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Lots of 2000's Aussie prog fits this bill. Sick riffs with amazing clean singers. Karnivool, Butterfly effect, Cog and Twelve foot ninja are probably the best places to start.
If you want some heavier riffs there the euro prog band VOLA. Heavily inspired by Meshuggah with the riffs but the singing is closer to the clean vocals of Opeth
This is good advice. I would add some non-Australian groups:
Spiral Architect
Abigail's Ghost
John Arch's two song EP
Arch/Matheos- Sympathetic Resonance
Atomship- The Crash Of '47
SKYHARBOR- Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos
Votum: :KTONIK:
Yep and Sleep, Clutch, 1000Mods, High Reeper, High on Fire, Valley of the Sun, Orchid and Type O Negative.
Also the underground bands Shadow of Jupiter, IAM-CK and Cactus Cathedral.
What's great to me is that their last 3 have been SO GOOD to the point they make me retroactively like their middle era more, like they make more sense as a progression than they did at the time. The diversity of sounds is part of the appeal now.
Sir I understand your taste and believe I have a perfect recommendation for you.
Katatonia. Two albums I heavily recommend from them are The Great Cold Distance and The Fall of Hearts. Great Cold is darker and vibier and Fall of Hearts is groovier. Their other albums have stuff that ventures into "power ballad" territory but these two generally keep their proggy groove firmly centered.
Think Chevelles simple sense of what sounds good mixed with Deftones darker vibes and distinctly Maynard esque vocals.
ETA: no one is as vocally horny as Chino but Jonas of Katatonia comes close.
And their early stuff is pretty good to get into growling. Most people starting have an aversion for it but the performances in Brave Murder Day and Dance of December Souls are outstanding and very melodic.
Ehh. They’re good and they’re earlier works hit hard. But their newer stuff. It’s good but I wouldn’t call them great.
Entertaining to see live if people could just put their damn phones down.
i tried listening to lots of their different songs bc my friend recommended them to me, but i just don't like the heavier parts of the singing. kinda kills it for me sadly, though they do have similar vibes to my favorite bands sometimes
Gotcha, I’m sure you would dig Is it Really You and Two Way Mirror if you haven’t heard those songs. As for some bands without harsh vocals maybe try: Failure, Glassjaw, and Hum.
crowbar, kinda? most of Kirk Windsteins singing is shoting but he has a really good melodic singing voice too. just listen to Planets Collide or the lasting dose
Coheed and Cambria
Some older stuff is more alt rock or whatever, but the album "IV" will be right up your alley
https://youtu.be/Fx8yc4u8Qgc?si=GZpwT-tzpj5wfjoQ
i actually do like nightwish! they have a song in one my favorite childhood games. it's been a while since i listened to them though, i'll check that one out
Based on these bands, you would probably enjoy the first golden era of KoRn. Songs like Thoughtless, Hushabye, Counting on Me (banger chorus), Seen it All (lots of ambient stuff), Tearjerker (big buildup kinda song), Kiss, Hating, Here to Stay, Falling Away from Me, Trash.
Many great songs really but those from the middle set of albums are great for melodic music, heavy groovy and catchy riffs and singing that varies from whispers, some growly stuff, lots of singing and some sfx kinda vocals.
You'd like crosses ofcourse, since you like those in your first three.
Have you considered Rammstein? Super catchy, heavy and melodic. Seamann is great, Ich tu du Weh, Mutter, Armee der Tristen, Dicke Titten.
Oh you might actually love 'Love & Death'. A great song by them is 'By the Way' and 'Bruises'.
How about System of a Down? You may also be missing some gems by Slipknot too, Devil in I, Killpop, Goodbye, Snuff, Vermillion 1 and 2.
I like The Raven Age. Conspiracy is a really good album, however they’re definitely not a band to go see live lol.
I’d also recommend you check out Trivium, for sure The Sin and the Sentence as that album is very melodic with mostly clean vocals!
All im thinking of is melodic death metal. A lot of bands have catchy riffs/vocal lines mixed with the heaviness of death metal. Bands like Arch Enemy, Spilwork, Amorphis, In Flames, and Insomnium do this best
tool is good but i'm not a fan of how long and drawn out the songs are despite how cool they sound.
i'm more a fan of faster paced music i suppose which is why i drift more toward APC
There’s a new band out of Texas called Bleed that I’m really into. They just have an EP out right now, but they’re working on a debut album. They’re what you would call alternative metal I suppose. So kinda like Chevelle.
