Tasteful Metal

drew0

I'm trying to get into metal, but I can't find any tasteful metal that I like. It's hard to say what I'm looking for, but I've been listening to a lot of Deftones and Metallica lately, and want more heavy stuff. I've tried Pantera, like some of the stuff - some of their work I find to not be as good, though. I love Five Minutes Alone, and just about anything I've heard by the Deftones (mainly their bigger hits and all of White Pony), and anything by Metallica from Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, and Justice For All. What are some other songs / bands that would be appealing to fans of that type of metal? I tried Mastodon, and the only song I liked was Blood & Thunder.

Echoes

"Tasteful" is an intersting word - are you using it as in music you like, because that is a very hard definition for someone else to fill. You should try some Opeth - it seems really heavy at first, but it is so melodic and they break in so many acoustic interludes it is actually a really easy listen. Given the bands you like, maybe you would also like older Iron Maiden or Megadeth?

intodeep

drew0 wrote:

I tried Mastodon, and the only song I liked was Blood & Thunder.

Well you should listen to Mastodon more until they click for you

Echoes had some good suggestons. Maiden and Megadeath are pretty easy to get into.

What about Slayer? I think Seasons in the Abyss is their most accesable album.

Maybe Sepultura Chaos AD is again a rockin album and easy for non metal fans to enjoy.

I'm a big fan of High on Fire. I think Blessed Black Wings is my favorite album.

Maybe Anthrax? I love the Sound of White Noise album. THat is the only one by them i ever got into.

sponger

I'm no metal connoisseur, but here are some of my fav songs:

Anything by megadeth prior to the youthanasia album. A few good songs to check out are:

Holy Wars
Hangar 18
502
Lucretia
Peace Sells

The only Slayer album I can get into is Seasons in the Abyss. The "Decade of Aggression" live album is worth listening to if you haven't already done so.

Judas Priest's "Sad Wings of Destiny" album is classic metal, IMO. "Victim of Changes" is a great song from that album. They also did a remake of Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust", which is also considered a JP classic.

Here's "Victim of Changes" live in '05. It's split up into two parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDVp7hn1zKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNO8f5Y3ZBA

AxlUlrich

i'd recommend Slayer and Mercyful Fate
also maybe give Pantera another shot...i can't find a flaw in any of their metal albums really.

darthvedder88

Dude, check out Danzig, that band ROCKS!!!

But as everyone else has said, Slayer is awesome. Personally, I'd recommend "Reign in Blood." That album is classic.

bubbamackdaddy69

Yeah like darthvedder said..Danzig rocks..As well check out some Monster Magnet..their earlier stuff is good..especially first 3 albums..

reachdown12

hmm..

Celtic Frost, Immortal, definitely give Opeth a shot, i'd say start out with Blackwater Park, one of their best, possibly Napalm Death, Sacred Reich, a low key one: Souls At Zero, At the Gates, Mastodon(i'mloving blood mountain) or Lamb of God, etc. There's a lot out there.

UpSideDown

opeth......ghost reveries is beautiful

dirt

Isis -- I think they create their own lane for sure -- they are taking metal to new places. You will like them if you've ever liked stuff by Slint or Tar from years back. They have a stark sound like the aforementioned, but a lot more ambient.

Just about all from Opeth and the first four Iron Maiden albums too. I just got a new CD player on Friday (Rega Apollo) and Blackwater Park (the song) was one of the first things I played -- I love that band -- only a few more weeks 'til the expanded Ghost Reveries is released.

Echoes

Isis is really really cool

lucylespian

The Metallica albums Load and Reload, are generally despised by teh diehard fans, but are very melodic and contain much more intricate arrangements than teh earlier, more highly regarded stuff like KIll 'Em All etc. The guitar playing is less reckless and fast, and more throughful, wihtout losing anything at all. Load is my favourite album.
Also the covers album, GArage Inc is brilliant, covers of Turn the PAge, Whisky in the Jar, Astronomy, the Mercyful Fate thingy, DAmage Case etc, very tasteful.

Echoes

Garage Inc is a great album, but you'd be hard pressed to find a good album's worth of material after AJFA other than that album.

Bleakest Harvest

Opeth - Still Life is the way to go. All of their releases are incredibly good, but this one mixes up the heaviness and the melodic progginess very nicely, and would serve as a nice introduction to the band.

Isis is also a good way to go, check out Panopticon by them. Brilliant album.

Jennytree

Black Label Society and Nevermore! Not too heavy when you're starting to get into metal!

Bleakest Harvest

Oh yeah, and 'tasteful metal' is something of an oxymoron no?

lucylespian

Echoes wrote:

Garage Inc is a great album, but you'd be hard pressed to find a good album's worth of material after AJFA other than that album.

