Metal Reviews

i did this for a livejournal quiz type thing, so i thought i'd psot it here and you guys can post yours... post descriptions or stories or something too because lists are just teh boring to read. :]

1. The Mars Volta - With the exception of The Postman Syndrome, Neurosis and Protest the Hero, no other band has blended the pure energy and livelyness of hardcore with the ambition, chops and variety of prog. I don't like the more laid back, less bombastic direction they've taken on Amputechture though as it was the main element that made them so unique.

2. Tool - Pioneers (gods) of music.

3. Zero Hour - Progressive metal with less than one solo per song! Mike Guy has to be the most humble, yet amazingly talented drummer ever. They also have super intricate riffs, guitar and bass interplay, arrangements and awesome songwriting.

4. The Postman Syndrome - While not completely original, these guys blend their influences so well that there isn't another band that I've heard that sounds much like them. They're also ridiculously impossible to describe, but they have 3 guitarists and 3 singers and kick major ass.

5. Devin Townsend / Strapping Young Lad - This guys music is big and original, and he's got an amazing voice, and amazing walls of sound, and awesome songs.

6. Neurosis - The most depressing band ever. Also their stubborn refusal to release a bad album over the course of six albums just makes you wish tehy would fuck up once, if only to prove that they're human.

7. King Crimson - Their career started almost 40 years ago and they're still making music that covers new ground. Argue that bitches.

8. The Paper Chase - As far as music goes I couldn't find a better example of "perfectly imperfect". I also wouldn't be surprised if Jon Congleton became some sort of psychopath.

9. Protest The Hero - A punk band that suddenly decided they felt like playing progressive metal. I hate how addictive they are because they only have one album and no other bands sound like them.

10. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Where the hell did these guys come from? As far as I know there are no bands that sounded remotely similar to Calculating Infinity before it was released (Converge? Dazzling Killmen?). ANd it practically created its own genre (or at least they have a crapload of bands imitating them).

11. Arsis - These guys are wayyyy too talented to being playing melodic death metal, but they do, and it kicks ass.

12. Hammers of Misfortune - Really cool artsy metal, lots of guitar harmonies and awesome riffs and fun stuff like that.

13. Meshuggah - "I" and Catch ThirtyThree > Your soul.

14. Ephel Duath - 2 metal musicians, 2 jazz musicians and a rock musician combine to make awesomely creative music.

15. Converge - Intensity > you



EDIT: lolz i replaced nevermore with converge

No particular order and this changes, but as of right now:

Judas Priest - awesome everything and Rob Fucking Halford

Dream Theater - Amazing musicians and imo great song writers

Lamb of God - Killer riffs, amazing drummer, and Blythe is a man posessed

Behemoth - Demigod, Zos Kia Cultus, Thelema.6 all kill

Dark Tranquillity - Amazingly consistent yet constantly changing from albumt to album

Iced Earth - Just killer songs, riffs and vocals

Sonata Arctice - Tony Kakko is awesome and they have great lyrics

Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh, enough said

Edguy - Their epic power metal days rule but I still like the new album

Black Sabbath - So many great albums

Emperor - Incredible musicianship and songwriting, my first black metal band

Hypocrisy - Peter

Blind Guardian - lots of and Hansi

Lost Horizon - ubelievable singer and some of the best songwriting ever

Iron Maiden - it's Iron Maiden

Here is my list as of now. I will probably leave out a couple on accident, but I will try not to:

(In no order)
1. Doors-I would say they have definitely inspired me as a musician, and just as an artist in general

2. Modest Mouse-Very good musicianship and songwriting

3. Primus-They have managed to make very good and meaningful music, and have avoided pretention

4. Tool-Original, innovative, and talented

5. Pink Floyd-Very inspiring and original; and incredible musicians

6. As I Lay Dying-They maintain their sound without losing any of the emotion and expression involved in it.

7. Darkest Hour-Good sonwriting and musicianship, and also what I said about AILD

8. The Mars Volta-Very innovative and powerful

9. Nile-Incredible musicianship

10. Lamb Of God-Very talented and good songwriters

I will include my other five at a later time.

Balance of Power I have no idea why they didn’t make it into the first league. They have it all: Outstanding vocals, great musicians, diverse sound arrangements, awesome songwriting, strong solos and catchy melodies with long-term effect. They started as Melodic Metal / AOR band and added some more Power Metal and Progressive elements to every new album. Like the title suggests, this it perfectly balanced on “Perfect Balance”.

Vomitory is brutal, wild, untamed, savage, and furious, technically perfect but not technical, musical but not melodic, simple but not primitive, catchy but not chumming up. This is Death metal how I like it.

Opeth / DreamTheater I think every moron who thinks he has something to say about them has already said this in countless threads in this forum.

Flower Kings It seems that nobody likes them; critics and fans unite their forces to condemn every new release. I wonder who is buying them. I like their light approach to Neo Prog very much. Based on the achievements of bands like Genesis, King Crimson and Yes they build their own sound universe and include everything from Folk to Blues and from Jazz to Hard Rock but still manage to sound coherent and distinctive and not arty at all.

