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Recommend some new(ish) metal bands
I have been a metalhead for over 20 years but I seem to still mostly listen to the bands I found back then. So mostly bands that started in the 80s or 90s. By the mid 2000s metalcore and its various derivatives got very popular and that wasn't for me, so I kind of stopped paying much attention to new stuff for many years. The only newer band I have been really excited about is the Finnish black metal band Havukruunu, and to some extent Uada and Spectral Wound.
Would love to get some recommendations for new names that have appeared in the last 10 or so years.
I don't listen to a lot of black metal, but some black metal adjacents I can recommend are Deafheaven (especially 2013's Sunbather which was a hugely influential album and the follow up, New Bermuda), and Infant Island (their album from this year, Obsidian Wreath, in particular).
If you're looking for other kinds of metal, I can help out there, but I'm primarily in the post-hardcore, metalcore, emo/screamo, hardcore slot which it sounds like you maybe aren't all that into.
Can’t agree more with Deafhaven. They rekindled my interest in metal after being where OP is for years.
OP: If black metal is your thing it is always a good idea to see what those old Norwegian guys are at. Bands like Ulver, Enslaved, Emperor (Ihshan solo work), Borknagar, Satyricon etc are all doing mind blowing stuff that’s diverging from metal a lot but it’s interesting to see how their past work is being iterated upon.
Some other recommendations with bands that debuted ~2010 or later below.
Blackgaze: Alcest, Panopticon
Black: Furia, Mgła (polish black kicks ass these days, can list some more)
Power: Alestorm, Twilight Force
Doom / stoner: Castle Rat (boobies!), Conan, Pallbearer, Sundrifter
Heavy / classic: Enforcer, Screamer, Spell, Traveler
Other: KVELERTAK (black/punk?)
They're more metalcore/alt metal than black metal but I absolutely love the band Beartooth.
Beartooth is awesome, but if OP didn't like like mid-aughts *core then I suspect they're not going to vibe with Beartooth. Although I guess it probably depends on what kinds of core bands turned them off in the first place, it wasn't exactly a monolithic genre even then.
I don't want to outright disregard anything upfront, and I did like stuff like Hatebreed and Killswitch Engage originally. I don't remember any specific bands, but the whole deathcore trend was off-putting as I just double downed on traditional death metal instead.
If you miss the Howard Jones KSE era, check out Light The Torch. He does vocals and the band have a semi old school metalcore vibe.
Not a specific band recommendation per se (and someone already mentioned it), but the way I discover new (and old) metal artists and albums these days is by checking Angry Metal Guy. They tag all their album reviews by sub-genre and rating, so there are a few ways to browse, and each review generally has embedded Bandcamp or Youtube previews to listen to. Their RSS feed is also pretty great with full article content including the embedded media.
Thanks, looks like a great review blog to follow. Someone on Tildes also recommended Shreddit Release Tracker which I use to keep track of new releases.
If you want to peruse many weekly lists of artists/records, check out my 50+ weekly "Best Albums" posts (weekly for over a year now) of favorite record releases every week. Almost every week includes multiple underground metal artists in a variety of genres. Blog is here. Not really intended as self-promotion, but more as just a way to get lists of artists (it's become a great resource for myself to reflect and go back and listen to bands I found earlier that I may have forgotten about).
Also check out BangerTV's "Metal Monthly" show on YouTube. After talking about more popular releases, they recommend a bunch of "best of the month" of underground metal.
If I had to put a list here, I'd say:
Celestial Sanctuary, Knocked Loose, Wraith, Dodsrit, Molten, Cirkeln, Xoth, Weald & Woe, Obsequiae, Meuritrieres, Maul, Spell, Gateway, Occulsed, Daeva, Lamp of Murmuur, Esoctrilhium, Smoulder, Spirit Possession, Pneuma Hagion, Concrete Winds, Tomb Mold, Fossilization, Hellripper, Civerous, Mystras, Auriferous Flame, Moonlight Sorcery, Schizophrenia, Morke (the Minnesota/safe one), Hekseblad, Ethereal Shroud
even I AM THE INTIMIDATOR... Nascar/Dale Earnhardt themed, and somehow one of the best recent metal releases... it's just so well done and not too cheesy. has a sense of humor but IMO not a "cringe" one
... and I could go on and on for days.
