Technical Metal Poll - Revisited !!

[Dark Lord]

After an almost 2 year hiatus from this forum, and in desperate search of the best tech metal albums out there, I come back to you with another way more comprehensive poll after the one i posted almost 3 years ago in November 2005 which excluded alot of the major players in this genre. I hope this time around, my list is more representing and accurate for all you crazy tech metal fans out there.... choose wisely, you only get 1 pick (and yes, Spiral Architect's ASU is still excluded from this list for the obvious reasons) !!
My pick this time around has changed from Cynic's Focus to the Beyond God-like album "A Social Grace" by the demigods: Psychotic Waltz !!

 

[Dark Lord]

* When it comes to Canvas Solaris, i'd rather choose Spatial/Design as their best, but the majority of C.S. fans prefer Penumbra Diffuse... as such, it is the one in the poll !

 

[NeverMarty]

Nothing can touch WatchTower. I'd say Necrophagist belong in that list too, by the way (more so than some in there).

 

[Tolis]

Watchtower for me..simply the best!

 

[Muad'Dib]

I choose Gordian Knot (self-titled), but Twisted into form debut album was also awesome. And refreshing... as being less technical and more song oriented than most tech metal bands out there.

(I have to say that I prefer Emergent to GK.)

Does somebody know something about a possible GKIII?... I heard about it some years ago... and never again.

 

[Tolis]

Muad'Dib i agree with you ,Emergent is more melodic than the self-titled.And Twisted into form debut btw is great!I think that Sean Malone is busy right now with the new Cynic,he will play also to the tours (or not?) so until then ..but who knows..

 

[sava]

it is a tie between Watchtower, Zero Hour and Psychotic Waltz for me

 

[lars k norberg]

For me the tie is between Watchtower, Cynic and Psychotic Waltz (many of these others I haven't heard though). But - having to choose one - I go for Psychotic Waltz and A Social Grace; a sensational album, and Into The Everflow is almost as good!

 

[Dark Lord]

I'm sure you all can browse the info from the internet, but to the lazy ones, here's a small glimpse about these great bands and artists (especially intended to highlight the more obscure ones):

- Aghora's self titled is basically Cynic's Seans (Malone & Reinert), the great Santiago Dobles (on guitars), and some unknown female vocalist. So basically, the music reeks of technical bliss and proficiency and the compositions are very well crafted around a solid rhythm performance by the Seans that never seize to amaze !

- Alarum are an Australian Quartet that play some really mind-boggling tech-death music... but with a human touch (i.e: not constant hammering like Necrophagist or Theory in Practice).

- At War With Self is Glenn Snelwar's brainchild (the "musician with a soul" who played on Gordian Knot's self-titled album... especially Reflections). He is accompanied by legendary bassist Michael Manring and Mark Zonder on percussions... so you can imagine the beauty on this one... if you fell in love with Gordian Knot's Reflections, this one can't fail you !!

- Atheist need no introduction. They are pioneers to this genre... but compared to what's out there right now in this field, i simply fail to see what this "Atheist" hype is all about !!

- "Behold... The Arctopus... From Hell" should be their name... their music is infernal. non-stop technical instrumental shred-mania... it's like having
Spastic Ink on steroids... and that's saying much because the Jarzombek's music tends to burn alot of raised eyebrows !! so imagine what these spawns of Satan are capable of doing !!

- Canvas Solaris are another instrumental tech-extreme band. But the difference from other entrees here is that this band has raised the bar for all technical instrumental music... 5 albums in 5 years... and each one stands out as a milestone in intrumental tech-metal history... so to speak !!

- Cynic... need i say more ?!

- Gordian Knot is Sean Malone's baby... another solid performance by the Cynic rhythm section here (Malone & Reinert) + they bring alot of talent to the table on this one, be it Ron Jarzombek and Glenn Snelwar on guitars, or Trey Gunn on Stick/Warr guitars, or even John Myung on stick !

- Linear Sphere is an all English tech-death metal band. Not absolutely staggering music... but well worth the listening experience.

