Summer Metal Picks Playlist

With summer in the U.S. drawing to an end The b5Media music channels are putting together their summer play lists. A lot of great music has come out this spring and summer and there is much more to come this year in terms of metal. I’ve got into so many bands this year, it’s hard to pick just a few so I’ll pick an album and my favorite song off of it. I was trying to put together one of those cool play list widgets so you could actually listen to my picks, but some of the songs were not available, so I said screw it. If you’re familiar with the bands and songs below then you know what I mean. If you’re not, give them a listen somehow, somewhere.

First up is Firewind‘s The Premonition. I wasn’t sure what to make of this band when I first saw the Mercenary Man video on Headbanger’s ball. I’m not usually one for Power Metal, but when I saw these guys at on the Tyranny And Bloodshred tour this summer they blew me away. Gus is an amazing shredder and Apollo is an amazing singer. I like the Allegiance album a bit more than The Premonition but if I had to pick one song from this album it would be Head Up High.

Kataklysm‘s Prevail is just a brutal album from beginning to end. Before this I had only heard Manipulator Of Souls on the Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary set. I thought it was pretty good but wasn’t sure if it was a band that I could get in to. When I bought Prevail it became an instant favorite. The first single Taking The World By Storm is a great metal anthem style tune, with a great rhythm, but I have to pick the title song Prevail as my favorite.

This Is Exile from Whitechapel is a dark and ridiculously heavy album that I’m really into this summer. While it’s not anything really different from most of the extreme metal genre stuff out there right now, it’s still a great album and I can’t wait to see these guys play next month.To All That Are Dead is my pick off of this album.

Amon Amarth is a band that I just got into this weekend. Although this has came out two years ago, With Oden On Our Side is amazing from beginning to end. Heavy riffs, cool vocals and a story being told in between. If you were to close your eyes and listen along you can almost imagine the songs in a visual way…and everyone likes a good Viking story. Ruins To My Memory is my favorite from With Oden On Our Side.

The Black Dahlia Murder is yet another band that I’ve only come to like here recently. For a long time I couldn’t get into the vocals of Trevor Strnad, but same was the case for a lot of bands that I have come to like in the last year. A quick pick from Nocturnal would have to be Of Darkness Spawned.

Seeing Carcass have graced us with a full blown reunion tour, I figured this was a good throw in. Call them grindcore, deathcore, whatever. Carcass is bad ass all the way around. Heartwork, the album and song have always been and probably always will be my favorite. A lot of Carcass fans will say the same thing. Heartwork is an amazing song with great breakdowns, solos etc. Just the way it starts with that tornado sounding introduction that just build up into that pinch harmonic and then a flurry of guitar. Embodiment is another cool song from the Heartwork album. Seeing them live for the first time next month is going to be exhilarating.

Love them or hate them, Slipknot put on a great show and with a new record coming in a little over a week we can expect a lot of buzz about favorites from All Hope Is Gone. From the two that I’ve heard (No I didn’t make the listening party at Hot Topic), being All Hope Is Gone and Psychosocial, I like Psychosocial. I like the chorus and if it’s any sign that more of the album is going to have that side of Corey Taylor to it, then I will probably love it and a bunch of Slipknot fans are going to hate it and say that it sounds too much like Stone Sour. I don’t care either way because I like both bands.

Soulfly‘s Conquer still amazes me. I mean, I can’t believe that it’s a Soulfly album. Max is shooting 2 for 2 this year, with Conquer and The Cavalera Conspiracy. My pick from Conquer is Touching The Void. It’s not the fastest song on the album, but it’s one of my favorites on this album.  While I’m mentioning The Cavalera Conspiracy, I might as well pick one from that as well. Black Ark is just one of many cool songs from Inflikted as is the first single Sanctuary.

Lastly, to keep the number a nice round 10, I have picked Children Of Bodom’s One Day You Will Cry from Blooddrunk. The first couple of times I listened to this album I really didn’t think it was all that great. While it’s not my favorite COB album, it’s still good. With all the songs on this album, picking one that stands out to me was tough. See, with Blooddrunk all the songs are good, but besides the cover of Ghostriders In The Sky, they all just sound like typical Children Of Bodom songs. So I had to pick one that I liked the most and it was One Day You Will Cry.

There are so many others that deserve a mention but I would be here all day. So what would your list look like?

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