2005 metal releases? Cause I know I missed quite alot of albums and alot of good debuts.

Countess - Spawn Of Steel
Nowhere near as good as the earlier releases but still quite awesome. A very unique mix of black metal and just normal old school heavy metal.

Apokalyptic Raids - The Third Storm - World War III
Awesome old school Hellhammer worship. They mimic their style and sound perfectly.

Andralls - Inner Trauma
Awesome extreme Brazilian thrash.

Aura Noir - Deep Dreams of Hell
Pretty nice black/thrash.

Manilla Road - Gates Of Fire
It's no Crystal Logic but still pretty goddamn awesome. The only annoyance is the slight usage of pseudo-death metal vocals. Other than that, awesome epic metal.

Nanowar - Other Bands Play, Nanowar Gay
LOL

I don't have that many 2005 releases. And even if I do most of 'em suck. Front Beast (well they always suck), Judas Priest, Kreator, Destruction, Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Usurper and even the new Incriminated (which I was really looking forward to hear) all sucked.

[Soeru]

I just heard of God�s... a black metal band from Spain featuring none other than Phlegeton of Wormed on vocals and drums! I'm off to scavange for their CD...

Speaking of Spanish black metal, grim raw BM fans will love Nazgul and Uruk-Hai.

[Tancred]

Oh man. Someone has actually heard of Nazgul and Uruk-Hai. Nice. They're not that bad. Both bands contain members of others.

Speaking of Nazgul, there's also an Italian symphonic black metal band called Nazgul. If I'm not mistaken they sing fully in Latin and their songs are very beautiful. There's also a shitty Austrian one man ambient project called Uruk-Hai. Uruk-Hai feautres a nub from that shitty band Hrossharsgrani...

[Soeru]

Oh man. Someone has actually heard of Nazgul and Uruk-Hai. Nice. They're not that bad. Both bands contain members of others.

Speaking of Nazgul, there's also an Italian symphonic black metal band called Nazgul. If I'm not mistaken they sing fully in Latin and their songs are very beautiful. There's also a shitty Austrian one man ambient project called Uruk-Hai. Uruk-Hai feautres a nub from that shitty band Hrossharsgrani...

Thxorz for being gr1m and kvlt. To be honest I don't listen to almost any black metal except for Immortal, old Mayhem, Behexen(really cool), Negator(first album was cool, new one is bad-ass!), a bunch of death/black and viking/black crossovers and a few obscure bands that have not been around real long(like Behexen and Negator). But very few, as I have observed that many try to recycle the same shit that Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor were doing more than 10 years ago. I avoid symphonic black metal and anything that has to do with National Socialism(which I'm afraid Nazgul are somewhat related with, because they have a lot "Iberian/pagan pride" themes in their lyrics).

Vintersorg, Nazgul and Borknagar CD's were being sold at a "White Pride" webstore, labeled as NS black metal, that also sold the CD's from that racist rock band Prussian Blue featuring two "aryan" twins.

Well, God�s have a "Nazi Black Metal Fuck Off" banner in their site, so they're pretty safe. Still waiting for it to DL on emule... it's like 250mb. :/

I still need to check out Taake, I have their discography though. I think I've listened to some of it before, if I remember right I liked it. But yeah I focus more on death metal and thrash because for me is more diverse than black metal, I could name 30 bands right now that classify as death metal yet they don't sound alike nearly at all.

I got the debut from a Netherlands-based BM band called Unholy Matrimony, grim but eloquent, with lyrics about being a bad marriage.

Well guess what, I just bought a like-new 30GB photo Ipod for $230, the metal awaiteth.

[Tancred]

Thxorz for being gr1m and kvlt. To be honest I don't listen to almost any black metal except for Immortal, old Mayhem, Behexen(really cool), Negator(first album was cool, new one is bad-ass!), a bunch of death/black and viking/black crossovers and a few obscure bands that have not been around real long(like Behexen and Negator). But very few, as I have observed that many try to recycle the same shit that Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor were doing more than 10 years ago. I avoid symphonic black metal and anything that has to do with National Socialism(which I'm afraid Nazgul are somewhat related with, because they have a lot "Iberian/pagan pride" themes in their lyrics).

