# Extreme Metal Thread!



## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Here is where we go about submitting our favorite works that covers the heavier, less predictable side of metal :tiphat:


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)




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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)




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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)




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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

For starters, but we could get into avant garde noise metal influence stuff too (I know plenty of groups doing that too!) :tiphat:


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2017)

I guess Morbid Angel is my favorite extreme band overall. They don't completely dispense with memorable riffs!






Cryptopsy is good for sheer technicality:





So is Necrophagist:


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

How come extreme metal threads always disappear? \m/ I tried some myself. This is pretty extreme and creative. None more black!


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I feel sympathetic towards metal but I don't understand why the genre wants to associate so strongly with - in my view - somewhat childish and quite limited symbolic language and iconography. Death. Destroy. Warfare. Necrophagy. Morbid. Rapture. Napalm. Etc. That turns me off even before I've listened to any of the music. Metal seems to want you to adhere to a subculture the same way rap and hiphop do in my opinion. For me this severely limits the accessability of the music.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Kontrapunctus said:


> I guess Morbid Angel is my favorite extreme band overall. They don't completely dispense with memorable riffs!


and great videos too!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I'm not particularly into extreme metal, but there are certain albums I've found very interesting. 
Portal for instance have that deliberately chaotic sound that seems like a perfect soundtrack for a Lovecraft nightmare:






And another one that I like is Nespithe, the only album of the band Demilich. It sounds like a infernal labyrinth with all those fractured riffs. For all the intricacies of the music there's not a lot of variety it must be said, but I think it's a fascinating album. I'm not a fan of cookie monster vocals (at all, actually), but I think that deep frog sound is perfect for this music... it could be a perfect soundtrack playing at Doom


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Casebearer said:


> I feel sympathetic towards metal but I don't understand why the genre wants to associate so strongly with - in my view - somewhat childish and quite limited symbolic language and iconography. Death. Destroy. Warfare. Necrophagy. Morbid. Rapture. Napalm. Etc. That turns me off even before I've listened to any of the music. Metal seems to want you to adhere to a subculture the same way rap and hiphop do in my opinion. For me this severely limits the accessability of the music.


I don't want to deny that a lof of metal is definitely childish, but a lot of classical music and art in general revolves around death, war etc


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

norman bates said:


> I don't want to deny that a lof of metal is definitely childish, but a lot of classical music and art in general revolves around death, war etc


I agree. Nevertheless there is a big difference between choosing death, war etc as subject matter for your own artistic interpretation (that could highlight very different aspects of the subject) and using primitive symbolic images and language to create a world that's dominated in my opinion by a very specific subcultural and one dimensional bias on life. In my opinion a lot of the music deserves a a less limited communication style.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

Casebearer said:


> I feel sympathetic towards metal but I don't understand why the genre wants to associate so strongly with - in my view - somewhat childish and quite limited symbolic language and iconography. Death. Destroy. Warfare. Necrophagy. Morbid. Rapture. Napalm. Etc. That turns me off even before I've listened to any of the music. Metal seems to want you to adhere to a subculture the same way rap and hiphop do in my opinion. For me this severely limits the accessability of the music.


And classical music is just happy, major key music for rich people, right?


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I wonder why people keep confusing casebearer's post? He is not suggesting classical music is only happy and major key, or that it doesn't deal with dark topics. That actually has nothing whatsoever to do with his point. He is talking about the limited range of metal in not exploring much outside of those topics and also the sub cultures that tend to spring up around music like metal and hip hop, where many of the fans seem to turn into characters of some kind rather than being individuals, and I think he makes a valid point.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Some pretty new extreme stuff here! One is a "ballad", a sad ballad of a bad salad...I don't mind so much if this is childish or not.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

tdc said:


> I wonder why people keep confusing casebearer's post? He is not suggesting classical music is only happy and major key, or that it doesn't deal with dark topics. That actually has nothing whatsoever to do with his point. *He is talking about the limited range of metal in not exploring much outside of those topics and also the sub cultures that tend to spring up around music like metal and hip hop, where many of the fans seem to turn into characters* of some kind rather than being individuals, and I think he makes a valid point.


He is displaying the limited accuracy of representation and lack of understatement of diversity, through adhering to dry stereotypes, so I threw one back at him. 

For the record, the metal community actually themselves satirize those stereotypes, so does the hip-hop community with their stereotypes.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

David OByrne said:


> He is displaying the limited accuracy of representation and lack of understatement of diversity, through adhering to dry stereotypes, so I threw one back at him.
> 
> For the record, the metal community actually themselves satirize those stereotypes, so does the hip-hop community with their stereotypes.


Yes, on reflection I think these kinds of 'characters' I was referring to seem to spring up around all the different styles of music in different ways (ie - the classical fan who only listens to classical music because they want to fit in with a certain social class - the rich, elite etc.) so in that sense it is not a phenomena unique to metal.

I still think metal generally does have a limited range of emotional content it expresses compared to most other forms of music, however I do respect the high level of musicianship in some bands and I occasionally listen to some of it.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

tdc said:


> I still think metal generally does have a limited range of emotional content it expresses compared to most other forms of music, however I do respect the high level of musicianship in some bands and I occasionally listen to some of it.


If I'm not mistaken, this is the "Extreme metal" thread, which is one of the more......extreme umbrellas of metal sub-genres.

Where do you fit:

NWOBH
Progressive metal
Alternative metal
Avant garde metal
Nu-metal
Funk metal
Sludge metal 
Glam metal 
Post-metal 
Symphonic metal 
Industrial metal

into your view?

