Baraka_Guru

I'm having problems finding heavy metal I like. I know there are threads that have recommendations regarding metal, but what I want is somewhat specific, and I need your help.

My foray into intensive music listening in general began with two albums: Metallica's Metallica and Danzig's Thrall: Demonsweatlive. I first listened to these and thought, okay, I like this music. It was mine. I didn't care what others thought about it, so I listened to it over and over. Shortly thereafter, I discovered that Metallica was actually much better before they recorded Metallica, so I ate up the likes of Ride the Lightning, ...And Justice for All, and Master of Puppets, the latter of which I still maintain is their best work, followed closely by ...And Justice for All.

Much of that fed what was to come. It wasn't long before the grunge scene swept me up and I was listening to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and, eventually, Smashing Pumpkins (who became my favourite contemporary band up until they were dethroned by Radiohead around eight years ago).

Then Cobain committed suicide.

I wandered between various alternative acts, and I eventually discovered a band that grew on me quite quickly. It was my first return to heavy metal since listening to Metallica (which, really, was the only heavy metal I had listened to). They were a band that a couple of friends were raving about, one of whom I looked at as the most intelligent and creative guy I knew. So I took that immediately as a recommendation. The album was Blind by Corrosion of Conformity (COC), and it blew me away. Besides The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream (which I still maintain is the band's masterpiece and one of the best rock albums of all time), there isn't another album I listened to over and over again from track one to end.

What I admire about Blind is a number of elements: the musicianship, the lyrics, the blended sounds, the intensity....there was something about it that set it apart from my view of what metal was: a genre of loud, aggressive thrashing and hoarse screaming. It was something I enjoyed immensely. It was political, it had activism and social criticism. It simply sounded good.

Deliverance arrived after a bit of a lineup change. It was good, but the band took a turn to a more straightforward sound and set of lyrics. Not quite infused with social commentary, but they were poetic enough. Fine. But that was the end of it for me as I didn't have anything else similar to this band to listen to. I put all of my attention into alternative, where I eventually landed up on Radiohead as my favourite contemporary band.

I also enjoy jazz, classical, and a few pop songs. I'm a huge Beatlemaniac, to boot. But I want more heavy metal. Please help me! There are websites good at showing you artists similar to the ones you like, but there are so many, and it's often difficult to weed through to the sound you're looking for. Answers.com describes the genre mix of Corrosion of Conformity as "Heavy metal, Sludge metal, Stoner metal, Crossover thrash," whatever the hell that means. Are there others doing anything remotely similar? Am I asking too much from the genre?



Some sample songs by Corrosion of Conformity that I really like:

Blind:

Deliverance:

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

blahblah454

Clean my wounds was one of the first metal songs I truly fell in love with. Do you listen to any classic Black Sabbath? They were the true originators of "stoner metal".

If you like punky music and folk music, as well as this metal you should try out a band called Korpiklaani. Some of their songs drive me up the wall, but the majority of the material on their albums I absolutely love! Very original sound and a blast to listen to.

If you enjoy any power metal at all I will recommend two bands for you. Blind Guardian and Sonata Arctica. BG has some of the best lead guitar work you will ever hear in your life, but perhaps the vocals may take some getting used to. Personaly I love them, they have fantasy based lyrics and music. Sonata is just plain awesome.

Seeing as you like COC I am guessing that you like the heavy, driving guitars, but also enjoy the singing part as well, not so much screaming and growling. Personally I love the growling (if done properly *Opeth style*), but I kinda hate the screaming stuff for the most part. If you are interested in listening to any Growly stuff I can sure hook you up.

Also from what I gather you enjoy in the music you should definitely check out some more "stoner metal" style stuff, i have a friend that listens to it almost religiously and I will get his advice on some bands for you.

spectre

I'm a huge fan of thrash and groove metal. Some of what your listening to seems to be along those lines so here are a few favorites of mine. I've really been getting into Machine Head lately and that sounds pretty close to what you listed.

A few that seem to be along the same lines:








There's a few good ones to start.

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blahblah454

Oh spectre!! You didn't just recommend Suicide Messiah did you? *hangs head in shame*

BLS is an awesome band to check out though, just stick with the older stuff. Its like the more popular Zakk Wylde gets the shittier his writing becomes.

spectre

Yeah, yeah, I know. Granted, lyrically, he's been slipping a lot but he's still awesome.

__________________
"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

mrklixx

A couple of suggestions right off the top of my head:

Disturbed

Stricken - Prayer - Voices -
System of a Down <----You can't get much more "political, activism and social criticism" than these guys.