Though I could narrow it down based on genre if you have specific ones you strongly prefer, though there are a very few subgenres that I mostly completely stay away from though still may like extremely few bands in (thall, almost all but particularly modern deathcore, djent except Meshuggah, most modern "clean sung" pop-metalcore, slam, Nightwish-core/European symphonic stuff, cheesy pirate/viking/folk/power stuff, basically anything that makes me personally cringe haha - more power to anyone that likes this stuff but I can't stomach most of it - but there are exceptions in nearly every subgenre)
If our tastes seem to align feel free to ask for more or whatever! Happy to share. I'm finding and learning about new bands on a weekly basis and discuss and share them with others in online metal communities (and receive many recs in return also) and such, it's definitely become a focus of mine in recent years.
+1 to LeviathanEye's recommendations too
Your blog is in my feeds now. Looks good with a weekly writeup.
I can be found on Last.fm if anyone is using that. Currently I prefer black metal, which of course is very broad in its own right and I probably gravitates towards the traditional sound and less all the new post-black experiments going on. Havukruunu is the best thing that has come out in decades and I haven't found many bands to have that combination of aggressive black sound with pagan "melodic" elements. Bands labelled melodic black is something completely different, but they are also far from the drone-ish repetitive atmospheric sound. Names like Batushka and Angantyr come close.
Thanks for adding it! Appreciate that.
Yeah Havukruunu is great. I like most black metal (raw, avant-garde, occult, traditional, etc) and sometimes I can handle atmospheric, dsbm (like NONE), or post-black if they're done well and tasteful enough that they retain the right energy or sound. A lot of the atmospheric/post bands become relatively boring/sleep-inducing though the further post-black they lean, with exceptions, but yeah.
I am personally fairly strict (probably more than many people) on staying away from sketchy/fashy connections in bm, but I try to be reasonable about it. Definitely have lost (and can no longer recommend) many bm bands because of that haha, but that comes with the territory of being into metal, and bm in particular haha :) --- mainly just mentioning this if people wonder why I haven't mentioned plenty of bands that might fit a particular style lol
That said, in that narrow aggressive but with pagan/melodic leanings (and not the Dimmu kind of melodic) vein, I'd say maybe these (apologies if my "for fans of" skills are subpar):
Griffon, Aara, Kvaen, Sturmwächter (not fashy despite the name looking sketchy at first), Árstíðir lífsins, Draugnim, Ulvhedner, Stormkeep, Blackbraid, Hulder
Sometimes it's difficult because there can be a line that starts to blur from the pagan-melodic side over into more folk-black which if it goes too far it can get a bit cheesy/overdone and lose the aggressiveness, though if you want something I think is well done that still has those "common" folk metal melodies but does it in a less cheesy, more respectful sounding way, I'd recommend Burden of Ymir
If you like a medieval sound, Weald & Woe / Obsequiae / current era Morke (MN) are great
Also maybe Malokarpatan (more like blackened heavy metal but it's awesome so might fit close enough to that sound you're wanting), Marrasmeilli, Kampfar, Audn, They Came From Visions, Heltekvad
Hekseblad if the Dissection style of melodic works for you too
Malokarpatan has been in regular rotation for me lately. I can put on their whole catalog while playing video games and it's so good through and through.
Thumbs for the anti-fash principles! It is so insidious when a band doesn't openly express position so it kind feels like you're being too judgy/gatrkeeping in the genre.
R/rabm was a good resource for filtering the trash out from my selections but I haven't used reddit in some time. I'll check out you blogs too!
Thanks! Yeah, sometimes you really can't tell and other times the more you dig the more dogwhistles and red flags start to appear.
I try my best on the blog to not recommend anything sketchy, and I go back and remove anything I find out after-the-fact to be bad. I take a bit of an extra hard line on the blog because there are some situations of "safe band but on a sketchy label" and I don't feel comfortable directing people to buy from those bands (which means the label gets a lot of that money).
EDIT: Heavily condensed this post. I am running on little sleep and just way over-posting. I am realizing I have a hard time being concise in replies (sorry to anyone exhausted by my overly wordy posts... very self-concious about it now)
I'm in a bit of a similar boat. Last weekend I came across Esoctrilihum, a French experimental black metal project and I've been enjoying their most recent release quite a bit.
Dordeduh is basically the continuation of Om era Negura Bunget. Their two releases are absolute beasts.