Vintersorg, Nazgul and Borknagar CD's were being sold at a "White Pride" webstore, labeled as NS black metal, that also sold the CD's from that racist rock band Prussian Blue featuring two "aryan" twins.

Well, God�s have a "Nazi Black Metal Fuck Off" banner in their site, so they're pretty safe. Still waiting for it to DL on emule... it's like 250mb. :/

I still need to check out Taake, I have their discography though. I think I've listened to some of it before, if I remember right I liked it. But yeah I focus more on death metal and thrash because for me is more diverse than black metal, I could name 30 bands right now that classify as death metal yet they don't sound alike nearly at all.

I got the debut from a Netherlands-based BM band called Unholy Matrimony, grim but eloquent, with lyrics about being a bad marriage.

Well guess what, I just bought a like-new 30GB photo Ipod for $230, the metal awaiteth.

As a black metaller, I heavily dislike Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, Emperor, Gorgoroth, and numerous other overrated popular black metal bands. I'm sure all the ignorant black metal elitists would be like "OMG YOU DON'T LIKE MAYHEM! YOU GOD LOVING NUB! IF YOU DON'T WORSHIP MAYHEM YOU DON'T WORSHIP THE TRVE KVLT SPIRIT OF SATAN!" Well whatever. I find all those bands to be VERY boring and quite generic. Mayhem's Deathcruch is their only mediocre release. Darkthrone... wow... they call themselves to be the new Celtic Frost while all they do is play psuedo-Celtic Frost riffs + black metal riffs for 10 minutes per song with shitty production. Immortal and Emperor I found to be just boring. I did like a few songs here and there but I wouldn't call myself a fan. Every single Gorgoroth songs sounds the same. There was one song I liked by them. I forgot what it was called or what album it was on. All i remember was it had some clean vocals on it.

I seriously doubt Vintersorg, Nazgul, and Borknagar have anything to do with nazis. First of all Vintersorg and Borknagar aren't even black metal. They're both viking/folk metal bands. Vintersorg usually sing about old heathen and pagan times (same as Nazgul) and Borknagar sing about a bunch of weird mythological/philosophical shit. Just because a band sing about "pagan pride" doesn't mean they're nazi. Nazgul is basically pagans are awesome kthx while Graveland is more like pagans are better than you kthx kill non-white people plz. Pagan Reign is a fantastic black metal band from Russia that sing about ancient pagan times and Slavic pride yet they have nothing to do with nazis. There are numerous moronic people that do sell non-nazi music labelled as nazi music. Then you got people selling nazi shit labelling it as non-nazi. LOL! I swear man I read a review of Satanic Warmaster's first album and the guy is like "Hey man Satanic Warmaster is not a nazi. You don't have to be a nazi to kill jews. He sings about killing jews and christians so he's not nazi." When clearly one of the songs had lyrics about the aryan wind and shit like that. Also their newest album had him doing the nazi salute and in an interview I read he was praising Hitler. Dumbass.

Taake is pretty good. I haven't listened to much of their material but what I heard was pretty damn good. If you are going to check them out be sure to listen to track 3 from Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik. It has a boing sound throughout half the song. Hilarious.

BTW, nothing is wrong with symphonic BM. Elitists say that if you use keyboards and have nice production, you're a poseur untrve fake black metaller. Bunch of crap. And being symphonic doesn't mean you sound like fags like Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. Rotting Christ's newest album for instance is a beautiful blend of black metal with gothic elements. They even got a choir for that album. Without doubt, it's their best one. Abigor also are fanfuckingtastic. They have nice rawness to them (not Darkthrone shit raw) and use keyboards, female vocals, kettle drums, and other elements. They use numerous guitar lines and were a very talented band. Unfortunately Peter Kubik decided to end them around 2 years ago

[Soeru]

As a black metaller, I heavily dislike Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, Emperor, Gorgoroth, and numerous other overrated popular black metal bands. I'm sure all the ignorant black metal elitists would be like "OMG YOU DON'T LIKE MAYHEM! YOU GOD LOVING NUB! IF YOU DON'T WORSHIP MAYHEM YOU DON'T WORSHIP THE TRVE KVLT SPIRIT OF SATAN!" Well whatever. I find all those bands to be VERY boring and quite generic. Mayhem's Deathcruch is their only mediocre release. Darkthrone... wow... they call themselves to be the new Celtic Frost while all they do is play psuedo-Celtic Frost riffs + black metal riffs for 10 minutes per song with shitty production. Immortal and Emperor I found to be just boring. I did like a few songs here and there but I wouldn't call myself a fan. Every single Gorgoroth songs sounds the same. There was one song I liked by them. I forgot what it was called or what album it was on. All i remember was it had some clean vocals on it.

