The Intraweb Home of Andy White

Artist: Nevermore

Album: Dead Heart in a Dead World

Genre: Progressive Metal (I guess)

Rating: 5/5

The main guitar player for Nevermore, Jeff Loomis, might be one of my favorite guitar players “of all time.”  The guy is a total badass – he’s so talented, but he doesn’t do the wankery/show-offery that other comparable players might.  He has a really good sense of melody, and his solos fit the songs so well.  I think album is definitely Nevermore’s best work.  The vocals are slightly on the cheesy side, but Warrel Dane has a unique voice, so it’s not so, so bad.

I’m not sure what the general metal population thinks of Nevermore.  I almost feel like this band is a guilty pleasure, they sometimes tip-toe the line of Dream Theaterness, but thankfully they can actually write good songs.

Artist: In Flames

Album: Whoracle

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Rating: 4.8/5

Call me a newbie if you will, but I think this album is part of reason In Flames got so big back in the day.  The melodies on this album are excellent, this is the epitome of melodic death metal.  The guitars are all layered really well, the overall sound is really easy on the ears.  The production quality could be just a little better, but it’s definitely not bad.  It’s too bad In Flames kind of took a nose-dive as of late, they had some pretty solid albums in their hey-day.

Artist: The Fifth Sun

Album: The Hunger to Survive

Genre: American Melodic Death Metal

Rating: 4.8/5

I found this band from some reviews on MetalCrypt.com.  Those trustworthy metal elitists on metal crypt didn’t let me down on this one, it’s really good.  Back when I was reading about this band, they mentioned a few times that they’re actually not signed to any record label.  They recorded this album at the famous “Studio Fredman” in Gothenburg, Sweden, which is arguably the birthplace of melodic death metal.  You can definitely hear the M.D.M. influences in the album, but it does sort of have an american feel, I’m not sure why.

I’m not sure if this band ever got signed.  If not, I’d be really surprised, this album is on par with some of the best albums I’ve come across in the genre.

Artist: Eluveitie

Album: Slania

Genre: Melodic Death Metal (Viking Metal maybe?)

Rating: 4.9/5

I sort of came across this band randomly on last.fm.  Whenever I listen to these guys, I can’t help but think of the movie “Braveheart.”  A few of the songs have some pretty epic openings, and they use some sort of celtic flute, which suits the music pretty well.  They also incorporate a mix of clean female vocals with harsh male growling, which I was a little skeptical of at first, but they do it pretty well.  The guitar playing is good, and the song-writing is pretty good.  The production quality is also very good, everything sounds pretty polished.

Definitely worth checking out!

Artist: Baroness

Album: The Red Album

Genre: Stoner Metal (I guess)

Rating: 4.9/5

I came across this album because I was going to see an Opeth show, and this band was one of the opening acts (along with High on Fire).  I figured I’d check them out before the show to get an idea of what to expect.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find parking before the show so I missed most of their set, which is a shame because they’re actually really good.  The guitar playing is not the typical sludgy sound that you’d expect from a band that seems to be classified as “stoner metal.”  They have pretty interesting clean guitar lines, and pretty good, catchy song-writing.

The vocals are actually good as well.  This is a pretty cool band, check them out if you get a chance.