Spirit Possession is a total weirdo two-piece in the best way. I don't really know how to describe them. The vocals sometime remind me of Katharsis and the music has the uniqueness of Negative Plane, Master's Hammer, etc.
Let me be the one to introduce you to Bring Me The Horizon.
They started off with very raw and scream based, but branched out to do different types of albums.
Some of their more mainstream tracks are Kingslayer, Throne, and Kool-Aid.
Honestly, their Albums range from proper metal, to industrial sounding metal through to almost punk/grunge.
Give Agriculture a listen.
They are kinda in the post black metal sphere, so might be up your alley.
I had the pleasure of seeing them live recently and they really left an impression on me.
Afsky is another new'ish band, that comes highly recommended.
It's the latest project from one af Denmarks most prominent black metal artists.
Never heard of Agriculture, but just started their self-titled album. Thanks. Afsky I know, but haven't listened to them that much yet.
Octoploid. (prog death) Discovered recently through angry metal guy. Pretty good band.
Glacial Tomb (death)
Visigoth (power metal)
Metal is such a broad genre but I sympathize with liking metalcore but not really being into what it has evolved into.
That being said here are some recommendations:
Blackbraid - black metal
Kanonenfieber - black metal
Gatecreeper - death meath (recent release is more melodic death)
Blood incantation - proggy tech death type
Tomb Mold - prog death
Cattle decapitation - Grindcore type that"s been around a while but their last two albums might be appealing.
Cheers!
Just started listening to the latest Kanonenfieber album and it is pretty great so far. There is something oddly appealing about war themed German metal. Just like some of the best world war movies are from Germany.
If Kanonenfieber is floating your (U-)boat then definitely give 1914 from Ukraine a spin. They operate in the same thematic area but are more death metal leaning (of the Bolt Thrower school) with some brass-heavy symphonic elements in the mix on their latest, Where Fear and Weapons Meet.
Recommended tracks:
Arrival. The Meuse Argonne
Passchenhell
FN .380 ACP#19074
Edit: fixed link formatting
Thanks. According to Last.fm, I listened to some 1914 2-3 years ago, but they don't really ring a bell now, so nice to rediscover something.
Hell yeah! I was going to make the same suggestions.
Bolt Thrower is so good though. Memoriam(?) Is a kind of a continuation of them but Frozen Soul really hit their classic sound.
I've listened to Memoriam's three releases but they don't have the same, eh... spark as the mighty BT. Haven't listened to Frozen Soul though, thanks for the rec!
I personally don't care much for Death Metal, being more into Black, but Hath is pretty awesome. Their album from a few years ago, All That Was Promised is just damn good all the way through.
Warbringer has been around since the 00s, but they're consistently evolving their style and sound with every album. These guys are one of the earliest of the Thrash revival. All their albums are good, but Weapons of Tomorrow is their latest one.
Wolf King is a bit of a mix of Hardcore and Black Metal. Sounds weird, but as someone who doesn't care for Hardcore, this is really damn good. I've really only listened to The Path of Wrath but it was on repeat over here for ages.
I could keep going, but I don't want to overwhelm with choices, so I'm just going to throw out an oldie, but a goodie: Darkthrone, who I'm sure you know have been around for decades, but they just release damn consistent album after damn consistent album. Their latest, from this year, It Beckons Us All is really damn good and another album that was on repeat for me for months and months this year.
The new Darkthrone is so good. It's stunning how they keep on doing it.
Yes, Darkthrone got me into the genre all those years ago, and I agree, they are still rocking. I love how they stay true what style of metal they like doing, despite it being a somewhat big shift from the style that got them popular.
Don't know the other names, but they are added to the list!
I'm by no means a metal head but there are some bands I've gotten into in my exploration of the genre. I don't know all the terms but
Castevet - black metal band that's no longer around
Chat Pile - experimental, sludge metal band. It feels like music made by someone going to a mental breakdown but it's more performance art made by film nerds
Someone already mentioned Deafheaven who I love and they've worked a lot with Chelsea Wolfe. I played her a lot a few years back and it's more metal adjacent with a mix of folk, goth rock and doom metal.
Now that I’ve listened to some of the songs people recommended here my YouTube recommendations are filling up with bangers. This song fucking slaps. Where do I find more metal/jpop fusion?
They don't sound like Babymetal, but I recommend Malikliya. They make j-pop-influenced blackgaze music.
