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I think the heaviest I get outside of Mick Gordon music is the Swedish band Sabaton. While they fall more into the power metal genre they are much heavier than others. A little one note with songs only about wars and conflicts, but they’re one of my favorites. (video works on youtube)
the new necrot album owns
Finns, huh??
Well, I’ll just take a left turn right into americatown - not sure how esoteric you want to get, and if you want to expand past death metal, so I’ll start with some deathier stuff.
Disincarnate - my favorite death metal band by miles when I was growing up. Turns out they weren’t that popular, but then later they became “legendary” as happens.
Dead Horse - they were less death, and more like uhhhhh downtuned country in a weird way? But this sludgy song got a lot of play in my life.
Macabre - have you ever heard something so bad that you liked it no matter what you felt like doing? Well that’s Macabre’s Fish Tales for me.
Morbid Saint - another band nobody knew about forever then discovered later and decided they liked. Well… they rule so… good! It’s like Possessed meets Vio-Lence with some Razor thrown in.
Absu - they’re popular! that’s cool. This is one of the best metal songs for my taste out there.
Atheist - they got back together and toured before covid and I got to see them and I EXTREMELY do not regret it even though I got knocked around pretty bad in the pit because there weren’t quite enough people in it.
Cattle Decapitation - okay everybody knows them, but I get the sense some folks might have stopped listening to them as they gained popularity? I kind of think Death Atlas is their best song in years. your mileage may vary on melodic-ish vocals, but I like how it’s done here.
Burning Witch - burning witch!!! Good luck trying to make anything that sounds like this.
Unholy - Okay back to Finland!!! this is my favorite Finnish metal band. Goth doom sludge that remains weirdly obscure, I can’t figure it out. I can see the combo not working for some folks but… well whatever
fff it rules and good luck finding anything else that sounds like it.
The new necrot album DOES own by the way
I’ll come back and make a million more recommendations later
The first album I really listened to in 2020 was the new Insect Ark and that sure did set the tone
Yeah, I went to that atheist tour - after missing a few bands coming through because of laziness - e.g. eyehategod, and then the singer died after that, I realized I just needed to force myself to go out. I missed Mordred, the first metal band with a DJ, playing literally 3 blocks from my house. They were a bay area thrash band who incorporated a DJ, which of course I “hated” at the time, but now it’s kinda charming, because the way they did it wasn’t even nu metal or metalcore!? Also it didn’t stop me listening to the cassette a bunch of times to where I actually know several of their songs.
Like it’s so cheeseball I can’t hate on it.
Anyway it’s stupid to not see bands because of laziness, so I made a pledge to stop doing that. And I saw Atheist! Then america shut down forever, owned. Also I skipped Yob even though I had been listening to them since literally y2k but uhhhhh oops.
This insect ark reminds me a lot of Tarantula Hawk, so if you like this I reckon you’ll like them!!
I’ll make a bigger post of greater obscurities later, now that I know what I’m looking at here.
@golok Damn! I would have loved to have gone to see Insect Ark and I live in NYC so Vitus would have been no problem. I am pretty sure I had no idea that show was happening. But who can remember this year. All of this is to say I really miss going to shows.
Enjoying listening to all these!
Temple Nightside’s vocals remind me of the old echoey doom-death bands like disembowelment. good riffs indeed!
Directive definitely has a good sound - wish metal in general would drop the “filtered through cotton balls” approach to production though. I feel like I’d really be appreciating this a lot more if I could hear everything in it.
Spirit Possession is probably my favorite thing shared in the thread so far. Definitely my kind of deal, I just went and bought the cassette before the song was over, heh.
That one kind of reminds me of Dave Slave’s Doomed And Disgusting:
don’t watch the video because there’s a lot of gross mouth and eye closeups
Here’s a band that seems to have flown under the radar of a lot of folks I know for whatever reason - Craft.
