Darkest Desires

[en480c4]

I don't know who here's into Doom and Funeral Doom, but I just came across Remembrance's Silencing the Moments and am liking it quite a bit. It's slooooow, atmospheric and heavy, and quite interesting.

[Dusty Chalk]

Definitely.

[atothex]

A couple random thoughts on stuff I've been listening to:

Decapitated's Nihility album is just OK. Spheres of Madness has a killer groove and is totally single-worthy, but the rest of the album is fairly boring to me. I put it around the same level as a Necrophagist album. I love the concept of tech death, but only one band has really done it for me: Quo Vadis. I guess the practitioners of this genre mostly aren't blessed with both chops AND songwriting ability. I need to listen to more Death; maybe I'll change my mind.

I gave Sunn O)))'s Monoliths and Dimensions a runthrough and thoroughly disliked it. Is the rest of their stuff like this? Elevator music is more exciting to me.

I'll probably just check out more melodeath, which is probably my go-to for "extreme" music. But honestly, it's not much different from radio-friendly metalcore. Not sure why melodeath doesn't get radio play...

[Dusty Chalk]

I love the concept of tech death, but only one band has really done it for me: Quo Vadis. I guess the practitioners of this genre mostly aren't blessed with both chops AND songwriting ability. I need to listen to more Death; maybe I'll change my mind.

Really? You mean, besides the first Cynic album, or don't you like that one? I'm with you on not finding enough of it that I like.

And yeah, if you find stuff you like, definitely post about it, because I have to admit, I've been going through longer and longer phases of not playing death entirely because of the vocals. I even got tired of Gojira, mostly because of the lyrics.

I should say, I really liked Aardvark Baguette's recommendation of Edge of Sanity. That was fun. It's appreciated that they threw in some keyboards in there.

I can't even think of anything else I listened to recently that's worthy of mention in this thread. I have been revisiting some older stuff: Therion, Sabbath (entire catalog, not just Ozzy and Dio stuff), Nightwish, Epica, Gathering, Swallow the Sun.

[atothex]

I gave Cynic's 1st album 1 runthrough a long time ago, but it's been a while. I'll give it a couple more chances, though, because they probably deserve it. They are a bit too oddball for my current tastes, but anything can happen with time. I did have their latest album in my playlist for a while, but I didn't love it.

[cetoole]

I love Edge of Sanity. Crimson II is my favorite, though I dont listen all that often due to length. As a normal album, I generally favor Purgatory Afterglow, though I love stuff off Spectral Sorrows and Infernal too. For just one fun song, its hard to beat Sacrificed for me. Heck, any Swano project is worthy. Moontower FTW! Also a huge fan of Nightingale.

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks for that, the only ones I've tried so far are Crimson and Crimson II.

atothex -- yeah, that's why I specified their first album. Their second I love, but for entirely different reasons (and out of nowhere -- synthpop!). It's not tech death.

And yeah, I understand "oddball" -- that's exactly what I love about it.

[kelvinz]

Anybody listen to Kamelot? I really liked "the black halo" album but haven't found too much like it other than older stuff like X-Japan.

[cetoole]

The Black Halo is worthy if for no other reason than the inclusion of Simone Simmons. I have probably been listening to as much Arch Enemy as anything lately, but playing some Katatonia right now at work.

[ecclesand]

I spent the day "working" while listening to Blind Guardian, Domina Noctis, The Birthday Massacre, and Amorphis. It was a good music day.

[aardvark baguette]

Thanks for that, the only ones I've tried so far are Crimson and Crimson II.

Same, though I didnt really get to hear the original Crimson properly, only amid frequent interruptions at the office.

The thing about CII that jumped out at me was how smooth everything was. I didnt get the feeling that I was listening to brickwalled guitars, and I almost never get that feeling when listening to death metal of any stripe.

Also dug the melodic aspect of it, I guess I just haven't heard much melodic death metal, which would account for how fresh this tasted.

The first comparison that I thought of was that Garden of Shadows you recommended a while back, so I figured you'd probably enjoy it as well.

----

I've been trying to expand my metal in recent weeks, it feels like I need more variety, having not listened to it much this past year or two.

Just recently I finally tracked down Crotchduster's Big Fat Box of Shit, which I have been wanting to hear for some time. Definitely heavy on the novelty aspects, but not at the expense of the music.

Its incredibly schizophrenic, genre-jumping stuff that I think would delight Mike Patton fans, and anyone with enough of a background in music to recognize all the constant parodies via song structure, lyrical content/context, and other things I've forgotten.

I've ordered Revolting's Dreadful Pleasures based off of some reviews, supposedly its pretty old school DM. Sound clips on Teufel's Tomb didn't offend, so I splurged. High hopes for that one.

[atothex]

I'm not sure if I mentioned them before, but one of my favorite melodeath bands that nobody talks about is Insomnium. I have no idea why they don't get that much love, but I've enjoyed their albums more than bigshots like At the Gates and Arch Enemy. They may be my favorite melodeath band, actually...

Other than that, I love me some good-time American hard rock. Not dark at all, but serious fun. Anybody else like Municipal Waste?

[xand1x]

I think Crimson II is the greatest album of all time..just too genius for words.

On that note some of my favorite metal (mainly metalcore):

Parkway Drive - Killing With a Smile

Edge of Sanity - Crimson II

Emmure - Goodbye to the Gallows

The Acacia Strain - 3750

Soilwork - Stabbing The Drama

Misery Signals - Controller

August Burns Red - Thrill Seeker

Bullet For My Valentine - The Poison

Caliban - The Awakening

As I Lay Dying - Frail Words Collapse

Opeth - Blackwater Park

In Flames - The Jester Race

Trivium - Ascendancy

Unearth - The March

Veil of Maya - The Common Man's Collapse

Edited July 13, 2009 by xand1x

[feckn_eejit]

Pass D1 - wicked fast deep tight bass with zero bloat or boom, probably killer for this genre

it's fucking mental for fast kick drum shit.

really the only reason i can't bring myself to part with it is its bass performance...

[xand1x]

Pass D1 - wicked fast deep tight bass with zero bloat or boom, probably killer for this genre

it's fucking mental for fast kick drum shit.

really the only reason i can't bring myself to part with it is its bass performance...

Well if you ever change your mind you know who to contact

[ecclesand]

I'm not sure if I mentioned them before, but one of my favorite melodeath bands that nobody talks about is Insomnium. I have no idea why they don't get that much love, but I've enjoyed their albums more than bigshots like At the Gates and Arch Enemy. They may be my favorite melodeath band, actually...

Other than that, I love me some good-time American hard rock. Not dark at all, but serious fun. Anybody else like Municipal Waste?

I have Insomnium's Above The Weeping World album and really like it. I wish it had been produced a bit better because musically, it kicks ass.

[aardvark baguette]

[atothex]

On my current playlist:

[stymie miasma]

A few cool "dark" albums I've had on high rotation lately:

Earth "Hex, Or printing in the infernal method"

Earth " The bees made honey in the lion's skull"

Bohren und der Club of Gore "Black Earth"

These are very very mellow records, so it might be best to try before you buy!

[mypasswordis]

I've been starting my foray into darker stuff, mainly metal, with Gojira and Meshuggah. Anything along those lines you guys recommend? I like the math aspect of Meshuggah and the groove aspect of Gojira, and enjoy it the most when there are minimal vocals because I don't really like the growling and grunting and whatnot. My mind was pretty much blown away by Terra Incognita, especially Satan Is A Lawyer, which is kind of like a mix between Modest Mouse and Nirvana and... metal. Or something, not sure how to describe it. I like Love a lot, too.

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, if you want to check out technical metal, the blueprint was forged by Cynic, Focus. That is required listening, if for no other reason than to hear the one record that influenced pretty much everyone that heard it. Seminal. You may want a change of underwear handy. Something made out of canvas, perhaps, something that can handle clay.

And, for some reason, I always associate Nile with Meshuggah. I could be out there, though.

Oh, and you should definitely check out Canvas Solaris. Go in blind on them, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Dusty Chalk

[mypasswordis]

Cool, that sounds like a great album to try out. Speaking of seminal, I think you're familiar with my favorite band. Though I guess it's a bit cliche, it's definitely influenced me in deciding what to listen to of more recent stuff. And I will check out the others as well. Is what I like referred to as technical metal? Seems like there's about a million subgenres of metal, and even then, a lot of the bands don't really fit into any one.

[Dusty Chalk]

Well yes and no. When you said "math aspect", that made me think technical metal, that's all. But if you do end up liking it, then yes, you should probably look up other technical metal such as some of Death's albums.

Oh, and another one worth trying: Painter's Palette, from Ephel Duath. Listen to the entire album before you give up on it. It stars off kind of screamo, but since the drummer comes from a jazz background, he gives them an interesting push in that direction. (And no other album, at least, not until you've branched out in other areas -- their first album is more black metal, and the ones after it go in other directions -- they're kind of like Sentenced or Ulver, in that no two albums of theirs are alike.)

[Dash]

Virgin Black.

[catscratch]

Well Nile is similar to Meshuggah in the sense that they do make polyrhythmic, multilayered complex music, but from a melodic standpoint Nile is similar to Nile, and no one else really. Maybe Melechesh, but Melechesh have nowhere near the talent or sophistication of Nile (but are a cool band in their own right).

I think Nile became obsessed with their own technicality, and somewhere along the line they left their inspiration behind. The music became more technical but the brilliance is gone. "In Their Darkened Shrines" was the last good Nile album for me, and by good I mean one of my favorite albums ever, along with the predecessor.

You could try Alchemist's Organasm, that has some of the groove aspect and a bit of technicality though it spends more time in almost Pink Floyd like atmospherics.

Cynic is definitely a must, and so is Watchtower though it's rather different stylistically.