Necrolord

Thanks, I'll give it a spin along with the others. And thanks @navybsn for the recs. I'll add those to the list. I'm sure there will be some more awesome stuff to find in addition to that Unanimated album I'm currently enjoying.

One of their best albums. Sealed With a Fist is such a banger. Thanks @GoatmasterGeneral. I'm really digging Unanimated - In Light of Darkness. Missing some of the speed of Somberlain but it has those evil riffs I love. Light's Bane is one of my all time fav albums. Still gotta check the Necrophobic album. Thanks @SurgicalBrute. I'll check all these out. It will take several days but I'm well stocked for now. Got a craving for that Dissection sound.

Dissection - The Somberlain Anyone know any albums that sound a lot like it?

Been on an Annihilator binge the last couple weeks. Not that I've had much time to listen to music. Only heard their 1st two albums in full before now. Tight, fast and catchy riffing. That's what makes the band. They can be cheesy at times but when the musicianship is this good, I'll allow it.... Started off with Refresh the Demon on which songs 1-3, and 5 are killer. Went over to King of the Kill where I only enjoyed "21" and "Second to None" (except the mellow middle part). Checked out their S/T (2010) and it's overall pretty solid. And finally currently listening to Metal which is also pretty good after one listen. And speaking of riffs, also been revisiting random tracks off this old favorite of mine:

Soulfly has some great moments of pure groove here and there. But you run into maybe 1 good track every 5 songs. Never been big on them. NP: Annihilator - Refresh the Demon

I played this out of curiosity when you mentioned it and and it's alright. Like a more stripped down, meat and potatoes Soulfly. Must Kill - best song.

NP: MC @GoatmasterGeneral's Black Metal Mixtape Vol.666 (TM) I've been listening to some of Goatmaster's black metal recommendations from a few pages ago. It was fun to explore something different from my usual thrash & death. As I expected most of it wasn't my cup of tea. I just find most black metal boring. I like speed, good production with an evil sound. Too many bands play simple or slow riffs and go for an epic sound instead... Didn't get a chance to check everything but the bands I enjoyed were Armagedda, Deus Mortem, and especially Murg. Murg - Varg & Bjorn. This one I really liked. A lot of memorable, fast-paced melodies and interesting guitar layers. The raw production suits the guitarwork and adds depth to everything. Seems like you're always hearing a cool melody beneath everything. Riffs often wrap up with unusual / undecipherable chord combinations that create a timeless sounding atmosphere. Here's one of the slower tracks but those guitar layers starting at 30 seconds in teleported me to a different place and time. Pure magic.

My bad @Nasty_Cabbage, I was thinking of Bethlehem when I wrote that, not Beherit! Bethlehem is dog shit. Tabernacle is a funny word. Totally fair man. I appreciate your explanation of what you find appealling in it. Rough around the edges can sound great when a band is tight with good execution. Lack of fancy mixing allows a band's natural dynamics to shine through, similar to a live setting. But generally 'filty production' to me is usually just extra static and mud in the mix. When a guy is playing a cool riff I'd rather hear it clearly and powerfully and have the growly guitar tone chew my ear off. I wanna hear every note played as opposed to having to try and figure out what's going on. To me, whether a band has balls or not has more to do with the riffs and songs they play (composition) and less with production. But I can see how raw production gives a band that rough/unpolished vibe. I'm glad we agree on the pointless intros. Thanks for sharing those albums. Not enough time to listen to everything fully so I'm gonna try each one for the first 5 minutes and we'll see how many pass the 5-minute test! I hope I find something I enjoy thoroughly.

I'll try not to go too hard on you man and thanks for that wicked Fulci album. Now those riffs I was humming for days. I don't hold any personal grudge on anything here. It's just a silly forum. Fascinating that you seem to care about which band is 'mainstream' or not and somehow this affects your judgment of their music? I don't care one bit about anything other than the pure music. I don't get distracted by the other stuff. It's odd that you even mention that. You should ignore everything except for the music. We probably have huge tastes difference re bm. I've been listening to all kinds of bm for over a decade. Everythng from Abigor to Zyklon, limbonic art, summoning, everything in between, even crap like Beherit etc etc..... I've delved into the deep end, don't worry... Anyway I've only had time to check 1 "proper" bm album you recommended. Vargsang- in the Midst of Night VS Watain- Trident Wolf Eclipse HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPETITION Vargsang: 1st 2 minutes is a waste of time pointless synth intro. Bad 1st impression. A band should do something cool to bring you in at the beginning to make you interested. Not bore you right from the get go. Umm, where are the drums? This is some weaksauce drum production. Also the guitar riffs here are nowhere near the level of Watain. The way this guy picks sounds like he first picked up a guitar less than a year ago. The production is bad... I have a soft spot for crappy production. But at the end of the day. When something sounds better it just sounds better. Bad/muddy does not sound better. Unless you enjoy crap. Every song starts very slow. Where's the energy? Is this black metal elevator music? 8 minutes in i was falling asleep already, then some even slower spoken word part comes in, with a simple friendly benign lead work. Come on... this is kinda shitty. Even Dimmu destroys this sadly executed raw bm. 3rd song has some speed and more interesting riffs. Still nothing really original, but better. 4th song just steady, boring but has a cool part near the end. Overall songs are too simple for me in terms of arrangements. Too many basic riffs repeating too many times. Watain just does a lot more interesting stuff with overall arrangements and sounds 10x better in terms of songwriting, production, and interesting sections. 1:30 into the album Watain already played more cool riffs than the 1st 20 minutes of this album. Watain's album absolutely mops the floor with this.

