At 6/21/17 08:50 AM, Viper wrote:

At 6/21/17 07:56 AM, MysteryG wrote: Today I've listened to In Flames for the first time. It was great... until their vocalist opened mouth and started singing.

I will never understand Death Metal, sorry guys.

Are In Flames considered "Death Metal"? I thought they were under that "Alternative Metal" umbrella that bands like Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Dope, Chevelle, etc are put in.

I've listened to their older stuff. Maybe their newer songs are more "alternative". I don't know.

Badass album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNCaxISmd8k

I've listened to "Atonement" by Opeth. It was nice, but... I'm Christian (Roman Catholic) and I heard that Mikael Åkerfeldt (the lider of that band) used to be satanist. Now he's not satanist, but he still has anti-Christian views. It is OK to Christian to listen to band like that? :(

At 7/1/17 08:46 AM, MysteryG wrote: I've listened to "Atonement" by Opeth. It was nice, but... I'm Christian (Roman Catholic) and I heard that Mikael Åkerfeldt (the lider of that band) used to be satanist. Now he's not satanist, but he still has anti-Christian views. It is OK to Christian to listen to band like that? :(

If you like the music then why does it matter what religion the band or its members are? Just listen to it.

At 7/1/17 08:46 AM, MysteryG wrote: I've listened to "Atonement" by Opeth. It was nice, but... I'm Christian (Roman Catholic) and I heard that Mikael Åkerfeldt (the lider of that band) used to be satanist. Now he's not satanist, but he still has anti-Christian views. It is OK to Christian to listen to band like that? :(

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to like the band, but if you disagree with some of their songs or songwriting because they're not Christian, well, attribute that to your Christian beliefs and just delete whatever you don't like from your playlist. Also be aware that the band leader will probably cut or limit any Christian influences in the music. If that makes you really uncomfortable, find another band. There are countless more out there that you may even find you like better.

That said, I'm a die-hard Nightwish fan, and a lot of their songs reference fantasy elements, which pick and choose when they want to jive with the Christian narrative. Does it mean that their music is bad, nah. It just means I may or may not agree with some of it or think it's fantasy bs that, although it sounds nice, has no real substance aside from being a pretty fairy tale. Doesn't make it any less fun to listen to.

If you want safe-for-your-ears stuff, there's also Christian metal bands.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter what religious convictions a band has or doesn't have. If they're against Christianity, I usually just assume they had REALLY shitty experiences with Christians who didn't act very Christian, judged them, or made their lives living hell. It's up to you whether you decide to let a particular kind of music influence you, your beliefs, or your life. If music of a certain kind makes you uncomfortable, it's always prudent to ask why. Is it because you're not solid on your own beliefs, or is it because you just find it disrespectful, distasteful, or degrading? The alternative is that you may not be able to relate to it. If your beliefs get in the way of that, then question which is wrong, the song, or the possibly repressive belief system.

I'll admit, Christianity is a lot of the reason I can't enjoy a lot of mainstream music, especially rap and pop, not because I would feel ashamed to be doing a lot of what rap and pop glorify or God would punish me or some bs, but just because a lot of the things they talk about don't fulfill me. It's not the kind of life that makes me happy. It's just distractions -- one night stands, sex, drugs and alcohol, riches, etc. There's no good news, just bitching and moaning and glorifying the things that fuck us up. I like music that uplifts and motivates me to do better, to overcome, not to fall down on my face like everyone else.

The main question you should always ask is whether you can relate to a song or not, or its intentions. If a band is talking about skull fucking and raping, that's not something I can get behind, not just because I'm a Christian, but because I find it distasteful and degrading. If they're talking about overcoming fears, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, helping people, striving to do better, emotion, or some other topic I can relate to like realizing someone doesn't deserve me because they don't appreciate me, that might be right up my alley.

So the question is, can you relate to most of Opeth's catalog, or does it just sound sort of pretty with an uncomfortable aftertaste?

Thanks, dude.

