Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

There are many awesome progressive metal bands but here are a few I would recommend to fellow Infinite members, listed below. If you haven't listened to them yet, you should. But if you already listen to them, well done!

Ayreon

Dream Theater

Persefone

Angra (since 2003)

Between the Buried and Me (since 2003)

Cynic (Focus and Traced in Air)

Any of you fellow Horde members here like death metal but want something less violent/gory/horrifying and more melodic? There are many awesome melodic death metal bands but here are a few I would recommend listed below. If you haven't listened to them yet, you should. But if you already listen to them, well done!

Amon Amarth

Dark Tranquillity

Scar Symmetry

Avatar (before 2014)

Darkest Hour (before 2014)

In Flames (first 5 albums)

I like that idea! I would suggest starting with the highest-rated releases in the site's charts, one per each clan, as the featured albums for the first month because some of those albums are underrated in the world outside the website and it feels good for those albums to have the small fame they have here. Then we start mixing up the classics, new releases, and rare gems. This rating/reviewing challenge is gonna be so fun and interesting....

3 more left, please vote!

Glad you like them! Anthrax and the W.A.S.P. was the main reason I made all this. I was writing a list of songs from popular metal bands as a metal playlist for a movie or something, and the first two bands listed were Anthrax and W.A.S.P. Hence the Metal Cinematic Universe!

The Viking's home backyard has a nice small beach for the North Vikings to catch some rays (the northernmost point of the land). And if you want some of the best heavy metal pizza, I suggest contacting Alestorm, that band can give you an awesome Pirate Pizza Party! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxJIAslmAJI

Wow, this release now has 11 votes! 4 more and then the Hall will make its judgement. Any members of The Infinite and/or The North who haven't voted, please vote right now and let the Hall choose its fate!

No problem. Glad to help!

Good enough. Thanks Ben!

Thanks Ben!

Video uploaded! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou2mnTXQ6fY

Excellent, thanks guys! Video coming soon...

Cheers to you too!

I've been thinking for a while about how to bring people on-board to the Metal Academy, and soon I thought, "Hey, maybe I can try doing that via a YouTube video!" Yeah, I have a YouTube account, SirZP thundergod9001, which I use to upload my own metal song remixes (just changing the pitch/tempo, plus a few full album specials). It's not at all super popular, but I'm willing to seize that opportunity. So I decided that I would make and upload a video telling people about the site and see if it would attract any metalheads to join the site. It's not a forceful shameful promotion, I just want more people to know more about the site and let them decide whether to join in or not. So how about that?

Still a cool list, Daniel!

Better revised version of my top 25 favorite metal albums (including bands I've previously forgotten about and bands I've just started listening to):

#25: HIM - Love Metal (2003) (even though they're more of a gothic rock band than metal)

#24: Paradise Lost - Draconian Times (1995)

#23: My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River/Like Gods of the Sun (1995-1996) (both albums fit together and edited to play at 2x faster tempo)

#22: Nightrage - Sweet Vengeance (2003)

#21: Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation (2008)

#20: In Flames - The Jester Race (1996)

#19: Mastodon - Leviathan (2004)

#18: August Burns Red - Constellations (2009)

#17: Edge of Sanity - Crimson I+II (1996/2003) (both work better as one full 2-part suite)

#16: Tiamat - Wildhoney (1994)

#15: Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)

#14: Cynic - Focus (1993)

#13: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (1999)

#12: At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)

#11: Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance (2002)

#10: Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree (2005)

#9: Darkest Hour - Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation (2003)

#8: Amaranthe - Amaranthe (2011)

#7: Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison (2005)

#6: Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)

#5: Between the Buried and Me - Colors (2007)

#4: Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)

#3: All That Remains - Overcome (2008)

#2: Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (2004)

#1: Trivium - In Waves (2011)

Ben, please add HIM (Finland).

I know they're more of a gothic rock band than metal, but the band has some metal in some albums. So please add the albums Venus Doom (which already has Gothic Metal on the top of its genre list in Rate Your Music), Love Metal (even though none of the metal genres that describe this album are on top of its genre list, the album and its title help describe the band's musical genre, so please at least put it in The Fallen and/or The Gateway), and Dark Light (non-metal album between the two aforementioned albums).

Ben, please add these new albums:

Oh, Sleeper - Bloodied / Unbowed

The Contortionist - Our Bones (not in The Revolution but the band used to be, please put that EP in The Infinite)

Betraying the Martyrs - Rapture

Thanks Ben!

