Atmosphere in metal music has, at points, been a bit of a split topic. However, heaviness can be very subjective and I think people forget how many important atmospheric metal bands/adjacent bands have made some of the most classic albums in so many different genres. Let's talk about atmospheric metal! Be sure to let me know your own thoughts down below--can't wait to hear your opinions on this!!!!!!! But for now, cheers, rock on, stay heavy and have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day or night, depending on when you see this!!!!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 Join The Metal Tempest Discord server! discord.gg/aA6BU83vRP
Cattle Decapitation with their last few albums have hit that sweet-spot of being both heavy and atmospheric. Travis' vocal arsenal and instances of melody from the guitars are disturbing and beautiful.
I think you definitely hit the nail on the head that certain genres are going to appeal to certain emotions. If metal is all about how it makes you feel, sure I’m gonna listen to brutal slam metal when I’m angry, and more atmospheric melancholy stuff if I’m feeling sad. Hell, Pain exists, or that pain trilogy that Lorna Shore put out is literally one of the saddest pieces of music I’ve ever heard because of how they make the atmosphere of it so heart wrenching, and I never thought I’d ever have a metal song make me cry!
The Mantlte is one of the albums I'd get art of for a first tattoo, genuinely. Fucking adore that album with all my heart and will always talk highly of it!
I personally find myself gravitating towards more atmospheric metal music like Agalloch, Alcest, Sadness, etc., but I do agree that sometimes bands that attempt to make something both brutal AND atmospheric/pretty can be really admirable. One of my favorite examples of this is Rolo Tomassi, who mix shimmering dream-pop/post-rock with visceral mathcore/metalcore intensity that hits super freaking hard. There are also times where bands can make something that I would call heavy or brutal but in an atmospheric way, such as the deep rumbling tones of Earth or Sunn 0))). Also I was not expecting to hear Agalloch and ERRA mentioned in the same sentence ever in my life lmao, which made me happy as an enjoyer of both bands.
I used to love super heavy chuggy chuggy blah blah blah stuff but I just can't listen to it these days. I dunno why but I just kinda grew out of it. Sometimes you just like to vibe out, sometimes you need a break from the constant barrage of life, sometimes its nice to feel things. Atmospheric music (metal and beyond), just does something for me that I can't really find anywhere else.
The ending fits my thoughts perfectly. At the end of the day, I adore brutal music and listen to a fuckton of it, but when I just need something to distract me or really sink into my bones, I'll always reach for a comfort listening atmospheric metal album or a new release and I'm always hyped to see how atmosphere is incorporated in a smart and fun/unique way that feels fresh!
I personally listen to both the chugga chugga choo choo type stuff and the atmospheric stuff, both have their purposes and both are amazing sides of metal.
Stuff I like in my music is Aggression, Groove and Funky Rhythms, but I also like Atmosphere, Bluesy Sounds, Chilled, and Ethereal experimentation. When I want to Groove I listen to something like Limp Bizkit, early Disturbed, early Incubus etc etc. When I want Aggression but a bit of Bluesy sounds as well I listen to something like Godsmack and Chevelle. When I want to listen to something Bluesy I listen to Alice In Chains. But when I want Atmosphere and Ethereal experimentation, Hard Rock and Metal isn’t really the best for that but I would probably go with something like early Within Temptation, as their stuff is great. I’m not a fan of Brutality and Harshness, that’s just not for me, it’s not pleasing to my ears.
i think FFAA is doing a good job of bringing atmosphere and brutality together, at least in the deathcore adjacent genre. Their new album is shaping up to be a crazy one
I generally prioritize atmosphere in the metal I listen to. Especially after I got into melodic death metal, black metal, and deathcore. I like to view metal as a genre that often composes scores/soundtracks to everything from literature to movies to anime to even stuff like the feelings, life story, and emotions of the members of the band. Some of my favourite bands that do this currently would be artists like Aara, Cult Of Fire, Batushka, MØL, Humanity's Last Breath, Black Tongue, Lorna Shore, A Wake In Providence, Mental Cruelty, Devin Townsend Project, Inquisition, Septicflesh, and Inferno. But yeah, heaviness and atmosphere can definitely go hand in hand. Out of all the bands I listed, Black Tongue, especially with their Nadir album, proved that this can be done. Just listening to their cover of Celtic Frost's A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh shows how a heavy and brutal guitar tone can easily create a foreboding atmosphere despite not using any or very little synths in the production.
I became aware of how important the atmosphere is in metal since i got into Neurosis and all the talk about being influenced by godfather of ambient music Brian Eno and even bands like Coil. Since then I've realized that atmosphere in metal has been there fairly early, underdeveloped sure but even in stuff like Judas Priest's Sin After Sin (which is from 1977) you can clearly hear it. You don't need to sacrifice it for heaviness. Aforementioned Neurosis had Through Silver In Blood and even before that in the 1990 they were still abrasive with Souls at Zero.
