I'm looking to branch out in my music tastes?

I mostly listen to metal. Death metal, power metal, any kind of metal I can get my hand on. My tastes vary within metal but I also like dubstep (Say what you will), Rap and am mostly open to other music. I like a lot of soundtracks too I guess. I am looking to listen to some really good albums outside of the metal/rock genre.

It may seem like a strange request but I want to broaden my horizons a little bit, discover something I never would have.

This is an open book, I will try anything you give me... probably. Is there any good pop music that may peak my interests in that? Suggest away.

I used to be solely into Metal; mostly Melodic Death. However working on music videos changed that.

Cold War Kids is a good place to start.

Slightly older pop music is the best way to branch out. All your current metal has been influenced by some of that, and it's like going backwards in the musical tree, then from there you can take other modern branches. But really, just go into spotify, choose a radio of any kind and go crazy. Don't be afraid to skip, but listen if you like it. You'll find stuff.

Also just listen to Ska. It's always awesome.

I listen to a lot of metal as well. Try out Gothic Country and bands like Those Poor Bastards or Sons of Perdition.

They play a unique style of old-school country/primitive americana that shares a lot of themes with some metal bands.

I don't know, are you?

Try Justin Timberlake. He's a mix of Pop, Soul, and R&B.

@CaskStrength: Those Poor Bastards sound good!

Maybe look at the early roots of metal & some of the blues/rock stuff that came out in the 70s-80s that influenced a lot of metal.

@BraveToaster said:

I don't know, are you?

Try Justin Timberlake. He's a mix of Pop, Soul, and R&B.

Go for that.

Also, If you like Dubstep, you could branch out to stuff like Drum and Base or electronic music. As a starter, you might enjoy Pendulum and Monstercat stuff.

Listen to Death Grips.

If you are into rap I can recommend ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Danny Brown.

@Subject2Change said:

I used to be solely into Metal; mostly Melodic Death. However working on music videos changed that.

Cold War Kids is a good place to start.

I agree, Cold War Kids is great! I also recommend The Dear Hunter. Most of their albums are concept albums and there's an overarching story kind of like Coheed and Cambria, but The Dear Hunter has more variety to their music. This song is probably a good starting point coming from metal because it's one of their harder songs. Overall, there music isn't very hard at all.

@UlquioKani:I mostly like G-Funk Rap :P Know of any modern rappers that do that same style or recapture it ?

@wewantsthering: Listened to some Cold War Kids, liked them will check out The Dear Hunter!

• The Essential Paul Simon

Also, his Rhythm of the Saints album is awesome.

Kenny G 80's... :) ... :D ...... :O Ha ha ha.

No? I mean, it goes perfectly with your metal.

Try classical. Chopin and Debussy are great. I find most classical annoying and boring but their piano solos are great. Also try trip-hop, massive attack's newest album is pretty awesome.

La Dispute, MeWithoutYou, Listener, Touche Amore. All some form of rock, pretty awesome bands though.

You should give Coheed and Cambria a shot if you've never listened to them before. All of their music is part of one big story (which there is a comic series of, and a feature film being worked on). They are one of my favorite bands, along with Tool and AFI.

@karoneko:Tool and coheed and cambria are among my collection :)

Love tool!

@Djnuttty said:

@wewantsthering: Listened to some Cold War Kids, liked them will check out The Dear Hunter!

Sweet. :-) Their music can get even more rock opera like. This song is a good example of that. I'm a sucker for weird music. Haha.

If you're looking for something different then how about some Orchestral Rap?

@wewantsthering: Holy Crap, The Dear Hunter sound amazing, listened to a song called 'In Cauda Venenum.'

They remind me of very early My Chemical Romance... I don't know if that's a fair comparison but I love it nonetheless!

Try Last Lights, they're punk rock. Their album 'No Past, No Present, No Future' is incredible.
When I first started broadening my horizons beyond just metal I was recommended Depeche Mode, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, MF Doom, Boris, and a whole shitload of electronic music; just check out Ed Banger Records cos' I pretty much listened to all of that and it was great. Have fun.

If any of you guys use spotify then you can add some stuff to this Giantbomb Reccomendations

You should check out TV on the Radio, they're really good. If you've watched Breaking Bad then you might recognise this song.

I'm going to presume you like Tool (if not, check out 10,000 Days right now!), so you should listen to Puscifer!

Go download Dominic Lord's new mixtape "Fashion Show EP", you might like it.

@Djnuttty said:

@wewantsthering: Holy Crap, The Dear Hunter sound amazing, listened to a song called 'In Cauda Venenum.'

They remind me of very early My Chemical Romance... I don't know if that's a fair comparison but I love it nonetheless!

