Top-10 Most Underrated Or Overlooked: Hard Rock & Metal Bands

I'm launching a new to-be-recurring series here today. A classic top-10 most underrated list. Not very original perhaps, but opinions will always differ - making every list personal and unique. With that said, this list will be my personal opinion, and not some official "agree with this list, now" bullshit, or whatever.

This is purely for entertainment purpose, but hey, maybe you guys will find yourself agreeing with me, and maybe you'll even find something new. //J.

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Thing: Band / Status: Underrated or overlooked
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10. Saxon (UK) - Underrated

Although they are well-known in the metal community, I always felt that they were overshadowed by bands like Iron Maiden and particularly Judas Priest, with their reminiscent biker sound. Sure, Saxon came along a few years after Priest, but at the time (late 70's) Priest hadn't quite yet gone into that more-straight-forward style metal they introduced on "British Steel", and also maintained for several albums to come after that one.

Saxon did mostly focus on that ride-motorcycles-on-the-highway heavy metal sound, with lyrics either focusing on those kind of things, or medieval stuff. Vocalist Biff Byford has also got a very distinctive voice which is very nice and suitable for the band's sound. To my ears, they were a very good band (and remains so to this day). It's very sad that people didn't acknowledge them as much as Maiden or Priest, but I guess that Saxon still was luckier success-wise than bands like, say, Angel Witch or Tygers Of Pan Tang.
 

9. Strapping Young Lad (Can) - Both

Okey, so Devin Townsend is pretty well-known these days and has a strong and loyal fan-base. He might not be a superstar, but at least in the metal community he is very well appreciated. But that doesn't necessarily go for all of his many projects that he's done over the years. SYL was a most underground band when they released their debut "Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing" back in 1995, which infamously sold like 15 copies in its first week of release, literally.

In 1997 Townsend and SYL returned with "City", an excellent record that remains my favorite Townsend work to this day. But the sound sure doesn't appeal to everyone, certainly not people who are not into metal. Being rather extreme industrial-style metal, there has rarely been a record more genuinely pissed off-sounding than that one. SYL would release three more full-length albums during the 2000's, all of which are good albums, with especially 2005's "Alien" being another masterpiece. But I guess people were more into the radio-friendlier bands such as Fear Factory, Rob Zombie or Marilyn Manson.
 

8. Crimson Glory (US) - Overlooked

These guys had it all - music, production, vocalist, label, etc. Something went wrong along the way, however, with possibly the record label (Roadrunner Records) being right on paper, but not in practice? They did two albums during the 80's both of which sounded great, and they had an amazing vocalist in the late Midnight (yes, that's simply what he called himself). Truth to be told, I even think he's my favorite power/progressive metal singer of all time. Halford, Kiske, Tate... Non of them beats Midnight in my opinion.

Whatever fans they managed to get seemed to be very much into the band, as their first two works are generally hailed as masterpieces of their sub-genre, yet still when listening to or mentioning them, no one knows what the fuck you're talking about. Strange and sad. These guys were like a mastercrafted Queensrÿche if the latter is just a novice band.
 

7. Death Angel (US) - Underrated

If you would expand the Big 4 into the Big 8 instead, Death Angel would likely enter it along with Testament, Overkill and Exodus, albeit on place 8 I guess. That just doesn't sound fair to my ears, since DA fucking wrings and torns 'em to out to shreds (any DA fan should see what I did there).

Any thrash fan are likely to be aware of their infamous debut "The Ultra-Violence" from 1987. After that one, fans are a bit divided when it comes to the quality of the band's next albums. But in latter years, I really think they were reborn. From 2010's "Relentless Retribution" and on, the band has just been on fire on every album, and today they also stand out as perhaps the best old school thrashers doing new albums. Particularly vocalist Mike Osegueda remains in great shape vocally today, much more so than any other major thrash band vocalist I can think of from the old bands.
 

6. God Forbid (US) - Overlooked

One of the bands included in the NWoAHM (New Wave of American Heavy Metal) movement, a.k.a. metalcore. These guys were great and had a pretty unique sound going on, which I personally would call a mix of Chimaira, Mastodon and thrash bands. It's a shame these guys didn't make it, but I suppose they were overshadowed by the likes of Lamb of God and all the emo shit-bands back in the 00's. They also got better by every album, with their last two being their best (and thrashiest) works to my ears.
 