Thanks for mentioning, one of my absolute favorite groups, songs and albums. If I am stressed to the max, I often turn to the 83-minute magnus opus, Mirror Reaper" by Bell Witch.
You can also get atmospheric bands that use that atmosphere to sound even darker. Bands like Neurosis, Blut Aus Nord or the Ruins of Beverast are all atmospheric as hell but good god is it some of the most unsettling shit out there.
I never understood the low quality production and sometimes muffled sound of atmospheric black metal. Until I did. It just clicked one day when I first listened to Crystal Larva’s ‘Irradiant Temporality’, after that I re-listened to ABM bands I didn’t like before and liked it all of a sudden lol.
BTW, have you checked out the Atmospheric BM band A Forest of Stars from UK? They have some fantastic albums. Anyone new to them should start with their 2015 album Beware the Sword you can't see.
i have to admit i was a bit taken aback when i went to see agalloch a couple of weeks ago and they performed like they were rockstars lmao, expected a sort of sombre and slowly strut atmospheric performance and instead i saw don anderson jumping around and playing with vigor shredding on his knees lmao
Winterfylleth dropped, idk if people consider that atmospheric, but if we really want to be undebiably atmospheric I love Eldamar. Overall a great metal genre
@@TheMetalTempestYT Winterfylleth is pretty much Eldamar but it gets straight to the guitar instead of the folk-ish opening. If you like Eldamar you'll enjoy Winterfylleth. On a side note I love the community you have around your channel! Always finding great music recommendations!
yea they're definitely atmospheric. i would call them atmospheric meloblack, that style especially shines through in the new release. i haven't listened to Eldamar, but since you describe them as having folk intros i think you'd like Panopticon too if you haven't checked him out yet
Metal along with Classical are my favorite genres. As you might guess from my love of classical music, I lean towards the atmospheric. Lo-Fi Black metal can have amazing atmospherics. For instance, Burzum's 'Filosofem" is lo-fi and as atmospheric as it gets. And I believe that serving 20-years for murder gives you a pass on the brutal qualifiation.
A superb subgenre of Black for atmosphere is Cosmic Metal. Just listen to Darkspace's "Dark Space III," or Offenbarung's "Manifestus." The nihilistic tones can be overwhelming. Black Ambient is another subgenre, I frequently turn to. Leviathan's "The First Sublevel of Suicide," or Tomhet's "Astral Isolation." Don't get me wrong I love brutal in Metal, but I typically seek out atmosphere first. Remember the father of all Metal, Black Sabbath is clearly more atmosphere than brutal.
Check out the new Krallice album "Inorganic Rites" AMAZING EXPERIMENTAL BM ATMOSPHERE I've been a fan of Krallice since Dimensional Bleedthrough came out and this new album is something else man.
Here is my question in certain cases can Rawness be a part of the atmosphere on an album? When you listenn to Elliot Smith his music is very raw but it creates an intimae atmopshere. Low fi production in dissonant music makes it sound dirtier and more chaotic. That is a good thing imo
Personally I’m much more of a fan of atmosphere rather than pure heaviness. I do appreciate really heavy music but without the atmospheric aspect of the music it’s not as pleasant to me. Weirdly enough that is exactly why I’m drawn to black metal. The rawness is atmospheric in its own way. It just gets better when you have bands like Agalloch or Heretoir adding to it. It’s like the sound is creating it’s own landscape.
The best doom metal combines atmosphere and heaviness to create a crushing sound that also carries emotional weight. The worst doom metal just poorly rips off Electric Wizard.
Atmosphere in metal music has, at points, been a bit of a split topic. However, heaviness can be very subjective and I think people forget how many important atmospheric metal bands/adjacent bands have made some of the most classic albums in so many different genres. Let's talk about atmospheric metal! Be sure to let me know your own thoughts down below--can't wait to hear your opinions on this!!!!!!! But for now, cheers, rock on, stay heavy and have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day or night, depending on when you see this!!!!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Join The Metal Tempest Discord server!
discord.gg/aA6BU83vRP
Check out Boris
Love that Mantle cover in thumbnail.
Cattle Decapitation with their last few albums have hit that sweet-spot of being both heavy and atmospheric. Travis' vocal arsenal and instances of melody from the guitars are disturbing and beautiful.
I think you definitely hit the nail on the head that certain genres are going to appeal to certain emotions. If metal is all about how it makes you feel, sure I’m gonna listen to brutal slam metal when I’m angry, and more atmospheric melancholy stuff if I’m feeling sad. Hell, Pain exists, or that pain trilogy that Lorna Shore put out is literally one of the saddest pieces of music I’ve ever heard because of how they make the atmosphere of it so heart wrenching, and I never thought I’d ever have a metal song make me cry!
