This post will be long. I love my music and i have a lot of free time at the moment i should probably be using to improve my pixeling skeelz..but blargh. not feeling particularly artistic at the moment.
I see there's a lot of actual real honest-to-god metal floating around here:
This makes me very happy.
Now stuff that could be classified as metal in no particular order:
Let's just go ahead and get the METAL (I freely admit, it's *mostly* power metal.) out of the way here, so you folks not interested in that can just scroll on down.
IRON MAIDEN - IF I actually need to describe or paraphrse this band, then you really ought to just crawl on out of that rock you've been hiding under for the past 30 some odd years. Oh, and up the irons and such.
Standout albums:
Killers
Number of the beast
Powerslave
Dance of death (Shut up. this album kicks.)
DIO - Yes. I actually like Dio and in a completely unironic manner. Hold thy conugons high, my diminutive friend...
Standout Albums:
Holy Diver (how can anyone argue this isn't a classic?)
Last In Line
Killing the Dragon
RIOT - Riot Is a difficult band to categorize, simply because they've changed so much over the years. They were without a doubt one of the hardest rocking American bands to come out of the late 70's. Their album "rock city" is probably one of the most underappreciated of what i call "precursor metal" albums. Fast forward a few years and two vocalists. They produce and release the album "thundersteel" Which is, to simply put it - Fucking awesome.
Standout albums
Rock City
Narita
Thundersteel (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6MD0W57QaA "FIght of fall"
the Privilidge of Power
AMON AMARTH - Vikings. Murder. Pillage. 8 foot tall swedes. Grunting, Blasphemy. Blazing fast guitars and double bass. The distilled essence of pagan rage!
Standouts:
With oden on our side
The Avenger
BLIND GUARDIAN - How do I love thee? Take queen; add metal. Well for the latter stuff anyway. BG's eary stuff is mostly run-of-the-mill speed metl, but instead of bein about satan it's about hobbits and tommyknockers.
The good:
A Night At the Opera
Imaginations From the Other Side
NIghtfall in Middle Earth (Because, dammit.)
ICED EARTH - I got into these guys way too late. I get to see them in september with the full glory of matt barlowe! Not much to say here, Other than "1776 is quite possibly the most epic metal instrumental of all time."
The Awesome:
Something wicked This Way Comes
Burnt Offerings
The Dark Saga
yeha. I pretty much hate tim "R1PP3R" owens. no offense.
DEMONS & WIZARDS - Iced earth and blind guardian, though i hear more blind guardian than iced earth here.
The good - Both albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXzKKSOzzsk i've been told that look a *LOT* like john schaeffer in this video.
The bad - there is no bad. Yes, I even liked that "wicked witch" song.
MASTODON - God. Mastodon is brutal and technical There is a grand total of ONE song i don't like by them. (sickleg) The name of the band is very indicative of the sound they produce. It's huge. It's intimidating and it has giant tusks. But it's not a stomp-a-thon, in that it's surprisingly intelligent music. They're also from atlanta, which is where I hail from.
Good - Pretty much everything. ESPECIALLY blood mountain. good lord. it's a masterpeice. I don't know how they're going to top it.
MOTORHEAD - This really needs no explanation. motorhead has been rocking hard for 40 some odd years now and seems to show no signs of stopping. I hate to reccomend it though, but you're much better off getting a best-of compilation than attempting to collect thier catalogue because..well. they haven't changed much over the years. Normally this bothers me, but they found a formula that works without getting into ac/dc levels of reptitiveness. Maybe it's because the albums are over before you realize it.
STANDOUTS:
Ace of Spades
(self titled)
Iron Fist
Bastards -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyPRjf9Drh4PANTERA - Okay, i'll openly admit that i actually prefer their glam stuff (1st 4 albums) over anything after that. With that being said, taky my opinions with a large grain of salt.
GET:
Power Metal
Metal Magic (And i *WISH* i were lying here...)
Cowboys From Hell
SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM - I'm not sure if this counts as metal. I haven't gotten *too* deep into this band's cataloge, as I only Have two albums by them. So i'll not offer any reccomendations other than this video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELyco68w5ksThe album "in Glorious Times" has quite a bit of "red" and "larks tongue in aspic" era King Crimson influence that should be apparent aside from the vocals. Not a bad thing at all.
TYR - more viking stuff. this is much more folk oriented and takes a lot of direct inflience from faroese folk music. They've been called "Progressive folk" but there's some metal there too.
Best album: Ragnarok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97lxvrKC-nITHE SWORD - Think black sabbath on steroids, Or a really fast version of Sleep. And since sleep wrote such slow paced music, The sword's stuff is still on the slower side of thing. The album "age of winters" is better than "gods of the earth" many times over, but the latter is by no means a bad album. It lacks the Bone-crushing quality of the first, however.
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NOT METAL!
16 HORSEPOWER/WOVEN HAND - They're often called "gothabilly" but that's not quite right. 16 HP takes more american folk influence, and infueses it with a very dark spirituality. Woven hand is much more gloomy and experimental. In either case i've enver heard anything like them. If you ever get the opportunity to see woven hand live, do so. Edwards has a gigantic stage presence.
16 HP -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THlgU-8dMYg "american Wheeze" and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO9My5_H6dg "black soul Choir"
WH -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shMF6ALAKZY "winer Shaker" (excuse the crappy video.)
I cannot reccomend these bands enough. i really can't.
ALICE IN CHAINS- Let it be known that i love early 90's seattle stuff. Some call it grunge but i call them stupid. Alice in chains is awesome.
BEST ALBUMS: Facelift, Jar of Flies
BORIS - Boris is impossible to categorize. They're a Japanese band that does mostly Drone and doom, But also branch out into noisy punklike rock songs that rock your nuts off, to nick-drake esque material. I don't speak japanese, so obviously the lyrical content is lost on me. This is actualy about the only japanese band i like right now. I have no idea why this is particularly.
BEST ALBUM FOR BALLS TO THE WALL RAWK: Heavy Rocks
BEST ALBUM FOR ATMOSPHEREIC NOISE: The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Pt. 2
BUDGIE - I almost posted this in metal due to how raw, hard and influential their 1971 self titled album is. Metallica (the asshats they are) did a coer of Budgie's song "breadfan". you're more likely to have heard metallicas less-than-stellar version.
CANDLEMASS - YOU ARE BEEWWIIIIITCHED! Best album IMO is Tales of creation, with king of the grey isles trailing a close second.
It's Doom. Stright up. And occasionally a messiac marcolin.
CLUTCH - I don't even know what to say here. Clutch is one of the best bands of all time. Tons of energy, absolutely brillaint songwriting and influences from all over the board. If you don't know clutch youdon't know jack. Very talented musicians and just about the only band that actually causes me to want to get up and shake my ass. The best description i can give a a funk/blues sort of job, except with a distinct redneckish charm, but written by university of maryland graduates.
BEst album: Robot hive/exodus
Anyways i'm too tired to keep going and this post is way too long as it is. I hope it proves useful for somebody maybe looking for something new.
But yeah. I've got like 50 gigs of music that i listen to pretty regularly, so if anyone's interested in sharing, feel free to hit me up.
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