ARRG!!! Totally forgot about Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I! It's the best part of the discography of one of the most progressive recent bands of metal, with Citadel being a close second. I will probably later make a revised edition of my list to include the bands and albums I forgot about, along with an album or two from a couple bands that I just became interested in, so stay tuned for that. Cool lists, Xephyr and Daniel!

Shoot, I forgot about My Dying Bride! Yeah they're a dark gothic death/doom band that I sometimes listen to, but the music is so slow compared to the faster metal bands that I love. In fact I edited a couple My Dying Bride albums to play at a 2x faster tempo so they wouldn't sound too slow and doomy for me. Anyway, excellent list, Ben!

It does not have to be top 25. If you feel like writing your own list of favorite metal albums but don't want to spend too much time, top 10 is a good number to start. Anyway, glad you love some of my favorite albums!

I also noticed that Boris' "Pink" album, which was also submitted by Daniel, isn't in the hall yet. Ben, when you add "Dorosłe dzieci", please also add the "Pink" album. Thanks!

Yeah, I also think "L'enfant Sauvage" is stronger and a better definition of that band's sound, and it should've been somewhere in the top 10, with "Magma" close to #25. But MS already made the list, so it is what it is... Personally my #1 favorite metal album of the 2010s is "In Waves" by Trivium.

Gojira is number one! SWEET!!!

Great! Thanks, Ben.

Welcome back from your vacation, Ben! Please add the new DragonForce album Extreme Power Metal.

Oh OK, that makes sense, thanks Daniel. Those automated accounts shall not pass!

My brother also likes a small bit of metalcore, but I wasn't into metalcore until, like I said before, my YouTube pen pal Danny Ultrawiz suggested I listen to Trivium which is exactly what started my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal. And that's why I'm in The Revolution. Besides metalcore, there's also a bit of mathcore and deathcore in my playlist. Metalcore to the core, baby!

When I was in my old epic metal taste, someone told me about this progressive metal band Dream Theater, and I enjoyed it enough to start finding progressive metal bands to add to my epic metal arsenal. A few of the epic metal bands I've listened to before then have some progressive elements, but these other progressive metal bands include Ayreon, Symphony X, Evergrey, Pain of Salvation, Transatlantic, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra (those two "Trans-" bands actually more toward rock than metal). When I made my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal, just like The Horde, The Infinite is still strong within me, and I kept my progressive side. But now I'm finding bands from the more extreme territory of progressive metal. My progressive search is in good progress!

It's a long story. When I was first starting my epic metal taste, I almost didn't want anything to do with death metal, because I was younger and knew that my parents wouldn't approve of me taking my melodic epic metal taste somewhere so controversially brutal. But there are a few symphonic/power metal bands I listened to at the time that have (melodic) death metal tendencies in an album or a few, or some songs throughout their discography: Dragonland's "Astronomy" ("gloomier, more Stygian and packed with crunching guitars; both furiously fast and bone-grindingly heavy" with death growls in a couple songs and a horror-themed instrumental suite), Within Temptation's "Enter" (a symphonic gothic death-doom album), Epica, After Forever (two symphonic metal bands with some gothic elements and death growls), and Ayreon (a few songs, or at least segments within songs, have a bit of death growling; "The Banishment" ("Oblivion"), "Cosmic Fusion" ("Death's Grunt"), and "Loser").

It wasn't until those folk/melodeath bands I mentioned in the "first experience" thread for The North (Eluveitie, Wintersun, and Battlelore) that I ended up joining the melodic side of The Horde, with more melodeath bands coming into my epic metal arsenal such as Dark Tranquillity, Children of Bodom, Scar Symmetry, Arch Enemy, and Amon Amarth. When I made my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal, did I leave The Horde behind? NOPE. While moving into The Revolution, I reached further horizons in The Infinite and The Horde, finding a more extreme side of progressive metal and more variations of death metal than just melodeath (technical death metal, death-doom, and technical/symphonic deathcore). The Horde is still strong within me!

Now about grindcore, that's NOT really a genre I would listen to, like standard death metal. Too extreme and controversial, especially the more offensive stuff of goregrind and pornogrind. Though some of my favorite bands like Lamb of God and The Dillinger Escape Plan had some grindcore elements when they first started...

My brother who is usually a rock fan, at one point was listening to gothic metal band Lacuna Coil. I was still in my epic metal taste (power/progressive/folk), and didn't intend to make my music interest go goth. But then I found out that band's female vocalist Cristina Scabbia was in one of my favorite albums at the time, progressive metal opera album The Theory of Everything by Ayreon, and that's what made me interested in Lacuna Coil. Other gothic metal bands that entered my epic metal arsenal included The Gathering, Anathema, and Theatre of Tragedy (including those bands' post-1998 industrial/alt-prog rock material for the sake of completion). After my grand switch to a heavier modern side of metal, I guess you can say I regained my Fallen virginity, then lost it again when I became interested in Tiamat and a few other gothic metal bands later. The gothic part of my metal taste is kinda off-and-on, which is why The Fallen isn't one of my top 3 clans. I'm pretty much more interested in being a metalhead than a goth...

