Favorite Metal CD's

Toolfan66

I love me some Opeth!! Have for a couple years now..

messimarja

TFLF is correct -- Death is woefully absent, and their records sound great.

Mindcrime is an amazing acheivement, especially with all the sound effects and storyline. Tate is (was) god, Rockenfield is one of my favorite drummers, but the guitar tone is consistently dull and dated. I prefer the Queensryche where they were more obviously trying to be Maiden.

King Diamond and Mercyful Fate is a good pick.

Do you guys like Van Halen? Is that a no-no because of the weird stereo mix of the early albums? To me it ultimately makes the drums sound gigantic, and the guitars are.. detailed?

In the beginning, Sabbath created Doom Metal. If you play it faster, with a classical influence, double kick, and operatic vocals, you get Power Metal. If you play that faster with yelled vocals and a punk beat, you get Thrash Metal. If you play that faster and more atonally with death vocals, you get Death Metal. If you play that with spooky keyboards, drill picking, and blast beats, you get Black Metal.

Does anyone here listen to old school lo fi black metal on their hi fi system? Bathory, Mayhem, Burzum? I mean.. it seems strange.

halo71

Awesome guitar tone, imo, is just that awesome. Never dull or dated. DeGarmo, one of my favorites! Dated tone perplexes me though. Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, SRV....and many others. Great tone no matter how old it is. Also I like Van Halen, but I never really considered them metal.

And Queensryche trying to be Maiden? Example?

camp21178

I absolutely love Black Sabbath, BOC, Alice In Chains, Metallica and many other metal bands, and I'm 54 years old. Rock on!

Toolfan66

I think he is talking about the EP I kinda see where he is coming from, The lady wore black is awesome!!!

messimarja

halo71 wrote: »

Awesome guitar tone, imo, is just that awesome. Never dull or dated. DeGarmo, one of my favorites! Dated tone perplexes me though. Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, SRV....and many others. Great tone no matter how old it is. Also I like Van Halen, but I never really considered them metal.

And Queensryche trying to be Maiden? Example?

The EP is exactly right.

The other players you mentioned have tones and gear that are widely copied. People spend fortunes trying to replicate the entire RR, JH, BM, or SRV rig. Comparatively few people care to revisit the ADA MP-1 days, and it is reflected in the comparative value of that piece of gear, whose thumbprint is all over Mindcrime. It only has one tube, and at low voltage. It was popular because of its versatility, not its tone. This is why it died out and ADA went bust when other manufacturers put out better sounding midi preamps (marshall jmp-1, soldano, mesa triaxis). Even today's ghastly digital preamps sound better.

They were probably using decent power amps and cabs, but who could tell through all the Alesis reverb and delay processing at low bit rate? If someone listened to a CD with a DAC with that bit rate, you'd laugh at them. What should you do when they use it to MAKE a CD? The high end is rolled off and the harmonics are just digital splatter.

DeGarmo is a good player. Wilton is OK.

And it's not that all gear and tone from the 80's is bad. Tubescreamer, JCM 800, even Randall amps from that era are covetted in certain circles, distinctive. BC Rich and Charvel made awesome guitars in that era that are coming back into vogue. People are still trying to get the George Lynch tone. It's just not true for the ADA stuff. Pawnshops are full of raggedy old rack gear that no one wants because it just doesn't sound good.

Also, Testament is my favorite thrash band, but they suffer to a lesser extent from the same tone disease as QR, which is probably a main reason why they chose to re-record their classic material. I think Peterson was probably using real Marshalls, but Skolnick had the telltale thin dull rack tone. Peterson now uses the excellent EVH3. Skol uses the questionable (discontinued) Marshall Mode4 with solid state power amp. He still doesn't know that big tubes at high voltage sound better.

Joe08867

My bro inlaw has a Tubescreamer he uses with his Les Paul hooked up to his HotRod Deville 2x12. It sounds freakin awesome.

Had a buddy that played through a rack system, while it sounded clean it didn't have the same feel. He would play a well known riff and it just wouldn't have that grab you by the you know whats to it. So I get what your saying totally. He ended up getting a Marshall JCM800 and calling it a day.

A friend of mine got me listening to some (Christian Metal) and honestly there are some real good players in the genre. Skillet is a new fave.

sda2mike

i had a tube screamer years ago...i had it before srv released texas flood...everybody wanted that lime-green box...my favorite, though was the big muff!

halo71

I still have an MP-1 and a Digitech GSP21 Legend, two of my favorite rack processors. And I mainly play vintage Kramer guitars from the 80's. I have several. My ideal tone falls somewhere between Dave Mustaine and Vito Bratta. At different times I have had a JCM800 stack, Crate Blue Voodoo stack, Hughes & Kettner, Crank and a few others. Wish I had kept the Crank head though. Now I would like to get my hands on a Bogner Shiva or something made by Egnator. I don't play in a band anymore. All I have now is a little Blackheart amp and a 5 watt Gretsch tube amp.

thesurfer

Led Zeppelin, Rush,

Malbec

George Lynch, my favorite guitarist.

