The Official Metal Topic

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

Wait- this is about Heavy Metal music? I saw the official metal topic and expected a topic about iron, steel, gold and the like. This is cool, too.

[Laughing Man]

as much as I enjoy metallurgy and chemistry, I don't think that on a site like BZP a topic about metallic substances would garner enough discussion to last 42 pages.

 

 

 

I've been working my way through the list of 2014 albums I need to hear. gave the new Vallenfyre album, Splinters, a listen and thoroughly enjoyed it. some positively crushing stuff. not sure I'd consider it a favorite of the year, though.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Scythey

[Bambi]

Today I finally got around to listening to Elements of the Infinite by Allegaeon, and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. If you're into tech-death or melo-death, please do yourself a favor and check it out. I suggest starting with the opening track, Threshold of Perception.

This album is definitely a contender for my album of the year. If anyone happens to give any of it a listen, please let me know. I'd like to know if it's as good as I think, or if I'm just overreacting.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Bambi

[Laughing Man]

gave it a listen. solid album, but not one I'd consider a favorite. it's def heavy and technical, and I can understand why it might be someone's album of the year if they're a fan of the band or into tech-death, but at times I thought it felt kind of.. soulless. just heaviness and technicality for heaviness' and technicality's sake, which is the problem I have with a lot of modern tech-death in general.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Scythey

[Bambi]

Not really into tech-death because, like you said, it's pretty much just heaviness and technicality for heaviness' and technicality's sake. But I think they're better than most other tech-death (or at least compared to other tech-death I've heard)), so that's one reason I really like this album. Another reason I'd consider it a favorite for this year is because I haven't heard many 2014 release from other bands.

Like... I've listened to The Necrotic Manifesto by Aborted, Our Endless War by Whitechapel, Extremist by Demon Hunter, Titan by Septicflesh, Once More 'Round the Sun by Mastodon, and this. So maybe you can see why I think so highly of it, lol.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Bambi

[Xinlo]

so Anacrusis' 28-song double album is finally being released, except it's technically a Kenn Nardi solo album now, but with appearances from the other members. Still, from the two songs released it sounds exactly like Anacrusis so that makes me happy and it has potential to be my album of the year if it continues what Screams and Whispers was trying to do 20 years ago.

[Laughing Man]

Like... I've listened to The Necrotic Manifesto by Aborted, Our Endless War by Whitechapel, Extremist by Demon Hunter, Titan by Septicflesh, Once More 'Round the Sun by Mastodon, and this. So maybe you can see why I think so highly of it, lol.

 

those last two are both better, although I do think Titan is Septicflesh's weakest post-reunion album so far.

 

 

 

anybody here like In Solitude? been diggin the heck out of Sister the past couple weeks, I don't know why I didn't listen to it sooner

[Xinlo]

I just finished listening to that album, I thoroughly enjoyed it. "Death Knows Where", "Sister", and "Horse In The Ground" were particularly excellent.

[Queen of Liars]

So the new KMFDM album - Our Time Will Come - is surprisingly solid and much better than the last two.

Not album of the year material or anything and it doesn't come close to albums like Nihil or Symbols, but it's still really fun and hard industrial metal in KMFDM's signature style. Definitely helps that as always they're very self-aware and can poke fun at themselves, even while singing about political issues.

 

Other than that I've been listening to pretty much nothing but Boris, who are amazing. I only regret not checking them out sooner as I've really been missing out on brilliant music. They're exactly what I needed to kickstart my interest in music again.

[Angel Beat]

Oh snap, I haven't kept up with metal in ages.

 

Gonna see the Scorpions next month though.

[Laughing Man]

guys. At the Gates, Converge, and Vallenfyre are going on tour together.

 

times like this I really wish I could go out and see shows.

[Queen of Liars]

I was excited, but then I realised that it's North America only, and now I'm disappointed. That happens with very high frequency.

[Johnny Truant]

guys. At the Gates, Converge, and Vallenfyre are going on tour together.

 

times like this I really wish I could go out and see shows.

 

holy what

 

 

y cant u? (if you dont mind me asking of course)

[Laughing Man]

not enough money, no means of transportation, and living in Redneck, USA where very few bands worth seeing ever even come close to are all contributing factors.

 

Clutch were gonna stop in my hometown (for some reason) on their tour last year and I was gonna go, but then they cancelled like all their dates for the rest of the year because of Neil Fallon's health issues. that's the closest I've gotten to being able to see a show I actually wanted to see.

 

..besides traveling 3-odd hours to see Family Force 5 when I was 14, but I prefer to pretend that was all a horrible nightmare and never actually happened.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Ryuujin

[Johnny Truant]

ah yeah. financial limitations and unfortunate tour stops also often get in the way of my going to shows

 

 

 

oh...family force five? im sorry...