5. Saigon Kick (US) - Overlooked

Although they managed to make a Gold-selling single in "Love Is On The Way" from their second album, their actual full-length albums did not do nearly as good. With that said, I guess they were potentially quite successful, but just otherwise overlooked since they came just as hair metal was becoming passé and grunge had exploded (fuck you, Nirvana).

While their sound was rooted in typical hair metal of the times, they stuck out by having unique influences and touches to their sound. They do sound like they took Skid Row's sound as a base, then spiced it up with a weirdness and poetical touch of The Doors, the joy of Jane's Addiction and the hard edge of Warrior Soul (which is another massively underrated band, btw). This stuff was experimental hair metal, in a way, and should've appealed to more people than it did.
 

4. Magnum (UK) - Overlooked

I absolutely love this band! If you're American, I would not even be surprised if you don't know what the hell Magnum is - I would rather expect it. It seems these guys went by mostly unnoticed in the US market throughout their entire c. 40-year-old career. They are, however, well-known and loved in the UK, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Hell, here in Sweden, hard rock fans are always fans of the band, and for obvious reason.

They started off as a rather progressive rock band in the mid-70's or so, at least that's when they recorded their debut album "Kingdom Of Madness", but it wasn't released until 1978 - in the midst of punk conquering the UK. In the early 80's they got some opening slots for Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake which gave the band some recognition in Europe, and later got somewhat of a brake in 1985 with the excellent "On A Storyteller's Night". The band at this time had become more of an AOR-oriented Queen-meets-Thin Lizzy hybrid, and they would later receive a Gold record in the UK for their "Wings Of Heaven" (1988) album, which I ironically find to be their least-good record.

They're still growing strong to this day, releasing albums regularly and maintaining a solid progressive-esque hard rock sound. Oh, and Bob Catley is a truly underrated vocalist!
 

3. Chimaira (US) - Underrated

Without a doubt the best and thus also (sadly) most underrated band of the NWoAHM movement. They did kind of scratch the surface, but could never manage to rise to the level of Lamb of God, Machine Head or Trivium. Instead, they were a little more harder in their sound, whereas their metal elements were harder than any other bands, and likewise with the hardcore elements. They also had a groove to their sound, albeit not as groovy as MH or particularly LoG. What helped Chimaira stand out from the masses were their electronical elements, where they incorporated light use of keyboards, and a lot of sound effects, for loss of a better description.

They released six albums and an EP in total, where I love anything apart from their first and last albums. Everything in between is, more or less, gold to my ears. They also constantly evolved from record to record, which is another feat I really like about them. Too bad the kids in the scene either were too emo or too mainstream to really dig into these guys other than carefully scratching their surface.
 

2. Nocturnus (US) - Overlooked

Classic Tampa death metal that is pretty well-known for fans of the genre, I suppose, but for the larger death metal crowd, they're mostly overlooked. Featuring former early-days Morbid Angel drummer Mike Browning on drums (and also vocals on the debut, "The Key"), it kind of sounds reminiscent to the likes of Morbid Angel. The difference that makes them stand out, however, are heavy use of sci-fi keyboards. That's right, Nocturnus is sci-fi influenced death metal with strong and atmospheric keyboards. These guys apparently influenced bands like Children of Bodom a lot, but these guys are a lot better in my opinion.

Their career was ultimately rather shortlived, only lasting two albums and an EP before splitting in 1993 or so. Tensions arose within the band, particularly between main-man Mike Browning and the others, leading them to infamously go behind his back, acquiring the rights to the band name and all, and later firing him from the band he himself founded. Total dick mode if you ask me, but maybe the guy (Browning) was an ass, I don't know. Still, that's a fucking dick move. However, the remaining band did eventually reunite and release another album in 2000 called "Ethereal Tomb", but I don't really like that one at all. Biggest reason for it? Mike Browning's missing, and so is the original (good) sound with him.
 

1. Mordred (US) - Overlooked

Number one this time around is none other than the truly massively overlooked band Mordred. Hailing from the San Fransisco bay area, they started out as some kind of true heavy metal band, like Manowar or whatever. At least that's the impression I've got from what I've heard and seen. Later, however, they did some line-up changes and voila - it was 1989 and thrash metal was at its peak. But Mordred wasn't just a thrash band all of a sudden. On the rise was also funk metal, with Red Hot Chili Peppers popularizing the sound, which in 1989 would also be further popularized by Faith No More.

Mordred made a distinctive sound for themselves by incorporating bay area-thrash with funk metal. A real nice mix if you ask me, as it gives the sound this groovy feeling while also being fast, hard and intense. However, the band's debut was more of a pure thrash album which experimented with funk on a few tracks. It wasn't until 1991's excellent "In This Life" that the band really incorporated funk fully into their sound, and boy did it sound cool!

