I mean, at Encyclopedia Metallum as a whole, not just this forum.

I have to admit- I'm kinda new to the world of metal. Untill some time ago I had a scarce notion of how vast metal, as a genre, is. I did not know there were so many (and wonderful) sub-genres such as funeral doom, industrial death/doom, black/death, "Tolkien" black metal, and so forth. It all started some months ago with a topic I read on this forum about great metal covers (if I'm not mistaken). I read that "Face of Melinda" (Opeth) was one of the best ballads ever written, then I went and listened to it- and fell in love with Opeth immediately.

Other great bands I found out reading topics or reviews in this site and that I love now are Summoning, Fungoid Stream, Avsky, and, believe it or not, Bathory (yes, up to some time ago I did not know that the fathers of black metal existed).

Not to mention many, many other bands I have heard about and listen now with more or less frequency.

All in all, I'm very grateful to this forum for letting me know that a "thing" as beautiful as Summoning exists. I'm eager to know any other great bands (in whatever sub-genre- I'm 100% open-minded musically) you found out here, maybe, who knows, I'm yet to discover another favorites?

Virgin Steele, Primordial, Psychotic Waltz and WASP are some of the better ones I've found out thanks to the site.

Too many to name. Especially in the more "foreign" genres to me, like black metal or thrash metal. Having everything in one place and seeing clearly intelligent people's reactions to the things and hearing about who's significant to their relevant styles and such really helps you find your way around every different genre into bands that fit the styles you enjoy and further bands who are then like those and so on. It's pretty much a map (on which note I did also find the Map of Metal a good starting point for getting into a few genres - I think that got me started on doom and into Celtic Frost and Tormentor), and as such you can follow pleasant paths and work out "significance hype" from "trend hype" which is a really useful skill for working out whether to actually give something attention or not. And this site is my whole starting point for finding out which NWOBHM band to look into next, since I can just search "NWOBHM" in the genre selection and they're all there.

Even in genres I'm familiar with like power metal I wouldn't have got into the awesome but more obscure representatives (though I'd say clicking on cool covers in Youtube related vids still just about beats here for that).

More specifically, thanks to recommendations on the actual forum here, I've got into awesome stuff like Furze's "Reaper Subconscious Guide", Reverend Bizarre, Baphomets Horns, and yes, even Deafheaven.

Man, so much great stuff I've found all thanks to Metallum. The most obvious thing that comes to my mind is Grave Declaration, a symphonic black metal band with a bit of death influence (enough for them to put it in the genre description). Such a great band. You should absolutely check out their album When Dying Souls Scream Praise, it's up there with my favorites of all-time, and might even be my single favorite. I guess I haven't thought about it enough.

Also, Arvinger, which is a great viking black metal band. Old Graves, which is the best post-black band I've ever heard. Also, Crimson Moonlight, Antestor, Drottnar, and almost all of the Christian black metal I have found. Prior to me finding Metallum, I didn't think that Christian metal any heavier than metalcore even existed, but I'm so glad I found all of this. It sure took me long enough.

Well, there's Virrasztok, a Hungarian band that to me sounds like Electronic Metal but is listed on this site as Psychedelic Folk Metal. Very underrated band. I had also found out of The Subterranean Masquerade, a Progressive Psychedelic Metal band with Death Metal elements. This band is just awesome. Another Psychedelic band, Drawn, I have also found when I was trying to find band similar to Hail Spirit Noir. They didn't sound like them but they do sound very interesting. I wished I could say the same for Nachtmystium & Oranssi Pazuzu, but they where just boring.

Things not psychedelic? Hm, let's see... Well there's The Gloominous Doom an odd mixture of Aka & Death Metal that really intrigues me. There where many Melodeath bands such as Nightrage & Mercenary. Many "Touhou" Metal bands such as 5150 & Iron Attack!. There is also that Gothic Metal band A Pale Horse Named Death. I found Maniac Saint, an Industrial Power Metal band. Alnamrood is another one, a Blackened Folk Metal band from Saudi Arabia. There is the Metallica sound alike Am I Blood, I find them sorta grungy sounding. Speaking of Grunge, there was Quorthon's solo stuff. There was that Iragi Thrash band Acrassicauda. There are alot of band I could list, it just goes on and on.

More Recently I found out about Practice To Decieve, It's like Metallica meets Puddle Of Mudd. They're a very grate band, though production could use some improvement.

Overall, Encyclopaedia Metallum has provided me with some of the most interesting and promising bands. And I hope to find more in the future.

