How much do you judge people based on their taste in music?

None of this matters if it sounds ****. Whether it sounds good or not always comes above technicalities and things like that

Well obviously. I was just disputing a previous claim that there is no music that can compare to classical in terms of complexity. I don't think thats true at all.

Calling metal simplistic because they often use variations of the verse chorus structure if like calling Seamus Heaney simplistic because he still writes in metric stanzas rather than free verse. For an intelligence composer, structure can be liberating.

Huh, I never thought I'd see Kayo Dot mentioned on TSR...Hold on a minute, you're from York?! Which school do you attend?

Bootham School

No I don't, mainly because I've grown up to a sufficient extent to realise that music elitism is one of the worst kinds of dick measuring in existence and people who boast about the size of their CD collections are usually some of the most obnoxious people you will ever meet.

My two cents.

You so should've said my 50 cents

You aren't implyig that I would sink to such a low level of humanity that I would listen to such tripe???

It was meant to confuse you . I'm kidding mate, I want YOU yes, YOU Drunk Punx to recommend some Black Metal bands with the bands that you know . Sorry about the confusion I was trying to watch Come Dine with Me Christmas Special while I was typing my post . I mainly listen to Death, Thrash, Groove and Prog Metal but I want to expand my field of Black Metal; I first heard of Agalloch due to the fact the band was being reviewed by one of my favourite Youtubers (TheNeedleDrop), I listened to Agalloch and I was amazed . Have a good day , I have to go into town to complete my Christmas shopping, it's going to be a ****ing nightmare .

Really? Links or it didn't happen!

No, seriously - I've never seen that, although I have seen the trve black metallers and the thrashers on the wild, on their own.

What...is... that...

What I listen to is mainly DSBM (Depressive Suicidal Black Metal) as opposed to traditional black metal. So bands like:

Sterbend
Nyktalgia
Nocturnal Depression
Make A Change... Kill Yourself
...
Lamentations Of The Ashen
Abyssic Hate
Trist
Hypothermia
Life Is Pain
Life Neglected
Kyla
Canis Dirus (which are DSBM to an extent)
ColdWorld
Exitus Letalis
Forgotten Tomb
Any of Morbid's bands (not the Morbid from Forgotten Tomb, but the one from Happy Days, Hanging Garden, etc. Can find more bands of his by typing Happy Days into the Metal Archives and looking at what other bands he's been in. Most of those are quite heavily slated for being "nothing new" in the DSBM genre, but I don't really give a toss what other people think)
Exiled From Light
Winds Of Sorrow
When Mine Eyes Blacken
Gris
Miserere Luminis
Monarque
Dead And Forgotten
Shining (the Swedish Shining, not the Norwegian one)
Sombres Forêts
Silencer
Thy Light
Todeskult
Svedhous
Wigrid
Wehmut
Würm

Then there's the "not so DSBM bands" like:
Alcest
Amesoeurs
Mortifera
Peste Noire
Darkestrah
Drudkh
An Autumn For Crippled Children
I Shalt Become
Lantlôs
Nachtmystium
Sacrificia Mortuorum (I went through a phase where I listened to their "Maturum Est" album pretty much non-stop for ages)
Sólstafir
Velvet Cacoon (mostly Ambient/Dark Ambient material, but good BM nonetheless)
Wolves In The Throne Room
Pensées Nocturnes (it's both depressive and not, I'll let you be the judge of it)
Fen
Winterfylleth
Altar Of Plagues

Funeral Doom:
Elysian Blaze
Esoteric
Senthil
Bosque
Nortt
Wormphlegm
(Top two are heavily recommended, especially Elysian Blaze for the depressive side of them. Esoteric for the more typical Funeral Doom-y aspects).

Should be enough to get you started

Edit: All those bands with full discographies can be found on the Metal-Archives site. Worth checking through any members old bands/other projects too for any other gems you happen across.

Holy **** that is a lot of Black Metal :B, thank man . I'll listen to as much as I can however I've got some bands/musicians to listen to at the moment go through at the moment (I don't know whether you'll like it): Barenaked Ladies (Alternative Rock), Dimmu Borgir (Symphonic Black Metal), Burial (UK Garage/Ambient/Experimental), Johnny and Jenny (Indie Rock/Folk), James Blake (Dubstep/Ambient) and Psyche Origami (Hip Hop). Your avatar brings back so many memories :') hope you had a wonderful day.

I never really got on with Demon Burger. There was just something about them that didn't sit right with me for some reason. Barenaked Ladies are alright (only heard the odd song here or there), but I'm not into any of the other genres at all.

