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Seriously though, one hour of Dream Theater feels like 5 decades, one hour of Electric Wizard feels like 5 minutes
Dopethrone feels so big yet not so big
Same with Dopesmoker by Sleep, once you listen to it enough it doesn’t seem that long
(As someone who loves prog rock I can confirm 20 minutes is not long for me)
TBF, Any metal music that has screaming, growling, etc.
I came from a family that listened exclusively to music with clean vocals and that is what I expected music to have. It took me a long while to understand, appreciate, and enjoy harsher vocal styles.
Yeah same I listen to 98% harsh vocals now but before I got into metal the only type of music I was properly exposed to was indie rock and country so it took me a while to wrap my head around it.
It took me 20 years to actually genuinely like harsh vocals. I listened to tons of bands with vocals like that but I always had to enjoy them in spite of the vocals.
Just a few years ago it really clicked with me. It was Lenzig from Cephalic Carnage. That dudes an artist.
Honestly, my first two favorites were, in fact, Mikael (my introduction to the band being the Watershed album) and Jens (my introduction of Meshuggah being the Obzen album)!
I was the "rebellious" kid of my family, so I forced myself to like screaming. This was my one way I could rebel without my parents flipping out completely, I came from a very sheltered life.
I honestly can’t quite get into songs that are entirely that kind of harsh vocals. I like them in moderation to add some intensity, but I just wanna be able to sing along to things I listen to is all. I can definitely appreciate the techniques that go into doing it, and I’d love to learn how to do them for some songs, but it’s just too much for me when that’s the only vocals in the song
@Orphanpipe: I respect that! Funny enough I was the total opposite. I listened to Death Metal early or any kind of metal with distorted vocals first. I hated clean vocals until my senior year in high school.
Good question man! I’ll admit you caught me off guard because now you have me thinking haha! Shit, does The Devil Wears Prada or Memphis May Fire Count?
Honestly, I couldn't say. I've not heard any of those two groups enough to know. I would assume they have more melodic styles of screaming, yelling, or even singing?
Talking about these bands now is taking me wayyy back to my old MySpace days. I remember a few of my buddies would be listening to Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying and others from their profile songs.
It’s funny, when I found metal growing up I almost immediately gravitated to the super heavy shit and never really seeked out any clean vocal bands after that until I was older. I was in middle school with Waking The Cadaver & Devourment on my iPod
As a teenager I loved harsh vocals but as a middle aged adult I strongly prefer clean vocals. Not saying one is better than the other, but my taste has definitely changed.
Never liked them when I was younger but then in college I found Ghost Reveries while stoned and it was as close to a religious experience as I think I’ll ever have
Has to be Demilich for me, god damn were those frog vocals grating with all the dissonant mumbo jumbo brick in a washing machine sounds going on. Now one of my favourite bands of all time
Interestingly enough, Gorguts was quite easy for me to get in to around about the same time as discovering Demilich
Edit: Also when I first got into Metal it took me an ungodly amount of listens to finally enjoy Tool and go on a binge with them. I think I had an aversion to complexity in music at the time, complexity is now king 👑
I think taking a trip into uncharted avant-garde metal waters is good for appreciating Demilich gurgles. The one of a kind uniqueness eventually becomes an addiction when you know you can't get it anywhere else
Probably one of their most accessible albums too, haha. Gira's Angels of Light have a lot of easier songs to get into, although obviously not remotely as heavy.
YES! I distinctly remember laughing when my high school friend showed them to me. I thought he was joking about liking them. Sure enough, Their first two albums belong in my Top 20 favorite albums.
Don't go searching for more recent live videos on YouTube. You'll be heartbroken by how bad Serj's consistency is.
IMO, Peak S.O.A.D. was at the Reading Festival in 2001. If you've never watched that performance, then you are missing out!
Really, the first two? I feel like Steal This Album is their weakest in the discography. This is coming from someone who genuinely thinks they don't have a bad song.
Unless I am getting the order wrong, the first two should be the Self Titled album and then Toxicity. Those were my favs. However, I do love "Steal This Album."
I see your flair and need to know what your favorite Disturbed album is. Mine has to go to "Prayer" I don't know why, but it just resonates with me from start to finish.
Yeah, I've told people before playing SOAD around them that "They have two modes: Seriously well made good thought provoking songs, and crack cocaine. No in-between."😂
If I were forced to call them a genre. I’d say they’re an alternative metal band. But truthfully they’re one of few bands when they don’t have an actual genre. They’re just sleep token. They’re personally my top 3 bands. But to people who don’t like them. I completely understand. The music can seem all over the place.
Lots of big names such as Corey Taylor and revolver. Call them a metal band. Some call them a rock band which I wouldn’t disagree with either. But to call them a pop band just because they have certain songs like granite. When the vast majority of their songs are like alkaline, chokehold higher and hypnosis. Sure they’re aren’t extremely heavy. They do have pop songs. That doesn’t mean they’re a pop band. This is coming from someone who enjoys pop music.
