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Cardboard Box Realtor
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Hobb's End
Posts: 7,648
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Hmm let's see...
Strapping Young Lad
I was lucky to discover these guys when I did because had I not I would have most likely dropped out of school. Devy's anger intense lyrics became incredibly cathartic for me, helping me vent my frustration that I found myself constantly surrounded by. Add a little dose of humour for good measure as well as being from the same city as me made CD's easier to find as well as fans. One day I hope to meet Devin and thank him for making such incredibly powerful music to help me when things got too stressful and I needed to bang my head and scream my lungs out.
Death
If I could obtain at least 10% of Chuck Schuldiner's awesomeness then I'd be perfectly content with my life at that point. Known as the "father of death metal", he fronted the incredibly popular band Death. He sadly died of brain cancer in 2001, three years before I discovered Scream Bloody Gore at a local CD store and was intrigued by the simplicity of the name and the album art. I still hold that their last album, The Sound of Perseverance is their best, even if it does depart from the "traditional" death metal sound. I try and spin some Death albums at least once a month if not more.
Enslaved
Without a doubt my favourite black metal band that are still going strong and expanding their sound. I have a very "love/hate" relationship with most black metal bands, and have come across many people over the last six years who wear their hatred for black metal on their sleeves (when they're wearing sleeves). I have converted almost all of them into believers that black metal is more than just a bunch of xenophobic pricks. Their 2003 album, Below the Lights was my first black metal album that I heard and kept, and have been sharing it with people ever since. Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson are two of the best musicians of the genre and I hope they continue to make good music for many more years to come.
Nevemore
Perhaps not the most "extreme" metal band out there in terms of vocals, but they are certainly one of the heaviest I've had the pleasure to hear. Hailing from Seattle, Warrel Dane has done a terrific job keeping Nevermore strong as well as making a dope ass solo album in 2008. Their 2010 album, The Obsidian Conspiracy is currently on my list of anticipated albums and apparently is slated to be released on my 22nd birthday. I still hold their 2nd studio album, The Politics of Ecstasy as their most powerful and still blows my mind whenever I hear it, especially with headphones. With an incredibly close knit line up (something that is a rarity in metal), it really helps in making the albums seem all that more special, to know that these guys can stand each other for nearly 20 years to continue making music.
Opeth
Probably the most respected extreme metal band out right now and for good measure. Mikhael Akerfeldt has some of the best death vocals I've ever heard, yet his clean vocals are quite amazing too as illustrated on their 2003 album Damnation. It has been my dream to record an album on par with the sound dynamics of Opeth, but I just do not have that solid of a grasp on the technical side of the music that all the members seem to have. They're one of those rare bands that has never released a "bad" album, certainly some have been stronger than others, yet each of them is enjoyable in their own way. I've seen them live once and would be willing to travel to see them again because it was such a powerful performance back in 2006 that literally fucked my hearing up for a week.
Hypocrisy
I really have to give it to these guys for turning their career around the way they did. When they started out they were nothing more than your typical Swedish death metal band singing songs about Satanism and how Christianity is flawed and full of hypocrites. After booting out their original vocalist, Masse Broberg in 1994 and installing Peter Tagtgren in his place did they begin to see critical achievement. Their subject matter started to drift away from Satanism and into the paranormal and extraterrestrial which really set them apart from A LOT of the competition. They've been going strong ever since with Tagtgren forming his industrial metal side project PAIN as well as starting The Abyss Studio which has recorded some of the biggest names of extreme metal. Their most recent album, A Taste of Extreme Divinity was one of my favourite metal albums of the year and just goes to prove how they've been mastering their sound over the years. Definitely a band I need to see live.
Kataklysm
Canada has quite a misunderstood metal scene that does not receive much attention from the Canadian mainstream music outlets, and even less from the alternative ones since the Montreal indie rock scene exploded years ago. Regardless of that, there is a bulging metal scene in Canada that has a very dedicated fan base which help keep the bands afloat. Not only that, the bands start to become very intertwined with one and other, sharing gigs, touring with one and other, and promoting each other. Katakylsm is one of the forefront Canadian extreme metal bands to never really make it big. While Cryptopsy has found acceptance amongst a lot of American metal heads, Katakylsm seems to fall short of international acclaim which is sad because of how fucking good they are. Their 2004 album, Serenity in Fire is easily their best, yet it seems to go unheard outside of the Canadian borders. Martin Maurais goes to show us why they're sometimes referred to as "Northern Hyperblast" with his heavy usage of blast beats, which does receive criticism from some, but I still love it.
Therion
Starting off as a death metal band but turning more into a symphonic metal band later on in their career, they really made the jump from one style to another seem natural, graceful, and elegant. Their orchestral arrangements for their later albums are very strategically placed that add a whole new element to the band and Christofer Johnsson comes across as an incredibly intelligent and interesting man who I'd love to sit down and have a drink with and pick his brain about his thoughts on metal and the world. I was very upset when I found they were playing Vancouver a few years ago and I couldn't go because I was leaving for the UK a week earlier, however along with Hypocrisy, they are a band that I am determined to see live, even if I have to travel to Wacken to do it.
Nile
Nile were more of a recent breakthrough for me due to their extreme guttural vocals. I had known of them since about 2006, yet whenever I put them on I had to stop after two or three songs because I just could not get into Karl Sanders' singing style. Normally I'm pretty good with the death vocals, but his was extreme to the point where the lyrics could not offer anything concrete because it seemed like every other word was different. However after constant listening a breakthrough seemed to happen earlier in 2008 when I was spinning Ithyphallic and I found myself sort of singing a long. My friend who introduced me to them kept on telling me to keep an ear out for the melodic parts, but it wasn't until that day that I actually heard them. Since then my opinion of Nile has only increased, especially when you really sit down and think... here's a band from South Carolina of all places playing Egyptian themed technical death metal being fronted by a fat white guy who sometimes sings in ancient Egyptian. That's pretty impressive and totally destroys most people's misconceptions about the Southern United States and for that has earned my respect and admiration.
Ulver/ Arcturus
Sure this may be cheating but I cannot choose between the two as I think they're some of the most intriguing bands from the Norwegian black metal scene. Both bands started at roughly the same time releasing a black metal debut album before departing from the sound to include other styles. Ulver's sophomore album, Kveldssanger was more of a folk album with black metal ambiance in the background and Arcturus' sophomore (Las Masquerade Infernale) was more avant-garde than anything else. As the years passed for both bands their broadened sound really started to develop and their mastery of new sounds was beginning to shine. In 2000, Ulver released Perdition City which was more electronic and ambient with elements of trip-hop than anything else. In 1999, Arcturus released their compilation album Disguised Masters that was far more ambient and electronic than their previous albums and included a "gangstafied" version of "Masters of Disguise" from their previous album. Both bands have since experimented further with different genres, yet here's the kicker, they did them well. To see a Norwegian black metal band put out electronic glitchy sounding albums is quite the feat in and of itself, but for them to actually sound good is something altogether. While Arcturus has shifted back towards more avant-garde sounding metal, they still contain elements of their more experimental earlier material. Both Arcturus and Ulver go to show us that sometimes watching a band change to drastically different styles can have very positive consequences.
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