I'm looking for bands that make great instrumental metal with little or no vocals, and I'd like to branch away from prog and neoclassical stuff, since they seem to harbor instrumental artists more often. I don't know...maybe something like instrumental brutal death or instrumental industrial. It's nice to not hear vocals sometimes, which can detract from the soul of the music and which spit lyrics that are hard to wrap your mind around.

T3h Shred Boiz. Lame name, but check out their second album, WTF. It's instrumental technical death metal with some progressive tendencies.

http://metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3540257399

Electro Quarterstaff is pretty cool.

The AWESOME LIST!!

The Morningside
Agalloch
Sleep Terror
Abolishment of Hate
Omega Massif
Scale The Summit

btw, I second Electro Quaterstaff, just great.

Sungate

also I'm sure I've posted the best instrumentals somewhere. I'll find it. But Sungate is a must. They are so unknown, and I so want them to be known..

edit I:

Pelican - Post-rock
Forest of Fog (first album) - Black (like Blutklinge and Bardo (Hun))
Vorgrow - Black (like Mgla without vocals somewhat)
Sepia Dreamer - Mostly doom with some strange "technical" parts, if someone knows a better word help me
Abstract - Progressive, kinda (Recommended!!!)
Sungate - Progressive, kinda (like Abstract, Recommended!!! In fact, download it now.)
Blakagir's Carpathian Art of Sin - Hellveto's Zmierzch era without black and vocals
Nachtreich's Von Dornen und Selbstmord - No idea about the genre, supposedly black neoclassical.

edit II:

Bardo (Hun) - Black
Igric - Black
Skogyr - Black

skogyr - rainchants

Reading is important.

Abolishment Of Hate.


Deflore.

Ulver is good. Teachings in Silence, Lyckantropen Themes, and Svidd Neger in particular. Maybe even their Kveldssanger album, if you like folk...

What are you getting at here? Yeah, I guess you could consider Agalloch prog but I'm talking about the classic use of the genre tag, under bands like Spastic Ink, Dream Theater, etc. Actually, I wouldn't mind more prog and neoclassical recommendations, but I thought it would be neat to find some bands that play other genres that are rarely instrumental.

[quote="Zhuinden"]Sungate

also I'm sure I've posted the best instrumentals somewhere. I'll find it. But Sungate is a must. They are so unknown, and I so want them to be known..

I'll see what I can do. See if you can find that list. I think some metal record labels should put out a compilation album of some of the best instrumentals of that label or of a particular genre. It seems like that hasn't been done yet and it would kick ass.

Eldrig is almost fully instrumental black metal, with power metal influences of all things, that's pretty cool. Mysterion is probably the most well-realised album. If slightly un-pc ideologies are a problem, you might want to stay away, though they're not exactly on the foreground with this project.

Fanisk is the related band, which is orchestral black metal done right, that's for a large part instrumental. Again, ariosophy is a pretty strong theme, but if that's not an issue, this is some damn fine music, especially Noontide.

A good chunk of Senmuth's material lacks vocals entirely and is purely instrumental. Not sure if you'd class it under proggy, but it's worth noting. Just check the notes for the album, it should say if he does vocals or not.

Also, if you're into gay things, Powerglove are instrumental power metal/shred covers and medleys of video game songs.

I second Scale the Summit, awesome stuff. I know you said you'd prefer less prog stuff, but check out JT Bruce, their stuff will blow you away, not to mention all of their stuff is up for free download! Now if genre isn't an issue, check out Hyatari, Zebulon Pike, Omega Massif, and Electric Magma.

Pelican, Dysrythmia, Capricorns and Behold... the Arctopus are good instrumental bands, if you're looking for something more progressive.

Farzad Golpayegani is is my favorite instrumental band you can get all of there albums for free from there website.

http://www.farzadonline.com/music.html

Blotted Science - Intense, heavy, and technical, they describe themselves as "technical instrumental death metal" - featuring Ron Jarzombek of Watchtower/Spastik Ink and Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse.

Spastic Ink - Eclectic and unusual, based largely on very odd concepts, featuring Ron and Bobby Jarzombek of a bunch of bands.

Scale the Summit - The best progressive band to emerge in the past decade, unlike any other that I have heard - the music speaks for itself.

Behold... the Arctopus - Ridiculously complex prog, I don't like them but they're worth a listen as they are unusual and you may like them.

The Kris Norris Projekt - Very melodic solos and riffing, starring Kris Norris formerly of Darkest Hour with his first album showcasing the highly melodic but non-hardcore influenced style that he brought to DH. Did I mention that there's a lot of melodic playing? Two songs feature Randy of Lamb of God, the rest are instrumental.

Gordian Knot - Jazzy and progressive, features members of Cynic.

Exivious - although their new stuff is entirely prog their older stuff has jazz and death influences.