John Wilkes Booth

so i've mentioned on here a few times that i lack an appreciation for metal. i honestly respect the genre as i know that a lot of its musicians are skilled and dedicated to their craft, it's just that a lot of it honestly sounds like **** to me.

however, i know for a fact that my taste is malleable. the first time i ever heard coltrane i thought it was some of the most boring **** i ever heard, now he's one of my favorite musicians.

so i want to try to expand my horizons and hear what other people hear in metal.

i actually like a select few metal songs/albums i've heard. i'll post some examples below. i'd appreciate some suggestions based on these. i'd like some tracks to listen to first and then if i like the track then i will look into the album.

here's some **** that i find enjoyable






honestly the death/black metal growls are a turn off for me atm but i'm willing to try to learn to appreciate them

EPOCH6

What abrasive or aggressive genres outside of metal do you like? Punk genres, noise genres, heavy electronic genres etc?

People primarily into blues, jazz, and country seem to find doom / stoner / psychedelic metal easiest to get into.
People into drum & bass or breakcore seem to find hardcore, thrash, and crust easier to get into.
People into classical or jazz seem to be more attracted to prog metal or power metal.

etc etc.

I would imagine death metal, black metal, and grindcore are typically the hardest metal genres for unfamiliar listeners to approach. Even after being raised on classic rock and metal and exploring metal for a decade I still find it very difficult to enjoy extreme metal beyond the threshold of crust / thrash, yet I love many non-metal abrasive experimental noise groups. I've always considered death / black metal to be in a league of their own, maybe the "purest forms of metal" in the sense that they seem to be most devoid of external influence from non-metal genres, making them the hardest to approach.

There's pretty much a metal sub-genre counterpart for every non-metal style of music out there. Take a look at your current musical interests and start asking for recommendations in the metal sub-genre that seems to draw the most inspiration from that area of music.

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Wpnfire

Are riffs important to you? Because they seem important to you.

And whoever this Melechesh band is totally rules.

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grindy

Since I only like about five to ten metal albums myself nowadays, I'm probably not really qualified.
But perhaps this?

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The Batlord

If you can't dig this then we have nothing to speak about.

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mythsofmetal

If you like Melechesh you should also enjoy Absu. They both have that Thrashy, fast paced, frenetic Black Metal sound to them, and the drummer/vocalist of Absu (Proscriptor McGovern) actually played drums on that album that the song you posted was from, and was in Melechesh for a while. My favourite album from Melechesh is Emissaries, though and Proscriptor McGovern had departed Melechesh by then, but returned to Absu to create two (soon to be three) more great albums.

Tara is typically considered their best, and it'd be a great start to them. Though I've been preferring their two most recent albums. Absu, their first self titled album is a more varied album, and has a bit more of an emphasis on atmosphere and synths. Abzu their second self titled album is a very fast/thrashy technical album with lots of sections of many layers of guitars creating great riffs, and it's probably my favourite Absu album now.

The Third Storm of Cythraul could appeal to you, if you like a raw thrashy black metal sound, with extra emphasis on the raw/low production value sort of style.

The Sun of Tiphareth could be a good start to Absu if you think you'd be interested in a more Pagan Metal sort of album where the album is very consistently a mix of Black and Folk Metal, similar to (though you probably won't get the reference) Manegarm's Havets Vargar which would be classified as Viking Metal due to the fairly equal mix of Black and Folk Metal, while The Sun of Tiphareth more specifically would be labelled as something like either Mesopotamian Metal or Sumerian Metal (its one of those I'm almost certain, but which of the two I'm unsure.)



So, I see I kinda went on a tangent for one band, so I'll try to quickly recommend a few other ones now.

Since you said you didn't really care for the Black/Death Metal vocals, I'm going to suggest a few Power Metal bands.

Blind Guardian is a great Power Metal band that essentially only uses clean vocals or at most semi-harsh vocals. While they also have good riffs and don't overly focus on the vocal performance like some Power Metal bands do. Though some of their albums have less of a harder edge to them, any of their 90's albums from Tales from the Twilight World to Nightfall in Middle-earth would be good places to start with them.

Angra is a cool Power Metal band from Brazil. My favourite album of theirs is Temple of Shadows, and I would highly recommend about a bit less than half a dozen songs from it, though the rest of the songs are essentially really light/fluffy Power Metal ballads and appeal to me much less than the rest of the album or anyone really seeking a non-ballady Metal experience. The songs from the album I'd recommend are Spread Your Fire, Angels and Demons, The Temple of Hate, The Shadow Hunter, and Winds of Destination.


Persuader is a good Power Metal band that also is of the non-cheesy or at least less cheesy variety of Power Metal. I'd highly recommend the album When Eden Burns. There are some harsh vocal moments, but the whole album should be melodic and harmonious enough for you to probably look past them. The album is very epic and has a good and dark atmosphere for much of the album, and flows from song to song quite well too.

Another good album of theirs which is a bit faster paced and thrashier is Evolution Purgatory. There are many strong, catchy melodies throughout, but with a hard/heavy/thrashy edge to it. Though I sometimes feel some of the songs on this album could have used a bit more refinement in the writing process, most of the songs are still very, very good.



Also, a very accessible, yet great Black Metal album, half of which's vocals are clean, is Ulver's album Bergtatt: Et Eeventyr I 5 Capitler.


Oh, and for the heck of it, while it may not be really accessible to many people, I feel it might be accessible to you because you seem open minded, and these songs typically aren't too abrasive like some extreme metal and are mostly disliked for its eclectic mix of genres, so check out Sigh's album In Somniphobia. Sigh does have many other great albums, but that album is definitely one of their best.

Oh also, I guess Gallows Gallery by Sigh may be a better example since there aren't any harsh vocals on the main tracks. Though, make sure you listen to the remastered version as the original release of the album had horrible production.

John Wilkes Booth

i'm not sure what you would consider abrasive/aggressive, but i like all of this:

[youtube]SteeDi7ALrU[youtube]

John Wilkes Booth

to be perfectly honest i have only a loose understanding of what riffs even are. i don't really look into music theory too much, i just like **** that sounds good.

as for melechesh..

Melechesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

this is how i found them lol. cause for a while i found all that religious **** pretty interesting and i stumbled upon this song.

John Wilkes Booth

sorry man but honestly this **** is boring as hell to me.

Mondo Bungle

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