The Sword are good, but it seems they only have two influences: Sleep and Black Sabbath.

I've seen Early Man twice and have been less than impressed.

Justin from Queens wrote:I posted a bunch of shit that I'd still highly recommend in the thread refrenced earlier.

Here's some other new stuff I like a lot -

Tides - Longer, mid tempo stuff with song structures that slowly develop. For fans of the Pelican/Isis world.

As always, look to the West for metal. That is, regularly check out the Aquarius Records website; they're the masters.

= Justin

thanks for this recomendation.


zebulon pike is one of my favorites, as far as long instrumental metal goes...
i also love big buisness
g

Great thread, btw...

AGALLOCH (Portland, OR band mixing black metal, neo-folk, Pink Floyd and more)
SODOM
DESTRUCTION
KREATOR-Flag of Hate, Pleasure To Kill
CORONER-Death Cult demo, RIP
BURZUM
ANAGNORISIS ( www.myspace.com/Anagnorisis ) (my friends' band)
MAYHEM-De Mysteriis is the best one
AMON AMARTH (Swedish viking metal)
ENSLAVED (Below The Lights, and Isa are my favorites)
BATHORY-Under The Sign of the Black Mark (their best black metal album)
-Hammerheart (the birth of viking metal)
IMMORTAL
DARKTHRONE
SATYRICON-Nemesis Divina
CRADLE OF FILTH-Vempire, -Dusk and her Embrace
BEHEMOTH-Demigod
MARDUK-the new one's real good
DESASTER (old school black metal from Germany, alive since the 80s)
MEGIDDO-(Canadian lo fi old school black metal, great stuff)
WARHAMMER-The Doom Messiah (total HELLHAMMER worship)
BERGTHRON (German folk metal)
NOKTURNAL MORTUM (Ukrainian folk metal)
DISSECTION-Storm of the light's bane
EXCRUCIATION-Anno Domini (excellent 80s Swiss band, like CELTIC FROST)
DOMINANCE-Anthems of ancient splendor (Italian blackened death)
ESTUARY OF CALAMITY/ ESTUARY
INCANTATION-Onward to Golgatha
ORPHANED LAND-Mabool (Israeli metal)
HELLHAMMER-Satanic Rites demo
SWALLOW THE SUN (Finnish doom)
CANDLEMASS (Swedish doom legends)
ENTOMBED-Left hand path, Clandestine
UNANIMATED (Swedish melodic death from early 90s)
DISMEMBER
PITCHSHIFTER-Industrial (Industrial metal)
FALKENBACH (German viking metal)
BETHLEHEM (really unique German dark metal)
EMPEROR-In The Nightside Eclipse
CARPATHIAN FOREST-Black Shining Leather (Sado-Masochistic black metal)
NILE
OPETH
MINDROT

...I'll try to add more later

I'm sure that someone should have mentioned Altars of Madness by Morbid Angel before now.

And Sabbat - obviously there's some comical Wiccan/plastic swords malarkey going on but the second album has some great music and lyrics

Entombed are also generally a fine band, I'd try Wolverine Blues first.

oh....if you fancy something lightning fast, the one and only terrorizer album on Earache is fucking astounding, in fact, if you can get a hold of the first Grindcrusher compilation (Earache again) you'll get a taster of some world-class stuff...Godflesh, Repulsion, Napalm Death etv

My "old school" metal recommendations:

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Volume 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage

Sir Lord Baltimore: Kingdom Come

Alice Cooper: Killer, Love It to Death

Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power

Judas Priest: Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin after Sin

Motorhead: Motorhead, Ace of Spades, Iron Fist, or No Remorse (2-Lp best-of)

Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind

Man, how could I forget MORBID ANGEL & TERRORIZER? Oh well here are more recommendations:

