Metal with good sound - is there any?

[Aries]

I like both metal music and good sound/recording. Unfortunately they do not seem to go hand in hand and this is a challenge especially when it comes to headphones. What bands you have you find to sound good? Small part I have already find:

Metallica - good in general
Tool - good
Ghost - good
Bloodred Hourglass - good
Riverside - good (ok, I know it is not metal)
???

 

[napfkuchen]

Metal is a pretty broad genre description... Since the stereo panorama is often quite dense, it places quite high demands on recording, mixing, and playback.
Perhaps you'd like to take a listen here:
Novelists
August Burns Red
Voyager

Metal music is dominated by distorted guitars, which often makes it sound a bit "washed out" to me. It's often the quieter sections, where you can concentrate on the individual instruments, that I like the most in terms of sound. Riverside is more progressive rock. Then you'll probably like Porcupine Tree, too, and you should keep an eye out for productions by Steven Wilson or his solo music (unfortunately, not my cup of tea). Additionally, the overall sound is a bit brighter and less powerful than synth-heavy music, for example:
Original
Synth Cover

I've also been listening to many genres with spatial audio recently, but the sound has never convinced me with metal bands. I definitely don't listen to this genre for its great sound. If anyone has further recommendations I would be very interested (including spatial audio).

 

[sigbergaudio]

Interesting you should ask, I'm actually working on a Sigberg Audio playlist with that exact topic at the moment. Perhaps I can share it early here, and you guys can help me fill it up. It currently has 51 songs, I'm aming for 100.

 

[napfkuchen]

@sigbergaudio : Unfortunately, all Nightwish singers have to compete with Tarja.

Wishmaster

Nightwish · Wishmaster · Song · 2000

open.spotify.com

 

[Audionaut]

Ich strebe nach 100

Tool > Pneuma, wings for Marie

Queensrÿche > Empire

Oomph! > Du spielst Gott

Rammstein > Sonne, Engel

 

[GD Fan]

Where does compression of the dynamic range fit in this equation? There's plenty of well-recorded stuff out there that's badly compressed, unfortunately. Metallica is still guilty of it all these years after the Death Magnetic debacle. Megadeth, Volbeat and many others likewise.

 

[whereisbrian]

I like both metal music and good sound/recording. Unfortunately they do not seem to go hand in hand and this is a challenge especially when it comes to headphones. What bands you have you find to sound good? Small part I have already find:

Metallica - good in general
Tool - good
Ghost - good
Bloodred Hourglass - good
Riverside - good (ok, I know it is not metal)
???

You can try Opeth. And also Meshuggah.

 

[danadam]

Tiamat - Wildhoney

 

[beeface]

The problem with metal is the music!!

 

[MRC01]

Do you consider The Hu to be metal? I have 2 of their albums (Gereg & Rumble of Thunder) and both have great sonics - at least for the genre.

 

[Timcognito]

I like these guys from Turkey, a little different, songs start slow, build and wailing guitars in the last half.

Maslak Halayı

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

www.youtube.com

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Angry Metal-Fi Archives - Angry Metal Guy

www.angrymetalguy.com

 

[whereisbrian]

The problem with metal is the music!!

It's not really a problem. I listen to all styles of music: metal, jazz, free jazz, punk, post punk, bel canto, Indian ragas, Japanese rock, noise, reggae, dub, high life, trip hop, house music, techno, symphonies, English folk, Irish folk, American country, krautrock, hip hop...

 

[sam_adams]

Brutal.

 

[Middle Earth]

Apparently soft metal is de rigueur
No Clean Vocals
But for soft metal fans the best album so far in 2025 is
Messa’s new album The Spin has clean female vocals and is well produced

 

[sigbergaudio]

Do you consider The Hu to be metal? I have 2 of their albums (Gereg & Rumble of Thunder) and both have great sonics - at least for the genre.

Not sure how to characterise that, never heard the band before, but the sound was indeed pretty decent, I added one of the tracks. Thanks!

 

[sigbergaudio]

Where does compression of the dynamic range fit in this equation? There's plenty of well-recorded stuff out there that's badly compressed, unfortunately. Metallica is still guilty of it all these years after the Death Magnetic debacle. Megadeth, Volbeat and many others likewise.

It's not ideal, but it can sound good despite compressed dynamic range (not always of course) if there's good tonality, good separation of instruments, etc.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Apparently soft metal is de rigueur
No Clean Vocals
But for soft metal fans the best album so far in 2025 is
Messa’s new album The Spin has clean female vocals and is well produced View attachment 454636

I'm not a big fan of growling vocals myself.

The Spin had a strange vocal mix, the vocals are waaay back in the mix.

 

[obsessive9119]

I mostly listen to metal, but TBH I care more about music than sound quality.

That said, Blood Incantation’s album Absolute Elsewhere from last year sounded pretty good to me. I have the opening track on the playlist I use to demo gear and EQ settings - I find it a good way to tell if the system an handle something loud and complex. Often I’ve found that something that sounds good with (say) female vocals or electro, and even Metallica, falls apart with heavier more complex metal. However something that handles metal usually sounds good with everything else.

 

[Fidji]

Issue with metal is that most of what is artistically relevant is more than 20 years old.[similar with jazz, but there we talk 50 years].

But if we talk about sound - I would add some Gojira stuff. One of better modern takes on metal. Green Carnation - Leaves of yesteryear is not too annoying.

Also as inspiration - I am pleasantly surprised by sheer amount of metal music being available in Dolby Atmos. Atmos mixes usually bring couple of levels higher sound quality [assuming your MCH setup is half-competent]. Stereo is dead ;-) .