By the way, today I've listened to Necrophagist for the first time. It was OK, but it would be a hundred times better without that shitty vocals.

OSDM/Doom
https://youtu.be/tjaV-3PLXh8

At 6/14/17 08:08 PM, normalgeist wrote: In terms of bm, I love avant-garde or atmospheric black metal, with my favorite bm band being Sigh. Vattnet Viskar, Saor, Blut Aus Nord, and Peste Noire are also highly recommended.

I love both Sigh and Peste Noire.

If you ever feel like discovering some amazing bm, you should look up the Quebec scene.

Monarque - Ad Nauseam
Délétère - Les Heures De La Peste

Or give the polish band Mgla a listen. They wreck shit up!

Mgła - Exercises in Futility

At 6/21/17 07:56 AM, MysteryG wrote: Today I've listened to In Flames for the first time. It was great... until their vocalist opened mouth and started singing.

I will never understand Death Metal, sorry guys.

Which album?

At 6/21/17 08:50 AM, Viper wrote: Are In Flames considered "Death Metal"? I thought they were under that "Alternative Metal" umbrella that bands like Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Dope, Chevelle, etc are put in.

Are you really asking, Viper? I mean, I know what they're playing right now is a brand of bad nu-metal, mallcore, watered-down melodic death metal, but they've been an important band for the swedish melodic death metal scene in the past.

At 7/1/17 08:46 AM, MysteryG wrote: I've listened to "Atonement" by Opeth. It was nice, but... I'm Christian (Roman Catholic) and I heard that Mikael Åkerfeldt (the lider of that band) used to be satanist. Now he's not satanist, but he still has anti-Christian views. It is OK to Christian to listen to band like that? :(

I'm pretty sure he said it was only a part of the imagery and that he only liked it because it was cool to do it. The guy is an atheist, not a satanist and even less of an theistic satanist.

At 7/8/17 02:05 AM, MysteryG wrote: By the way, today I've listened to Necrophagist for the first time. It was OK, but it would be a hundred times better without that shitty vocals.

This attitude always bothered me. You don't have to like it, but to completely dismiss their artistic value without any further reasons than "I don't like em" seems kind of shallow to me.

If you dislike the death metal vocals, go for instrumental death metal. There isn't much of it, but it exists. Blotted Science's The Machination of Dementia has a lot of death metal elements and is completely instrumental. You might well possibly like it :)

At 7/20/17 02:28 AM, HeavenDuff wrote:

At 6/21/17 08:50 AM, Viper wrote: Are In Flames considered "Death Metal"? I thought they were under that "Alternative Metal" umbrella that bands like Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Dope, Chevelle, etc are put in.

Are you really asking, Viper? I mean, I know what they're playing right now is a brand of bad nu-metal, mallcore, watered-down melodic death metal, but they've been an important band for the swedish melodic death metal scene in the past.

Well I meant more for their newer stuff. I dig their first few albums. I saw them awhile back with Red Fang and Opeth and they primarily played newer stuff and I pretty much lost interest like 1/3 of the way into their set. But the person who was running the soundboard seemed like they had no idea what they were doing because everything during THEIR set was cranked up obnoxiously loud to the point where my now ex couldn't hear me even if I spoke directly into her ear.

At 7/21/17 01:32 AM, Viper wrote: Well I meant more for their newer stuff. I dig their first few albums. I saw them awhile back with Red Fang and Opeth and they primarily played newer stuff and I pretty much lost interest like 1/3 of the way into their set. But the person who was running the soundboard seemed like they had no idea what they were doing because everything during THEIR set was cranked up obnoxiously loud to the point where my now ex couldn't hear me even if I spoke directly into her ear.

Yeah... InFlames have been on that downhill slope for more than a decade now. They've long stopped being relevant, but it doesn't seem to bother their present day fans.... I just can't see what's compelling about a directionless beaten-down band like modern day InFlames...

They're one of the many bands who've not released a single really engaging and creative album in ages but who still manage to headline shows.