- Psychotic Waltz: they may not be the pioneers of this genre, but they sure perfected it. If Spiral Architect's music on ASU can ever be compared to anybody else's music, Psychotic Waltz's "A Social Grace" would be the obvious choice in my opinion. I especially noticed this when i listened to the album for the first time (years after listening to "A Sceptic's Universe") and noticed the uncanny simalarities between PW's and SA's vocal orchestrations... and it just hit me... Oyvind must be a huge Buddy Lackey fan !! (well that's just my opinion)

- Spastic Ink... do i really need to describe these legends ?
JARZOMBEKS... enough said !!

- Theory In Practice: another gruesome brutal tech-metal band. I was lost between choosing Necrophagist's "Epitaph" or this album as part of the poll... but i ended up choosing TIP because "Colonizing The Sun" is way more technical musically than "Epitaph" eventhough the latter is infinately better.

- Thought Chamber is basically Prog-Rock legend Michael Harris. Add to this the rhythm section of Haji's Kitchen, Outworld's keyboardist, and some vocalist that i haven't heard of (ex-Enchant vocalist) and you have Thought Chamber. The musicianship is tight through and through, and the arrangements are mindblowing. Now this entry may not really fit into the tech-metal genre, but i've been listening to this album alot lately, and I couldn't resist adding it to the list !

- Twisted Into Form is very well known by all Spiral Architect fans since it has ex-SA members performing on this album, which makes it all the more desirable. But i honestly can't really put this band in Spiral Architect's league. Definately no comparison to ASU. But on it's own, "Then Comes Affliction..." can be considered a solid debut performance !

- Control & Resistance... No need for introductions here really. It's enough to say that it's Ron Jarzombek's debut work with Watchtower... a legendary album by all standards. Not my favorite band/album on this list though !

- Zero Hour: another tech metal band which elevated to star-status among fans of this genre due to their well-crafted intricately-layered compositions. "Towers of Avarice" is basically their most accomplished work to date... the last two albums are pretty fascinating as well.

 

[noble savage]

I only have about half of those albums, but out of them Cynic takes the cake. What an absolutely brilliant album! The 'synth' vocals took a long time to get used to, though.

 

[blackorchidx]

necrophagist for me but some of the solos i cant stand, awesome band though

 

[zacmenta]

I went with Atheist's 'Elements'.

Alarum, Cynic and Aghora's options are all amazing albums though, and I've been meaning to check out most of the other bands on the list.

Given the option, I would've gone with Ron Jarzombek's 'Solitarily Thinking of Theoretical Confinement' though.

 

[progmetaldan]

^ I'm with ya there..

I had to go with Spastic Ink- Ink Complete for a couple of reasons... Some of those real classic albums are awesome, but I don't own some of them (shame on me) and I didn't want to choose something that I hadn't heard the whole thing... Also Ron Jarzombek is one of my favourite guitarists, and Ink Complete was probably the first 'tech-metal' album I ever heard, 'Eighths Is Enough' being the first song... So many awesome albums on that list though... I just picked up Aghora- Formless today, awesome stuff, I'll definately have to try and get hold of their self-titled as well with that line-up!

 

[ThoughtLeech]

my god... how do you choose? i've heard a majority of them, including cynic, watchtower, aghora, atheist, spastic ink, twisted into form, zero hour, behold the arctopus, gordian knot....

but i gave my vote to canvas solaris. i prefer cynic's new album much more. i prefer zero hour's specs of pictures burnt beyond, but beyond that, i've really been digging canvas solaris recently.

 

[Dark Lord]

yes, atomized dream is a gem... a blast from their past + a fresh twist on every single piece !!!

...but i still prefer Spatial/Design the most... don't know why really... listening to it always gives me a hightened sense of musical perfection... even with all the sloppy recording in mind (believe it or not)... i guess i fell in love with it the most because it was the first Canvas Solaris album I listened to !!

 

[STINNETT]

I am intimately familiar with all of these albums, which I almost hate to say because I'm always hoping to discover some new and mind blowing band with stuff like this...

It may be partly a nostalgia thing for me, but I've gotta say that "Focus" has never been bumped from my top spot. It is musical brilliance from top to bottom and still technical enough to dazzle you.

