At 12/24/10 02:35 AM, Xarnor wrote: I'm interested in looking into some black metal, and as usual, I have no idea where to start so I'll ask you guys. What are some of your favorite black metal bands? I listen to some symphonic black metal already but I want to expand in this genre.

I don't listen to much symphonic black metal but i'll list some good general black metal and atmospheric and some depressive if your into that.

General Black: Tsjuder, Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal, Nargaroth, Satanic Warmaster, Surrender Of Divinity, Watain, and Peste Noire

Atmospheric: Wolves In The Throne Room, Alcest,Drudkh, Striborg, some Agalloch could be atmospheric worth checking out either way, I guess I don't have much atmospheric black metal to offer.

Depressive: Nocturnal Depression, Xasthur, Mutiilation, Shining, Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Nyktalgia

These bands and everyone elses recommendations will keep ya busy!

So I'm slowly trying to get my girlfriend into metal. She hates Opeth, besides the clean vocal parts anyways. She liked some Death, but I don't remember what album. I'm not gonna force her to like it, but I'm gonna try and find stuff she might like. Any suggestions to ease her into it?

At 12/24/10 11:37 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: Any suggestions to ease her into it?

I like to think I have a very varied taste in music and for me I feel it was always much easier to start with acts like Helloween or other Power Metal because it still has the essence of what Metal is supposed to be like but at the same time the vocals are usually a bit more....familiar to other genres than the growls and roars of Black Metal and such.

You even said she didn't mind the clean vocals in Opeth so you should probably start her on the cleaner, gentler vocals and let her own curiosity decide if she delves deeper into the abysses of Metal Hell.

At 12/24/10 11:41 PM, Gobblemeister wrote: You even said she didn't mind the clean vocals in Opeth so you should probably start her on the cleaner, gentler vocals and let her own curiosity decide if she delves deeper into the abysses of Metal Hell.

Yeah, I don't expect her to like that stuff right away. I got her an iPod so I'm gonna attempt at getting her into some of the music I like. I thought about putting Damnation on it since it's all acoustics and clean vocals.

At 12/24/10 11:37 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: So I'm slowly trying to get my girlfriend into metal. She hates Opeth, besides the clean vocal parts anyways. She liked some Death, but I don't remember what album. I'm not gonna force her to like it, but I'm gonna try and find stuff she might like. Any suggestions to ease her into it?

Start off with Progressive, folk, or power metal or even some doom with clean vocals, if it is just the harsh vocals she doesn't like there is still plenty of metal she will enjoy.
Since your giving her an iPod you can load it up with some bands you think she might enjoy and let her listen to them on her own time.

Christmas is in an hour so Merry Christmas everyone, probably wont be on to say it tommorow so enjoy yourselves!

Jesus fucking christ you guys. My grandparents gave a thousand dollars to each of their grandkids this year. I honestly don't know what to fucking say.

At 12/24/10 11:37 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: Any suggestions to ease her into it?

I say start her with stuff that has clean vocals and isn't super heavy; standard heavy metal, power metal and speed metal. work your way up to thrash and folk, then the more extreme genres.

or you could stop being a pussy and make her listen to pornogrind :P

don't make her listen to pornogrind though

At 12/24/10 11:37 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: She hates Opeth, besides the clean vocal parts anyways.

Of course she's going to dislike Opeth's non-clean vocals. They're laughably bad.

PROTIP: When trying to get someone into more extreme vocal styles, make sure they're the good kind.

She liked some Death, but I don't remember what album.

You should find out what album. If it's TSOP you can dub her an official lost cause. Wanky techdeath is an ok from there, because she'll dislike everything else.

Oh my God, my girlfriend got me speakers for my iPod! :D

At 12/25/10 02:04 AM, AllMightyBruce wrote: Jesus fucking christ you guys. My grandparents gave a thousand dollars to each of their grandkids this year. I honestly don't know what to fucking say.

Haha nice man!

My mum got a a Blackberry, it's gonna take her till about 2012 to figure out how to call someone ahaha.

I've only opened one thing so far and I knew what it was, All That Remains - For We Are Many, I don't care if metalcore is frowned upon here but this is one fucking good album, I love ATR :3

NOW LET THEM TREMBLE!