I'm more into thrash and noise and that type of thing but off the top of my head you could have a look at;
Mgła (black metal)
Kat i Roman Kostrzewski (satanic/biblical)
They're not new but maybe off the radar and recently active. Kat's last album before Kostrzewski's death, Popiór (2019) is a blinder if you're into that type of melodic dark satanic thrash heavy death sound...).
The following are some bands I'm into at the mo and although they aren't black metal, may still do something for you;
Mantar (argh so good)
Nails
Leper Colony
Blackened
Author & Punisher (slow, industrial, but dark and heavy)
As an aside - this thread is brilliant so thank you OP for asking the question. From the other responses so far, I've already found a bunch of new interesting bands that I look forward to listening to. Furthermore it's great to see so many people enthusiastically posting about metal generally. Thanks everyone.
Edited to make artist names bold
Sleep Token is pretty hot right now. They’re technically classified as a metal band, but they’re pretty avant-garde and hard to pin down. Think if like Bon Iver, NIN, the Deftones, and the Alan Parsons Project all had a baby.
Nobody else has mentioned them yet, but if you’re broadly open to a variety of subgenres and don’t tend towards metalcore, then I’d suggest bands that fall under the “thall” umbrella because there are very few bands that sound like them at this point in time. The flagship of the genre is Vildhjarta, though their drummer’s side project Humanity’s Last Breath is more of the same (in a very good way).
Mirar is another great relatively new band in the space, though they are even more off the wall. Neoclassical and electronic influences, gets downright grating to listen to at times (but I enjoy them all the same).
The closest I can get to pinning down the subgenre is to call it progressive deathcore, but that somehow sounds both reductive and over the top at the same time! At any rate, it’s a total trip, and I think you might appreciate their novel sound as someone who’s spent decades with the genre.
Appreciate the recommendation for Vildhjarta. Definitely something different. Somehow reminds me of Opeth, not in terms of style or sound at all, but how they structure their songs. But I am not really a fan of the djent style guitars.
If you want something heavily inspired by Opeth but much closer to their sound, I recommend
https://piahmater.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-shadow-of-a-foreign-sun
Yeah, that sounds uncannily like Opeth. Maybe a bit too much? Only listened to As Islands Sink but it has some riffs that is very close to stuff Opeth has done.
Yeah it's almost too close but I really enjoy it, given Opeth's being all over the place these days between the prog, the more classic-sounding but softer stuff, and the weird vocals on the latest singles.
While I like a lot of Opeth's experimentation in recent years, I'm glad there's someone carrying the torch of a more classic Opeth sound, tbh
Thanks for calling out Piah Mater @0x29A, I was gonna call out the same. @winther if you’re looking for Opeth adjacent but not quite the same, you might enjoy Luna’s Call.
I’m more of a doom/sludge enjoyer personally, but some black metal recommendations of mine would be Agriculture, Bosse-de-Nage, Ragana, and Oranssi Pazuzu. Hell and Mizmor are my two favorite new acts that aren’t black metal.
Slightly older than last decade, but in case you don't know them: Textures just reunited (maybe temporarily). I dislike almost all melodic metal, and wikipedia even says that they're "metalcore", which I really dislike (and disagree with the label), but they kind of grew out of the metalcore wave and got rid of the shitty cheesy parts. This is imo the one band that pulls the technical djent + melodic proggy combination off.
Animals As Leaders is a pretty famous proggy instrumental band that became big a bit over a decade ago, if you haven't heard of them. Their debut album made a splash, but it was iirc recorded with composed drums instead of a live drummer and the rhythm part of the music suffered for it, I'm mentioning them to say that this was later resolved, they have a great drummer now.
Finally, to change the genre somewhat, Insanity Alert is worth mentioning if you like thrash. It's kind of a thrash/punk/grind crossover and it's fun as hell.
Didn't know of Insanity Alert, but definitely a fun thrash style I like to listen to occasionally like Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust.
In that case maybe check the youtube channel of Obscene Extreme Festival, there's a lot of just silly grindcore, but all three of those thrash bands played there in the last decade and there are other fun crossover thrash/death/grind bands to discover, classic and new. I was surprised by how great their curation is, they post live recordings of all or most bands that play there with very good sound quality (especially the later years) and they're also just fun to watch because where else would a classic brutal death metal band get 10 people moshing on stage in the first 20 seconds of the first song, one of them pulling off his prosthetic leg and waving it above his head.
