The truth about melodic death metal

[A88]

Yeah, it's a sad day when we must wait for years to hear decent 20 sec harmonized lead from In Flames.

Insomnum has fantastic guitar work. Fairly simple, but effective stuff. Best melodeath to come out of Finland. Swallow the Sun is not bad either, although they belong to doom genre. Like a much slower, more depressive Insomnium.

 

[DE4life]

I remember listening to Swallow the Sun at a festival a couple of years back and thinking they were good, but if their music was faster they'd be even better. Obviously the point of their genre is not to be fast, but I guess that's just my own personal taste.

 

[drawntoblack]

Yeah, I love me some Swallow the Sun, but due to the pretty slow tempos I cant really listen to them for too long before it gets a bit repetitive. Good band nonetheless, would love to see them live.

Another Finnish band with worthy leads is Noumena.

 

[A88]

I have the same problem with STS. I like them, and listen to their music sometimes, but can't do it all the time. Too slow and depressing.

Noumena is good. Misanthropolis is my favorite Noumena song.

The Absence is not bad either.

 

[Shadow King]

Great Dawn clip there - highly underated album. Sits alongside the last Sacramentum album "Thy Black Destiny" as high quality original Melodic Death.
Desultory..there is another underated band....nice inclusion.

 

[krofius]

Great Dawn clip there - highly underated album. Sits alongside the last Sacramentum album "Thy Black Destiny" as high quality original Melodic Death.
Desultory..there is another underated band....nice inclusion.

I found out about Desultory just like a week ago, their comeback album is fucking SICK.

 

[Clay-Man]

This genre is dead. Everything is called melodic death metal this days.

I mean, how the hell is CoB melodeath? Even in the early days they were more power metal with black metal touch. Nowadays, every metalcore band with two or three Gothenburg style riffs, is being called melodeath.

There is no real scene. There is no real inspiration. Production is too polished and perfect to achieve death metal atmosphere. Every band has triggered drums, EMG's through LINE6 or whatever. Vocalists sound like screaming chicken having a fight with a mad cow. Riffs are unoriginal, melodies also, song structures very much conventional. And then, there are emo clean vocals...

I miss the times when music was fresh and new, when people were not afraid to try new things, when records had a soul, when I could clearly distinct between two bands and their productions.

I mean, I don't care if a drummer can play 300bpm, or if a guitar player can do 8 finger arpeggios, are the band members wear cool clothes, are they selling 250 000 records in the US... I want a good, original fu*king song, and that's it. And you can barely find that in melodeath this days. Generic stuff everywhere.

This is pretty much right on the nail.
I still want to know, how the mother fuck something like Sonic Syndicate is melodeath. That's like saying a dildo in the ass is the most straight thing someone can do. Bull fucking shit. Real, REAL, Melodic Death Metal is dead, it's just now used as a label to try to make the music more cool sounding than it is.

Melodic Death Metal is gone like the fucking wind.

 

[A88]

Argh, Sonic Syndicate = what's wrong with "melodeath" and music in general today. Their songs are beyond pop. Instant generic music.

How can someone compare something like Blinded by Fear or Heartwork with So.Sy.-Jack of Diamonds or CoB - Was it worth it!?

Melodic death metal as a genre allows you to do a lot of stuff. Keyboards, clean vocals, power-black-folk-gothic metal influences, acoustic guitars, violins, orchestrations...everything. But if you take "death" out of equation and leave all other stuff in, it's not melodeath anymore.

Where did it go wrong? Maybe Colony-Clayman. I highly doubt Sonic Syndicate found much inspiration listening to Gates of Ishtar, ATG, Death, Carcass or Opeth.

Hey, I like this Desultory. Nice stuff.

 

[DE4life]

Ugh, Sonic Syndicate are gay as fuck

To be fair to N'Flamez I don't think they ever claimed to be melodic death metal. Every time I've seen the question asked in an interview they've denied it and said they don't like being put in a particular category.

To be honest it doesn't bother me. Good music is good music, fuck genre labels, there's still plenty of good metal out there.

 

[krofius]

Indeed IF never claimed anything. I'd say they are a progressive band, for sure
About Sonic Syndicate, their first album IS actually melodeath, like it or not. The following two are I don't really know...Some kind of melodic metal, metalcore maybe even. I actually really like SS >.< I know that they listened to bands such as IF, The Crown, DT and others. Their first album is really really good imo, heavy use of keyboards but it blends well with the music.

 

[DE4life]

Krofius, does SS's first album have a song called soulstone splinter (or something similar to that) on it? If so I can remember listening to some songs on whatever album that song is on, I think Jailbreak was another, and thought they sounded ok. Then I saw them live when they were toruing with DT in like, 07 or something and they were so lame

 

[drawntoblack]

As much as I love In Flames, I could never call them a progressive band. They dont really have a single prog element (song structures, riffs/melodies, vocals). The only genre they fit now, as wide as it is, is modern metal. Nothing more, nothing less.

I actually liked the first SS album, and somewhat a second. Now, not "really" liked them, but I will listen to couple of songs once a year, and thats it. I havent seen them live, but I have seen one of their live DVDs, and oh boy did that suck (no offence to people who are really into them).

 

[Melisan]

Well one of my favorites of this genre is Shadow, from Japan. They got the old school IF vibe down and a chick singing. Shame they never really got any momentum. I mean, 2 albums in a 20 year career? Obviously they aren't trying to make a living at it.

(little Dragonforce-ish there)


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[A88]

Japanese bands... Listen to this, sound awfully familiar, doesn't it?

 

[drawntoblack]

Japanese bands? Japanese bands. Btw there are couple of more borrowed IF melodies on Sorrow of Tranquillity's album.
I mentioned this guys on the previous page of this thread Not even remotely similar to In Flames, but they have quite a bit of a Dimension Zero vibe to them

 

[A88]

Yeah, a bit DZ in that.

Did you hear this one?



Some really cool riffs (1:10). Also, a few Insomnium-like moments.

 

[drawntoblack]

Actually, I havent. Sounds awesome, its basicaly straight out Dark Tranquillity worship with couple of Insomnium moments, like you said. Too bad they seem to have only one demo released.

Some more rather unknown melodeath awesomeness Slightly different though.

 

[A88]

Wow man, we could write a book: "Unknown melodeath awesomeness".

Hm, I'm not sure if I should post this video, but I'll do it anyway. Amorphis were melodeath once, and they have a new album coming out.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rs-or7As0k&feature=feedu[/ame]

Not melodeath, but a good melodic song and nice video.

 

[krofius]

Krofius, does SS's first album have a song called soulstone splinter (or something similar to that) on it? If so I can remember listening to some songs on whatever album that song is on, I think Jailbreak was another, and thought they sounded ok. Then I saw them live when they were toruing with DT in like, 07 or something and they were so lame

Yes, both those songs are on the first album. Soulstone Splinter is one of the best on the album along with Crowned in Despair imo. 2007, then they had released their second album and they kinda moved from melodeath to metalcore, or modern metal as they called themselves. But I only dislike their last album (We Rule The Night) though. I like/love the rest

Anyways, since we are linking/giving tips on good Melodeath bands:

 

[A88]

Here is some old, obscure, local stuff.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3wVhUKF9mg&feature=related[/ame]



And is more old, obscure, local stuff. (I already posted on another thread)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOIsM4Ky1I0&feature=related[/ame]

And some new, obscure, local stuff. This one is for the fans of the modern sound.