Also got a Gojira album somewhere

At 12/25/10 02:04 AM, AllMightyBruce wrote: Jesus fucking christ you guys. My grandparents gave a thousand dollars to each of their grandkids this year. I honestly don't know what to fucking say.

I'd say save it or spend it wisely. That's a nice present, sir. Better than what I got, but I'm happy with my presents. Just received a 160 GB iPod classic today. Wasn't expecting it, and I got double the gigs. I got all the gifts I wanted (and some surprises) minus a guitar pedal so yay. Gonna hook the computer monitor up soon. Something fell on my toe and fucking made it bleed though, shit.

At 12/25/10 03:51 AM, Dalnaki wrote: Of course she's going to dislike Opeth's non-clean vocals. They're laughably bad.

That's just your opinion. I think Opeth has some of the best growls of death metal.

You should find out what album. If it's TSOP you can dub her an official lost cause. Wanky techdeath is an ok from there, because she'll dislike everything else.

That's my second favorite album by them, and I'm pretty sure it was an oldschool album. I don't really know how she even got to listening to it. Weird. Also, I'll take everyone else's suggestions on the metal for my girlfriend, thanks.

At 12/25/10 08:47 AM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: I'd say save it or spend it wisely. That's a nice present, sir.

My sister's putting it towards her trip to Germany since she's going there in an exchange program for a couple months next year. I have no idea what I'm going to do with mine so I'm just going to put it into savings until I do.

Got some metal presents for christmas

Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery
Mastodon - Leviathan
Between The Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Opeth Live at Roundhouse (DVD)
The Faceless - Planetary Duality
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
Pelican - Australasia
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
In Mourning - Shrouded Divine

A splendid turnout.

At 12/25/10 08:47 AM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: That's just your opinion. I think Opeth has some of the best growls of death metal.

And this is stacking it up against what bands? I know a lot of Opeth fans claim that Akerfaildt has the best growl because it's understandable (this makes me laugh just as hard as hearing him growl does), and I'm not saying you're one of the people who say this. But... eh, what makes him one of the best vocalists in DM in your opinion?

I got some good stuff right here:

Iron Maiden - Best of the B' Sides
The Lord Weird Slough Feg - The Stay Stack Grows
My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings
Rush - Permanent Waves
Savatage - The Wake of Magellan
Tyr - By the Light of the Northern Star

That's all the albums I asked for besides Accept's Blood of the Nations and Immortal's Damned in Black. My parents said they weren't able to get the latter but considering everything they managed to get, I'm really impressed. My sister asked for a bunch of albums as well and she got:

Def Leppard - High 'n' Dry
Epica - The Classical Conspiracy
Hammers of Misfortune - The Locust Years
Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet
Norther - Mirror of Madness
Van Canto - A Storm to Come
Van Canto - Hero

I have a fucking lot to listen to over Christmas!

At 12/25/10 09:41 AM, Dalnaki wrote: And this is stacking it up against what bands? I know a lot of Opeth fans claim that Akerfaildt has the best growl because it's understandable (this makes me laugh just as hard as hearing him growl does), and I'm not saying you're one of the people who say this. But... eh, what makes him one of the best vocalists in DM in your opinion?

I just like his sound. I don't know. I'm not picky on growls or anything, but then again, it needs to be decent for me to be able to listen to it and enjoy it.

At 12/25/10 09:55 AM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: I just like his sound. I don't know. I'm not picky on growls or anything, but then again, it needs to be decent for me to be able to listen to it and enjoy it.

Oh, alright. Nevermind. You should check out Asphyx. Martin van Drunen is definitely one of the better vocalists in DM.

At 12/25/10 10:15 AM, Dalnaki wrote:

At 12/25/10 09:55 AM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: I just like his sound. I don't know. I'm not picky on growls or anything, but then again, it needs to be decent for me to be able to listen to it and enjoy it.

Oh, alright. Nevermind. You should check out Asphyx. Martin van Drunen is definitely one of the better vocalists in DM.

He is a decent vocalist, I'd only ever knew him from Pestilence until now. However I think Mikael is a great vocalist in both clean and death metal styles.

At 12/25/10 10:56 AM, JaY11 wrote: He is a decent vocalist, I'd only ever knew him from Pestilence until now.

