Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Folk 

Track listing:

Sun it Rises

White Winter Hymnal

Ragged Wood

Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

Quiet Houses

He Doesn't Know Why

Heard Them Stirring

Your Protector

Meadowlarks

Blue Ridge Mountains

Oliver James

What's this? A post on this blog that doesn't pertain to metal? You heard right, this is a post about a flat out hipster-tastic folk group who blend fantastic vocal harmonies with soothing acoustic rhythms to produce a beautiful folk sound. The harmonies are easily the highlight of the album, as the band soothes your eardrums with gorgeous harmonic expression with voices that have been well trained together to accompany the melancholy tunes and folk-ish ditties. The album isn't in the slightest boring either, as a lot of hipster albums are (cough the Antlers cough cough.) You'll find that this pretentious bunch of scarf wearing, flannel flashing bearded pioneers of folk will blow your mind. I'm also seeing them in concert in three days. Woo!

Warning - Watching From a Distance

Warning - Watching From a Distance

Melodic Doom Metal

Track listing:

Watching From a Distance

Footprints

Bridges

Faces

Echoes

Another Melodic Doom Metal post of perhaps my favorite Doom Metal album of all time. Watching From a Distance is a monumental landmark in the Doom Metal genre, combining some of the most depressing and melodic elements one can think of and combining them into something truly mesmerizing. This album will probably not bring you to tears or cause you to weep upon listening, but will leave an emotional scar from it's impactive stature and state of being. The lyrics and instrumentals provide an atmosphere matched seldom by other bands of the genre. Please enjoy this beautifully melancholy works of art.

Shred Guitar

I'm kind of breaking the routine of posting full albums, and I'm just going to post a few videos of extremely impressive shred guitar playing. These guys are neoclassical geniuses. I hope you enjoy them. 

Rob Marcello - 

Paul Gilbert - 

Vinnie Moore -

Enjoy!

While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans Lachrymose

While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans Lachrymose

Melodic Doom Metal

Track listing:

The Furthest Shore

To Wander the Void

Living Sepulchre

Vessel

Vast Oceans Lachrymose

Epilogue

My, my, where do I even begin with this one. Well if I were to sum this album up with one word, it would be "beautiful." There really is no other way to describe it, no matter how cliche and overused the word may be. This is Melodic Doom Metal at it's finest. The weeping melodies of the guitar shroud the album in a sorrowful bliss, a parallelism not easily mastered. The vocals are downright incredible. The harmonies the vocals display on this album are magnificent. Focusing mainly on the Sea, this album features both epics and quick magnanimous tunes that will most likely have you coming back for more. Please enjoy.

Between the Buried and Me - Colors

Between the Buried and Me - Colors

Progressive Metal (Considered Progressive Metalcore)

Track listing:

Foam Born: The Backtrack

Foam Born: The Decade of Statues 

Informal Gluttony

Sun of Nothing

Ants of the Sky

Prequel to the Sequel

Viridian

White Walls

While most defined metalcore may be awful, these guys completely deny their scene and create a fantastic progressive album. Nothing about this album is metalcore really, aside from the vocals. The rest of the album is complete technical mastery and progressive ecstasy. From start to finish, this album takes you on a journey, every song leading into one another, flowing with ease. The musicianship is also fantastic. Put aside every stereotype that you have and every prejudice towards metalcore and give this album a chance. You will be blown away.

Quo Vadis - Defiant Imagination

Quo Vadis - Defiant Imagination (2004)

Technical Melodic Death Metal

Track listing:

Silence Calls the Storm

In Contempt

Break the Cycle

Tunnel Effect (Element of the Ensemble IV)

To the Bitter End

In Articulo Mortis

Fate's Descent

Dead Man's Diary

Ego Intuo Et Servo Te

Originating from Canada, these skilled musicians create a fantastic twist on traditional Technical Death Metal but adding elements of melody into their playing. The musical accomplishments of this band cannot be questioned, as they easily envelope progressive time changes and impressive feats on their various instruments to compose strikingly catchy and enjoyable metal. The drum work is rather notable as well, the man's feet are rather impressive as well as his perfectly executed double bass kicks. Elements of elegance are placed strategically throughout the album in the forms of slight breaks from the relentlessness of the heavy compositions. Enjoy this masterfully written and executed album. You will not be disappointed.

At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours

At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours (1992)

Melodic Death Metal

Track listing:

The Red in the Sky is Ours/The Season to Come

Kingdom Gone

Through Gardens of Grief

Within

Windows

The Claws of Laughter Dead

Neverwhere

The Scar

Night Comes, Blood Black

City of Screaming Statues

A pioneering group in the Gothenburg scene, At the Gates fuse a strange and primal form of Melodic Death Metal mixed with Black Metal influences and atmospheric mastery to create the Swedish gem, The Red in the Sky is Ours. The tortured screams of Tomas Lindberg mixed with the brutal yet beautiful guitars paint a portrait of gorgeous decay in the mind of the listener. The band also incorporates violin into the musical compositions, creating a paradox between harsh and majestic. This album is a bit hard to digest at first for someone not  familiar with Melodic Death Metal because of it's harsh and strange breed of vocals and poor production quality (which in my opinion, adds to it's haunting disposition.) If so, I recommend you start with Slaughter of the Soul, a different more accessible album by the same group.

Opeth - Orchid

Opeth - Orchid (1995)

Progressive Melodic Death/Black Metal

Track listing:

In Mist She Was Standing

Under the Weeping Moon

Silhouette

Forest of October

The Twilight Is My Robe

Requiem

The Apostle in Triumph

This album is little less than a masterpiece. A true display of Guitarist/Vocalist/Primary Songwriter, Mikael Akerfeldt.  Great riffing with long progressive songs. Essential metal listening, filled with ambiance and haunting atmospheric euphoria.