Burst - Prey On Life

Artist: Burst
Album: Prey On Life
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
Year: 2003
Origin: Sweden

To me Burst sounds somewhat like Mastodon with different vocals and better song-writing. It's got metalcore elements and sludge elements, but mainly it's just awesome progressive metal. I really like every song on this album.

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Nokturnal Mortum - Lunar Poetry

Artist: Nokturnal Mortum
Album: Lunar Poetry
Genre: Folk Black Metal
Origin: Ukraine
Year: 1996

Nokturnal Mortum plays some of the best folk black metal I've heard. And I like them enough that I can pretend they aren't clutching to that sad nazi gimmick. This is a very early release for the band, and it might be their best. On Metal-Archives it has 4 reviews, averaging 100% - not bad! The later works, including To The Gates of Blasphemous Fire and Weltanschauung, are also worth checking out. I have no clue if the melodies are at all accurate to traditional eastern european folk music, but they are certainly compelling, and the band does pretend to care a lot about their heritage. The (awesome) bonus track was added on the 2001 re-release.

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Agnostic Front - Victim in Pain

Artist: Agnostic Front
Album: Victim in Pain
Genre: Punk
Origin: USA
Year: 1984

This is the classic from the fairly well-known hardcore punk band Agnostic Front. It's inspiring, chant-along kinda stuff. I guess Blind Justice is the most famous (and probably the best) track, and it's been covered a few times, including one by Napalm Death, paying tribute to a major punk influence. This album has a ton of awesome tracks, and it really doesn't have any flaws I can think of, though I recommend avoiding a lot of Agnostic Front's later material.

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RX Bandits - The Resignation

Artist: RX Bandits
Album: The Resignation
Genre: progressive ska rock
Year: 2003
Origin: USA

I really appreciate everything this band stands for, musically, politically, and culturally. The RX Bandits are a hippie ska band that have taken on elements of reggae, progressive rock, pop, hip-hop and hardcore (sounds like a lot, but you'll hear it when you listen). Their best songs are probably those that are reggae based (Overcome: The Recapitulation <3), href="http://www.rxbandits.com/">band site

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Mystic Forest - Waltz in the Midst of Trees

Artist: Mystic Forest
Album: Waltz in the Midst of Trees
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
Year: 2002
Origin: France

Mystic Forest draws very heavily on classical music as can be guessed from the album title, though most of the classical compositions used are not actually waltzes. You may also hear an accordion in passages that sound very traditionally French. In just about every song the beginning is one of serene beauty which quickly switches into fuzzy atmospheric black metal. I enjoy the album Romances equally, I only chose to post this one in particular because I had the files handy.

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Detestation - Agony of Living

Artist: Detestation
Album: Agony of Living
Genre: Crust / Anarcho-Punk
Year: 1997
Origin: USA

Detestation is a crust anarcho-punk band with female vocals from Portland, Oregon. If you are familiar with other female-fronted crust punk acts like I Object! or Mankind? or A//political, this is a pretty standard but very enjoyable album. The music is furious and dense and seemingly a bit more metal than their counterparts, and the lyrics hit the typical animal rights and class war topics as well as a pretty heavy dose of depression.

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Menace Ruine - In Vulva Infernum

Artist: Menace Ruine
Album: In Vulva Infernum
Genre: Drone / Ambient Black Metal
Year: 2008
Origin: Canada (Quebec)

Yet another great black-ish metal band from Canada. And this duo is really out there: droning atmospheres and hypnotic synths, with subtly insistent clean vocals along with the distant sounding drums and shrieks. This is only their demo, but it is definitely going to make my top-ten albums of 2008. They have already released two additional full-lengths, which I would love to hear if they are half this good.

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