My Favorite Metal Band from Lebanon

Ayat is a caustic industrial black metal juggernaut. Being alive to see their home country torn apart by war has provided the inspiration behind the band's extreme sound. This is definitely not a pretty-sounding band. Ayat's sound is the sound of destruction and chaos and hatred. They have only released one album but it is absolutely extreme. Not for the weak of heart.

My Favorite Metal Band from Japan

There are not a lot of bands from Japan that I am aware of. Obviously there is the avant garde metal band Sigh, crust/doom metal band Gallhammer, and blackened thrash metal band Sabbat, but as much as I like those bands, they are not quite as impressive as Coffins. The death/doom band sounds a bit like Hellhammer/Celtic Frost played as slowly as possible. They have massively heavy riffs and deep guttural vocals. They do kick things up a notch on occasion though and the similarities to the Swiss group become even more apparent. Coffins is a great, underrated band.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Gallhammer
King's-Evil
Sabbat
Sigh
Vomit Remnants

My Favorite Metal Band from Italy

I decided on Graveworm due mostly to the fact that I am more familiar with more of their catalog than I am for some of the other bands listed in my Honorable Mentions. It is likely that my pick will change in the future. Graveworm is a melodic black metal band that occasionally delves into gothic metal. The most interesting aspect of the band is the fact that they frequently tackle a really bizarre song to cover. "Losing My Religion", "I Need a Hero", "Message in a Bottle", "It's a Sin", and "Fear of the Dark" have all been covered by Graveworm, adding their own spin on the songs. Graveworm has a bit of a somber overall tone which is improved even moreso through the use of keyboards and symphonic instrumentation.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Forgotten Tomb
Hyades
Lacuna Coil
Necrodeath

My Favorite Metal Band from Israel

I only really listen to two bands from Israel and they are both fantastic. However, Melechesh easily gets the nod due to their much more aggressive style of metal. The black/death/thrash metal band is easily one of my overall favorite bands. Their take on metal, adding in Middle Eastern melodies and scales, is extremely well-done and impressive. I only own their last three albums, but they are all absolutely amazing. Even though Melechesh no longer resides in Israel, they got their start there and that is good enough for me.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Orphaned Land

My Favorite Metal Band from Ireland

Primordial is one of the best pagan/folk/black metal bands going right now and one of the few that is enjoying some metal mainstream success, thanks largely to their presence on Metal Blade. The band has a knack for heart-wrenching epics about their country's history and mythology. Their music is bittersweet and emotional, but it is also catchy and brings the listener back for more. Vocalist A.A. Nemtheanga possesses an extremely powerful voice that fits in very well with the music.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Cruachan
Mourning Beloveth

My Favorite Metal Band from Iraq

Janaza is interesting. I am sure that being a sole female member of a black metal band in a largely Muslim nation is probably quite controversial. Then there is the fact that Janaza's lyrics for the most part are utterly against Islam as a religion. Janaza plays extremely raw black metal and is part of the Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion, a newer collective of black metal groups speaking out against Islam.

NOTE: I am aware of Acrassicauda, but to this date have not checked them out yet.

My Favorite Metal Band from Hungary

Vorkuta is a black metal band from Hungary named after a town near a GULAG camp. The band plays harsh black metal one second and then can immediately switch to shockingly uneasy ambience. The harsher stuff truly stands out as the most impressive parts, but the ambient material is done very well as well. Vorkuta is a band that takes awhile to get into, but once done, the band is easily on par with other Eastern European black metal bands.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Finnugor

My Favorite Metal Band from Greece

This is another country that long-time readers of this blog (there's what three or four of you?) will probably be able to guess. Rotting Christ is one of my favorite overall bands, not just from Greece, but from anywhere. The band has actually had kind of an interesting musical progression, beginning as a grindcore band then abruptly shifting gears to black metal and then adding more and more gothic influences. Now, the band exists somewhere in between gothic and black metal. They have a very interesting sound and write some very catchy songs. Rotting Christ is part of the Hellenic black metal scene, a number of groups that play a unique style of black metal.

