Does anybody know any really good melodic death metal bands that purely melodic death metal. I also like some that have keyboards in their music.

We're talking about a lot of sub-styles here. Care to give me a band to work off of?

I was wondering if anybody know any other bands like Dark Tranquility, old InFlames, Insomnium, and Cipher System.

Omnium Gatherum is a bit like Insomnium, but with more keyboards.



If you are talking about later Dark Tranquillity, you might like Skyfire, the keyboards are used in a similar, esoteric way and the melodies are very strong. Ignore the first album, since it sounds more like Bal-Sagoth (unless you are into that).



This band's debut is really well produced and has a few Gothenburgy melodies. Might scratch the Colony-era In Flames and Arch Enemy fix.



Cipher System. Hrm... I've only heard their new record. The keyboards are pretty omnipresent. Try Fear of Domination's debut, but avoid the later stuff; sounds like Deathstars.



I'm trying to avoid the more usual suspects since I am assuming you are familiar with them, but Mors Principium Est? All of their stuff is solid, but remember that Liberation = Termination has the most irritating keyboards of them all.

I heard of Mors Principium Est. I think they are really good too. I'm also a big fan of Amon Amarth, Hypocrisy, Carcass( especially the album heartwork which is classic in melodic death metal). Eternal Tears of Sorrow I like too and Kalmah.

Tried Whispered? Pretty interesting gimmick, but the guy's vocals are ridiculous. I kinda like this song instrumentally though. Second album is stronger overall FYI.



EDIT: Try Lunarsea too, pretty strong stuff.

I have Lunersea on my I-pod they are really good. Especially their second and third album. I discovered a new Gothenburg melodic death metal band this week that I really like called The Cold Existence. I'm a huge fan of Gothenburg melodic death metal scene.

Yeah dude you are on the right path then. I can list a million things but to spare myself the grief, just peruse my reviews or try using the "similar artist" feature on the main site. You'll find a lot of decent stuff.

Do you know any other really good melodic death metal bands from Poland and Spain? Only two bands I heard from those countries is Made of Hate from Poland and Rise to Fall from Spain. Also is their any really good melodic death metal bands from Czech Republic that you know of?

Well, Made of Hate comes to mind first, but their new album is pretty crappy. Rise to Fall is really more melodic metalcore than melodeath.

Have you tried Cypecore from Germany? They have a few decent songs.

This Russian band Illidiance is really good at the "cyber metal" thing too, with the electronics. They started as a symphonic black metal band and somehow came to this melodeath hybrid. Sorta Soilwork/Scar Symmetry-sounding with the clean vocals so you might like that.

Rise to Fall is more metalcore especially their second album. I really like Rise to Fall first album. I just downloaded a melodic death metal band from Germany called Zero Degree. They sound really good.

Try MyGrain (FIN)



Try Naildown's first album. Again, some Soilwork in there.

Assuming that you're familiar with modern bands like Soilwork, here's Disarmonia Mundi.



Ablaze My Sorrow - Anger, Hate and Fury. Very underrated band, similar to In Flames and DT.



If you want something more atmospheric and blackish:



Since you're into Kalmah and EToS, try Starkill.

Does anybody know any good French, Swiss, or Austrian melodic death metal bands? Only french band I know is Fractal Gates.

I'm a fan of Lost Dreams, they're Austrian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjBpSynQVs

Only Swedish melodic death metal is real!
This Ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mkuyrQd6A

Does anybody know any melodic death metal bands that sound a lot like or similar to Be'Lakor? Be'Lakor is another band I really like too.

Awesome thread, this is gonna be gold for me

Anyway Amjs2000, if you want something like old IF's material, check out Sacrilege (previous band from IF's current drummer, Daniel Svensson) Their 2 albums are awesome. Not a single weak moment on any of the albums.



Also Shadow from Japan are very good too. It reminds me of Whoracle, but speed up.



Nightrage are a must, they have become one of my favourite bands with songs like these:


I loved 1st Cipher system album, but i found the second to be rather mediocre. Anyway, if you like the 1st, check out 1998-2001 Soilwork. Don't care what elitists may say. Early Soilwork is one of the best melodeath, and very agressive too.

