My favorite recent discovery of mine is an artist I have been putting of listening to for a long time: Devin Townsend, and his numerous projects. For a long time, the only album of his that I had heard was "Ghost", which is a very light and somewhat ambient album, but Ghost's twin, heavier album, "Deconstruction", recently caught my attention for its huge cast of guests, including Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, Paul Masvidal of Cynic, Ihsahn of Emperor, Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah, and many others. I gave it a listen to find that the album is extremely... weird. Good, but weird. Examples of this weirdness would be "The Mighty Masturbator" at 16 and a half minutes, and the title track, which seems to be related to cheeseburgers. That said, I really grew to love "Stand" (the track with Akerfeldt on backing death vocals), which I will link at the bottom. Other than "Stand" the album has a good amount of other great moments.
Aside from "Deconstruction", I've checked out "Accelerated Evolution", "Addicted", and "City" and "Alien" from Townsend's old extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, which also featured Gene Hoglan, who is probably my favorite thrash/death metal drummer. I especially enjoyed Accelerated Evolution and City, but the others were good too. In general Strapping Young Lad seem to be one of the heaviest bands that have made their way into my music library. Townsend has a new album coming out this month, "Epicloud", which I recently pre-ordered the CD of, along with Enslaved's upcoming album.
I've also recently gotten into Sepultura, another band that I've put off seriously trying. When I originally tried Sepultura years ago, I was not yet into extreme metal, and I was turned off by their style and vocals, but a few days ago the song "Slave New World" caught my attention in a random thrashy playlist, so I decided to try "Beneath the Remains", "Arise", and "Chaos A.D.", all of which I listened through in one night. Good stuff, if you're intro more extreme-styled thrash. They also felt really groove-like. I actually ended up doing a video guitar cover of the rhythm parts of "Slave New World" and posting it to Facebook.
Another one of my favorite recent discoveries has been Anathema's newest album, "Weather Systems". They've come a long way from death/doom metal that they helped pioneer, and Weather Systems ends up being mostly progressive, atmospheric rock. It's also among the most emotional music I've ever heard. I found the first tracks on the album, "Untouchable, Part 1" and "Untouchable, Part 2", absolutely beautiful and moving. Part 1 might even have earned its spot in my top 3 favorite non-metal songs ever. To me, it was that powerful. I also related a lot to the lyrics, as they reminded me directly of an experience with a person years ago that ended almost as badly as possible. I've moved on from those feelings and that loss - it's been years - but lyrics like those in "Untouchable" still make a lot of sense to me. I'll link the song at the bottom.
I still haven't bought tickets to the upcoming Katatonia/Devin Townsend/Paradise Lost and Testament/Anthrax/Death Angel concerts... I really have to get on that!
Recent acquisitions: Devin Townsend - Terria, Devin Townsend - Infinite, Strapping Young Lad - The New Black, Strapping Young Lad - SYL
Recent top bands: Devin Townsend, Sepultura, Anathema, Strapping Young Lad, Opeth
Recent top songs: Anathema - Untouchable Part 1, Anathema - Untouchable Part 2, Devin Townsend Project - Stand, Devin Townsend Band - Depth Charge, Devin Townsend Band - Slow Me Down, Strapping Young Lad - Love?