Not just decent. Great. His acidic growls are pretty much unmatched. Unique, too.

Also, everyone in here is best off avoiding Hail of Bullets. The only reason people dickride them is because they've got Drunen. Too bad, they're generic. And as if that wasn't enough, they're extremely boring too. Think Nile. Now you know how boring I'm talking.

At 12/25/10 11:05 AM, Dalnaki wrote:

At 12/25/10 10:56 AM, JaY11 wrote: He is a decent vocalist, I'd only ever knew him from Pestilence until now.

Not just decent. Great. His acidic growls are pretty much unmatched. Unique, too.

Listening to him was actually the first time I'd thought to myself, "Damn, that sounds fucking painful to sing like that".

Also just got Gojira - The Link and Helloween - 7 Sinners, yeaaa buddy.

time for Dragon Age Origins..

At 12/25/10 11:24 AM, ZpLiNtEh wrote: Also just got Gojira - The Link

I need to listen to this more. So far it's my least favourite album of theirs.

At 12/24/10 11:37 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote: So I'm slowly trying to get my girlfriend into metal. She hates Opeth, besides the clean vocal parts anyways. She liked some Death, but I don't remember what album. I'm not gonna force her to like it, but I'm gonna try and find stuff she might like. Any suggestions to ease her into it?

I suggest you try Instrumental stuff first. The biggest obstacle people have to go through with Metal is usually the vocals.

So, go with stuff like Blotted Science maybe... Or with stuff with very little vocals, like ISIS or Agalloch. Or maybe get her into some music with clean vocals.

Try stuff like Dream Theater two... Images And Words is such an amazing album!

On the other hand, I had a great Christmas :) Awesome night at my girlfriend's house last night :) And today, with my family :)

I didn't get a whole lotta Metal gifts. None in fact :P Some pretty good books actully, two movies, a DVD set, some great Post-Rock music by God Is An Astronaut, A Radio-Alarm I can use with my iPod, a cool drawing made by my girlfriend... I don't think I'm missing anything... GOOD :)

At 12/25/10 12:16 PM, JaY11 wrote:

I need to listen to this more. So far it's my least favourite album of theirs.

Yea mate it's damn good, only listened to a few tracks so far but I love it.

I seriously doubt any of their stuff is better than The Way Of All Flesh though, with the possible exception of From Mars To Sirius.

At 12/25/10 05:34 PM, HeavenDuff wrote: Try stuff like Dream Theater two...

Two? Like two Dream Theater's? OH SICK we could like clone them then they could play together on stage with their clones LIEK TWO DREAM THEATERS OH DOG FOR REAL THAT IS EPIC

At 12/25/10 11:24 AM, ZpLiNtEh wrote: Also just got Gojira - The Link and Helloween - 7 Sinners, yeaaa buddy.

I haven't listened to a lot of Gojira but I see Way of The Flesh on HMV for £5. I'm tempted to get it.

At 12/26/10 09:14 AM, Bahamut wrote:

At 12/25/10 11:24 AM, ZpLiNtEh wrote: Also just got Gojira - The Link and Helloween - 7 Sinners, yeaaa buddy.

I haven't listened to a lot of Gojira but I see Way of The Flesh on HMV for £5. I'm tempted to get it.

Save your money. Listen to shit like pan.thy.monium, Timeghoul, Alchemist, Traumatic Voyage, Abhorrent (NOR), Cadaver (NOR), and Sarcasm (SWE) instead.

At 12/26/10 08:22 AM, PenisClown wrote:

At 12/25/10 05:34 PM, HeavenDuff wrote: Try stuff like Dream Theater two...

Two? Like two Dream Theater's? OH SICK we could like clone them then they could play together on stage with their clones LIEK TWO DREAM THEATERS OH DOG FOR REAL THAT IS EPIC

I think he means Dream Theater II, you know, post-Portnoy Dream Theater :P

RIP Portnoy

Alchemist and Traumatic Voyage are great recommendations.

At 12/26/10 11:28 AM, D3NTATUS wrote:

RIP Portnoy

Note that I don't actually think he's dead, just that he might as well be, as far as I'm concerned (since he's not in Dream Theater and therefore doesn't really matter at the moment)