I seriously doubt Vintersorg, Nazgul, and Borknagar have anything to do with nazis. First of all Vintersorg and Borknagar aren't even black metal. They're both viking/folk metal bands. Vintersorg usually sing about old heathen and pagan times (same as Nazgul) and Borknagar sing about a bunch of weird mythological/philosophical shit. Just because a band sing about "pagan pride" doesn't mean they're nazi. Nazgul is basically pagans are awesome kthx while Graveland is more like pagans are better than you kthx kill non-white people plz. Pagan Reign is a fantastic black metal band from Russia that sing about ancient pagan times and Slavic pride yet they have nothing to do with nazis. There are numerous moronic people that do sell non-nazi music labelled as nazi music. Then you got people selling nazi shit labelling it as non-nazi. LOL! I swear man I read a review of Satanic Warmaster's first album and the guy is like "Hey man Satanic Warmaster is not a nazi. You don't have to be a nazi to kill jews. He sings about killing jews and christians so he's not nazi." When clearly one of the songs had lyrics about the aryan wind and shit like that. Also their newest album had him doing the nazi salute and in an interview I read he was praising Hitler. Dumbass.

Taake is pretty good. I haven't listened to much of their material but what I heard was pretty damn good. If you are going to check them out be sure to listen to track 3 from Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik. It has a boing sound throughout half the song. Hilarious.

BTW, nothing is wrong with symphonic BM. Elitists say that if you use keyboards and have nice production, you're a poseur untrve fake black metaller. Bunch of crap. And being symphonic doesn't mean you sound like fags like Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. Rotting Christ's newest album for instance is a beautiful blend of black metal with gothic elements. They even got a choir for that album. Without doubt, it's their best one. Abigor also are fanfuckingtastic. They have nice rawness to them (not Darkthrone shit raw) and use keyboards, female vocals, kettle drums, and other elements. They use numerous guitar lines and were a very talented band. Unfortunately Peter Kubik decided to end them around 2 years ago

How can you dislike Immortal? So what if they're not as underground as other bands, they made it a lot farther than any other Norwegian black metal bands while still remaining true to black metal. Their music is geniusly crafted, I especially like their later material because it's more technical, musical, and they're not like "let's play the coldest fastest shit in the world". I don't listen to Darkthrone...

I don't mind a little but of synth, but when it's a prominent element in the music I just dislike it. It just doesn't sound natural. Like sure they're using electric guitars and all sorts of electronic gear, but using a synth just sounds way too techie to me. The only bands that I like that touch synths are Immortal(at times) and Bathory, amongst a few others.

You don't have to be a Hitler/Nazi-sympathizer/skinhead/National Socialist to be a racist bigotrous asshole, but it just so happens that everyone who is is a racist bigotrous asshole. A thick sense of national pride created the German National Socialist party.

Yes, nationalism is bad, the prouder you are about your country, the more prone you are to having xenophobic and even supremist ideals.

I'm aware that Vintersorg and Borknagar aren't BM bands, but their members do play/have played in BM bands. Some people even considered viking era Bathory to profess NS/racist ideology, which is complete bullshit, the words of Quorthon himself. He got those rumours because of the German dickhead holier-than-thou-anti-metal newspress. In fact he said he actually wrote a song about the holocaust(on the Octagon album) just to piss them off, but he's no supremist asshole.

[Tancred]

It's not that I don't like Immortal because they're a popular black metal band, I said I don't like them because I find them boring.

