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CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Surely "Gothenburg death style" is more than enough subtle classification?
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It is, but I'm not hearing it here - and it's almost certainly not an influence as the songwriter doesn't think highly of Gothenburg death metal.

Jer said:
There are quite a few musical parts that remind me of In Flames’ The Jester Race and Blaze Bayley’s backing band from The Man Who Would Not Die and Promise And Terror, which are both Gothenburg death style, unless I’m missing something. Perhaps there’s some subtle classification difference I don’t understand, since I’m not a connoisseur of either style.
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It's a melodic approach and it's extreme metal, that may be the reason why you're thinking along those lines, but I think the extreme metal element here is black metal influence and the melodic element is Maiden influence.
 
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CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I'm not thinking along any lines I'm afraid. I was merely pointing out the absurdity of any further derivation of an already absurd sub-label. In my view.
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That second part was supposed to be a response to @Jer, forgot to quote him. I'll edit it in.

Genres and sub-genres are there to group similar artists together in order to facilitate discovery and discussion. If there are clear and consistent differences, even if they are subtle, it serves its purpose. There are things about the sound of In Flames, At the Gates and Dark Tranquility (Gothenburg scene) that are clearly distinct from Entombed and Dismember (Stockholm scene). Nothing absurd about it as long as nobody gets upset with you for not being familiar with the more subtle sub-genre names.
 
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The Gothenburg scene was really a thing of its own. There are some traits that don't pop to the eye at first but are definitely there, namely in the guitar work. Iron Maiden is an obvious one but there's also a lot of King Diamond's Andy Laroque and early Yngwie Malmsteen influences going on there. Then there are some more obvious ones in Death and Black metal: Death's guitar work , Carcass' Necroticism, Dissection's The Somberlain and 1st EP among many others.

So, since young Mikael also had some of these metal bands as reference it's normal that in some passages Opeth seems a bit similar to some Gothenburg DM but I think there are still some differences. Is it Death/ Black? Yea. Is it melodic? Also. But the prog meets folk factor in Opeth's composition is quite outside those band's traits which, whilst still incorporating a bit of folk in their sound went for a more neoclassic heavy metal approach in their guitar work.
 
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Orchid is a really charming debut. Definitely a lot of Maiden worship, but you also get a pretty good idea of what Opeth is all about. The transitions are a bit clunky and the playing isn't as good as what you'll hear later from the band, but they've already laid the groundwork for one of Metal's finest.
 
The guitar work and melodies are mesmerizing. Unique sound and atmosphere! I like Dan Swano's production. A bit more bass would be nice but all in all a very well done effort.
 
I don't like either of the first pair. Synthetic sounding experimental folky theatrical pop/rock versus incredibly stock rock. I marginally prefer listening to Danzig with his blend of pecs, arses and guitars. Mostly for the guitars.

Now Opeth I'm a lot more fond of, yes, even growly Opeth. This is a tough choice because I do have a real soft spot for Children of Bodom. Very tuneful and hooky. COB it is.

Cult of Luna are okay, but sometimes I really get putoff by too much meandering experimental music. In Utero I've always enjoyed, despite Kurt's voice sounding particularly knackered by this point, and it not being remotely metal. Nirvana it is.

Accept would be a whole lot better if they got a singer in :p Hmmm, same thing applies to Strapping Young Lad, come to think of it. Accept for enjoyable riffery.
 
1st match has one hard rock album and one...goth folk album? Danzig by default for at least having something to bob my head to.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Opeth

Cult of Luna is drudgery and I am not even remotely interested in it, but Nirvana is not metal.

Accept is more fun. I've never been able to get into SYL.
 
Lacrimosa are weird and dull. It's probably the sort of thing Tommy H from Nightwish was thinking of when he wrote 'Human 2 Nature'. The female vocals are nice enough but I don't want to listen to any more of this album and I don't think it's Metal either. Danzig surely isn't Metal either, but it's from that Rolling Stone list where anything goes. I'll vote for Danzig has there are at least some decent riffs. I hope this goes away in the next round.

The Opeth song selected for this album really drags on a bit and I'm not keen on Akerfeldt's vocals here. The instrumental part in the middle is very Maiden-esque though. Very nice. I reckon I'd like snippets of this album if I ever bothered to listen to it. Children of Bodom get kudos for being way more upbeat and energetic but Alexi Laiho is a shitty vocalist. However, the Opeth song bored me so much I'm going to vote for 'Hate Crew Deathroll'. 'Orchid' will obviously win because they're super popular here and pro-Forostar bias.

Will anything ever happen in this Cult of Luna song? Those Opeth and Lacrimosa songs were a fucking riot compared to this. Regarding Nirvana, I'm not sure where the forum stands on their genre but I don't think they're Metal. And as I typed that some vocals appeared in 'A Greater Call', so I will vote for 'Mariner' despite not giving a shit about it. I hope we don't get any more albums like this.

You know what you're getting with Accept - pretty standard macho Heavy Metal with heavy riffs. Just the sort of thing Kalata would nominate. I wouldn't mind listening to more of this album, but I don't really feel motivated to either. I will definitely vote for the Accept album though as Strapping Young Lad are a load of shit. Just shouting the same thing again and again and again.
 
I really couldn't care less about the first pairing, but chose Lacrimosa as it's more metal.

I love Opeth, but Orchid really isn't best at anything. It's just a bunch of Maiden melodies thrown together and taped up into overlong bloated songs without any structure or thought. Nothing is memorable about this album. Also, disappointing production job from Swanö. Sounds kinda amateurish, no reverb or any depth to the sound. Growls are great on this album but Mikael is still years away from learning how to sing clean vocals properly. So I'm gonna go with COB which is a weaker band, but a much more professional and developed album.

Went with Nirvana. It's not metal but I never listened to the other album, so whatever.

Also, never rated Accept. B league AC/DC metal, even though this album isn't but really not something I wanna listen to. City is cool.
 
Brigantium said:
Accept would be a whole lot better if they got a singer in :p Hmmm, same thing applies to Strapping Young Lad, come to think of it.
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So Devin Townsend is not a singer... :facepalm:
Nothing against your other takes Brigantium. It's all a matter of taste and I respect it. But saying this guy is not a singer????? I'm just at lack of words for this.
 
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I mean, when he's doing SLY, he's more of a screamer.

Danzig over Lacrimosa, because it's more metal.
Opeth over COB, because it's better.
Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas over Nirvana because it's probably more metal.
Accept over SYL because I really dislike SYL and I really don't mind Accept.
 
Jer said:
Sorry, @karljant
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Once again... for what? For not liking a record I picked? It's 100% fine, man! I'm pretty aware it's quite outside the box and even more so regarding the distaste many members here have for distorted voices. And furthermore you LISTENED to other tracks also so It's really cool you took some of your time to experiment it.
 
I want to say that Lacrimosa is actually very good. I just think it takes time to warm up to it... Also Accept is great and so are Bodom (though I do think they got very lucky in the draws...) But I am biased towards Opeth and SYL.

I also vote for Mariner, because I liked the music and Nirvana aren't anything special, but their vocals weren't top tier AT ALL.
 
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