Well, I'd say Fates Warning is probably the best that I hadn't heard of outside of this site. The Spectre Within is one of my favorite albums, and I also enjoy Awaken the Guardian and No Exit. I prefer the Arch-era, but Alder is ok. The melodies and atmosphere that these guys could craft was phenomenal, just a little short of Mercyful Fate on Spectre. The reunion of sorts on Sympathetic Resonance was also very good.

I don't believe I'd heard of Psychotic Waltz before coming here either, and A Social Grace is a very good album. The production is a little odd to me, but the music itself is very creative, and the songs themselves have excellent variation inside of themselves.

To more extreme metal, I hadn't heard of Katalepsy and Aborted until relatively recently. That Autopsychosis album is excellent, one of the best death metal albums I've ever heard. It's got very good riffs, the vocals are usually good, and the pace is diverse enough that you don't simply tire. Goremageddon is not as good as Autopsychosis, but is still very good on it's own. It's not as blatantly derivative as many clones, so I'm satisfied with them taking a couple of Carcass' finer points and applying it to their own sound.

I also found Stygian not too long ago, who's sole album was probably the last thrash album released that I enjoy. It's very riffy with reasonable changes of pace and mood that keeps it from becoming dull.

Lastly, I found Satan here, who's debut is one of the very, very few nwobhm albums that I frequently listen to. It's a very melodic and catchy album that is amongst my very favorites in heavy metal.

These are some of the better ones that I've discovered here.

I will say that one of my favorite things about this site is that it isn't commercial. It makes the hype on the forum and the reviews on the site feel a lot more genuine than the sites that will just say anything to keep the ad money flowing. Almost all the bands that I've discovered were either talked about on this forum or appeared on the main site and caught my eye.

the vast majority of my new discoveries have been from this site for a long time now - obviously the list is way too long for a post and i couldn't remember half of them anyway, but suffice to say i've found out about tons of bands in a multitude of different styles, such as bölzer, le scrawl, gris, free nelson mandoomjazz, the meads of asphodel, diskord, ea, xenomorph, hell, craven idol... i could go on all day

There are a few that come to mind.

One is Lordian Guard. They were founded by Warlord's guitarist/songwriter Bill Tsamis in the 90s. Not the heaviest band in the world, but great majestic, epic heavy/power metal with unique female vocals (seriously, the singer sounds like no one else I've ever heard).

There is also the trio of French Celtic black/folk metal bands Bran Barr, Heol Telwen, and Aes Dana. They have shared members and their styles are pretty similar, so I associate them all together. I like their use of tin whistle in their metal.

Another one is Battleroar. They are a Greek epic heavy/power metal band, but they are a lot heavier than Lordian Guard. They have four albums. Their first two, I honestly don't like that much. Their fourth, which was released earlier this year, is good, with a few really good songs, but it's their third, To Death and Beyond, that makes me mention them in this thread. Just a fantastic album.

Another is Heavy Load, possibly the first ever Swedish metal band. Their two 80s albums, Death or Glory and Stronger than Evil, get the most attention. While they are good, it is their 1978 debut Full Speed at High Level that is my personal favorite of theirs. Very much influenced by 70s Priest.

Hybernoid.

I'm sure there are others, but this is the only band I can distinctly remember learning about through this sub-forum. That's not to say I wasn't really floored by them. They are one of the best bands I've found through Rec. Central, even if I can't recall any other examples.

I forgot who posted them, unfortunately. Funny thing is, I don't think it was even in a thread I started.

I also discovered Nuit Noire in a thread someone posted about a Lady Gaga cover he recorded.
I've been a rabid fan ever since, and I don't even like Lady Gaga. NN is just so wonderfully weird and unique, not to mention catchy.

The third poster mentioned Furze. I can't recall when or where I first heard of him, but I wouldn't be surprised if I found out about him on here, and I thought Reaper Subconscious Guide was a really cool and interesting album.

Black Countess, listening to them right now. Amazing stuff.

NG rec'd Benighted Leams to me.

everything on the black metal help thread more or less... So much awesome Finnish and German black metal I never would've heard about if the guys that regularly post in there hadn't told me about.

No matter how long you've been listening to metal, you'll always unearth new bands if you frequent the Archives. That's what I love about this place. The most recent acquisition I've made is Seasons of the Wolf, a Floridian heavy metal band that's maintained a quiet and cult status over the years. They have their own distinct sound that incorporates elements of prog rock, sci-fi and horror soundtracks, and multifarious other influences which put these guys in a world of their own.

