Thread of Metal

[Drixxel]

We had a good bit of Megadeth discussion going on the old forums, so for those of us with an appreciation for the metal musical stlyings, feel the freedom to discuss it here. As similar as it all might sound to someone who doesn't care much for it, metal is in fact a highly diverse style with countless subgenres and strong listener loyalty to said subgenres. There are also a staggering number of metal bands out there, so if anyone has a band they would like to recommend to the rest of us, please do. I personally am always willing to expand my metal knowledge, and I hope you feel the same.

Anyways.. I suppose a good place to start would be to list off a few favourite bands.

Megadeth: There is so much more to Megadeth than the Metallica rivalry, and if you refuse to give the band a chance because of that, you're a fool. It took me a little while to warm up to the band, mainly the Dave Mustaine singing voice acclimatization period, but once I made it past that, Megadeth simply rocked. More than anything else, I listen to Megadeth for the guitars, and many a brilliant riff can be found among their song library. As far as thrash metal goes, Megadeth (in their prime, and in my opinion) are the best. As a matter of fact, I'm listening to them right now..

I have many other bands that I would like to mention, and will eventually, but I feel the need to depart the internet realm and would rather just post this now instead of coming back to it later. So yeah, if you have something you want to say about metal, please do!

[Melf]

I'm soooo close to completing my Iron Maiden collection (Dickenson only). I'm missing only about 2 albums.

[Vicman]

I haven't seriously listened to any "regular" metal in a very long time, probably since 1995 or so. It just grew pretty old and weak to me once I got interested in the different subgenre's of extreme metal: death/brutal death/melodic death/black/melodic black/symphonic black/viking/doom/grind/etc. as well as some of the avant garde/neo-classical/progressive extreme metal during my time. Funny thing is that once you've gotten used to that kinda metal everything else sounds kinda soft or too mainstream in comparision. I seriously had a hard time distinguishing regular metal from rock, rock from soft rock, and soft rock from pop for a few years there, 1996-2001, when I was really into extreme metal music. Nowadays I just listen to an album from time to time but am not really up on the newest acts or albums from my fav bands.

I'm much more diverse in my musicals tastes these days and have been enjoying more underground/bookbag hip-hop/house/trip-hop/ and late 80s/early 90s jazz influenced hip-hop. I love these two forms of music, hip-hop & metal, because they played a very heavy influence in my acculturization from childhood to teen to adult. I've never liked it when the two were mixed, Nu-metal comes to mind, but in their own forms I enjoy them immensely.

As for bands that are/were my favs here's a list since I have over 100 extreme metal albums:

Morbid Angel
Cannibal Corpse
Deicide
Nile
Borknagar
Emperor
Cradle of Filth
Dimmu Borgir
Gehenna
Arcturus
Hecate Enthroned
Old Man's Child
In Flames
Samael
Sentenced
Therion

[Electroman]

Its almost all I listen to...

Amon Amarth, At the Gates, Battlelore, Beyond the Embrace, Black Sabbath, Disarray, Fear Factory, Grip INC, Guns N' Roses, Haunted, The
Helstar, Iced Earth, Kittie, Megadeth, Metallica, Mushroomhead, Nailbomb
Overkill, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Pitch Shifter, Rob Zombie, Sepultura
Slayer, Slipknot, Static-X, System of a Down, Trivium, Venom, White Zombie

And Non-Metal Bands:
Alice in Chains, Fleetwood Mac, Midnight Syndicate, Ministry, The Doors
Tool, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

[Drixxel]

I'm soooo close to completing my Iron Maiden collection (Dickenson only). I'm missing only about 2 albums.

What's your favourite Maiden album, Melf? I'm personally quite the Powerslave fan, although just anything '80s and Dickenson'll do. I picked up Iron Maiden self-titled a few weeks ago.. even after several listens, I still haven't warmed up to it. Eventually it'll happen.

My personal tastes are more or less rooted in '80s thrash, but I'll give anything a try. I've not yet managed to develop a taste for black metal or grind, but in terms of the extreme subgenres I'm rather fond of melodic death and viking metal. ..although in the viking metal realm, my repertoire is made up entirely of Bathory.

The ol' spread of favourites:

-Annihilator
-Anthrax
-At The Gates
-Bathory
-Black Sabbath
-Cacophony
-Children of Bodom
-Coroner
-Dark Angel
-Death Angel
-Dio
-In Flames
-Iron Maiden
-Judas Priest
-Kyuss
-Megadeth
-Metal Church
-Metallica
-Overkill
-Ozzy Osbourne(Randy Rhoads era)
-Pantera
-Sepultura
-Slayer
-Testament
-Tool
-Voivod
-Yngwie Malmsteen

..and I really dig Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and video game soundtracks.

[Russman]

I love Iron Maiden, and Powerslave is also my favorite, followed by 7th Son... I have Killers, and it does have some kick-ass tracks, but overall I think the pre-Beast stuff just has too much of a classic rock influence to it. Not hard enough.

[Drixxel]

Yeah, that's my main issue with Iron Maiden self-titled. It's much more in the vein of late 70's rock, and Iron Maiden hadn't really established their guitar harmonization magic yet. Plus, Paul Di'Anno is no Bruce Dickenson. To me, pre-Number Of The Beast era Iron Maiden almost feels like a different band.

[NintendoDieScreaming]

I'm a fan of the greatest band ever....


Iron Fuckin' Maiden.