MORBID ANGEL-Blessed Are The Sick
ANGEL WITCH-S/T (Classic NWOBHM)
CANCER-Sins of Mankind (early 90s death metal)
SUFFOCATION
WITCHFINDER GENERAL (NWOBHM/doom, total Sabbath ripoff but great nonetheless)
CHILDREN OF BODOM-Hatebreeder, Follow The Reaper
SIGH (unique Japanese band blending metal with all kinds of other music)
PUNGENT STENCH-Been Caught Buttering (classic)
HOLLENTON (unique PUNGENT STENCH side band blending many styles, one of their songs includes bagpipes!)
SWORDMASTER-Wraths of Time, Postmortem Tales
GREEN CARNATION-Light of Day, Day of Darkness (amazing prog-metal)
IN THE WOODS-Omnio
WINTER (crushing doom, like CELTIC FROST on valium)
GOD DETHRONED (Dutch death metal band with a sense of humor)
ROTTING CHRIST-Triarchy of the Lost Lovers, A Dead Poem
KRISIUN (insane Brazilian death metal)
ULVER-Bergtatt
KING DIAMOND-Abigail (my fave KING DIAMOND album)
HIMINBJORG (French viking metal)
MYSTICUM-In The Streams Of Inferno (Black metal with industrial elements)
MY DYING BRIDE-The Angel and the Dark River (excellent doom)
CATHEDRAL-Forest of Equilibrium (their heaviest album)
ANATHEMA

Recommended distros:

Red Stream www.redstream.org
The End www.theendrecords.com
Century Media www.cmdistro.com
Relapse Records www.relapse.com

meshuggah - pretty much anything. a good introduction might be "I", a 21 minute, one song ep that destroys.

gorguts - "obscura" or maybe "from wisdom to hate". not an easy listen, but within the gut-wrenching clustery dissonance there are plaintive melodies. serious depth. ex-members are forming a band called negativa and it will probably be awesome.

cynic - focus. hard to describe, but this unique tech-metal/fusion/new-age dates back to 93 and still sounds really damn cool. very layered and complex, but at moderate tempos with driving double kicks.

behold... the arctopus - nano-nucleonic cyborg summoning, or the new split with orthrelm. these guys are beast. instrumental tech metal as frighteningly well-composed as it well-played.

more great tech-metal: necrophagist, cryptopsy, martyr, augury, atheretic. the bass in atheretic is outrageous (myspace.com/atheretic i believe) and martyr is criminally underrated.

sigh - hail horror hail. "12 souls" is like the residents doing metal, maybe even more fucked up and scary. "invitation to die" is like a slow jam with black metal vocals... i laughed hard. they also do good straight-ahead maiden/priest stuff.

about "seventh son of a seventh son" -- yes, "can i play with madness" is awesome, and "the evil that men do" is good too, but the rest of the album sucks.

if you want straight up death metal, check out suffocation -- "pierced from within", morbid angel "domination". hate eternal is pretty serious too.

1349 -- anything, but probably start with hellfire. this is probably my favorite black metal. the album "liberation" has the most scalding recording style i've ever heard just about, and their other albums to different degrees tone it down a bit to allow for more complex playing to be decipherable.

jesu -- s/t. epic, slow, beautiful. may not even be metal but who cares?

skepticism -- stormcrowfleet. unbelievably murky classic. there's no treble. the keys are as heavy as the guitars. evokes a giant ship rowing through the darkest rivers.

shape of despair... at their best this is great. unfortunately they can get really cheesy in a goth way. still, i love the way they use the female voice as an amazing wordless instrument in a doom setting.

dragonforce. if you want to hear something unabashedly corny, uplifting, and super fast. the best track is "black winter night"... when the riff comes in (i think you'll know which one) you'll feel like you're flying 1000 miles per hour on the luck dragon.

cromtech, orthrelm, octis, ocrilim -- mick barr is an evolving shred robot with a challenging vision. i actually don't like most of this stuff but keep an eye on this man. ocrilim is probably his best yet.

kayo dot -- epic, artsy, wide instrumentation and range of styles incorporated with purpose. usually slow, with a rich sense of harmony implying a jazz influence. intense crescendoes. see also toby driver's solo album.

thought industry -- haven't heard much, and i don't like it all, but this hectic eclectic band sometimes hits upon brilliance. "michigan jesus" and "build a better bulldozer" are fantastic tracks from the kind of great "assasins, toads..." album.


and in the arguably cheesy, radio-friendly but good department:

coinmonster -- if you like faith no more and primus (and i admit that's a big if) then this band has a lot to offer.

the postal syndrome -- radio metal but better. proggy, catchy, 3 guitarists who all sing, harmonies are actually in tune.

Anyone care for a sidetrack into '70s hard rock?

Start with the first Montrose LP. Really.

Go for early Black Sabbath if you are looking for vintage heavy metal.

You will quickly see just how many bands they have helped inspire over the decades.....

Kreator - Violent Revolution
Kreator - Enemy of God
Slayer - South of Heaven