Metal

After hearing what Primordial has to offer with their To The Nameless Dead album, and listening through some tracks from our Rate the Song thread, I've decided to try to get into Black Metal. What are good bands/albums with strong Folk, Prog and\or Gothic influences? Is elegant, melodic black metal a thing?

I mean, melodic black metal is a pretty wide-reaching label, but if you're going to start there, Dissection is where most people head first. Windir would probably also be to your liking. If you like Middle Eastern-y stuff, I would also definitely recommend Melechesh.

edited 9th Dec '17 10:23:49 AM by HasturHasturHastur

Obsequiae are pretty elegant and play a mixture of the classic Swedish melodic sound and Greek style traditional heavy metal influenced black metal, enhanced by a very technical performance on their debut which disappears for the follow-up.

I feel like Mortuary Drape and Root could also fit the bill if "first-wave black metal if it used Mercyful Fate as a template instead of Venom" is something that sounds appealing to a beginner.

Seconding the fuck outta the 'Drape's Tolling 13 Knell and Inconcessus Lux Lucis on that note, the latter's debut especially for some of the most natural and classic Czeching sound trad metal infusion into a black metal context.

edited 4th Jan '18 6:25:13 PM by StillbornMachine

So, I've been listening to several songs by Zao recently. They seem pretty cool. I'm considering listening to an album by them but I don't which one to start with.

Uh, Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest and Liberate Te Ex Inferis are where I'd start and are metallic hardcore essentials as a whole. The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here is another one of their best, but it's also among their most abrasive.

So, I’ve been exploring the black metal album showpieces Hastur and SM suggested to me, and I want to share my experiences of a beginner to the genre so far:

Obsequiae’s Suspended in the Brume of Eos: Well, it’s crystal clear that them and BG share some roots in medieval folk music. Some of the softer stuff from this album could easily be mistaken for songs from, say, “Nightfall in the Middle-Earth”. That said, they’re not very intense compared to the other bands I’ve been listening to, but the elegance mentioned by SM and overall technical proficiency more than make up for it.

Melechesh’s Sphynx: I’m from Central Asia, and Middle East being a neighboring region I was very intrigued of what Babylonian-themed black metal (or any kind of heavy metal, really) would sound like. Melechesh didn’t disappoint. I noticed that some heavy metal bands influenced by folk music fall into two extremes: they either keep it too close to the roots, and their music keeps the softness of folk music when played on heavy metal instruments kit, or they’re go too heavy and the folk music elements become unrecognizable. Melechesh is easily both: intense and unmistakably folk. The “Gollum on meth” kind of harsh vocals would sound narm-y in any other context, but in Spynx, it fits like a glove.

Mortuary Drape’s Tolling 13 Knell: At this point I realized that I’ve come to liking the technical-leaning black metal. That said, compared to Sphynx, ‘Drape’s sound lacks a certain richness. I get the feeling that they could have used an additional guitarist in their ensemble. Or it’s just the fact that this album sounds like it was recorded in Roman catacombs (or something) is confusing me.

Inconcessus Lux Lucis’ Disintegration - Psalms Of Veneration For The Nefarious Elite: arguably the most intense and sinister album of the bunch. Also, very, very loud. And I think I get what was meant by trad metal influences: It’s very theatrical at times, as much as black metal can be.

So, what’s left are Windir’s 1184 (which I couldn’t get into straight away, maybe soaking in the other bands’ material would make it easier for me this time), maybe some Dissection album and definitely a Root album or two. Which, considering the latter’s pretty extensive discography, I’m having trouble picking, to be honest. Which is the best Root album to start with?

Check out Thy Darkened Shade's sophomore album which is basically technical black metal. There's a heavy fretless bass presence and while I think they're a garbage band, Obscura's drummer has a tasteful performance. Lots of shreddy riffing but into a grandiose and highly ornate package.

As for Mortuary Drape, like Inconcessus Lux Lucis they're an advanced version of the otherwise primitive first wave approach to black metal. A lot of their riffing harkens back to the heavy/speed/death/thrash/doom and otherwise 80's or at times 70's roots of the genre but with a tighter performance and more eclectic technical details. They're arguably not a very good example of black metal in general given how niche and specific their sound is but I personally enjoy that paradox of the primitive and the grandiose.

For Root, up to the second album they are a simple, hypnptic, and very primitive black metal band but from The Temple in the Underworld onward they turn into a blackened, doomy epic heavy metal band. The songs have that same occult vibe and considerably better instrumentation but get... odd frequently. It's hard for me to explain. It's pretty awesome for them up to 2001's Black Seal.