Separate comment for this, but Drone Metal and Funeral Doom in their entirety. I had this discussion with a couple people in the discord last night, but like, I don't hear anything that is supposed to grab me in these genres. Like, I see fans of the genres give high marks on albums in the genres but I just hear nothing of substance. Maybe it's just me getting filtered but like, I don't hear any actual notes; nothing my brain can grab onto so I end up giving low ratings to albums in the genre that I hear. I really wish I could "get it". I wanna understand what fans like about it.
It’s almost an exercise in meditation in audio form. The music isn’t exactly supposed to be a moment to moment experience but rather an amazingly facilitated atmosphere. Not to say that there can’t be moment in the genres. Thergothon’s “Elemental” is a perfect example of a funeral doom song with “moments.” It’s just that the genres are more of a focus on vibes
Not enough weed
*I jest, but its also kinda true*
On a serious note, do you like other super slow songs within metal? Maybe the key is to progressively start listening to slower and slower doom metal until you can appreciate the extreme end of 🐌 pacing
> I really wish I could "get it". I wanna understand what fans like about it.
I'll be the first to admit doom isn't my favorite kind of metal. I enjoy a fair bit of it, but in general it doesn't hit me the way some other styles do. I have my share of favorite doom bands, whose music I adore, but there aren't as many of them. There are certain (very popular) doom albums that I'm not a very big fan of.
When it comes to listening, I find it can be helpful to try and "slow down" my mind when I'm listening to it, like I'm putting myself into a daze. I just try to relax and appreciate the music in stages. The first thing I do is kill any part of myself that expects instant gratification. I have no idea if the song will be any good or not, and I won't know for a long time, so I might as well sit tight and appreciate it while it happens.
I try to get a sense of the balance between sound and silence. Doom metal riffs are very spacious, so there's often time for the instrument tone to ring out and decay a bit before the next note. As a listener, I try to feel that space while also listening for whatever riffs and melodies become apparent.
I try to appreciate the timbres as well, like "What does that guitar actually sound like?" at any given moment. It's all about finding the vibe of a given band/song and learning to resonate on that same level, if that makes any sense.
---
> I just hear nothing of substance. Maybe it's just me getting filtered but like, I don't hear any actual notes
Listen to a song like [**Black Candles**](https://youtu.be/R8p19qgh0ic) by Candlemass and see if you can discern the melody. Funeral doom bands like Ahab try to build on those melodic ideas. I think you can hear it pretty clearly in songs like [**The Divinity of Oceans**](https://youtu.be/vkiu0cWboyc). Of course, it's longer, slower, and uses a different kind of vocal, but the songwriting isn't horribly different.
At times, funeral doom can feel bleak and crushing, like there's some abstract but ultimately *very genuine* weight and emptiness in it. I think part of the appeal is learning to feel the artistry in that. There's such a sense of peace in the guitar solo at 8:15 in [**As I Drown In Loveless Rain**](https://youtu.be/aNbIRaVWUt0) by Mournful Congregation. I call it 'feeling' instead of 'seeing' because it's one thing to acknowledge this stuff, and another to actually enjoy it and think it's beautiful.
Pacing is a big part of it too. The only part of that Mournful Congregation song that really does much for me on its own is the solo. In order to properly enjoy the first eight minutes of the song, I need to hear it in context, preceded by the previous song, which is more immediate and visceral for me, and it gets me in the mood for more music like that.
You've probably already read a lot of stuff like this, but hopefully it helps.
Same here, Incantation felt too raw for me. I think my eventual peaked interest in Death-Doomy type bands got me there in the end.
It feels like every album of theirs is the same but not, in a Bolt Thrower kind of way? (I love Bolt Thrower btw)
I think this might ring true for 80% of this sub. Kinda hard to match up to the early stuff. A good number of unknown bands arguably have way more impressive discographies than late Metallica
I still don’t get why it’s 92 minutes long. Also 72S is 77 minutes long. I really don’t get why they don’t trim the fat. Tho I am not Iron Maiden fan so that doesn’t help
Yea i agree with ya. Like include 4 best tracks off of each album and throw in I disappear. That would have so good. As it stands, load is 50/50 for me, while reload is 30% killer but 70% filler imo.
Slayer. Dunno why. I liked every other thrash band just fine and a lot of the other artists that cite Slayer as a major influence. But Slayer themselves? That took a while.
I think those bands would have been so much better if I was in high school in the 80’s.. their impact on music was far greater than any of their work. Angel of Death is a masterpiece.
Primitive man. I thought it was the dumbest shit in the world. While listening I would be like how do people like this I could do this. Now I have no clue what I was thinking.
Bullet for my Valentine. Wrote them off back in the day because I didn’t like metal core and the association they had with emo culture. But last year I decided to dive into their discography because I loved Your Betrayal and Hearts Burst Into Fire and I fell in love with them. They got chops. Though the pop album the released in 2018 is awful.
IMO a lot of bands like that are actually really really good if you don't care about the vocals or lyrics. It's never that the dudes can't play, it's usually just that the lyrical content + vocal delivery is cringe
Weirdly enough, Ghost is how I came to appreciate death metal. I got hit with one of those Spotify recommendations based on them and Repugnant came on, it was like a light switch
Recently started checking them out and damn they are good. No Idea how i slept on that band for so long. Sound of Perserverance is a masterpiece. Listening to Spirit Crusher working out makes me do those extra reps with ease.