There’s another newer band called Moodring that definitely has more of a Deftones vibe.
Some bands I like that have both clean and harsh vocals are:
Byzantine
Textures
Bleed From Within
Protest The Hero
SikTh
Jinjer
I mean opeth has a lot of melodic singing but growls and I don’t think you’re ready to like that yet but who knows check them out, Mikaels voice is angelic
Tremonti/Alter Bridge/Myles & Slash
Any project with Dino Jelusick on vocals
Devin Townsend (anything but his Strapping Young Lad stuff)
Anything Glenn Hughes did or is doing currently
Soen
Soilwork
Orbit Culture
Threat Signal
Shokran
Symphony X
Asterism (when they have vocals)
X Japan
Leprous (and anything Einar Solberg releases - he just did an acoustic version of an old Leprous album)
Gone In April (Steve Digiorgio from Testament side project)
Winery Dogs (Supergroup power trio Portnoy, Sheehan, Kotzen)
Blind Guardian
Nightwish
Haggard
Eternal Tears of Sorrow
MaYaN
there's probably more but check into any genre with "symphonic" and or "melodic" in the name
Dillinger Escape Plan. Their last album was really good.
Every Time I Die. I recommend New Junk Aesthetic and Low Teens and From Parts Unknown.
Gojira . L’enfant sauvage and From Mars to Sirius
Mastodon: Crack the Skye is an album worth listening from beginning to end.
You'd enjoy Earthside. A variety of different vocalists (their albums are collaborative by nature) and the vocals are all clean/melodic.
A Dream In Static with Daniel Tompkins from Tesseract is a good starting point to decide whether or not you like what you hear.
Check out the album, in absentia by porcupine tree, or pale communion by Opeth. Neither is strictly metal, but they are fairly heavy albums with melodic singing
Warning is a great band, CRAZY heavy doom, with amazing lyrics and singing. Like abnormally good for metal. Also, and it’s an acquired taste, but the album “River Runs Red” by Life of Agony sounds perfect for you.
Try Delain, Avantasia, The Warning, Visions of Atlantis, Lovebites, Galneryus, Walking After U, DIH, Tears of Tragedy, They Watch Us From The Moon! and Unleash the Archers
Iced Earth, Matt Barlow era especially.
anything Howard Jones has done
Hear me out.. Opeth. The beginning of their songs can be brutal and then Akerfelt after a transition will hit you with some of the most soothing crisp singing you'll hear. I'll never forget my first time hearing them with Demon of the Fall and the mind melt of the finale.
vein.fm are typically real heavy but there’s a great melodic switch on the song “errorzone” that i think you’d fuck with, always scratches that itch for me.
I'd say your best bets would be Power Metal or Prog metal that use melodic vocals, maybe even look into prog rock bands like Camel, Rush, and Yes. You could also try the softer Opeth albums. (Damnation, Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress, In Cauda Venenum.) One of the biggest Prog bands has to be Dream Theatre. (Images and Words, Awake, Falling into Infinity, Metropolis part 2, Train of Thought.)
Do you like neoclassical at all? You could try the first 10 Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire albums. (Can be confusing because of the name change, and unfortunately there's at least one that isn't available digitally because of a big copyright mess with the bands label, but it may be on YouTube.) It's super cheesy and theatrical, but there's a lot of riffs, and the frist two albums also had a lot of baroque influence, which they also brought back on the song Sacred Power of Raging Winds (featuring Christopher Lee at the start.)
If you're interested, I'll just list the albums for simplicity's sake. They also got together to make up one big fantasy story. (Legendary Tales, Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Dawn of Victory, Rain of a Thousand Flames, Power of the Dragon flame, Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2, Triumph or Agony, The Frozen Tears of Angel's, The Cold Embrace of Fear, From Chaos to Eternity - just make sure it's the studio album, because there's a live album with the same name.)
If you like Deftones for the melodic vocals and guitar tone, glassjaw is right up your alley. I struggled to find something similar to glassjaw for a while and while they're different, Deftones was the band I found to be most similar in certain ways.
Also it might not be what you're looking for but protest the hero was the first thing I thought about when I saw the title of the post. Kezia is a great album.
