markm

Morningrise was where I discovered Opeth. Love it to pieces, but BWP is their pinnacle which extends through the twins of Deliverance and Damnation. @markm, id hesitate to reconsider your back catalog rule with any other band, but Opeth is different. Everything they did from the first album through Ghost Reveries is worth your time. My Arms and Orchid both have some real gems. The Baying of the Hounds, Face of Melinda, The Moor... just so many great tunes.

Checked out a bit of that Unida album with Garcia on vox that the General posted. I've always thought a good vocalist can make a good hard rock band great (and let's be honest, that's what stoner metal is). Lots of great guitarists out there, no offense to present company, but finding a good clean vocalist has to be the icing . Not necessarily a "gifted" vocalist but from Bon Scott to Ozzy, to Lemmy to David Lee Roth (fuck Hagar) to Chris Cornell to Roger Plant to Dave Wyndorf to John Garcia, a good front man has a big part in defining those bands.  Not to mention, many of those bands frontmen were also songwriters, which just means bands with weaker singers like the aforementioned Solarized, Fu Manchu, Nebula, etc., etc. had to have some great musicianship and songwriting to compensate. But when I think of the classic 70s/80's hard rock bands, I can't think of one that had a shit singer or at least a singer with big balls and charisma. Of course, it's easier to get away with subpar vocals in sludier atmosphere of stoner/doom vs the radio friendly more pop rock oriented hard rock of ore.
Inter Arma/ New Heaven pre released tracks-sounds pretty rad to me.
Now listening to Opeth's Morningside that M. Eternal posted-funny, as big an influence Opeth was on my mid age metal unbrith, there are a ton of bands I didn't go back and revisit their earlier catalog. In the early 2000's there was so much music I wanted to keep up I mostly stayed in the present and moved forward except for some black metal classics mostly because the history from the Lords of Chaos book compelled me. Anyways, I've only really heard from Blackwater Park forward. I can see that these "compositions" are of high quality but not as complex and developed as BWP perhaps.....so much acoustic work.  

I shall listen!

Ya know, I was thinking you might have a soft spot for those Jersey Monster Magnet indebted stoners being from your neck of the Northeast generally, but wasn't sure if it would be sufficiently punkish enough as I know that's your preference with the genre. For some reason, I never got into Unida, not sure why. I should give them some ear time.
Solarized stood along bands with less name reco than Kyuss/Fu/Magnet in my listening like band like Nebula, Sons of Otis, Orange Goblin, etc. But they have that great heavy, skuzz factor. Speaking of punk influence, following that split you posted of Nebula. I definitely enjoy me some Nebular like To the Center that has a punchy heavy psyche meets Stooges vibe, and in a decidedly punkier vein. I still go back to this from time to time :
 

HAUNTER - Discarnate Ails
NP - OLIVIER MESSIAEN - Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortourum

Dude this album is awesome, I fucking love it. And not just because big Ed and the boys are from Red Bank New Jersey. Although that helps, and Ed was after all a founding member of both The Atomic Bitchwax and Monster Magnet, two of my favorite non-extreme rock bands. Even though Ed only guests on three tracks here, it's still a good album, I'm sold. 
Solarized - Neanderthal Speedway, Red Bank NJ 1999
 
Unida - Coping With the Urban Coyote, another cool stoner rock album from 1999 in much the same vein, featuring John Garcia of Kyuss fame on vox. You're gonna get me on a whole stoner thing now.
 

That is one of my favorite later MDB albums, too. Turn Loose the Swans and and Angel are pretty hard to beat, tho! 

I've talked about my love of stoner and doom recently. I really don't listen to stoner metal thaaat much anymore but it's a bit like saying I've sworn off from pizza or donuts....uh, it's not a realistic goal.  I guess I'll chalk it down to my affection for a let sleeping dogs lie -genre, but I do trot out some of my favorite gateway stoner and doom albums from time to time, which really are just comfort food listening for me at this point. Today, I did a rewind to the late 90's to a second tier band that despite limitations, deliver the goods:
Solarized/Neanderthal speedway-1999-these Jersey Boy stoners came out with a couple of albums at the turn of the millennium-This one has guests from a couple of Monster Magnet members, most notably stoner guitar hero Ed Mundell and the influence of early Magnet is as subtle as sledge hammer, but for those of us that love early Magnet, that's a good thing. Vocals are straight up weak but the skuzzy heavier than Magnet sound released on Man's Ruin make this throwback to 70's nostalgic thick and grungy rawker a winner for an infrequent but enjoyable groovy spin once in a blue moon.  Next up-2002's Driven.