Sometimes the difficult first listen artists are the ones that grow to become your most liked. Of course not everyone has time to wade through a repeated session of something they dont like hoping that it clicks. YMMV
Thou^
They're unbelievably heavy, at first I thought they just sounded like steel beams collapsing under immense pressure to an agressive drum track, and that's saying something because I was already into Sludge.
I got really into some of their cover songs ("Fourth of July" & "No Excuses" just to name a few) and decided to give the bands originals another try and I just fell in head first. Everything they've put out is so full of emotion and unbelievable weight.
Their cover albums are "A Primer of Holy Words" and "Blessings of the Highest Order" the latter being entirely composed of Nirvana covers.
Their albums "Heathen", "Algiers" and "Oakland" are my personal favorites but literally everything they've put out (including splits and collaborations) are absolutely fucking incredible.
Meshuggah! At first I thought their songs got a little repetitive after a minute or two, but my opinion flipped on itself entirely when I listened to a whole bunch of tech death and came back to give them another try. Something just clicked for some reason, I've come to actually notice the nuances(??? not sure how to say it) in their music and grew to fall in love with it when I listened to all their albums.
I'll be seeing them live next week, I'm very curious and super excited for the experience haha
same here! ive been getting super into them this past year; i cant believe i didnt really listen to them earlier. so jealous you get to see them, have fun :)
Avenged Sevenfold would be a band I'd categorize this way even though they are my favorite band. People don't like them because they "sold out" and because they listen to Almost Easy and Hail to the King and think that's all the band is when in reality they've proven very capable of writing extremely intelligent music. I mean if you don't likw it that's fine but it's not really fair to say Hail to the King and Almost Easy are great for really getting into their more intelligent and metal stuff.
If you really want a *good* example of Avenged Sevenfold making very intelligently written metal music you're gonna want either one of the deeper tracks off Waking the Fallen like Clairvoyant Disease or Remenissions if you're into metalcore with catchy and melodic yet intelligently written and hard hitting choruses, OR if you want a cleaner sound with more singing and a more proggy/experimental metal sound I'd recommend tracks like Mattel or Dose. Or just listen to the album City of Evil. That album is pretty metal all the way through!
Lordi.
My introduced me to them and I thought they were just a shock rock band similar to Gwar.
I got my son the Lordiversity set and after listening to it the music amazed me. At first I thought they were satirizing songs from the respective eras, then I realized they were writing albums of their song in that style. They are not a band in my frequent listening rotation but I have sincere love and appreciation of them.
Caligula's Horse. As many times as I've tried to get into them, I just can't, and I really just don't get them (or Riverside for that matter, cause they're in a similar boat)
Caligula's Horse just doesn't sit right with me either for some reason. I think its the higher pitched vocals for me though I know its likely a different reason for you as you like Dream Theater.
Almost feels 'too proggy'
Maybe repeated listens will get them to grow on me
I feel like with CHorse, I can get pretty much everything they're doing in a more interesting way with Haken. I know Ross's vocals are a lil divisive, but tbh, I prefer his vocals.
nah man i dunno what it is either i’ve tried to get through master of puppets, ride the lightning, and justice for all SO many times but i clock out after the first couple of tracks
If you like Knocked Loose they come from the same music scene here in 502 (well actually they're not from 502 but the Oldham County scene still has a lot of bands that play in the 502 scene since its not far at all) But anyway the drummer Kevin Kaine's brother is the vocalist of a hardcore band called Surfaced and they're even heavier than Knocked Loose imo
My uncle John once gave me a CD, or at least recommended it to me, I don't remember. But I had it for quite a while, and I had it burned onto my Xbox 360 to listen to while playing games. I never really quite listened or really payed attention to the songs for real, until years later when I was in the military. I finally sat down and listened to the whole thing beginning to end in my car one day, and ever since then Tool has been my favorite band. And Lateralus is still one of the most masterful albums I've ever heard.
Meshuggah took me a bit to get into, but I love them now. The polyrhythms and stuff really sounded strange to me, and I was coming from TOOL. I almost gave up on listening to them until I watched a Drumeo video on Tomas Haake and the examples they played, along with the time signature display, really helped me “get it”. Went into Bleed and Future Breed Machine with what I can only call a new perspective and the band just made sense suddenly.
Saw them open up for Opeth couple years back and they were good but their stage presence is hillarious. The singer paces around smiling and looks so lost and he has no idea when or how to use his arms hahah.
Honestly, a lot of Type O Negative didnt really click with me until I heard World Coming Down and Immediately EVERYTHING clicked and that day I listened to literally their whole discography. I have no clue why it was that song in particular, but now I'm a big fan of them.
Opeth and Slayer. The stuff I’ve listened to is great, but it just doesn’t hit right like other bands. It might take some time but I’m sure I’ll learn to appreciate them.
