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DT isn't that heavy' date=' even their older stuff.[/quote'] Not heavy in terms of guitar tone perhaps, but their first few albums were pretty relentless, with lots of blastbeats and tremolo riffs. That's more what I'm talking about, I prefer melodic death metal to not forget that it's also death metal, as opposed to most of the bands that came later, which were more like power metal with harsh vocals.
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Re: melodic death metal

Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, The Unguided, Threat Signal, Solution .45, Disarmonia Mundi... For some reason I thought I liked more melodeath bands. Bummer. *braces for blutausnerd to shit on my list because he shits on all music I like*
That actually had me lol, not just saying that. I have Soilwork's 2nd album and it's pretty good IIRC, and I'm not that familiar with Disarmonia Mundi, I think I've only heard a song or two, but I remember liking it. Can't stand Scar Symmetry or Threat Signal though, and I haven't heard the others. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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I'm making my way through The Mind's I at the moment' date=' actually. It's OK, but as you say it's less polished.[/quote'] I know this is a quote from a discussion between you and BAN almost a year ago. Sorry. But I just saw this and I'm curious what you think of this album now, because DT used to be one of my favorite bands, but The Mind's I was the most recent of theirs that I liked at all... and I find the level of "polish" on it almost intolerable. It's not quite as sterile as some newer tech stuff I've heard, but it's so studio it almost hurts. Maybe you guys are more open to the new stuff because you heard it later and worked your way back through their catalog? I dunno. Drunken musings. No criticism intended.
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I don't listen to a lot of melodeath, in fact the only two melodeath bands I listen to are Dark Tranquility and Arch Enemy. Someone on my other forum showed me a track by Sentenced (or I think it was Sentenced, some melodeath band starting with S anyway) that I really liked and I'll follow that up at some point.

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I know this is a quote from a discussion between you and BAN almost a year ago. Sorry. But I just saw this and I'm curious what you think of this album now' date=' because DT used to be one of my favorite bands, but The Mind's I was the most recent of theirs that I liked at all... and I find the level of "polish" on it almost intolerable. It's not quite as sterile as some newer tech stuff I've heard, but it's so studio it almost hurts. Maybe you guys are more open to the new stuff because you heard it later and worked your way back through their catalog? I dunno. Drunken musings. No criticism intended.[/quote'] I still don't really like it too much. It has too much of an Opeth flavor to it for my liking. I prefer good sound production so I tend to like polish. I like Character, Damage Done, Fiction and a little from We Are The Void. Construct sounds kind of lame in parts, and its album art annoys me no end.
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I still don't really like it too much. It has too much of an Opeth flavor to it for my liking. I prefer good sound production so I tend to like polish. I like Character' date=' Damage Done, Fiction and a little from We Are The Void. Construct sounds kind of lame in parts, and its album art annoys me no end.[/quote'] It's so odd to me that you hear Opeth in there. To me, Mind's I sounds more like their answer to the success of ATG's "Slaughter Of The Soul" - some Gallery-esque moments but a stripped-down approach to the songwriting, which doesn't work for me as well as their early, more exploratory music. I even like "...Of Chaos And Eternal Night" and some of the songs on "Skydancer". The only band that I listen to with any regularity that has an Opeth-like resonance, for me, is Enslaved, but I think you could chalk that up to common influences rather than crosstalk.
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Re: melodic death metal

It's so odd to me that you hear Opeth in there. To me' date=' Mind's I sounds more like their answer to the success of ATG's "Slaughter Of The Soul" - some Gallery-esque moments but a stripped-down approach to the songwriting, which doesn't work for me as well as their early, more exploratory music. I even like "...Of Chaos And Eternal Night" and some of the songs on "Skydancer". The only band that I listen to with any regularity that has an Opeth-like resonance, for me, is Enslaved, but I think you could chalk that up to common influences rather than crosstalk.[/quote'] I like The Mind's I more for the slower and less staccato sounding melodeath songs, particularly Hedon and Insanity's Crescendo. The other songs are great too, and do sound a bit like a more polished The Gallery outside of the songs on that album that still harken back to their albums with Jesper on vocals (Punish My Heaven being a prime example). I don't hear the Opeth comparison either, two totally different sounds, even when talking about Opeth's earlier and more melodeath stuff. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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I played Punish my Heaven for a friend of mine who adores melody and precise musicianship in his heavy metal and it blew him away. Granted, he was already well aware of DT's back catalog, but he had never taken the time to listen to the Gallery which I found odd considering he knows all of the early Gothenburg bands quite well. The Gallery didn't do much for me at age 14 but looking back at it now, it is quite possibly the best album out of the melodic dm style.