Try these ones on for size/ Some Quality stuff from Perth, Western Australia

Red Descending


Pathogen


Vespers Descent


Let's Kill Uncle

What are some good melodic death metal/viking metals band other than Amon Amarth?

Svartsot and Thronar

ask in the right help thread, you might get more responses
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=38299

Wulfgar is worth checking out.

Wulfgar is really good. Does anybody know any other old school melodic death bands other than In Flames, At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and Sacrilege. All of them are really good.

Gates of Ishtar


Eucharist


Unanimated




For me, does anyone know of any melodic death metal that is actually savage and fast, even if its bordering on black metal
Examples
In Battle (black metal yes, but fairly melodic)


Take a guess....(last 3 songs especially)

This:


and this:

Who are some other very good Gothenburg melodic death metal other than Dark Tranquility, At the Gates, In Flames, and The Cold Existence. I really like Gothenburg melodic death metal scene.

My favorite is Heathen Foray. You could also try Wulfgar. And maybe Legacy of Vydar.

This is my first post ever so I apologize if I do something wrong. Does anyone have any recommendations for melodic death metal with very strong black metal influences?

Try Starkill's earlier permutation, Massakren.

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Mas ... 3540306735

@ Ricin: Try out Blinded by Faith, Anagnorisis, The Absence, Hoth, and Estuary (especially their previous incarnation).

@ Wolfe: Also check out Hoth.

Ah, who doesn't? Cold Existence are sort of a retro-presence in it though. I really consider the melodeath scene to have ended by roughly 1999 - a different style emerged with Projector and Colony, so I won't include anything of that like.

Sacrilege - both albums are fully developed Gothenburg melodeath.
Eucharist - first album is more death metal like a less-chaotic early ATG, second one is low-tuned power metal with growls.
Gates of Ishtar - all three albums more or less in the vein of Slaughter of the Soul, though the first has a bit more old fashion, I suppose?
A Canorous Quartet - I always found them to be enjoyable but certainly a second-rate band among the others.
Ablaze My Sorrow - Again, a second-rate latecomer that's quite enjoyable if you're really into melodeath.
The Moaning - Yet another like the two above, but I suppose it is blackened.

The Gothenburg scene also has quite a bit of crossover with black metal. A few bands with some black metal in there:
Decameron - Melodeath with darker/blacker tinges and an infusion of 90s Metallica which shows up in the second half of their album.
Dissection - Who doesn't know them?
Cardinal Sin - John Zweetsloot of Dissection-notoriety plays a slightly less blackened style that features his classical-style playing at times. Released one EP, don't skip it.
Unanimated - Unfocused at times, yet unforgettable. Essentially the black metal version of the earliest melodeath circa 1993 (pre-Skydancer DT/Alf the Gates). The first one isn't quite refined, the second is focused but has some odd inclusions like the out-of-place guitar solos. Nonetheless an incredible band.
Dawn - Started out as early Gothenburg melodeath, morphed their early writings into black metal for their first of two albums, and stretched out that style on their second.
Sacramentum - Their first album was a black metal classic, absolutely amazing, and their second and third brought that style to a more death metal song.

Not really Gothenburg, but similarly styled/related black metal:
Vinterland - Pure black metal, no death metal, but nonetheless highly melodic and incredible.
Midvinter, Vargavinter - Melodic Swedish-styled black metal. Vintery stuff, you see.
early Lord Belial and Naglfar, Abyssos - Give them a listen if you're also interested in melodic black metal of the era/region.

A few more death metal bands that were melodic, but I'd put a step more away from IF/DT:
A Mind Confused - One album, and some demos that are solid if you're OK with rougher production.
Luciferion - A Gothenburg take on Florida death metal.
Desultory - At this point I should just say that there's some death metal which is quite melodic out of the Stockholm scene, and even if you're not into that, you should still explore it for reference and bands like this, and Merciless' "Unbound" as hard as it is to recommend that over "The Awakening" regardless of what I'm recommending.

Should be a semi-comprehensive list. Can't quite focus on writing more now that the hockey game I'm watching is back on.

Arghoslent.
Just keep in mind Wagner and other Classical composers were racist too but good music is good fucking music.

Best of 2014 imo. Support these guys by buying the album from their page. It's excellent aside from some cliche lyrics.

