Hello everyone,

so I've been trying for a few months now to get into death metal, not because I want to feel cool or a 'true metal fan' or whatever childish motive born from inferiority complexes one can imagine. No, I just sort of like the sound of it. However, and this is the problem for me, I have yet to find a death metal style I can stick or relate too. There are many albums out there with some songs that I really enjoy. Overall, they all are either too aggressive, too little melodic or just too plain boring, though. I guess my taste walks a very fine line when it comes to death metal, and I have yet to make out that line's borders. But that is where you come into play. I'll give you a few impressions of mine with some death metal bands and albums, so that you might be able to suggest something that I really like.

First of all, I like melodic metal. I've been a fan of power metal for quite a while and also enjoyed some symphonic and progressive stuff every now and then. Therefore the obvious choice for me was melodic death in the beginning. I've tried two albums of Amon Amarth (With Oden On Our Side, Twilight Of The Thunder God) and enjoyed them to some extent. However, the main problem I have with those albums is that all the songs sound really similar to each other. Maybe that is something I can get over after some time, but that has yet to happen. I have tried some Opeth as well. They are more the progressive and atmospheric type, and I enjoy their music when I'm depressed or want to fall asleep, but not when I usually want to listen to music, which is while working on my pc for example. They are just no band, I can casually listen to. Dark Tranquillity (The Gallery, Damage Done) and Scar Symmatry (Holographic Universe) didn't work for me much either. I don't know why though. The death metal album I enjoyed the most so far was 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes' by Amorphis. The thing I really liked about it was how they are melodic, yet not offensively so, and atmospheric, but not to the extent to where you can't listen to it in a happy mood.

I guess that is the sort of death metal I am looking for. However, 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes' is such a unique album in terms of its style, that I have yet to find a band that plays similar music. Someone in the shoutbox suggested Garden of Shadows yesterday. I went to youtube and was quite suprised to see, or rather hear, that they are in fact not too far from the sound of that particular Amorphis album. The thing is though, that they've only released two albums so far and that they've been inactive for over ten years as far as new records go. Who knows if they'll ever release another one? That's why I'm still searching for bands. Oh, and I've listened to Wintersun, which is another melodic death album I like. Besides those 3 to 4 albums I mentioned, I hardly like any death metal that much though, so I'd really appreciate your help.

To summarize: I like death that . . .

. . . is melodic, but not in the way where every song sounds the same
. . . is not too aggressive, I still need to be able to somehow understand the lyrics without reading them
. . . can be atmospheric, but not to the extent where I can't listen to it casually
. . . maybe utilizes clean vocals at times as well