NOTABLE SCENES: Hellenic black metal. Power metal in recent years.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Dodsferd
Heathendom
Kawir
Septicflesh
Ravencult
Varathron
Wishdoom

My Favorite Metal Band from Germany

Oh boy this was tough. So many great bands have come from Germany. The country has also been at the forefront of the development of the metal genre in general with the 1970's emergence of Scorpions. Several major scenes have erupted out of Germany. Of course Germany is also interesting because my last name is German.

So, ultimately I have to choose just one band. That band is Sodom. Sodom is the only German metal band that has been extremely consistent throughout their entire career. Sodom of course was one of the Big 3 of German thrash and was hugely influential on the development of the black and death metal scenes with their earliest work as well. Their raw and brutal style was another starting point in the inception of black metal. Despite all this, it is their pure thrash metal albums that are the most impressive. They have crafted some of the greatest thrash metal albums of the 1980's. And their consistently fine work places them above the other two bands in the Big 3.

NOTABLE SCENES: Germany's thrash metal scene is terrific. Many pioneering power metal bands rose from Germany.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Ahab
Apophis
Blind Guardian
Dark Fortress
Destruction
Dew-Scented
Gamma Ray
Grave Digger
Helloween
Holy Moses
Kreator
Scorpions

My Favorite Metal Band from France: Yyrkoon

I had a little bit of a tough time deciding my favorite metal band from France. I do not listen to a lot of bands from the country very much and, in fact, there is not a single band from France that I have more than one album from. So, it basically came down to which album is my favorite and that went to Yyrkoon's album, even over Deathspell Omega, Gojira, and the LLN albums. Yyrkoon is a vastly underrated death metal band that has really not built up much of a following at all. Which is very unfortunate. I almost never see any mention of this band anywhere. I can't be the only one who has heard of them. So, death metal fans, do yourself a favor and check out Yyrkoon.

NOTABLE SCENES: Les Legions Noires

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Belketre
Deathspell Omega
Gojira
Mutiilation
Nightmare
Vlad Tepes

My Favorite Metal Band from Finland

I know I just talked about them a short time ago, but Amorphis is truly amazing. As Kelly said, for a band to change their sound that drastically and still be putting out classic albums time after time is virtually unheard of. Amorphis is truly an original band. I eagerly await every new album from the band because I know I will not be disappointed by them. Hell, I am trying to come up with a way to get them played at our wedding this summer.

NOTABLE SCENES: Finland has a very underrated melodeath scene, some filthy black metal, bizarre death metal, folk metal, and of course the Children of Bodom clones.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Archgoat
Azaghal
Behexen
Children of Bodom
Convulse
Demilich
Ensiferum
Finntroll
Horna
Impaled Nazarene
Insomnium
Kalmah
Nightwish
Omnium Gatherum
Reverend Bizarre
Sonata Arctica
Swallow the Sun
Wintersun

My Favorite Metal Band from Denmark

Okay, this one was legitimately tough. How do you decide between Mercyful Fate and King Diamond? Ultimately the decision was due to the massive influence Mercyful Fate has had on the formation of metal. That and the fact that Melissa and Don't Break the Oath are all-time metal classics with tons of great songs. This is not to say anything disparaging about King Diamond's solo work, just that Mercyful Fate's early work is so influential that King Diamond could not fill those shoes.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Artillery
Iron Fire
King Diamond
Manticora
Panzerchrist
Victimizer

Special Request: My Favorite Metal Band from Romania

My fiancee is asking me when in the hell I am going to get to Romania. I told her it would be a few weeks yet, but she is pushing me to do it now. She has ancestors that came to the U.S. from Romania, which is why she is interested. I'm not sure if she can trace her lineage to Vlad Tepes or not, frankly I am not sure I want to know.

Romania was easy though. There is only one band I am familiar with from the country and that is Negura Bunget. Negura Bunget plays black metal which borders on folk and pagan influences. The songs are longer with a variety of different things going on musically. It is captivating and intense without being barbarically brutal. You really have to pay attention to truly understand Negura Bunget's music, but there is something to be said for something that is truly engrossing.