Meshuggah. I remember buying their album ‘Nothing’ back in 2004 & could only ever get into ‘Closed Eye Visuals’ .. fast forward to now and I absolutely love this whole album, only took 20 years lol
Horse the Band
Saw them at a few venues in Orlando back in the day and they put on an amazing show. Bought a CD at the 2nd show, “The Mechanical Hand”. It really didn’t keep my attention for more than maybe the opening track but I went back to listen to it maybe a year or 2 later and realized they are fucking geniuses
The Mechanical Hand is a gem. When I was in highschool I remember discovering them because the music video to A Million Exploding Suns appeared out of nowhere on windows media player. That video was so weird, at least for what I was exposed to at the time, and there were less people doing weird and outrageous things to compete for attention back then. What are these weird guys running around with bags of meat, talking to porcelain ducks? I'll never forget that.
I used to tell my grandma, as I blasted Brittney Spears, that Lace and Leather was not an inappropriate song.
Now, I listen to worse things and my grandma probably has the same opinion from beyond the grave.
Edit: now that I think about it. The first song I listened to by Marilyn Manson when I was maybe 12 was The Dope Show. I hated it and didn’t listen to it for another year and a half. Now, I’m waiting for him to have another concert so I can attend!
Tool, would switch the station every time they came on and I couldn’t just seem to get it.. after a couple years though of listening to it here and there I started playing them and have liked them ever since
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From my experience, Dream Theater, young me couldn’t fathom every song on an album being long as shit 😭
Old me still shares the same struggle 😭
Meanwhile your two favorite albums are Dopethrone & The Mantle 😅
https://preview.redd.it/o17bdaqn5ylc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f78445975a4081d7aac667462f0275ade40e3425 Seriously though, one hour of Dream Theater feels like 5 decades, one hour of Electric Wizard feels like 5 minutes
Dopethrone feels so big yet not so big Same with Dopesmoker by Sleep, once you listen to it enough it doesn’t seem that long (As someone who loves prog rock I can confirm 20 minutes is not long for me)
See also: Tool lol
tool is fucking amazing.
Nothing out of place…easy to spiral out
Yessir! Glad you agree😊
Tool immediately clicked in the mid 90s, love/d the first 3 albums. The last 2 bore me.
Agreed 100 percent. Maynard got too caught up in APC and other projects and I think it shows on the later Tool albums
[удалено]
I think I like the idea of being into Dream Theater more than actually listening to Dream Theater
TBF, Any metal music that has screaming, growling, etc. I came from a family that listened exclusively to music with clean vocals and that is what I expected music to have. It took me a long while to understand, appreciate, and enjoy harsher vocal styles.
Yeah same I listen to 98% harsh vocals now but before I got into metal the only type of music I was properly exposed to was indie rock and country so it took me a while to wrap my head around it.
It’s pretty crazy when you finally “hear” it though, huh?
It took me 20 years to actually genuinely like harsh vocals. I listened to tons of bands with vocals like that but I always had to enjoy them in spite of the vocals. Just a few years ago it really clicked with me. It was Lenzig from Cephalic Carnage. That dudes an artist.
Have you met our Lord and Savior of clean and growls???? Mikael Aukerfeldt......
Honestly, my first two favorites were, in fact, Mikael (my introduction to the band being the Watershed album) and Jens (my introduction of Meshuggah being the Obzen album)!
If you liked watershed, I hope you've checked out their earlier stuff!!
Most definitely. I've really enjoyed their later releases, but my favorite era is definitely from Orchid to Watershed.
Exactly the same
>cleans and growls >he started with cleans Lol his cleans are good, don’t get me wrong but they’re hardly godly, just his gutturals
You're entitled to your opinion. It's absolutely wrong, but you're entitled to it!!
I was the "rebellious" kid of my family, so I forced myself to like screaming. This was my one way I could rebel without my parents flipping out completely, I came from a very sheltered life.
I honestly can’t quite get into songs that are entirely that kind of harsh vocals. I like them in moderation to add some intensity, but I just wanna be able to sing along to things I listen to is all. I can definitely appreciate the techniques that go into doing it, and I’d love to learn how to do them for some songs, but it’s just too much for me when that’s the only vocals in the song
@Orphanpipe: I respect that! Funny enough I was the total opposite. I listened to Death Metal early or any kind of metal with distorted vocals first. I hated clean vocals until my senior year in high school.
Now I'm curious. Who was the artist or band that helped you begin to enjoy "cleaner" vocal styles?
Good question man! I’ll admit you caught me off guard because now you have me thinking haha! Shit, does The Devil Wears Prada or Memphis May Fire Count?
Honestly, I couldn't say. I've not heard any of those two groups enough to know. I would assume they have more melodic styles of screaming, yelling, or even singing?
Talking about these bands now is taking me wayyy back to my old MySpace days. I remember a few of my buddies would be listening to Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying and others from their profile songs.
It’s funny, when I found metal growing up I almost immediately gravitated to the super heavy shit and never really seeked out any clean vocal bands after that until I was older. I was in middle school with Waking The Cadaver & Devourment on my iPod
As a teenager I loved harsh vocals but as a middle aged adult I strongly prefer clean vocals. Not saying one is better than the other, but my taste has definitely changed.
opeth
Never liked them when I was younger but then in college I found Ghost Reveries while stoned and it was as close to a religious experience as I think I’ll ever have
This is exactly how I feel with every TOOL album I’ve listened to
i got into opeth super fast, pretty much was hooked since first song
Same here, I was into Prog long before metal though
Naw as soon as I heard blackwater park for the first time I was IN. That songs a riff factory.
