I would say an essential album is one that showcases its genre(s) very well while being, generally speaking, a good or great album.
If you listen to ISIS - Panopticon, you'll get a pretty good idea about what Post-Metal sounds like. If you listen to Opeth - Blackwater Park, you'll get a good understanding of what Progressive Death can sound like (and folk interludes). If you listen to Underoath - Define the Great Line, you'll get a good idea about what modern Metalcore sounds like.
If you were to listen to one of Neurosis' more experimental albums, !T.O.O.D.! - Pod vladou bice, or SikTh you're not going to get a great understanding of those albums' genres from the standpoint of a "new" listener.
Lol, this scared me for a second: http://www.metal-archives.com/
Not bad. Just boring. And I honestly do not care much if people agree with my opinions. You're more than welcome to have a different one, as is clear you have. Every single album they toned down in extremity and became more bland and accessible. They went for a completely different route than I enjoy and apparently found a fanbase with it. I find their albums and their behaviour appalling, so I won't listen to it.
Similarly, I find Dragonforce to be repetitive. I enjoyed the Helloween-on-speed feel for a tiny bit, but it really feels like most of the songs they have are just a rehash. There's very few bands that stay interesting to me despite being repetitive.
Yeah I agree with this. At first I was like, whoa whoa, power metal that's fast, at least somewhat technical and riff based instead of having that shit boring "epic" wankery?! Gief! But then I realised they have like 3 songs and the rest is those three with absolutely minimal variations with tons of cheese and nonsensical lyrics.
I still think if they started building on what you said as "Helloween-on-speed" but varied songwriting a bit and made it more "serious", it'd be a great power metal band but as they are now, aside from occasional fun listens they just bore me.
Sidenote, this entirely discussion and back n forth talk demonstrates why an 'essential' metal thread would be exceedingly hard to put together.
Last edited by Kreyzor; 2012-04-01 at 02:43 PM.
Well I don't think anyone would argue if someone did make an essential metal thread and listed strictly bands that are unanimously classics/pioneers like Black Sabbath, Metallica, Death, and so forth
Except then if it was singling out specific albums then there could be bickering about that like "Why Master of puppets? Why not Ride the lightning?" yadda yadda
Possibly. But look at the previous one - it went fairly in depth with all the various sub-genres added. And really, who would open such a thread? Most likely it would be a metalhead, in which case they might as well scour this thread.
---------- Post added 2012-04-01 at 07:44 PM ----------
Oh. New Burzum on Youtube
Varg seems hard at work since he got out.
Funeral dooooooooooom:
This thread actually kinda shows why I'm not into contemporary metal that much. The escapist, outcast element is much too predominant and a lot of stuff has this obscure, depressing, estranging kind of vibe. Not very fun. Overall a lot of screaming and grunting, very little singing & exciting musicianship.
Which is perfectly OK, Metal has always been a diverse genre. There's some dark and obscure stuff that I like. However, the depressive, outcast, creepy person kind of vibe has become almost synonymous with Metal music. I miss the more positive side of the spectrum a little bit. Stuff one can relate to without being an angsty adolescent or a nutjob.
The new Revenge is kicking my ass. This might be premature but album of the year? Maybe... (obviously for people who enjoy this kind of metal)
Last edited by mmoc77cd96e260; 2012-04-02 at 08:04 PM.
Love Lacuna Coil and its sexy lead singer=].
"Death is not kind. It's dark, black as far as you can see, and you're all alone."
Alcest - Les Iris
Alcest - Élévation
This band you might like. They have an upbeat, dreamy and euphoric atmosphere while also being obscure, esoteric and mystical.