Christ Inversion

a couple people have mentioned the Afflicted album. I have it and never found it to be psychedelic at all. What exactly is psychedelic about it?

Well I haven't listened to it with the "medicinal enhancement", but I can agree with you on this. Necromanzee Cogent is a great album and me being into psych music as well, I highly enjoy this. Though psychedelic in any way...? I'm not sure on that one. Maybe I'll try tripping and listening to it. Sounds fun.

I'd say that album has a ton of Black Sabbath influence, and that alone is enough to call it psychedelic, IMO. If you compare it to the psychedelic merits of other black metal bands, the difference is even more profound.

I find that Cult of Luna and Mouth of the Architect can be very psychedelic sometimes.

Also, the, sadly split-up, doom metal band YOB and their offshoot Middian/ Age Eternal (changed name due to issues with other Midian band) are very psychedelic.

Negative Plane could have a place here. Their album Et in saecula saeculorum is a great, great, Celtic Frost/Darkthrone inspired black metal album, and it certainly has a psychedelic feeling. One of the best albums I've heard recently.

Although Boris has been mentioned before, I think that Pink and Rainbow are quite psychedelic.

i think an often overlooked reality is that "psychedelic" is an even more vague term than "brutal", "heavy", or "depressing".

everyone will experience different reactions to different sounds, particularly when enhanced by drugs. i can't think of a more "musically psychedelic" experience than the first time i smoked some laced shit at a friend's party and, after metal and punk records had been spun all night, someone had the bright idea to put a disco compilation on.

Yeah disco can be psychedelic as can rock, folk, jazz etc. but the OP is asking for psychedelic metal specifically.

i think you missed my point.

i was trying to demonstrate that the term "psychedelic" is VERY subjective, since many people (not only in this thread) try to play the "oh no, that's not psychedelic at all" card or try to define the term more strictly than necessary in order to discount others' suggestions.

sorry if i didn't effectively make my point. my communication skills are admittedly poor.

Oh I see what you mean. Your communication skills don't seem bad at all though as I think that it was just a mistake on my part.

Anyway, I see what you are saying now and that is definitely true. The term 'psychedelic' is immensely subjective but we can still give recommendations of whatever we find psychedelic and hope that others will find it psychedelic too.

Psychedelic music is usually uniformly weird, so the vagueness of the term is what makes it so attractive. When I ask for "psychedelic metal" I have no idea what I will get, other than that it will be weird and probably at least worth listening to if for no reason other than the novelty.

I dont see how Psychedelic is subjective. Psychedelic rock is a fairly definable genre of music in the 60's. I deifne it as "Free-form, blues based rock utilazing effects sucha s phasers, fuzz, flangers, etc. and spacey atmospheres."
Probably not the best deifnition, but you get the point. Its much easier to define than metal. The Dictionary definition of heavy metal is "an offshoot of electronic Hard Rock with less blues and less syncopation and high amplitude" or something along those lines, which is a poor definition. Stoner Metal has bluesyness, groove metal is syncopated, etc.

Psychedelic Metal is not defined in Wikipedia, under the Psychedelic Music Article. We are probably the people most qualified to write it...

They get as far as stoner rock, and Space Rock. Still, I don't consider Stoner Rock to be Psychedelic, merely a hijacked term to legitimize the fact that some part of the band sounds like Black Sabbath, and maybe plays songs long enough to invoke trance.
I feel that it needs to stem from the heavier offshoots of Space Rock instead. That genre by definition encompasses trance, electronics, and some minimalism, and paramount to all, balls out heavy rocking.
Atmospheric atonal eerie keyboards should be left to the experimental side of metal, not psychedelic.

You might like Mammatus, Earthless or Om.

i've never known anyone to consider psychedelic metal an actual subgenre but, assuming that it could be adopted as one, i disagree with your definition of psychedelic rock.

i would consider psychedelic rock simply any rock music that is notably effective in aiding or somehow strongly affecting psychedelic drug-use.
i would say the same of psychedelic metal, except substitute metal for rock.

i don't really think psychedelic music of any kind can be defined by structure, musical influence, or even what effects are commonly used, so i think trying to push them off as an actual genre or subgenre is useful for communication purposes only, rather than actual historic purposes (which are kinda futile in my opinion anyhow).

Later Trouble albums (Manic Frustration and Plastic Green Head) get fairly psychedelic, but not in a trippy, spacy way.

What other way is there?

It fits my definition of psychedelic and is one hell of an album, everyone should check it out.

Hi, my first post. I'm an old '80s underground metalhead (just turned 40, whoopee), and way into psychedelic music for years now. "Psychedelic" is a template that can be applied to pretty much any kind of music...rock, folk, rap, country, jazz, even classical. I have records like all those. But metal and psych together is like putting chocolate and peanut butter together, two great tastes that taste great together (unlike metal and funk). I appreciate the names dropped here, will investigate further.

Triple *YAWN*

Hey OP, try Maudlin of the Well or Forgotten Silence if you want something that is more lively and energetic. I'd hate to think that the only kind of 'psych' metal is this new hipster trend of sludge/doom dronemetal shit.

I think Ufomammaut and Automind (Whose demo is free on their site) would both be considered psychedelic. Ufomammut being a but more than Automind though.

Yeah I can't say I've heard faster stuff I'd consider psychedelic... other than like Led Zeppelin.

What do the bands you mentioned sound like?

I don't know what's a hipster trend about it though. I guess Black Sabbath is a recent hipster drone metal trend too.

I never understood what was so 'psychedelic' about these guys. The atmosphere perhaps, but everytime I listen to them, I just hear plain black metal.

anyone mentioned Lux Occulta? maybe thats not really pcychadellic but it has the same feeling to it. The Mother and the Enemy has lots of trip-hop elements and thats probably the best work of the band.
Many of the bands mentioned in this tread i have yet to check out wanted smth new for a long time

I would recommend 'Paul Chain' for some awesome old school psychedelic doom.
Also that 'Vediog Svaor' album is very good \m/

Sounds pretty good. I just read about them yesterday. Will have to seek them out.

A lot of Paul Chain's work is what I would consider very psychedelic. You can telll that it's one man and vision directing everything and he tries many different styles on different albums: Sabbath-like doom metal with intensely beautiful melodies at times,, droning Hawkwind-ishh jams, organ and reverberating guitar pieces that seem to be beamed straight out of some bunker in Germany populated by acidheads in 1972 ... yes, pretty cool stuff. Also perhaps check out his work with Death SS, and the horrific organ-enriched sounds of fellow Italians Black Hole.

And go for "Mark of the Beast" too, while you're at it ... very laid-back in terms of distortion, but with a thick and often very dark mood. Awesome record, like most of the band's!

The Mezmerist's lone EP is some pretty psychedelic stuff, with some King Diamond-esque vocals and a really laid-back atmosphere with lots of soloing. It's not the best, but it's interesting and definitely worth a listen.

back in the day psychedelic meant drug induced and music made from bands who were druggy. don't know if that is waht you mean today. one band that is sort of strange and all over the place is "Sleepytime gorilla museum".

Sikth is sort of all over the place with their mix of styles.

madder lake
qoph
acid bath
human beast
tommorow