Noumena – “Prey of the Tempter”
From the album: Absence

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
Finnish melodic death metallers Noumena may not have many albums under their belt, but what they do have are chock full of kick ass riffs, memorable hooks and some of the most addictive metal tunes I’ve ever heard. These songs get stuck in your head… you’re sitting at your desk, working away on your website, and the next thing you know you’re humming a Noumena tune under your breath, absent-mindedly headbanging to yourself. I’m sure that happens to everyone, right? Right? No? Well… I don’t know… fuck off, these songs are still good.

While Noumena’s  2002 debut ‘Pride/Fall’ and their 2006 release ‘Anatomy of Life’ both contain a slew of excellent metal tunes, their 2005 album, ‘Absence’ is where the real gems lie. From the catchy-as-all-hell opening track, “The End of the Century” to the album closer, “The Great Anonymous Doom” (which, I feel I must add, is a balls-crushingly badass song title), ‘Absence’ is overflowing with rifftastically memorable tunes.

Rage – “Secrets in a Weird World”
From the album: Soundchaser

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
Rage is a band that doesn’t receive nearly as much attention as they rightly deserve. Seemingly unknown to most people outside a certain portion of the metal community, Rage has been pumping out albums pretty consistently since the mid-80’s, nearly never failing to impress with every new release. Personally, I can always count on playing a Rage album and being treating to a delightful barrage of swift-fingered guitar work & top-notch drumming fronted by the unmistakable sound of Peavy Wagner behind both the bass guitar and the microphone.

Rage’s 2003 release, ‘Soundchaser’ was one hell of a good album… one of my favorites in fact. From the ominous opener “Orgy of Destruction” and such killer tunes as “War of Worlds”, “Great Old Ones”, and the title track  through the closing 2-parter, I’ve always enjoy listening to ‘Soundchaser’. It’s extremely hard for me to pick out my favorite track from an album like this, but I felt one that stood out to me was “Secrets in a Weird World”.

The Project Hate MCMXCIX – “You Come To Me Through Hell”
From the album: The Lustrate Process

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
Oh boy oh boy! One of my favorite industrial death bands, The Project Hate, is releasing a new album next month! And wait! What’s this? A new song from that album you say?! Well fuck me sideways! Inject that awesomeness directly into my eager earballs! Pronto!

Since I first got my hands on their 2005 album, “Armageddon March Eternal (Symphonies of Slit Wrists)”, I’ve been eating up everything The Project Hate has ever written. Their fresh mix of midpaced, growl-laden death metal with electronic/industrial elements and angelic female vocals thrown in to top off the awesome makes nearly everything this band releases pure aural gold. And I’ll be damned if this new track isn’t more than up to par with anything else they’ve released. With enough twists and turns throughout the track, the near 9-minute run time never even nears the realm of “boring”. We also get treated to quite a few guest surprises throughout the song to keep us on our toes.

Avantasia – “Avantasia”
From the album: Avantasia: The Metal Opera – Part I

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
Sure, power metal has a tendency to be over the top and corny at times, but if done right it can be some of the most (for lack of a better word) powerful music ever perceived by human earholes. In 1999, Edguy frontman, Tobias Sammet, began writing the songs for what would become his Avantasia side project’s first release, 2000’s aptly titled The Metal Opera. This album contained some of the best power metal to be released in recent memory, my favorite of which happens to be the band’s self-titled track, “Avantasia”. This is power metal done right.

Samael – “Promised Land”
From the album: Solar Soul

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
After an unforgivably long break in providing your weekly unshitty music fix, the Music That Doesn’t Suck series returns with a relatively new favorite. Well, at least for me. Samael is a band that has been around for quite some time, though I wasn’t introduced to them until fairly recently. From what I can gather, over the past 20 years or so Samael has been updating their style to a more electronic / industrial sound, slowly moving away from their black metal beginnings. I for one enjoy their current sound, so I have no complaints… though I’m sure their fans of old are loosing their shit as most diehard fans of bands going through a genre shift do. Understandable, though ultimately pointless… this album kicks ass.

Scar Symmetry – “The Kaleidoscope God “
From the album: Pitch Black Progress

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
When it comes to the death/clean combo singing style that accompanies many melodic death metal bands, few vocalist can hold a candle to Scar Symmetry’s Christian Älvestam. Though his band’s style and sound are quite reminiscent of Soilwork and many other melodeath bands past and present, in this metalhead’s humble opinion, Christian’s range of clean singing and death metal growling brings Scar Symmetry front and center. It’s almost hard to wrap your mind around the fact that it’s the same person producing the vocals on these songs. Plus the fact that they can write a heavy, catchy tune with the best of them doesn’t hurt either. My first taste of Scar Symmetry was with this album, their 2006 release Pitch Black Progress. Though it was the opening track, “The Illusionist“, that initially and almost instantly addicted me to these guys, I felt like posting something some may not have heard just yet…