I really can’t say I’ve enjoyed anything “new”, as in contemporary, for the last 10 years maybe. Pretty much everyone and everything sounds very homogeneous to me, even in genres (I use this term loosely) that I tend to like. Every band that calls itself “punk” or “hardcore” or whatever these days sounds like a bad Rise Against cover band, and every metal band tries to sound like Metallica or they include some very odd atmospheric/ambient type stuff, which isn’t always a bad thing but in my opinion just doesn’t work well here.
I do, however, have quite a collection of older music that I play a lot. These are mostly bands who were around in the 90s, into the early 2000s…some of them are still around, but they don’t put out anything new or, if they do, it’s just sort of a rehashed take on something old, like an electronic/ambient version of an older album. Ugh.
In my opinion, music has really for the most part just sucked since around 2005-ish. Like with the internet, it’s so easy for bands to find each other and I think that’s led to everyone being influenced by the same stuff and just sounding so similar. I find it difficult to discover anything with even a little bit of creativity or originality now…
Anyway, bands (and albums) that get heavy rotation from me:
Opeth:
- Orchid
- Morningrise
- My Arms, Your Hearse
- Still Life
- Blackwater Park (to a lesser extent)
- Damnation/Deliverance (again, to a lesser extent)
- Ghost Reveries (every now and then)
Katatonia
- Jhva Elohim Meth EP
- Dance of December Souls
- Brave Murder Day
- For Funerals to Come
- Sounds of Decay
- Discouraged Ones
- Tonight’s Decision
- Viva Emptiness (this is a fantastic death rock/goth rock influenced album with clean vox, if you’re usually not into metal I highly recommend it)
- The Great Cold Distance (every now and then)
Paradise Lost
- Icon
- Draconian Times (this has got to be one of my top 5 favorite non-AFI albums, it gives me feelings similar to Sing the Sorrow, absolutely brilliant album)
- The Last Time EP
- Forever Failure
- Paradise Lost (every now and then)
Satyricon
- Dark Medieval Times
- The Shadowthrone
- Nemesis Divina
That’s probably the stuff I listen to most often. I dig a lot of older European metal, but I haven’t explored specific albums from these bands to specify which ones I really like, and/or I only enjoy specific songs from specific albums. Mayhem, from a long time ago when they still had Dead as vocalist, is still fantastic. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is probably my favorite album from them because of his lyrics, even though he’d already passed away at that time. And of course Live in Leipzig despite the recording quality. Darkthrone is also sort of obligatory, I think A Blaze in the Northern Sky is their best work. Dark Funeral is pretty great too, their 2016 release is the only album I actually really enjoyed from anyone since maybe 2008 or so lol. Sounds like it was written 20 years ago with superior sound quality. I like 1349 because I really love their drummer (also plays in Satyricon), although I’ve only relatively recently begun really listening to their LPs. Eh…I’ve listened to folk metal sometimes (Finntroll, Turisas, Korpiklaani, Manegarm, Moonsorrow, Eluveitie, etc.), I’ve really got to be in specific mood to listen to these bands.
Otherwise, the Clash, the Misfits, Social Distortion, early Die Toten Hosen…I have a lot of punk rock from the 70s through the 90s on my phone, I used to listen to a lot of bands a long time ago, too many to list but every now and then I feel like listening to them. Some classic/thrash metal (Black Sabbath/Dio, Iron Maiden, Death)…Oh I also quite like Suicidal Tendencies…eh…the Cure (Wish)…
I feel like this is getting super long and I really need to go to work lol. I’m sure I’ll revisit this thread in the future.