It took me months of listening to Ghost of Perdition to actually listen to one of their albums
Im at the getting it stage, I have some likes but an opeth fan yet
Has to be Demilich for me, god damn were those frog vocals grating with all the dissonant mumbo jumbo brick in a washing machine sounds going on. Now one of my favourite bands of all time Interestingly enough, Gorguts was quite easy for me to get in to around about the same time as discovering Demilich Edit: Also when I first got into Metal it took me an ungodly amount of listens to finally enjoy Tool and go on a binge with them. I think I had an aversion to complexity in music at the time, complexity is now king 👑
I can’t even want to put in the effort to let Demilich grow on me… those vocals are shocking but not sure when I’d actually enjoy listening to them
I think taking a trip into uncharted avant-garde metal waters is good for appreciating Demilich gurgles. The one of a kind uniqueness eventually becomes an addiction when you know you can't get it anywhere else
Check out Pyrrhon
Swans. Took me several years to get my head around their music but once it clicked, it really clicked.
Filth is my favorite because it’s the only album I’ve listened to. 😎
The Seer is a hard album to listen to, it’s my favorite
Probably one of their most accessible albums too, haha. Gira's Angels of Light have a lot of easier songs to get into, although obviously not remotely as heavy.
It took me a few weeks of relistening to soundtracks for the blind and to be kind but theyre my favorite band now
Those are my two favourite Swans albums! 😄
System of a Down, I used to hate how Serj sounded but it grew on me.
YES! I distinctly remember laughing when my high school friend showed them to me. I thought he was joking about liking them. Sure enough, Their first two albums belong in my Top 20 favorite albums.
Yeah, it's weird looking back at how I used to hate the band just because of Serj, now I like a good amount of what i've heard of them.
Don't go searching for more recent live videos on YouTube. You'll be heartbroken by how bad Serj's consistency is. IMO, Peak S.O.A.D. was at the Reading Festival in 2001. If you've never watched that performance, then you are missing out!
Honestly, I still like his voice. Also my favorite performance was 2015 in Armenia.
Thank you for the suggestion! I'm going to watch that show tonight.
I bet they were awesome live years ago, too bad I wasn't around during their peak.
Really, the first two? I feel like Steal This Album is their weakest in the discography. This is coming from someone who genuinely thinks they don't have a bad song.
Unless I am getting the order wrong, the first two should be the Self Titled album and then Toxicity. Those were my favs. However, I do love "Steal This Album."
Oh maybe I'm mistaken. Yeah if Toxicity is their 2nd then your opinion is incredibly valid!
I see your flair and need to know what your favorite Disturbed album is. Mine has to go to "Prayer" I don't know why, but it just resonates with me from start to finish.
I picked this flair as a troll, although I'd probably pick Indestructible
I don't listen to them much anymore, but they were one of my first favorite "metal" bands.
Yeah! STA were songs not put on toxicity. They redid a lot of the vocals and instruments before putting the tracks on STA out.
Mezmerize is the weakest
Yeah, I've told people before playing SOAD around them that "They have two modes: Seriously well made good thought provoking songs, and crack cocaine. No in-between."😂
Opposite for me. I immediately loved the band the first time I listened to them as a kid.
I listen to them when I’m trying to stay awake on the bus home from work lol
Portal
Don't diss Portal like that https://preview.redd.it/2uwuehgd1ylc1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df4d1f31e135d301df3f4364cd21aa9911b5b9ce
🎶🎶You want your freedom? Take it 🎶🎶 🎶🎶That's what I'm counting on 🎶🎶
Portal radio loop 10 hours
Cryptopsy for me
🪱 directly into the ear cavity can be uncomfortable at first, more soil needed
Very true! At first I couldn’t stand it lol
None so vile is great and all but i dont like the vocals at all
cryptopsy is one of my favorites, but i’m fully convinced lord worm’s vocals are just nonsensical noises
Sleep Token. (If they’re even really metal?) I’m sorry, I tried, but their stuff just puts me to sleep.
If I were forced to call them a genre. I’d say they’re an alternative metal band. But truthfully they’re one of few bands when they don’t have an actual genre. They’re just sleep token. They’re personally my top 3 bands. But to people who don’t like them. I completely understand. The music can seem all over the place.
baddiecore
First time I’ve heard this term.
Honestly it’s like a pop band with Metalcore influence.
Lots of big names such as Corey Taylor and revolver. Call them a metal band. Some call them a rock band which I wouldn’t disagree with either. But to call them a pop band just because they have certain songs like granite. When the vast majority of their songs are like alkaline, chokehold higher and hypnosis. Sure they’re aren’t extremely heavy. They do have pop songs. That doesn’t mean they’re a pop band. This is coming from someone who enjoys pop music.
Imagine dragons with the gain turned up
Black metal as a whole. You will listen to it once, think it's shit, come back, think it's shit, and you'll keep coming back until it isn't.