Odd, cuz that Watain album blows most black metal albums shared here out of the water. (Well, only the albums shared here which I've checked out which isn't that many...) I will give your 'proper' bm albums a listen. There will be a head-to-head comparison vs Watain. It might take a few days. This shit BETTER be good! Dimmu has some good stuff, regardless of the ridicule they get from the troo crowd, who are usually total sheep / scared to like anything outside a certain limit. (Not implying you are one). At the same time I can understand if Dimmu isn't someone's taste at all, there's a lot about them I don't even like.

I really like Orchid too and not a huge fan of Opeth in general. I don't have any recommendations for you but find it interesting that their 1st album stands out so much to yourself and a lot of others vs the rest of their discography. A band's first album is usually one that they had "a lifetime to write". So it's probably stuff they wrote when they were young over many years. It's no wonder their sound changed and never went back to the old mentality. They couldn't write another Orchid if they tried. I don't remember much of Morningrise but to me that's probably the closest thing out there to Orchid.

I hate the symphonic side of Dimmu (and black metal in general). But there's still tons of great riffs and atmospheres to be found on their later albums. Tracks like Maelstrom Mephisto, Cataclysm Children, The Foreshadowing Furnace just a few I can think of. The non-synth stuff on their later album beats any of their old stuff from SBD or before. This chick I met was listening to this the other day and it caught my ear. I asked what it was. Turns out it was Watain and I've never listened to them before. Aside from a few filler tracks I thought it was one of the best black metal albums I've heard in a long time (I don't listen to a lot of bm usually).

NP: Fulci - Tropical Sun. Still loving this. Just a blasting album. The only thing I dislike is the occasional "whee-whee-whee" vocal thing. Otherwise solid af. Skeletal Remains - Fragments of the Ageless. I admit, this one is growing on me. Gets better and better with more listens. Also enjoying the 2 new Deicide songs. Looking forward to their new one!

NP: Random shit from this thread. I need new metal so I've been checking your NP's Let's see, listened to Father Befouled - Crowned in .... I like the dark sound. Pretty heavy shit. Some interesting atonal stuff going on, a few times guitar sounds totally out of tune and it sounds sick. But overall the riffs are too basic, slow & predictable patterns. Too many slow doomy parts. Quality dm should have more going on. Sacred crucifix- Aeon... boring. Hard to sit through. Definition of generic riffs. This is like a heavier Vektor but with none of the musicianship or creative ideas. Occasional chuggy section comes around bit it's not enough to make it interesting. Incendium - opens with the douchiest melody I ever heard. But then a really sick fast riff comes in. Hopes raised. Kept listening for another 5 minutes. Hopes dashed. Nothing even remotely good came after that one riff. I hated this. Algol - Mictlan. This is the worst thing I ever heard being passed off as ""black metal"". I mean, I've heard stuff that isnt bm at all but at least those bands call it "post bm" or something. This was the most lame, ball-less, boring music I ever heard. Like some kind of basic 70's rock before drums were invented. Is this what bm has become?? This is considered bm today?? I guess anything can be bm nowadays. I'm gonna have to stop listening to new "black metal" bands entirely... Thanks Michtlan..... Fulci- Tropical sun. Fuck yeah. This is what I'm talking about. Pure slabs of pounding heaviness, every instrument crunchy and audible. Everything clicks. Good amount of variation to keep things interesting too. Well written songs. Reminds me a bit of Natrium (also from Italy), but less technical. Skeletal Remains - Fragments. Hmm.. all the ingredients seem to be there but it's not clicking for me. I like fast but this is almost too fast and random. Maybe it takes time. It's got some good sections. Seidhr- Wrath.... high pitched screams are so lame... anyway. Aside from that, this kicks ass! Great shreddy blackened guitars. Tons of energy and adrenaline, frantic at times. Solid short songs that just stab you. Cool vocals reminiscent of old Kreator or Sepultura. Wouldn't mind a few groovy parts or a different guitar tone once in a while for variery but nonetheless, a killer album.

Such a cool album and concept. The word gets overused nowadays but Crimson is totally epic. I'm thinking of this one great melodic riff from it right now, just not sure I wanna listen through 40 minutes in order to find it haha. Gotta revisit the whole thing soon. Been cranking to this concert in small chunks here and there. Good recording for a live show. Ripper does a wicked job. Tracks like 'Metal Gods' and 'Grinder' actually sound heavy live, unlike the album versions.