BYOB - Sugar - Toxicity -

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Baraka_Guru

Cool! Thanks for the recommendations, guys. I'll certainly have to check these out.

I think the key to my tastes lies in sludge metal, which is a blend of doom metal, hardcore punk, with hints of southern rock. I don't know. If the Answers.com entry for COC is accurate, they are possibly a unique blend of genres that hasn't been replicated much. I think much of what I like is the driving grind mixed with--I don't know what to call it...hooks that have a bit of swing to it?

COC songs have some subtle rhythmic nuances that I like. Much of the metal I've sampled was too straightahead and thrashy. They are bands who like to show their speed and aggressiveness when what I'm after has a bit of melody and rhythmic qualities that lure me in. Note the changes and hooks....they're not always trying to fill the bars with furious palm-muted strums and crazy-fast licks. The songs deliver and wide soundscape that displays their ability to make music that is heavy, intelligent, and complex all rolled into one beautiful package.

I will see if I can find this in any of your recommendations. I guess what I'm looking for is more metal crossover--punk, southern rock, metal, maybe?


EDIT:
Had a quick listen to all your links.... I need to listen to them more, but at first glance, Black Label Society and System of a Down sound promising. Also a couple of maybes: Disturbed and Stone Sour.

As for the others, I listened to Megadeth back in the "Symphony of Destruction" days but grew tired of their sound, and the rest sounded too thrashy and straightahead for what I'm looking for. I'll give them more of a listen to be sure, but I'm being a bit picky. I'm not that into the big hardcore metal sound that a lot of people like. As my OP explains, I'm looking for specific sounds.

Thanks again, guys.

I would probably like Sabbath a lot; I haven't listen to many of their songs. I'm also going to check out sHEAVY and Nebula in terms of stoner metal. It's likely the closest to what I'm looking for. That and sludge.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Anxst

Not quite Metal, truly, but you might want to give Coheed and Cambria a listen. They're kind of crossover, and have some of the things you've described. I will let you know their lead singer has a lot of Rush-like qualities in his singing, so if Geddy drives you berserk you night not dig em.

All their albums are currently telling this gigantic epic story, too, which is pretty cool. They're writing a set of comic books that described the story fully, as some of the lyrics are pretty cryptic as to exactly what's going on.

Still, give em a listen.

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SSJTWIZTA

though not quite metal i always recommend municipal waste. They're quite excellent.

Here ya go, give em a try.






excellence.

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Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
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Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
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Baraka_Guru

Not quite there....

Coheed and Cambria was good, but the Rushlike voice does put me off. Meh.

Municipal Waste is a bit too straightahead thrash.

BUT, I have a hint. I found these guys--Venomin James--on CDBaby by listening to samples of bands that were recommended for those who like Corrosion of Conformity:

• Venomin James, "Bullet Juice":
  YouTube - Venomin James &quot;Bullet Juice&quot; LIVE

  YouTube - Venomin James "Bullet Juice" LIVE

• Venomin James, "Feed the Flames":
  YouTube - Venomin James &quot;Feed the Flames&quot; LIVE

  YouTube - Venomin James "Feed the Flames" LIVE

Have a good listen. This is along the lines of what I'm looking for. What would you call this? They're self-described as "metallic doom rock with southern and stoner rock influences." Who else is like this?

I think these are the elements I like:

• Stoner rock/metal
• Southern rock/metal
• Doom metal
• Riff-laden

I'm not sure what pure doom metal would be like, but I might not be into it on its own. I don't really know; I'm still figuring things out here.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

ironpham

I was going to suggest System of a Down myself.

Forest is probably my favorite of theirs: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lpsNuzGBbuQ
Also, I know they aren't really heavy metal, but I would suggest Muse as well.

Hysteria: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DR2DpgV8fPwTime is Running Out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aaNfQCqclW4Darkshines: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FCCv6zC4jtQNew Born: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FDDCieKfrvY

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MSD

I'll page my brother to this thread. He'll write a fucking essay for you on metal. For now, I'm too drunk to make a good effort. Help me out and tell me what you think of Dreamtheater.
If you're complaining about that, you must have missed the part where he suggested Stone Sour in a metal thread (even if it is a metal thread that includes the Smashing Pumpkins.)
November's Doom or My Dying Bride.