But even with extreme-metal itself, there are a vast variety of things being explored. In lots of aspects: style itself (duh, the sub-genres), lyrical content, image, fanbases/audience trajectory, background etc


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

David OByrne said:


> If I'm not mistaken, this is the "Extreme metal" thread, which is one of the more......extreme umbrellas of metal sub-genres.
> 
> Where do you fit:
> 
> ...


Not knowledgeable enough to comment. If you can show me an example of a metal piece (out of any sub genre) that sounds calm, happy and joyful, that would be interesting.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

David OByrne said:


> And classical music is just happy, major key music for rich people, right?


No, of course not. Classical music is very varied. Parts of it are happy, major key music (which I generally don't like myself with some exceptions) but I don't want to compare classical to metal because classical is a very broad genre and metal is a subgenre of popular music regardless of the number of sub-subgenres you want to divide it in. In my opinion the subgenre - and the sub-subgenres - limits itself in musical and extra-musical ways of expression by the choice of subject matter, the often onedimensional treatment of subject matter and the use of childish, one-sided and negative symbolic language. On the positive side the symbolic language metal mostly comes up with are dumb, again childish symbols like a 'rose' or an 'angel'.

I 'm just describing my general feeling on the subgenre. As I'm not into it you can't blame me for not giving a full picture of what metal is about. On the other hand: if it had much to offer to me I would certainly be into it. And of course there are some interesting exceptions, like the ones Selby posted recently in another thread.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

David OByrne said:


> He is displaying the limited accuracy of representation and lack of understatement of diversity, through adhering to dry stereotypes, so I threw one back at him.
> 
> For the record, the metal community actually themselves satirize those stereotypes, so does the hip-hop community with their stereotypes.


Well, if the community itself satirizes the stereotypes I can't be that mistaken. You're welcome to throw some more at me. I'd like you to show me some metal for grown ups that deals with life and it's ups and downs in a non-simplistic way.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

tdc said:


> Yes, on reflection I think these kinds of 'characters' I was referring to seem to spring up around all the different styles of music in different ways (ie - the classical fan who only listens to classical music because they want to fit in with a certain social class - the rich, elite etc.) so in that sense it is not a phenomena unique to metal.
> 
> I still think metal generally does have a limited range of emotional content it expresses compared to most other forms of music, however I do respect the high level of musicianship in some bands and I occasionally listen to some of it.


I fully agree with the last part. Concerning the first part I wasn't talking about characters in the fanbase/subculture but about the limited treatment and depth of characters in the music itself.


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## Timothy (Jul 19, 2017)

While I'm not a fan of metal myself, I hope that you won't disregard that lots of classical music is childish and shallow too (Mozart and Haydn for instance), a lot of laughable stuff was written during that era.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

tdc said:


> Not knowledgeable enough to comment. If you can show me an example of a metal piece (out of any sub genre) that sounds calm, happy and joyful, that would be interesting.


that would be interesting for sure... altough it's a bit like asking for a calm and joyful horror movie.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

norman bates said:


> that would be interesting for sure... altough it's a bit like asking for a calm and joyful horror movie.


Perhaps but another thread made me remember these tracks:











They sound relatively close to matching the criteria. Metal fans can thank Mike Patton/Mr. Bungle/Faith No More for expanding the boundaries of the genre.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

tdc said:


> Not knowledgeable enough to comment. If you can show me an example of a metal piece (out of any sub genre) that sounds calm, happy and joyful, that would be interesting.


Try something like power metal then:






Or something like this:






Or:






A cliche example but it's true:






Some Iron Maiden, It's in a minor key but really upbeat:


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

(because of video limit)

Classic Black Sabbath song, very beautiful:






I could go on all day


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

Wow, they are not fooling around this time! The new recording comes out this Friday, Dec.1.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

As a child of the 60s I grew up listening to pop-rock (Slade, Sweet, T-Rex) and then I heard Sabbath and my whole soundworld changed. These days I listen to a lot of different styles but there's summat about metal that summons the animal in me......I only have to listen to the riff from Symptom of the Universe by Sabbath and I'm transported back to a time when the sound of a heavy guitar ruled my life (they still do to the extent that I attempt to play guitars). I can happily listen to Sabbath (only with Ozzy), Trivium, In Flames, Priest, Scorpions, Volbeat, bits of nu-metal, hair metal, Melodeath and a host of post-metal bands (Isis, Pelican, Red Sparrowes) and then listen to Schubert and Beethoven. I know what I like. I'm not a fan of death metal or thrash but like the odd bit. All depends on the material.

Btw, my first metal gig was Black Sabbath (10th anniversary tour) supported by a new American band, Van Halen, back in 1978 at Manchester Apollo. Nothing was ever gonna be the same again after that gig. Van Halen are still the only support band Ive ever seen to warrant an encore. What an introduction to metal.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)




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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)




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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)




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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)




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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Victor Redseal said:


>


Laibach. What a band!


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

With year end approaching, is anyone making a _Best Metal Albums of 2017_ list?


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Full of demonic energy...


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Selby said:


> With year end approaching, is anyone making a _Best Metal Albums of 2017_ list?


I usually look at others lists to get some good ideas on what to listen to. I did buy several CD's this year that are a bit extreme, but some are not from this year. I liked all that I bought! Darkthrone, Vektor, Tombs, Solstafir, Wintersun, the Black Dahlia Murder, Destroyer 666, Ihsahn and Satyricon. I'm eagerly awaiting new Machine Head and Watain in January.


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## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

^ I love Vektor. All 3 full lengths are fantastic. _Terminal Redux_ is perfection. I would like more of this _blackish-thrash_ genre hybrid, or black influenced thrash, a la Absu and Vektor. I think it's great.

My list of 5 most rewarding metal records from 2017:
Dodecahedron - Kwintessens
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Krallice - Go Be Forgotten
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Ex Eye - Ex Eye


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