Frank Zappa’s 82’ tour band Unlike other guitar gods Zappa was never afraid of taking other talented axe players in his band. The 82’ band had Steve Vai on board and some of this band’s live performances stretch the border of the humanly possible.

Pain of Salvation I think it will take still half a century until the brilliancy of Daniel Gildenlöw will be generally recognised by the music community.

Nile of course.

Tiamat must be on this list owing to Wildhoney alone.

Dead Soul Tribe must be on this list owing to A Murder of Crows alone.

No 11-15 are wild cards for all unnamed great metal bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maidon, Sodom, and the like but also for some 100 non-metal bands that should be on such a list. But they are so non-metal that some of the notorious forum nonentities may be annoyed, so I leave it.

These are in no particural order

Stratovarius
Rhapsody
Dream Theater
Ensiferum
X Japan
Children Of Bodom
Blind Guardian
Testament
Sonata Arctica
Manowar
Iced Earth
Swallow The Sun
Helloween
Edguy
Iron Maiden

These bands mean a lot to me. Mostly melodic, powerful and cathcy as hell ! That's the way I like my metal

In no particular order:

Burzum

Iron Maiden

Sapthuran

Children of Bodom

Noenum

Taake

Nachtmystium

Sigh

Leviathan

Ulver

Arcturus

Darkthrone

Elvenking

Krieg

Mystic Forest

Could change in 5 minutes, tommorow, a few days, anytime really

The untouchables:

Megadeth
Iron Maiden

The rest is whatever I feel like.

In no particular order (except mybe SA being first)

1) Sonata Arctica: Godly in every aspect. Musicianship, songwriting, stage performance...
2) Black Sabbath: Sabbath just rock.
3) Ozzy Osbourne: Sang with some of the best guitarists (Randy Rhoads RIP) and has lots of
4) Savatage: Brilliant.
5) Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Even more brilliant.
6) Iron Maiden: One of my first actual metal bands.
7) Alice Cooper: Still the best lyricist I've encountered so far.
8) Children of Bodom: Turned me on to harsh vocals, and I still like Alexis singing a lot.
9) Elvenking: My first folk-metal band.
10) Eluveitie: Plays right to my swiss patriotism.
11) Nile: Favourite death metal band. Awesome drumming.
12) Guns N'Roses: Beautiful soloing.
13) In Flames: To me, the correct amount of beauty mixed with aggressiveness.
14) Queensrÿche: Operation Mindcrime is probably among my top 5 records.
15) Lordi: Catchy shit!

No order:

The Rolling Stones - For just being brilliant, and because A Bigger Bang is actually pretty good. > Beatles.

The Melvins - Distilling Doom to its most purest form, these guys never fail to rock, whether bashing out Stoner anthems (the new album is incredible) or dropping into Drone. Plus, the man with the best hair in metal - King Buzzo.

Napalm Death - Never giving up, never selling out, these guys preached the same message for years. Going through many line-ups, and featuring some of the best British metal musicians ever - Lee Dorrian, Justin Broadrick, Danny Herrera, Shane Embury, not to forget Barney and his unearthly growl. They rock, pure and simple.

Sepultura - Despite what some may think, the only bad album these guys have released is Roots. And that isn't that bad. Proof that Brazil has more to offer the world than footballers with funny haircuts, these guys have made great music from their early Thrash days, to their current Thrash days, having gone in a circle.

Motorhead - Lemmy is God.

MC5 - KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!

Enslaved - Whether making Vikings cool again (FUCK AMON AMARTH!!!) or jamming out the best prog metal ever, these guys are the best Norwegian BM band out there (I would have put Emperor here, but Ihsahn lost them it because I thought his solo album was shitty).

Cryptopsy - YYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

...

I do that rather well......... don't you think?

Genesis - Just because of Selling England By The Pound. Lovelly.

Rush - I can't get enough of this band. Brilliant, even if their politics are a bit iffy. And accordingly...

Burzum - Screams never sounded so good before. Edit: Add Mayhem to this. Chainsaw Gutfuck is a great song.

Bob Dylan / Johnny Cash - Two of the best voices out there.

Pearl Jam - I like 'em.

Cephalic Carnage - Napalm D. is easy listening compared to these guys.

NEVER!!!! I'LL CHOP YOUR BLOODY 'EAD OFF!

They may have ripped them off a bit, but they were better. John Lennon solo was alright, though.

+1

I'm buying them: D. Seriously though, this is a great band. I bought "Back in the World of Adventures" a couple years back and have been hooked since. The only other album I own/heard is "The Rainmaker," which I also love. The Yes influence is so noticeable with these guys. The Stolt brothers are damn creative musicians.

The question was favourite bands so I'm leaving a lot of individuals out.

Also this list is total rubbish because as soon as I submit it I will no doubt think of dozens of things I like more, and no doubt obscurer bands as well that would make me look more knowledgeable.

Megadeth- I at least like every Megadeth album except CW which I don't have. And their best one cruises into my top 5 evar.

Opeth- cuz they r wel orsum n r on roadruner n shit n hav mellow bits1

The Gathering- Who made every other band in their approximate genre sound like a bunch of retards.

Demilich- It's like freaky tech death, but more so.