Yes! I thought about sending that song first, but it's so weird that I thought you should ease into it. Haha. I'm always super excited when I can convert someone to The Dear Hunter. Haha. If you want to hear two of their softer, but messed up songs, "He Said He Had a Story" and "Red Hands" are beautiful, but dark songs.

Madvillian by Madvilliany

Windmills are good, plus their album is free i think.

I take it you've heard of The Prize Fighter Inferno? As a fan of Coheed who does not keep up with news I did not hear the album until recently. Blew my mind.

The three emotions of country western music. If you want to expand your musical taste check these out.

@theguy: Debussy is beautiful. Good reccommendation, sir!

Lisa Lisa Cult Jam.

yep.

Death Grips

Grizzly Bear

Portishead

The Flaming Lips

I too was a "metalhead" when I was younger. Now I am old and wise, and I have branched out to listen to a lot of different stuff.

Like Amanda Fucking Palmer. Man, she is awesome. Her new album (which was Kickstarted) is out. Listen to this for instance:

Gonna add some songs to that Spotify-list by the way.

Excellent to see that we have a new Dear Hunter fan in the making. One of my favourite bands. If you like this stuff, then it's also well worth checking out the album that the Dear Hunter front-man made with his first band. The group was called The Receiving End of Sirens, and the album is called Between the Heart and the Synapse. Brilliant stuff.

I'll also throw in a full recommendation for Circa Survive, who just released their most recent record, Violent Waves, which is a bit more experimental and atmospheric than their earlier stuff but still has plenty of teeth.

Also want to throw out a few more recommendations if this kind of music is what you're into. Thrice are a 100% essential listen for this type of music, as are Thursday, Isis, Deftones, Russian Circles, and Dredg.

@Jaqen_HGhar: Amanda Palmer is awesome, listened to two tracks there! Will be listening to more.

@Atlas: Really getting into the dear hunter, loving a lot of their tracks. I'm big into the deftones!

Go and sit in our plug.dj room, those websites are great for finding new music.

plug.dj/bombshelter

Alternatively go listen to some last.fm or something?

@UlquioKani said:

If you are into rap I can recommend ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Danny Brown.

I'll also have to agree with this guy.

I will take this opportunity to recommend Them Crooked Vultures, current band of Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones.

@Sweep: That website is really cool :) Cheers!

You should check out some Blue Sky Black Death, they're great.

I don't know if you'll like it though, based on your original post that sounds like 12 year old me and I don't know if I'd like the stuff I like now then.

@Djnuttty: Yeah, they are amazing. The main guy behind them, Lonesome Wyatt, has some really great solo stuff as well under the moniker "Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks." Glad I could help.

@CaskStrength Good call on Those Poor Bastards. I've gotten to open shows for them a handful of times. Bunch of really nice duders, them.

@Djnuttty I'm going to assume you have spotify and limit myself to things you find easily on there.

The Goddamn Gallows

If you like Those Poor Bastards, you should give these guys a listen. They're a little more gutterbilly.

Joe Buck Yourself

If you made a Frankenstein's monster out of Iggy Pop and Jerry Only, you'd get Joe Buck. This duder's been touring longer then I've been alive.

Mischief Brew

Gypsy-punk. I love the Tuba on this one. Yeah. Tuba.

Tom Waits, mother fucker.

New album by The Gathering is pretty good (Disclosure).

Project 86. Their early stuff was straight (boring, in my opinion) death metal, and they had a fascinating progression through their albums. They've everything from metal, grunge, standard rock, thrash, and -my favorite- '80s synth rock.

And sometimes, the best way to expand one's musical taste is just to listen to stuff you normally wouldn't...

Madvillian by Madvilliany

@Djnuttty You could always go back to the 50's and 60's, with some Beatles and Beach Boys ('Pet Sounds', 'Smile' and 'Friends' I'd go for), little bit of Sam Cooke and The Drifters etc. If you're not looking for that sort of pop music though, I'd suggest Talk Talk. Mainly, It's My Life and The Colour of Spring. Two great albums, and you should give them a listen at least once.

BritPop. Also Kevin Bacon has a band with his brother. I dare you.

I like that people mentioned Justin Timberlake already. Dude is just a consummate professional pop artist. It saddens me taht he's mostly retired from music now as I really liked his two solo albums. Guy had potential to be the next Michael Jackson what with his mix of talent and incredibly wellchoices of producers and how to tweak his public persona.

I also like that Death Grips have been mentioned a lot. They are some of the most exciting music out there these days. I remember being blown away when I first downloaded and listened to their Ex-Military mixtape they set up on their homepage. Their follow-up album The Money Store just shows an insane progression that I've never heard anything like before.

Oh yeah, Tom Waits rules. FOREVER!

This informed so much of my musical taste and knowledge, from contemporary electronic music to Baroque-era Classical. It's dense and challenging, but very rewarding if you stick with it.

Ok, just noticed it's outrageously expensive too. Good thing I got it for free...