Being from Pennsylvania, Dirty Looks would come to town and always put on an awesome show. Although they never hit the big time, they had a rabid following in central Pa. Their CD "Cool From the Wire" has been my favorite CD since the first time heard it.
Alas the frontman died in January of this year. R.I.P. Henrik

gudnoyez

Scorpions Uli Roth era, not the power pop Mathias Jabs stuff.
Megadeth all Megadeth but that one with the mouse trap on the cover WTF was that direction Mr Mustaine.
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime don't get the new Remaster something went wrong with that one
Judas Priest Painkiller
Faith No More
Metallica Ride the Lightning
Motorhead Ace of Spades

KaosTsoc

Just saw this, and could not resist. Most of the listed bands are good, and I agree with. I have. Slipknot, Fear Factory, Pantera, Metallica, Dream Threater, Sepultura. I have more, but drawing this huge blank....

hockeyboy

avelanchefan wrote: »

That could be a stranded on a island list for me. Nice picks Assimilated.

Hockeyboy....surprised you put the new In Flames CD in your list. While I would not have it in my top five, it is a great CD from them. Love it!

I love it too! Not sure it deserves to be in my top five either really but been listening to it so much lately gave it favor in my vote :cheesygrin:

Erik Tracy

You guys are still missing the intent of the original OP; it ain't about what band you like but also includes what CDs sound good.

geez

halo71

Maybe it's just me, but I didn't see in his post where he asks which ones "sound good".

geez :rolleyes:

Erik Tracy

Metal is a demanding genre to reproduce accurately.

maybe its just me...but I took that to mean more than 'I luv "{insert favorite death/crush/black/classic/black/viking/speed/}" group'.

Like I said, there are some great musical metal CDs that when cranked, sound like ice picks in the ears as far as sonic quality goes.

hockeyboy

messimarja wrote: »

TFLF is correct -- Death is woefully absent, and their records sound great.

Mindcrime is an amazing acheivement, especially with all the sound effects and storyline. Tate is (was) god, Rockenfield is one of my favorite drummers, but the guitar tone is consistently dull and dated. I prefer the Queensryche where they were more obviously trying to be Maiden.

King Diamond and Mercyful Fate is a good pick.

Do you guys like Van Halen? Is that a no-no because of the weird stereo mix of the early albums? To me it ultimately makes the drums sound gigantic, and the guitars are.. detailed?

In the beginning, Sabbath created Doom Metal. If you play it faster, with a classical influence, double kick, and operatic vocals, you get Power Metal. If you play that faster with yelled vocals and a punk beat, you get Thrash Metal. If you play that faster and more atonally with death vocals, you get Death Metal. If you play that with spooky keyboards, drill picking, and blast beats, you get Black Metal.

Does anyone here listen to old school lo fi black metal on their hi fi system? Bathory, Mayhem, Burzum? I mean.. it seems strange.

Good point. If you play Black Sabbath faster with a double kick you get Priestess. One of the best bands around IMHO.

chumlie

Moterhead & Suicidal Tendencies, Ace of Spades & How will i laugh tomorow when i can't even smile today
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Toolfan66

Suicidal Tendencies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Great Vote!!!!!!!

I love these guys!!!!!!!!!!! LCR is off the hook along with TAOR..

organ

This is so hard to decide. Been into metal for so long and I have so many favorites.

My favorite is black metal. Top 5 (rated for the importance of their music, not sound quality):
1- Darkthrone "A Blaze in the Northern Sky"
2- Mayhem "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", "Chimera" and "Ordo Ad Chao"
3- Carpathian Forest "Strange Old Brew", Nattefrost (solo albums) "Terrorist, Nekronaut Pt. 1"
4- Akercocke "Goat of Mendes"
5- Nile "Annihilation of the Wicked" <---- It's death metal, not black, but omg. Everytime I hear "Cast Down the Heretic", this insane surge of primal and primitive energy just overwhelms my entire body. It's pure insanity!

My top 5 based on music and sound quality:
1- Therion "Sitra Ahra"
2- Cradle of Filth "Dusk... And Her Embrace" (amazing sound)
3- Cradle of Filth "VEmpire or Dark Fairy Tales in Phallustein
4- Hecate Enthroned "Upon Promethean Shores"
5- Abyssos "Fhinsthanian Nightbreed" and "Together We Summon the Dark".

I'm also working on my own black metal project. Nice to see some metal heads in here \m/

jflail2

Pantera: Vulgar Display of Power, Far Beyond Driven

Mastodon: Blood Mountain, Leviathan

Tool: Aenima, Undertow, etc

for a few.

stegmonster

I'm partial to Amon Amarth's Bloodshed Over Bochum Live DVD. Sounds great and has three of my favorite albums on it.(Once Sent from the Golden Hall, The Avenger and Versus The World). Favorite songs are hard to choose so I will just say the entire Versus the World album and most of Once Sent from the Golden Hall...

Syndil

Looks like some people are using a fairly loose definition of metal, IMHO... Many of the ones that seem to be getting a lot of mention are indeed what I would call progressive. Of course "progressive" and "metal" are wide terms encompassing many subgenres and there is certainly some overlap. Hard to say where to draw the line, or if one should be drawn at all.

Anyway, I see no one has mentioned Devin Townsend yet. Very progressive, and his albums span many genres, but his progressive metal--if we are to call it that--is incredibly musical. Great guy, too. Search for him on the Tube and just jump in. Can't go wrong with any of his songs. Deep Peace is my favorite, but I'd say that one doesn't really cross the line into metal.

Also I should mention that if you ever get a chance to see him live, he is one of the best live performers I have seen.