Instrumental metal?
Jun 14, 2009 at 5:54 AM Post #16 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Instrumental metal bands off the top of my head, along with more or less what they sound like (IMO) -

Blotted Science - Basically... very heavy, very technical, very fast, non-stop riffs flying around for an hour without any sort of real break.

Exivious - Two guys from Cynic, a guy from Textures, and some other guy decided to make an album. It mostly sounds like a Cynic record, and in a lot of ways is more interesting than Traced in Air.

Behold... the Arctopus - Blazing technical metal with a heavy focus on non-repetition and with Warr guitar as the central instrument. Both of their EP's are amazing; their first LP, however, was somewhat disappointing and I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

Continuo Renacer - Cynic/Atheist worship.

Canvas Solaris - Kinda masturbatory and meandering. Reminds heavily of bands like Cynic and Alarum in some ways, not so much in others. I think a lot of their music is somewhat flat if technically impressive, but I'm just one guy and lots of people dig them.

Actual Time - Pretty much unknown band... I only know about them cause they're from my city. Lots of crunchy riffing, driving bass lines, and rhythmic stuff you'd expect from tech metal, although occasionally this doesn't sound much like metal.

Animals as Leaders - A guitarist's (Tosin Abasi) solo album, but it isn't really a shredfest or anything like that. Good amount of creativity and diversity in tone and style, cool drum tracks, and some atmospheric stuff going on here and there.

Cloudkicker - Sounds sorta like Nothing-era Meshuggah mixed with Textures. Shares similarities with Animals as Leaders.

Electrocution 250 - To quote another reviewer: Well, that's right. This is some of the sickest, most off the wall instrumental music you'll ever hear. Sure, the question of songwriting will pop up in many minds; and I'll definitely agree this is not for everyone. Of all people, fans of quirky instrumental music or guitar players should enjoy this album the most. Think the playfulness of Bumblefoot and the dazzling speed of Behold the Arctopus. Now give it a Spastic Ink spin, if you will. There you have it - Electrocution 250, a most impressive instrumental trio consisting of GIT-schooled Todd Duane on guitars and bass, Lale Larson on keyboards and piano, and last but not the least Peter Wildoer on drums, who previously played on Darkane and Time Requiem albums. Songs are generally faster than lightning and leave the human mind in knots.


Sampling some Cloudkicker on MySpace right now; solid.
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 6:01 AM Post #17 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Instrumental metal bands off the top of my head, along with more or less what they sound like (IMO) -

Blotted Science - Basically... very heavy, very technical, very fast, non-stop riffs flying around for an hour without any sort of real break.

Exivious - Two guys from Cynic, a guy from Textures, and some other guy decided to make an album. It mostly sounds like a Cynic record, and in a lot of ways is more interesting than Traced in Air.

Behold... the Arctopus - Blazing technical metal with a heavy focus on non-repetition and with Warr guitar as the central instrument. Both of their EP's are amazing; their first LP, however, was somewhat disappointing and I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

Continuo Renacer - Cynic/Atheist worship.

Canvas Solaris - Kinda masturbatory and meandering. Reminds heavily of bands like Cynic and Alarum in some ways, not so much in others. I think a lot of their music is somewhat flat if technically impressive, but I'm just one guy and lots of people dig them.

Actual Time - Pretty much unknown band... I only know about them cause they're from my city. Lots of crunchy riffing, driving bass lines, and rhythmic stuff you'd expect from tech metal, although occasionally this doesn't sound much like metal.

Animals as Leaders - A guitarist's (Tosin Abasi) solo album, but it isn't really a shredfest or anything like that. Good amount of creativity and diversity in tone and style, cool drum tracks, and some atmospheric stuff going on here and there.

Cloudkicker - Sounds sorta like Nothing-era Meshuggah mixed with Textures. Shares similarities with Animals as Leaders.

Electrocution 250 - To quote another reviewer: Well, that's right. This is some of the sickest, most off the wall instrumental music you'll ever hear. Sure, the question of songwriting will pop up in many minds; and I'll definitely agree this is not for everyone. Of all people, fans of quirky instrumental music or guitar players should enjoy this album the most. Think the playfulness of Bumblefoot and the dazzling speed of Behold the Arctopus. Now give it a Spastic Ink spin, if you will. There you have it - Electrocution 250, a most impressive instrumental trio consisting of GIT-schooled Todd Duane on guitars and bass, Lale Larson on keyboards and piano, and last but not the least Peter Wildoer on drums, who previously played on Darkane and Time Requiem albums. Songs are generally faster than lightning and leave the human mind in knots.


Well the first five all seemed to have this either anti-rhythmic thing or something going on (Maybe this is all this technical stuff I've been hearing about?) and I didn't quite like them. Then I got to animals as leaders and although it's certainly less energetic, it's not that bad, or at least what I've heard of it so far.
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 6:19 AM Post #18 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by KONAKONA /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Well the first five all seemed to have this either anti-rhythmic thing or something going on (Maybe this is all this technical stuff I've been hearing about?) and I didn't quite like them.


