Metal for musicians

Most metal is garbage. I say that being a fan of the genre. Probably more than any other style of music, you have to look hard for legitimately good metal bands/albums.  By "good" I mean that what they play actually qualifies as music; you can understand what's going on, and there is some amount of melody and harmony to be found. It's pretty sad that a good sense of melody is difficult to find among metal bands, and it's probably that more than anything else that prevents musicians from enjoying it. The second worst offender is often the guttural vocal style in extreme metal. Being a musician who likes metal, I wanted to compile a list of metal albums that break out of the genre's trappings and show that, even though the tempos are fast and the guitars are heavy, the music can still be melodic, interesting, and enjoyable. Here's my list of metal albums that musicians can enjoy.

Honorable mentions:

Opeth - Blackwater Park
This album didn't make the list for one reason: the vocals. They switch between clean singing and straight-up death metal growling. The singing is quite good, but the growling really distracts from the otherwise very impressive music. It's a shame that my one and only complaint about the album ruins it for non-metal fans who can't stand extreme metal-style vocals. If they had ditched the growls and stuck with clean singing throughout, this would have been a major landmark in progressive music altogether, rather than just in progressive metal.

Metallica - And Justice For All
This album is one of the reasons metal started moving in a progressive direction in the late 80's. It proved that songs didn't have to be 2-4 minutes long and follow a verse-chorus-verse path. It was audaciously technical and ambitious for its time, and overall I think it still holds up, but I have one major problem with it; many of the songs are just too repetitive. I can say that about every Metallica album, but it's especially notable on this album. The songs have plenty of twists and turns, but they just take to long to make those turns. It weighs down an otherwise very enjoyable and interesting album, and I felt that I should give it an honorable mention for being so ambitious and influential.
P.S. It contains one of my favorite songs regardless of genre; look up 'One' if you've never heard it. It's just awesome all the way through; nice switches between clean and heavy guitars in the intro, great lyrical story, epic 'machine gun' double bass and guitar riff later in the song, and a badass guitar solo to cap it off. This is a classic song that proved that metal can be artistically and emotionally interesting.

Now on to the actual list.

10. Cynic - Focus
In the late eighties, several things happened in the metal scene that caused it to splinter off into several sub-genres. Hair metal was getting air time despite being crap, thrash metal was becoming musical thanks to bands like Metallica and Megadeth (more on them later), and death metal reared its ugly head. Despite the style's limitations, some truly unique and interesting stuff came out of the scene. Cynic's first album, Focus, is one of the best. While most death metal bands were happy growling like the Cookie Monster, playing dissonent guitar riffs that made no sense and blast-beating away, Cynic was playing melodically and harmonically ambitious music that happened to fit into the death metal sub-genre. They used chapman sticks, synthesized guitars (and vocals!), phrygian and locrian modes to give it a unique eastern feel, and executed their material with far more technical prowess than almost any other death metal band. There are guttural vocals, but the combination of the instrumental style smoothing things out and the wise decision to keep the growling reasonably low in the mix makes it very tolerable, or perhaps even ignorable. This album was a complete shock to metalheads upon its release, but rewarded repeated listens more than almost anything else being released. I keep using the word "almost" because I feel there is one band that also (barely) fit into the death metal scene that bested them, and their best album is higher on this list.

9. Nightwish - Oceanborn
By the early 90's, everyone had finally come to their senses and gotten over hair metal, and the thrash and death metal scenes died down. Grunge took over the world thanks to Nirvana, and metal was pretty much dead in the eyes of the mainstream. But in the metal underground that remained, something interesting happened in the 90's: metal moved in the opposite direction it had been. Instead of getting heavier, faster, and less melodic, it became epic, technical and in Nightwish's case, even symphonic through the use of keyboards and a classically trained operatic singer. Combining influences from gothic metal and power metal and adding operatic vocals, Nightwish pushed metal as far into symphonic territory as they could while keeping it heavy enough to still be considered metal at all. Oceanborn is Tuomas Holopainen's masterpiece; Everything he was trying to do came together beautifully on this album. Metal and symphonic classical is a pretty strange mix for most people, and the irony of it is that the vocals may indeed have gone too far in the opposite direction of death metal growling; some fans of rock music find the operatic vocals cheesy and over-the-top. But I think it's brilliant, and worthy of the attention of anyone who enjoys hearing rock and metal being pushed into new territory.

