There needs to be a technical metal help thread. Every day there are probably 5 new 'progressive/technical metal' request threads, and they could easily be condensed into a single thread.

If mods don't feel like this would be appropriate, please lock this topic, but I know that there are tons of people on the forum who would love to have this topic to use.

To start out, here are a list of important Technical Metal bands to solve all the 'wankery please' topics. I've chosen the ones that I've either noticed to be often recommended, or pass my personal bar of technicality. I've excluded some bands that are considered a bit too 'core', but I can revise the list to include those if some want me to. Bolded out the bands that I feel most people are looking for when they make their request threads.





This list features highly technical metal bands of all subgenres.

Acid Death
Aeon of Horus
Apocrypha
Algophobia
Anacrusis
Anata: Technical death metal with a piercing melodic flare and razor-sharp sense of harmony. Adventurous, extremely varied song-writing, intelligent, innovative and very unique.
Anomalous
Antropofago
Appalling Spawn
Arsis
Atheist
Atheretic
Atrocity (Deu): Only the first two albums are death metal, however they are seriously two of the most bizarre slabs of death metal ever written, and were lightyears ahead of their time. Combining elements of jazz and grind with death metal, accompanied by loads of asymmetrical rhythms, unorthodox riffing and mind-bending time-signatures, this is some extremely unique stuff.
Augury
Behold... The Arctopus
Believer
Beneath The Massacre
Blotted Science
Brain Drill
Butcher (Bra)
Carcariass
Cebrerum
Cephalic Carnage
Confessor
Coroner
Cosmic Atrophy
Cryptopsy
Cyaegha
Cyclone Temple
Cynic
Death: Chuck Schuldiner's legendary metal project. Considered one of the very first death metal bands, along with Possessed, Death evolved to become one of the first technical metal bands starting with the album Spiritual Healing, but really coming into fruition with the album Human. With the album Individual Though Patterns, Death pushed the boundaries of technicality for its day. Symbolic is a classic album of progressive metal, but is clearly not as technical as Individual Thought Patterns or Human. Chuck Schuldiner used influences from progressive rock and jazz to create a truly unique band that is one of the absolute basics when it comes to learning about tech-death, along with Atheist.
Decapitated
Decrepit Birth
Deeds of Flesh
Defeated Sanity
Deivos
Demilich
Depressive Age
Disembarkation
Dying Fetus
Edge of Sanity
Enfold Darkness
Equinox
Esqarial
The Faceless
Forbidden
Forced Entry
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Genetic Wisdom
Gorguts
Gorod
Gorerotted
Gory Blister
Gigan
Hacksaw To The Throat
Hexenhaus
Hideous Deformity
Hour of Penance
Iniquity: A bit more doom-orientated death metal at first, which was clearly inspired by both Bolt Thrower and Autopsy in quite a big way, however as their music progressed, it became more and more technical yet still retaining bone-crushing brutality.
Intruder
Invocator
Jack Slater
Juggernaut
Lecherous Nocturne
Lex Talionis
Lykathea Aflame
Malignancy
Mekong Delta: Experimental and mysterious German thrash metal band. One of the most progressive thrash bands of the 80s along with Watchtower, Forbidden and Coroner. Highly reccomended. They have a very unique riffing style, and fans of odd drumming/metric time signatures will be pleased with quite a few of their songs.
Meshuggah: A progressive post-thrash band known for their constantly shifting time signatures and mind-bending polyrhythms, but often criticized for their monotony and stereotypical "chugging". If interested, 'Destroy, Erase, Improve' and 'Chaosphere' are classics, but any album in their discography after their debut will give a good idea of their sound.
Monolith Deathcult
Necrophagist: The controversial brainchild of guitarist Muhammed Suicmez, whom played all the instruments on the first release and almost completely wrote the second release, and one of the most popular death metal bands playing today. Muhammed is revered by guitarists for his neoclassical soloing and technical ability, but is criticized for his cold and clinical precision. Draw your own conclusions, but if interested in heavy technical death metal with laser-speed guitar leads and moments of unorthodox riffery, 'Onset of Putrefaction' and 'Epitaph' are both essential releases.
Neuraxis
Nile: Very technically influenced death metal band with Egyptian themes. Through the first few listens they might not sound as technical as some of the other bands on this list, but Karl Sanders has some jaw-dropping lead parts, and every member of the band delivers peak performances for their respective instrument.
Nocturnus: A progressive old school death band featuring a synthesizer and Mike Browning. The album 'The Key' features some very technical stuff, and is a death meta classic.
Obliveon
Obscura (Deu): Technical death metal band that recently skyrocketed in popularity when they acquired 2 ex-members of Necrophagist, and the fretless bassist from Pestilence (Nld). Sometimes criticized for not being 'heavy enough', but often hailed for their technical ability, ear for melody, and songwriting skills. Though their 2009 release 'Cosmogenesis' received much more press (deservedly), their 2006 album 'Retribution' (recorded before acquiring an all-star lineup) is a tech-death classic.
Odious Mortem
Opeth
Origin: A band that plays super fast, but extremely catchy, tech-death. Contends with Brain Drill for the fastest of the tech-death bands, but does not suffer from much of the criticism that Brain Drill does, as the emphasis is on the rhythm rather than the lead playing and the songs have a very definite direction and structure. Highly recommended.
Osiris
Pavor
Pestilence (Nld) (Later)
Psychotic Waltz
Psycroptic
Quo Vadis
Revokation
Rosicrucian
Sceptic
Severed Saviour
Shuriken Cadaveric Entwinement
Sickening Horror
Sleep Terror
Spastic Ink
Spawn of Possession
Spiral Architect
Suffocation: A brutal death metal band whose modern albums, and well as their classic albums, possess a high degree of technicality. I highly recommend the album 'Pierced from Within'.
Symbyosis
T3h Shred Boiz: A technical metal parody that has made their album, 'WTF', available for free on myspace. Though obviously intended as a joke (just take a look at the song names), this release possesses a very high degree of technical spirit and a strong sense of melody. The title track is absolutely fantastic, and the guitarwork and drumming has to be heard to be believed.
The Terrigen Mists
Theory in Practice
Twisted into Form
Ulcerate
Vektor
Viraemia
Visceral Bleeding
Watchtower