Edited October 21, 2014 by Johnny Truant

[Laughing Man]

Deafheaven have announced that their third album will be released next year. stoked.

[Johnny Truant]

this excites and also worries me

 

because i just cant imagine that anything will ever touch the perfection that is

 

S U N
B A T

H E R

[Laughing Man]

I picked up the new At the Gates album and just finished giving it a listen.

 

first impression: it is not a major leap forward for the band or the genre, but it is At the Gates doing what they did best (and what they pioneered) just as well as if no time had passed at all. contrary to their earlier assertions, I do think it resembles Slaughter of the Soul more than anything else in their discography, although overall it has a darker atmosphere and there are definitely moments that recall the slower and moodier sounds of their first two albums. I've seen some websites criticize it for being repetitive and uninventive, but I'm really not sure what those people expect considering the fact that A. 19 years have passed and B. At the Gates have been a fairly straightforward band for the majority of their career.

 

overall, at least from the first listen, I would say it definitely meets my expectations and I'm very pleased with it.

 

also, the deluxe edition bonus tracks are two of my favorites on the album. not sure why they would leave them off the standard tracklisting in the first place.

 

 

 

edit: didn't think I'd say this, but the new Slipknot album is actually pretty good.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Ryuujin

[Johnny Truant]

r.i.p. wayne static

 

static-x is really good and im just now getting into them after hearing the news

 

 

new slipknot is...okay...better than all hope is gone but i really miss the slipknot/iowa era sound

[Xinlo]

Really into Ayreon right now, anyone else a fan? They're pretty hit-and-miss for me due to the power metal influences, but there's plenty of songs where those influences are minor or nonexistent which are awesome, and The Theory Of Everything is pretty much a masterpiece despite its cheesy name. It amazes me the vocal talent that's been in this project, from Fish to Anneke van Giersbergen, Jonas Renkse, Floor Jansen, Cristina Scabbia, Tommy Karevik and even John Wetton.

 

Unfortunately Russel Allen got the lead "role" on one album and managed to make the whole thing boring, as usual.

[Queen of Liars]

r.i.p. wayne static

 

static-x is really good and im just now getting into them after hearing the news

 

Turns out I was not quite ready for that piece of news.

Static-X's stuff and his solo album were one of the few nu metal things I actually used to like. Haven't listened to any of it in ages, but definitely did a lot in high school. Time for a nostalgia trip I guess.

 

RIP Wayne Static and his magnificent hair.

[Laughing Man]

new slipknot is...okay...better than all hope is gone but i really miss the slipknot/iowa era sound

I feel the opposite. self-titled and Iowa had some fun angry tunes, but I prefer where they've been goin since Vol. 3. it feels like they're actually trying to do something interesting instead of writing the soundtrack to Teen Angst: The Musical over and over.

 

 

_{also, it's weird. is it just me or does it seem like it's becoming more acceptable to like (or at least not-hate) Slipknot in the metal community now? they'll still always be more of a guilty pleasure for me though.}

[Queen of Liars]

It never seemed to me that the community had anything against Slipknot. Well, apart from the usual elitist 'nu metal/metalcore/etc is not metal' crowd, but who cares about those people.

They seemed super popular around here before their hiatus. Quite often used to hear their performance at the Download festival cited as one of the greatest festival performances.

 

I think their music is pretty garbage, but even I sometimes feel like listening to a track or two by them.

 

Although I do cringe a little when I see those really hardcore fans who call themselves 'maggots'

[Johnny Truant]

what i really miss about s/t and iowa (s/t especially) is how raw the production was

 

especially the drums

 

 

 

also korn's self-titled is g.o.a.t. nu-metal

[Laughing Man]

can't stand Korn, honestly. Slipknot and Mudvayne's L.D. 50 are about as far as I'm willing to go with nu-metal, and I hardly even consider the former's last few albums nu-metal at all.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Ryuujin

[Johnny Truant]

idk i just love jd's whole "im so enraged im tweakin out" thing, and thats backed by fieldy and david silvera's hard grooves, plus head and munky's guitars alternating between weird melodies and heavy chords

 

and sometimes, bagpipes

 

all together its also teen angst: the soundtrack, but i have an affinity for metal that grooves

[Laughing Man]

PARADISE LOST To Embrace Band's 'Very Early Days' With Death Metal-Tinged New Album

 

British gothic metal pioneers PARADISE LOST are preparing to enter Orgone Studios (GHOST, ULVER, CATHEDRAL, ANGEL WITCH) in London with Jaimie Gomez Arellano to begin recording their 14th studio album for a tentative April 2015 release via Century Media.