There is a big difference of being proud of who you are and what you believe in and thinking that you're better than everyone else. I'm proud that I'm a slav. Pagan Reign are proud that they're slavs and they sing about it. Slavonic Brotherhood! (its a name of one of their songs) Not one of their songs or any of their political views have anything to do with slavs being better than any other person. Satanic Warmaster on the other hand is proud that he is a nazi. Yes a Finnish nazi (LOL!) and if Hitler was still around he'd say Satanic Warmaster is a faggot nub because he has long hair and he is Finnish and not a true German so he's of lower statues. That's what moronic NSBM bands don't seem to understand. Graveland are Polish nazis. WTF! That's an oxymoron right there. Since when the hell did you guys switch sides. We didn't free your ass from nazi occupation just so you can become nazis. The idiocy that plagues this world.

Octagon was a terrible album...

[Soeru]

It's not that I don't like Immortal because they're a popular black metal band, I said I don't like them because I find them boring.

There is a big difference of being proud of who you are and what you believe in and thinking that you're better than everyone else. I'm proud that I'm a slav. Pagan Reign are proud that they're slavs and they sing about it. Slavonic Brotherhood! (its a name of one of their songs) Not one of their songs or any of their political views have anything to do with slavs being better than any other person. Satanic Warmaster on the other hand is proud that he is a nazi. Yes a Finnish nazi (LOL!) and if Hitler was still around he'd say Satanic Warmaster is a faggot nub because he has long hair and he is Finnish and not a true German so he's of lower statues. That's what moronic NSBM bands don't seem to understand. Graveland are Polish nazis. WTF! That's an oxymoron right there. Since when the hell did you guys switch sides. We didn't free your ass from nazi occupation just so you can become nazis. The idiocy that plagues this world.

Octagon was a terrible album...

Octagon was indeed lame... but I still found something that I enjoyed in that album. Quorthon could do no wrong.

LOL, think that's ridiculous? Behemoth's new bassist Orion played in a NSBM band called Swastyka, also Polish.

Anyway, racism and xenophobia are not necessarily a political thing... because most people that have such views don't know shit about politics. Hence why they form the dumbest fucking politcal parties ever. Like the fascist-tinged political party in Spain called Erribatasuna, that was banned as they condoned the activities of the Basque seperatist terrorist org called the ETA. There's also another extremely right-wing party in Spain that gets a disturbingly high amount of votes when elections come around, though they're never get close to the Socialist party(PNV) or the democratic party(PP).

I think too many peope are ignorantly afraid of communism, when fascism poses a much bigger threat. The idea is alright, just don't vote for some commie nutjob, but choose that nutjob over a right-wing nutjob. Why? Because if a lefty political party comes into power, you'll be in less chances of being deported/suppressed/becoming a victim of genocide, etc. But extremism is always a bad thing... so it's not only fascism that sucks, but totalitarian gov'ts as a whole. Still, I'd rather work and get food in a commie dictatorship than get slaughtered in a Fourth Reich.

Have you listened to Immortal beyond "Pure Holocaust"? That's the point where they started improving in terms of musicality. "Battles in the North" was a classic and a significant improval in their skill, but it still had the "krieg" flavor to it. But then they came out with ATHoW, Damned in Black, and Sons of Northern Darkness which I believe can very easily whip the ass of many(most) black metal releases I've listened to(which are a lot, but I just simply gave up on black metal because I can only find gay-ass sellout bands or grimkvlt underground bands that cant play for shit, yet they receive worship from their fellow penguins somewhere very very far up North ). Immortal are by far the most talented and skillful band BM had to offer until they split up...

I only liked Mayhem's "De Misteriis Dom Sathanas", that's as kvlt as I really get, cuz I don't care for Emperor, Darkthrone, etc. and stuff despite having their discographies... I don't know, no other BM band can grab me by the hair as hard as Immortal can.

I don't consider BM crap or anything, as many death metal fanatics would, but I just think that tremolo picking the same powerchords for three minutes with a thrash beat for 3 minutes gets very, very old very quickly. I pay more attention to slower BM because it usually has more music, rather than some dudes with corpsepaint trying to play as fast as they can in a cold basement. I like the "feel"-based approach to writing BM, it creates pure music, but it's hard to find bands that can actually handle their instruments well...

