Groove metal pioneers...

Exhorder - Discography

This is the band that practicly invented the groove metal sound with their first album,"Slaughter In The Vatican"...Pantera ripped of the band's music,after they turned from glam,but you will probably notice this anyway.These two albums are a must-have for any thrash/post-thrash fan.Here's a review for "The Law" :

"Their debut, Slaughter In Vatican, was very thrash for 1990. It was released in a period of general crises in thrash metal and this The Law shows some of the viruses that would have caused the death of thrash metal. The most obvious and famous one is groove. It�s so evident and clear to anyone if you listen to this album. Anyways, I must admit that I like this album much more than the other ones that featured these damaging influences.

What really blows my mind is the guitars tune. Already in their debut there was a truly pounding guitars sound but here is almost unbelievable. If you remember the Exodus sound in that period, here we can find that tune but here it�s far more scratchy and devastating with plenty of treble distortions on the amplifiers. The songs are a good bland of fastest parts with some down tempo and groove mid paced parts; the hyper clear production exalts all the instruments, transforming the guitars sound in an impenetrable wall.

The drums are clear cut but not pounding, creating a prefect musical detachment from the hyper artificial guitars. The only thing that seems a bit triggered is the bass drum that sounds so similar to groups like Heathen and Overkill in that period. One of the fastest tracks here is �Unforgiven� with plenty of sudden restarts under the sign of fast bass drums triplets and up tempo. The opener shows also some arpeggios and the classic faster mid paced riffs that are so common in this genre.

The violence level is always high, thanks also to fast bass drums of �I Am The Cross�. �Unborn Again� is the most progressive tracks of the album because it shows some funky bass parts and different guitars. The vocals are a violent, pissed off copy of the ones by Anselmo and all the songs, generally, are very similar to the Pantera compositions for style and attitude. Also some groove tempo parts are very similar but here everything is far heavier.

Really, I�m not able to describe the damned guitars tone, and reaching the end of this album could be very dangerous for your ears, or better, for your mental sanity. It�s like being close to a continue chainsaw that tries to cut a door made of metal. Obviously, the thrash metal influences here are far less present and audible than on their debut and I can describe this album �as if Pantera were thrasher and with more balls�. There is also an excellent cover of �Into The Void� by Black Sabbath and, with these sounds, it�s even more doom and heavy.

At the end, I feel a bit hesitant which category of listeners I can recommend this album to. There are several fast parts but it�s necessary you to forget a bit the thrash metal to jump into the groove genre. You all know how much I hate groove but if it�s well filtered through violence and a bunch of damned heavy and restless riffs, there are no problems at all. Just avoid listening to it if you already have the headache that day."(review from metal-arhives.com)

I'm already running out of stupid titles,god dammit.

Grip .inc - Incorporated

This band is the side project of Dave Lombardo,the drummer from Slayer...

"For their fourth album, Grip Inc. has solidified into a terrifically cold and destructive metal machine. While a lot of underground acts in the early 2000s strived to emulate the increasingly popular medieval torture devices (so to speak) of Scandinavia's finest, Incorporated is thoroughly modern, an impressively clinical and precise record, fully industrialized and loaded with razor-sharp riffs, ballsy vocals, and thunder drums. European producer and guitarist extraordinaire Waldemar Sorchyta is Grip Inc.'s main creative force, but on-again, off-again Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo gives the band a chilly technical edge that is uniquely the product of the mind-bogglingly influential skinsman. Add in vocalist Gus Chambers' powerful, full-bodied vocals -- refreshingly, there are no affected death growls here, just a deep well of a throat that refuses to shy away from a thick melody -- and Incorporated successfully bucks many of metal's genre-specific trends (i.e., mindless death metal brutality, mosh-happy retro-thrash, grating black metal scrapes, boneheaded hardcore grunt'n'shoves). The album is simultaneously mechanistic and tribal, at times flavored with Middle Eastern melodies and electronic flourishes, Sorchyta's steamroller mix blotting out the sun and meshing perfectly with compellingly twisty arrangements. The guitarist's artery-bursting riffs churn, bubble, and boil during precision speedsters "Curse (Of the Cloth)" and "Endowment of Apathy," while midtempo march "(Built To) Resist" spotlights Lombardo's in-the-pocket prowess (he inarguably has the best feet in metal) while piling on, fugue-like, a vaguely sinister string arrangement and dense melodic layers, eventually building to a mountainous, weighty climax. Point being, Incorporated is a collection of top-flight riffs smartly choreographed into 11 spot-on tunes highlighted by performances brimming over with personality (although Lombardo reins in the experimentalism of weirdo Mike Patton project Fantômas and his solo work) and chops to spare. It's another impressive effort -- like 1999's hopelessly overlooked Solidify -- for Grip Inc., whose increasingly impressive discography has been met with a collectively indifferent shrug from too many metal aficionados. Here's hoping Incorporated enlightens more to this well-seasoned, pseudo-supergroup collective, which seems disparate on paper, but truly is greater than the sum of its parts." (review from allmusic.com)

All souls can fly...

Soulfly - Conquer [2008]

After their last album The Dark Ages,Soulfly rose in my eyes.Normally my expectations for this album were high,and by the time the first track was over i came to one conclusion...Max does it again ! I'm gonna pick this sucker up...