Zodijackyl

MW are classic thrash style but with a new edge, if I was not poor and without a car, I would have made the 2+ hour journey to see them with ATG+DH tonight

C&C are absolutely terrible, don't listen to them, they are nothing metal-like, other than they bad influences on lighter progressive bands (the non metal influences).

I will give my advise on metal tomorrow, as I am also too drunk to write a reasonable recommendation (10-20+ bands), but I will give you my very best, which is a respectably sizable recommendation at least, when I am sober.

A few basic recommendations without thinking

"The big four"
Metallica
Megadeth
Anthrax
Slayer

Other thrash giants
Kreator
Destruction
Sodom
Testament
Overkill

For intensity and musicianship, I recommend Death's "Symbolic" and "The Sound Of Perseverance" for a start

optik_nerve

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Type O Negative. They have a heavy sludge feel to them but still awesome vocals. Some songs can be pretty thrash/heavy metal. Check out the albums October Rust and Life is Killing Me.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4ntvORezIQ4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FMZvKX06P5U
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u6ezd9IJLTw&feature=related

Redjake

System of a Down is mainstream now, but they are one of the few bands that remained "WTF HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!!" while going mainstream. That band just keeps getting better and better. I highly recommend them. Definitely check out all of their albums.

Their biggest hits:
Sugar
Toxicity
Chop Suey
Aerials
Lonely Day
B.Y.O.B.
Hypnotize

If you like any of those, check out the rest. Good stuff!

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BurntToast

Have you tried Pandora?

Put in a group or a song that you like and it spits back out stuff that resembles it. I have found a lot of new (to me) music because of that site.

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Baraka_Guru

More recommendations for me to check out, thanks guys. I downloaded four tracks of Venomin James' off of their Myspace page; I'll be loading them up on my iPod for repeated listening to see if they sink in. But they really are on the track towards what I like.

I will keep listening to these recommendations to see if I can find more.

You just had to bring that up, didn't you?

I was going full tilt on Pandora and loving it, especially since I have such varied tastes. But then one day, this page pops up:
It goes directly to http://www.pandora.com/restricted every time I try to visit the site. Canadians (among others, I'm sure) are shut out.

Damn licensing. That site is brilliant.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

VenominJames

Hey there - we saw your question/post come up in a google search, so we thought we would offer some more bands that are in our vein of sound or that we are influenced by.

Start with the basics, the essentials:

Black Sabbath: First 5 albums are essential. They are "Black Sabbath", "Paranoid", "Master of Reality", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", and "Sabotage". Start here.

Kyuss: "Blues for the Red Sun", "Sky Valley", and "...And the Circus Leaves Town"

Down: "Down", "Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow", and "Over the Under".

Entombed: "Wolverine Blues" and "Morning Star".

Clutch: "Clutch", "The Elephant Riders", and "Blast Tyrant".

Electric Wizard: "Dopethrone" and "Withcult Today".

Queens of the Stone Age: "Queens of the Stone Age".

Unida: "Tales of the Urban Coyote".

Fu Manchu: "The Action is Go" and "In Search Of".

Sleep: "Dopesmoker" and "Sleep's Holy Mountain".

The Sword: "Age of Winters".

Nebula: "Atomic Ritual"

Church of Misery: "Master of Brutality"

Samhain: "November Coming Fire"

Lowrider: "Ode to Io"

Monster Magnet: "Spine of God", "Superjudge", and especially "Dopes to Infinity".

Roachpowder: "Atomic Church".


That's a pretty sizeable list, but you can't go wrong if you check all these bands out. There are plenty more when you're done with this list.

Thanks for the props on our music - glad you dig it! We have a new album coming out in September.

Joe Fortunato
Venomin James

Baraka_Guru

Holy crap, are you seriously the guitarist from Venomin James?! Thanks for joining up to come in and give me this great list. I've checked out a bit of Electric Wizard, which I liked, but these other suggestions are entirely welcome.

I found out about you guys when rooting around on cdbaby.com, looking for similar sounds to C.O.C. and I ultimately landed on a couple of your videos on YouTube. I really like your sound and am seriously considering picking up the album listed on cdbaby.com.

Anyway, thanks again for going out of you way to help me out, I will give this list a try.

Oh, and welcome to the TFP community. I highly recommend checking the rest of the place out; there's a little bit of everything here.