Check out Negator's new album, bad-ass old-wave inspired BM that tastes somewhat brand new. Akercocke... slower grim songs like "Horns of Baphomet" are what make me like black metal.

I might buy a used, trashed old guitar soon and I'm going to get some white pinstripes on the borders so it'll look like Abbath's:http://www.metal-reviews.com/images/random/abbath.jpg

But I might not grab that one, I might get a Dimebag/Vogg knockoff for like 100 bucks. Yeah, buying used generic no-name brand guitars = cool, cuz with chump change you can mod the fuck out of them and have really cool axes to play with.

[Tancred]

Check out Negator's new album, bad-ass old-wave inspired BM that tastes somewhat brand new. Akercocke... slower grim songs like "Horns of Baphomet" are what make me like black metal.

Oooh. Old school black metal you say?! Goddamn now you got me excited. I swear man fucking Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, Bulldozer, Sarcofago, Sodom, Destruction, Sepultura, Venom, Vulcano, Bathory, Necrodeath, Onslaught, etc pwn any new black metal band. The old school shit is always the best. There are a few black metal bands nowadays that are totally old school like Countess, Desaster, and Barathrum. All of 'em kick ass. I don't really like Akercocke. I can't get into them. I had 2 of their albums downloaded and listened to them a couple of times but just found nothing appealing.

And I don't feel about like this when only concerning black metal. I can't really listen to anything new unless it has an old school and foreign vibe to it. After first getting into thrash by listening to Teutonic and Brazilian legends, I just couldn't stand American thrash. Whenever I listen to Exodus, Megadeth, Testament, Metallica (with the exception of like maybe 2 or 3 songs), Slayer (with the exception of their first album), and etc I get headaches from this crap and get bored out of my mind. Compared to the Brazilian and Teutonic legends, this stuff is more technical by far, better produced, but fucking boring as hell. It feels just so lifeless and dull with no energy whatsoever. When I listen to Kreator's first album I can't do anything except thrash my head off because it's so raw and powerful. When I listen to a Megadeth album I get bored by the wankering boring solos. I don't care that Carrion can barely speak English. And I don't care that their songs are simplistic. They're fast, heavy, catchy, and thrashy as fuck that just pull me right into them.

There are a few American thrash bands that I do enjoy but not too many. Like Aggression and Kublai Khan. Both of them kickass. Raw and fucking heavy.

Same with death metal. I listen to it and all I hear is boring mindless blastbeats and growling vocals. Sure there are a couple of exceptions but unless its really unique like Obscura by Gorguts, then I probably won't get into it. I like Cannibal Corpse's and Deicide's early releases. Morbid Angel's first album was really kickass as well. But the 80's stuff was the shit. The Celtic Frost influenced Canadian band Slaughter was really awesome. Possessed was great too having a nice mix of old school black and death metal.

It's really great that there are a couple of bands nowadays replaying the old school spirit of the 80's. Farscape, Bywar and Andralls are awesome Brazilian thrashers. Apokalyptic Raids, Warhammer, and Incriminated devote themselves to playing the same style as old school Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Tons of others that I just love to listen too...

[Dr Mario]

I just have to ask this... Does anybody mind giving me a small list of let's say 10 or 15 of their fave 2005 metal releases? Cause I know I missed quite alot of albums and alot of good debuts.

Some of the best (imho) of the death/doom albums for the year*:

Once Was Not - Cryptopsy
Those once Loyal - Bolt Thrower
Annihilation of the Wicked - Nile
66Sick - Disbelief
Ghosts of Loss - Swallow the Sun
Character - Dark Tranquillity

Some of the best of the true/prog albums for the year*:

This Godless Endeavour - Nevermore
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy - Helloween
Doctor Butcher - Doctor Butcher (rerelease, but well worth it)
Mabool - Orphaned Land
Brahmavidya - Rudra
Ghost Reveries - Opeth

Both Orphaned Land and Rudra are more death metal than anything else, but are pretty heavy on the unusual elements.