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^We must be about the same age, I was fifteen when The Gallery came out. I'd been listening to a lot of Swedish and Finnish DM at the time and that album ticked all the right boxes for me. Punish My Heaven and The Dividing Line were the ones that really got me. After a few years, the sappy bits and cheesy lyrics pushed me away from it, but I've been enjoying it again over the last two or three years. Still my favorite of that scene/era. Most people that haven't heard old DT seem to find Mind's I more accessible, but to me it's a pale shadow of what they achieved with The Gallery.

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Re: melodic death metal

^We must be about the same age' date=' I was fifteen when The Gallery came out. I'd been listening to a lot of Swedish and Finnish DM at the time and that album ticked all the right boxes for me. Punish My Heaven and The Dividing Line were the ones that really got me. After a few years, the sappy bits and cheesy lyrics pushed me away from it, but I've been enjoying it again over the last two or three years. Still my favorite of that scene/era. Most people that haven't heard old DT seem to find Mind's I more accessible, but to me it's a pale shadow of what they achieved with The Gallery.[/quote'] Skydancer is my favorite, but The Mind's I takes the second spot for me. I would likely call DT the best of the Goteborg melodeath sound (not counting black metal bands like Dawn and Dissection in with this), but I tend to prefer more melodious death metal over "melodeath", i.e. old At the Gates, Uncanny, Edge of Sanity (The Spectral Sorrows), Desultory, The Chasm, Cenotaph (Riding Our Black Oceans), etc... Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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Wow, I've logged a lot of time discussing melodeath in this thread, but have never actually done a recommendation post. Maybe I should rectify that, as I'm sure that at least some of these bands will stick with some of the posters here. Some of these names will be plenty familiar, but I think that many people tend to be more acquainted with either the more popular works of the bands in question, or these albums just don't get discussed as much. I don't know as many of the older bands as guys like FatherAlabaster, but I'm sure that there will be a few that will be new mentions for most.

Amorphis - Elegy:

 

 

Amorphis is one of those bands that have changed a ton throughout the course of their career, and especially on this album, have incorporated a number of different styles into their sound. I could post tracks from this album under the banner of folk metal, progressive metal, doom/death metal, and also here in melodeath field. All of that is on display on this album, and it's an amazing one that I don't mind posting multiple times, but there are some songs that should definitely scratch the itch of any melodeath fan. Even the clean vocals, which I'm not usually huge on with melodeath, sound amazing throughout the album, but that could just be the prog influences. In any case, while maybe their entry here isn't full-fledged, their influence upon melodeath is undeniable.

 

Arch Enemy - Stigmata:

 

 

Yes kids, there was a time when Arch Enemy was not only not worthless, but actually pretty good. Their first 2 albums feature some killer riffs, awesome vocals, and songs that went somewhere, essentially everything that they lack these days. It's too bad that they didn't continue in this direction, as Stigmata is among my favorite Swedish melodeath albums. If you like your melodeath full of sugary melodies, boring mallcore riffs, and weak vocals, this version of the band is not for you.

 

Arghoslent - Incorrigible Bigotry:

 

 

Arghoslent will likely be the most controversial entry on this list, but not because of anything musical, as in that sense, they're amazing. Riffs galore, catchy songwriting, and all around excellent performances. They are, however, very racist and xenophobic lyrically and personally speaking, which will definitely be a turn-off for many. If you can't get past that, I can understand skipping this one entirely, but if lyrics don't matter to you, or you feel that you can enjoy the music of any given artist without sharing in their personal beliefs (which is my position), there is a ton to enjoy here. Honestly one of the best melodeath and/or American death metal bands ever IMO.

 

Arsis - A Diamond For Disease (EP):

 

 

I'm certain that many of you are familiar with Arsis, but more likely as a tech-death band that was good, but lacking a bit in the identity field. However, I prefer them when they were more of a complex melodeath band. This song in particular was a big achievement of theirs, a 13 minute epic that I quite enjoy. I hope that you do too, as I enjoy this a great deal more than albums like We Are the Nightmare.

