List of Metal bands with 4.5 or above Allmusic Guide reviews?
 

If you don't know of Allmusic Guide (AMG) - it is a huge online database that claims to be an authoritative source of music criticism. Obviously music journalism is subjective and AMG are therefore not infallible, but I believe they are reliable and put in a solid effort to cover even 'underground' genres such as metal really quite extensively. They rate albums out of 5 stars. The really good ones used to get rated 5 stars, but nowadays, even very good albums peak at 4.5 and are only given 5 star status when their cultural impact over time has been retrospectively analyzed. If you're interested, the only recent metal band to have one of their albums receive 5 stars is 'Negura Bunget' with the album 'Om'.

The following metal/hardcore bands (unless asterisked) have at least one album with a 4.5 star or above rating on AMG;

36 Crazyfists
1349
Aborted
Abruptum
After Forever
Agalloch
Alchemist
Altar Of Plagues
Amon Amarth
Anaal Nathrakh
Anata*
Anathema
Angels Of Light
Arcturus
Autopsy
Ayreon
Baroness
Behemoth
Between The Buried And Me
Black Cobra
Blood Duster
Bloodbath
Bloodthorn
Bloody Panda
Blut Aus Nord
Boris
Botch*
Byzantine
Candiria*
Cathedral
Cavity
Cave In
Cerebral Bore
Chevelle
Church Of Misery
Coalesce*
Cobalt*
Converge
Cryptopsy
Cult Of Luna
Cynic (90s)
Dark Tranquility
Deathspell Omega
Decapitated**
Deicide
Demon Hunter
Diabolical Masquerade
Dillinger Escape Plan
Dimmu Borgir
Dir En Grey
Discordance Axis
D.O.A.
Dragonforce
Dream Theater
Drowningman
Drudkh*
Earthless
Edge Of Sanity
Electric Wizard
Embodyment
Emperor
Enslaved
Entombed
Epoch Of Unlight
Esoteric
Evergrey
Every Time I Die
Evil Beaver
Evoken
Exhumed
Extol
Funeral Mist
Gallery Of Mites
Gates Of Slumber
Gathering, The
Genghis Tron
God Forbid
Gojira*
Gorguts* (90s)
Greymachine
Gridlink
Harvey Milk
Hate Eternal
Hatebreed
Haunted, The
Heaven Shall Burn
Hollenthon
Hour Of 13
Human Abstract, The
Immolation
Immortal
In Flames
Into Eternity
Intronaut*
Isis
Kamelot
Kampfar
Karma To Burn
Katatonia
Keelhaul
Krallice
Kverlertek
Kylesa
Lacuna Coil
Lair Of The Minotaur
Lamb Of God*
Loss
Ludicra
Luna Mortis
Lykathea Aflame*
Machine Head
Madder Mortem
Made Out Of Babies
Marduk
Mars Volta, The
Martyr AD
Mastodon
Melechesh
Meshuggah
Morbid Angel
Nachmystium
Napalm Death
Nasum
Necrophagist
Negura Bunget
Neuraxis
Neurosis
Nevermore**
Nightwish
Nile**
Novembers Doom
Ocean, The
Om
On Thorns I Lay
Opeth
Orphaned Land
Pain Of Salvation
Paradise Lost
Pelican
Pig Destroyer
Poison The Well
Porcupine Tree
Priestess
Primordial
Queens Of The Stone Age
Rage
Refused*
Regurgitate
Revocation
Rotting Christ
Ruins Of Beverest
Rwake
Scar Symmetry
Shadow Gallery
Shining
Sigh
Skinless
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Slipknot*
Slough feg
Soilent Green
Soilwork
Solefald
Sonata Arctica
Spirit Caravan
Spiritual Beggars
Stargazer
Strapping Young Lad*
Suffocation*
Sunn O))))
Swallow The Sun
Sword, The
Symphony X
System Of A Down
Tenet
Therion
Today Is The Day
Tool*
Torche
Triptykon
Tristania
Trivium
Turisas
Twilight
Tyr
Unearth
Unleashed
Virgin Black
Voivod
Warhorse
Watain
Weakling
Windir
Witchery
Within Temptation
Wolf
Wolves In The Throne Room
Xasthur
Yakuza

(The above is pretty much my entire metal collection, and I've been compiling the list over about a decade, so the asterisked bands are I think bands who don't have a 4.5 or above rated AMG album, but who I like anyway).

Please add to this list!! I'm interested mainly in bands whose 4.5 or above AMG rated albums were released from 2000-2011 (present) cuz I'm not so into retro stuff. But whatever, I guess you can add retro bands in as well.

With your help I look forward to this list expanding and becoming huge!!

[Edit: 24/9/11]

who the fuck cares

this sounds very important

nile is very good and deserve to be on this list

glanced at the list and saw trivium and machine head

allmusic isn't too bad, I often end up on there researching albums

an all defining list like this makes it look kind of authoritative and stupid though

nah allmusic sucks

lol dragonforce

haha, look at bit harder and you'll see that Chevelle is up there as well!!

Can anyone add to the list, though?

That's the point of this thread preferably recent additions ie. no golden oldies like Metallica.

I'll add your additions to the list.

motorhead
black sabbath

[QUOTE=nodding;18631409]nah allmusic sucks[/QUOTE]

you hate any place of music criticism though

lol Dragonforce

bumpity bump

replies saying "no-one cares" are [I]accepted[/I], but kinda gay.

If you have to bump the thread, maybe that's a clue as well. :p

theres a bunch of good bands here

bump

Nokturnal Mortum - [I]Goat Horns[/I]

Oh, wow, more websites where people categorise music into a scale and pretend to be objective about it.

i just use rym these days

[QUOTE=Morumbar;18654615]Oh, wow, more websites where people categorise music into a scale and pretend to be objective about it.[/QUOTE]

Nothing is ever going to be remotely objective as far as music (especially extreme metal) is concerned - but allmusic guide (and metacritic - which covers metal not nearly as extensively) are as close as you can currently get.

Anyway - I just edited the list and added in recent releases by Autopsy, Deathspell Omega, Wolves In The Throne Room and Ludicra which have got a 4.5 or above review.

Haha, that Nokturnal Mortum album got 3 stars, good joke.

I would really appreciate it if you guys happen to know of recent metal releases rated 4.5 or above that aren't on the list.

bring Me The HOrizon, winds of plague, stick to your guns, years spent cold

[QUOTE=Haz;18631408]allmusic isn't too bad, I often end up on there researching albums

an all defining list like this makes it look kind of authoritative and stupid though[/QUOTE]

yeah its more organized than last.fm but not as comprehensive of underground badns

I'm gonna guess the Machine Head album is The Blackening, with Unto the Locust set to join that.

[url]http://www.allmusic.com/album/r15110[/url]

attention threadstarter

first post needs to be updated to include Pestilence

r.e. the guy who suggested pestilence - preferably i'd like modern metal bands to be on this list (2000's onwards).

Hence bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath are not on the list even though they definitely got multiple 4.5+ rated albums

bump to add 'Priestess' due to their album 'Hello Master'

Bump to say that Mastadon's 'Leviathan' has been upgraded in its allmusic score and is now one of the 2 metal albums (I'm aware of) to get the full 5 out of 5 stars in the last decade.

That just did they did to make Mastodon feel better about the fact everything since Leviathan was shit.

3rd Feb 2012 bump

added Turisas, Altar Of Plagues, Hate Eternal and Loss to the list.

...I don't give up do I?

this proves that i listen to shitty music