One of the greatest things about being a metal head is stumbling across a kick arse band that neither you, or any of your friends have heard of before. It always opens up pathways to finding even more bands and in a genre that has as many sub categories as metal, you have to experiment a bit to find your most favoured style within the genre. So here’s 5 lesser known bands for you metal heads to check out!
5: Claim the ThroneGenre – Folk Metal
Claim the Throne are proof that you don’t need to be European to produce some kick-arse folk metal. As I’m writing this article these Aussie crusaders are sitting on 7,095 likes, which isn't much at all. Considering how catchy and well written their songs are I’m very surprised by this. They put on one hell of a good show as well! I saw these guys at a fairly small venue 2 years ago, there was about 30 people there and most of them were members of the bands playing on the night. Their live performance was solid considering the state they were in. They pulled out a beer bong and each member chugged during or between songs. Absolutely hilarious to watch and they’re the nicest group of people.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZQfkZUN2uk&w=853&h=480]
4: AngelMaker
Genre – Deathcore
If you like your deathcore you have you check these guys out. AngelMaker have a slightly different take on deathcore, but there’s no doubt that they fit under that sub category. Dissentient will blow you away with its intensity but also its beauty. The instrumental song “Citadel” is by far my favourite off the album. It’s not what you’d expect to hear from a deathcore band but it works so well. Plus these guys have a song called “Shia LeBeouf” I’m sure everyone will appreciate that.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JZ-i8WgGIM&w=853&h=480]
3: Anterior
Genre – Melodic Metal
Anterior weren't around for too long which is a bummer, while they were active they released two incredible albums that you can happily listen to on repeat for days on end. Song structure is on point, vocal positioning is excellent, drums are perfectly accommodating for the rest of the band and the harmonies and solos are written with such a strong emotional feel behind them that can bring a tear to your eye.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hqnRmx0IEI&w=853&h=480]
2: Solerrain
Genre – Melodic Death Metal
Solerrain’s style is quite unique in the sense that they mix thrashy riffs with slow harmonies and keys. They abuse the absolute shit out of their guitars by yanking on the ole whammy bar over and over again. So if you’re a fan of harmonics and flutters you’ll dig these guys. Their album “Fighting the Illusions” has been released twice, once in English and once in Russian which is pretty impressive.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVkqMGl5NE&w=640&h=480]
1: Sunless Rise
Genre- Melodic Death Metal
Also hailing from Russia, Sunless Rise are a band that need to become known. They’ve got some insane solos by both guitarists and their keys player, not to mention their vocalists raw power and the intense drums. They first released a 4 song EP 6 years ago then vanished with no news, until late last year they brought out a teaser and surely enough they dropped an album in November that featured rerecorded versions of the 4 songs that were on the EP.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDIgW8cTRGw&w=853&h=480]
If you do dig any of these bands get out there and buy their albums. Metal bands are truly unappreciated yet metal fans have been proven to be the most passionate of all music fan bases. Most of these guys would have paid for everything out of their own pocket, they aren’t like pop stars that get paid millions of dollars to sing one paragraph and auto tune the shit out of it.
Support the bands you love and even more importantly support your local scene!
Written by Jackson Calcutt.
