The Awesome Report

In this little piece, I'm going to give you a little taste of my musical preferences, and what I've been listening to lately. We're going to go through this fast, so here's five awesome bands!

1. Animals As Leaders
 A lot of old school metalheads and traditionalists will tell you that djent is poser bullshit. Well, I don't listen to a lot of djent, but I do know that Animals As Leaders are fucking awesome. Combining tech-shred with beauty in a way that no one ever has, this young band (created and led by guitar wunderkind Tosin Abasi) is the real deal.

The list continues after the break!

2. Enslaved

I recently picked up Enslaved's 2010 masterpiece Axioma Ethica Odini, and boy does it ever impress. Black metal riffs combined with prog, post metal, crushing Behemothian blackened death metal sections, and vocalists that trade off typical black metal shrieks and Steve Wilson-esque crooning. Enslaved are without a doubt the most innovative of the original second-wave (a.k.a. 90's Norweigian black metal) bands, and they continue to push the boundaries of black metal.

3. Graveyard

Swedish retro-rock. There are a ton of swedish retro bands with all sorts of different sounds, but these guys sound like they're straight out of the 70's. And that's awesome. 'Nuff said.

4. Danzig

Now I don't mean new Danzig. I mean old Danzig. I mean the very first Danzig album, when the idea of a man who sounds like a Satanic Elvis singing over top of awesome blues-rock was still fresh and sexy. I've been listening to this album on repeat lately, and let me tell you if you haven't added this beauty to your CD collection/vinyl collection/cassette collection/itunes library/hard drive of pirated porn then you need to get on that. NOW.

5. Revocation

I saved the best for last, but you already know that don't you. You, like me, have been listening to Revocation's latest masterpiece on repeat for the last two weeks, of course. You better have, because it's not just the greatest thing you'll hear this year, it's my pick for album of the decade. You heard it here first. And I don't care what justifications you have for you're shady music pirating ways, this album is special. It's worth putting down some money. Or at least if you pirate it go buy a Revocation t-shirt. This band is worth every penny.

So there you go, five bands that I love and have been listening to lately. Feel free to tell me what you've been listening to lately in the comments below!