*some of these might have been late 04, i'm not quite certain


And because I'm on a roll, 5 somewhat obscure older albums just to show how unusual metal can get:

Bath - Maudlin of the Well
Elements - Atheist
Focus - Cynic
And Thou Shall Trust the Seer - Haggard
Into the Electric Castle - Ayreon

And of course, the legendary Finntroll
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, a question of my own:

Can anyone introduce me to some good black metal? Preferably the more melodic, foresty type without any of the NS crap.

edit: By foresty, i meant more melodic and folk-tinged than raw. Should've explained that better

[Lag]

Nice lists. I've heard many of those though.

Borknagar is a type I can reco of what you requested in your last sentence. They're pretty popular, but it's still somewhat of that genre

[Megalith]

Now, a question of my own:

Can anyone introduce me to some good black metal? Preferably the more melodic, foresty type without any of the NS crap.

I don't exactly understand what you mean by foresty, but if it's less raw, more melodic black metal you're after, you can't go wrong with Sunchariot, Drudkh, Summoning, Skyforger (they have a swastika in their logo, but they're not a NS band, so they claim) and Kampfar.

[Soeru]

Oooh. Old school black metal you say?! Goddamn now you got me excited. I swear man fucking Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, Bulldozer, Sarcofago, Sodom, Destruction, Sepultura, Venom, Vulcano, Bathory, Necrodeath, Onslaught, etc pwn any new black metal band. The old school shit is always the best. There are a few black metal bands nowadays that are totally old school like Countess, Desaster, and Barathrum. All of 'em kick ass. I don't really like Akercocke. I can't get into them. I had 2 of their albums downloaded and listened to them a couple of times but just found nothing appealing.

And I don't feel about like this when only concerning black metal. I can't really listen to anything new unless it has an old school and foreign vibe to it. After first getting into thrash by listening to Teutonic and Brazilian legends, I just couldn't stand American thrash. Whenever I listen to Exodus, Megadeth, Testament, Metallica (with the exception of like maybe 2 or 3 songs), Slayer (with the exception of their first album), and etc I get headaches from this crap and get bored out of my mind. Compared to the Brazilian and Teutonic legends, this stuff is more technical by far, better produced, but fucking boring as hell. It feels just so lifeless and dull with no energy whatsoever. When I listen to Kreator's first album I can't do anything except thrash my head off because it's so raw and powerful. When I listen to a Megadeth album I get bored by the wankering boring solos. I don't care that Carrion can barely speak English. And I don't care that their songs are simplistic. They're fast, heavy, catchy, and thrashy as fuck that just pull me right into them.

There are a few American thrash bands that I do enjoy but not too many. Like Aggression and Kublai Khan. Both of them kickass. Raw and fucking heavy.

Same with death metal. I listen to it and all I hear is boring mindless blastbeats and growling vocals. Sure there are a couple of exceptions but unless its really unique like Obscura by Gorguts, then I probably won't get into it. I like Cannibal Corpse's and Deicide's early releases. Morbid Angel's first album was really kickass as well. But the 80's stuff was the shit. The Celtic Frost influenced Canadian band Slaughter was really awesome. Possessed was great too having a nice mix of old school black and death metal.

It's really great that there are a couple of bands nowadays replaying the old school spirit of the 80's. Farscape, Bywar and Andralls are awesome Brazilian thrashers. Apokalyptic Raids, Warhammer, and Incriminated devote themselves to playing the same style as old school Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Tons of others that I just love to listen too...

I think you're a little too much of an elitist/purist. Megadeth = boring solos? Friedman had better articulation than any other thrash player out there, including overrated guitarist Kirk Hammet. Frankly I don't care for fretboard wankery in thrash, death and speed metal unless it's Trey Azagthoth, but he's learned to control it to make something better out of it. Friedman doesn't need to do chromatic wankery because his soloing can really flow.

Kreator's first album? Whoa, to say that's absolutely better than any Slayer, Exodus or Testament... that's totally elitist. Don't get me wrong, I love Kreator's "Coma of Souls", "Extreme Agressions", "Pleasure to Kill", "Violent Revolution" and their live CD's but I mean for Christ's sake, the band was obviously fucking drunk on the recording of that first album, I've never heard such sloppy guitar and drum playing on a RELEASED, official album. In fact I've heard better performance on grim, uberkvlt rehearsal tapes. How one could honestly enjoy the album it is beyond me, but the songs were classics, they just shouldn't have been sniffing whatever they were sniffing back then..


