Modern Metal With Replay Value

[S<issors]

Like most of you, I listen to a shitton of metal, but I find that a lot of it grows stale after a few listens. Some stuff is just weird or strange enough to illicit a chuckle the first couple of times, some only has one distinguishing characteristic (fast drumming! good bass! or whatever) and some is just very samey, in that the whole album is pretty much interchangeable. More and more I find that space on my MP3 player is taken up by the classics that I listen to over and over and less with newer material. Who's still making music that is well-crafted enough and interesting enough to listen to over and over?

Just to give you an idea of my tastes, my iPod has Agalloch, Amorphis, Bloodbath, Candlemass, Death, Behemoth, Enslaved, Emperor, Dream Theater, Maiden, Meshuggah, NeO, Nile, Opeth, Morbid Angel, Paradise Lost, Isis, PTree, Swashbuckle, Katatonia, Swallow the Sun, Skinless, 1349, and Ulver on it at the moment, along with a bunch of non-metal.

[byrne]

Hammers of Misfortune are absolutely brilliant. It's thoughtful music that will make you sing along a'la Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. I tend to find that when I listen to "The Locust Years" that I listen to it 3 or 4 times in a row before I stop. Similarly Slough Feg have released some killer stuff and are like a less moody, more jovial version of HoM.

Otherwise, if you are willing to give it the time, there are few releases more rewarding than Mournful Congregation's "The Monad of Creation". It is epic as hell. It just takes around 10 listens to get into (funeral doom).

[Triton]

Will Of The Ancients
Ahab
Hyponic

[BurningWitch]

Originally Posted by byrne

Hammers of Misfortune

The Bastard is a fucking amazing album.

My 2 cents ;

First 2 Belenos albums
Bolt Thrower
Dawn - Nær Solen Gar Nider For Evogher
Drudkh
Martyr
First 2 Rotting Christ albums
Taake
Mithras - Behind The Shadows Lie Madness
Skepticism - Farmakon

Edit: well i just realized you want bands still making music, so I edited my list

[Seditious]

isn't this all too subjective?

[NinjaGeek]

Benighted, I go back to them all the time.

[nissan]

Originally Posted by S<issors

Like most of you, I listen to a shitton of metal, but I find that a lot of it grows stale after a few listens. Some stuff is just weird or strange enough to illicit a chuckle the first couple of times, some only has one distinguishing characteristic (fast drumming! good bass! or whatever) and some is just very samey, in that the whole album is pretty much interchangeable. More and more I find that space on my MP3 player is taken up by the classics that I listen to over and over and less with newer material. Who's still making music that is well-crafted enough and interesting enough to listen to over and over?

Just to give you an idea of my tastes, my iPod has Agalloch, Amorphis, Bloodbath, Candlemass, Death, Behemoth, Enslaved, Emperor, Dream Theater, Maiden, Meshuggah, NeO, Nile, Opeth, Morbid Angel, Paradise Lost, Isis, PTree, Swashbuckle, Katatonia, Swallow the Sun, Skinless, 1349, and Ulver on it at the moment, along with a bunch of non-metal.

Ah, good thread. I find that I'm more a fan of contemporary metal rather than the "classics" that everyone else loves, so this thread is good for me to drop a few recommendations
You seem to have a broad taste, so I'll drop random albums that give me good replay value, and a little description:

Phlebotomized - atmospheric dm
The Chasm - dm
Arghoslent - dm
Lykathea Aflame - technical death/grind
All Shall Perish's Price of Existence - technical melodic metalcore hahahaha
Martyr - tdm
Nokturnal Mortem -
Arsis - technical melodeath
Symphony X and Draem Theater - prog metal
Death's last two albums
Psycroptic - tdm
Pavor - tdm
Symbyosis - prog dm
Stargazer - t death/black
Creepmime - dm
Cynic - prog/tech dm
Disillusion - prog mdm
Sceptic's first two albums - tdm
Carcariass - Killing Process
Disaffected - Vast
Capharnaum - Fractured
With Passion's first - technical melodeath
Confessor - Condemmed - prog/tech doom?
Saturnus - doom metal
Odious Mortem - technical bdm
Wormed - bdm
Obtained Enslavement - Symphonic bm
Canvas Solaris - instru prog metal
Contempt - technical brutal dm

Oh I'm tired. Some of these are old but whatever.

So how many plays does an album with good longevity last you?

[nissan]

Originally Posted by Seditious

isn't this all too subjective?

Yes, very much so haha.

[S<issors]

Originally Posted by nissan

So how many plays does an album with good longevity last you?

Depends. A really good album can last pretty much indefinitely- I'll listen to it a lot, get burned out on it, and then come back to it some weeks/months/years later and dig it all over again. Others, I love, and then I tire of them and never revisit them.

[AchrisK]

Gory Blister - Skymorphosis
Italian technical DM with a sound sort of akin to the thrash band Sacrifice (CAN).