I went ahead and listened to some of everything (except doom, which sucks), thanks to all for chiming in:
witchfinder general - nahh
cloven hoof - ...moving along
nile - sounds pretty good, but I can't imagine listening to this very often for some reason
gorod - just wacky enough to work. I like this. fuck yeah. sounds like Nevermore did some crack or something and now warrell has to sing death metal because he's freaking out about the demons he's convinced are outside the window.
enslaved - this was good. but since I didn't get blown away by it, i'll skip it.
wolves in the throne room - not for me.
alter of plagues - too typical of what i've heard before
symphorce - really good. but I was able to predict some of the
notes before hearing them, which is a very good sign
vendetta - i tried getting into this sort of thing and it didn't work
deathrow - see above
darkness - better than the previous two. but i've got tons of destruction to listen to.
tankard - this is promising. great riffs
sadist - this band is fun too. reminds me of Pain of Salvation in a
way.
baphomet's blood - couldn't find anything with good enough quality
briton rites - good for doom metal, which I typically ignore.
winterborn - I like this band. perfect use of keyboards.
voltax - this sucked.
maulin of the well - horrible. The worst thing so far.
sabaton - i've heard this before. Need to hear more.
brainstorm - this is awesome as fuck. about time I found a band where I can use at least half my range for singing. exactly what I expect from MB records too. I like the complex melodies. This is how music should be. tension created by hanging notes for a few bars too long then the release from the root note coming in when least expected.
virgin steel - tough call. very melodic vocals. I'm getting a heavy manowar/majesty vibe. Fuck it. I think this is worth listening to because despite their Majesty's mediocrity, I do listen to them. Good guitar solos that tell a story which is their purpose. Sounds like after listening to an album by them 10 times it would be a favourite. Besides I need to practice hitting the higher notes (I can go an octave higher, but it's a fairly useless singing octave unless overdubbing)
theocracy - sounds good too. Hopefully, the band isn't too preachy.
panopticon - This is metal?
kiuas - a bit too generic
baron rojo - i won't learn another language just to get into a band.
picture - one of the very few NW-sounding metal bands that is actually really good sounding now.
skagos - not bad.
klabautamann - not my thing, but I can see why you guys like em.
i shalt become - really not what i'm into. I can't tell if it is the artifacts from the downsampling or if they are blasting a full stack next to a cymbal.
janvs - Very good for black/death/whatever metal.
cobalt - good. Not for me though.
pale divine - not into this, sorry.
T.2 - I would have loved this back when I was into prog rock. It has that pleasant vibe that Harry Nilsson's The Point always had.
Night Sun - i can't even say anything about this. seems like it would take a while to get into
amaran - I don't like female metal vocals. Maybe one day i'll be able to get into that mindset where it "works" like female sung pop does. I think it might be that female vocals typically "invade" the range where guitar leads are played. Men hit those same notes with lower overtones that dominate the timbre. but the band is really good. It's kinda upsetting.
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Another rec: This is the best PM band probably ever:
Dungeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6LWa8rQ ... re=related
Lord Tim started another band called "Lord" also which is the same thing.
The best Black Metal / DM band I can think of is Crionics, if you haven't listened to them yet
