Ken, let me look through me CD collection here. . .

A while back I went through the same thing--wanted some head-bangin' material, but don't like the whole growl thing.

Okay, here we go. I picked up "Blood Mountain" by Mastodon. A little bit of growling, but not overbearing. The dude can actually sing. . .sort of.

Also, I tried "In the Abscence of Truth" by Isis. I like this one a lot. Isis is more akin to Tool in that they draw out the songs a bit more--which is good since there is excellent musicianship. And, no growl!

Okay just kidding--there is a bit of growl, but just a teeny bit. It's hard to sing along to a song that goes, "Rururur rurur rururururrruru (scream) ruru ru rurururu."

I was thinking about getting an Isis album... I heard a song on the metal channel on cable that sounded pretty good.

I have Mastadon's first album, it's not bad but I really wanted to get into it but couldn't. The production fell victim to the category of "metal that doesn't sound good with Axiom's".

Hey there,

I have very similar interests in the metal side of things - big time metallica fan as well. I have not found anything recently that caught my metal interests. Some old school Iron Maiden (Piece of Mind) or Black Sabbath sound pretty good on the Axioms.

If you like AIC, what about Soundgarden? Badmotorfinger is a classic.

For more recent music - Have you considered Porcupine Tree - they have some metal-ish elements in their songs, but some melodic as well. Their songwriter Steven Wilson produced a few Opeth albums, nad the lead singer of Opeth (Akerfeld?)sings backup (not growling) on their "Deadwing" album, which is pretty heavy. Also, "In Absentia" and the recent "Fear of a Blank Planet" have some heavy riffs. I highly recommend them.

System of a Down have some good songs with a tongue in cheek mentality to boot.

Hope this helps your quest for metal!

You need to listen to "The Metal" from Tenacious D's Pick of Destiny Album.

Great song, surprisingly awesome guitar riffs.

Some great picks up there.

If you want current day stuff, on the less heavy side (somewhere between hard rock and metal), I really enjoy the new Seether CD. Three Days Grace is also a fun, hard working concert band.

Yes, the metal purist would say they are hanging dangerously close in the commercial realm but hey, they are helping to keep the format alive with the kids so they deserve some credit.

To get back to the classics, Iron Maidens concert DVD, Rockin in Rio, is simply AWESOME!! A must have!

Speaking of "metal purists", I never really understood the mentality. I've loved the genre since... well I can't remember not loving it. But I never got the whole "that's not true metal" or whatever. Even though metal is my love, if music is good then it's good.

Last night for example - I'm flipping through channels and come across Heart Live in Seattle on HD Net. Wow. These girls (and guys) sound amazing. If you put the lead singer on American Idol it would be a joke how much better she is than anyone who has won on that show IMO - I was blown away by her control of her voice. The band is also very tight - I am impressed, and I never was a Heart fan.

BTW, I second the recommendation for In Absentia by Porcupine Tree, especially on dvd-audio as well as Rock in Rio Iron Maiden dvd concert.

I really like Chevelle too, although I haven't bought their latest yet. Something about their use of harmonies (at least I think that's what it is) does it for me.

Got In Absentia already, but I've listened to it so much, I'm completely sick of it.

Ha! Not quite there yet!

I have been listening to the older Procupine Tree cd's (Stupid Dream & Signify). There is a lot of interesting music there however you can't beat their latest cd's

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. So far I've purchased Outshined by Soundgarden (yeah, lots of radio play, but this one deserves it), Cult of Personality by Living Colour (see above), and In the Absence of Truth by Isis.

They all sound pretty good on Audiobytes...