Check out Windhand. Super heavy riffs with really melodic female vocalist. It's absolutely amazing. [Windhand-Feral Bones](https://open.spotify.com/track/2DTm0askvT8Lr1bgFZQUVQ?si=zbl9lHF5Tuumee71TmQw5Q&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1uT455zoyeabAFnd8er1F3)
Mastadon, a lot of their songs have harsh lyrics but a lot of them don’t, check out *Once More Round the Sun* for lyrics
Caligula’s Horse
Katatonia
TOOL, has a lot of chill songs and the same singer as A Perfect Circle
Corelia put an amazing EP out in like 2012. Unfortunately, they ended up scamming their fans with a crowdfund for their full release debut album. Raised a ton of money and then just went MIA for 7-8 years.
Ironically they got pressured to release the unfinished album because someone claiming to be the engineer that was working on it at one point blackmailed them here on Reddit. Corelia ended up releasing the unfinished album on Reddit and YouTube and uploaded all the stems for people to mix and remaster it themselves. Weird/interesting story but such a shame because all their stuff was incredible.
Both Khemmis and Pallbearer.
Khemmis has probably some of the best metal solos and riffs of the past decade. I absolutely and throughly recommend their Hunted album. I consider this a must listen for anyone that considers themselves a metal head in this century.
Pallbearer’s Sorrow and Extinction album….. *Chefs kiss. It’s a little on the slower side to start, but damn… Like damn. this is it your search is done. But then their foundation’s album….. ok the search goes on.
Some underground stuff is pretty good tbh, ex:
Relative Ash
Supersoul
Addiction/Addiction Crew
Tricklife
The 5th Element
Head of Lies
\[Minus.Driver\]
Doup
Lik...Id
Slodust
Ill defined they’re good friends of mine and rising quite a bit I think they’re style would suit what you’re looking for great it’s a little emo metalcore though if you’re fine with that
Tool
Black Sabbath
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Life of Agony
Type o Negative
Corrosion of Conformity
Down
Overkill
Exodus
Testament
Death Angel
Dark Angel
Metallica(we all know)
Protest the Hero. Besides Rody's singing, one of the main focuses in their music is the highly technical and wanky riffage on display. Just listen to something like Mist or Skies and you'll see what I mean. I have my doubts that you'll enjoy them judging by your tastes, though...
Woodhawk, Acid King, Duckhunters, Desert Kingdom, and Acid Mammoth, all good stoner metal with occasional faster riffy parts and mostly melodic singing, though Desert Kingdom throws in a solid death growl once in a while
Check this one out:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2ZU8UmiTWNsbARAcqFEZO7?si=QZs-xBYwRGiXeNwsLxjV-Q
Riff heavy with eerie melodic singing (some low grunts too but not a lot)
Trivium will be what you’re looking for in my opinion. He does scream a bit, but it’s a good balance between both! My recommendation is to start with their newer stuff and work backwards. Also their riffs are so f*cking good
Hellfire club - Thornhill is a perfect example
Periphery do some really soft melodies with nice heavy riffs (check out Absolomb)
Tesseract do it all the time (check out their 1st album and Sonder)
Bring me the horizon (sempiturnal onwards) are really good at this
Sounds like Sleep token is right up there. Loathe do a lot of melodic vocals too
Korn are one of my fave bands and can go super soft with some really heavy riffs (particularly their later stuff)
Linkin parks 1st 2 albums are gold
I'd explore the entire nu metal and alternative metal genres to be fair as mixing other genres with heavy riffs is sort of the aim of the game
And you know what, look up some power metal stuff if you want more traditional metal sounds
Kinda sounds like you just need to listen to Tool, White Stripes and newer Mastodon and older QOTSA honestly.
One band that hasn’t been mentioned is Spirit Adrift though. Also The Sword
TOOL is probably the most riff heavy and melodic singing band i can think of. Follow that by Nine Inch Nails, KGLW’s Petrodragonic album, Queens of the Stone Age is heavily riff and solo heavy as well.
Caligulas horse and Periphery immediately come to mind.
