won't be LP

as i've said, i only like their bookend albums and not the ones in between

Glad to be included on the list! Got a great idea for when my turn comes around.

Unknown Soldier Says: Lolpocolypse has selected a strong selection of progressive metal albums here, that encompass various sub-metal genres of death, black and industrial etc. The bands selected are also held in high esteem some such as Opeth are overrated whilst others such as Gojira are underrated. Lolpocolypse has also provided a description of each album which I'll put up when the album is on. On a further note, every single band selected here is a European band.

The Albums Selected
Textures - Silhouettes (progressive metal)
Sybreed - Antares (progressive industrial metal)
Enslaved - Vertebrae (progressive black metal)
Meshuggah - Obzen (progressive death/industrial metal)
Opeth - Blackwater Park (progressive death metal)
Gojira - The Way of All Flesh (progressive death metal)

First line-up as follows and this is what Lolpocolypse says about these two albums.

Sybreed
Utilizing the djent sound in 2004 before it was cool, Swiss band Sybreed began as a pretty straightforward industrial metal band with their first album Slave Design. Their third release, 2009's The Pulse of Awakening, is described as death wave (think Depeche Mode mixed with industrial/death/groove). I selected the band's 2007 sophomore effort, Antares for the war because of its more progressive leanings, and I think it is when the band really began developing their own original sound (the Fear Factory and Meshuggah worship was clear in the first album). Despite being industrial metal, this album is very melodic. It has a coldness about it but manages to retain emotion, mostly through well-integrated synths and clean vocals. I expect this album to get panned for the vocals (especially the few spurts of robot vocals) even though I see them as a strength. Admittedly, they do sound similar in style to those of later Anders Friden, but the singer gets the job done and IMO he does it very well. The grooves are good, the drumming is good, and the songs are catchy and technical. I think it is also worth pointing out that this band has a single guitarist. Fans of extreme metal may dismiss the album 40 seconds into the first (and weakest) song, but I encourage them to give the album a chance, especially if they don't mind melodic death metal.

Textures
Dutch band Textures is a little harder to classify. Incorporating elements of death metal, groove metal, and occasional djenting, Silhouettes is one of the more original albums I've heard in a while. Like Sybreed, this band utilizes a synthesizer, but not as heavily since they aren't industrial. I don't think I need to do any damage control in introducing this one other than point out the clean vocals. Once again, those who hate lots of melody may dismiss this rather quickly, but I encourage y'all to give it a fair listen.

What is djent? If Meshuggah is anything to go by, I'd guess "complex time signatures that chug along much like a very angry train"

Metal Conoisseur started this thread some time ago.

http://www.musicbanter.com/rock-metal/58150-djent.html

Haha, that's actually a great description of what Meshuggah sound like!

Alright, so before this thread goes completely away from Celtic Frost, I just wanted to say one more thing.

If you'll forgive me for using post metal in a way that the phrase was never intended to be used, I'd say that Celtic Frost might sorta be called post metal. With Hellhammer, they used punk to deconstruct metal in much the same way as the early punk bands did, and with Celtic Frost they then rebuilt metal in there own image without really worrying about what any of the other metal bands at the time were doing, in much the same way as the post punk bands were rebuilding rock. ****ing brilliant band.

Listening to the Sybreed album at the moment.

edit: I'm a moron

Looking forward to this one. Although they are not first up, it is no secret of my love for Gojira and I got to see them live last year and they were phenomenal. I haven't heard double bass drumming of that intensity for years.

I think djent is an onomotapaea(can't spell that ****) for the sound of palm muted guitar chugs, or something.

Not big into straight prog metal like this, and I didn't like either album. Textures was better, I suppose.

Textures - 1
Sybreed - 0

Enslaved is where it's at.

still need a f*cking HDD

no storage space left

edit - i'll probably go to the PC warehouse to get an external HDD on Monday - 500 G probably

Yeah pretty much. And about the onomatopoeia, it helps (if you care) that all 5 vowels are involved. Almost had it. It is an onomatopoeia for the chugging guitar sound. I don't know it it's palm muted or not - probably is...