Besides bringing new bands to my attention, I've found the Archives is getting me to explore bands I'd previously dismissed or never gotten around to checking out. In the past couple of months I've become a Virgin Steele fan, after getting their Marriage of Heaven and Hell - Parts One & Two and Invictus reissues. Part One has a sound more befitting of the 80s, with its flashy but tasteful riffage and superb vocal melodies. Invictus gets into a more pompous, progressive territory with lots of Manowar similarities. I love hearing evolution, and just between those two albums, Virgin Steele had developed a lot. I've actually been putting off listening to Part Two, because the first part was so good, I don't know how the second one could live up to it.

One band that somehow flew under my radar completely until maybe four years ago is Cathedral. I've since amassed most of their discography (I'm bad at completing them) and consider them one of my favorites. Only wish I had seen them live!

^ Actually, part two is their best album!

With all respect to Part Two and the other 90s VS albums....Marriage 1 for life!

Also, fuck yeah to Seasons of the Wolf - keep the hype train going till their new album finally comes out!

I discovered my favorite metal album, Jag Panzer's Ample Destruction, here back in 2007, so I'll say that one. Great find.

I don't like those music news sites, so just about everything metal I listen to was found on the forums or through similar artists.

I will say that whoever is running the Facebook page is doing an amazing job. Amazing recommendations over there for days.

Nokturnal Mortum, Graveland, Peste Noire, and Virgin Steele are probably the best bands I've found through this site. Then again, there are probably too many to list for me.

This song reminds me of the album "Death" by Thy Serpent for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3MEOmIEkts .

I'll probably add a lot more to this thread as most of my non-electronic music collection is based on recommendations from this site, with Agalloch and Neurotech and Potentiam's "Years in the Shadows" and Ereb Altor - By Honour and Estatic Fear and also adding Thy Catafalque. There's just so many.

I have discovered many bands through this site. Most recent fav is Anhedonist. I was listening to Ataraxie and Imindain split which led to Imindain's page and I found Anhedonist in similar artists. Fucking awesome band

Most of the time on metal blogspots, I'll see an album leak then quickly do a cross reference of Amazon/YouTube/Metal-Archives to see if it would be worth downloading. I've found so much stuff on Amazon's "Customers who bought this also bought this" feature for all styles of music.

It was not until last night that I remembered I found out about Jute Gyte here in rec. central, around the time that Discontinuities was released.

Definitely one of the better things I've stumbled upon here. In that relatively short time, I've practically inhaled all his bandcamp releases, along with a few additional things not available there. Really cool music!

Some of my most played albums and bands were discovered thanks to this site. To name a few: Pagan Altar, Slough Feg, Manilla Road, Root, Ningen-Isu...
For extreme metal, to which I barely listen but sometimes I'm in the mood for it, I found here about Dark Millennium and Atheist.
Most of the finds are by the reviewers that I like to follow their past reviews, but in this board there were some great finds too.

Excoriate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWLFxLcxB2A

I've found so many great bands on this site. Whether it was using the similar artists tab, the recommendation forum or someone creating a topic about a band I hadn't heard of. This site has really helped me discover bands that I would have otherwise never heard of. The reviews for albums have also helped a lot to get an idea of what to expect.
Bands that I've discovered are: Incantation, Drawn and Quartered, Bolt Thrower, Neuraxis, Hideous Divinity, Unbirth, Odious Mortem, Dead Congregation, Funebrarum, Disma and many more.

The best stuff I found here is: Ambush (Växjö, Sweden), Blazon Stone (Sweden), Natur (USA), Ancient Empire (USA), Primalfrost (Canada), Joni Teppo (Finland), Raven (England), Bane (Serbia). I may have left something out, keeping track is not easy. For Ambush, I put both the city and the country, since there is another Ambush, also from Sweden, but from Kolsva (I'm yet to check them out).

I could also mention a Japanese guitarist Gentaro Satomura. It's funny, the only thing I did for him was choose "advanced search" option, type "shred" in the genre field, choose Japan in the country field and click "search". There was a whole list of musicians, but I don't know why of all people I chose Gentaro Satomura, but it turned out to be a good idea, since I do enjoy his (solo) material.

I have to say Satan's Host, listening to that band is like taking drugs. Also Manilla Road and Fates Warning are two other favorites I found on here, I know I found a lot more on this site, just can't remember them right now.