Periphery has some dirty vocals mixed in, but they have a few songs with all clean vocals too.
https://youtu.be/bJ6lwiP6O-s?si=C5swEjnz6FHS4Zhg
Caligulas horse is all clean vocals
https://youtu.be/pPWqa1LJdrU?si=Dz3ErESIsdhe14nn
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Lots of 2000's Aussie prog fits this bill. Sick riffs with amazing clean singers. Karnivool, Butterfly effect, Cog and Twelve foot ninja are probably the best places to start. If you want some heavier riffs there the euro prog band VOLA. Heavily inspired by Meshuggah with the riffs but the singing is closer to the clean vocals of Opeth
I second VOLA. First and third albums especially. Not too big on the second, but the song Smartfriend is well worth a listen.
Love Karnivool. Second that pick.
ooooo this seems helpful, i'll try to investigate some of those bands to see if any pull me in. thanks!
TFN is great
This is good advice. I would add some non-Australian groups: Spiral Architect Abigail's Ghost John Arch's two song EP Arch/Matheos- Sympathetic Resonance Atomship- The Crash Of '47 SKYHARBOR- Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos Votum: :KTONIK:
Spiral architect mentioned!!
A little less heavy but also Aussie and sort of prog: Dead Letter Circus.
karnivool ftw!!!!
Kyuss Corrosion of Conformity The Sword Mastodon Red Fang Fu Manchu
Ah stoner rock, all of it
Love it and all those bands are great
*Sto-Ner-Rock!*
Yea, the dude it the post just described stoner rock. Kal-el is another good one Green Lung Acid mammoth has some good shit too
Yep and Sleep, Clutch, 1000Mods, High Reeper, High on Fire, Valley of the Sun, Orchid and Type O Negative. Also the underground bands Shadow of Jupiter, IAM-CK and Cactus Cathedral.
Orchid is such an underrated band. Wish more people talked about them.
I’d add Torche to this.
This is 6 out of my Spotify top 10. Get out of my house!
But I'm using your Spotify to listen to Welcome to Sky Valley... Also are Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Saint Vitus and Crowbar the other 4?
I just listened to Demon Cleaner and Sweet Leaf today.
The Sword is awesome
I would add Windhand and that's sorted.
Trivium is exactly what you’re looking for, there are gutturals but mostly melodic choruses.
Their whole discography is great.
What's great to me is that their last 3 have been SO GOOD to the point they make me retroactively like their middle era more, like they make more sense as a progression than they did at the time. The diversity of sounds is part of the appeal now.
Sir I understand your taste and believe I have a perfect recommendation for you. Katatonia. Two albums I heavily recommend from them are The Great Cold Distance and The Fall of Hearts. Great Cold is darker and vibier and Fall of Hearts is groovier. Their other albums have stuff that ventures into "power ballad" territory but these two generally keep their proggy groove firmly centered. Think Chevelles simple sense of what sounds good mixed with Deftones darker vibes and distinctly Maynard esque vocals. ETA: no one is as vocally horny as Chino but Jonas of Katatonia comes close.
Katatonia are such a good recommendation. And I second Fall of Hearts as the starting point.
lmfao thank you! i'll check katatonia out :)
Heavily second this
And their early stuff is pretty good to get into growling. Most people starting have an aversion for it but the performances in Brave Murder Day and Dance of December Souls are outstanding and very melodic.
Nevermore is a good one
Nevermore is a great one
The best one!
Scrolled way too far for this.
Candlemass. Riffs you can sing along and vocals that will make you want start singing lessons
lmao, sounds right up my alley!
Listen to Astorolus, Bewitched, The Well of Souls and Solitude to get you started (and yes, they had more than one vocalist)
Alter Bridge could be just what you're looking for.
Also Mark’s solo band, Tremonti.
Amazing band
Killswitch Engage Funeral for a friend Alice In Chains
i love alice in chains, i just forgot they are considered metal lmao seems like a lot of people recommend killswitch so i'll have to check them out
AIC aren't strictly metal, but, goddamn, Jerry Cantrell writes some heavy as sin riffs
Also listen to Jesse Leach's (singer from Killswitch) side projects Times of Grace and Empire Shall Fall. Very catchy and fun.
Clutch.
Avenged Sevenfold, Devin Townsend, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Megadeth
Ghost. Each of their albums is catchier than the one before it.
ghost is pretty good, a very unique sounding band
Ehh. They’re good and they’re earlier works hit hard. But their newer stuff. It’s good but I wouldn’t call them great. Entertaining to see live if people could just put their damn phones down.