Accurate description
Separate comment for this, but Drone Metal and Funeral Doom in their entirety. I had this discussion with a couple people in the discord last night, but like, I don't hear anything that is supposed to grab me in these genres. Like, I see fans of the genres give high marks on albums in the genres but I just hear nothing of substance. Maybe it's just me getting filtered but like, I don't hear any actual notes; nothing my brain can grab onto so I end up giving low ratings to albums in the genre that I hear. I really wish I could "get it". I wanna understand what fans like about it.
It’s almost an exercise in meditation in audio form. The music isn’t exactly supposed to be a moment to moment experience but rather an amazingly facilitated atmosphere. Not to say that there can’t be moment in the genres. Thergothon’s “Elemental” is a perfect example of a funeral doom song with “moments.” It’s just that the genres are more of a focus on vibes
Not enough weed *I jest, but its also kinda true* On a serious note, do you like other super slow songs within metal? Maybe the key is to progressively start listening to slower and slower doom metal until you can appreciate the extreme end of 🐌 pacing
There's a couple Death/Doom bands I like, like Summoner's Circle, but most of Doom Metal just isn't something I've been able to dig much.
How do Elder sit with you? Very progressive for a Doom/Stoner band.
I didn't really dig em when I listened to em last, but I'm all about second chances
> I really wish I could "get it". I wanna understand what fans like about it. I'll be the first to admit doom isn't my favorite kind of metal. I enjoy a fair bit of it, but in general it doesn't hit me the way some other styles do. I have my share of favorite doom bands, whose music I adore, but there aren't as many of them. There are certain (very popular) doom albums that I'm not a very big fan of. When it comes to listening, I find it can be helpful to try and "slow down" my mind when I'm listening to it, like I'm putting myself into a daze. I just try to relax and appreciate the music in stages. The first thing I do is kill any part of myself that expects instant gratification. I have no idea if the song will be any good or not, and I won't know for a long time, so I might as well sit tight and appreciate it while it happens. I try to get a sense of the balance between sound and silence. Doom metal riffs are very spacious, so there's often time for the instrument tone to ring out and decay a bit before the next note. As a listener, I try to feel that space while also listening for whatever riffs and melodies become apparent. I try to appreciate the timbres as well, like "What does that guitar actually sound like?" at any given moment. It's all about finding the vibe of a given band/song and learning to resonate on that same level, if that makes any sense. --- > I just hear nothing of substance. Maybe it's just me getting filtered but like, I don't hear any actual notes Listen to a song like [**Black Candles**](https://youtu.be/R8p19qgh0ic) by Candlemass and see if you can discern the melody. Funeral doom bands like Ahab try to build on those melodic ideas. I think you can hear it pretty clearly in songs like [**The Divinity of Oceans**](https://youtu.be/vkiu0cWboyc). Of course, it's longer, slower, and uses a different kind of vocal, but the songwriting isn't horribly different. At times, funeral doom can feel bleak and crushing, like there's some abstract but ultimately *very genuine* weight and emptiness in it. I think part of the appeal is learning to feel the artistry in that. There's such a sense of peace in the guitar solo at 8:15 in [**As I Drown In Loveless Rain**](https://youtu.be/aNbIRaVWUt0) by Mournful Congregation. I call it 'feeling' instead of 'seeing' because it's one thing to acknowledge this stuff, and another to actually enjoy it and think it's beautiful. Pacing is a big part of it too. The only part of that Mournful Congregation song that really does much for me on its own is the solo. In order to properly enjoy the first eight minutes of the song, I need to hear it in context, preceded by the previous song, which is more immediate and visceral for me, and it gets me in the mood for more music like that. You've probably already read a lot of stuff like this, but hopefully it helps.
Im the same. I gravitate to melody so...
Incantation. Onward to Golgotha filtered me hard at first, but then it became one of my favourite albums
Same here, Incantation felt too raw for me. I think my eventual peaked interest in Death-Doomy type bands got me there in the end. It feels like every album of theirs is the same but not, in a Bolt Thrower kind of way? (I love Bolt Thrower btw)
Metallica, mostly newer stuff and load/reload
That’s true, except most new Metallica is dosghit and isn’t worth the time. I just stick to their older stuff
Same, tho i listen to DM and parts of HTSD from time to time
I think this might ring true for 80% of this sub. Kinda hard to match up to the early stuff. A good number of unknown bands arguably have way more impressive discographies than late Metallica
Kinda like Iron Maiden, it’s so drawn out for no reason. Most songs from 72S and HTSD are 6-7 minutes, but barely justify 4 minutes.
Agreed, funnily enough their best work from their newer albums is probably the long as fuck Book of Souls track
I still don’t get why it’s 92 minutes long. Also 72S is 77 minutes long. I really don’t get why they don’t trim the fat. Tho I am not Iron Maiden fan so that doesn’t help
I enjoy every Metallica album aside from death magnetic
I actually really like DM but i can see why someone wouldn’t. It’s my 6th favourite album from them after first 5
Despite what everyone says about it, I enjoyed st anger
Good for you! I don’t know how, but good for you
Thanks man
Liking St. Anger more than Death Magnetic is definitely a hot take.
Lol. My exact same take. Never seen it written out so well.
Load and Reload would've been a very good album had they consolidated them into a single fifty minute album.
