Dizchu
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Last Active 06-21-22 5:30 pm
Joined 09-29-12

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 Lists
08.28.16 Current Musical Influences04.25.16 Albums That Got Me Into Certain Genres
04.17.16 Unusual Metal Albums04.05.16 Folk Metal!

Unusual Metal Albums

Metal is quite an alienating genre because of its focus on extremity and lack of respect of conventional songwriting structures, but for most metal fans though the genre can provide a comfortable sense of familiarity. Here's a list of albums that have left me scratching my head but I couldn't stop coming back to.
1Pryapisme
Hyperblast Super Collider

Metal, grind, jazz, electronica, classical all found themselves in Seth Brundle's teleportation pods at the same time.
2Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects
Sol Niger Within V3.33

Meshuggah with more pronounced jazz elements. It's a bit of a mixed bag but it presents a lot of interesting ideas, especially for 1997.
3Devin Townsend
Infinity

To many this may not seem like a particularly weird album given the accessibility of songs like Truth and Bad Devil, but deeper cuts like Soul Driven and Ants as well as the absolute lack of restraint when it comes to the wildly contrasting songs make this a very unusual experience, even for Devin Townsend fans.
4WHOURKR
Concrete

An off-the-wall mixture of metal, breakcore, grind and... baroque music? Basically Igorrr's attempt to frame his weird Venetian Snares-meets-opera experiments in a more metal context.
5Lykathea Aflame
Elvenefris

Another album that's difficult to describe. It's technical death metal of the Cryptopsy variety combined with a very weird sense of melody. It's not melodeath at all, it's more Orphaned Land than In Flames but at the same time it has the extremity of Cryptopsy and Wormed instead of the relative restraint of the former bands. The drumming is god damn incredible so at least give it a listen for that reason.
6Mithras
Behind the Shadows Lie Madness

Cosmic themed old school death metal that is actually able to integrate its cosmic aesthetic into the music. The guitar leads have tons of reverb and delay that makes them sound like they stretch on forever.
7Esoteric
The Pernicious Enigma

Imagine if stoner doom had a counterpart subgenre where LSD was used instead of cannabis and you'll get a sense of how this album sounds. The vocal effects are bizarre and the mix has a weird dated feel to it that makes it sound even more alien.
8maudlin of the Well
Bath

It's hard to really describe this album but I'll try anyway. Imagine the sort of metal a stereotypical art teacher may listen to only it's actually really good. It has elements of softer forms of jazz, a bit of folk, a bit of death metal and a weird romantic/psychedelic theme. Helped immensely by a relatively vintage production job compared to today's standards.
9Dodheimsgard
666 International

Taking elements of industrial and classical while applying them to a black metal foundation, this album has a very unique quality. The vocal performance is interesting too, oscillating between creepy demonic preaching and full-on black metal retching.
10Psudoku
Planetarisk Sudoku

A fun mix of grindcore, thrash metal and spacey jazz. It's quite a short album at 30 minutes and 4 tracks but it's quite an experience.
11Obliveon
From This Day Forward

Songwriting-wise, this has a lot in common with technical death metal bands of the time such as Death, Cynic and Atheist. Production wise it sounds very strange, with reverb applied to EVERYTHING. Instead of having an immediate and aggressive quality it sounds quite distant and alien.
12Thy Catafalque
Rengeteg

Each of Thy Catafalque's albums combine electronica, metal, prog and folk music in a way that only works because of the absolute confidence with which these elements are implemented. The drums are obviously fake but take advantage of the artificiality to add to the electronic aesthetic instead of trying to make up for the lack of real drums. The songs are damn catchy too.
13Demilich
Nespithe

The riffing style and general aesthetic of this album have never been replicated since. It's sludgy yet technical, it's muddy yet has a weird sense of refinement. It sounds absolutely disgusting and the vocals sound inhuman, not because of their extremity but because of how little it resembles a human voice. The lyrics are fucking absurd too.
14Waltari
Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep

Symphonic death metal is regarded as a cliche these days with bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse making disastrously overblown messes, but this 20-year-old album by Waltari was one of the first extreme metal albums to make use of an orchestra and as a result it sounds quite unusual. The riffs have a Danny Elfman-ish quality to them with goofy whole tone passages and whimsical chord progressions. The death metal and classical aspects are also given a roughly equal amount of time to shine, with a few of the pieces here being entirely symphonic.

Oh and not to mention track 6's introduction of HIP HOP elements which ends up sounding like Run DMC-meets-Tchaikovsky, and track 8's ridiculous gabber beat. It doesn't all sound great, the frontman's nasally voice doesn't fit very well and the combination of elements more often than not sounds excessive. But it's worth listening to just because of how few shits are given.
15Oxxo Xoox
Namidae

Also symphonic metal, Oxxo Xoox (ridiculous name) pulls it off with a lot more conviction than their peers. In fact that's probably the most unusual thing about this band, they blend so many different influences into their sound yet make it sound completely natural. Doom metal, opera and classical are combined with a made-up language and a sense of theatricality that makes this album an entertaining listen.
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