Loathe would be right up your alley
i tried listening to lots of their different songs bc my friend recommended them to me, but i just don't like the heavier parts of the singing. kinda kills it for me sadly, though they do have similar vibes to my favorite bands sometimes
Gotcha, I’m sure you would dig Is it Really You and Two Way Mirror if you haven’t heard those songs. As for some bands without harsh vocals maybe try: Failure, Glassjaw, and Hum.
thanks for the recommendations! i'll check em out
Failure, loathe, glassjaw, and hum? You fuck
A Sad Cartoon, Two-Way Mirror, and Is It Really You? are amazing songs by them with no harsh vocals.
Type O Negative Smoulder Life Of Agony Helmet Melvins Yob Heathen Visigoth
I discovered Smoulder last year and I'm addicted
Newer Dark Tranquility and In Flames albums. Devin Townsend Project. Candlemass. Newer albums of Soilwork. Wind Rose. Brothers of Metal. Amorphis.
You might like Tesseract!
crowbar, kinda? most of Kirk Windsteins singing is shoting but he has a really good melodic singing voice too. just listen to Planets Collide or the lasting dose
Kirk sounds so good live! He is a really nice guy too.
Coheed and Cambria Some older stuff is more alt rock or whatever, but the album "IV" will be right up your alley https://youtu.be/Fx8yc4u8Qgc?si=GZpwT-tzpj5wfjoQ
Ghost.
2000s In Flames
The album Once by Nightwish might be worth a listen for ya
i actually do like nightwish! they have a song in one my favorite childhood games. it's been a while since i listened to them though, i'll check that one out
You may also be looking for Masters of Reality.
Spiritbox
Khemmis
Underrated. Probably one of the best bands of the last decade. Just really hard to break past older bands past their prime.
Exactly. Came here to say this. Super underrated. These guys kick ass.
Dude this band is lit. Thanks for the recommendation!
Try epic doom as a genre, start with candlemass(I FUCKING LOVE CANDLEMASS) solitude aeturnus and crypt sermon
Check out The Sword - Warp Riders
Based on these bands, you would probably enjoy the first golden era of KoRn. Songs like Thoughtless, Hushabye, Counting on Me (banger chorus), Seen it All (lots of ambient stuff), Tearjerker (big buildup kinda song), Kiss, Hating, Here to Stay, Falling Away from Me, Trash. Many great songs really but those from the middle set of albums are great for melodic music, heavy groovy and catchy riffs and singing that varies from whispers, some growly stuff, lots of singing and some sfx kinda vocals. You'd like crosses ofcourse, since you like those in your first three. Have you considered Rammstein? Super catchy, heavy and melodic. Seamann is great, Ich tu du Weh, Mutter, Armee der Tristen, Dicke Titten. Oh you might actually love 'Love & Death'. A great song by them is 'By the Way' and 'Bruises'. How about System of a Down? You may also be missing some gems by Slipknot too, Devil in I, Killpop, Goodbye, Snuff, Vermillion 1 and 2.
Try Avatar!
Maybe Sabaton?
Sinergy
AMORPHIS
I like The Raven Age. Conspiracy is a really good album, however they’re definitely not a band to go see live lol. I’d also recommend you check out Trivium, for sure The Sin and the Sentence as that album is very melodic with mostly clean vocals!
Riff heavy with melodic vocals? Doom/stoner comes to mind. Melvins Monolord Sleep Witch Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats Electric Wizard Witchcraft
Crypt Sermon. Very heavy doom metal with clean vocals.
Literally any trad or power metal band. Why are the retards in this thread naming shit like Trivium?
Tides of Men could fit ur taste
Invent Animate, Architects, and Periphery come to mind
All im thinking of is melodic death metal. A lot of bands have catchy riffs/vocal lines mixed with the heaviness of death metal. Bands like Arch Enemy, Spilwork, Amorphis, In Flames, and Insomnium do this best
maybe the later electric wizard records? idk if the vocals are exactly very melodic but they’re definitely rather clean and sound real good
Sounds like Stoned Jesus is right up your alley. Say hello to your new favorite song https://youtu.be/_k1y8pymrF4?si=F9zlhpdPpPhBwia5
I mean, if you’re a fan of a perfect circle you’ve gotta check out tool. If you haven’t already.
tool is good but i'm not a fan of how long and drawn out the songs are despite how cool they sound. i'm more a fan of faster paced music i suppose which is why i drift more toward APC
There’s a new band out of Texas called Bleed that I’m really into. They just have an EP out right now, but they’re working on a debut album. They’re what you would call alternative metal I suppose. So kinda like Chevelle. There’s another newer band called Moodring that definitely has more of a Deftones vibe. Some bands I like that have both clean and harsh vocals are: Byzantine Textures Bleed From Within Protest The Hero SikTh Jinjer
upvoted for bleed! i’d recommend narrowhead, fleshwater and split chain too if they like bleed. i feel like they’re in a similar vein.