Metallica- I don't listen much anymore because I found plenty of other stuff, but I like everything they ever did. Yes, everything [shock confession/]

Radiohead- Only chumps don't like Radiohead!

Blur- " " " " Blur!

Skunk Anansie- They were a totally, utterly awesome shouty political UK pop/rock group, and pretty heavy in parts as well.

Mayhem- Mainly because Chimera is one of the best BM records I have ever heard. I may be the only person in the known universe that thinks this.

Ulver- Actually there's plenty of stuff I don't like of theirs (Blood Inside for example), but there's about 3 records that are big favourites of mine: Bergtatt, A Quick Fix of Melancholy and Nattens Madrigal, which really does make 99% of metal records listened to directly afterwards sound like shiny pop music.

Sikth- r0x0rz!

Obituary- In my own mind they finally beat off Death to become favourite "classic US DM combo"

The Wildhearts- Most bands nowadays professing to play "greasy dirty rock n roll" or some other loserish contrivance are puny weaklings that would give up if they ever heard "Earth Vs The Wildhearts"

Rage Against the Machine- Awesome band that persuaded millions of people to buy Che Guevara T-Shirts despite having no clue what he did. Score...

The Mars Volta- I love them!

ah double post

1. IRON MAIDEN!!!
2. Black Sabbath
3. Mercyful Fate/King Diamond
4. Metallica (old)
5. MEGADETH!!!
6. (The Almighty) Emperor
7. Rotting Christ
8. Hypocrisy
9. THERION!!!!
10. Deep Purple
11. Rainbow
12. DIO!!!! (the holy diver video was the gayest metal vid iv watched, but it DIO, so its forgiven)
13. CHildren of Bodom
14. Destruction
15. Sodom

Iced Earth- The Band that really got me into 'underground' metal. Alive In Athens is just unbelievably good, Days Of purgatory is genius made better, Something Wicked awesome, fuck amazing band in every way. (except TGB me no likey)

Cildren Of Bodom - So many good melodies are litter throughout thier albums i think its hard not to like these guys, and then the solos are just amazing to.

Sepultura - One of the frist bands i loved. From Schitophrenia, Beneath The Remain and Arise are just fucking Classics in my eyes!

I cant really name any more favourtie bands. I have constantly liked these bands for years now and for months at a time i may love other bands but only 3 have ever made it to favourite status.

Bands i love at the moment are

Mary Jane - Great British folk rock. The singer has a very distinctive voice which suits the music perfectly. Is nice and relaxed so a good counter to metal aswell.

Seiges Even - The Art of Navigating By the Stars is one of the best albums i have ever heard. Simple as that.

Hallucinogen - yeah! psy - trance, it makes me wanna dance and i can't stop listening to it!

Cryonic Temple - My favorite metal band atm, Blood Guts and Glory is fucking great, as is In Thy Power! Ticks all the boxs for thing i want from a power metal band. Cheezy lyrics, great riffs, kick ass solos, and catchy chorus'!

Right now it's in this order.

1.Symphony X (it's all about the incredible feeling it is to listen to an album by them. Because of that they top any band)
2.Fates Warning (Thoughtful lyrics, great songwriting and an awesome singer named Ray Alder)
3.Angra (Incredible musicians. A great feeling just like with SX's music, it just gets tedious a bit faster)
4.Gamma Ray (Ripping power metal as it should be played)
5.Helloween (Legendary band. Both the early line-up and the later with Deris)
6.Virgin Steele (Awesome singer, nice songwriting and riffs. Really special band)
7.Blind Guardian (This band don't need an explanation for being here. Hansi is God)
8.Dream Theater (Progressive metal legends)
9.Edenbridge (Beautiful music combined with a singer whos got an angelic voice. This stuff really take you to the heavens)
10.Iron Maiden (A band that has always been with me, but as of late have released their imo most enjoyable albums)
11.Camel (Great progressive rock that is really catchy and beautiful. Dreamy music you can always listen to)
12.Elvenking (A very unique band that can write some astonishing folky music)
13.Wuthering Heights (Speedy and experimental, really cool tolkien inspired band)
14.Nevermore (Some very heavy and technical music with intelligence in both the lyrics and the songwriting. An aggressive band with autencity to it)
15.Van Der Graaf Generator (An awesome totally underrated progressive rock band with really cool lyrical content. Kind of muddled stuff but really good)

Here's my list:

1- Iron Maiden
2- Megadeth
3- Kamelot
4- Children Of Bodom
5- Sonata Arctica
6- Edguy
7- Stratovarius
8- Slayer
9- Iced Earth
10- Van Halen
11- AC/DC
12- Gamma Ray
13- Hammerfall
14- Judas Priest
15- Lost Horizon

I know, it's kind of a conservative list, but hey, gotta love the classics. Lookig forward to know more stuff from you guys.

Damn I can't wait to hear that album now, like everyone who has good taste in music lloves it.

Iced Earth
Zero Hour
Yes
Genesis
Marillion
Nevermore
Blind Guardian
Devin Townsend
Strapping Young Lad
The Mars Volta
Bruce Springsteen

I can't remember anymore Rock/Metal music.