Comments PARADISE LOST singer Nick Holmes: "We wanted to approach the new album differently this time, by embracing the band's VERY early days with the last few years.

"We have written a very dark-yet-melodic album, but this time many songs definitely have a death metal edge, which is something we haven't done for a long, long time in PARADISE LOST."

 

yes. yes. yesss.

 

 

edit: The Agony Scene played a brand new song (their first in seven years) live a couple nights ago and there's video of it online. it's great. sounds like they're going back to The Darkest Red style but with more of a straight thrashy melodeath sound. not a breakdown to be heard and there was actually a solo which is rare for them. sounded more like Slaughter of the Soul than the new At the Gates record did.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Ryuujin

[Xinlo]

So megadeth's recent member loss? I'm hoping something big happens lineup-wise and the next album is actually good. that would be real cool.

 

also got My Dying Bride's discography and I've listened to just over half the albums. really diggin' them, A Line Of Deathless Kings is pretty much flawless.

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

I'm still fairly new here, but I wouldn't have expected there to be an entire topic on metal (this literally made my day haha).

Favorite metal styles: I really like melodic heavy music with progressive twists (I can't really get genre specific since my favorite bands literally have few sounds in common if any).

 

Favorites: Evergrey, Epica, Iron Maiden, Trivium, Mercenary, The Unguided, Sevendust, and Disturbed (I know Sevendust and Distrubed are "Nu-Metal" but their latest albums, (Black Out the Sun and Asylum (respectively)) have really shown more riffs and overall heaviness).

 

Least Favorites: Black Metal, Technical Death Metal, Metallica (I respect their importance, but I don't enjoy their music), and 99% of all Thrash Metal.

 

As far as 2014 metal goes...Anyone hear the new Evergrey (dark progressive power metal) album entitled Hymns for the Broken? It's really great! No screaming, it's all sung, but it's still rather great!

The Unguided (Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore) released a new album back in February called Fragile Immortality: not as good as their debut, but still rather good.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Evergrey_Toa

[Laughing Man]

@Xin: pretty unlikely but I've got my fingers crossed for a reunion of the classic lineup, even if it is just a one-off thing with a single album and tour. I've been watching the Megadeth forums like a hawk to pick up any alleged leaks or rumors and such. according to at least one guy there who claims to be in the know, there's supposed to be some huge announcement on January 1, but I'd take that with a giant spoonful of salt.

 

also I'm glad (and surprised) you're enjoying My Dying Bride. I still remember when I tried to show you them and you wrote them off as boring.

 

 

 

@Everygrey_Toa: welcome to the topic, which I think is like the fourth of its kind since the site's inception. it's slowed down a lot recently, but you'd be surprised at how big a metal community BZP has had over the years.

 

love Maiden, Everygrey's good, some Trivium's alright. not all too familiar with Mercenary or The Unguided, and Epica, Sevendust, and Disturbed aren't my thing.

 

hard to limit it to just a few but if we're doing introductions, I may as well list my favorite styles: I'm partial to melodic death metal, doom metal, thrash metal, death metal, and gothic metal.

 

narrowing down a list of favorite bands is a lot more difficult since I like so many and it shifts around a lot, but the core three I always go back to are Katatonia, Hypocrisy, and Megadeth.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Ryuujin

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

hard to limit it to just a few but if we're doing introductions, I may as well list my favorite styles: I'm partial to melodic death metal, doom metal, thrash metal, death metal, and gothic metal.

So Mercenary is a big mashup of Melodic Death Metal, Progressive and Power Metal, and they have some thrash in them as well.

 

Epica is mainly Symphonic metal, but they have progressive tendencies and melodic death passages.

[Laughing Man]

 

hard to limit it to just a few but if we're doing introductions, I may as well list my favorite styles: I'm partial to melodic death metal, doom metal, thrash metal, death metal, and gothic metal.

 

So Mercenary is a big mashup of Melodic Death Metal, Progressive and Power Metal, and they have some thrash in them as well.

 

Epica is mainly Symphonic metal, but they have progressive tendencies and melodic death passages.

 

Mercenary sounds like something I'd probably enjoy, then. I'll have to check them out.

 

and I'm just really not a fan of symphonic metal in general, honestly. only band related to that genre that I really like is Septicflesh, and they're symphonic death.

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

 

 

hard to limit it to just a few but if we're doing introductions, I may as well list my favorite styles: I'm partial to melodic death metal, doom metal, thrash metal, death metal, and gothic metal.

 

So Mercenary is a big mashup of Melodic Death Metal, Progressive and Power Metal, and they have some thrash in them as well.

 

Epica is mainly Symphonic metal, but they have progressive tendencies and melodic death passages.