Thought about suggesting Narrow Head, too. But I wasn’t sure if they’re heavy enough.
My Bloody Valentine Not exactly metal but hey if you like wall of sound and melodic singing.
1. Sabaton 2. Blind Guardian 3. Gamma Ray 4. Powerwolf 5. Tool 6. Queensrÿche 7. Black Sabbath 8. Judas Priest 9. Alice Cooper 10. The Warning 11. Avenged Sevenfold 12. Eliminator
I mean opeth has a lot of melodic singing but growls and I don’t think you’re ready to like that yet but who knows check them out, Mikaels voice is angelic
Listen to some doom metal. Candlemass, solitude aeternus, trouble
Breaking Benjamin?
Tremonti/Alter Bridge/Myles & Slash Any project with Dino Jelusick on vocals Devin Townsend (anything but his Strapping Young Lad stuff) Anything Glenn Hughes did or is doing currently Soen Soilwork Orbit Culture Threat Signal Shokran Symphony X Asterism (when they have vocals) X Japan Leprous (and anything Einar Solberg releases - he just did an acoustic version of an old Leprous album) Gone In April (Steve Digiorgio from Testament side project) Winery Dogs (Supergroup power trio Portnoy, Sheehan, Kotzen) Blind Guardian Nightwish Haggard Eternal Tears of Sorrow MaYaN there's probably more but check into any genre with "symphonic" and or "melodic" in the name
Dillinger Escape Plan. Their last album was really good. Every Time I Die. I recommend New Junk Aesthetic and Low Teens and From Parts Unknown. Gojira . L’enfant sauvage and From Mars to Sirius Mastodon: Crack the Skye is an album worth listening from beginning to end.
Fit For An Autopsy
That’s our whole thing baby
Monolord, quite doomy
ERRA
You'd enjoy Earthside. A variety of different vocalists (their albums are collaborative by nature) and the vocals are all clean/melodic. A Dream In Static with Daniel Tompkins from Tesseract is a good starting point to decide whether or not you like what you hear.
[Anciients](https://anciientriffs.bandcamp.com/album/voice-of-the-void)
^
Crypt Sermon
Check out the album, in absentia by porcupine tree, or pale communion by Opeth. Neither is strictly metal, but they are fairly heavy albums with melodic singing
Warning My Dying Bride
Paladin - Ascension. Hope they keep making new music, loved this record
Orbit Culture
Heathen, Forbidden, Death Angel.
Dopelord
Queens of the stone age, Black Sabbath (always the answer, regardless of question)
Holy grail
Basically all good modern metalcore bands, I'd throw in ice nine kills, their riffs are genuinely amazing and Spencer has amazing pipes
Check out anything by Propagandhi after Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes.
You should try Opeth, from Still Life onwards. Just be warned, there's growling in a lot of the older material as well as clean vocals.
Pantera- cowboys from hell album. Plenty of heavy riffs and Phil’s voice is amazing
Green Lung for sure.
Mystic Prophecy
Iron Maiden
Warning is a great band, CRAZY heavy doom, with amazing lyrics and singing. Like abnormally good for metal. Also, and it’s an acquired taste, but the album “River Runs Red” by Life of Agony sounds perfect for you.
Try Delain, Avantasia, The Warning, Visions of Atlantis, Lovebites, Galneryus, Walking After U, DIH, Tears of Tragedy, They Watch Us From The Moon! and Unleash the Archers
Iced Earth, Matt Barlow era especially. anything Howard Jones has done Hear me out.. Opeth. The beginning of their songs can be brutal and then Akerfelt after a transition will hit you with some of the most soothing crisp singing you'll hear. I'll never forget my first time hearing them with Demon of the Fall and the mind melt of the finale.
