Melodic pieces by not so melodic bands

Isn’t it great when you’re listening to an ultra-brutal Death Metal band and suddenly a catchy melody kicks in? Personally, I’m a sucker for these melodic parts and many Death Metal bands did just that and incorporated parts like that into really heavy songs.

There’s just something about the contrasting sounds of really heavy riffs and catchy, melodic guitar playing that gets to me. Hell, Melodic Death Metal is based on that very concept but that’s not really what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about bands who are really heavy, classic Death Metal and the melodic parts I’m talking about are really rare within this band’s catalogue. It’s just great when a melody catches you off-guard because you simply didn’t expect something like that.

Now, make the jump for 5 examples of what I’m talking about.

Weekly Dose of Metal: Naglfar

Naglfar are a bit of an anomaly in the Metal world, as they’re one of the only Black Metal bands that I actually really enjoy. Not that Black Metal is bad or anything, but it’s just not my favorite sub-genre of Metal. The band themselves are a Swedish Melodic Black Metal band, and stand out from many of the other Black Metal bands as they combine many of the elements found in the Melodic Death genre.

Formed in 1992, Naglfar have undergone many line-up alterations over the years. My favorite track of theirs, is Spoken Words of Venom from 2005’s Pariah, and can be heard below. It’s the live version, because the only studio version on Youtube sucked in quality.

17 years ago seems so far away

17 years ago, Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven went to #1 on the US Billboard 200 charts. Currently on #1 on said charts is Adele and I have absolutely no idea who that is but I think it’s safe to say, they (or she?) aren’t metal (it’s worth noticing that the Foo Fighters are on #2 and I absolutely view that as a great thing).

17 years ago, even Kurt Cobain was blown away by the sheer amount of quality metal albums that were released that year. In the year of 1994, many great (and now legendary) albums were released. Make the jump to see the highlights of 1994.

New The Soulless video

I’ve reviewed The Soulless’ debut album Isolated a month ago and even though I wasn’t blown away by the album, I can enjoy them in small doses. With that being said, ‘Unaltered’ really just isn’t my cup of tea. It just reeks of desperately trying to sound up-to-date.

Why am I reporting about it then? Well, I strongly believe that we need to support up-and-coming artists. Even if they’re not my favorite band, some visitors on this site might enjoy them and I wish them a lot of fun viewing the music video above.

Upcoming albums headlines

All Shall Perish recently revealed the artwork of their upcoming album This Is Where It Ends. View the artwork after the jump.

Djerv, featuring members of Animal Alpha, Stonegard, Wardruna and Trelldom, revealed the album artwork and tracklisting of their debut album. View both after the jump. And no, I have no idea who any of these bands are.

Devin Townsend (pictured above) announced more details about his upcoming albums Deconstruction and Ghost. View the artworks and tracklistings for both albums after the jump.
Deconstruction will feature many famous names, including Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth, Bloodbath), Ihsahn (Emperor), Tommy Rogers (Between The Buried And Me), Joe Duplantier (Gojira), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Floor Jansen (After Forever, Revamp), Oderus Urungus (GWAR), Paul Masvidal (Cynic), Paul Kuhr (Novembers Doom) and Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah).