Favorite and least favorite metal genres?

seth wrote:There’s a genre called “pig squeal?” I’m not familiar with that but it sounds pretty awful lol

I could be wrong, but I think the whole "pig squeal" thing is a vocal technique used in grindcore, deathcore and brutal death metal. Don't know if it has its own genre yet or not LOL!

fav: thrash
least fav: black

as to the pig squeal vocals...by far, and bar none,
the worst thing I have ever heard in metal

Just looked up pig squeal vocals on YouTube just to see what it sounded like. Absolutely horrible from a musical perspective, but it sounded so ridiculous I couldn’t help laughing

Constantine wrote:Favorites:   USPM, Classic traditional 80's metal, Melodic metal / AOR, Blues-based Hard Rock, Speed metal

Least:   Metalcore, Deathcore / Pig Squeal, Euro PM, Funeral Doom, Industrial / Cybergrind, Slam

Everything else (e.g. thrash, black, doom, funk metal, etc.) is okay in varying doses

This. Except I like Thrash, old school death and some Euro PM.

Favorites: Black, Goth/Doom, Death/Doom, Funeral Doom, Drone Metal, Atmospheric, Black/Death, Blacknoise

Least favorite: Groove, Thrash, Tech Death, Sludge, NWOBHM, "Melodic/AOR/Rock", Traditional Doom, Glam, Most kinds of prog

Even in these "least favorites" there are some songs/bands I like, but they're much fewer.
I'm not someone who really enjoys "rocking out". While there is a lot of upbeat music I like, I very much prefer contemplative, isolating music.

StevenCressler wrote:Kind of my thoughts exactly, melodic thrash metal because I love the speed and aggressiveness of thrash, but for a song to be truly elite it needs melody IMO (hence why stuff like grindcore isn't really my thing) though for me the ideal type would be symphonic thrash metal, as I think violins/cellos add so much to metal/rock

Have you heard Fleshgod Apocalypse?

It's a brutal death/grind band but with a symphonic orchestra. Lots of growling, ultra fast blast beats, heavy fast guitars with a bunch of violins to give plenty of melody. Some vocal lines are also melodic with clean vocals especially after they got a second vocalist (female).

^ just a warning, this is not a Christian band. According to Metal Archives, one of their lyrical themes is atheism

seth wrote:^ just a warning, this is not a Christian band. According to Metal Archives, one of their lyrical themes is atheism

True.
Good you pointed that out so that people who want to stay out of that can do it.

I have not looked into their lyrics that much (and can't understand most of the growling anyway, lol), but there appears to be promotion of atheism in some of their lyrics.

However, some of the lyrics I've read have also been uplifting in a sense that they are about self-improvement. There's an anti-drug song in their newest album too. One of their album's theme seemed to be about trying to give depressed and struggling people motivation to keep on going. But yeah, surely they're not suggesting one should seek God for help even if they might refer the inner self of a person a soul.

It's hard to pick a favorite, because even in the genres I listen to most (black, death, doom, djent), I still don't like the majority of bands.

My least favorites would be power metal and -core.

Airola wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:Kind of my thoughts exactly, melodic thrash metal because I love the speed and aggressiveness of thrash, but for a song to be truly elite it needs melody IMO (hence why stuff like grindcore isn't really my thing) though for me the ideal type would be symphonic thrash metal, as I think violins/cellos add so much to metal/rock

Have you heard Fleshgod Apocalypse?

It's a brutal death/grind band but with a symphonic orchestra. Lots of growling, ultra fast blast beats, heavy fast guitars with a bunch of violins to give plenty of melody. Some vocal lines are also melodic with clean vocals especially after they got a second vocalist (female).

That was great... never thought of symphonic death metal. Ecthirion has some (un)black symphonic metal that is really good.

StevenCressler wrote:

Airola wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:Kind of my thoughts exactly, melodic thrash metal because I love the speed and aggressiveness of thrash, but for a song to be truly elite it needs melody IMO (hence why stuff like grindcore isn't really my thing) though for me the ideal type would be symphonic thrash metal, as I think violins/cellos add so much to metal/rock

Have you heard Fleshgod Apocalypse?

It's a brutal death/grind band but with a symphonic orchestra. Lots of growling, ultra fast blast beats, heavy fast guitars with a bunch of violins to give plenty of melody. Some vocal lines are also melodic with clean vocals especially after they got a second vocalist (female).

That was great... never thought of symphonic death metal. Ecthirion has some (un)black symphonic metal that is really good.

Idk if I’d call Ecthirion black metal (except for the song Warmageddon), kind of hard to put them in a category but I’d say their more extreme songs are in the vein of symphonic death metal. If you want to know what symphonic (un)black metal sounds like, check out Divine Symphony. Recommend their song Cry in the Dark

seth wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X3w_v612vs

yeah, this is great too
I think I'm still figuring out the difference between death and black lol

This is my order as of right now. I will include styles that are more metal-adjacent and debatably aren't metal. I like all of these to at least some extent.

Black, thrash, death, power, trad heavy, symphonic, deathcore, metalcore

Stuff I've barely listened to because it doesn't really appeal to me (no particular order):

Sludge, "stoner", doom, grindcore (and anything else with "grind" in it)

I need to listen to more djent to really form an opinion on it.

StevenCressler wrote:

seth wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X3w_v612vs

yeah, this is great too
I think I'm still figuring out the difference between death and black lol

Yeah they can be confusing sometimes, especially when some bands overlap them. One of the most noticeable differences is the growls in black metal are much higher pitched than those in death metal

CrimsonWarrior wrote:This is my order as of right now. I will include styles that are more metal-adjacent and debatably aren't metal. I like all of these to at least some extent.

Black, thrash, death, power, trad heavy, symphonic, deathcore, metalcore

Stuff I've barely listened to because it doesn't really appeal to me (no particular order):

Sludge, "stoner", doom, grindcore (and anything else with "grind" in it)

I need to listen to more djent to really form an opinion on it.

Never really listened to sludge, but I’ve heard it’s basically “doomcore,” which seems like a horrendous idea

CrimsonWarrior wrote:This is my order as of right now. I will include styles that are more metal-adjacent and debatably aren't metal. I like all of these to at least some extent.

Black, thrash, death, power, trad heavy, symphonic, deathcore, metalcore

Stuff I've barely listened to because it doesn't really appeal to me (no particular order):

Sludge, "stoner", doom, grindcore (and anything else with "grind" in it)

I need to listen to more djent to really form an opinion on it.

After the Burial is good for djent but I only like it in small amounts.

 StevenCressler wrote:

Airola wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:Kind of my thoughts exactly, melodic thrash metal because I love the speed and aggressiveness of thrash, but for a song to be truly elite it needs melody IMO (hence why stuff like grindcore isn't really my thing) though for me the ideal type would be symphonic thrash metal, as I think violins/cellos add so much to metal/rock

Have you heard Fleshgod Apocalypse?

It's a brutal death/grind band but with a symphonic orchestra. Lots of growling, ultra fast blast beats, heavy fast guitars with a bunch of violins to give plenty of melody. Some vocal lines are also melodic with clean vocals especially after they got a second vocalist (female).

That was great... never thought of symphonic death metal. Ecthirion has some (un)black symphonic metal that is really good.

Also if you like Ecthirion, I think you might like Illuminandi as well. Somewhat similar style, but more folk influenced. Recommend the songs Illumina Tenebras Meas, The Rider, and Hymn of All Creation. Lots of string instruments here, the band has a dedicated violinist
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a_WyhVwkjPE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EsvWZYV_w08&pp=ygUVSWxsdW1pbmFuZGkgdGhlIHJpZGVy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5kE1tVnlHpc&pp=ygUgaWxsdW1pbmFuZGkgaHltbiBvZiBhbGwgY3JlYXRpb24%3D

StevenCressler wrote:yeah, this is great too
I think I'm still figuring out the difference between death and black lol

In my opinion, Black is more repetitive musically, the vocals are less guttural and more of a banshee shriek. Black is one of the genres that your opinion on it differs based off of how “elitist” you are lol. A lot of your true Norwegian bm bands try to make their instrumentation resemble or mimic nature. You can almost feel the cold wind blowing when listening to it. Death is much more about crushing, heavy instrumentation and more guttural vocals. Old school death metal didn’t have quite as much focus on the guttural vocals, but they were still much more of a growl than black metal. Then you start getting into black/death thrash/death black/thrash…it goes on forever lol

seth wrote:

 StevenCressler wrote:

Airola wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:Kind of my thoughts exactly, melodic thrash metal because I love the speed and aggressiveness of thrash, but for a song to be truly elite it needs melody IMO (hence why stuff like grindcore isn't really my thing) though for me the ideal type would be symphonic thrash metal, as I think violins/cellos add so much to metal/rock

Have you heard Fleshgod Apocalypse?

It's a brutal death/grind band but with a symphonic orchestra. Lots of growling, ultra fast blast beats, heavy fast guitars with a bunch of violins to give plenty of melody. Some vocal lines are also melodic with clean vocals especially after they got a second vocalist (female).

That was great... never thought of symphonic death metal. Ecthirion has some (un)black symphonic metal that is really good.

Also if you like Ecthirion, I think you might like Illuminandi as well. Somewhat similar style, but more folk influenced. Recommend the songs Illumina Tenebras Meas, The Rider, and Hymn of All Creation. Lots of string instruments here, the band has a dedicated violinist
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a_WyhVwkjPE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EsvWZYV_w08&pp=ygUVSWxsdW1pbmFuZGkgdGhlIHJpZGVy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5kE1tVnlHpc&pp=ygUgaWxsdW1pbmFuZGkgaHltbiBvZiBhbGwgY3JlYXRpb24%3D

yeah, there's song pretty good violin riffs in here

Bands I have noted as similar to Ecthirion are Spätregen and Umbra Omnipotentis.

Bands I have noted as similar to Fleshgod Apocalypse are Blood Thirsty and Elephant Watchtower.

Spätregen are really good, although they don’t sound very similar to Ecthirion to me. Symphonic black metal, but slower than the likes of Divine Symphony

seth wrote:Spätregen are really good, although they don’t sound very similar to Ecthirion to me. Symphonic black metal, but slower than the likes of Divine Symphony

okay
Thanks for telling me about all these bands!

Np. Here’s a couple of their best songs (lyrics are in German though)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rCRRA5uD2Kc
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MTWeJ_T7vn8&pp=ygUWU3BhdHJlZ2VuIHdvIGRpZSBiYXVtZQ%3D%3D

I like most stuff. Favorite Metal genre is probably still good old fashioned Heavy Metal, followed by Melodic Death Metal and Modern Metal (Lamb of God, Unearth...that kind of stuff)
Least likely to listen to Black Metal or Symphonic Metal.


Point of order though...Hardcore, Metalcore, Grindcore, and Deathcore aren't actually metal, they're all subgenres of Punk, even though the current mainstream zeitgeist is to consider them Metal. That being said, I enjoy all of it except Grindcore. Hardcore and Deathcore being some of my favorites.

Overall...I like a lot of stuff and it's to a point where it's pretty much just whatever I want to listen to at the moment, genres notwithstanding.