There are various band recommendation threads here catering to other subcultures, so I thought,
why not a (real)
metal one? I am going to try and stick with either strong releases that haven't gotten as much attention, or extremely unusual/experimental acts whose risk taking is done gracefully and actually pays off. Any other metalhead who thinks of a band or album they think belongs in such a thread, have at it, write about them here.
My first pick is newer Irish black metal band, a somewhat usual beast, called
Altar of Plagues, their album being
White Tombs. Generally long songs with different sections within them, progressing slowly, changes not occuring quite so suddenly as is the case with bands like
Arcturus,
Shining, or
Opeth- back when they were actually decent. Some songs have long and expansive ambient intros done mainly through tinkering around with reverb and the like, nothing operatic like
Emperor, while others immediately leap into the violence. As with many Irish bands stretching across genres (
U2,
This Burning Effigy,
The Cranberries, etc.) there is an emotional quality that is at once deeply vulnerable, youthful, and yet stormy, and in this case very much defiant, which comes through even in a style aiming at sounding primordial and inhumanly abrasive, which I believe they succeed at as well. Definitely melancholy metal, though in black in sound, more akin to
Agalloch than
Mayhem, both great in their own respective ways.
Without delving into technical descriptions,
Altar of Plagues are like meeting place between traditionally styled black metal like
Gorgoroth and such, and bands with a doomier, experimental edge like
Neurosis,
Khanate, and
Buried at Sea. Very recommended. Enough talk, a few examples.
10-25-2009
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