See, I told you the diehards despise their later, stuff, but for no good reason. Their musiciasnship improves with each album, and it is OK to mellow a little as you age, trying to make an angry young man's album when you are are contentd older one just isn't likely to produce good results.

tybird

Another vote for both Megadeath and Iron Maiden.........try a band with a long history and pick up a greatest hits disc. Use it like a sampler. I would also second the earlier mention of Judas Priest.

The first two albums by Ozzy Osbourne are to die for.......Randy Rhoads on lead, wow. ("Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of A Madman".....the "Tribute" album is some decent live recordings of Randy in action.)

I also enjoy his third album, the live one featuring Black Sabbath songs. That has Brad Gillis (of Night Ranger infamy) on lead guitar. Good Stuff.

Echoes

lucylespian wrote:

See, I told you the diehards despise their later, stuff, but for no good reason. Their musiciasnship improves with each album, and it is OK to mellow a little as you age, trying to make an angry young man's album when you are are contentd older one just isn't likely to produce good results.

No, they are just shitty albums. That sounds like a REALLY good reason to dislike it, They have a smattering of good songs among them, but that's about it.

If you want to typecast me, though, here's some more background info
Kill Em All - got some good songs
Ride The Lightning - Don't really care for outside "Creeping Death"
Master Of Puppets - fabulous
AJFA - not bad, I like the direction they had here
Black album - pure shit. Only one song I can halfways stand
Load - better than the black album, but I haven't listened since I was 18 so maybe my views on it are different. Loved "Outlaw Torn" though
Reload - a few decent fast tunes, but shitty lyricism and boring songs ruin the day again.
St Anger - lol. boring songs and poorly produced. I'm all for repetition in song, but they didn't do it very well.
Garage Inc - favourite after Puppets. probably not a view shared by man people.

In any case, you'd be really hard pressed to classify Load or Reload as "metal" in any circle. It is pretty much just alt. rock that ranges from pretty decent to outright shitty.

cc10106

I've been getting into Mastodon over the last couple of weeks. Damn, these guys kill. I don't know if true metalheads consider this one 'real metal, but DOWN's first album, NOLA, is classic southern style sludge. I like it better than about any Pantera cd.

lucylespian

Echoes wrote:

No, they are just shitty albums. That sounds like a REALLY good reason to dislike it, They have a smattering of good songs among them, but that's about it.

If you want to typecast me, though, here's some more background info
Kill Em All - got some good songs
Ride The Lightning - Don't really care for outside "Creeping Death"
Master Of Puppets - fabulous
AJFA - not bad, I like the direction they had here
Black album - pure shit. Only one song I can halfways stand
Load - better than the black album, but I haven't listened since I was 18 so maybe my views on it are different. Loved "Outlaw Torn" though
Reload - a few decent fast tunes, but shitty lyricism and boring songs ruin the day again.
St Anger - lol. boring songs and poorly produced. I'm all for repetition in song, but they didn't do it very well.
Garage Inc - favourite after Puppets. probably not a view shared by man people.

In any case, you'd be really hard pressed to classify Load or Reload as "metal" in any circle. It is pretty much just alt. rock that ranges from pretty decent to outright shitty.

Yaeh, but this guy is looking for more accessible stuff, rather than for example AJFA, which I owned for years before I could listen to it. NOt many people would be so dismissive of songs like FAde to BLack, Wherever We MAy Roam, Bleeding Me, The Unforgiven etc.
St Anger is an example of the angry young man's album by contented old blokes, and was disappointing for it's lack of melody.
It doesn't have to be cacophanous to be metal. This guy is after "tasteful" remember, and that's what I like too !! And there's nothing wrong with Evolution, baby !!

Echoes

Never said there was anything wrong with evolution. I am just not so fond when it takes a turn like this. And like I said, I wouldn't call Load/reload "tasteful" metal, since I wouldn't call them metal in the first place.

Personally, Fade To Black, Wherever I may Roam, and the Unforgiven are pretty dismissable. Bleeding Me was neat though.

dirt

Echoes wrote:

No, they are just shitty albums. That sounds like a REALLY good reason to dislike it...

Yep. That pretty much sums up Metallica's recording output since ...And Justice for All.

I guess my personal opinion falls into the generalization Lucylespian makes up above. That's fine. Aside from all of Master of Puppets, the coolest thing they ever did was the cover of The Small Hours from the Garage ep. Kick ass. The slick production and song crafting is what I hate from their later stuff.