A Social Grace is way up there too!

 

[MAVIII]

I know this is an older post but . . .
First, GREAT list, I am fans of all

I haven't voted yet, but I'm leaning to Watchtower because I believe
this was a seminal "influence" on the direction of "Tech"/Thrash (1989)
to the term "Math Metal". . . . But, it wasn't the 1st for me.
Cacophony was almost 3 years prior (1987), I felt like the only one on
the Planet that heard of Marty Friedman and Jason Becker, even my
Metal friends at that time didn't get it!

I could include others, but I digress, I look at the list and say as the
beginning of this sub-genre of Prog goes, that was the one that
influenced this growing musics (Watchtower).
But, if I were to put up an Athiest title, I would have chosen
"An Unquestionable Presence", it was what Athiest wanted to achieve I
think, as "Elements" was a response of not doing the same thing
over again.
Its fast, it has CRAZY Time Signatures, Stops and Goes on a dime and
then goes LEFT, then Right, like on "Mother Man" for example ...NUTS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqWrkVEQvI

And it came out in 1991, so it is after the 2 stated above, but it took
what they did and made it "Heavier", so now it starts getting into
a Death Metal territory (remember, Screaming vocals back in the day
were considered Death Metal vocals along with the "Cookie Monster"
vox, think earlier "Death" or "Sepultura").

I have heard all the others as well and are in my collections. I am a
HUGE Psychotic Waltz fan, but I don't think they are as Technical
as most on the list, yet they are VERY technical, in-turn, most Metal
and Prog fans will get turned off by the rest because they are so
extreme!

I too would have put Necrophagist in there as well, they have taken it
to even another level. But I'm surprised no one has mentioned . . .
Meshuggah, this is the "otherside" of the Spiral Architect-type of Math
Metal, its not so much they're flying across the fret board with odd meter
passages and arpeggios, its got these gargantuan "Riffs" that chug in
the most insane timing/picking, like taking the main Riff in Metallica's
"Disposable Heroes" . . .
now play that, put your legs over your shoulders, spin around, and now
run in place! Then! . . . add a Lead that sounds like Allan Holdsworth
stepped in!
Its like SA's "opposite" but threads to the same Family.
If some have been turned off by them, I emplore all of you to listen to
samples from "Destroy Erase Improve", I think thats the album that
represents a "new sound" for the genre at the time and what was to
come(1995). As well as Guitarist Fredrik Thordendals Special
Defects (1997).

Aghora I have been requesting alot on PrOgulus.com, I'm dieing to find
it (I'm not a "mail order" kind of guy), its a great band and I LOVE that
it has a Female vocalist, gives Beauty to the brutality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_zCqifAoo
And the NEW Cynic album is fantastic, but to SEE Sean Rienert play
drums (With Meshuggah and The Faceless), what power and finesse!
(And Thomas Haak from 'Shuggah is no slouch!)

so Watchtower . . . yeah . . .

okay I'm done .

(By the way, through some MIRACLE I "lost" everything I wrote
and then somehow re-traced back, with much trouble and
there it was! . . . I think I need a vacation).

 

[batmura]

Great list of bands. I voted for Zero Hour. Psychotic Waltz would probably be my second choice off of that list.

 

[ginias_sahalin]

well, watchtower are great. psychotic waltz too..

 

[thinkingplague]

Psychotic Waltz for me. Not a big fan of most of the other bands. However, Meshuggah or Blotted Science would've got my vote if they were included. Oh, and Behold.. the Arctopus are nice too, they play something I like to call "technical nonsense". Listening to them is very enjoyable, nevertheless. By the way, if you want to get deeper into this nonsense (and it's not an offensive term! it just means they play awkwardly weird things that never seem to chronologically and/or musically fit together. Still, lots of fun!), check out some of Mick Barr's project: Octis, Ocrilim, Orthrelm (have a split EP with Behold..) and Zach Hill & Mick Barr (which is, if I recall, exactly the same as Orthrelm. they just play different things here).

I suppose I got a little off-topic. Sorry. I'm a Mick Barr's addict.