I’d be reluctant to even call them black thrash, I think they’re closer to 1st wave blackmetal with better production and songwriting. Like what if blackmetal bands tried to be bands instead of vibes. I haven’t managed to get many people hooked on them but their riffs resonate with me, and each song has at least three hot riffs in it instead of just the one, meaning the songs actually have a reason to be 5 minutes long.
talking of war metal, nachtmystium - who I sincerely hope are not NSBM but it’s so hard to find info on these things. great riff but I’ll remove them if they turn out to be fascists lol
Vondur - another “crossing my fingers they’re not fascists” band with a great musical vibe
if anyone likes proto-metal, I’m big into Overdrive, which is pretty unknown around here (even my swedish proto metal buddy hadn’t investigated them)
Here’s one with vocals
Speaking of which, everyone who doesn’t know Oz should get into that. I think they’ve been getting rediscovered lately, which is good!
uhhhhhhh more later!
I’m basic, so I only have those shoegaze/black metal and hardcore/death metal hybrid bands on heavy rotation
like this:
but I’ve had fun listening through all the bands in the thread
Well I’m a specific kind of person but I like all the Craft albums. This album is a bit more “familiar” in some ways but I still quite like it. The songwriting is still there for sure.
And yeah Oz rules. I can share some more obscurities from the thrash and proto-thrash era if that’s useful! A lot of the bands I’ve got in my collection that used to be obscure have been rooted out and held aloft because their band members went on to do something more famous while I wasn’t paying attention, heh. (e.g. ceremonial oath, the moaning)
blackmetal (and metal in general) is a minefield when it comes to fascist stuff. when I was listening to this stuff as a kid I just assumed everyone was like me!!
Somehow I never got into funereal presence - the riffs are kinda there, but it just doesn’t send me anywhere! I’ll make a list of some more interesting stuff and get it up here later. A lot of the extreme obscurities I’ve got are just not that good, but I kept them because I knew nobody else had them. Mostly bay area thrash bands whose tapes I have just because they were around.
@golok wow these are great recommendations. thank you so much. I’m not very well-versed in Japanese music scenes, so I don’t know if this is a fair comparison to make, but heaven in her arms gives me heavy Envy vibes & I LOVED Envy. I’m really digging the production & the riffs on this Kvelgeyst record too. Cheers 
@golok If you have a spare moment and are inclined would you post a suggestion or 2 for someone interested in heavier music, but so far only likes 1) the first napalm death record, 2) godflesh, and 3) heavier psych and hardcore punk? If you have any points of entry in mind I would appreciate the recs. Imposing on you due to the grouper av thank you
@yeso oh heck, i would honestly recommend diving into the next few napalm death records, From Enslavement to Obliteration & Harmony Corruption are both great, and possibly their best records. though harmony corruption goes more into death metal territory.
i don’t want to link spam too many suggestions, so i’m going to limit myself to three youtube links with a cumulative running time of like, less than 40 minutes.
if you like the first few napalm death records i think assuck would very much be up your alley. if you dig this, i would recommend checking out some insect warfare, pig destroyer (specifically prowler in the yard & terrifyer), and discordance axis. there was a decent documentary a couple years ago about grind called SLAVE TO THE GRIND thats worth a watch.
the angelic process is almost like if godflesh and jesu were one project. if you’re into this i’d check out planning for burial & nadja. although nadja has kind of a wild huge expansive discography.
this is probably one of my favorite hardcore releases of the past few years, it’s short and angry. the person behind it is also the vocalist of CITY HUNTER whose 2018 record still has not left my regular rotation.