The rhythmic structures utilized by bands like that are generally not immediately apparent, accessible, or straightforward. If that's what you mean by "anti-rhythmic", then yes, they are all very much anti-rhythmic - and yes, one aspect of all that technical stuff is convoluted evolution of rhythm. However, it would be incorrect to say that the rhythms are random, loose, absent, or anything else along those lines.

Sorry you didn't like them anyways - glad to hear you didn't mind Animals as Leaders. It's a nice album.
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 6:23 AM Post #19 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The rhythmic structures utilized by bands like that are generally not immediately apparent, accessible, or straightforward. If that's what you mean by "anti-rhythmic", then yes, they are all very much anti-rhythmic - and yes, one aspect of all that technical stuff is convoluted evolution of rhythm. However, it would be incorrect to say that the rhythms are random, loose, absent, or anything else along those lines.

Sorry you didn't like them anyways - glad to hear you didn't mind Animals as Leaders. It's a nice album.


Eh, I think I tried paying attention to one of them and it was like 5/4 timing or something like that? Seeing as I come from good ol' 4/4 dance and what not it just sounds like a jumble to me unfortunately.

AAL had a bit of synth mixed into part of it, which kinda surprised me. Still, it has some sort of ambient feel to it, quite strange, but nice. Need to pull myself away from it and try those other bands.....

EDIT: electroduction 250 was ok, but I didn't quite care for it, cloudkicker sounded good though. Electro quarterstaff was more of that technical stuff, again just not down my alley.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys and feel free to add more based on what you've read so far.
biggrin.gif
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 7:08 AM Post #20 of 41
If you like Nevermore, Jeff Loomis released instrumental solo album last year - Zero Order Phase. Most of my favorite metal instrumental tracks are on normal albums though.
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 3:29 PM Post #22 of 41
Crows claw does a lot of touhou stuff.
Theres also Iron Attack! if you want that too i guess...
Iron attack is generally a lot faster than crows claw (generally neoclassical speed metal)

Other than that check out jason beckers "perpetual burn" (album) (neoclassical speed metal)
and cacophony's "speed metal symphony".
^ since you seem to like the idea of fast metal. Cacophony has a vocalist but there are a lot of twin-guitar tracks without vocalists.
If you're into final fantasy, you could also check out black mages who have serious influences from the 80s.

If you like video game music as well, there are lot of remix alternatives that could be considered metal or rock oriented (or at very least solo guitar oriented).
Two of my favourites in this regard are housethegrate
and goat (whom i couldnt link without posting an mp3, although it is free).
Goat does a lot of castlevania stuff.

If I was to pick an album to start with, itd be the jason becker, followed by cacophony and then look at stuff like IRON ATTACK!/crows claw which has noticably bad recording (if thats a problem for you)


other than that... ol sonuf and senmuth (Bark of Ra for example) are very good, but looking at your lastfm you might like the other stuff more.
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 3:52 PM Post #23 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by CDBacklash /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Crows claw does a lot of touhou stuff.
Theres also Iron Attack! if you want that too i guess...
Iron attack is generally a lot faster than crows claw (generally neoclassical speed metal)

Other than that check out jason beckers "perpetual burn" (album) (neoclassical speed metal)
and cacophony's "speed metal symphony".
^ since you seem to like the idea of fast metal. Cacophony has a vocalist but there are a lot of twin-guitar tracks without vocalists.
If you're into final fantasy, you could also check out black mages who have serious influences from the 80s.

If you like video game music as well, there are lot of remix alternatives that could be considered metal or rock oriented (or at very least solo guitar oriented).
Two of my favourites in this regard are housethegrate
and goat (whom i couldnt link without posting an mp3, although it is free).
Goat does a lot of castlevania stuff.

If I was to pick an album to start with, itd be the jason becker, followed by cacophony and then look at stuff like IRON ATTACK!/crows claw which has noticably bad recording (if thats a problem for you)


other than that... ol sonuf and senmuth (Bark of Ra for example)


I think that the crow's claw album thingy that came out at C75 had somewhat better mastering than the other two (Frozen Frog and Crossfire Barrage) but I'm no expert at recording quality.
frown.gif


I'll look into the rest of that stuff when I wake up, hopefully not for another 8-12 hours. No offense or anything, but I could go for a Z or two right about now..........

Oh, and I listened to a little bit of mastery. Looks like it could be good, about to listen to more while I sleep.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 4:57 PM Post #25 of 41
Is something like Joe Satriani more along the lines of what you're looking for?
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 5:00 PM Post #26 of 41
Try "Scale the Summit" by Carving Desert Canyons
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 6:41 PM Post #28 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicLover1970 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The New Spirit Waves Album was released today by Michael McDonald!

It makes an excellent Father's Day gift!

Click the following link to preview and purchase tracks:

Spirit Waves Album by Michael McDonald


^^
confused_face_2.gif

What does Michael McDonald have anything to do with instrumental metal?!?
 
Jun 14, 2009 at 6:50 PM Post #29 of 41
Quote:

Originally Posted by 3DCadman /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Try "Scale the Summit" by Carving Desert Canyons


It's actually Carving Desert Canyons by Scale the Summit.

They are similar to Canvas Solaris, so if you didn't like that, you probably won't like this either.
 
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