 

Mercenary sounds like something I'd probably enjoy, then. I'll have to check them out.

 

and I'm just really not a fan of symphonic metal in general, honestly. only band related to that genre that I really like is Septicflesh, and they're symphonic death.

 

Good songs by Mercenary:

1. New Desire (this is just a great song)

2. Redefine Me (This song is a work of art)

3. Memoria (this song is also a work of art)

4. On the Edge of Sanity (this is the heaviest of the lot)

 

And when you think of symphonic metal, if Nightwish and Within Temptation are what come to mind, Epica is pretty different (to me anyway).

If you're ever curious enough to check them out there are a three songs that could interest you:

1. Unleashed (this one is probably heavier than the majority of (non-death) symphonic metal you've heard)

2. Martyr of the Free World (this one is a mix of super in your face and laid back)

3. Never Enough (this one isn't as heavy as the other two, but musically, it grooves)

[Xinlo]

Big fan of at least two and a half epica albums. The rest don't do much for me, I prefer Nightwish for sure. That said I think Simone Simons is the best singer in symphonic metal.

 

I enjoy me a bit of disturbed now and then (usually just Indestructible), and I'm a diehard Maiden fan.

 

My tastes have shifted to mostly progressive rock lately, but in the metal spectrum I'm a fan of most thrash metal, a good amount of doom, symphonic, progressive, (very small amounts of) power, and any combination thereof. Fav bands off the top of my head would be Dream Theater, Katatonia, Haken, Nightwish, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Death Angel, Anathema, Machinae Supremacy, Metal Church, Porcupine Tree, Volbeat... yeah.

 

tons lol

[Johnny Truant]

groove metal and i guess what a lot of people would call "stoner" metal (even tho thats kind of a dumb name for it) are two big genres for me

 

basically if it's heavy and i can still groove to it, its awesome in my book

 

 

im also really into hardcore 

[Laughing Man]

been on a major thrash kick lately. aside from the obligatory Big 4 I've been jammin Sodom who I'm really getting into, early Sepultura, Kreator, Annihilator, Dark Angel, Anacrusis, Testament, Overkill, Death Angel, Tourniquet, etc.

 

anybody have thrash recs?

[BBCCD]

Opinions on Mushroomhead in this thread?

Honestly I really love their new album.  Ever since they got Waylon they'd sorta gone in another direction, but Righteous and the Butterfly seems to mix in some of their older sounds.  This is the first album of theirs since Savior Sorrow that I haven't gotten tired of after only a few listens.

[Queen of Liars]

As far as 2014 metal goes...Anyone hear the new Evergrey (dark progressive power metal) album entitled Hymns for the Broken? It's really great! No screaming, it's all sung, but it's still rather great!

 

I listened to that a coupe of weeks ago, but honestly didn't really find all that good. It's not bad by any means, but it's that sort of really melodic almost-power metal kind of progressive metal that lots of bands do, which doesn't really do much for me.

 

+1 for Iron Maiden though, they are indeed amazing. Trivium I also used to like quite a lot, but these days Shogun is the only album of theirs that I still sometimes come back to.

 

As for favourite sub-genres... eh, I don't even know anymore at this point. Lately I've been into avant-garde/experimental, progressive, industrial, drone and black. Would say stoner and sludge too, but it's pretty much only Boris that I've been listening to in those. Although they do account for most of my drone metal listening as well.

And hardcore too, since Johnny Truant mentioned it. Not metal I guess, but close enough.

 

 

 

been on a major thrash kick lately. aside from the obligatory Big 4 I've been jammin Sodom who I'm really getting into, early Sepultura, Kreator, Annihilator, Dark Angel, Anacrusis, Testament, Overkill, Death Angel, Tourniquet, etc.

 

anybody have thrash recs?

 

I'm not a very good authority on thrash, like at all, but Sylosis are a pretty cool mix of thrash and melodeath. Exodus and the first Skyclad album are ok too, with the latter having some nice folk metal influences (they went much more folk than thrash after that).

[Laughing Man]

I guess since everybody else is mentioning hardcore as a favorite genre I'll go on the record and state that it's one of my absolute favorite genres too

 

although I have a strong feeling that the kind of "hardcore" I have in mind (early 80s old-school hardcore punk) is not the same kind of "hardcore" everybody else has in mind, although I do dig a lot of that too

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

+1 for Iron Maiden though, they are indeed amazing. Trivium I also used to like quite a lot, but these days Shogun is the only album of theirs that I still sometimes come back to.

 

 

 

Maiden is just a classic! And I'd have to call Shogun my favorite album from the band, closely followed by In Waves. Which songs are the ones you value the most from Shogun?