Times it Worked (Exceptions to Deal Breaking Scenarios).
This here is the middle section of the "Deal Breakers" and "Green Lights" Threads. It's for things you almost always dislike, but then somebody came along and made it work.
I'm going to try to provide a template as this is less cut and dry than the other two threads.
The Deal Breaker: Song Contains no Metal Elements.
The Exception:
Why it works for me: Well, Dixie Dave just kinda always works for me. The misanthropic lyrics laid against that church organ delivered in that legendary whiskey-soaked southern rasp. It's like an ironic joke, and it is a tone setter for the album, because Weedeater are indeed coming after you with Goliathon.
Most of my exceptions to deal-breakers are bands and specific releases rather than songs, since my deal-breakers are metal genres. Here are some of those exceptions:
The majority of black metal - There are several black metal bands over the years I've enjoyed before turning my back on them after a while. A band that I've revisited a couple months ago is Samael, via their second album in their black metal era, Blood Ritual, when it was a feature release. I ended up enjoying that album more than I thought I would, slightly more than a couple of Samael's industrial metal albums that I reviewed. The only other North release I still have a rating for is Underoath's Cries of the Past, but I object to that album's position in the clan.
Brutal/slam death metal - I seem to like a bit of brutal death metal more when mixed with deathcore in some occasions. Sometimes it works (Despised Icon's Consumed by Your Poison), sometimes it doesn't (Abnegation's Verses of the Bleeding). I also enjoy the album At Damnation's Core by Daniel's former band Neuropath. If you haven't listened to that Neuropath album, I highly recommend it, Zach.
The more brutal deathcore bands - Similarly with that Despised Icon album, I enjoy a few deathcore bands/releases that are brutal to cross over to the Horde clan as long as they're not highly fixated on gory violence. These include Deformity's Murder Within Sin, Embodyment's Embrace the Eternal, and bands The Red Chord and Rings of Saturn. Damaged's Token Remedies Research and Deformity's Misanthrope also qualify in that category, though they don't work as much.
Drone/funeral doom - N/A
Grindcore - Not all of it is awful. I love The Red Chord and their mix of deathgrind and deathcore. And a few other releases are good or average similarly to Damaged, such as the Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Converge split The Poacher Diaries, Atka's Untitled Album, Genghis Tron's Cloak of Love, OLD's Old Lady Drivers, and PainKiller's Buried Secrets.
My hatred for symphony, power metal in general, and opera soprano are well documented.... however.
I love this and you should check it out:
The deal breaker: samples.
Exception 1: Funeral Mist - Devilry (1998) - the whole EP.
There are many reasons I adore this release, one of them being the particularly filthy atmosphere that's enhanced by extensive use of samples. I like them here since they help to convey the viscous and toxic sound and seem to be generally well thought out.
Exception 2: Theatre of Tragedy - And When He Falleth from Velvet Darkness They Fear (1996).
Even though the follow-up to the their debut full-length (which I hold dear to my heart) was quite a letdown for me, I have a soft spot for this track and I cannot imagine it without the lengthy dialogue samples taken from the 1964 classic The Masque of the Red Death.
Caution! Contains beauty and the beast vocals and some questionable gothicy recitations.
Exception 2: Theatre of Tragedy - And When He Falleth from Velvet Darkness They Fear (1996).
Even though the follow-up to the their debut full-length (which I hold dear to my heart) was quite a letdown for me, I have a soft spot for this track and I cannot imagine it without the lengthy dialogue samples taken from the 1964 classic The Masque of the Red Death.Caution! Contains beauty and the beast vocals and some questionable gothicy recitations.
I used to be a fan of the more melodic gothic death-doom bands like Theatre of Tragedy, and this was one of my favorite songs by the band. I agree that the lengthy dialogue samples are the best part of the song. The only other time I've heard Vincent Price in a song is that spoken-word outro of Michael Jackson's "Thriller".