@golok Rad, thanks for taking the time I appreciate it will give these a try and forge ahead w napalm death as you suggest
Actually if you’ll allow me to return the favor w a maybe outside the box recommendation. If you’re into grouper, look up the (visual) artist Laura Grace (formerly Oldfield) Ford + her zine Savage Messiah (got a nice collection not long ago with verso books). Some resonance at least for me
damb this thread is one of those reminders you get sometimes online where you’re like “ya i know about something” and then you find a community of people who have forgotten more about it than you’ll ever learn lol.
this thread has some legit metalheads in it so my shit might not be as welcome but most of the stuff i like has more overt punk and hardcore influence, and more melody. i guess i mean punk in sound and not ethos, obviously a lot of the bands that have been posted are punk as fuck.
my favorite heavy band is Converge. everyone loves Jane Doe and I do too, but their You Fail Me album hit me at a perfect time in my life and ever since I’ve basically been digging to try to find more heavy stuff that’s this concise, punk and aggressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK8BOYfoHkU&list=PLcZMZxR9uxC_eteAs3XldQDlSjopO9_vA&index=9
i like a lot of bands in the Kurt Ballou (guitar player in Converge and producer) orbit. I posted one of their live vids in the concert thread but this band Baptists really does it for me. Good drummer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZyQAA-OgzU&list=OLAK5uy_lvMaxSHShymG5qVIa8UlksdlGc-nXCt1s
In terms of more recent stuff I like the new Gulch record. The title is so hilarious I think about it at least once a day and laugh
haha, I was definitely closer to a punk kid than a metalhead so I appreciate you making this pivot to hardcore.
This band Soul Glo has a record coming out next month on Secret Voices/Deathwish, so there’s there might be something in here for a Converge fan. Some wild noisy hardcore in here with some HR-esque flair. Truly a band doing their own thing.
for those of you who like things on the more melodic punk/screamo-lite end. one of my favorite bands put out their fifth record recently & I’m in love with it. Soft almost shoegaze guitars at times with a little bit of groovyness, strong baselines, & possibly the most proficient drummer in punk right now. The instruments carry emotion just as much as the vocals, it’s pretty incredible.
lastly, to cap it off we got this interesting metalcore assault by Model Prisoner. I’m a sucker for ramped up breathy vocals right before a breakdown & this does it so well.
@jaws damn dude hardcore is where it’s at these days for me. People are just deconstructing the genre while keeping all of the heaviness and catchiness. I really dug the Soul Glo and Model Prisoner stuff you posted.
I like Touche Amore in theory but I actually can’t listen to them. Gets me feeling too wistful
@jaws soul glo is such a great band, they played in my basement back in 2015 with a couple other bands, ostraca played that show, everyone should listen to ostraca.
enemy | ostraca
this live video is pretty good.
i was all about touche amore around 2011 but fell off by the time Is Survived By came out and haven’t really kept up since. saw them a bunch back then. i’ve bought a bunch of esoteric screamo stuff from jeremy in the past few years, pretty cool dude.
@tapevulture i’ve encountered the sentiment that converge pre-jane doe is Better than post-jane doe a lot lately and i am consistently baffled by that take. i think jane doe is a nearly perfect record (i like you fail me the most also though). i love every record they’ve put out since, i hope it’s not another 5 years before the next one, i was real into the dusk in us.
@golok yeah i think it has to do with nostalgia for…literally pre-Jane Doe metalcore, where songs were often just breakdowns and “fast parts” very loosely knitted together, often with a ring out of a drop C power chord lol. That kind of thing started as a crutch for high school basement bands that were figuring out how to write songs (Converge included) but ended up becoming a convention of the genre. The Saddest Day is kinda like this imo.
Post Jane Doe the genre seems to have split in two, where metalcore bands have kept that tradition alive and what are called “metallic hardcore” bands have taken the blueprint of Jane and written songs that are faster, more streamlined, more catchy, and make more selective use of breakdowns.
“Every time you justify/Another good in you dies” type stuff is fun live but Jane Doe and You Fail Me are borderline objectively just better collections of songs lol. I think longing for When Forever Comes Crashing etc. comes largely from the old heads who miss the time when hardcore was way more violent and mosh was more mean-spirited. These are the type of (always) guys who celebrate Nate hitting that guy with his bass that time a fight broke out on stage