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Who are your current top 5 bands?


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33 minutes ago, Requiem said:

Top 5 Bands. I'm presuming 'current' means the inclusion of a band's entire discography. 

Katatonia

Amorphis

Paradise Lost

Mayhem

My Dying Bride

"Current" just means the five bands you're enjoying most at the moment. I'd be curious to know which Katatonia and Amorphis albums you're into - I got off the bus with Amorphis after Elegy (lately I've been playing Privilege Of Evil the most, heh), but I've been following Katatonia up until this last one, which was pretty weak IMO.

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Just now, FatherAlabaster said:

"Current" just means the five bands you're enjoying most at the moment. I'd be curious to know which Katatonia and Amorphis albums you're into - I got off the bus with Amorphis after Elegy (lately I've been playing Privilege Of Evil the most, heh), but I've been following Katatonia up until this last one, which was pretty weak IMO.

I was the same as you regarding Amorphis after 'Elegy' - I was really disappointed that they went straight rock in 1998.

That is, until they got their 'new' singer Tomi Joutsen from the 'Eclipse' album (2006) onwards. I presume you've heard 'Eclipse', 'Silent Waters' and all those amazing albums. I'm from the 'Tales from the Thousand Lakes' and 'Elegy' vintage, and those two are my favourite Amorphis albums, but their new album 'Under the Red Cloud' comes close, as does most of Joutsen's material. Are you into recent Amorphis? Just amazing. 

Katatonia used to be my favourite band. They released my favourite album of all time in 'Last Fair Deal Gone Down' which I think is the greatest album of any genre of music. Most of the last few albums have left me a little cold, and 'Dead End Kings' was really disappointing, but I thought they did an amazing job with the new album 'The Fall of Hearts'. I was never a huge fan of that chunky Tool style riffing they have on 'Night is the New Day' (dumb title) and 'Dead End Kings' (arrogant title). But the new album is awesome. That track 'Old Heart Falls' is... wow... for someone my age (37) it pretty much sums up my life. What a song. 

 

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We're the same age - saw a previous post of yours about being 10 in 1990. I know the feeling! I got into Katatonia when Discouraged Ones came out, and I've had my ups and downs with them. Last Fair Deal was amazing, a bit awkward but that was OK with me. Viva Emptiness took longer to get used to, but I think they were looking for something that they found with The Great Cold Distance - my favorite "modern" Katatonia. NITND was kind of bad, Dead End Kings I came around to in a pretty big way, but the new one sounds like table scraps to me. 

Tales From The Thousand Lakes was the first melodic DM album I owned, although I was always more drawn to The Karelian Isthmus - that's one of my favorite all-time albums. Lately I've been digging more into early Finnish DM in general. I only listened to Eclipse once, and honestly didn't enjoy it, but I'm willing to go back and give it a fair shake. I've avoided their newer material, more out of forgetfulness and my tastes moving elsewhere than anything else.

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On a real Bolt Thrower trip this week and have been playing "For Victory..." and "Those Once Loyal" a few times already.   I have also been digging me some Cirith Ungol of late, especially "Frost & Fire" with it's off kilter structures ("Edge of a Knife" in particular).  Always reminds me to check out more Manilla Road whenever i listen to Cirith but they have been on my to do list for sometime now.

Deicide's "Legion" is on loop in the CD player in the car and I have had much fun of late with "Once Upon The Cross" and their self-titled also.  Benton might be an absolute knob but it rarely interferes with the music.  Still playing the hell out of Ghoul "Dungeon Bastards" which has led me to go back and revisit "Splatterthrash" and "Transmission Zero", really enjoy their tongue-in-cheek approach to thrash.

Finally, still on my Sepultura trip after picking up "Beneath The Remains" and "Schizophrenia" on CD recently and pulling many gurning faces and claw shapes with my hands whilst stomping around my house.

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6 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

We're the same age - saw a previous post of yours about being 10 in 1990. I know the feeling! I got into Katatonia when Discouraged Ones came out, and I've had my ups and downs with them. Last Fair Deal was amazing, a bit awkward but that was OK with me. Viva Emptiness took longer to get used to, but I think they were looking for something that they found with The Great Cold Distance - my favorite "modern" Katatonia. NITND was kind of bad, Dead End Kings I came around to in a pretty big way, but the new one sounds like table scraps to me. 

Tales From The Thousand Lakes was the first melodic DM album I owned, although I was always more drawn to The Karelian Isthmus - that's one of my favorite all-time albums. Lately I've been digging more into early Finnish DM in general. I only listened to Eclipse once, and honestly didn't enjoy it, but I'm willing to go back and give it a fair shake. I've avoided their newer material, more out of forgetfulness and my tastes moving elsewhere than anything else.

It's good to talk with people my age because they can empathise with the musical journey, even if tastes differ here and there. 

You must really like your death metal if you prefer 'The Karelian Isthmus' to 'Tales'. If you're sitting around listening to 'Privilege of Evil' then I'm not surprised ;) 

Definitely check out some newer Amorphis. The new singer Tomi Joutsen is just a machine. He's incredible in his growls and his cleans. The other good thing about modern day Amorphis is that the lyrics are taken from the Kalevala once more, albeit re-written by this amazing Finnish poet Pekka Kainulainen. I actually recently bought a copy of the Oxford World's Classic edition of the Kalevala. It's amazing and full of Amorphis lyrics. 

It's no 'Privilege of Evil', but check out the 'Under the Red Cloud' album from last year. At the very least go back and pay homage to 'Eclipse'! I can't tell you how much I love this band (and loathe them from 1998-2005 hahahaha). 

Tomi Joutsen is a beast singer and solely responsible for bringing Amorphis back to the righteous path. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm guessing we're talking the bands we're playing all the time lately? (Hope so because top 5 all time would have me sat here thinking for days)

  • Vatnett Viskar
  • Hope Drone
  • Iron Monkey
  • Downfall of Gaia
  • Napalm Death

They've all been on quite a lot the last week or so.

On 12/21/2016 at 9:39 AM, MacabreEternal said:

On a real Bolt Thrower trip this week and have been playing "For Victory..." and "Those Once Loyal" a few times already.   I have also been digging me some Cirith Ungol of late, especially "Frost & Fire" with it's off kilter structures ("Edge of a Knife" in particular).  Always reminds me to check out more Manilla Road whenever i listen to Cirith but they have been on my to do list for sometime now.

Deicide's "Legion" is on loop in the CD player in the car and I have had much fun of late with "Once Upon The Cross" and their self-titled also.  Benton might be an absolute knob but it rarely interferes with the music.  Still playing the hell out of Ghoul "Dungeon Bastards" which has led me to go back and revisit "Splatterthrash" and "Transmission Zero", really enjoy their tongue-in-cheek approach to thrash.

Finally, still on my Sepultura trip after picking up "Beneath The Remains" and "Schizophrenia" on CD recently and pulling many gurning faces and claw shapes with my hands whilst stomping around my house.

I had a Deicide day a few weeks ago. Its a little patchy after Serpents of the Light for me but Once Upon The Cross and Legion will always be blinders in my book. 
IVth Crusade is always my first port of call with Bolt Thrower.

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/9/2017 at 4:29 PM, Arbiter said:

3. Iced Earth [All Era's]

I like their stuff up until Horror Show. The Glorious Burden was also good but not much else. That being said, if John Greely had been on the debut, they would have taken off big time. Seriously, even among thrash vocals, Gene Adam's vocals get grating at times. 

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