There are some melodeath bands that you could like. Some are kinda faced to metalcore, other respect the true melodeath style, with riffings and keyboard usage. But check out them all:

Complaining about racism in metal is childish. On that note, can anyone recommend bands similar to Arghoslent?

I think Hacksaw to the Throat belongs to this category

Being racist in the first place is more childish if anything.

Sorry for being nit-picky, because the list you've provided is very, very comprehensive and high quality, but the descriptions I've emphasized above are not quite accurate . I only care because I'm a pretty big fan of those bands. Really, the one that stood out to me the most as incorrect is your description of Eucharist's second album being "low-tuned power metal with growls." That's... pretty inaccurate. Really the only thing that album shares with power metal is the NWOBHM-esque guitar harmonies, but that's a given in classic Gothenburg power metal. If Mirrorworlds has anything else beyond melodeath going on, then it's old-school death n' roll that's pretty similar to what Desultory was doing on Bitterness. But come on, this is quite a bit more than "low-tuner power metal with growls"

Eucharist - Demons (skip to about 40 sec in)

As for Gates of Ishtar, really the only album that had any similarities to Slaughter of the Soul is their third At Dusk and Forever with tracks like Wounds, but most of it sounded pretty similar to what they had been doing on their previous albums. And what were they doing exactly? A unique sound of melodic death/black metal that was OBSESSED with classic 80's heavy/speed metal, moreso than a typical Gothenburg band. I call it the Luleå sound, consisting of Gates of Ishtar, The Everdawn, The Moaning, and Scheitan. There's also Battlelust, but they appear to be more of a generic black/death band. These bands all traded members with each other, and went on to form Helltrain (death 'n' roll) and The Duskfall (melodic death metal) in the 21st century. For a bit of perspective, Luleå is a small Swedish city 700+ miles northeast of Gothenburg. To be honest, what they were doing wasn't that far removed from what bands like Unanimated and Sarcasm was doing, but yeah, I consider the Luleå sound to be distinct. I don't think I've ever heard anyone else mention this term before, but I've been thinking about it for a while.

The Everdawn - The Everdawn


As for Dawn, they were never really "Gothenburg melodeath." Their early demos (more specifically, Apparition/The Eternal Forest) were just incredibly intense old-school Swedish death metal, filled to the brim with blast beats and tremolo picking. I liken them to the Soulside Journey era of Darkthrone, though without the random bass solos to end songs. Dawn even re-recorded two songs for their debut album ("In the Depths of My Soul" and "The Eternal Forest"), which involved eschewing the traditional Sunlight buzzsaw guitar sound of their demos for a Dan Swano/Unisound studio job, tuning their guitars a third higher, and replacing all guttural vocals with high-pitched black metal shrieks. Besides these aesthetic differences, the songs are pretty similar musically. But as Zodi said, their two albums (and magnificent EP Sorgh på svarte vingar fløgh, I may add) are "stretched out" black metal, i.e., long, winding, and melodic black metal. They are very melodic, but in a much different way than Dissection and Sacramentum are, at least in my opinion; their melodies seem less heavy metal-inspired. They actually just re-released their entire discography via Century Media about 7 months, including the first vinyl pressings of some (if not all) of their albums. I think they're due to release a new album this year.

Dawn - Sorrow Flew On Black Wings

I could say the same about all the anti theists in the metal world



HTTT is great but they dont entirely fall into the melodeath genre, although it wouldnt hurt for some newer bands to take some influence from them

Another band everyone needs to know about is The Crown

Actually I find this kind of interesting since some people tend to generalize the sound of melodeath bands quite a lot. And I think I prefer the bands that use the Lulea sound more than Gothenburg bands. I think Vornagar is one of the most ineresting melodic death metal bands because they use influence from Lulea bands like Gates of Ishtar, along with Anata's first album (of which I dont think has been replicated by any other bands out there), God Dethroned, and most interesting of all; Origin (the US tech band). Much of this can be heard in this song.


Another great band that few people have heard of is Hypocrite from Stockholm


Should we classify Finnish melodeath as it's own kind of sound? I find that bands like Noumena, Kalmah, and Insomnium have a specific sound. My personal favorite Finnish band would be Manufacturer's Pride