Music

Doom Metal

• Black Sabbath - The first, the best. Start with first 5 albums. But also, it's Black Sabbath, all of it.
• Saint Vitus - Punky trad doom, I love them dearly. First 3 albums.
• Acid King - Incredible band. Start with Busse Woods and III, all of it's good though.
• Cirith Ungol - 80s trad/doom with unique vocals and incredible guitar. Start with King of the Dead & Frost and Fire. Dark Parade is also fantastic.
• Sleep - Everything but Volume 1.
• Blood Farmers - Obscure 90s doom with a killer guitar tone.
• Belzebong - Instrumental stoner doom with plenty of riffs and fuzz to go around.
• Electric Wizard - Stoner doom band that took a while to grow on me, but well worth it. Start with Dopethrone & Come My Fanatics.
• Bongripper - Longwinded instrumental stoner doom, great for transit rides. Satan Worshipping Doom and Terminal.
• Pale Grey Lore - Psych rock doom from Columbus OH. Both albums are great.
• Bourbon Train - Another great Columbus OH doom band, incredible vocals and guitar.
• Wretch - The mourning part of doom metal.
• Trouble - An 80s classic with great guitar and Eric Wagner's iconic vocals.
• Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Low-fi psych rock/doom, Blood Lust album just hits different.
• Electric Wizard - one of the best-known stoner doom bands along with Sleep, they took a while to grow on me but are good. Start with Dopethrone.

Traditional Heavy

• Motörhead - Any of it, all of it. It's Motörhead, listen to it.
• Judas Priest - Stained Class to Painkiller.
• Dio - First 2 albums.
• Iron Maiden - hot take, Paul Di'Anno is my favorite Maiden vocalist and I like the first two albums the best.
• Riot - Fire Down Under & Thundersteel.
• Liege Lord - Master Control.
• Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory.

Death Metal

• Autopsy - First 2 albums + Puncturing the Grotesque.
• Bolt Thrower - Discography.
• Possessed - Arguably the first death metal band (I think they are). Listen to Seven Churches.
• Death - Also arguably the first death metal band lol. Listen to Symbolic for their more experimental stuff, Scream Bloody Gore for the thrashy death metal.
• Incantation - Cavernous death metal! They make echoey, off-beat riffs and it rules. Start with first 3 albums.
• Obituary - Cause of Death.
• Sempiternal Deathreign - They made one album in 1989 and then split. It's a great death/doom album with a fascinating guitar tone.
• Chthe'ilist - Catchy riffs with fascinating rhythms, weird vocals (in the best way).

Black/Speed

• Venom - The godfathers of extreme metal, the first black metal band. First 3 albums.
• Midnight - From Cleveland :D . Start with Satanic Royalty.
• Skeletonwitch - From Athens OH, wild. Also the first band I ever saw in a bar. Start with Beyond the Permafrost.
• Hellripper
• Bütcher - Fast and catchy. Start with 666 Goats Carry My Chariot.

Sludge Metal

• Cough - First two albums.
• DOWN - Did you know Phil Anselmo of Pantera has a sludge metal side project? And it's amazing??
• Weedeater
• Mammoth Grinder - You wanted all of the guitar feedback?

Thrash Metal

• Metallica - First three albums, self-titled Black Album if you like pop, and then inexplicably their 2023 album 72 Seasons is good too.
• Vektor - A band I have elaborated my complicated feelings about due to the frontman. I cannot shake my love for the Terminal Redux album though, it perfectly captures the feeling of wonder I have in regard to outer space like nothing else has.
• Power Trip - Punky thrash with great riffs.

The Weird Stuff

• Khanus - Lilting death metal with at-times operatic vocals.
• The Body - Sludge/Doom/Noise/Industrial/Experimental. Yes, all of it.
• Vrasubatlat - A small extreme metal label of mostly the same two musicians doing various projects under different names - mostly black/death metal. Start with Triumvir Foul.
• Cobalt - Black/Sludge with incredible riffs and vocals. Start with Slow Forever.
• Mr. Bungle - Depending on the release it can be metal, jazz, ska, disco, funk.
• Oranssi Pazuzu - Truly psychedelic black metal.
• Demilich - Finnish death metal with the most guttural vocals you ever did hear.
• Ride for Revenge - Meditative black metal.
• Infester - Strange guttural death metal from 1994.

Electronic

• GRiZ - Funky upbeat electronic, just great music and a lot of it. He plays saxophone at live shows and the lights are mesmerizing, highly recommend.
• Manic Focus
• SoDown
• Zoogma

K-Pop

• Stray Kids - The first k-pop band I ever got into. My favorite part of any music is riffs, and learning that non-metal genres could have riffs was revolutionary for me. Stray Kids has riffs for years. Start with NOEASY, 5-Star, or Oddinary.
• Seventeen
• Itzy
• ATEEZ
• Tomorrow x Together
• Twice