Twangasaurus wrote:Pretty much everything I know about metal I've learnt here since I joined so congrats, you guys drastically changed my appreciation of da brootz. As a result though I pretty much only know Stoner/Doom, Black Metal and Mathcore bands. I also know that Djent really isn't for me, like ever forever.
Continue to teach me oh great professors of metal!
Well, this thread has already delivered a bunch of awesomeness outside of the genres you've mentioned.
First up you've got Sepultura, arguably at their peak. Iommic Pope has also managed to choose my all time favourite Sep song, so that worked out well. It was 1991, and you had this bunch of Brazilians taking thrash and death and a bit of tribal stuff, brewed with a sense of social injustice and young rage. Topped off by a rad Scott Burns production, which pretty much is the essence of early 90s death metal.
Then you've got Pantera. While best appreciated when you're in the age where you have more testosterone than sense, Pantera are still fucking awesome. Duders could all shred like nobody's business, but it was always subordinate to the groove and general badassery. Phil's singing influenced pretty much everyone who's ever tried to be tough since then.
Then he's gone and picked a cool but different Slayer tune. Slayer is to extreme metal what AC/DC is to rock, though perhaps less consistent. Again, they took the thrashy Bay Area sound of the early 80s and did it more evil. Atonal guitar solos, and Lombardo's awesome drumming. Thrashy deathy legends. Most dudes woulda picked something from Reign in Blood, or maybe South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss. Those three records are kinda Slayer's Powerslave/Somewhere in Time/Seventh Son. Props to the Pope for digging up a gem from outside of those three albums.
So that's your thrashy deathy stuff covered with Sepultura and Slayer, and groove with Pantera. All three bands are good springboards into other great stuff. My picks are just variations on that theme, with a bunch of death metal there. Nothing is essential listening. Will post some better death metal later.
D.o.S. has chipped in with some thrashy crossover punky fun. MLC posted arguably the originators of the genre with SOD.
Jrmy has chosen a super interesting band - they're kinda more influential in who they've influenced, rather than the stuff they've produced themselves. I could get lambasted for that though. I guess they kinda take bits of all of the above bands - a bit thrashy, a bit groovy, a bit punky, and they also added some industrial flavour to what they did. They're rad.
Which is a really nice segue into the Pope's next tune - Strapping Young Lad. They took everything good about industrial, everything good about metal, smashed them together and turned everything up to 11. City may in fact be the most brutal record ever ah... recorded. So fucking good.
So to summarise where we are thusfar:
Groovey stuff - listen to more Pantera and Prong.
Thrashy stuff - listen to more Slayer
Party time thrash - listen to more of D.o.S.'s and MLC's suggestions
Industrial - Prong and Strapping
Want to get started on Death Metal? Start with mid period Sepultura.
Note that these aren't necessarily the "classic" suggestions for listening, just summarising where the thread is at.
Djent can get fucked. Meshuggah invented and at the same time killed the genre. They are just too awesome, and in my mind no-one else has been able to come near what they've done. On the other hand, as the mighty Devin Townsend once said, all metal bands are just copying Meshuggah anyway. So when Devy gets a bit Meshugg-ish it's ok because it's filtered through his normal awesomeness and whatever, but when bands try to inhabit the same musical space as Meshuggah it inevitably just fails.
Best way to get into Meshuggah:
1) Play it loud as fuck
2) Don't try and find a melody in it
3) Fuck trying to understand the polyrhythms
4) Follow Haake's crash and high-hats and just mosh that shit in 4/4 and have fun
5) Make faces like Thordendal
repeat.
This is btw my favourite music video of any genre, of all time.
However the song that made me "get" Meshuggah was Rational Gaze. I remember Destroy Erase Improve coming out, but I was still listening mostly to thrash and groove stuff - Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera, and of course Maiden. Always Maiden. And GnR. Because Axl. Needless to say I didn't understand shit of DEI and I didn't like it. Same thing with Chaosphere. But I had a friend who bought Nothing when it came out and we drove around in her car listening to it at full volume and all of a sudden the penny dropped. It was an awesome moment. And I haven't looked back. Best band ever, that isn't called Iron Maiden.
Just make sure you listen to it loud so that those 8 strings hit you in the face and the chest and everywhere else that soundwaves should hit you. And don't forget to follow the Five Easy Steps to Enjoying to Meshuggah™ above and you'll be right.
Don't forget step 6: Ignore all other djent.
" - smile_man
