hardyharhar said:
Tell notAxver that I definitely have been enjoying those bands. And I like lots of different music as long as it has passion. But I really like powerful loud rock the most, and right now it seems like groups considered metal are the closest thing to this.
A lot is complete garbage, but a lot is also quite good
. I even like Dark Throne, Immortal, that ilk and Kalmah, Celtic Frost, Anthrax, early Metallica. A lot of the punk & punk influenced bands. I actually saw Opeth, who are on your list.They were good. And the Porcupine Tree I'm listening to right now are creating a bit of a mosh pit 
So if you or anyone else has any suggestions......... 
When it comes to metal, I have never gone much for the traditional thrash/New Wave Of British Heavy Metal kind of stuff, e.g. Iron Maiden, Metallica, et al. I also hate this wave of metalcore that's popular at the moment. However, I am very fond of atmospheric, doom, and some types of death metal. I'm still kicking myself for not finding a way to see Opeth when they hit Australia last year.
I don't suppose you have ever listened to Cynic? Their bassist, Sean Malone (also of Gordian Knot, a great atmospheric prog band), is quite simply my favourite bassist ever. They only released one album, 1993's Focus, but it was absolutely groundbreaking. It was part of the Florida death metal scene that existed at the time (featuring other greats like Atheist and Death) and was one of the very earliest albums to merge death metal with elements of jazz fusion. It still sounds unique today.
And everyone should listen to Agalloch. Ever wondered what The Unforgettable Fire would have sounded like if it were a metal album? Just listen to anything by Agalloch and you'll know.
A few of the bands on my list have their roots in metal. The first album, for instance, by Dark Suns was in an Opeth vein, a progressive death metal album that alternated between clean and death vocals. The second album, which The Euphoric Sense is from, has only clean vocals and the prog element is more prominent. Spiral Architect are a pure tech metal outfit whose technical ability is just mindblowing. I've never heard anything quite as crazy as their only album, A Sceptic's Universe (except perhaps for anything featuring Ron Jarzombek, e.g. Watchtower and Spastic Ink).
Porcupine Tree really is my band of the moment. Their earlier stuff is very Pink Floyd-esque (if you love the Animals or WYWH albums, get The Sky Moves Sideways - now!), while their three most recent albums have revealed a strong metal influence, no doubt in part due to Steven Wilson's work producing for Opeth (he provides some of the vocals on Bleak, from Blackwater Park).
Now I'm the one going on for ages, so I'll shut up after this paragraph. That was a pretty cool Split Enz story!
Wish I could've seen them in their heyday, though seeing them on the reunion tour last year was special. I suspect the Six Months intro you're referring to is the song Pioneer. I saw the first gig of the tour in Brisbane, and when one of my relatives had to pull out and not attend, I dragged my flatmate. He somewhat liked a few songs before the gig and came out a huge fan of the band. His favourite song pre-gig was Six Months In A Leaky Boat, and when the band launched into Pioneer, I couldn't help but smirk because I knew he didn't have a clue that Leaky Boat was about to hit. When it did, the look on his face was priceless. That said, I feel the Finn Brothers performance of Leaky Boat that I saw in 2005 was even better - amazing extended solo by Neil at the end.
When they were here on the Time & Tide tour, they played the Hollywood Palladium one night then University of Calif at Santa Barbara. The Palladium show was nuts, people climbing on stage, etc... a crazy Hollywood ballroom show. Then I go to UCSB the next day (or two?) to see them again and they play a beautiful auditorium with a hushed crowd. Not a peep in the house. They start the show with Six Months (isn't it an Eddie Raynor keyboard melodic part then aucoustic guitars leading into Six Months?) and when Neil and Tim start the aucoustic guitar part Tim looks at Neil and Eddie, with a "what a difference a day makes" smirk. A completely opposite evening. The sound was dead on. A great Split Enz show.
most of the time I don't even notice the change from one song to another, and since most of them I'd never heard before, it's like this amazing experience...if the other playlists are as great, i'm going to have an incredibly hard time voting.
.
