Here’s Westword.com’s top 3 Swedish metal bands
Metal can’t get any more cold blooded than in Sweden, where you’ll find brain-freezing, below zero temperatures and snow drifts taller than concert halls. Despite having the most frostbitten, blackened and disfigured hands in the metal world, the Swedes rip apart metal like nobody else. As brutal as a ceaseless blizzard and with growls more bone-chilling than falling below ice, Swedish death metal will always breathe fire into the hearts of metal fans worldwide.
3. Katatonia Doom-de-doom-doom, doom-de-doom-doom-doom. Simplistically gloomy in its lyrics as it is in its music, Katatonia floats in a sea of melancholia. The band’s music holds the haunting atmosphere of a young Stephen King with pages of depression that stop and smells the roses. Strictly doom and gloom this outfit is not, however. A careful ear can hear the progressive metal that lies underneath the blanket of misery.
2. Opeth If you have the mental strength to endure ten-minute songs of valley-low death growls, ice-clear vocals and broad ranges of progressive death metal, then Opeth is a great way to beef up your brain. Mikael Åkerfeldt’s death growls reigned supreme on older albums while the band’s newer work incorporates clean vocals. Over the span of its calling, Opeth hasn’t been afraid to be influenced by other genres outside of death metal, seamlessly meshing its brutality with fibers of jazz, blues, folk and thick strands of acoustic guitar.
1. Meshuggah Even though Meshuggah stabbed its way into American metalheads hearts when Jack Osbourne blasted the act’s music at full volume to annoy neighbors on The Osbournes, Meshuggah has been blowing minds for over a quarter-century with its technically innovative style. With ear-splitting aggression, Meshuggah has admirably pushed the boundaries of extreme metal beyond the comprehension of everyday Joes and into doctorate level ear-drum exploding.