markm1
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2013
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It might be helpful to decide if you want to listen to current releases or go to the classics. Considering metal has technically been around since the late 60's, there's a lot of history.
I would say the first step would be to decide if you are ready to listen to extreme metal (Death Metal, Black Metal, Hardcore) vs what we refer to as "clean singing".
My suggestion would be a little of both. There are a ton of metal websites with reviews, end of the year "best of" lists.
Picking up on Recarmoose-he's a good resources-there are some indisputable essential releases that are easy to find on line and we can turn you onto them.
In addition to:
Slayer's Reign in Blood and Black Sabbath (in addition to Master of Reality, I would include Paranoid and Heaven and Hell-with Dio on vocals), I would suggest in the classic Brit Metal or NWBHM:
Motorhead's No Remorse-one of the greatest compilations ever
Iron Maiden-Number of The Beast, Power Slave and/or Piece of Mind
Judas Priest-Metalogy is a terrific box set-Stained Glass is sometimes mentioned as one of the best classic metal albums
I'd pick a couple of classic thrash albums in addition to Slayer such as:
Metallica's Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning
Anthrax-Persistence of Time (a personal favorite)
Megadeth (Peace Sells, but Who's Buying and/or Rust in Piece)
maybe explore some alt metal:
Tool, Isis, Kyuss and Neurosis are indespenible to my collection
If you like the Sabbath sound...explore DOOM-too many choices for me to start. 2012's Pallbearer was a very popular release.
And, if you have any interest in extreme metal, at the minimum I would suggest:
an easy gateway drug to extreme metal if you like prog would be:
Opeth (Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries). You could even start with Porcupine Tree's In Abstentia which is not metal but, Stephen Wilson who fronts PT produced Blackwater Park, and his work is exceptional.
Melodic Death Metal (fairly easy on the ears for a virgin)-At The Gates, Amon Amarth and Dark Tranquility are hard to beat.
If you want to jump straight into what we might call brutal DM-Recarmoose will tell you exactly what to put in your ears.
And do try some Black Metal. There's almost too much out there to say where to start. But a few ideas are:
Emperor and Immortal-early important milestones. Get a recommendation for Immortal-they are killer, but they have a few stages which are quite different. I'm fond of an album called At the Heart of Winter. If you can tolerate nails on a chalkboard-Darkthrone are seminal...but be forewarned....they are an acquired taste-A Blaze in the Northern Sky and Under a Funeral Moon are kind of the big ones from them. Satyricon's Dark Medieveal Times is also really good.
A number of prog BM-Enslaved is the big hitter in the field-really great band.
Aggaloch as mentioned before-perhaps the best American BM band IMO. Recent Marduk is also favorite....strap yourself in though-they will destroy your soul and you might not get it back.
And there are people much more knowledgeable than me that can point you into all kinds of weird, atmospheric BM which is epic and chilling and totally worth your time.
If you are interested in hardcore with metal influences-Converge is the place to start IMO....well, in the punk field which has greatly influenced metal, everyone should hear a little Ramones!
Just a few of my ideas....