I saw them with In Flames a few years ago (I'd guess about 3 or 4 years ago) and I found them to be too reserved on stage. The music was cool, and the bottom end was definitely heavy, but they just had no stage presence. In Flames pretty much blew them out of the water.

i have the entire In Flames discography

stand-outs are Whoracle and Reroute to Remain

I'd throw Clayman into that. Entirely underrated. It's like all the years of thrash and death metal have come back around, and made a metal album that sounds like a rock and roll album again. Not to mention it has some of In Flames' best hooks.

i actually don't like that much

prefer The Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance for that style

To be honest didn't really dig either album, main problem being, that both bands went for a real mixture of styles (industrial, groove, death, metalcore etc) combined with growls and clean singing and longer instrumentation to classify themselves as proggy. Neither album convinced, in what it was trying to do which was to portray a real variety of styles, they were both unconvincing in what they were trying to do. I think both bands would've been better sticking to just one metal style. If I have to pick one I'd go with Textures as the singing was better. The winner of this battle will surely fall in the next round.

Textures -2
Sybreed -0

This is about what I expected, which is why I chose these two first.

I enjoy both bands and both of these albums, however they both have some glaring flaws. Sybreed's use of djent, prog, and industrial works only about half the time and sometimes they get way too cheesy, especially with the vox and synths. With Textures, my opinion is that the album would have been 10x better had they just stuck with purely clean vox. The eclectic instrumentation was my favorite part about Silhouettes but the bad cop vocals (that sounded like an even more generic version of later-era Soilwork) detracted from the vibe of the tracks from time to time. Overall I just dug Silhouettes more so:

Textures - 3
Sybreed - 0

*Note: On Texture's latest release Dualism, they recruited a new singer who I think made them a better band all around. If any of you liked Silhouettes at all, I suggest you check it out

I would have put this album in the war, but it came out in 2011 (so technically not the 2000s). I think it is much better than Silhouettes

I understand the criticisms levied against Sybreed thus far, and though they definitely edge into "cheese" territory more often than I would like, I still enjoyed their eclectic mix of industrial and electro much more than I enjoyed Textures' roid raging metalcore.

Textures - 3
Sybreed - 1

Textures win the first round 3-1, I think a lot of people didn't listen to these albums from the negative feedback they were getting, anyway Textures now goes up against progressive black metal in the shape of Enslaved. The Enslaved album was actually "Terrorizer's Metal Album of the Year 2008"

Enslaved - 1
Textures - 0

Enslaved kills, Textures kinda blow, simple as that.

Not that it matters now, but I would have voted for Sybreed if I would have had time earlier this week. I expected the slamming of the vocals (which I actually enjoyed quite a bit), but I didn't expect cheesiness being an issue (espeically from fans of power metal:yikes:) I agree that the Textures album was a little all over the place, and was a concept that wasn't fully realized. But I thought the Sybreed album was pretty cohesive and the multiple genres were well-integrated.

Had Sybreed won, they may have gotten my vote again. The Textures album doesn't stand a chance against Enslaved.

Enslaved seems to get more progressive with each release, and I think they have created a great album with Vertebrae. I noticed Mondo Bungle mentioned he didn't like straight progressive albums, yet this seems to be about as progressive as black metal gets! I think this is a testament to the band's ability to retain the savage black metal sound from their early days while continuing to incorporate new elements (or he didn't actually listen to the album!).

Enslaved - 2
Textures - 0

Hell I didn't even notice that you didn't even vote on your own war! I've now decided to try and keep each round open a bit longer as I know people usually need more time to listen, but had noticed that about three days had gone by without anybody voting on this one.

I'm not much of a black metal fan but the Enslaved album is a good album and the only Enslaved albums I'd heard before were straight up black metal and I don't remember any progressive elements, this album was more enjoyable and the song "Reflection" a very good song, even after one song it was better than Textures.

Enslaved -3
Textures -0

Ah... yeah. I'm not the biggest fan of Enslaved's vocals, but listening to them as a whole is infinitely better

Enslaved - 4
Textures - 0

Let's end the slaughter,

The next match up is Enslaved (most likely) and Gojira, right? Now THAT'S a matchup

Enslaved - 5
Textures - 0

will be able to participate soon - got an external HDD

What happened to the vote Textures got? Or was the person who posted that vote a spammer and has since got his ass banned?

Exactly.

Well anybody who votes for Textures, needs their butt ejected out of here! (ahem.... I'm talking about the current battle here and not before)

kay have all the albums in this thread

lemme have a fair tinker 1st before casting votes

and i got all cos i love prog

Ok slow-coach get a move on, as this battle will be changed tomorrow.

change it, then

i'll participate in the next round

Well its up for another 24 hours or more, plenty of time for you to listen to the albums.

i didn't bring them back home with me

they're still in the ofis server