By "old-wave inspired", I meant Negator is inspired by the early 90's BM. Get Akercocke's "Goat of Mendes" and their brand new album "Words that Go Unspoken, Deeds that Go Undone". It's very different from all other black/death metal, it doesn't sound like Behemoth or Blasphemy, but that makes them more original.

80's DM was indeed the shit(Death, Terrorizer, Obituary, Possessed, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Autopsy, Grave, Entombed, and early 90's shit like Dismember, Vader, Immolation, Incantation, Dying Fetus, Suffocation, Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Carcass The Crown, etc.), but the scene nowadays has a bunch of more bands to offer that don't hail to the Gothenburg trendyness. Such are Nile, Arsis, Decapitated(earlier) Decrepit Birth, Severed Savior, Gorgasm, Kataklysm, Amon Amarth, Necrophagist, Wormed, Hate Eternal, Rotten Sound(more grind, actually), Cryptopsy(new album=meh, but original), and a few others. Still oldschool shit felt better to me for the most part, I like simpler DM from the 80's and early 90's. You've probably listened to mostly boring generic brutal grind/gore death metal, from how you described it, which is just boring for the most part. Many bands are just Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse-worship bands, which is cool but it's hard to find anything new.

Again, you're being a little too purist that you fail to appreciate or even listen to a bunch of bands just because they're well-known in the metal scene. That's just absurd, they get praise and recognition for a reason. There's much more extreme metal to explore than Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, Venom, Bathory and some uberkvlt 80's black metal bands that only the kvltest penguins in the North pole have heard of. This is why I don't like black metal, too much puritan elitist worshipping of average to crappy bands going on and less focus on musical quality... (not saying that any of these are though).

No offense at all mate, I just think you haven't listened or bothered to appreciate so many bands because of a first listen because they're either "trendy" or "unoriginal". Well let me tell you something, it's all metal, so it's nearly impossible to write something completely original. Bands that recycle old sounds are just making it worse as well. The reason I prefer DM over BM is because there are more bands in DM doing something new and different that it's hard to define what DM really is(Ie: Obituary, Nile, Death, and Suffocation sound nothing alike), while BM bands don't expand as much musically and simply go for straight-forward stuff, which is cool but it kills any sense of originality).

Black metal can only have 4 different sounds> either you're oldschool like Venom and Bathory, or you play early 90's grim raw Norwegian-style BM, or you play melodic or symphonic BM, and that's really pushing it. This is excluding black/death metal, as most black metal fans dislike those crossover bands and call them untrue or some shit, like Behemoth got a lot of shit from old fans for playing more DM-tinged stuff, extremely closed minded. It's a very limited musical style because if you try to do something different, it's suddenly not black metal anymore. Hence why I don't listen to "pure black metal" a whole lot, because it all has the same vibe. It's weird how BM has been around longer than DM yet it has expanded so little.

Edit: Have you heard of Crucified Mortals? They're a new Sodom/Kreator-influenced thrash metal act from the US that had Novy of Vader playing for them. Stormwarrior are pretty bad-ass speed/thrash from Germany.

[Vivi]

Soeru, speaking of DM, how do you like At The Gates?

[Soeru]

Soeru, speaking of DM, how do you like At The Gates?

They were good at what they did, but they weren't totally new when they came out. There were bands already playing the same exact stuff. Ironically, they get the most credit for the Gothenburg scene because they were faster and heavier than the other melodic bands from Sweden. Either way, Carcass>AtG, take that Sweden. But Sweden had good Entombed, early In Flames, DT and Dismember back then... quadruple pwnage. Started off decent, slowly got more melodic, then broke up to form the complete sellout generic band The Haunted... I used to like em a lot more than what I do now.

As far as melo death goes, what I only still listen to often is Amon Amarth and Insomnium. That might change as soon as I get my iPod in the mail, though. I've been listening to a lot of Morbid Angel, Terrorizer, Sepultura, Napalm Death, and Suffocation recently, mainly cuz I have all those on CD's and I don't listen to much music at home as I used to. If I could only find my Vader/Kreator CD... but oh well, who needs CD's when you've got an iPod.