My Favorite Metal Band from the Czech Republic

Root is definitely a different kind of metal band. Rising from the first wave of black metal, their music has become much more grandiose and epic in sound. Vocalist Big Boss delivers the lyrics in a deep, booming baritone style. The music is more theatrical with influences from a variety of metal styles. Root truly has a unique sound that has never really been duplicated.

NOTABLE SCENES: First wave black metal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Maniac Butcher
Master's Hammer

My Favorite Metal Band from Colombia

I am not familiar with a lot of metal bands from Colombia. Witchtrap is one of the rare exceptions. Witchtrap's sound is unapologetically based in 1980's style metal. It's a mix of early thrash metal and speed metal. The thrash metal influences are mostly of the Teutonic variety. There's not a whole lot of originality in the band's music, but they sound like they are having a blast playing music they love. There is something to be said for that.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Opensight

NOTE: I just recently received an album by Inquisition. It is very possible that my view may change in the next few weeks on this. I have not had an opportunity to listen to the album as of this writing.

My Favorite Metal Band from Chile

South American countries produce a lot of surprisingly good death metal bands and Chile is no exception. Thornafire is a terrific death metal band that blends some of the old school dark and occult death metal bands like Immolation, Incantation, and Morbid Angel together to form their own sound. What results is a twisted, writhing mass of riffs and occult darkness. Far from rehashing old influences though, Thornafire puts a new spin on the old style with some modern influences.

My Favorite Metal Band from Canada

In general, I like Canadian metal. That being said, it was very difficult to decide on a favorite Canadian band. Some like Slaughter did not last nearly long enough. Others like Cryptopsy soiled their reputation with some godawful releases. Still others like Kataklysm are good, but not terribly interesting.

Then there's Voivod. Voivod was an excellent punk/thrash metal band in the beginning, then moved in more of a thrash direction. Then things got weird and experimental. That's when Voivod really shined the brightest though. Their spacy progressive weirdness certainly separated them from the rest of the pack. Voivod continued in more of a progressive direction and now bear little resemblance to the original band, yet they are still good. Weird indeed.

NOTABLE SCENES: Canada had a great thrash metal scene in the 1980's and also some damn good speed metal bands before that. In the late 1980's some very interesting death metal started to evolve as well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Slaugher
Sacrifice
Razor
Exciter
Gorguts
Cryptopsy
Annihilator
Anvil
Into Eternity
Strapping Young Lad
Kataklysm
Neuraxis

My Favorite Metal Band from Brazil

No surprises here really. Sepultura was one of my first favorite metal bands that was on the more extreme side. Of course I got into them around the time that Chaos A.D. was released. Still, Sepultura put out one hell of a good groove metal album with that release. Even Roots has its moments, mostly due to the use of tribal percussion. However, their best material is undoubtedly their earlier stuff. Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation are excellent examples of early black/death metal and Beneath the Remains is one of my all-time favorite thrash metal albums. After vocalist Max Cavalera left, Sepultura became more of a hardcore/groove metal band and I kind of lost interest. Of course Max's stuff was not much better. Still though, the material from their debut EP through Chaos A.D. is ridiculously powerful.

NOTABLE SCENES: Brazil had an amazing scene in the mid 1980's that blurred the lines between thrash, death, and black metal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Sarcofago
Hibria
Angra
Krisiun

My Favorite Metal Band from Belgium

Belgium was tough. I only have albums from two bands and neither is particularly memorable. So, ultimately I chose Enthroned. Enthroned is a fairly standard black metal band. Lurking somewhere in between harsh blastbeat-driven black metal and more atmospheric black metal, Enthroned is actually able to pull off some truly catchy songs. That and the use of guitar solos (somewhat rare in black metal) makes this a bit more of a melodic band, but not truly melodic black metal in the same sense as Naglfar and others.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Aborted

My Favorite Metal Band from Austria

Austria has a decent sized metal scene, but I am not overly familiar with that many of the country's bands. Hollenthon though is a truly interesting group. The band blends a multitude of genres together including symphonic and folk elements mixed with a blackened/death/thrash foundation. Hollenthon definitely has a unique sound. Symphonic metal is a difficult thing to get right, but Hollenthon manages to pull it off by focusing on darkness and not the light.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Belphegor
Wolfpack Unleashed