If you're a fan of heavy music.

[ThaiBxr]

Well, I just find that most people who get introduced to heavy music tend to find the more mainstream metal bands and settle in to those, i.e. system of a down, metallica, Mudvayne, etc. While I don't dislike such bands by any means, there's so many other great bands out there, who's names most people will never register, and whose music most people will never hear. I just thought I'd share some material from my favorite metal band, In Flames. I've put up two of their songs on my site so that you can quickly get a taste of their stuff. If you're into heavy music and you haven't heard of this band take a listen and tell me what you think... I'm interested in all feedback. Here are the songs... just copy and paste the links to listen.

Well I had to change the links from the actual songs to extremely low quality clips of the songs for obvious reasons, so it won't sound crisp at all... but you'll get a taste of it...

Cloud Connected:

angelfire.com/mac2/darren/cloudconnected.mov

The Quiet Place:

EDIT: Can no longer host this one as I had to put up low quality clips which are actually larger than the entire song.

[slipthejab]

links don't work

[ThaiBxr]

yeah, fixed that, just copy and paste the links instead

[YODA]

Is this copyright material?

If so please remove the links.

[ThaiBxr]

yeah, okay hmm... I'll change the links to clips of the songs.

[Opeth86]

In Flames WAS one of the greatest melodic death bands ever....but that was a good 7-8 years ago at least...now they've totally watered down their music. However, Their albums Jester Race, Clayman, and Whoracle are classics in the metal world. Awesome someone else is into them though. They're not extremely popular over here in the states. ThaiBoxer if you like In Flames you need to check out the rest of the "Gothenburg" bands. They weren't even the best.

[WeenusBandit]

You can be a fan of all types of music depending on what state of mind you're in. I'm working out in the weight room and playing football for just about all summer, so I like to listen to things like Linkin Park, Saliva, and Disturbed to get me amped. That's my 'athlete' state of mind, but say when you're out w/ a girl, you don't wanna listen to Disturbed lol. That's when you turn on the 112 / Ginuwine/ all the slow jams. It all depends on what you want. Wanna be a beast at sports? Listen to rock. Wanna be a pimp? Listen to R&B!

[pesilat]

I haven't kept up with much of the newer groups outside of what's most popular. However some of the older (80s) lesser-known metal bands that I liked (and still like even if some of them aren't together anymore) are:

Man-O-War - I think they're still making music. Their website is http://manowar.com

Savatage - I think they're defunct. The last I heard anything about them was 2002. But they put out a lot of good music - and some not-so-good stuff - over their 20+ years together.

Sleeze Beez - a Dutch band and hard to find here in America but worth the effort if you can find any of their albums.

Extreme - they became popular after releasing "Hole Hearted" which was a love ballad and wasn't much like a lot of their other stuff - but I liked them from the moment I saw their video for "Little Girls" (from their first album) on MTV. With each album they released their music got cleaner and technically better but they lost some of their raw energy, too. I like all the stuff they put out but I like the first album for very different reasons than I like the last.

Nosferatu - a German band, also hard to find here in the States but good heavy stuff.

Ministry - became somewhat popular with a few songs like "Jesus Built My Hotrod" but if you're unfamiliar with them then you should check them out - they might even still be making music, I'm not sure.

Thor - another import but I'm not sure where from. The only song I really remember by them was "Thunder on the Tundra" but, man, I loved that son.

Mr. Bungle - the lead singer of this band, Mike Patton, went on to lead the much more prominent band, Faith No More. Mr. Bungle seemed to me to be kind of like a rehearsal for Faith No More. I'm not sure why they broke up but I'm glad Patton wound up with Faith No More because that was another good band.


Mike

[Metal-Demon]

ThaiBxr - I am a huge fan of IN FLAMES as well, ever since their first album "Lunar Strain", but I highly suggest that you check out another Gothenburg band called DARK TRANQUILLITY ... you'll soon hear that they are a much superior band (in the same style) to IN FLAMES. :)

Pesilat - A few of the bands you mentioned are definitely NOT what I would consider "lesser-known"!

MANOWAR are indeed still active (and have never stopped, truth be told)

SAVATAGE is on temporary hiatus due to the mainstream popularity of the TRANSIBERIAN ORCHESTRA side-project (although Jon Oliva, Zakk Stevens, and Chris Caffery ALL have their own solo albums out at the moment! Buy them all!!)

MINISTRY are still active, although they aren't my cup-o-tea.

THOR (from Vancouver, BC, Canada oddly enough) is still active and has recently put out a few albums, a DVD, and even has his own movie out if I recall correctly. Not a big fan though ...

MR. BUNGLE - Mike Patton has gone on to form his own record label called Ipecac Records and has so many projects that they are difficult to keep track of. Although I'm not a diehard fan of all his work, Patton is a modern musical visionary ... and somewhat of a mad genius!