BIG|BRAVE - A Chaos Of Flowers. There are some beautiful passages here. They are further from metal than ever but that's OK.
ENGULFED - Unearthly Litanies of Despair. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Noice, but.
MÆRE - ...And The Universe Keeps Silent. Spare, thoughtful music.

Manowar - Fighting The World

The Cult/Love

Rainbow - Rising

The Cult/Love

Floor - Oblation
Beach Rats - Rat Beat
 
Accept falls into the same category as The Scorpions, Priest, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Maiden, Twisted Sister, Sabbath, UFO, and a few others. Perfectly acceptable for the right situation (i.e. sitting around with the boys, drinking beer, and grilling some meat, pool party with the fam, cutting the grass/working around the house). Many of us of a certain vintage probably wouldn't be metalheads if it weren't for bands like these even if we have moved well past them today. I plug some of them on at times for that nostalgia kick or just some mindless enjoyment. Good void filler if you don't want to critically listen to new unfamiliar music. Doesn't require effort to enjoy. The musical equivalent to comfort food if you will.

Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering, Austria 1991. I feel like this album gets unfairly passed over. Absolutely one of the best death metal records of 1991. And I say that knowing there were some real bangers released in 1991.
 
Massacra - Enjoy the Violence, French death/thrash 1991
 
Parler Anglais ou mourir?
I liked this album well enough in '85, but it hasn't aged like a fine Bordeaux. More like 40 year old camembert.

Yo JT can you explain to me sir how these Whiskey Rebel dudes play "southern metal" if they're from fucking Sheboygan, Wisconsin? Can't get much less southern than that unless you go to Alaska. Or is 'southern' just a state of mind? Back in the day our "southern rock" bands were Skynyrd, Hatchet, ABB, MTB and the Outlaws. And even as a New Yorker I loved all that shit. But those bands were all from Florida, Jaw-ja and Carolina. No one would have accepted a "southern" rock band from up north in Yankeeland. Nowadays it seems they have "southern" bands from up north and I even saw one or two you posted that were actually European. What's up widdat?
Also I'm mildly curious to try one of these modern post-Udo Accept albums you keep posting just to see what they sound like without Udo. (which one would you recommend I try?) But I never actually do it because I'm sure I'll be disappointed. I only ever liked two Accept albums to begin with even back in their hey-day, R&W and Metal Heart, so I'm not exactly a super-fan. Did see them once at L'amour in '85 though and I have to admit they put on a helluva show. I saw TT Quick a few times a few years before that back when they were a LI club band and I even had their first EP so I'm somewhat familiar with MT, and I don't think I could accept that guy as the front-man for Accept. It's Udo's band dammit. His thick German accent and being just barely over 5 feet tall was part of the appeal. I guess change can be hard for us old guys.
 
Accept - Metal Heart 1985
 

Necrot-Lifeless Birth, I dunno, these guys don't do a lot for me

Been listening to Panopticon's 2023 release, Rhyme of Reason some recently and comparing it to other atmospheric/melodic black metal one person bands I've enjoyed in recent years. 
Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum-Wanderers/Astrologers of the Nine-a split but two one man bands
Afsky/Ofte jeg drømmer mig død-big fan of this one that seems to be classified as just black metal or melodic black metal with doom influences, but I don't see much daylight between melodic and atmoblack tbh
Grimma-Frostbitten
Grimma-Rotten Garden
 

Necrot-Lifeless Birth, I dunno, these guys don't do a lot for me

Hey man! Just glad you're going well my friend. But I do enjoy listening to your picks. Congrats on the degree and the new job. And, I understand the forums can get redundant. 

Cheers my Friend and Thank you! Here's to the endless summer even for deathly, blackened frostbitten hearted among us.

I'll have you know I read the whole thing. Surge finds some interesting stuff, sometimes. Good dude. Glad he got a job after getting his degree. I know he was trying to make a better life for he and his wife.

I'll have you know I read the whole thing. Surge finds some interesting stuff, sometimes. Good dude. Glad he got a job after getting his degree. I know he was trying to make a better life for he and his wife.

I'll have you know I read the whole thing. Surge finds some interesting stuff, sometimes. Good dude. Glad he got a job after getting his degree. I know he was trying to make a better life for he and his wife.

I'll have you know I read the whole thing. Surge finds some interesting stuff, sometimes. Good dude. Glad he got a job after getting his degree. I know he was trying to make a better life for he and his wife.