The 'groove' in 'groove metal'

Droid - Droid (2007)

Droid is a groove metal band with death metal influences,they have released only one album until now that i find great.Listen to songs like "My Oath","Built To Last" and "No Gods No Master",they're truly adrenaline fueled and heavy as shit...but hell the whole album is all killer no filler.

"Talk about being in the right place at the right time -- the way Long Beach, CA metallists Droid got signed was by playing a show at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, which was attended by Korn guitarist Munky. It just so happened that the man known for his admiration of seven-string guitars was also scouting bands to sign to his about-to-be-launched label, Emotional Syphon Recordings, and Droid was the first act to get the nod (and as an added bonus, getting to tour with Korn before having any recordings in the shops). Which brings us to their 2007 self-titled debut -- with none other than Munky serving as "executive producer." With all these Korn-konnections, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Droid's sound at times reflects their big brothers during their irate moments -- but they're more of a straight-ahead metal band (few artsy fartsy bits reside here). In fact, judging by such ditties as the album opening "The Resurrection" and "God of Anger," the quintet isn't bashful in breaking out the death metal (especially the group's growler/screamer, James "Buddy" Eason). And wouldn't you know it, another Korn-approved pal drops by for a bit -- Deftones' singer Chino Moreno -- on the bash n' rager, "Vengeance Is Mine." This is one Droid whose power supply appears to be bubbling over with anger."(review from allmusic.com)

I told you not to damage it...

Prong - Cleansing(1994),Power Of The Damager(2007)

Prong's first album,Cleansing,released way back in 1994 was an instant industrial metal clasic,i mean common how only "Snap Your Fingers,Snap Your Neck" could have made this album special,those powerful riffs rock your socks off , even though they are a little bit repetitive the music is filled with adrenaline.The second album i've posted ,Power Of The Damager,is their latest release and it's good even though a comparison with Cleansing is hard to make because they are now more groove metal than industrial metal.Enough talk,check these two albums out or die !

"ome albums, no matter how hard you try, can't be given any descriptive tags. You can't add a "nu-" or a "proto-" or a "post-" or a "pop-", there are no experiments or genre-shifting - it's just a solid example of a particular type of music at its core. Cleansing, the fifth full-length by the New York semi-supergroup (featuring Swans and Killing Joke members), is an excellent metal album that's nothing but.

Prong aren't trying to impress anybody with Cleansing - not that they aren't technically competent (they certainly are), but the band prefers to stick to more simple (and impressive) thrashing throughout the album, rather than toss off a few experimental filler tracks or attempt to go beyond the boundaries of what metal usually allows. This could lead to a repetitive and tedious album in the wrong hands, but Victor is a talented songwriter and covers as much territory within the confines of "metal" as he possibly can. He throws in some interesting twists now and then - like managing to use the familiar monotone "this is only a test" recording as a semi-melodic hook in "Test" - but nothing that'll cause anyone to hit the 'skip' button.

It's not a perfect album; the songs tend to drag on when there's nothing left to say, and Victor's lyrics aren't always brilliant. However, although it's hard to discern a definite meaning from his words, he's always (vaguely) trying to get some sort of message across. There's no songs about girls 'n' beer on here.

To sum it all up, if you like metal, get this album. There really isn't much more you can say. The musicians are impressive, the songs are all solid and unique enough to keep them from running together, and you'll either love it or hate it, because it's all the same style (powerful riffs; growled, thrash-style vocals; mid-to-fast tempo). Definitely a 4/5, because it impressed my non-metal-loving self and it'd be hard to find a better example of the genre during the time period it was released."(review from sputnikmusic.com)

God had a Lamb once....

Lamb of God - New American Gospel (2000)

I think this is Lamb of God's second best album (the first place goes to Ashes of The Wake),so it's worth the download.

"Describing themselves at pure American metal and signed to Metal Blade Records, Lamb of God (formally Burn the Priest), came up with this ten song debut release.Is it any good? In one word yes. In two words, hell yes.

The band's sound is difficult to explain. It might be the production value on this one but, a lot of the album is drum oriented and they are out in the forefront. This isn't really a problem if you like double bass, really high symbol hits, and different snare and tom sounds. However, the drums were recorded tough, and I mean tough. A bass hit
almost sounds like a regular snare hit, and if you're listening to this album too loud, those symbol hits are pure hell as they are driven straight into your ear with no filtration. The guitars are very good and really produce a hard hitting heavy sound even though they are only tuned in drop-D. For the people who don't know notes, listen to this album, and listen to Tool - Ænima and you're listening to the same tuning. Few can bring a hard hitting path of destruction in drop-D anymore. Bass is also heard in the album which is a rarity these days. The singer (screamer) is a little different. He is loud and higher pitched for having the typical death metal style. However, either due to the production value or my patience level, I can't understand a damn thing he is saying. However, if that doesn't matter to you (since it doesn't bother me), the music that they are playing is very good. It surprises me that this is their first major release. They sound like they have been playing for decades with the tightness of their sound. There's a lot of tempo and musical changes here to help keep the album interesting. Even though it's about 40 minutes long."(review from kickedintheface.com)