JBaker

Just enjoying Fullers Golden Pride

Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues Anthemic modern punk with a great message!

Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind Been listening to this album near enough every day for a week, which is no mean feat considering it's nearly 2h30 mins. I'm not one to be fickle with music and generally take a long time to fully form my opinions, but I think this might be the best album I've ever heard. So disturbing and sinister, but really beautiful and moving. Flawless piece of work. Few artists or albums have struck such a cord with me so quickly.

Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty

Swans in Belgium' date=' nice.[/quote'] Really?! Man, I'm jealous! Really wanna see them in London, but it's over a 2 hour drive. :/

Machine Head - Bloodstone & Diamonds No band in the mainstream spotlight combines extremity and anthemic accessibility so effectively. The band Trivium want to be. Amazing piece of work. On par with The Blackening imo.

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

Deftones is band which is still on my list of music to discover' date=' so I don't know. I'm trying to get through more unknown stuff first anyway, so they might follow if they indeed lean towards avant-garde metal.[/quote'] Deftones are one of my favourite bands, but I think you'll be disappointed if you go in expecting avant garde.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

36 Crazyfists - A Snow Capped Romance Feeling somewhat out of place here.

*facepalm* Black metal is a clearly defined genre, possessing many qualities not seen in other metal sub-genres (croaked/shrieked vocals, focus on atmosphere, to name a few). Similar story with viking metal though you are correct in stating that Amon Amarth are death metal.

How about. Deftones. Aren't they Avnet grade

Afraid not. They're a Canadian post-rock band; no singing at all. NP: Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.

Mogwai - Young Team Definitely a favourite of mine.

I'm just North of London. I agree we've had some good stuff from the UK over the years. I quite like Stampin' Ground who had a bit of a hardcore edge to them at times... Think they were from a bit further south than the West Midlands. I had a little listen to Heart of a Coward... See what you mean very Meshuggah meets Deftones. Pretty cool sound will give it a bit more of a listen - Cheers for the recommendation. I've found recently I'm steering a lot towards Scandanavian metal!

Deftones - Minerva Floaty as fuck. The best song Coldplay never wrote.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Black Bubblegum Much as I like their vicious, chaotic stuff, I just love Greg's shamelessly Patton-esque melodic vocal delivery and they have such an ear for cool catchy-as-hell melodies!

Whereabouts are you from in the UK? I live in England (West Midlands) and I think we have a decent heavy music scene over here; though admittedly most of the new bands I'm really enjoying nowadays seem to be coming more from the hardcore scene. That's probably just a reflection of my tastes, though. Have you ever listened to Heart of a Coward? You might like them - they use those poly-rhythmic riffs that Meshuggah do so well and combine that style with hardcore and some slightly Deftones-ish melodies. Severance is well worth a listen. Heavy stuff!

Hey man. Welcome to the forum! I dig Gojira and Meshuggah, too. Nice to have yet another Brit here! Hope you find what you want on this forum.

Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter

Swans - The Seer Part of the problem with discovering this band is everything else in my collection now seems bland, soft, safe, predictable and weak. :/

That's entirely the point of a band like Slipknot' date=' to appear menacing enough to satiate the need of teenagers to distance themselves from their parents by listening to music that appears to be "scary", but the music itself is still just tame enough pop music at its roots that it can still reel in all of those fans. I don't give two shits about how metal appears, it's music, so all I care about is how it sounds, but when a band like Slipknot spends all of their time focusing on their image, their music suffers because it comes second. It's really just a vehicle to deliver their angsty message of "anger and rebellion" that confused kids latch on to, like it's a tit delivering mothers milk. If you peel back those half assed sped up Korn riffs, you'll hear the same pop chorus as any song on the radio, despite appearing to be "darker" because of their masks and "troubled" lyrics. It's image over substance, and at the end of the day, regardless of what it is, the better of the two will always be substance.[/quote'] I definitely agree with this to some extent. Whilst I'm not cynical enough to suggest that's the 'entire reason' bands like Slipknot exist (I don't think anyone's really qualified to presume much about any band/artist's intentions), I definitely think a pretty significant portion of their teenage fan-base are more in it for the image it gives them to people outside metal culture than for the music. Having said that, despite also enjoying a modest variety of more 'authentic' metal and other music, I am a fan of Slipknot. I think Corey Taylor's an extremely talented vocalist (though I get why it's not to the taste of many here), I enjoy the straight-forward aggression and simplicity of the music (though, again, I do understand where the 'juvenile' accusations come from), and I appreciate a good pop hook if it's done well. And yes, I am someone who enjoys their image as well. I'm actually seeing them live later this month with Korn and King 810 (can't you just feel that suburban teen angst already?), and I've heard Slipknot are visually an absolute spectacle live, so I'm honestly really excited. People rave about Alice Cooper, but in all honesty, his music ain't that great. So, there's nothing wrong with appreciating an artist partially or predominantly for the imagery and aesthetics, so long as you acknowledge that's what you're doing. I'm not a fan of Ghost B.C. on record, but the next time they play around these parts, I'm getting in on that shit.

Are you familiar with Mike's work with Fantomas? That might be my favorite among his bands' date=' especially the album Director's Cut. It's a concept album, reworking a number of film scores and themes from classic movies like The Godfather, The Omen, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, etc... into their unique and wild sound.[/quote'] No, I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation - sounds interesting. I've still yet to even check out Mr. Bungle! NP: Electric Wizard - Dopethrone