Metal that is not moronic

Kynisk Sokol

Ancient Mariner
"I like metal music. However, most metal music is brick stupid. I wanted to put together a list of intelligent metal music for people who are not familiar with the genre, so they aren't left thinking the entire group is as dumb as, say, Pantera.

1. Slayer - South of Heaven: one of the first truly apocalyptic works of music to emerge from America, this album explores the ways and means of our eventual collapse.

2. Prong - Beg to Differ: a strong statement of social independence, BTD is an album about a lack of standards compliance with a system that has lost its own authenticity.

3. Voivod - Dimension Hatross: progressive speed metal with a futuristic and cyberpunk touch, Voivod makes an album entirely from raw creativity, fusing a new style of dissonant chording, offtime lead rhythm playing, and bizarre song structures.

4. Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick: this album is so subtly musical that often it takes several listens to realize where its sleight of hand technicality manifests itself, but what is most impressive is that it does so without losing intensity at all.

5. Incantation - Onward to Golgotha: sounding like a demon emerging from hell, this visceral masterpiece of onslaught nevertheless features classically-inspired song structures and eternally monumental riffing.

6. Demilich - Nespithe: described by many as the weirdest metal album ever, this jazzy uptemp CD features a cryptogram of lyrics, left field melanges of themes expressed in riff, and some of the most unique and soulful soloing in popular music.

7. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss: a fusion of ambient music and ultra-simple metal, this album evokes the spirit of dark woods, predators and warriors, and the values of an ancient era.

8. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse: the word "majestic" begins to describe this masterpiece, in which an interleaving of keyboards and soaring guitars produces cavalcades of noise harmonized into melody.

9. Gorgoroth - Antichrist: done in a satire of 1920s cinema, "Antichrist" mocks all of our fears of evil in intricately compact melodic constructions.

10. Averse Sefira - Tetragrammatical Astygmata: wondering about the links between strength of will, DNA, and kabbalistic ritual? A fusion of aggressive metal with contemplative romantic wanderings, Averse Sefira render into melody an introspective art.

If you want to read more writings on metal by this author, consult the Dark Legions Archive for which he writes."

-Vijay Prozak

Dark Legions Archive

Don't ask me why I wanted to post this. No, really, don't.
 
Well, a lot of maiden songs.  Alexander the Great, Brighter than a Thousand Suns, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Paschendale, The Legacy, Brave New World, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, most of, if not the entire Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album (hey, concept albums are intelligent!), Montsegur (historicals are always intelligent), For the Greater Good of God, etc. etc. etc.  There's tons of them.

Iced Earth - The Gettysburg trilogy from The Glorious Burden is in my opinion even better than Alexander the Great as a historical song(s). 

Those are ones that sprang to mind quickly.  I'm too tired to think of more.
 
I think that the System has Failed album from Megadeth is also really bright.  The whole album concept reflects the situation in politics around the world, and btw, there is a song (Of Mice and Men), on which Dave Mustaine tells the story of his life.
 
So true, Mustaine is a very smart dude and most of his material is pretty clever, I love his dark sense of humor.
 
Onhell said:
So true, Mustaine is a very smart dude and most of his material is pretty clever, I love his dark sense of humor.

'Wake Up Dead' has some of the best tongue-in-cheek lyrics in metal, and 'Sweating Bullets' is very schizophrenic.  He doesn't get as much credit as a lyricist as he deserves.
 
Back
Top