This guy has quite a bit of DSBM on his profile as well:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cradle15987#p/u/6/31Z6i9HKKGY

Edit: I missed Bann off of the "not so DSBM" list
Bann are very good at mixing black metal with classical influences.

Ha, trying to sneak in a Dethklok reference I see. I'm watching you carefully . You should try some of the other genres, I know music is subjective but hell the genres I reccomended are good. Though for hip hop you might want to go for some of the more underground stuff. If you want me to reccomend some hip hop I'll be happy to .

I listened to Jurassic 5 once... they weren't too bad. Listened to some of The RZA's stuff because he done the soundtrack for Afro Samurai

Nah man, they were being called Demon Burger waaaaay back before Dethklok. I think someone burnt me a Dethklok album ages ago. No idea where it's got to though.

Great start on the Hip Hop front I must say , you've made good choices!
In terms of Hip Hop I'd reccomend:
Jedi Mind Tricks
Jus Allah
Kid Cudi
Necro (he used to be the guitarist for Death Metal band Injustice)
Nas (Illmatic is in my top ten albums of all time)
Flying Lotus (instrumental)
Esham
Nosaj Thing (instrumental)
Nujabes
UGK
Jehst
Klashnekoff
Immortal Technique
Lowkey
MF Doom
Sage Francis
Eminem (stay away from Encore and some songs on Recovery)
Cage
Snoop Dogg (older stuff certainly)
Jay Z (Reasonable Doubt = Brilliant)
Atmosphere
P.O.S
Zion I
Roots Manuva
MF Grimm
Wu Tang Clan
U God
RZA
GZA
Kool G Rap
KRS One
Tupac Shakur
Notorious B.I.G
N.W.A
Dr Dre
Ice Cube
DMX (his older stuff was very good.)
Run DMC
Busta Rhymes (older material is very good)
J Dilla (instrumental)
Slum Village
Yak Ballz
Alchemist
Black Milk
Royce Da 59'
50 Cent (Power of The Dollar and Get Rich or Die Trying are good albums, 50's mainstream stuff is utter ****e.)

You gave me Black Metal I provided Hip Hop, a stark contrast I know but both genres are brilliant, enjoy! Also in regards to Afro Samurai is it any good? My friend told me about it however I couldn't be arsed to watch it at the time, however I'm always open to knew programmes. Peace.

Man, Afro Samurai is the ****! Ninja Ninja has got to be the best character, purely for some of the stuff he comes out with. And he's voiced by Samuel L Jackson Plus there's bewbs in it

Yeah, I agree with you in that Mahler's music is epically more complex than pretty much anything else... scoring such complex music for a thousand people over a duration of 1.5 hours is a fairly impressive achievement, and I'll willingly admit that even Mikael Akerfeldt probably couldn't pull it off :P

But at the same time, Opeth and Dream Theater etc. are harmonically and texturally sophisticated. I mean, you say you like DT, but you still seem to label them with the clichéd stereotype that they just show off- which, if you listen to the full scope of their work, is simply not true. They also use plenty of nice unorthodox, original chord sequences and time signatures - much like Mahler (that's not to say that their music bears the same level of ingenuity...), which alone differentiates them from standard chart music a lot more than they're differentiated from Mahler. Chart music is intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus 99% of the time, and is almost always in 4-4. Musically, therefore, this is far inferior to the likes of Opeth and Dream Theater who craft varied, dynamically complex 20-minute epics, with plenty of emotion (at least for me anyway). The scope of the music from this respect is therefore far closer to Mahler.

Also, thematically, something like Opeth is far, far closer to Mahler than it is to chart music - both have themes which are heavily linked to death and despair; and the same is also often true of Dream Theater. Conversely, most chart music revolves around superficial crap, with standard songs being annoyingly catchy, unrealistically happy tunes with irrelevant lyrics; and the most depressing music being a 3-chord acoustic song about unrequited 'love'. *cough*Jamesblunt*cough*. Although Mahler also deals with this, he does it in a sophisticated, philosophical way. Also, Opeth is closer to Mahler in that it actually deals with relevant material (i.e., death and depression); and takes a much more philosophical view on such matters than any chart music would ever be able to.

But yes, I agree that the complexity and scope of 1000 people performing simultaneously is far greater than what can possibly be achieved with a 5-piece band, even when combined with a backing orchestra. Heh.

Bewbs you say? Samuel L Jackson you say? I'm going to have myself a field day . I'll watch it ASAP, I'm trying to get through series 1 - 7 of Peep Show, it's so ****ing hilarious you'll enjoy it.