Just to clarify- not all of these bands are super wankery soloing bands, but they are the most important bands in the technical metal subgenre, mostly being tech-death.
If anyone has any important bands that I've missed in mind, let me know.

One last thing: http://www.willowtip.com/releases/
Willowtip, love 'em or hate 'em, has plenty of good tech death releases out, and always have plenty more lined up. Check them out.

Special thanks to demisetheflesh, Wizard_AuZ, demisetheflesh, TheExodusAttack, Leechmaster, Wordless_Hon, Jant_Shira, heavyyield, Winterkald, leblebi, Rippingheadache, triggerhappy, Duisterling and 666_International for suggesting some great bands to add to the list.
Very special thanks to gigi_duru for the list of technical thrash bands!

Similar thread already exists but its for prog metal alone and not technical metal.
Progressive metal help thread

Changed topic name to make it unique from that other topic. Thanks for letting me know!

Since I've already listened to all those bands, any good technical non-wankery bands?

add in "Edge of Sanity"

Tech Death Metal. Swedish i think.

That's a great one! I forgot about them.
Added them to the big list.

Gotta add Spiral Architect. They sound exactly like Psychotic Waltz and Cynic, played by cyborgs. In space. From the future. Very progressive and wank-tastic.

If you're gonna have Fleshgod Apocalypse, you should include Hour of Penance as well. Cephalic Carnage's music is also pretty damn technical and are worthy of a mention as well I think.

Added.

Added.

Might I suggest adding Jack Slater and Defeated Sanity.

Added to the list.

Anomalous deserves a mention too, if nothing else than for their devotion to flash over substance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-dtY9l22s

Also added to the list.

At least early Psychotic Waltz was very important to the genre.

Cool. I added them to the list.
I haven't heard them until now, and they're quite good!

well (just as a fun reply, please take it so) you've missed ALL tech-thrash bands. the bands that started the genre...

CORONER
MEKONG DELTA
ANACRUSIS
HEXANHAUS
CYCLONE TEMPLE
INTRUDER
BELIEVER
FORCED ENTRY
CONFESSOR (hybrid tech thrash/doom)
ROSICRUCIAN (last album)
FORBIDDEN (last two)
JUGGERNAUT
APOCRYPHA
EQUINOX
GENETIC WISDOM
DEPRESSIVE AGE
BUTCHER (brasil)
OSIRIS
INVOCATOR

and the list could go on...

as for tech BDM, here's something that is fresh:

http://www.myspace.com/antropofagometal
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YVGOKT2R (free material)

np: antropophago - ravenous

Wow, this is a great suggestion! I completely forgot about adding all of these guys. You've even shown me a few bands I haven't heard before.
I can't believe I forgot Forbidden and Mekong Delta!