Edited by StillbornMachine on Sep 26th 2018 at 9:22:27 AM

Well, the new Tribulation dropped slightly less than a week ago. The verdict on Down Below: it's great, but anyone hoping for any sort of return to The Formulas of Death (let alone The Horror) is going to be extremely disappointed. It's honestly barely even a metal album; aside from the harsh vocals and some trad riffs, it's basically a deathrock album (aside from a few residual Italian horror prog textures here and there). I've used "Rozz Williams-era Christian Death with harsh vocals" to describe it and I still don't think that I'm off on that one. Like The Children of the Night, it's a fun and interesting take on gothic metal, but I can totally see why some people would be turned off by it.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the new Tribulation. TBH I thought they became a much better band when they dropped any pretense of being death metal and went full-on expressionist-horror-goth-whatever.

That sounds something like I would enjoy.

It's been years since I've listened to Dimmu Borgir, and their upcoming album Eonian, is definitely different judging by the new song. I like it, I just didn't expect it.

edited 27th Feb '18 3:31:30 AM by TerminusEst

Dimmu lost whatever they had going for them with ICS Vortex. I may be a bit of a Vortex fanboy, but he was easily the best part of the band during his run.

Void Ceremony's newest EP dropped not too long ago (though it was originally supposed to late last year) and it's easily one of the top 10 best non-album death metal releases I've heard. I don't feel like describing it right now beyond "in a similar eldritch dimension as Blood Incantation, Zealotry, Nex Carnis, Star Gazer, and Garroted" so just read the review I wrote here.

edited 28th Feb '18 5:37:03 PM by StillbornMachine

So Judas Priest have a new album out. It's pretty good.

I feel like I'm necroing this thread, but god damn, the new Skeletal Remains is really blowing me away so far. They were always a promising band that put out decent albums that were a solid mix of Floridian and Dutch OSDM and death/thrash traditions, but they never released anything with a true "wow" factor until now. It's still pretty true to their mix of Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence, Spiritual Healing-era Death, Eaten Back to Life-era Cannibal Corpse, and mid-era Thanatos, just better than ever.

The only thing I'm not liking about it so far is the drum performance which comes off as considerably more plain than Carlos Cruz's tasteful, understated technicality from the last one. Beyond that, they've taken the kind of simple, bulldozing, post-Slayer first wave American style death metal I normally dislike (Massacre, early Death, Obituary, Cancer, etc.), mixed it up with a bit of early European melody and doominess a la Pestilence and Bolt Thrower, and as you said a good share of death/thrash crunchiness.

Johnny Valles' performance honestly reminds me a lot of Aad Kloosterwaard's performances on the first few Sinister albums. Carlos Cruz is definitely the better drummer overall, but Johnny still fits nicely.

I was hoping we'd see them develop that understated technicality further but eh, they do boneheaded superior to the usual Sunlight Studios shit.

I feel like that's more where Gruesome is headed now that they're in the Spiritual Healing phase of their career, whereas Skeletal Remains has pretty clearly settled on their codified Death/Pestilence/Sinister/Thanatos/Cannibal Corpse blend and doesn't really seem to want to stray too far from the sound that they've locked down.

X6. I'd argue it may be one of their best albums. Not sure if i'd rank it higher than Screaming for Vengeance (my fav Priest album), but it is better than Painkiller. It's got enough innovation without sacrificing the core priest sound. Fav tracks are probably Firepower, Evil Never D Ies, Traitors Gate, and No Surrender.

(kind of wish we had more discussion of traditional metal like Priest on this thread, but I suppose it cant be helped that the discussion shifted toward more extreme metal)

edited 25th Apr '18 10:26:54 PM by J79

Gatekeeper's debut album, East of Sun, dropped today! It's quickly become one of my top 10 favourites for epic metal a la Manilla Road/Solstice, reminding me a bit of Atlantean Kodex albeit considerably riffier and with J. Priest's wide range in both character and pitch, adding a manic if operatic air to their dynamic style. There's a few moments that hint at earlier US style progpower like on the title track and "Warrior Without Fear" and while quite a few of the tracks are rerecordings, J.'s vocals add an entirely new dimension to older songs that the odd tranquility of their previous vocalist simply didn't have.

I've been trying to get the word about them because I feel like they're one of Texas' best-kept secrets, but Whore of Bethlehem has to be one of the best things to come out of that state in a while. A third aggressive USBM, a third Cannibal Corpse/Morbid Angel/Deicide, and a third TXDM, they're probably one of my favorite newer blackened death groups. Polished enough to have that razor-sharp edge, yet dirty enough to not feel defanged in the slightest, they're one of those groups that really has the potential to take off if people ever get around to noticing them.

Lovebites' new EP dropped today and it's a total banger. While their debut had moments where it went into anime-opening-single-attempt territory as well as one instance of hard rock with "Scream for Me", they've dropped that almost entirely for a ruthless riff-fest that puts them closer to the rapidfire hammering of German style bands like Manticora's first three, Iron Savior, Blind Guardian, and even power/thrash on occasion like Ancestral (Italy) and Paradox. It's even riffier and just outright heavier, an overall improvement for perhaps Japan's most promising power metal band.

edited 8th Jun '18 6:21:54 PM by StillbornMachine