What according to you is the best improvisation on the experimentation of genre by any metal band?

According to me it's TESTAMENT! They are so versatile, they being a Thrash Metal band release a death metal album called Demonic, which left a lot of people stunned. The change in music proved to be real good! Brutal, aggressive and what not. The album was better than a lots of genre-based band's albums! The album didn't compromise on anything(though the sales were less according to Testament's standard..), not on anything, music, aggression, production and what not.. The riffing by Peterson was as brutal as expected, drumming had to be good as Gene was in to nail it and not to forget Billy's guttural throats! The production didn't really stood as compared to the later albums but it was easily the best of that year, as Mr. Patyek the in your face brutality master, Peterson and Billy were in to kill it! This was about my favorite experimentation by any band, what's yours?

Endless Humiliation

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The Boner Eaters. Specifically on their first album Mongolian Battlecruiser Grindcore.

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They're not my favourite band, but surely Metallica's S&M album was a good effort at merging orchestral music with metal. I suppose the idea has been around for years and even now we have Acopalyptica.

Rogan

Are you FUCKING kidding me??? For real? Testament?

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Human Remains, the swelling whores.

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Ulver.

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They're one of my favorites but they abandoned the metal genre around '97.

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Yeah that's true. I just mean in a general sense, they started out as a metal band and then went through a plethora of experimentation stages haha.

Similarly, Arcturus- The Sham Mirrors is a pretty nice experimental album. I've always loved this song . The hiphop style section starting at 1:45 is fucking awesome. I remember when I first got the album I was blasting it in my car, and then that part started.

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I don't care what anyone says - I really admired what Mayhem did with Grand Declaration of War.

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Between the Buried and Me are pretty cool. Also I'm really into Cynic

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Necrophobic. As I listened to all of their cds, they all sound differently. Their early stuff very death metal, then leaned toward black metal, now a mixture of black/death/thrash.

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I'd have to say that Liquid Tension Experiment has nice improvisations. I also liked one of Dream Theater. As for a band with new stuff (for me) I love Planet X.

^^^ I am not a huge fan of that kind of stuff - the only reason being is I get bored of tech-anything if there isn't interesting melodies intertwined. I'll qualify that by saying I'm not versed in their discographies extensively.
-> This is one reason I like Necrophagist so much, is there are some great melodies and neo-classical influence there.

If you like Planet X, check out Virgil Donati's on the Verge. The focus is on the drums (he is the drummer) but it's so damn good.

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Hey I checked out Virgil Donati's on the verge and it's pretty good! haha the guy is so good with the drums ( I wish I could be good as him!). I'll try to find the cd.

Also, I understand what you mean when you say you get bored by tech-stuff in prog or new metal. Some people think that technical music is the only music, but I also think that you have to enjoy it and not only be listening to the technique all the time. I didn't hear Necrophagist, but I heard a lot of good stuff about them.

There are two things widely used in classical music that is really absent in metal - and when you do see it, it makes such a huge difference it's not funny: dynamics and tempo.

Dynamics I have only heard really from bands like Neurosis and Tool, while we are on the experimental bands subject (black metal and death metal of course have their own explanation for the absence.)

But tempo changes should be universally suited. You of course hear a lot of half times, but you don't hear a lot of accel/decel and metric modulation (for example, when the eighth notes in 6/8 become the eight notes in 4/4 the following bar).

Necrophagist has a piece called Ignominious And Pale which is a very cool example of a medium volume middle section that slowly speeds up back to the very fast original tempo of the song. It's really incredible - definitely check out this piece.

By the way your avatar rules, where is it from?

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I asked one of my friends about necrophagist, he said it was pretty good. I'll listen to each songs before saying anything. As for the dynamics, I understand what you mean with the example of Tool (my favorite band). I played in an orchestra for 7 years and the changes of tempi's are pretty slow in classical music than in Metal. I have to say that metal is maybe more on the experimental side for the ''style'', especially for progressive metal. I believe that the tempi's should still depend of the style...it could create more vast music or new stuff. I never thought of that being universally suited though, but like I said, it would still depend on what you want to create. If you're saying Necrophagist has a sort of medium volumed section in their song (maybe more like an interlude I guess) I shall put more attention in my listening . And thanks for the compliment I got it off youtube, I don't know where it comes from, but I thought that it was fitting with my username haha! ^^

Just to clarify a little further - what I meant really about tempo, is that you don't hear much tempo variation with the whole ensemble - for instance you'll get the random rubato from a solo or if a guitar is playing alone, but you won't see a lot of accelerando with everyone together. That was why I mentioned the Necrophagist.

I'm referring specifically to Ignonimous and Pale off Epitaph by Necrophagist at 2:50-3:34 (After a killer solo) where you get a half-time that gradually speeds up a tempo.

If you PM your email I will send you the file.

By the way it's cool to see you are a smart guy

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Ok I didn't understand it that way. But there are some accelerando's in classical music too, but not in metal..... ok, ok. I get it. That is why Necrophagist is more of an ''special'' band haha I can't wait to check it out! I'll PM you.

And just for the info, I'm a smart girl .