8. Mastodon - Leviathan
I never thought I would find an album even remotely resembling sludge metal that I would enjoy, but here it is. This almost didn't make the list at all, because the vocals are of the yelling/grunting sludge style that I generally can't stand, but that's not enough to ruin the power and genius of this concept album's music and lyrical content. And in fact, in some spots on this album, I have to admit I actually like the vocals. A metal band releasing a concept album based on Moby Dick is enough to create interest, but the surprisingly technical and intricate music is what will keep it. Even the vocals work quite well when the lyrics take the perspective of Ahab; they capture the feel of the insane captain consumed by his hunt for the white whale. The drumming has to be mentioned specifically; this album has some of the most brilliant drumming I've ever heard from a metal band. There's a fine line between technically demanding drumming that fits into the music and musical masturbation, and Brann Dailor stays just on the right side of that line throughout the album. If you enjoy concept albums, or even just lyrical content that is as ambitious as the music it accompanies, give this album a try. Like all the other entries on this list, it pretty much demands repeated listens, but you will be glad you put in the time to truly appreciate it.

7. Atheist - Elements
Atheist is the other death metal band on the list, and for good reason. While Cynic was using different effects, modes, and instrumentation to create a unique epic sound, Atheist went in a different but equally ambitious direction and created the term "death jazz" in the process. They used generous amounts of syncopation and time changes to push their metal farther into fusion territory than any other band. This is their most melodic album, and therefore the one I am including on this list. But if you enjoy Elements, give Unquestionable Presence a listen as well. Presence was an extreme metal landmark, but Elements is a landmark in progressive music as a whole in my opinion. Again, my only complaint is the guttural vocals, which honestly are the only reason this band is considered death metal. But again, it isn't so over-the-top or prevalent in the mix to ruin the album. Every other aspect of this album, technically and musically, is brilliant. This album is essential listening for fans of extreme metal and progressive music alike; Atheist plays intricate, well-crafted metal that deserves your time.

6. Blind Guardian - Imaginations From the Other Side
This is the first epic metal album I ever listened to, and still one of my favorites. Blind Guardian play a more aggressive style than most bands that fit into their sub-genre, but the sense of melody is not lost at all. This album is much more harmonically rich than most epic metal albums, and is one of the main reasons I truly love it. There is not a bad song on this album, and plenty of variation throughout. There is only one epic metal album I would choose over it, and it's from the same band!

5. Megadeth - Rust in Peace
This is the only thrash album on the list, and it was a no-brainer. Dave Mustaine is only lately getting the credit he always deserved for this classic of late-period thrash. The riffs are unbelievably technical when compared to the vast majority of other thrash albums, and are still quite challenging even compared to modern metal rhythm guitar. The lead playing from Mustaine and Marty Friedman is so far beyond what anyone else was doing at the time in terms of both technicality and musicality that everything else from that period seems like mindless wankery after listening to this. The songs are much more fleshed-out and interesting than what was being written by any other thrash band, and far surpassed Megadeth's previous albums. Even if you don't usually care for thrash, this is a necessary listen.

4. Symphony X - Divine Wings of Tragedy
While Blind Guardian and Nightwish's albums would be described as epic/symphonic metal, Symphony X is typically described as neo-classical metal. It's not as symphonic; the sound isn't as huge and the compositions are leaner. But they're still brilliant, and this is their best album. Symphony X take everything Yngwie Malmsteen did, and simply do it far better. It's aggressive but melodic, insanely technical, harmonically interesting, and exciting. If you like guitar (and keyboard) heroics, look no further; this album has plenty of impressive solos. But they do a great job of not going overboard with them. The solos are part of the songs rather than the songs being a vehicle for solos, which is a complaint I have about many bands in this sub-genre. This isn't the most unique album on the list, but what it lacks in innovation, it more than makes up for in pure quality.

3. Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Dream Theater has always been a metal band that people mention when trying to persuade others that metal isn't all mindless non-music. Albums like this are the reason for that; There is not a single unnecessary second of music on this album. When it comes to composition and performance, these guys are beyond almost every other rock band in the world, let alone metal bands. Every song is interesting, epic, technically impressive, and emotionally stirring. This is challenging, high-concept heavy metal. I can't get enough of Dream Theater, and this is my personal favorite album of theirs.

2. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
This is the oldest and most traditional metal album on the list, but also the most melodic. It's also the third concept album on the list, and one of my favorites regardless of genre. It has everything to be expected of British metal from the 80's: high-pitched vocals, fast-paced rhythm playing, over-the-top solos, and epic lyrics about slaying dragons and shit. But this album just does everything better than any other like it, and the story that continues through the album gives it a much more epic feel than most 80's metal albums. It also keeps the listener more interested through the entire thing, instead of just skipping to a few standout songs. This is just straight-up classic heavy metal, and perhaps the best introduction to the genre out of this list.

1. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Blind Guardian is the only band that appears twice on this list, and I think it is justified. The only word that can be used to describe this album is EPIC. A concept album based on the Silmarillion, this album is Blind Guardian's finest hour. I like every song on here, and they are tied together by spoken-word interludes that urge the listener to sit down and listen to this album all the way through. Seriously, this is the shit. If the idea of combining a fantasy-fiction movie soundtrack with heavy metal interests you at all, buy this album. Blind Guardian's vision of this album was as thematically ambitious as metal has ever been, and it succeeded mightily.