Like, I love thrash/death/heavy metal music, but I could mostly do without the vocals. Is there a genre of music (or specific bands) I should look for?

I’m a big fan of Arcturus, Children of Bodom, etc, but I prefer the instrumentals way more than the singing.

So, is there a specific genre for that?

Edit: Imagine Silent Night, Bodom Night but without lyrics. It’s not that I dislike the vocals; would just appreciate the track more without them. It’s like they’re just in the way of what I want to hear.

Edit 2: Thanks, everyone. I have heard of Animals as Leaders but am not super familiar with them. Will definitely check them out as well as the other recommendations.

  • LordGimp@lemm.ee
    5·
    14 hours ago

    So there’s a lot of ways you can go with this. You can definitely find instrumentals of death metal bands, but you can also try something new.

    Haggard is one of the best in symphonic metal, and while there’s still a stitch singer, imo they’re MUCH easier to understand.

    Native Howl has slayer played by some country boys on banjo and guitar. They also do a bunch of their own stuff that sounds pretty wild. “Thrash grass” is one of their better albums and pretty accurately describes their flavor of fusion (thrash metal played in the style of bluegrass)

    Older Arch Emeny stuff is also quite good, and having a pretty lady growling at me is a novel experience. Angela gossow also shows up in metalocalypse so that’s instant bonus points

    Dethklok does pretty well at straddling the line between melodic/symphonic/death metal, and if you like the metal without Nathan explosion you can check out Brandon Small’s other stuff where he isn’t growling like a cartoon character.

    Last but certainly not least is The Lord Weird Slough Feg. Exquisite technical metal wrapped up in an 80s/90s power metal package. I simp for Slough Feg wherever I can because it’s EXCELLENT metal that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      15 hours ago

      First one is def interesting, but a little too chip tune for my taste (still cool though). Definitely liking the second one. Will check out some more of them. Thanks.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
    27·
    23 hours ago

    Just to be clear; are you wanting heavy metal music that’s only instrumental? Or are you wanting heavy metal music where the vocalist doesn’t sound like a small angry demon with a cold that just got karate chopped in the throat?

  • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
    12·
    20 hours ago

    You might like some of Haken’s heavier stuff. They’re primarily prog but they go hard, too.
    Try the album Vector and the album Virus.

    From Virus i recommend you try the song Prosthetic
    and the song Messiah complex V: Ectobius Rex
    From Vector I recommend you try the song Puzzle Box
    and the song Veil

    Their new album Fauna is really good and has a good mix of different styles which includes heavy elements as well.

    Come back if you like them I will recommend more!

    🤘 Haken! 🤘

     

    It’s also okay if you don’t like prog, i recognize it’s too different for some. lol

    • cranakis@reddthat.com
      7·
      22 hours ago

      Ok, you got my upvote because I love some Buckethead but…

      this is a deep well, you and I know it. Please give OP (and me) the “death metal without the screaming” album(s), if you know the titles. I know I have heard two at least that fit this bill exactly but haven’t found them yet. I have been searching tonight but you start listening to Buckethead and there goes the time.

    • abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world
      1·
      20 hours ago

      I was thinking this as well, add in some bands (album suggestions in parens) like epica (holographic principle), kamelot (epica/black halo), Symphony x (divine wings of tragedy), and even a band like battle beast (circus of doom) or unleash the archers (apex) and i think op will have a good time

  • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
    6·
    22 hours ago

    I am also not a fan of super growly vocals. There’s a lot of stuff I love musically but the vocals put me right off. I’d listen to bands like Opeth and Beyond the Buried and Me more often if the growls weren’t present.

    If you’re looking for metal with cleaner singing, I second the suggestions for Unleash the Archers and Nightwish. I can also recommend Blind Guardian, though the singer’s voice is polarizing. One of my favorite metal singers is John Bush from Armored Saint. He also did a few albums with Anthrax in the 90s.

    For instrumentals, I can’t recommend much aside from guitar virtuosos like Steve Vai. Occasionally bands will release instrumental versions of their songs as B-sides, bonus discs, etc. Might be worth checking into.

  • altasshet@lemmy.ca
    5·
    22 hours ago

    Not a metalhead, but I do enjoy Bongripper from time to time. Mostly instrumental stoner metal.

  • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
    5·
    23 hours ago

    I mostly listen to death-doom rather than strict death metal, but there’s a fair bit of that out there. My two faves in the genre:

    Draconian has clean female vocals alongside growled male.

    Swallow the Sun has a wide range of vocal styles, but getting increasingly cleaner pretty much every album (along with clean female vocals on a lot of tracks).

    Again, this is death-doom so a lot of the stuff will be a little slower-tempo than straight death.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    31·
    22 hours ago

    Instrumental metal is what you’d search to get where you want to be. There’s plenty of bands that don’t have vocals at all, and even more that do instrumental tracks here and there.

    Thing is, you’ll run into a pretty broad range of styles under that heading since a lot of sub genres are defined by vocals and/or lyrical content. But instrumental is a sub genre of its own. It just gets defined by the lack of vocals rather than any distinct sound like the way thrash is going to have that “thrashy” vibe.

    Edit: Animals as Leaders is pretty much the go to recommendation for instrumental metal. They run closer to prog than death, but so do most instrument only bands.