Absolutely! I feel like even when something is very brutal, it can make you super emotional. I think Lorna's works are a fantastic example of that!
Loving atmospheric metal, definitely some of my favorite bands are from there such as Alcest, Insomnium, Heretoir, Dark Tranquility and so on
Amazing picks. Dark Tranquility's a must for me!
@@yuna6705 my friend was a guest on a Heretoir track. I love all those you mentioned
Agalloch got me through hard shit. Agalloch is lovely. "The Mantle" is one of my favorite records of all time !!!
The Mantlte is one of the albums I'd get art of for a first tattoo, genuinely. Fucking adore that album with all my heart and will always talk highly of it!
I was just on the last song of "The Mantle" when I checked and saw this upload. It was recommended to me and I was just about to finish, lol.
@@RazorSaysRawr I am in your walls.
@@TheMetalTempestYTCan I get you anything? Lmao.
@@RazorSaysRawr a mountain dew baja blast preferably
Brutal or atmospheric? Both! The variety of metal ranges the variety of emotions
Aye aye!!
I personally find myself gravitating towards more atmospheric metal music like Agalloch, Alcest, Sadness, etc., but I do agree that sometimes bands that attempt to make something both brutal AND atmospheric/pretty can be really admirable. One of my favorite examples of this is Rolo Tomassi, who mix shimmering dream-pop/post-rock with visceral mathcore/metalcore intensity that hits super freaking hard.
There are also times where bands can make something that I would call heavy or brutal but in an atmospheric way, such as the deep rumbling tones of Earth or Sunn 0))).
Also I was not expecting to hear Agalloch and ERRA mentioned in the same sentence ever in my life lmao, which made me happy as an enjoyer of both bands.
I used to love super heavy chuggy chuggy blah blah blah stuff but I just can't listen to it these days. I dunno why but I just kinda grew out of it. Sometimes you just like to vibe out, sometimes you need a break from the constant barrage of life, sometimes its nice to feel things. Atmospheric music (metal and beyond), just does something for me that I can't really find anywhere else.
The ending fits my thoughts perfectly. At the end of the day, I adore brutal music and listen to a fuckton of it, but when I just need something to distract me or really sink into my bones, I'll always reach for a comfort listening atmospheric metal album or a new release and I'm always hyped to see how atmosphere is incorporated in a smart and fun/unique way that feels fresh!
I personally listen to both the chugga chugga choo choo type stuff and the atmospheric stuff, both have their purposes and both are amazing sides of metal.
Stuff I like in my music is
Aggression, Groove and Funky Rhythms, but I also like Atmosphere, Bluesy Sounds, Chilled, and Ethereal experimentation.
When I want to Groove I listen to something like Limp Bizkit, early Disturbed, early Incubus etc etc.
When I want Aggression but a bit of Bluesy sounds as well I listen to something like Godsmack and Chevelle.
When I want to listen to something Bluesy I listen to Alice In Chains.
But when I want Atmosphere and Ethereal experimentation, Hard Rock and Metal isn’t really the best for that but I would probably go with something like early Within Temptation, as their stuff is great.
I’m not a fan of Brutality and Harshness, that’s just not for me, it’s not pleasing to my ears.
I love pretty much anything Shield Anvil has a part in (Gallowsbraid, Caladan Brood, Visigoth, Winterlore, etc)
@@SirClarkus dude needs to revive a couple of those. What cool albums
Couldn't agree more. Caladan Brood and Gallowsbraid in particular need sophmore albums
i think FFAA is doing a good job of bringing atmosphere and brutality together, at least in the deathcore adjacent genre. Their new album is shaping up to be a crazy one
I like so much atmospheric music
I generally prioritize atmosphere in the metal I listen to. Especially after I got into melodic death metal, black metal, and deathcore. I like to view metal as a genre that often composes scores/soundtracks to everything from literature to movies to anime to even stuff like the feelings, life story, and emotions of the members of the band.
Some of my favourite bands that do this currently would be artists like Aara, Cult Of Fire, Batushka, MØL, Humanity's Last Breath, Black Tongue, Lorna Shore, A Wake In Providence, Mental Cruelty, Devin Townsend Project, Inquisition, Septicflesh, and Inferno. But yeah, heaviness and atmosphere can definitely go hand in hand. Out of all the bands I listed, Black Tongue, especially with their Nadir album, proved that this can be done. Just listening to their cover of Celtic Frost's A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh shows how a heavy and brutal guitar tone can easily create a foreboding atmosphere despite not using any or very little synths in the production.