Allegaeon - DAMNUM
Black Crown Initiate - Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape
Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
Fleshgod Apocalypse - King
Rinuwat is rad. Indonesian/Australian experimental black metal kinda stuff.
https://rinuwat.bandcamp.com/album/dua-naga-2
Ashenspire from Scotland is an avant-garde metal band who are very political.
https://ashenspire.bandcamp.com/album/hostile-architecture
I don't know if post rock is metal enough to be considered metal, but I think there are probably some overlaps: if that's true for you, Isis, Pelican, Russian Circles, Jakob, sleepmakewaves are really excellent. And of course there's always Neurosis but at that point one isn't trading in 'new' by a long shot.
Spiritbox is another one I came across recently that was probably closer to traditional metal tempo and structure that I quite liked.
I'm not heavily into Black Metal, I tend to lean into a slightly more proggy / avant-garde area while keeping the heavy.
Jinjer might be worth checking out, their back catalogue is pretty diverse and their latest single Rogue may be heavy and high-tempo enough to interest a Black Metal fan.
Browse the Metal Encyclopedia for bands and genres similar to what you liked back in the day?
I recommend Severoth, he’s really good
Oh boy, I am excited to respond to a thread like this! I love Havuukruunu and agree they are one of the best black metal bands around these days. Black metal was my entry into "trve/kvlt" metal, so it is definitely the genre I have spent the most time exploring.
I think you're going to love these rec's:
Malokarpatan: These guys are like a black metal/heavy metal sonic assault with a side of Slavic folk influence. Listen to the first track off this album and if you don't absolutely love the riffage then maybe get your head checked :P
Funereal Presence: Another phenomenal black metal band with speed metal influence. The riffs and songwriting on here are so so so so good. Got some really epic songwriting on this album.
Akhlys: FAIR WARNING, this artist has really shitty politics and is someone I would never recommend financially supporting. That said, the music doesn't contain any shitty politics, and is in fact awesome. Do with that what you will. They are an atmospheric black metal band much in the same vein as Havuukruunu. I think you will love this stuff. Very evil sounding.
Aosoth: Some really grimy dissonant black metal mixed with a little prog metal in there. They're no longer together but this album from 10 years ago is something I still throw on regularly. The riffs go hard.
Faidra: This is straight up Burzum worship without the baggage of having anything to do with that shitbag Varg. Very enjoyable traditional atmospheric black metal.
Blood Incantation: This is the first death metal rec I'm gonna give. They have a new one that just dropped today but in all honesty its kind of a mess. Their last full length from 2019 has better riffs and is far more coherent in its songwriting.
Civerous: another death metal rec with some hints of doom metal in there. I just discovered these guys this year with this release. Definitely one of my top picks for metal albums of the year. Just really cavernous and crushing riffs.
Defacement: some really dissonant black/death metal here. The album alternates between weird spacey electronic interludes and then pure, suffocating, death metal. Give it a whirl!
Demoniac: technical thrash out of chile. really refreshing stuff. The riffs are so good and is definitely one of the best thrash records of the last 10 years.
Nekromantheon: A totally unhinged blackened thrash assault that goes full tilt off the jump and doesn't let up until the album is over. These riffs go hard.
Qrixkuor: blackened death metal (or is it dead black metal? :P) this album is haunting, evil, crushing, and relentless. Once it gets going it will have you hooked.
Spirit Possession: black, speed with splash of technical thrash. This album from last year really stood out to me among metal albums of the last 10 years. Definitely give it a go since you are big into black metal.
Tchornobog: Super aggro black/death/avantgarde metal mish-mash that explodes right out of the gate. DO NOT SKIP THIS ONE. One of the most inventive metal albums I've heard this decade.
Teitanblood: If you somehow haven't heard Teitanblood prepare to have your world turned upside down. Absolutely unrelenting war/death metal that is full of some of the most spine chilling riffs. Absolute modern classic.
Tomb Mold: old school death metal out of Toronto. My favourite of theirs, but if you like this check out all their other albums. Also, the vocalist is the drummer, always gotta give props to drummers who can somehow do vocals at the same time.
Wayfarer: this atmospheric black metal album has a bit of a gothic country feel to it. The intro track sounds like it could have come straight out of Westworld or Red Dead Redemption. Definitely a unique vibe on this one without being a gimmick.
These are just off the top of my head, feel free to PM me if you want more rec's. I love talking metal and I don't have anyone I know in real life to talk about it with.