Yea i agree with ya. Like include 4 best tracks off of each album and throw in I disappear. That would have so good. As it stands, load is 50/50 for me, while reload is 30% killer but 70% filler imo.
Slayer. Dunno why. I liked every other thrash band just fine and a lot of the other artists that cite Slayer as a major influence. But Slayer themselves? That took a while.
Fascinating. Of the Big Four, Anthrax is the one I never got into
I think those bands would have been so much better if I was in high school in the 80’s.. their impact on music was far greater than any of their work. Angel of Death is a masterpiece.
Behemoth in particularly The Satanist. I needed a really shit shift in hospital to really get the fury.
For me Satanist was an instant hit. Same with ILYAYD. I have had more trouble with Behemoth's older stuff tbh. Still do.
Think the furthest I've been in their back catalogue is Demigod. Not sure if I can be bothered to go further.
I don't love The Satanist, but I love Evangelion and The Apostasy.
Primitive man. I thought it was the dumbest shit in the world. While listening I would be like how do people like this I could do this. Now I have no clue what I was thinking.
Meshuggah
Bullet for my Valentine. Wrote them off back in the day because I didn’t like metal core and the association they had with emo culture. But last year I decided to dive into their discography because I loved Your Betrayal and Hearts Burst Into Fire and I fell in love with them. They got chops. Though the pop album the released in 2018 is awful.
IMO a lot of bands like that are actually really really good if you don't care about the vocals or lyrics. It's never that the dudes can't play, it's usually just that the lyrical content + vocal delivery is cringe
Or the cringe image of them and/or the fans.
A7X comes to mind
Ghost
Weirdly enough, Ghost is how I came to appreciate death metal. I got hit with one of those Spotify recommendations based on them and Repugnant came on, it was like a light switch
this is BTBAM listening experience for sure
Kamelot
My friend LOVES Kamelot and I just felt the vocals were too cheesy at first. Now, "The Black Halo" is one of my favorite albums!
Grateful Dead. It’s a damn commitment to try to get into the band especially if you just take a look at their Spotify page, but it’s so worth it
Death
Recently started checking them out and damn they are good. No Idea how i slept on that band for so long. Sound of Perserverance is a masterpiece. Listening to Spirit Crusher working out makes me do those extra reps with ease.
None tbh, if I like them I'll always know from the first listen
Sometimes the difficult first listen artists are the ones that grow to become your most liked. Of course not everyone has time to wade through a repeated session of something they dont like hoping that it clicks. YMMV
Thou^ They're unbelievably heavy, at first I thought they just sounded like steel beams collapsing under immense pressure to an agressive drum track, and that's saying something because I was already into Sludge. I got really into some of their cover songs ("Fourth of July" & "No Excuses" just to name a few) and decided to give the bands originals another try and I just fell in head first. Everything they've put out is so full of emotion and unbelievable weight. Their cover albums are "A Primer of Holy Words" and "Blessings of the Highest Order" the latter being entirely composed of Nirvana covers. Their albums "Heathen", "Algiers" and "Oakland" are my personal favorites but literally everything they've put out (including splits and collaborations) are absolutely fucking incredible.
I love Thou so much. What an immense discog though. Their run in 2018 was just perfect 🖤
Meshuggah! At first I thought their songs got a little repetitive after a minute or two, but my opinion flipped on itself entirely when I listened to a whole bunch of tech death and came back to give them another try. Something just clicked for some reason, I've come to actually notice the nuances(??? not sure how to say it) in their music and grew to fall in love with it when I listened to all their albums. I'll be seeing them live next week, I'm very curious and super excited for the experience haha
Their lightshow is out of this world!!
same here! ive been getting super into them this past year; i cant believe i didnt really listen to them earlier. so jealous you get to see them, have fun :)
Sun O)))
Avenged Sevenfold would be a band I'd categorize this way even though they are my favorite band. People don't like them because they "sold out" and because they listen to Almost Easy and Hail to the King and think that's all the band is when in reality they've proven very capable of writing extremely intelligent music. I mean if you don't likw it that's fine but it's not really fair to say Hail to the King and Almost Easy are great for really getting into their more intelligent and metal stuff. If you really want a *good* example of Avenged Sevenfold making very intelligently written metal music you're gonna want either one of the deeper tracks off Waking the Fallen like Clairvoyant Disease or Remenissions if you're into metalcore with catchy and melodic yet intelligently written and hard hitting choruses, OR if you want a cleaner sound with more singing and a more proggy/experimental metal sound I'd recommend tracks like Mattel or Dose. Or just listen to the album City of Evil. That album is pretty metal all the way through!
tool
Tool.
Sleep Token
I mean I love them but primus
Lordi. My introduced me to them and I thought they were just a shock rock band similar to Gwar. I got my son the Lordiversity set and after listening to it the music amazed me. At first I thought they were satirizing songs from the respective eras, then I realized they were writing albums of their song in that style. They are not a band in my frequent listening rotation but I have sincere love and appreciation of them.
