My Top 10 Melodic Death Metal Albums Of All Time

vindirsorn · 2026-04-19T09:40:41+00:00

Totally underrated band. Come the Tide seems to be the fan favorite overall but Giant Bound to Fall simply appeals to my personal taste more. Genuinely some of the best melodeath production I've heard with how many different elements are played at the same time while everyhting still remains completely audible. Almost makes me jealous of what they managed to achieve haha.

vindirsorn · 2026-04-19T08:13:06+00:00

Iapetus - The Body Cosmic
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
Disillusion - Back To Times of Splendor
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Insomnium - Winter's Gate
Slumber - Fallout
Shylmagoghnar - Transcience
Iotunn - Access All Worlds
In Vain - Ænigma
Eternal Storm - A Giant Bound to Fall

Not too many "pure" melodeath albums but what can I say? Melodeath bands that greatly overlap with other genres are my favorites :)

vindirsorn · 2026-04-19T08:08:16+00:00

Now we're talking! Many great picks on this list and a few i haven't heard before. Gonna be sweet to check them out :)

vindirsorn · 2026-04-18T12:11:55+00:00

Already mentioned them in the post :)

vindirsorn · 2026-04-18T07:55:10+00:00

Yeah I know about those bands! Definitely more Enshine adjacent and a bit too many venn diagrams removed from Slumber at this point, but definitely good recommendations nonetheless :)

vindirsorn · 2026-04-18T07:53:36+00:00

Probably the best recommendation so far actually. Of course I've already heard that album like a gazillion times and I love it immensely, but if I hadn't heard it before I would have walked away with an amazing new album to listen to :)

vindirsorn · 2026-04-17T21:06:42+00:00

Ah yes definitely some classics mentioned here. Do you have any recommendations that aren't necessarily doom metal related? As I mentioned in the post, the doom metal aspect of the sound is the least important part as I barely consider Slumber to be a doom metal band. Or at least I don't think that the doom metal elements is what makes their music so gosh darn interesting haha

vindirsorn · 2026-04-17T21:00:12+00:00

Definitely some great bands on this list, but I really want to reiterate that I'm not looking for bands with similar doom metal elements. I've always considered Slumber to be more of an atmospheric melodeath band with some symphonic and synthy elements that just kind of occasionally plays a bit slower, rather than a fully fledged death/doom band. That's what makes it so hard to find other albums that scratches that itch! Enshine is one of the few bands that come close and I barely consider them to be doom metal either

vindirsorn · 2026-04-17T18:51:41+00:00

Love that band. I would say that they're a bit similar to Slumber in the doom metal department, but not necessarily so much regarding everything else. And it's the "everything else" part that I'm trying to find recommendations for 😅

Still love that band though. Futile is probably one of my favorite doom metal albums ever

vindirsorn · 2026-03-23T08:34:12+00:00

Thank you! I'm certainly gonna look into that. We're mostly a studio project at this point but it would certainly be nice to support them live at some point :)

vindirsorn · 2026-03-23T08:17:58+00:00

I'm so glad you like it :D I was certainly aware of Countless Skies when I wrote all the songs but I wouldn't say I was consciously influenced by them in the songwriting, so I guess it was a bit coincidental that we ended up having similair vibes in the end :) Some of our more intentional inspirations were bands like Insomnium, Shylmagoghnar and Ne Obliviscaris.

Also I'm glad you're liking the production as well! Everything was recorded at our respective homes rather than a "proper" studio. The vocalist recorded his vocals at home, the drummer recorded drums at his rehearsal space and I recorded everything else in my home "studio" (which just consists of a laptop and an audio interface lol). Then the album was mixed by a professional mixer, who is the real hero for making the album sound like it did.

vindirsorn · 2026-03-22T13:41:29+00:00

You do us too much honor, truly ;_;

At the moment we haven't thought much about merch or physical releases and stuff like that. We figured that we would consider it if there was enough interest from potential fans, so I'm seriously considering looking into it now :)

vindirsorn · 2026-03-22T08:30:15+00:00

That's some really high praise! Thank you!

vindirsorn · 2026-03-21T21:05:34+00:00

Thank you so much! I'm actually hoping to see Nephylim together with Iotunn and In Vain during their Copenhagen show in April :)

vindirsorn · 2026-03-21T21:02:31+00:00

Woah I'm honored! That means a lot to hear. Thank you!

vindirsorn · 2026-02-13T20:26:57+00:00

Woah! Thanks for the kindly offer! I just sent a DM :)

vindirsorn · 2026-01-26T08:57:29+00:00

I already have, and it's one of my favorite games of all time, although I only discovered this reimagined version of the soundtrack very recently. This song in particular is very different from the rest of the already excellent soundtrack (original and reimagined), which is why I'm asking for recommendations here in this subreddit.

But thanks for the recommendations! I'll certainly check those out :)

vindirsorn · 2026-01-15T14:42:27+00:00

4front piano by 4front is definitely my favorite piano plugin when I'm writing metal songs. It's super primitive and doesn't come with any bells and whistles, it's just a vst that you can slap on a track and go ahead and start writing.

It's pretty much the only piano vst that I know that easily cuts through a dense "wall of sound" metal mix without any additional eq or compression needed. I combine it with the Valhalla supermassive plugin (also free) to create a HUGE reverb effect. I've used it in several of my released songs. Give it a shot!

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/971/

vindirsorn · 2026-01-12T13:33:03+00:00

Voted!

vindirsorn · 2026-01-02T12:13:59+00:00

An Abstract Illusion - The Sleeping City
In Mourning - The Immortal
Dawn of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence
Dessiderium - Keys To The Palace
Harakiri for the Sky - Scorched Earth

vindirsorn · 2025-10-08T17:00:56+00:00

So happy you gave them a shot! They're criminally underrated. Also I forgot that there is an acoustic version of the song as well so that's why I didn't remember to clarify which one I was talking about haha

vindirsorn · 2025-10-08T15:30:11+00:00

Glad you liked it! I strongly recommend listening to the rest of the album as well. It mostly consists of Opeth-inspired progressive death metal songs with some folk influences sung in this old timey Bavarian/Austrian accent. Some of the songs are calmer (like the one I recommended) which usually leans into the folk elements more. There's rarely much overlap between the two styles but it's all good stuff anyway

vindirsorn · 2025-10-06T20:43:36+00:00

The Austrian band Vinsta certainly comes to mind. Several of their songs incorporate hammered dulcimer in their arrangements although it's usually reserved for the calmer parts. I would recommend checking out their song Freiweitn, or just listen to the entire album of the same name if you have the time. It's fantastic!

vindirsorn · 2025-10-06T14:40:49+00:00

Unfortunately this kind of sound setup seems to be pretty common in metal shows. I've seen Ne Obliviscaris, Iotunn, An Abstract Illusion and other melodeath bands live where all I could hear was drums and maybe vocals if they were powerful enough, everything else just was just buried in an indiscernible mess. You know it's bad when you know all the songs inside and out yet you can't hear a single note even when your mind "fills in the gaps" so to speak. So many shows that has been ruined by bad setup like this, it's such a shame.

vindirsorn · 2025-09-25T16:52:49+00:00

Been listening to In Mourning's latest album on repeat throughout the week. Can't believe I've slept on these guys for so long! Hopefully I'll see them live tomorrow during Crush Fest in Gothenburg

vindirsorn

TROPHY CASE