i know there are not many around so post some up and i know list threads are not allowed so feel free to discuss unique bands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBbuxQXa1E

personally they are the most unique i know because their former singer does so many different and strange things with his voice and they are somewhat between grind and technical death metal but instrumentally i find them really interesting too especially the guitars though the drummer does a very good job

Portal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT3cJg8AM-8

Loud, atonal, chaotic death metal with a singer that (currently) looks like Cthulhu. I've yet to hear another band like them.

Portal are really interesting i remember when i first heard them i thought what is this shit but once you get it then their music is some of the best around imo

I always found Ehnarhe's open and loose jazzy death doom very interesting. How it's chaotic yet still all controlled. huge influence on 2 of my other projects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk3RcE9_ngc

Only recently getting into Ehnahre's music, but I've been really digging it. One of the few projects out there that sounds different to me every time I listen to something of theirs.

Wow, Ehnahre is crazy!

Usually I find the bands that focus mostly on being unique shit, f.e. Unexpect.

Diskord from Norway play a weird progressive death metal that is influenced by Autopsy with some deathcore stuff as far as their first album goes. Very strange band but at the same time I really dig it.

I'm somewhat of a stickler for unique bands. Not that I don't enjoy a good band basically rooted in it's genre and doing a good job with it, but the bands that really stand out to me are the genre-defying bands which go above and beyond the boundaries of their style. This may be due to a unique hybrid of genres (ie: something other than black/death, death/thrash, etc.) or simply a band that plays something so identifiable as their own that it becomes hard to classify them as "just a black metal band" or "just a heavy metal band."

A few I would note:

Sabbat (Jap): These guys have mixed in elements of almost every genre in metal at some point or another, ranging from heavy metal, to thrash, to black/death metal. Not only that, but they've done it in a way that is uniquely their own every step of the way.

Manilla Road: A truly unique heavy metal experience. Mark Shelton may have one of the most distinct voices in metal, up there with the likes of King Diamond on the "instantly recognizable" scale. Their style of epic heavy metal has always been their own and their style of songwriting cannot be duplicated.

Barathrum: Black metal meets Black Sabbath? On it's own that may not be the most original idea (although very few have ran with it), but add 3 bass players to the mix plus some of the best vocals in black metal plus tons of interesting little segments scattered amongst their songs, and you end up with a pretty damn unique band.

Phlebotomized: One of the weirdest bands in death metal, incorporating violins, keyboards, clean vocals, and a lot of progressive elements for a very original atmospheric sound.

Lugubrum: Another weird black metal band, this one adding banjo and saxophone to the mix. They describe their style as "brown metal" because black metal just doesn't really describe it.

Lykathea Aflame: A very unique blend of progressive and technical death metal topped off with keyboards for a cool melodic sound without ever venturing into melodeath territory.

Dark Quarterer: A very unique epic heavy metal band. No additional instruments or genre blending here, but truly original songwriting unlike anything else. Also see Etrusgrave, a kind of spiritual successor to Fulberto Serena's work in DQ.

Pagan Altar: Maybe more of a genre definer than genre defier, but they are a very unique band in doom metal. Nothing here is standard fare.

Umbrtka: A Czech black metal project combining some of the minds behind Master's Hammer and Stiny Plamenu/Trollech/War For War. They play a style that combines black metal with elements of folk and industrial with a mix of clean and harsh vocals.

Sigh: No explanation needed here I think. Sigh is pretty universally recognized as one of the strangest and most unique bands in metal, doing something new and different with every album.

More later when I think of some.

^^ Haha yes, you picked two of our bands.

Urfaust.

Yeah, they're by far the most experimental band that I've found atm.

Taake - You can always tell when you're listening to Taake because of the unique guitar tone. He also uses odd instruments at times, but it usually works. Latest album had a song with a badass banjo? type instrument riff.

Drudkh - They've become pretty "popular" but I love their music when I'm in the right mood... I find it relaxing, entrancing, but still very black.

Deathspell Omega - Also kinda popular now I think, I enjoy all their releases and listening to how they evolved from record to record.

As you mentioned Trollech, I was quite interested in Umbrtka's music so I got myself the IVO album. And what can I say? It totally hit me. This is some awesome shit. Do you have any recommendations concerning their rather large discography? I mean, 17 albums in 12 years is quite much to discover. Or should I explore them chronologically?

I absolutely second Phlebotomized. I was taken aback by their logo for I expected some BDM or DM but it turned out it be quite weird prog-influenced doom-laden atmospheric death metal. Don't hold me to my description, check it out yourself.

To be honest I don't know. This band is so prolific and too damn hard to find their earlier albums (pre-2008). I've only heard about 6 of their albums, and I would say IVO is my personal favorite, but they are all a bit different so I would go with whatever you can get your hands on. There's sure to be some hit and miss stuff in there (I've heard some stuff from them which sounds like your standard fare Swedish blasturbation BM), but some of it is really uniquely amazing

I've been obsessed with this band lately, no other black metal band can use clean vocals as well as they do.

Diapsiquir is a really strange band, their music has elements of Black metal, Industrial, Gypsy jazz, and even hip hop On paper it sounds like total bullshit but it works surprisingly well.

The only connection to Master's Hammer is that Franta Storm did some guest vocals for one of their albums.

thanks a bunch of great sounding bands to check out

Windham Hell

I checked out Urfaust out of sheer curiosity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbfcHoZvF8U
well, sir, I think you are quite correct in your assessment...

Michael Angelo Sassos old band Nitro was unique and interesting hehe. However, not that good. But I still like a lot ofmaterial for laughing purposes, but also some songs are truly great only to be ruined by either production or shitty vocals.

Unique and interesting, yes. Good? I ... haven't been able to decide. But Scholomance doesn't sound like anything other than Scholomance. They were one of those eccentric late 90's/early 00's The End Records bands, alongside other oddities like Sculptured, Green Carnation, and Love History.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKumab88NB0

I suppose if heard from another room or from the window of a passing car, it could come off as vaguely Cradle of Filthy, but the music is far more inaccessible than that. Far more demented, frenetic, and emotionally wrought, too. There's musical proficiency by the bucketful; listenability, however, is up for debate. It doesn't sound remotely like something created by humans. The few times I've made it all the way through their Immortality Murder CD, I've felt drained and like I deserved a cookie. Those vocals, eesh. If you think Jake Bannon sounds feline and feral, let this recalibrate that assessment for you. Of course, if the vox annoy, you can always listen to the thousands of notes the guitars, bass, and keyboards are wailing on at any given time. The band even was nice enough to include an instrumental version of the album on a second CD, so prepared were they (I assume) for a negative reaction to all the yowling.

I just listened to one and reviewed them in the Mini Review thread. Stoned Jesus from Ukraine. Intelligent song structures.
How many stoner bands can we speak of and use the word "intelligent" without feeling squirmy.

Pain Of Salvation - A true metal continuation of 70s style progressive rock, fully-equipped with polyrhythms and emotionally-charged concept albums. Lately, they've decided to strip down their sound-- to explore blues rock, psychedelic rock, and progressive rock with their two-part concept, The Road Salt Sequence.