Best Metal/Screamo Bands

What do you think the best metal bands are?

hard to say. metal itself has too many subgenres

if youre the type of person to consider the modern metal that appeals to your average, albeit 'narrowlistening' (couldnt think of a word; doesnt seem too derrogatory does it?), teenager (ie Avenged Sevefold, Bullet For My Valentine, Underoath, Bring Me the Horizon etc) as metal, like a lot of other people i know, then the list is reasonably finite.

otherwise theres too much

dont get me wrong, they are great bands and i listen to every one of them, but the average metal-listening teen doesnt seem to have horizons beyond that, which is a bit sad for the metal scene. too many bands go unrecognised

aha, just looked at your profile - i see you extend a bit beyond the average teen with BTBAM. prog ftw i say.

but anyway, youll have to be a bit more specific with your definition of metal - even splitting it up into genres would be more than helpful

sorry if i came off as pompous or arrogant at all

Well, I can only give an opinion. I never really liked screamo, metal-core, nu-metal etc. (with exception of grindcore,) so that makes the list a lot shorter.

I started with bands like Opeth, Ensiferum, Wintersun, Dimmu Borgir, Amon Amarth, Bloodbath, Inflames, wich are really easy bands to get into. Later on my music taste started to become a little different and became interested in mainly atmospheric black metal, some deathmetal and such. So, if I had to choose now, what for me are the best metal bands I would sum up a list of black-metal bands, wich is unfair really, since I also have a deep respect for trash metal. So, I definately agree with people who'd sum up a list of trash-metal bands. Anyways, here are some names that give an idea of what I think is the most interesting, challenging metal out there. (Notice this is just an opinion, anyone is free to disagree).

Blackmetal: Endstille/Deathspell Omega/Immortal/Emperor/Dark Funeral/Darkthrone/Mayhem/Shining/Summoning/Windir/Taake/Wolves in the Throneroom/Xasthur/Satyricon/Marduk/Gorgoroth/Horna/Enslaved (a mix of black/viking metal).

Some great deathmetal: Cryptopsy/Nile/Cannibal Corpse/Morbid Angel/dying fetus (wich is more grindcore really).

Belphegor (mix of death/black).

This is only a fraction of what I like/listen and is only to give an impression of what metal I think is best. There's also a lot of drone/funeral-doom I love to mention. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to categorize it as metal at all.

A definition of metal is indeed hard. Some people might even argue that metalcore/ some black-metal or grindcore is not even metal at all. Metal has gotten a very broad definition and for most people more or less entails all extreme music involving guitar.

Bob, I think you're indeed a little arrogant since the bands I saw in your profile: It won't get more average and main-stream then that. I don't want to sound harsh, but all bands you mentioned are the creme de la creme of the commercial/main-stream metal-scene. So I hope you also have a horizon beyond that.

Dee Snider, the master of all things metal, listed all the sub-genres of metal once, and it took several minutes to say them all. 

However, my all-inclusive, all-time favorite metal band is by far, STRYPER!!!  Even people who don't like them have to acknowledge respect for Michael Sweet's vocal abilities.  VERY FEW singers can hit the notes he can.  And Oz Fox may not be on too many "greatest guitarists" lists, but I think he's awesome.  And you've got to love Robert Sweet's attitude: "21 drums, 21 cymbals, cowbells, chimes, gongs, anything less just isn't rock and roll." 

I've never heard of the band "Red" before, but my step-son is playing them right now, and they sound great (first impression).

Disturbed is great in the studio, but they suck live (no energy what-so-ever).  The single greatest concert I've ever been to was KISS (at Tiger Stadium - the first show they did after putting the make-up back on)!!

Metallica, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, and Van Halen have cemented their spots on any list of Metal Bands, no matter what they're doing (or not doing) now.

The un-holy trilogy of Metal Pioneers that influence every other Metal Band (directly or indirectly whether they know it or not) is Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest.

Other bands that grab me by the back of the neck and force my head up and down in a banging motion: Rob Zombie, Godsmack, Korn, System of a Down, Saliva, P.O.D., and many more that I can't think of at the moment.