You guys have heard the new Arch Enemy single?
Arch Enemy - The World Is Yours

Even with guys like Amott and Loomis on guitars they manage to be completely inoffensive. I don't know if this single is mediocre of if Amott and the gang just finally chose that playing it safe forever was the best plan for them to build themselves a big retirement fund...

And that chorus!

"If you want the world
Use your mind
Take control
Feel the strength
Rise from within
If you really want it the world is yours"

Fucking really? This is the pseudo-heavy version of a Katy Perry song...

Today I've listened Scar Symmetry for the first time.

It wasn't bad... but it wasn't very good either.

At 7/21/17 08:02 PM, HeavenDuff wrote: You guys have heard the new Arch Enemy single?
Arch Enemy - The World Is Yours

I've listened to that song. It was... meh.

At 7/23/17 08:00 AM, MysteryG wrote: Today I've listened Scar Symmetry for the first time.

It wasn't bad... but it wasn't very good either.

Their best work, IMO, is found on the album Pitch Black Progress
The Illusionist

But I also enjoy some of their least complex, more "pop" material on The Unseen Empire
The Anomaly

At 7/21/17 08:02 PM, HeavenDuff wrote:

Yeah... InFlames have been on that downhill slope for more than a decade now. They've long stopped being relevant, but it doesn't seem to bother their present day fans.... I just can't see what's compelling about a directionless beaten-down band like modern day InFlames...

The trick is don't listen to much stuff after Clayman, just have whoracle, colony and clayman albums in your collection and pretend they didn't come out with bad stuff. living in the past is the trick.

At 7/23/17 08:00 AM, MysteryG wrote: Today I've listened Scar Symmetry for the first time.

It wasn't bad... but it wasn't very good either.

I had some friends in high school who were heavily into em. They were ight.

At 7/23/17 01:49 PM, Sneak-a-Toke wrote: The trick is don't listen to much stuff after Clayman, just have whoracle, colony and clayman albums in your collection and pretend they didn't come out with bad stuff. living in the past is the trick.

The Jester Race was also pretty good. I'm less familiar with Lunar Strain though, but I know that the fans always loved it.

Sigh - Scarlett Dream

I've been listening to "To a frown" by Buzzoven.
It wasn't bad, but Sludge Metal is rather not my kind of music.

Or give the polish band Mgla a listen. They wreck shit up!

Mgła - Exercises in Futility

I fucking love Mgla! That album and Groza are fantastic.

Unrelated; who here is excited for the new Converge album?

I'm currently listening to "Psycho Surgery" by Tourniquet. It was better than I expected, LOL! :)

Everyone in this thread is dead (because i killed everyone xddd)

Drudkh - Blood In Our Wells

I've listened to "Origin" by Machinae Supremacy.
Does it counts as a metal? This band is on Encycloapedia Metallum so probably yes.
PS: That chick on front cover looks cute. I'm wondering what's her name...

This thread is dead.

Horde - "Invert the Inverted Cross!"

R.I.P. - Smoke & Lightning
I can't place where I've heard the vocal melody from the verses but it sounds like something I've heard before.

Manierisme - The Past and Sorrow (Raw BM)

At 9/2/17 02:32 PM, MysteryG wrote: This thread is dead.

Horde - "Invert the Inverted Cross!"

The entirety of the Clubs & Crews section is pretty much dead. Flash is dead and Newgrounds has extremely low traffic compared to how it was in the early 2000's. We're lucky that 4 or 5 people a week come and post in here :P

As for metal music, I want to hear your opinions on studio bands that you'd love to see perform live.

There are quite a few bands that only ever made studio records but that never (or hardly every) played live.

Here are some of my personal picks:

Blotted Science, the project of the great Ron Jarzombek, a mastermind of prog, guitar virtuoso, and amazing song-writer. This is his most interesting project, the most accomplished. It mixed death metal with instrumental prog. Jarzombek managed to surround himself with geniuses of death metal music as well for this project, getting Alex Webster, bassist of Cannibal Corpse and also Charlie Zeleny from Behold... The Arctopus on the drums (and now Hannes Grossman, ex-Obsura, ex-Necrophagist).