Have all the albums, even the shitty Blaze Bayley ones. This'll sound a bit odd, but I probably listen to Live At Donnington the most. A friend let me borrow his copy of the cd (This was before burning was all the rage) and told me I had to listen to this band. It was the album that got me into Metal, and the album that got me into Maiden. My favorite studio album by them has to be Number Of The Beast. I feel that that album embodies the spirit of Metal better than any other.

Of course, I enjoy Killers and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son as well. Hell, I enjoy all of them, except Virtual XI. Say what you will, that album sucks.

Other favorite metal bands...

Alice Cooper, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Judas Priest, Queensryche, Black Sabbath, Megadeth, Anthrax, Iced Earth, and... ...*blush*... ...Twisted Sister.

I also love Progressive Rock, namely Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Queen, King Crimson, and Yes.

[Melf]

I love Fear of the Dark and Somewhere in Time. Though I'm a huge fan of everything Maiden, these two are my favorite.

I also love:

- Skid Row
- Dio (yes!)
- GnR
- Danzig
- Ozzy

...and just about anything else metal.

[Electroman]

Iced Earth,

I saw them play in a very rare appearance last spring in Providence, RI at Lupo's. They were very good, but like every other concert one can go to, it is just too damn loud. Then again maybe its the age (31). I kept thinking to myself, I am getting old.

But anyway, no band has impressed me in a long time like Jon Schaffer's Iced Earth.

Another band I have grown to love is Battlelore. Fantasy metal from Finland

[Vicman]

Fantasy Metal? Is that like Bal-Sagoth? Where the lead singer has written almost a book full of back story to the lyrics of the group's songs? Very D&D/Tolkien-esque: http://www.bal-sagoth.co.uk/

Checkout their glossary to all the places, names, characters, and artifacts of their songs. They have a map of their fantasy world, they're gonna have graphic novels coming out illustrated by Martin Hanford, and when they title their songs like this: "The Splendour of a thousand swords gleaming beneath the blazon of the Hyperborean Empire" you know they're freaking nuts!

[Electroman]

Fantasy Metal? Is that like Bal-Sagoth? Where the lead singer has written almost a book full of back story to the lyrics of the group's songs? Very D&D/Tolkien-esque: http://www.bal-sagoth.co.uk/

Checkout their glossary to all the places, names, characters, and artifacts of their songs. They have a map of their fantasy world, they're gonna have graphic novels coming out illustrated by Martin Hanford, and when they title their songs like this: "The Splendour of a thousand swords gleaming beneath the blazon of the Hyperborean Empire" you know they're freaking nuts!

I don't know Bal-Sagoth but I will check them out !

Battlelore's lyrics are heavily based on Tolkien/Lord of the Rings stuff. They range from very heavy thrash/power metal to light metal. Their vocals range from male dry-lung, to clean male and beautiful female singing. In fact, they will release a new album here in the states in late August. I first heard them on a Century Media compilation album and loved their song on it (Buccaneer's Inn). I then bought both their albums and fell in love with them immediately. Sword's Song is espeically good while their first studio album, Where Shadows Lie is a bit rougher (not a bad thing). I like how they did song sequels too.

URL: www.battlelore.net

[Russman]

Hi guys,

I was looking over Drixxel's list and I picked up a copy of Children of Bodom: Follow The Reaper. I've never listened to these guys before, and I only listened to a few tracks so far. I know it's metal, but first off I don't really like the vocal style in this kind of music where the singer is screaming at the top of his lungs, it makes me feel like I should be out punching people in the face. Thats what I like about Megadeth and Maiden, they have lyrics I can actually hear and understand.

I'm not trying to diss CoB, I'll surely listen to it alot at work, but of those bands listed, which ones have good Singing?

[Drixxel]

Follow the Reaper was also my first CoB purchase, and yes, it took me a good bit of time to adjust to the singing. It's almost better that you can't entirely comprehend the lyrics, though. Much of it is garbage. Musically, the band is top of the line, and like anything else, the singing will eventually grow on you.

Of the bands I listed, the ones that stand out as being blessed with the best throats (and ones you may not be too terribly familiar with) would be: Dio, Metal Church, and Tool. I seem to remember Russman that in the old forum you said you listen to Testament, but if my memory's failing, they're a great band with a great singer and well worth looking up.

I definately think you should check out Dio if you want to hear some incredible singing, as Ronny James Dio is a vocal champion. Stand Up And Shout is a great display of his vocal domination.

Metal Church.. David Wayne has an excellent soft singing voice when he chooses to use it, but for the most part he adopts a much more powerful form of delivery. It's all great, though. Check out the song Badlands if you want to hear a good example of his soft singsongery. (EDIT: Mere moments ago I discovered that it is actually a man by the name of Mike Howe who sings on the song Badlands, and the album that song is from. Ol' David Wayne was replaced at that point. Yep.. still, check out Metal Church!)

..and finally Tool, well, now that I think of it you've probably heard them before as they're quite the popular band. Maynard James Keenan simply has an incredible voice.

Those are the standouts, anyway. I try not to let an immediately unpleasant singing voice turn me away from a band, but sometimes its just so unappealing that I can't help it, so hopefully Children of Bodom works out for you.

[Vicman]

it makes me feel like I should be out punching people in the face.

That's part of what you should be feeling when you listen to extreme metal music. It's hate and anger projected into music. I hear alot of regular metal guys just don't like or can't get used to that kind of guttural vocals but I instantly loved it when I first heard extreme metal music back in the mid 90s, CoB isn't that extreme though so I guess your virgin ears just aren't used to it. Believe me there's alot of variety in the kind of vocals used in Metal music. Just listen to some Nile to understand brutal death metal's vocals as a comparison.