Like too many other bands at the time, however, the band had suddenly launched its sound the midst of the grunge outbreak (once again, fuck you Nirvana). Sure, Faith No More was huge at the time (though they sounded like a lot of other styles besides just funk) and RHCP would become massively popular with "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", but still Mordred went by mostly unnoticed. Maybe their thrash elements were their death sentence, as that sub-genre was pretty much passé at the time.

They would go on to release a great EP in 1992, and one last full-length in 1994 featuring a new vocalist. I never listened too much to that album, though. It just wasn't the same for me without their "classic" singer Scott Holderby's nasal rapping and thrash rambling. He's quite the frontman, so... Anyway, as of 2016 (or '15 at least), the band was once again active and due for an EP release. This, however, still remains unreleased as of right now, and I haven't heard anything in a long time now.

Top-10 Best NWoAHM / Metalcore / 2000's Metal Bands

YO:es! I hope y'all doin' alright. I was going through a regular music listening session and thought I'd a list of my ten favorite NWoAHM (New Wave of American Heavy Metal) bands since I've never done that. Simple as that. Now, for those of y'all who don't know, the NWoAHM movement was the metal wave that came in the early 2000's, a.k.a. metalcore (as most people know it) and overall modern and newer metal bands.

These likes will be from the 2000-2010 scene (as there's a huge movement of so called Deathcore going on these days, rather than ol' metalcore), and it does NOT necessarily have to come from the USA. I'm not really a huge fan of the genre as whole compared to, let's say death metal, but there are a bunch of bands that are pretty fuckin' rad, so check this list out, alright?!

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10. The Browning

First one out to kick off this list is The Browning. They're an English band, at least I believe so (not 100 % sure) and they currently have two albums under their belt. Besides having a rather...shitty name, which could be easy to make fun of for elitists, they're pretty unique as far as their sound goes: combining electronic music with groovy death metal stuff. They're even signed to the old death metal label Earache.

Album(s) to check out: all of them (pretty much the same deal).

9. Austrian Death Machine

Some of you might say, "what? An Austrian industrial, ehm, death metal band?", but no. As some others of you probably know, this is Tim Lambesis (of As I Lay Dying fame) side project based around all the amazing quotes and movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The sound is pretty laden with thrash, but is probably still more accurately described as thrashy metalcore for the purists. I placed 'em as number nine since the music is not actually THAT good or original, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger themes are fucking awesome and will sure trigger some laughing. This is now on hold though, since the bad boy ex-christian Timmy tried to kill his wife and now most likely receives lots of wood in prison.

Album(s) to check out: "Total Brutal" for music, "Double Brutal" for the themes.

8. Mutiny Within

I like to relate this band's situation to that of all the many glam bands in 1990, just when grunge was right around the corner. These boys unleashed their debut in 2010 just as metalcore was more or less on a steady decline, and the current and still strong retro wave of metal was picking up speed. I loved their self-titled debut and its progressive influences along with some 80's style shredding and power metal vocals.

Unfortunately, they probably came too late and went by mostly unnoticed. They also had shitloads of label troubles and got dropped, disbanded, reformed, put out another album, but I just don't quite like it. It's missing all the essential cores that the debut has, so these days, after hearing how their sophomore album turned out, Mutiny Within could've just remained disbanded for me and left that one debut album to its legacy.

Album(s) to check out: S/T (Mutiny Within)

7. Machine Head

It's up for debate whether or not they should be included or not. They were around in the 90's already, and were well known back then already as well. While I also like their 90's stuff more, they still put out some great albums later on as well, and one of those albums played a very large role in the metalcore movement in the late 00's. While they always had a signature sound, they also constantly progresses and do something new, for better or worse. Personally, I just don't think they ever matched their hardcore-furious groove metal they put out in the 90's, but their post-90's stuff goes from some rather bad to some pretty awesome albums anyway.

Album(s) to check out: "The Blackening", "Burn My Eyes" (90's album, though)

6. God Forbid

A massively underrated band of the 2000's metal scene. God Forbid is another band that was really good, melodic, heavy and aggressive in a nice mix. Their use of multi-vocals also made them sound a bit like Mastodon, which in book is a very cool thing. I would rate them higher than Trivium judging by the albums mentioned below, but unfortunately God Forbid made some not-nearly-as-good albums early on in their career.

Album(s) to check out: "Gone Forever", "Earthsblood", "Equilibrium".

