Recommendations :

[Lucid]

For good rock/metal albums?(No death metal please.)

I don't care what year, but I want albums mostly.
The music on my iPod is starting to get a bit stale and I really haven't been in the music search mode that much.
But I've got two $30 gift cards for iTunes and I'd like to get some new music.

If any of ya'll could be of any assistance I'd greatly appreciate it. :D

I've gotta head to class so I'll be back in a bit.

[Hellrider]

Piece of Mind - by Iron Maiden

Sad Wings of Destiny - by Judas Priest

Thrash metal ?
Arise - by Sepultura

Bonded by Blood - by Exodus

Power\Progressive metal:
Outworld - Outworld (really awesome)

Burnt Offerings - by Iced Earth



Those are some good albums, I have tons more to recommend.
Those were just the few that popped in my mind..

(What have you heard from Death metal ?)

[sea]

Get Traveller by The Lord Weird Slough Feg, if it's available. Amazing traditional metal album with progressive influences. Despite the fact that it's a concept album based on a 1970s sci-fi role-playing board game about a mad scientist transforming the human race into dog/human hybrids in order to take over the universe, it's excellent.

Don't get anything by Iced Earth except for Burnt Offerings, except maybe Something Wicked This Way Comes. Everything else is complete shit. Well, those albums mentioned are shit too, but they're not quite as bad.

[Hellrider]

Aren't The Lord Weird Slough Feg folk metal ?


Oh and of course PoM & SWoD are shit albums.

[sea]

They're not folk metal. They do have very occasional acoustic guitar elements and other "traditional" instruments on their earlier albums in a very limited form, but aside from that there's nothing that puts them in line with something like Elvenking or Moonsorrow.

What do you mean by PoM and SWoD?

[Pulse]

Metal:

Testament - The Legacy
Metallica - Black Album
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
Lamb of God - New American Gospel (Yes I realise I'll get flamed for this, but I love this album)
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes, & The Blackening
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power


Rock:

Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Clutch - Blast Tyrant
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
Tool - Lateralus

And two down right bizarrely hilarious rock albums which I recommend checking out;

McLusky - The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not On Fire
Ween - Pure Guava

[TheAntipop]

The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Tiger and the Duke

Really, really good progressive/experimental rock/hardcore-ish stuff. It's not really metal, but there's a lot of rock/blues influence in there but overall it's one crazy mix of all different types of music. I'm suggesting this to everyone just because it's such an excentric album that's well worth a listen to.

It's really appealing to me because it's made up of so many good, but criminally underated musicians, from bands like RX Bandits, Circa Survive, Saosin, Chiodos, etc, which may not mean a lot to some people, but the creative energy these guys make when they came together to record this album is mindblowing.

That said, this album may not be for everyone - it is pretty experimental stuff, but it's more straight forward than their later release, Lover, The Lord Has Left Us.

EDIT: Pulse just reminded me that Mastodon are a band that you simply must check out if you do like rock or metal, and I don't think I recall you having listened to them on yer Last.fm. I'd say go with the latest release, Blood Mountain, as compared with the other two (three?) releases it's much more accessible. People will probably say to go with the early albums Remission and Leviathan but they are a little harsher. Still good, but try out Blood Mountain and see what you think. One of my favourite albums, that.

[Stigmata]

Tool - Lateralus
Soundgarden - Superunknown

<3 those albums.

[Hellrider]

They're not folk metal. They do have very occasional acoustic guitar elements and other "traditional" instruments on their earlier albums in a very limited form, but aside from that there's nothing that puts them in line with something like Elvenking or Moonsorrow.

What do you mean by PoM and SWoD?

You could just check,I meant the Iron Maiden and Judas Priest albums but never mind.
I have heard about 1 or 2 songs from The Lord Weird Slough Feg,I've just heard that they're folk.

And to the other guy,you recommend a Metallica album and it's the black album..? same about Testament..

[Lucid]

Sweet choices.

I've been meaning to check out Iced Earth, didn't realize they were that mediocre though.

And same with Soundgarden, I'm getting really into the whole grunge rock genre... Alice in Chains & Nirvana ftw.

Lamb of God is garbage, sorry. :p

Mastodon sounds really good, I'll probably get a bit of their stuff... luckily I can preview most of the albums on iTunes.

