Man, I can't believe I wasn't enjoying IMMORTAL all these years!! Better late than never. I still can't believe I never listened to their stuff before. I mean, I'm not a big black metal fan. Some are good, some I find monotonous. And the thing that puts me off is the bad production, the sound just sounds bad. But man, am I loving Immortal right now. Can you guys recommend similar bands I should listen to?

I think I'm entering a black metal phase right now.

What? You like IMMORTAL?




I just can't get past the überLOL vox.


Also, is it a bad thing that I wish that dude from Om would shut up and just play?

I like it, especially the later albums (after Abbath took over the guitars). I'm not a big fan of traditional black metal, they tend to sound boring after some time.

Ah. Immortal. GRIM AND FROSTBITTEN (<3) and all that jazz. Quite an enjoyable band, really. I'm not familiar enough with BM to recommend any bands, though.

And, on the topic of that dude (Al, I presume) from Om, I actually enjoy his vocals. Greatly.

I dunno. Something about them grates on my nerves and, while I LOVE the instrumental sound/groove going on, they annoy me.

Uhm...Gorgoroth? I only have Heart of Winter from Immortal which is definitely one of my favorites. It's basically thrash/black metal. That's a great combination.

At the Heart of Winter is one my favourite albums of all time. It's so wonderfully epic, grim, and frostbitten. <3

If you like Immortal, try "I" for something less BM, or bands like Dissection, Sacramentum, Dark Fortress and Gorgoroth.

Yeah, I have "I", really good stuff. I'm going to try the other bands you mentioned.

Ayreon.

Anybody heard of the Diablo Swing Orchestra? My best friend recently brought me some of their work, and I love it. It seems to be a very odd mix of Jazz & some of the "progressive"-labeled genres. Female main singer so Gothic metal if you want to make that general of an accusation. Anyway, my point is, pretty hard to peg them down.

YouTube - Balrog Boogie - Diablo Swing Orchestra

^^Balrog Boogie, probably my favorite song off their new album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_Swing_Orchestra

Relatively simple stuff, but really good. "Ragdoll Physics" is pretty hot shit.

^^Agreed. Ragdoll Physics is my 2nd favorite number on the album :).

Caught my attention as to how different it was compared to my normal listening picks. Simple, sure, but quite unique.

The Diablo Swing Orchestra album was uploaded to the MEC a while back, and I have to say that it's fucking groovy. love it to pieces. I've got Poetic Pitbull Revolution bookmarked on my mp3 player for use in a future mix cd.

I saw Amon Amarth with Ensiferum, Belphegor and The Absence in San Francisco the other night and it was a killer show. The Absence put on a quality show full of solid melodic death riffs that got the crowd going while Belphegor was entertaining rarely taking themselves seriously. It was kind of funny to watch the drummer do the sound check as the sound engineer had to tell him to slow down when checking the toms. The drummer looked really pissed that he couldn't do blastbeats.

Ensiferum was definitely entertaining with crowd pleasing chants and solid stage presence. They played a solid mix from their three albums though I recognized most of them as being from the self-titled and Victory Songs. The crowd sang along to some of the songs as well which I think caught them off guard a bit.

Amon Amarth was the crowd favorite, and this show was sold out sure about 500 but still, a sell out is a sell out. They stuck mostly with a set list from Twilight of the Thunder God with a bit from With Oden On Our Side and a couple from Fate of Norns, the title track and of course In Pursuit of Vikings. They also played the obligatory Death In Fire which certainly got the crowd going. They ended with Pursuit and that was definitely a crowning moment. The whole venue was singing along with the chorus and moshed to verse riffs. Overall a fantastic show and more than worth the trip.

While in San Fran I went to Amoeba Music and binged on cheap metal CDs. There was a clearance section where I just grabbed whatever I felt was interesting. Most of it was black metal with one death metal CD.

Flesh Consumed - ...Mutilate, Eviscerate, Decapitate...
Tinne - Heiden
Dimhymn - Fördärvets Maskineri
Patriarch - Dark World of Men
Opfer Rassenhass - Fierte Ancestrate

I also bought a few non metal CDs from Camel, Larry Coryell and Allan Holdsworth.

I though Gorgoroth would be great. I don't know about their older stuff, but I listened to their album "Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam", and didn't really got into it. Am I listening to the wrong album?

Am I awful for having ever enjoyed Coal Chamber?

I know they aren't metal, but still. I kinda like them now, for the lulz.

I liked them back when in my anger-filled youth. Now that I think about it, I regret having listened to shitty bands back then (e.g. Limp Bizkit, Korn, and the like)

See, I hate Limp Bizkit, but there's still some KoRn that I actually enjoy (see: Untouchables, Issues).

Holy shit Sabaton is awesome! I like how I listen to online radio to look/listen to "new" stuff.

Heh, this is good.

YouTube Video

You metalheads might say blasphemy, but whatever. Dir en grey's new album 'Uroboros' came out just today, and its by far their most metal album, in terms of a more western sound. It has progressive metal elements with an almost melodic metal touch. they're still hard to pin down on what genre they do, since they cross genre so much. However, this album is by far their most mature and experimental but also very kin to the metal you people I think would like.

I hope some of you will give it a chance, it's well worth it.

Sorry. J-rock is closer to nü-metal than anything else.

Yea but, this band is not...that anymore. They were the first two albums, but this band progresses and evolves each album. This album is their most mature and has nothing...japanese gimmicky about it, if that makes sense. I agree alot of jrock bands do that numetal thing, but this band is one that never does what everyone else does.

I dont see them anymore as a JAPANESE band, but rather just a band now. They have no costumes, no japanese flaunting shit...it's just them as a band now. I rather like that.

The problem I have with bands like Dir En Grey isn't necessarily what they sound like, though I'm not crazy about that either, but that they don't understand the ideas behind metal whatsoever. They're like metal Barbie dolls. They come with all of the accessories, but there's nothing behind them except "we look so pretty whe we dress up."

This I gotta hear.