New Arch Enemy

Right now I'm addicted to Frogs by AIC. I just added it to our setlist. It's an amazing song.

 
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I've been pretty bored with this band for about 7 years or so, but the new one has elements of old Arch Enemy with Johan. It's got a small amount of filler in respect to the rest of the album, and there are some riffs straight out of Stigmata.

Now if they could just fire Angela and get Johan back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWfX4NtJ7Y&feature=related

main riff sounds a lot like Exodus' Blacklist:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXJdJCLTlU8&feature=fvst[/ame]
 
Thought you guys might like this (well the ones into Melodeath). This band from the UK are currently making a few waves over here.



I know they look like a bunch of bedroom teens, but they seriously kick ass. Their album is one of the best I've heard in a long time.

 
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Sorry, I just like the new In Flames. Not from a metal standpoint because it's clearly heavy pop, but I like it for what it is. I'm not listening to it because I think it's great guitar work or anything groundbreaking or heavy, just that it's hooky and melodic.

yup. i really dig the new album and don't give a fuck what genre/style/whatever it is, it's just good, catchy, well written, has some awesome riffs and flows really well. there's no super insane standout aspect but all together it just works and is enjoyable to listen to; they have intense solos again which i guess is cool but that doesn't even matter because the album itself is just enjoyable to listen to and it's not trying to be old in flames or anything else, i wasn't expecting much but i'm glad it's good.
 
Nevermore's worst "7-string wankery" album is 100x better than anything In Flames put out.
i have some difficulty comparing/ranking bands/albums that i love but are different from each other, HOWEVER, i easily prefer The Jester Race, Whoracle, and Colony over the '7-string wankery' albums. that doesnt mean i dont like post-DNB Nevermore, cause i like much of it a lot, but those early In Flames albums were some of the first 'extreme' metal i heard (right after Slaughter of the Soul) and helped to shape the metal fan i became, so there is also a nostalgia factor mixed in because they were so life-changing. Lunar Strain and Subterranean fucking rule too.

its difficult to say who i would give the edge to overall, because while it would seem that i prefer most old In Flames over most Nevermore not called PoE or DNB, In Flames also has some truly awful albums that i dont ever listen to, and every NM album has at least a few kick ass songs.
 
I've never understood how people can say 'I hate melodeath'. If you like melody, which you obviously do, because music is melody, and you also like death metal, I fail to see how you can prove that the two concepts are mutually exclusive. Maybe you're tired of the genre because so many bands today sound alike, which is fine, but to say the entire genre is 'bad' is ridiculous. Early material from bands like In Flames, At the Gates and Nightrage is some of the sickest music around. Of course there are loads of good bands in the genre, and if you take the time to look then you'll find them.
 
I think Colony is their best album as well.

I think people dislike melodeath because a lot of it has become rudimentary and cyclic due to the massive influx of American metalcore bands heavily "influenced" by classic melodeath. The "Blackened" by Metallica-esque riffs with the fast polka snare/kick/high hat then the 4/4 double bass for the chorus and back to the polka beat-style songs really turned a lot of people off of the genre, me included. It's overdone and overtasted.

That said, I still like old melodeath and that Insomnium video you posted. The thing that makes Scandinavian melodeath better than American metalcore/melodeath is that for some reason Scandinavians really know how to write great hooks and melodies, whereas you just don't see that with a lot of American metal anymore. They attempt to do it with a half-ass clean chorus, but it just sounds like shit.
 
Daylight Dies, album, No Reply, is one of the best examples of beautfiul and catchy melodeath out there. It stands on it's own as unique and original, and they're American. The problem I find with most melodeath, is that it seems that almost every band in melodeath sounds the same, particularly more so in this genre. Same as the -core bands. They mostly all sound the same. And of course the European countries are almost always gonna have better metal.

Just thought I'd stand up for us Americans and post at least some unique melodeath.

 
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Yeah. It is closer to doom, but still fast enough to be death imo. Their later albums are without a doubt doom. No Reply was fast enough and raw enough to be considered melodeath for me. I was making a point though of how its rare to find an album that sounds like nothing else. This is one of those. It feels almost like originality is dead nowadays. I haven't been blown away by an album in a long time. .
 
I think Colony is their best album as well.

I think people dislike melodeath because a lot of it has become rudimentary and cyclic due to the massive influx of American metalcore bands heavily "influenced" by classic melodeath. The "Blackened" by Metallica-esque riffs with the fast polka snare/kick/high hat then the 4/4 double bass for the chorus and back to the polka beat-style songs really turned a lot of people off of the genre, me included. It's overdone and overtasted.

That said, I still like old melodeath and that Insomnium video you posted. The thing that makes Scandinavian melodeath better than American metalcore/melodeath is that for some reason Scandinavians really know how to write great hooks and melodies, whereas you just don't see that with a lot of American metal anymore. They attempt to do it with a half-ass clean chorus, but it just sounds like shit.

I am friends with a Fin here. We were talking about the metal scene the other day, and he told me it's just massive over there. For every 'awesome' band you hear like OG, Kalmah etc, there are 100 more just as good but under exposed. They write amazing melodies because they're trained and schooled in the concept of music. They go to school for it and study it to learn what works and what doesn't. It's not the case of just practicing on guitar until you get really good and then forming a band. Most of the bands have primary songwriters who have studied music at some point. I think it's awesome.

It's the same principal as to why Euro basketball players in the NBA are more skilled at playing 'team' basketball. They're trained to shoot, run, jump, pass and defend despite their size (or lack of it). They're also trained in running systems much more efficiently than most American's because from an early age they learn the concept of 'team'. They don't go to practice and work solely on individual skills and then try to perform as a unit during games on weekends.

The quality of the output in both instances is almost always of a higher caliber.