I dunno the name of the band, but they did I Wanna Be You

ill nino is good, metallica, zepplin etc

i havent updated my page in a little while, so you may have given me reason to.

i just looked at my page again: i can see why youve said what youve said, Dinkydoe - trivium, ratm and linkin park (in particular, but excluding m2m and new divide) are indeed more mainstream in terms of metal, but dream theater, karnivool, the butterfly effect, tool? with the exception of the butterfly effect in some cases, i hardly think you can calls those the 'creme de la creme' of mainstream metal. muse, paramore and incubus were the other bands mentioned, and i think you can hardly consider them as metal. sure, they do have commercial appeal, but is that a bad thing? i listen to things ranging from opeth, arch enemy, at the gates, between the buried and me and scar symmetry, ranging all the way to the veronicas, avril lavigne, hey monday, katharine mcphee, taylor swift... the list goes on.

my main point in my other post wasnt that mainstream is bad - you couldnt call bands like A7X and bring me the horizon mainstream by anyones standards - but many teens consider that to be 'real' metal, and only that, which is what frustrates me, as well as the fact that they do it in order to be 'rebels'. in this sense, i find the average metal-listening teen to be a bit narrowminded, as well as people who consider mainstream in general to be bad.

i say its fine if you only listen to one type of thing, be it top 40, 'mainstream' metalcore, or death, grind etc, just dont label a certain type of music because it does well commercially.

i hope that made sense :/

whoops, ive realised that i never really answered the original post. id also like to start putting in some proper grammar now, simply because it reads more easily.

I'll separate this vaguely into genres of metal:

• Metalcore: In This Moment, early Trivium... strangely, that's all I can think of right now
• Thrash: later Trivium, Metallica, uhhmm...
• Melodeath: Scar Symmetry, DevilDriver (unsure where this one goes - it seemed too heavy to be metalcore), Children of Bodom (debatable whether they are melodeath, but it's hard to place them anywhere else), Amon Amarth
• Prog metal (here we go): Dream Theater, Karnivool, Tool, Opeth, Scar Symmetry (I consider then both melodeath and prog), Coheed & Cambria (not really 'metal', but I think they deserve a mention)...
• Alestorm and Alexisonfire are a bit hard to place

For some reason, my mind has drawn a blank. I'm sure there are other I haven't mentioned.

The reason I haven't included more genres is simply because I don't really listen to any more than one or two bands, if any, from them.

I don't think it's bad at all to listen main-stream music. The bands you listed are very well-known and recognised bands, and for a good reason. I think it's only a little unfair to attack the average main-stream metal consumer for not listening to another scala of mainstream metal you happen to listen to. (bands like trivium, metallica, COB for instance, since they somewhat make out the main-stream top right now).

In my personal opinion the most interesting, challenging metal is fully outside the range of mainstream-media.  And I hope most metal-fans will end up in the more experimental and un-refined parts of the metalworld. ;-)

Metal-bands I listed are within their own genre well-recognised bands but not very well known within circle of the mainstream consumer. You should check them out if you want to broaden your horizon ;p . I'm not sure whether you'll like them. Normally it takes a little while for metalers to learn to appreciate this, but once you're into it, it won't leave you.

However I can give you a few metal-tips. If you like amon amarth/COB then  it's very likely you're going to like : Wintersun/ensiferum/inflames/Insomnium/finntroll/soilwork/kalmah/catamenia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnhdJVh9iIY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALrjjJdmxgA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9_02hsKfag

i see your point.

i have been trying to get into more melodeath bands, i just havent had the time. in a couple of weeks, when exams are over, i will.

wintersun, ensiferum and in flames have been on my 'hitlst' for a while now, and ill definitely check the others out. thanks

i just had a read over my 2nd to previous post and it seemed a bit convoluted; i didnt really explain my definition of the average metal listening teen very well. you may have a different point of view, as i have found metal listeners in europe to have a much more diverse range of listening material, partly, in my opinion, because of their proximity to scandinavia.

however, in australia, and i believe, to a large extent in the states, metal-listening teens often adopt the 'almost-emo' image, and this involves a slight change in the type of music that one listens to. usually this involves bands like avenged sevenfold, bullet for my valentine, underoath, alexisonfire - essentially metalcore, with occasional dabbles in deathcore. they use this as a method of rebellion and an attempt to be 'different', when, in fact, what they are doing is conforming to another group.

i think it has just dawned upon me that im not launching an attack because of the type of music they listen to, but on the motives they have for listening to the music. i realise now that its not that they are narrowminded, its that their rebellion is another form of conformism - what they are engaging in is a paradox - and they claim that they are misunderstood people who have no one to turn to, which is making a mockery of those who are honestly in this situation.

i'd say the best metal bands are : Iron Maiden(NWBHM) , Lamb of God(Heavy metal), Killswitch(Metalcore), Children of Bodom(deathmetal), Katatonia(doom metal), Metallica and Megadeth (thrash), Cannibal corpse (BDM) and Cryptopsy (grindcore), burzum (blackmetal)

screamo : ENTER SHIKARI FTW!

and you dont need to go into the rest (power,melodeath,viking and stuff :D)