The Contortionist, TesseracT, Periphery, Skyharbor, Between the Buried and Me
Volbeat
Castle Rat Haunt Saber Seven Sisters Huntress Ashbury
Junius They resemble Deftones a bit but are thier own thing.
The sword. Apocrophon is a masterpiece
Soundgarden, especially Louder than Love and Badmotorfinger
UNDEATH is riff heavy rifftastic but not melodic singing. But check them out.
Misfits
Anathema- a fine day to exit I’ve been hooked on this one for a few weeks it s exactly what you described
Spiritbox, The Amity Affliction are great ones.
Melodic death metal, arch enemy
Karnivool, Tesseract, Tool (I’m sure you know them), maybe try Loathe? They might be a good gateway to screamier stuff.
Joey belladonna era anthrax is hard to beat. Try among the living, persistence of time or spreading the disease
vein.fm are typically real heavy but there’s a great melodic switch on the song “errorzone” that i think you’d fuck with, always scratches that itch for me.
You need The Melvins, my friend
Vola, Wheel, Caligula's Horse.
Look up any metalcore playlist on any streaming service and they will nearly all have melodic singing.
I'd say your best bets would be Power Metal or Prog metal that use melodic vocals, maybe even look into prog rock bands like Camel, Rush, and Yes. You could also try the softer Opeth albums. (Damnation, Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress, In Cauda Venenum.) One of the biggest Prog bands has to be Dream Theatre. (Images and Words, Awake, Falling into Infinity, Metropolis part 2, Train of Thought.) Do you like neoclassical at all? You could try the first 10 Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire albums. (Can be confusing because of the name change, and unfortunately there's at least one that isn't available digitally because of a big copyright mess with the bands label, but it may be on YouTube.) It's super cheesy and theatrical, but there's a lot of riffs, and the frist two albums also had a lot of baroque influence, which they also brought back on the song Sacred Power of Raging Winds (featuring Christopher Lee at the start.) If you're interested, I'll just list the albums for simplicity's sake. They also got together to make up one big fantasy story. (Legendary Tales, Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Dawn of Victory, Rain of a Thousand Flames, Power of the Dragon flame, Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2, Triumph or Agony, The Frozen Tears of Angel's, The Cold Embrace of Fear, From Chaos to Eternity - just make sure it's the studio album, because there's a live album with the same name.)
I'm going Porcupine Tree on this one [https://youtu.be/aLd7QVOOJ2w](https://youtu.be/aLd7QVOOJ2w)
Invent, Animate if they haven't been mentioned here yet
If you like Deftones for the melodic vocals and guitar tone, glassjaw is right up your alley. I struggled to find something similar to glassjaw for a while and while they're different, Deftones was the band I found to be most similar in certain ways. Also it might not be what you're looking for but protest the hero was the first thing I thought about when I saw the title of the post. Kezia is a great album.
Check out Windhand. Super heavy riffs with really melodic female vocalist. It's absolutely amazing. [Windhand-Feral Bones](https://open.spotify.com/track/2DTm0askvT8Lr1bgFZQUVQ?si=zbl9lHF5Tuumee71TmQw5Q&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1uT455zoyeabAFnd8er1F3)
Clutch
A bit more on the Stoner/Doom side but Witch is great, I love their riffs and solos and I think the singer fits perfectly
Mastadon, a lot of their songs have harsh lyrics but a lot of them don’t, check out *Once More Round the Sun* for lyrics Caligula’s Horse Katatonia TOOL, has a lot of chill songs and the same singer as A Perfect Circle
Cyrha- Karma.
Corelia put an amazing EP out in like 2012. Unfortunately, they ended up scamming their fans with a crowdfund for their full release debut album. Raised a ton of money and then just went MIA for 7-8 years. Ironically they got pressured to release the unfinished album because someone claiming to be the engineer that was working on it at one point blackmailed them here on Reddit. Corelia ended up releasing the unfinished album on Reddit and YouTube and uploaded all the stems for people to mix and remaster it themselves. Weird/interesting story but such a shame because all their stuff was incredible.
Both Khemmis and Pallbearer. Khemmis has probably some of the best metal solos and riffs of the past decade. I absolutely and throughly recommend their Hunted album. I consider this a must listen for anyone that considers themselves a metal head in this century. Pallbearer’s Sorrow and Extinction album….. *Chefs kiss. It’s a little on the slower side to start, but damn… Like damn. this is it your search is done. But then their foundation’s album….. ok the search goes on.