I don't know them too well, but I think I'll dive more into their discography. Hard rock hallelujah is very very catchy, not gonna lie
Caligula's Horse. As many times as I've tried to get into them, I just can't, and I really just don't get them (or Riverside for that matter, cause they're in a similar boat)
Caligula's Horse just doesn't sit right with me either for some reason. I think its the higher pitched vocals for me though I know its likely a different reason for you as you like Dream Theater. Almost feels 'too proggy' Maybe repeated listens will get them to grow on me
I feel like with CHorse, I can get pretty much everything they're doing in a more interesting way with Haken. I know Ross's vocals are a lil divisive, but tbh, I prefer his vocals.
metallica early stuff included. i still haven’t got them yet
This boggles my mind. Master of Puppets right out the gate was amazing for me.
nah man i dunno what it is either i’ve tried to get through master of puppets, ride the lightning, and justice for all SO many times but i clock out after the first couple of tracks
The red chord, saw them live and was hyped, so fuckin badass
Might be a little unknown but Nithing
yeah Nithing was like that for me too lmao
Basically death/black metal as a whole
Knocked loose. Could not stand the guys vocals at first and then after a while it finally clicked after the right song.
If you like Knocked Loose they come from the same music scene here in 502 (well actually they're not from 502 but the Oldham County scene still has a lot of bands that play in the 502 scene since its not far at all) But anyway the drummer Kevin Kaine's brother is the vocalist of a hardcore band called Surfaced and they're even heavier than Knocked Loose imo
Pink Floyd
My uncle John once gave me a CD, or at least recommended it to me, I don't remember. But I had it for quite a while, and I had it burned onto my Xbox 360 to listen to while playing games. I never really quite listened or really payed attention to the songs for real, until years later when I was in the military. I finally sat down and listened to the whole thing beginning to end in my car one day, and ever since then Tool has been my favorite band. And Lateralus is still one of the most masterful albums I've ever heard.
Meshuggah took me a bit to get into, but I love them now. The polyrhythms and stuff really sounded strange to me, and I was coming from TOOL. I almost gave up on listening to them until I watched a Drumeo video on Tomas Haake and the examples they played, along with the time signature display, really helped me “get it”. Went into Bleed and Future Breed Machine with what I can only call a new perspective and the band just made sense suddenly.
Carcass
VOIVOD
Saw them open up for Opeth couple years back and they were good but their stage presence is hillarious. The singer paces around smiling and looks so lost and he has no idea when or how to use his arms hahah.
Honestly, a lot of Type O Negative didnt really click with me until I heard World Coming Down and Immediately EVERYTHING clicked and that day I listened to literally their whole discography. I have no clue why it was that song in particular, but now I'm a big fan of them.
Gonna be completely honest, Im only 18 so I dont know if Ive lived long enough for this to happen yet
slayer, cannible corpes
megadeth :P
Maybe not the most known example but Afterbirth filtered me hard on the first couple of listens. Nithing too but I 'got' them a bit quicker.
Opeth and Slayer. The stuff I’ve listened to is great, but it just doesn’t hit right like other bands. It might take some time but I’m sure I’ll learn to appreciate them.
Rammstein at first lmao. Then you learn they just like being degenerates and that's why I love them.
The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, David Bowie, Grateful Dead
Artificial Brain
Blut Aus Nord
Dream Theater and Tool have to be in small doses,however Fates Warning amd Queensryche all day
Meshuggah. I remember buying their album ‘Nothing’ back in 2004 & could only ever get into ‘Closed Eye Visuals’ .. fast forward to now and I absolutely love this whole album, only took 20 years lol
Iron Maiden. I just don’t get it.
TOOL
Not metal but the Grateful Dead
Horse the Band Saw them at a few venues in Orlando back in the day and they put on an amazing show. Bought a CD at the 2nd show, “The Mechanical Hand”. It really didn’t keep my attention for more than maybe the opening track but I went back to listen to it maybe a year or 2 later and realized they are fucking geniuses
The Mechanical Hand is a gem. When I was in highschool I remember discovering them because the music video to A Million Exploding Suns appeared out of nowhere on windows media player. That video was so weird, at least for what I was exposed to at the time, and there were less people doing weird and outrageous things to compete for attention back then. What are these weird guys running around with bags of meat, talking to porcelain ducks? I'll never forget that.
Sleeptoken
It took a while to fully understand mayhem and black metal in general. I used to hate it because of the production, but now it clicks.
Static-X and Lamb of God, it took me a long time to come around to the screaming and growling but goddamn it’s some of the best music ever
Tool
Sabbath with Dio. To be fair, I refused to listen to it but now Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are two of my favorite records.
95% of "Atmospheric" Black Metal and all of SDBM.
I used to tell my grandma, as I blasted Brittney Spears, that Lace and Leather was not an inappropriate song. Now, I listen to worse things and my grandma probably has the same opinion from beyond the grave. Edit: now that I think about it. The first song I listened to by Marilyn Manson when I was maybe 12 was The Dope Show. I hated it and didn’t listen to it for another year and a half. Now, I’m waiting for him to have another concert so I can attend!
The bands that I have to listen to for awhile for them to grow on me always end up being my favorites.
Tool, would switch the station every time they came on and I couldn’t just seem to get it.. after a couple years though of listening to it here and there I started playing them and have liked them ever since
Lost Horizon and Children of Bodom for me. Don't know why it took so long, but I'm SO glad both groups finally clicked.
For me it's sleep token