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…

Amorphis – “Towards and Against “
From the album: Silent Waters

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
“Towards and Against” from Amorphis’ 2007 album Silent Waters is undoubtedly one badass, rocking track. Starting slow and with lead singer Tomi Joutsen’s soothing vocals, the full-fledged kick in the nuts when the song starts cranking just moments later is a pleasant, headbang-inducing surprise. Jousten provides some seriously vicious death metal growls as the rest of the Amorphis crew provides a good dose of heavy fucking metal.

Opeth – “The Grand Conjuration”
From the album: Ghost Reveries

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
From the first moment to the last, “The Grand Conjuration” cannot be described as anything but one huge, angry metal-to-the-bone song. Progressive death metal giants Opeth have always been a band to expand on their sound and create music of epic, sprawling proportions, and this song is no different. One of my favorite tracks off their 2005 album, Ghost Reveries, this song is 10 and a half minutes of creative and haunting guitar licks, intense drumming and a mix of ominous to absolutely brutal vocals as provided by band mainman, Mikael Akerfeldt.

Hypocrisy – “Fearless”
From the album: Virus

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
Holy shit, this song rocks. There’s little more that can be said about this track, or nearly anything Sweden’s Hypocrisy manages to crank out. I have to say I’m impressed and pretty partial to almost everything band mainman Peter Tägtgren, who in the case of Hypocrisy’s 2005 album, Virus, also served as producer and mixer, cranks out. I’m a huge fan of Peter’s sideband, Pain (which I’m sure will be featured in this series at some point), though Hypocrisy has always had a more full-on balls-crushing metal quality to them. An excellent example of what draws me to the brutality of this band is the song “Fearless”. It’s heavy as hell while still staying catchy and memorable.