These guys are awesome! Definitely added to the list.

Please add Twisted into Form. That's insanely technical!

Carrying my suggestion from another thread:

SCEPTIC (Pol).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxE9WhiM4s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1oCkz2UV0o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNsnAY1674c


http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3329


\m/

Only one album last year and a few demos before that, but Vektor are already making a name for themselves in the tech thrash ranks.

Added Winterkald, leblebli and 666_international's reccomendations.
Thanks for the help!

I think Deeds of Flesh should warrant an inclusion as well. Their early albums were reasonably technical but their new album definitely ranks them among the likes of Decrepit Birth/Severed Savior. Plus, the cover puts Par Olofsson to shame.

Done and done.

Hideous Deformity
Shuriken Cadaveric Entwinement
Gorerotted
Enfold Darkness
The Terrigen Mists (not really "leaders" but a good listen in my opinion)
Lecherous Nocturne

All added to list.

Add the Monolith Deathcult maybe?

This list should probably divided into subcategories (i.e., tech-thrash, tech-death, whatever the hell Behold... the Arctopus is). Otherwise some poor sap might be looking for Watchtower-style stuff and end up wading through scores of Necrophagist-worship bands.

Hate to be "that guy" but the link to willowtip is broken.

Here's the correct link.

http://www.willowtip.com/releases/

Yeah, I plan on doing this in just a little bit, possibly later tonight. Some of the bands I'm putting just off of faith in the suggestions, so I'll have to listen through them and categorize them, unless someone else wants to go ahead and try to sort through them.
But yeah, this is going to happen pretty soon, as I realized the same thing.

I might also take off some of the debatably technical bands, such as Opeth.



Thank you!



Added.

Does the list only affect bands which play only technical metal or bands who also released technical albums?

For exemple, Abigor didn't really play tecnical first, but 'Satanized' is a very complex album and 'Fractal Possession' is really technical too. I haven't heard their latest yet but it's supposed to be somewhat like 'Fractal Possession'.

If this is the case, Deathspell Omega can be added to the list too. Their last album and the split with S.V.E.S.T. (but especially Fas, ite...) are pretty technical too.

Forbidden - Forbidden Evil is a pretty technical thrash album as well as Toxik - Think This.

That's a good question. I own the latest Deathspell Omega, and while it's a great release, and I'm not quite sure if it could fit into the list.
I think I added Forbidden to the list a little while ago, but I can't quite remember. Haven't heard the Toxik one, but it's been on my 'need to hear' list for a while, so I might end up adding it soon.

My main rules were no Deathcore (JFAC, The Boy Will Drown, Trigger the Bloodshed, etc.), and no Mathcore (Coalesce, Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Antigama, etc.)
If I decide to make categories tonight, I might make one for Mathcore, and one for Deathcore/Metalcore, since I'm sure at least a few people will be looking for those kinds of bands.

It would be cool if you'd put the genre after each band, I hate technical thrash (maybe add Repugnant?) but love technical death.

EDIT: I pressed 'quote' instead of edit, my bad!

I'm categorizing them soon, as I mostly agree.

Afflicted - Prodigal Sun

Could we add Disembarkation to the list please? They're very underrated, which is odd given they are the template band for Augury. Great band.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=8349

Double posting already, but I'm thinking we should add Cyaegha as well. Not a huge fan, but they could be worse.

http://metal-archives.com/release.php?id=199443

Jant_Shira, I added both of the bands you reccomended to the list.

I'm going to get around to organizing all the bands in the next few days.

And also I have an interesting request. Deathspell Omega was mentioned, and I was wondering, is there such thing as technical black metal? If so does anyone have any good bands they can recommend?

Hmm, I don't think there are any technical black metal bands. Progressive yes, but I'd struggle to class any as purely technical.

The closest I can think of is Ruins, Dave Haley's (of Psycroptic) other band, but they aren't all that technical (at least in my view as a guitarist), just lots of different riffs. Still a brilliant band, and others may think they could fall into the technical category:


http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=21041

"Spun Forth as Dark Nets" is the album to check out.