1.System Shock
These guys were formed in 2003 in Sweden and play melodic death metal, now since melodic death metal has quite a few meaning these days it might not mean much to some people, but what they play is not the standard American/Gothenburg variety of MDM. Its a nice blend of fast riffs and melodies with a guitar sound I don't hear too often, the vocalist does his job quite good although he doesn't really stand out from the crowd of similar singers. Their debut album - Arctic Inside - was a very enjoyable listen for me, especially the song - DevilWish -.
for those interested they can take a gander here
http://www.myspace.com/systemshockband
2.Noumena
Here we have another melodic death band that has caught my ear with their album - Anatomy Of Life -, they were formed in 1998 and are based in Finland. I usually have reservations about Finish MDM bands since after the success of Children of Bodom a lot of bands are copying their style and passing it of as MDM, but there are also exceptions like Noumena. The Finish sound is recognizable in their music but not to much, and they play quite nice melodies with a solid rythm background and throw in female vocals here and there, usually the qualm i have with Finish MDM is that they have weak guitar sound and rather sharp lead guitars compared to Swedish MDM, but Noumena is quite up my alley. From their album Anatomy of Life i recommend the songs - Retrospection - and - Misanthropolis -
take a listen here
3. Novembre
Now here we have a band that has forced its way into my heart since the moment i heard their first tunes, i have gotten all of their albums and enjoy them a lot. They play gothic/doom metal but with a lot of various influences in between, the band was formed in 1993 in Italy. Its hard to describe their music, in some ways its similar to Opeth with clean vocals and very nicely done acoustic passages, but they can also break out the growls and fast paced rythms and melodies, its just something you have to hear, and love <3.
I love all their albums so its hard to pick a few personal favorites among the songs, but if i had to I would pick - Verne, The promise (Arcadia cover) and Valentine. Check them out if you like Opeth and similar bands (even though judging them on the base of genre does not do them justice)
Take a listen here:
There we have it folks, my first blog entry, If there is any response I will make more, in fact I will probably make more since I have to practice my English before the state finals . Technical data on the bands was taken mostly from Metal archives.
http://www.myspace.com/novembre1
http://www.metal-archives.com/
http://www.myspace.com/noumena
EDIT : in related news it turns out I dont know how to handle links since they all end up at the bottom of the page one after the other, so I put the rest of the links down here.