I am not a hardcore fan of this band -- I like and respect them a lot. They really caught my attention when I saw them live for the first time. Waaay back in high school, 1986, I saw them open for Ozzy on his Ultimate Sin tour. I bought the Master of Puppets album earlier in the year but never got into it. They ripped it up live -- like nothing I'd really ever seen before. Rabid, rabid fans (this was in the middle of nowhere Michigan too). Almost like a cult. Even if you didn't like their music, you could see they were getting on with something special. I loved it! Needless to say, they blew old bloated Oz (even back in '86) off the stage. All that 'I love you all' shit...all the spandex...hosing down the crowd with water...same old Oz. The one and only time I ever saw Metallica when Cliff was in the band. He died a few months later...

dirt

Echoes wrote:

And like I said, I wouldn't call Load/reload "tasteful" metal, since I wouldn't call them metal in the first place.

No, it's more like Clint Eastwood western movie rock.

soundgrunger

excellent suggestions with the megadeth, maiden, and mercyful fate.
how about another M, motorhead!
i've been getting into trivium lately as well, if you like metallica, i think you'd like trivium.

Matches

Like others say, try out Pantera again. Some of the best guitar work you will find on any metal album. It is very hard to go against Dime. Damageplan has Dime and Vinnie on it as well (was the band that Dime was touring with when he was killed on stage). Rebel meets Rebel is another band similiar to Pantera but with a country/bluegrass feel to the metal as David Allan Coe is singing.

Aside from anything by the brothers Abbot, might give Stonesour a try. They play slower type metal, but the first album is amazing in its own right. Has some great songs to it. The entire album is very tight, although there are two versions. The version that has the extra songs on it is ok, but I am not a fan of the extra songs. Feels like they loose the feel that was captured on the orginial release of the cd.

Others you might check out, Sevendust, Coal Chamber, Type O. Actually the list could go on. Anything by Zakk Wylde is amazing due to his guitar work (has two solo albums that sometimes hit that Rock A Billy edge and then Black Label Society which doesn't have that Rock A Billy feel). If you like the heavy / fast attack that some bands have, you might check out old Fear Factory, Soulfly, and Sepultura (Roots and before).

Aside from that, the best (and cheapest besides random net downloads) way to get exposed to a lot of bands that you normally don't hear except from random small shows and from friends is to check out the comp. cds that you can buy in different stores. Sadly (and yes, this pains me to say) Hot Topic has a rather small cd selection, but they have these metal comp cds for 4 and 5 bucks. You can hear about 20 different bands on the cds. Some are very heavy where as others are a lighter metal. The three Headbanger's Ball collections also have a ton of different bands on them.

sponger

We've all seen the interview where Hetfield talks about how he got tired of having to remember all of the intricate riffs of the pre-Black album days. They purposely dumbed down their music to break into the mainstream and to make life easier for themselves onstage.

jeffbr

I'm putting in another vote for Opeth, and Nevermore.

facepollution

drew0 wrote:

I'm trying to get into metal, but I can't find any tasteful metal that I like. It's hard to say what I'm looking for, but I've been listening to a lot of Deftones and Metallica lately, and want more heavy stuff. I've tried Pantera, like some of the stuff - some of their work I find to not be as good, though. I love Five Minutes Alone, and just about anything I've heard by the Deftones (mainly their bigger hits and all of White Pony), and anything by Metallica from Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, and Justice For All. What are some other songs / bands that would be appealing to fans of that type of metal? I tried Mastodon, and the only song I liked was Blood & Thunder.

I know exactly what you mean, I'm one of these inbetweeners who like some metal but not a great deal. People always think I'm weird when I say Deftones' Around the Fur is my favourite metal album....

Anyway if you want something in a similar vein, I would suggest:

Chevelle - Wonder What's Next (Sounds a bit like a Deftones/Tool mash-up)
Tool (I presume you probably know this band? If not I'd start with Lateralus and Aenima)
Taproot - Blue Sky Research (lots of AIC style melodies)

Other than that the heavier bands I listen to are stuff like NIN, Filter, and my current favourite band The Bronx, who are more punk, but their new album will tear your fucking face off it's so aggressive. I'm kind of getting into Mastodon at the moment, but it's taking a bit of getting used to, I'm such a wuss...

PJ-Sin

Im sorry, but Deftones are definately NOT metal. They are hard rock at best. This might be why people give you wierd looks when you say they are metal. IMO

I will go ahead and put another plug in for Opeth (any album). Also check out Candiria "What Doesnt Kill You..." album, this most listenable one they have (not that I dont love the rest) with alot of melodic singing and excellent guitar work.

facepollution

PJ-Sin wrote:

Im sorry, but Deftones are definately NOT metal. They are hard rock at best. This might be why people give you wierd looks when you say they are metal. IMO

I will go ahead and put another plug in for Opeth (any album). Also check out Candiria "What Doesnt Kill You..." album, this most listenable one they have (not that I dont love the rest) with alot of melodic singing and excellent guitar work.

The first two albums most certainly ARE metal.