How did you get into Death Metal (Metal)?

Hence why I've supported metal bands that more or less ambient in their composition (Aosoth, Disembowelent, Cultes des Ghoules, Beherit) and groups like early Voivod and Death Strike/Master who are arguably in some circles as metal as they are hardcore punk. I don't mind "genre transgression" as long as it's done well and isn't suffering from stylistic indecisiveness and ADD. For me, Opeth are the poster boys of how to not do that and it's only now they figured out a specific idea of what to exactly do.

edited 11th Jul '14 7:57:24 AM by StillbirthMachine

(Can't wait for next paycheck)

Going straight to Dark Tranquility albums on I Tunes. ^^

"Stylistic indecisiveness" is in the eye of the beholder, though. Opeth's music has never struck me as being particularly indecisive and I've always felt that each of their albums has good tonal consistency...until Heritage, actually. Damnation proved that removing the metal element didn't necessarily make an album any less Opeth-y, for want of a better word, but Heritage was just a half-baked mess.

edited 11th Jul '14 8:17:04 AM by pagad

The clean/harsh mellow/loud contrast they have going on might as well be them waving a giant sign around saying "meh metal or so so prog rock, vote for the one you like more" and makes them feel far more amateur than ambitious to me. Heritage is them deciding prog rock won out (they already had a full acoustic album anyways) and I'd rather have to listen to them dicking about in the most excessive aspects of the 70's rather than the usual pastiche of self conflicted overtly long winded and overdeveloped sound they're better known for.

Meh, different strokes. I'll just say I see sublimity where you see mediocrity. They remain one of my favourite metal bands, after all, and Mikael's still probably my favourite growler.

(Incidentally, why does everyone call Damnation an acoustic album, anyway? It's about as "acoustic" as your average Pink Floyd album - which is to say, there's plenty of acoustic guitar, but it's not really the dominant element amongst the electric guitar and mellotron).

To go back to the topic, and to try and get away from Opeth a little bit, they introduced me to the idea that death growling had artistic merit rather than being pointlessly unpleasant to listen to, and from there the whole wide world of death metal opened up to me, though I remained primarily interested in those bands with a strong instrumental focus and dynamic range of sound. Even so, if you told 19 year old me that I'd actually start liking bands like Nile, I'd have laughed at you.

edited 11th Jul '14 12:26:22 PM by pagad

I think I'm just too mellow for most Death Metal, then again, my music tastes are very narrow (hard rock up to speed and thrash metal.) I do like some early Venom and Child of Bodom, minus the growling in the latter.

You might like some of the more hardcore-leaning crossover black metal stuff, say Cara Neir, although I cannot say for sure.

Thanks, I'll look into them!

(Downloaded me Dark Tranquility Sky Dancer album)