I became aware of how important the atmosphere is in metal since i got into Neurosis and all the talk about being influenced by godfather of ambient music Brian Eno and even bands like Coil. Since then I've realized that atmosphere in metal has been there fairly early, underdeveloped sure but even in stuff like Judas Priest's Sin After Sin (which is from 1977) you can clearly hear it. You don't need to sacrifice it for heaviness. Aforementioned Neurosis had Through Silver In Blood and even before that in the 1990 they were still abrasive with Souls at Zero.
Thanks for mentioning, one of my absolute favorite groups, songs and albums. If I am stressed to the max, I often turn to the 83-minute magnus opus, Mirror Reaper" by Bell Witch.
I hadn't thought of it before but "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd is super heavy. It would be a perfect song for a DSBM band to cover.
I've often said that "Comfortably Numb" is my theme song.
You can also get atmospheric bands that use that atmosphere to sound even darker. Bands like Neurosis, Blut Aus Nord or the Ruins of Beverast are all atmospheric as hell but good god is it some of the most unsettling shit out there.
I never understood the low quality production and sometimes muffled sound of atmospheric black metal. Until I did. It just clicked one day when I first listened to Crystal Larva’s ‘Irradiant Temporality’, after that I re-listened to ABM bands I didn’t like before and liked it all of a sudden lol.
BTW, have you checked out the Atmospheric BM band A Forest of Stars from UK? They have some fantastic albums. Anyone new to them should start with their 2015 album Beware the Sword you can't see.
i have to admit i was a bit taken aback when i went to see agalloch a couple of weeks ago and they performed like they were rockstars lmao, expected a sort of sombre and slowly strut atmospheric performance and instead i saw don anderson jumping around and playing with vigor shredding on his knees lmao
Akhlys and Panzerfaust 🖤🤘
Winterfylleth dropped, idk if people consider that atmospheric, but if we really want to be undebiably atmospheric I love Eldamar. Overall a great metal genre
Eldamar!!! Yes!! I don't hear that name brought up nearly enough. I need to check out Winterfylleth, not familiar with the name!
@@TheMetalTempestYT Winterfylleth is pretty much Eldamar but it gets straight to the guitar instead of the folk-ish opening. If you like Eldamar you'll enjoy Winterfylleth. On a side note I love the community you have around your channel! Always finding great music recommendations!
yea they're definitely atmospheric. i would call them atmospheric meloblack, that style especially shines through in the new release. i haven't listened to Eldamar, but since you describe them as having folk intros i think you'd like Panopticon too if you haven't checked him out yet
@@Wuprrr I'll Give them a listen! Thanks for the suggestion!
I like it if they still have riffs
Metal along with Classical are my favorite genres. As you might guess from my love of classical music, I lean towards the atmospheric. Lo-Fi Black metal can have amazing atmospherics. For instance, Burzum's 'Filosofem" is lo-fi and as atmospheric as it gets. And I believe that serving 20-years for murder gives you a pass on the brutal qualifiation.
A superb subgenre of Black for atmosphere is Cosmic Metal. Just listen to Darkspace's "Dark Space III," or Offenbarung's "Manifestus." The nihilistic tones can be overwhelming. Black Ambient is another subgenre, I frequently turn to. Leviathan's "The First Sublevel of Suicide," or Tomhet's "Astral Isolation." Don't get me wrong I love brutal in Metal, but I typically seek out atmosphere first. Remember the father of all Metal, Black Sabbath is clearly more atmosphere than brutal.
Check out the new Krallice album "Inorganic Rites" AMAZING EXPERIMENTAL BM ATMOSPHERE
I've been a fan of Krallice since Dimensional Bleedthrough came out and this new album is something else man.
Here is my question in certain cases can Rawness be a part of the atmosphere on an album? When you listenn to Elliot Smith his music is very raw but it creates an intimae atmopshere. Low fi production in dissonant music makes it sound dirtier and more chaotic. That is a good thing imo
lol... it was a bad joke.. and I laughed. BTW because of this video... time to listen to
Blue Oyster Cult: Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Personally I’m much more of a fan of atmosphere rather than pure heaviness. I do appreciate really heavy music but without the atmospheric aspect of the music it’s not as pleasant to me. Weirdly enough that is exactly why I’m drawn to black metal. The rawness is atmospheric in its own way. It just gets better when you have bands like Agalloch or Heretoir adding to it. It’s like the sound is creating it’s own landscape.
The best doom metal combines atmosphere and heaviness to create a crushing sound that also carries emotional weight. The worst doom metal just poorly rips off Electric Wizard.
I listen to Neurosis nonstop so atmospheric metal’s nothing new to me lol.
Atmosphere vs brutality…
Why not combine both??
Like I do with my own music ;) lol
Isis is the greatest atmospheric metal band bar none. Panopticon turns 20 next month. Review????
First
hey heyy!