And keep up the good work with the music.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

kutulu

Baraka_Guru:

I'll reiterate VenominJames's suggestion of Down and Clutch. Any of the albums made by those bands should fit with what you are looking for. You mentioned that you liked grunge for a while so you are probably familiar with Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger" and "Louder than Love"

Another possibility that is a little more obscure is "The Black League". They are a Finish band formed by the previous lead singer from Sentenced. They have that multi layered doom metal sound that Down and Blind-era COC have. Here is a cool cong of theirs called "Winter Winds Sing" off of the Ichor album. This is the only album of theirs I've been able to find but they have three others as well.



This is Down doing "March of the Saints" off of their latest album:


As a bonus, the Down's guitarist, Pepper Keenan plays guitar and does vocals for COC.

Pogue Mahone

While VenominJames recommended some absolutely killer bands, I'd have to differ with him on Electric Wizard. I wasn't too much of a fan of Witchcult Today. Their self-titled is much, much better. But I agree with him on Kyuss, Clutch, Down, and Entombed.

I'd also recommend
Crowbar - Equilibrium
Saint Vitus - Born Too Late and V
pretty much anything by Spirit Caravan (hell, if it has Wino in it, it'll be a stoner / doom masterpiece)
Trouble - Psalm 9
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion and Monotheist
Spiritual Beggars - Demons and Ad Astra
Place of Skulls - Nailed and The Black is Never Far

and for shits and giggles, everything by Opeth. They're by far my favorite metal band of all time. They take a couple of listens, but their music's so complex and awesome it's worth it. Out of all their albums I recommend listening to Blackwater Park first.

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I still wave at the dots on the shore
And I still beat my head against the door
I still rage and wage my little war
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clavus

Well, for the love of GOD get yourself some Clutch.

Barefoot Barnacle has a CD coming out soon. When they do, check 'em out. It's instrumental, experimental and good rockin' fun.

MySpace.com - BAREFOOT BARNACLE - SEATTLE - Grindcore / Death Metal / Experimental - www.myspace.com/barefootbarnacle

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blahblah454

tecoyah

I Am Old:

The Official Michael Schenker Site - MichaelSchenkerHimself.com

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VenominJames

Baraka Guru -

Yes, I am the guitarist in Venomin James...

I routinely perform google searches to see if anyone is writing about our band or reviewing the album, and your post came up. I'm always hip to turning someone on to some new music, especially music that I love personally. It thrills us that someone likes what we do, so I had to comment and help out if I could.

I have 2 corrections to my list:

If you get into the Kyuss stuff and you find you're getting into it, make sure to track down the Unida albums and songs. I misnamed their 1 full length, it should be labeled "Coping With The Urban Coyote". They also have a bunch of stuff of compilations and splits, so I think you can get those on iTunes or Napster or similar services. Worth checking out for sure. Look them (Unida) up on Wikipedia.

Also, the first Down album is called "NOLA". I can't believe I messed that one up.

I wanted to add a couple more selections as well:


Trouble: "Psalm 9", "The Skull", "Run to the Light", "Trouble", "Manic Frustration", "Plastic Green Head". We had the good fortune to open for these guys recently, before Eric Wagner left as singer. These are all classic albums. Gotta agree with Pogue above.

Crowbar: "Lifesblood for the Downtrodden", "Equilibrium" (another good one, Pogue)

Captain Beyond: "Captain Beyond". Rod Evans from Deep Purple is the vocalist, and the rhythm section is from Iron Butterfly and Johnny Winter's band. Awesome.

Wishbone Ash: "Argus".

Orange Goblin: "Thieving from the House of God", and "Healing Through Fire". Start here, and if you dig these guys, keep digging into their catalogue. I also really like "Frequencies from Planet Ten" and "Coup De Grace".

Second anything that has Wino in it: Saint Vitus, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed, Probot. Pogue nailed that one, too.

Keep rockin'

Joe

BurntToast

Have you tried a proxy??

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Pogue Mahone

Damn, I forgot about the Hidden Hand! Wino's frickin' awesome. I've actually tried to emulate his guitar tone for my own band.

On a side note, have you heard anything concerning his new project with Dale Crover of the Melvins, Shrinebuilder? I've only heard briefly about it on another message board about three months ago. It's supposed to come out some time soon, but I can't find any info about it.

And speaking of the Melvins, give them a shot if you haven't, Baraka.

__________________
I still wave at the dots on the shore
And I still beat my head against the door
I still rage and wage my little war
I'm a shade and easy to ignore

roachboy

metal in general, i'm ambivalent about--i got bored long ago in the main, but i still drift into it when someone hips me to something or i stumble across....these days, i'm having great fun listening to boris.
dont know if they count, because they're a little odd.

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