 

At the Gates - With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness:

 

 

At the Gates are well known as one of the founding fathers of melodic death metal, but for all of the wrong reason IMHO. Most people seem to revere Slaughter of the Soul as some kind of revelation, but it really just represented the dumbing down of their sound into something boring and accessible. However, their early work is absolutely magnificent, being both death metal and melodic, instead of just recycling a bunch of Iron Maiden melodies over tired downtuned thrash/groove metal riffs. Eerie, uneasy, yet stunningly beautiful, all while maintaining sufficient brutality to satisfy any death metal fan, there is also a complexity and depth to their early work that few could contend with at the time, or even since. This album doesn't represent their pinnacle for me, that would be the prior album, but not because this one isn't completely stacked with good material. My only gripe with their sophomore album, With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, is that it is poorly constructed, as many songs sound like they end before reaching their conclusion. Those song fragments are still glorious to hear, but the jarring endings keep them from knocking The Red In the Sky is Ours from their top spot in my book. This is, however, still essential listening for any melodeath fan, do not pass up on anything they did up to this point.

 

Black Harvest - Ingrate:

 

 

Hats off to you FA for making some killer music, I feel that Black Harvest deserves a spot here among the elite of melodic death metal. There are some elements of other genres in here, namely doom, progressive, and black metal, maybe even a little bit of a gothic feel, but this section could definitely use more good bands, and it feels like the majority of Black Harvest's sound fits here. As far as the music goes, we see everything that I like about melodic death metal represented here, original composition, excellent, moody melodies, and riffs that retain the heaviness to remind everyone that this is still death metal that we're talking about here. I think the newest Black Harvest album is likely my favorite, but this is still my favorite Black Harvest song, so it's the one that I will be using. If you have not heard this band, and are a fan of original, melodic metal, do yourself a favor and give this a listen.

 

Centinex - Reborn Through Flames:

 

 

Centinex were one of the longest running, most consistent, and yet least appreciated bands in the world of Swedish death metal. Starting with a sound that wasn't far removed from Dismember, the band slowly grew to be more melodic over time, but did so with style and without letting up on the aggression of their earlier days. The band clearly take some large cues from At the Gates throughout their career, and would even evolve into more of a Slaughter of the Soul type sound, only to outdo At the Gates at that approach with albums like Diabolical Desolation and World Declension. This band would morph into the band Demonical after their demise, who are also good, but reside more firmly in traditional Sunlight Studios Swedish death metal territory.

 

Crown of Thorns - Eternal Death:

Crown of Thorns were one of the most savage of Sweden's melodic death metal bands, showcasing some pretty speedy drumming, relentless riffing, and the awesome vocals of Johan Lindstrand. The band would adopt a much more thrash oriented approach when they changed their name to The Crown due to legal reasons, but their melodic tendencies would remain. That said, their early work is a great representation of what I look for in this style of music.

 

Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer:

 

 

Dark Tranquillity may be the most well known melodic death metal band out there, outside of maybe In Flames, but as with other cases here, I feel that their best works are far too often glossed over in favor of their newer releases. In this case, however, I feel that some of the band's later releases do have plenty to offer, but their debut is better IMO. Most people have not heard this side of Dark Tranquillity, when they were at their most energetic, brazen, and original. Just listen to those melodies, they would develop further as their career progressed, but they never played them with more conviction. Also, one can hear Anders Friden not making a total ass of himself on vocals, which is an achievement in and of itself.

Darkane - Layers of Lies:

 

 

Darkane are another early Swedish entry into the melodic death metal field, but for some reason are not as revered as many of their peers. This is unfortunate, as they had a leg up in technicality on almost any other band in the scene, and an immediacy and frantic aggression to their music that few melodic death metal bands could match. Their debut might be the best traditional representation of melodeath that they would craft, but their fourth album, Layers of Lies, easily ranks as my favorite. Standing as one of the few albums to integrate more modern metal elements into their melodic death metal base without coming off as clumsy and weak, this album has a ton going for it. The clean vocals actually fit and don't sound like they're trying to force them in there, the instrumentation and performances are phenomenal, and the textures to this album just blend perfectly. You could really go with any of their albums, but I would recommend this one, especially to those looking for something more progressively minded in melodeath.

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