I think metal's really coming back, quality-wise, the death metal scene especially. More bands are willing to experiment, even if it's just to stick out. I just picked up a couple of albums by Necrophagist, and the new Nile. It's amazing. Nasum's Grind Finale's worth it, too.

(Whoops, I referred to the wrong thread, it's here.) That article on the first page is really a piece of smoldering shit, if it's not at all ironic. The perception of metal really takes a hit when dickheads equate the music to the more rabid fans, i.e. drunken bikers, and mall-goths.

I'm a big fan of this fellow, who has some sort of French black metal background. I wouldn't call it metal, but it is pretty fantastic stuff.

That first Emperor album is great!

I've been listening to Gorgoroth - Antichrist alot lately.



Also, I've been into Urfyr. I know almost nothing about this band, except that he is from the Midwest USA. Very noisy black metal.

press release from Skullfucking Tapes:

Urfyr - s/t c40
Wormsblood mainman Wyrdskull churns out sick solo ritual workings,
resulting in 40 minutes of mind numbing chaos and blackened force.
Seemlessly crossing from depressive mid-tempo brutality down into
sinking black Doom, with a hynotic and uncompromising approach that
lands Urfyr somewhere between Brainbombs and Beherit.

There's a lot of interesting stuff happening down south metal-wise.

There's been much discussion here of my friends in Weedeater, not least because they just made a rekkid at Electical.

Also, brother-band to my own, Zoroaster. Pardon me if I seem to some of you to be repeating myself, but Zoroaster is some seriously dark, psychedelic metal. Not psychedelic like " Wow, man... Jerry and Phil are really locking in at the RFK show from 1990," but psychedelic like "OHMYFUCKINGGOD...WHY IS EVERYTHING MOVING SO SLOOOOWWWWWWLLLLY...???? My head is a parking meter!! ARGH!!" sort of psychedelic.

i humbly submit my own band, Music Hates You as a band struggling to find the three way intersection between Black Sabbath, Black Flag and Big Black. (And Blackfoot.)

Tonight we're playing with the EXCELLENT band Torche in Atlanta at Lenny's.

Also, I really like Black Cobra. Not Southern, but they've been hitting this region pretty hard lately, and every time I see them I get excited about them all over again.

OH! And Hope and Suicide and Stinking Lizaveta. Also not Southern, but fuck, what a band...

I could go on... but I think that's a nice cross-section of what's going on with bands who are coming through/from the South right now.

::Edit:: Shit, I forgot Black Tusk, Withered and The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.

I agree with all of the above. And I didn't know about The Grasshopper Lies Heavy or Music Hates You, so I learned something too!

Municipal Waste throw down some outstanding, old-school thrash.

Check out this crazy Finnish band. Up-tempo metal plus some folk instrumentation and both Finnish and English vocals.
Korpiklaani - "Beer Beer"

And I'd be remiss if I didn't spam for my buddies in Alabama Thunderpussy. Their latest album, Open Fire, is their most straight-ahead metal effort yet and it's outstanding.

The drummer plays for a blistering instrumental group called Suzukiton that are also a good listen.

Valkyrie are a really engaging mix of power metal-style dual guitar with doom tempos and feel.

And I hope someone mentioned Keelhaul somewhere in this thread.

A friend of mine suggested a couple of records that blew my mind.

1. Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God - absolutely chilling and bleak. A masterpiece.

2. Agolloch - Ashes Against the Grain - much less "extreme" and more varied in emotions. Melodic and powerful. This one will stay in the cd player for a long time.

Other metal bands that deserve play...Mastadon, Enslaved, At the Gates, Prong, Meshuggah and Celtic Frost.

I don't know exactly how to classify them other than heavy, but Torche' are really good, too.

Grasshopper Lies Heavy is fucking incredible. They alternate between these sound sculpture ambient drone things which are surprisingly entertaining, and the cough-syrup metal, which makes me very happy.

Music Hates You ... I don't think we've made our best recording yet. We're retracking our first album and fixing some things, remixing some stuff and adding some tracks and Zoroaster's label Terminal Doom is re-releasing it. It's going to be distributed by Battle Kommand/Southern Lord. This makes me very happy. I hope we can finally make the record we have in us. Half the band has red light fever pretty bad. You put the machines in record mode and they freeze. Kind of sucks.

The live show, though. Oh, hell yeah. Come see us.

Shit! Forgot about Skeletonwitch! Devastating live act.

Pig Destroyer. And, uh... Pig Destroyer.

I was listening to Monotheist by Celtic Frost on the train today. Not Crap.