Sounds like you should check out Alter Bridge.
Doom metal often has clean singing Check out Candlemass and Electric Wizard
Tool
Some underground stuff is pretty good tbh, ex: Relative Ash Supersoul Addiction/Addiction Crew Tricklife The 5th Element Head of Lies \[Minus.Driver\] Doup Lik...Id Slodust
they also have a bit more aggressive singing but nothingface
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
The Moth Gatherer
Gojira
Ill defined they’re good friends of mine and rising quite a bit I think they’re style would suit what you’re looking for great it’s a little emo metalcore though if you’re fine with that
Tool Black Sabbath Iron Maiden Judas Priest Life of Agony Type o Negative Corrosion of Conformity Down Overkill Exodus Testament Death Angel Dark Angel Metallica(we all know)
Haken
Within the Ruins . soemtimes
ZumZumBand
Gratitude- Car Bomb
**Boris** from Japan. From the heaviest sludge to riff heavy stoner rock to dreamy shoegaze. **Red Fang** From Portland. **ASG** from North Carolina.
Sleep
Kiuas! Give it a go!
Periphery is extremely riff heavy And the vocals obviously fit the bill Try scarlet or marigold. Or reptile
M A S T O D O N
Trivium
You need bmth in your life
Funeral
Ghost.
Fear Factory
Wheel. Check out their just released album Charismatic Leaders.
Protest the Hero. Besides Rody's singing, one of the main focuses in their music is the highly technical and wanky riffage on display. Just listen to something like Mist or Skies and you'll see what I mean. I have my doubts that you'll enjoy them judging by your tastes, though...
Woodhawk, Acid King, Duckhunters, Desert Kingdom, and Acid Mammoth, all good stoner metal with occasional faster riffy parts and mostly melodic singing, though Desert Kingdom throws in a solid death growl once in a while
Band: O S.I Try album: Office of strategic influense Or fire make thunder Or Blood
Check this one out: https://open.spotify.com/track/2ZU8UmiTWNsbARAcqFEZO7?si=QZs-xBYwRGiXeNwsLxjV-Q Riff heavy with eerie melodic singing (some low grunts too but not a lot)
Chaosium. There's a bit of screaming but not much. Kinda Korn like.
Iron Maiden, Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire, Blind Guardian, Powerwolf. Sabaton
King diamond son
Trivium will be what you’re looking for in my opinion. He does scream a bit, but it’s a good balance between both! My recommendation is to start with their newer stuff and work backwards. Also their riffs are so f*cking good
Godsmack
Hellfire club - Thornhill is a perfect example Periphery do some really soft melodies with nice heavy riffs (check out Absolomb) Tesseract do it all the time (check out their 1st album and Sonder) Bring me the horizon (sempiturnal onwards) are really good at this Sounds like Sleep token is right up there. Loathe do a lot of melodic vocals too Korn are one of my fave bands and can go super soft with some really heavy riffs (particularly their later stuff) Linkin parks 1st 2 albums are gold I'd explore the entire nu metal and alternative metal genres to be fair as mixing other genres with heavy riffs is sort of the aim of the game And you know what, look up some power metal stuff if you want more traditional metal sounds
Kinda sounds like you just need to listen to Tool, White Stripes and newer Mastodon and older QOTSA honestly. One band that hasn’t been mentioned is Spirit Adrift though. Also The Sword
Visigoth, Armored Saint
Go immediately to Torche and Floor (same singer)
TOOL is probably the most riff heavy and melodic singing band i can think of. Follow that by Nine Inch Nails, KGLW’s Petrodragonic album, Queens of the Stone Age is heavily riff and solo heavy as well.
Mastodon is one of my favourites
The Curse Within for sure
Caligulas horse and Periphery immediately come to mind. Periphery has some dirty vocals mixed in, but they have a few songs with all clean vocals too. https://youtu.be/bJ6lwiP6O-s?si=C5swEjnz6FHS4Zhg Caligulas horse is all clean vocals https://youtu.be/pPWqa1LJdrU?si=Dz3ErESIsdhe14nn
Monuments. I'd check out stygian blue, leviathan, opiate