Thanks for the recommendations guys :D

edit : About death metal...
I've heard Slayer and some other bands... I'm just not really into the whole screaming banshee stuff.

[Muffin Man]

Clutch - Pure Rock Fury
Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Primus - They Can't All be Zingers
Tool - ?nima
Cake - Fashion Nugget

Srsly.

[Keane]

edit : About death metal...
I've heard Slayer and some other bands... I'm just not really into the whole screaming banshee stuff.

Have you heard any Opeth? They're an excellent band, and have swayed many people's opinions (including mine) on death vocals.

[sea]

Slayer isn't death metal; they did influence some early death metal like Morbid Angel, but otherwise they're just a more aggressive thrash metal band. Opeth is a progressive metal band that incorporate death metal elements (mostly in the form of vocals) and take influences from folk, jazz, and even occasionally funk on some of their newest stuff. Fairly atmospheric and very melodic, with a mix of clean vocals and growling, but their long song length and somewhat drawn-out style of songwriting might not appeal to you. Mastodon are pretty good, though a little repetitive.

As far as traditional death metal goes, the usual suspects like Behemoth, Vader, Nile, Decapitated, Necrophagist, Bolt Thrower, Kataklysm, Gorguts, Suffocation, Immolation, Darkane, Morbid Angel, etc. are good places to start. Meshuggah are a post-thrash hardcore-influenced band that aren't quite death metal, and use pulsating, atonal polyrhythmic guitars and drums along with jazz-influenced guitar leads. More melodic death metal bands include older In Flames, Arsis, Dark Tranquillity (they're not very good), Hypocrisy, Children Of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Insomnium (similar to Opeth but a bit less proggy), Carcass (only their Heartwork album), and Into Eternity (kinda progressive and incorporates clean vocals) are good to check out. Even if you're not a big fan, you might be surprised by some of these bands, though most death metal is an acquired taste that takes time to grow on you.

You could just check,I meant the Iron Maiden and Judas Priest albums but never mind.I kinda figured that, but I didn't think they'd been suggested already. Guess I missed them. Honestly Piece Of Mind is a decent album, but nowhere near as good as Iron Maiden's more classic Powerslave, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, etc., and Sad Wings is barely even a metal album.

[Hellrider]

How can you know what Iron Maiden album will he like better? Piece of Mind is awesome too.
And Sad Wings is awesome even if it's barely metal.

Behemoth aren't traditional death metal,they were black metal and still have little left from it.

Oh and xlucidx, you should still try the mentioned Iced Earth album and then see if you want to try anything else from them,
if someone doesn't like them it doesn't necessarily means they're shit.

[Bad^Hat]

A few that I don't think have been mentioned -

Alice in Chains - Dirt (sounds like you're already checking them out, but still worth a reccomendation)

Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese (probably their easiest album to get into, and all the tracks are gold)

...and then:
Primus - Frizzle Fry (nuff said)

King Crimson - The Condensed 21st Century Guide To... (if you've missed out on them until now, this is a great album to catch up on all the highlights)

Rush - Moving Pictures (if you don't have this, you have no soul)


Can't really think of anything else that hasn't been recommended here a thousand times already.

[Lucid]

Again, thanks for the recommendations... sifting through these should last me quite a while.

@ Bad Hat, is Moving Pictures one of their older albums? Because their new stuff quite honestly sucks total ass.

[Bad^Hat]

Yeap. It has YYZ on it. So, you know. Get it.

[sea]

How can you know what Iron Maiden album will he like better? Piece of Mind is awesome too.
And Sad Wings is awesome even if it's barely metal.Piece of Mind is a good album, but I think it might be prudent to suggest a band's best work rather than the "iffy" stuff. Sad Wings is still a great album, yes, but I'm just saying that it has more of a 60s-70s rock sound to it than anything, so it may not be the best stuff available if you're into a more modern sound.

Behemoth aren't traditional death metal,they were black metal and still have little left from it.ALthough there are some minor elements of black metal left on Satanica and Thelema.6 (I'd even argue that the later one has more of a black metal lean than the earlier), Behemoth pretty much completely abandoned black metal by the time they released Zos Kia Cultus. As of Demigod and The Apostasy there's absolutely none of it left in them, musically.

[Hellrider]

But they were black metal and you didn't mention it, that's my point.
But now he probably understood.

[Ennui]

Yeap. It has YYZ on it. So, you know. Get it.

Best song ever.