You thought I've completely moved on from power metal... I HAVEN'T!!

DragonForce is back with their brand new album, the aptly titled "Extreme Power Metal"! From the glorious "Highway to Oblivion" to their wild 2x-speed cover of Celine Dion's mega-hit "My Heart Will Go On", this album would surely please some longtime DragonForce fans and newcomers. Epica keyboardist Coen Janssen comes to the rescue after the departure of Vadim Pruzhanov, giving many songs on this album a more epic touch. I know I've already moved on from my earlier power metal taste, but I don't wanna completely forget about the one band in my metal interest that started it all. I'm still in the Horde, Infinite, and Revolution clans. And maybe I'll write a full review about this album once it gets added here. But for now... 4.75/5

Here's a cool meme based on this glitch (but seriously, please fix it Ben). I wanna search for The Dillinger Escape Plan, but the only way to do that is to type:

I use Mozilla Firefox.

Yeah, the font size would shrink if press backspace in a review that's already blank, so I have to refresh the page. Please fix it, Ben!

I believe this little problem has been fixed now. Let me know if you disagree.

Cheers.

It's fixed now. Thanks so much, Ben!

MetalScape map, the better revised version:

The Fallen = Morytania

The Gateway = Tirannwn and the Lost Grove

The Guardians = Asgarnia

The Horde = Wilderness

The Infinite = Kandarin, Entrana, and the Lunar Isle

The North = Troll Country, Fremennik Province and Isles, and Daemonheim 

The Pit = Feldip Hills, Karamja (because of the Tz'Haar), and Kharidian Desert

The Revolution = Misthalin 

The Sphere = Northeastern Kandarin (due to the Elemental Workshop)

The Others = Southern and Eastern Islands

I now know that my "The Others" idea will never happen here, but I'm still keeping it in the map. This new version really does look better and a little more varied than the first version, thanks to Metal Academy member and RS player Xephyr. Once again, enjoy my MetalScape!

Wow, that actually sounds better than what I had in mind. I haven't really been playing RuneScape as much as I used to, so some of my RS memories are a little distant. Thanks for the suggestion, Xephyr! Better revised edition coming soon...

There was one band that got me into power metal and eventually symphonic metal, the band that made me become a metalhead, one band to start it all, my taste in metal.... DragonForce! More info about my encounter in my "Introduce Yourself" post.

Yeah, the font size would shrink if press backspace in a review that's already blank, so I have to refresh the page. Please fix it, Ben!

I have a new friend who used to like metal but now loves Audiomachine. Both she and I are in a group chat and she would start her messages with "Audiomachine" on top. I also used to be into epic trailer music before my metal interest began, but it was mostly Two Steps From Hell.

Audiomachine is an American production music company based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded by Paul Dinletir and Carol Sovinski in August 2005, producing music composed by Paul Dinletir and Kevin Rix. (from Wikipedia)

4/5

Hey guys! Please add these bands:

DragonForce (The Guardians (all albums), The Pit (Inhuman Rampage), The Infinite (Reaching Into Infinity))

Dragonland (The Guardians (all albums), The Infinite (Astronomy, Under the Grey Banner), The Horde (Astronomy))

Power Quest

Freedom Call

Alestorm (The Guardians, The North)

Battlelore (The Guardians, The North, The Horde)

Dream Evil

Edenbridge (The Guardians (all albums), The Infinite (Sunrise in Eden, Arcana, Aphelion, My Earth Dream, Solitaire)

Elvenking (The Guardians, The North)

Luca Turilli's Rhapsody (The Guardians, The Infinite)

Timo Tolkki's Avalon

Battle Beast

Twilight Force

Gloryhammer

All of these bands have now been added.

Awesome!! Thanks Ben!

Yes, this site is a good way to help me find more metal music and I've already mentioned that I wanted to add suggestions that will help the site grow into something special. But I wasn't thinking of adding any ratings or reviews. I mean I would but I'm too busy with many other things, like a few-day trip to Singapore starting tomorrow. Maybe when I come back, I can add some ratings and reviews and do some more cool contributions to Metal Academy. Thanks for that suggestion, and I'll be back next week!

Peace,

Shadowdoom9/Andi

Thanks Ben! Can't wait to see some more bands added here..

Awesome!! You included one the bands I requested! Thanks man!