5. Trivium

This band is probably the closest thing to a Metallica type-band in this bunch. They share several similarities as far as music, vocals and album progression goes. Their fan base is pretty torn apart because of this, though maybe in even more camps than Metallica's fan base. Some fans love their early stuff where they looked emo, some people like their middle stuff which was a lot thrashier, and some like their more recent stuff.

I'm not really a regular fan of theirs - I love their thrash stuff, but I do in fact like one of their more recent works a lot as well, though most fans bash it as their shittiest album. I just think that they can be really fucking good when they head into certain styles of metal, but not everything they've done has suited my taste. Yet, their good stuff is so good it puts 'em in the top-5 on my list.

Album(s) to check out: "Shogun", "The Crusade", "Vengeance Falls".

4. Mastodon

Just a bit like Trivium, Mastodon tend to be a roller-coaster when it comes to music. While I still dislike to describe them as that, because it's not really true, I have to admit that I'm less fond/have a harder time listening to some of their stuff than others. Their earlier stuff, particularly their debut, are not-as-interesting to me as their later stuff. While their most recent stuff is a lot more commercial though, I still fucking like it a lot. But Mastodon's finest work is to be found in their middle era.

Album(s) to check out: "Crack The Skye", "The Hunter", "Leviathan".

3. Lamb of God


These guys don't really need a further explanation. If you don't know, then you're either just a fucking poseur or very late to the party.

Album(s) to check out: "Wrath", "VII: Sturm Und Drang", "As The Palaces Burn".

2. DevilDriver

Out of the bands in this list, this one took the longest for me to "understand". I had some hard times getting into their music before most of the other bands, but it wasn't because it was bad or weird or anything. Now I do know why that was, however. DD has this unique kind of guitar vibe/sound that is pretty special. It really forms their sound to what it is, and I just simply wasn't familiar with anything quite like it before, so I didn't understand their music.

Like so many other bands, though, DD has a fan base where people tend to bash some of their more recent albums, while really favoring their early stuff. I think they're actually fucking good all-around - they progress constantly, but it's always DD and at least some interesting stuff to be found on albums. Guitar-wise, when it comes to harmonic shit, DD takes the cream of the crop in this list. I just love their more clean and ballad-esque stuff.

Album(s) to check out: "The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand", "Pray For Villains", "Winter Kills".

1. Chimaira

And so comes #1 - Chimaira, my favorite band of the genre known as either metalcore or NWoAHM. What I truly love about these guys is the bad-ass sound they've got goin' on, and the riffing is fucking hard, sometimes fast and just killer most of the times. The drumming, particularly that of Andols Herrick, is fucking awesome as well - he knows exactly how to put in all the good shite.

The most important thing that makes Chimaira extra special for me is their electronic department. They use quite a lot of atmospheric electronic effects and sounds to enhance their sound, and it also truly pays off. Compared to so many other bands in the genre, it just adds so much more to the music, and that's all what I'm here for. Chimaira is the Faith No More or Type O Negative or Samael or whatever of metalcore to me. I'm not gonna expand on it any further, but they're just exactly my kind of thing.

Album(s) to check out: "The Infection", "Chimaira", "The Impossibility Of Reason".

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BONUS! Worthy of mention but didn't make the list:

• Himsa

Don't know 'em good enough. Only liked their last album so far, but that is a rather good one though.

• Bleed The Sky

Their debut is a solid album but I didn't like their second and last one at all. Also, they sound a bit too much like a Chimaira clone, which is what partially make their debut likable to me.

• Bleeding Through

I actually like these guys quite a lot, but I simply don't have a good enough look into all of their albums and stuff, so I can't do an honest judgment as a whole. Killer goth vibe to groovy hardcore metal!

• DragonForce

Well, I love their music to be honest, which might come as a surprise to many, "how can anyone like DragonForce?". There are those of us who actually do. However, as they play extreme power metal, I didn't really think the fitted in amongst these other bands, so I decided not to include them. Otherwise they would get a rather high position on this list, but they're too different from the rest of these "hardcore metal" bands, so they will have to do with a "worthy of mention". They certainly are.

• Amon Amarth

 Just like the case with DragonForce, these fellow kinsmen of mine or one of the hugest metal bands of the last and current decade, and I fucking love 'em too. They've got some of the truly most epic songs ever. But while they're often put together with the other bands in this list, they are in fact not metalcore (or whatever) but melodic death metal, so because of that fact I won't place them on this particular list, other than giving them a worthy mention.