Darkthrone, the unholy black metal duo. They released some of the most amazing and iconic black metal to the world, but never really played any of their material live. Enslaved, another amazing black metal band, did play some of their material live throughout their career, and once or twice with Nocturno Culto, if I'm not mistaken.

At 9/5/17 11:11 PM, HeavenDuff wrote: As for metal music, I want to hear your opinions on studio bands that you'd love to see perform live.

I legit sat and thought about this for a solid 20 minutes and cannot think of any outside obvious ones. And out of those I can't imagine many being able to properly play their stuff live because it either wouldn't work or it can't work.

At 9/6/17 12:23 AM, Viper wrote:

At 9/5/17 11:11 PM, HeavenDuff wrote: As for metal music, I want to hear your opinions on studio bands that you'd love to see perform live.

I legit sat and thought about this for a solid 20 minutes and cannot think of any outside obvious ones. And out of those I can't imagine many being able to properly play their stuff live because it either wouldn't work or it can't work.

What do you consider to be obvious ones than? One man bands like Burzum maybe? Or two men bands like Forefather? Couldn't these bands get live musicians to play with?

Otherwise, what are the bands that couldn't work live in your opinion?

New Electric Wizard song.
See You In Hell
Some people have said they can't get it to play in their country because they're outside the US. I'm HOPING that it's fine now but I have no idea. It's definitely an Electric Wizard song but it's more...bluesy I guess? Like it's still heavy but it has a blues edge to it. But it also feels like something is "missing" in there.

At 9/6/17 01:00 AM, HeavenDuff wrote: What do you consider to be obvious ones than? One man bands like Burzum maybe? Or two men bands like Forefather? Couldn't these bands get live musicians to play with?

Yeah pretty much. But it's more so that I can't imagine them being able to get the right atmosphere.
And I also can't imagine anyone wanting to PLAY with Varg so..

Otherwise, what are the bands that couldn't work live in your opinion?

It's more of bands that have one or two members but either: I can't see anyone wanting to play live with them, they have no intention of playing live, or the band relies too much on "studio magic" or outside musicians and therefore the band wouldn't really be able to do what they do on the album in a live setting.

At 9/8/17 09:43 PM, Viper wrote: New Electric Wizard song.
See You In Hell
Some people have said they can't get it to play in their country because they're outside the US. I'm HOPING that it's fine now but I have no idea. It's definitely an Electric Wizard song but it's more...bluesy I guess? Like it's still heavy but it has a blues edge to it. But it also feels like something is "missing" in there.

Can't see the video :/

But Electric Wizard have been going down this more psychedelic rock/blues rock path for a while now. I liked it on Witchcult Today, but I'll have to listen to this new material to really know.

At 9/6/17 01:00 AM, HeavenDuff wrote: What do you consider to be obvious ones than? One man bands like Burzum maybe? Or two men bands like Forefather? Couldn't these bands get live musicians to play with?

Yeah pretty much. But it's more so that I can't imagine them being able to get the right atmosphere.
And I also can't imagine anyone wanting to PLAY with Varg so..

Varg has a massive following actually :P And I'm not about to say that the guy is an angel or defend him in any way, but I doubt he'll ever kill someone again. He's an old guy making YouTube videos and living his survivalist life with his French wife and kids. He's not the arsonist black metal kid of the 90's anymore.

It's more of bands that have one or two members but either: I can't see anyone wanting to play live with them, they have no intention of playing live, or the band relies too much on "studio magic" or outside musicians and therefore the band wouldn't really be able to do what they do on the album in a live setting.

For the "no intention of playing live", that's kind of the point of my post though. It's something we'd like to see happening, not something that's going to happen. But what bands do you think wouldn't work live otherwise?