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What's your favorite metal album right now?
Mine is Epica - The Divine Conspiracy, been listening to it every day for the past week as I fall asleep. You might not think metal works as sleep-music, but it does for me haha :)
Here's a song off of the album https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRR-eLW1lXw
Toundra IV. Truth be told, this is more of a post-rock record with metal flavoring, but I've been listening to it on-and-off since release and I find that the appeal is more similar to what I'd get from a sprawling metal album than from most other post-rock.
I gave the song Kitsune a listen, it's pretty good! Metal flavoring alright - sounds a bit like like Between the Buried and Me or Animals as Leaders
I listen to a lot of metalcore and hardcore, so I could go on about atmospheric Erra's Drift is, or how hype I am for the new Silent Planet album based on the first two singles, for example. But most metal heads would say that's not metal.
For more purists, I'll say the new Unearth single is very good. Seems like a return to form for them.
Do I have to pick just one?
I'm not 100% sure Hopesfall counts as metal (Wikipedia lists "alternative metal" as one of their genres so I'll say yes), but I've been listening to their new album, Arbiter, their first since their breakup ten years ago and reunion two years ago, and I'm loving it; it's like all the best parts of The Satellite Years and Magnetic North. They released three singles: "H.A. Wallace Space Academy", "Tunguska" (one of my favorites), and "Faint Object Camera". It looks like Equal Vision Records also put several other songs from the album on YouTube, including another favorite, "Indignation and the Rise of the Arbiter" (although honestly, I love the entire album; it's really hard to pick favorites).
I was also super into The Hirsch Effekt earlier this year, especially their latest album Eskapist. I discovered them once via a Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. They didn't really grab me then, but then they floated back into my awareness with Eskapist, which sucked me in for a while and was nearly the only thing I listened to for about three weeks straight. They remind me a lot of Between the Buried and Me in terms of how indulgently progressive they are (which I love), especially on Eskapist. Plus they have a song about how tardigrades will outlive us and how can you not love that?
Tool's Lateralus. I never heard anything quite as mystical and wild yet complex and carefully constructed. The lyrics are great and each member of the band is really talented, especially the drummer. With it's 80 minutes length listening to it in one sitting is a dark and immersive journey like no other.
Probably Below the House. Atmospheric sludge metal that gets to me when I'm in a really bad mood and just feels perfect for piling a really thick and heavy atmosphere for loneliness and regret. Is it technically impressive or anything groundbreaking? Not really, it's just something that can hit my emotions in all the right places.