Recommend Dincrest some music

[Goblin Shark]

Rook- Skinny Puppy is good stuff.  ohGr, who I mentioned before, is ex-Skinny Puppy.  And I remember first hearing about King Missile when the "Detachable Penis" video was on Beavis & Butt-Head.  

Orson- you actually turned me on to Omnium Gatherum in another thread.  I loved that Skyline song and plan to get the album once I get some disposable income.  

And I dig that new Pyramaze song.  I did not like their first album, but I loved Legend of the Bone Carver.  This new stuff is even better.  

I LOVED that Onmyo-Za song!  That intro where it blends modern and traditional instruments was killer.  It totally satisfies my love of metal and of soaring Japanese female vocalists.  I need to put that album on my wishlist.  It's like a Japanese Evanescence or Lacuna Coil, but with less goth and more speed/melodeath.  

I still need to listen to the following:

Insomnium - Ephemeral

The Gentle Storm - Heart Of Amsterdam

Wilderun - The Garden of Fire

Haken - Crystallised

[Artimicia]

Hm, are you familiar with Daisuke Ishiwatari and the Guilty Gear/Blazblue stuff? It's video game OSTs, not really lyrical, but.. hm.. well it's been entertaining.

Here is a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGetImTgyFA

[Goblin Shark]

Of course.  I have both the Japanese and Korean (by the band N.EX.T) Guilty Gear XX soundtracks. 

My favorite of Ishiwatari is "Blue Water, Blue Sky" (May's theme.)  But for Ky's theme, I vastly prefer the Korean version Pillars of the Underworld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY6D_BmNrs8

As for Orson's other tracks:

-That Insomnium song Ephemeral doesn't really do anything wrong, but it didn't move me like the Omnium Gatherum or Onmyo-Za songs.  I felt like the vocals were a bit monotone and mixed too low so they lacked oomph. 

- I didn't really like that Gentle Storm song.  It did nothing wrong, but my benchmark band for folk infused death metal is Eluveitie and I'd rather listen to them than Gentle Storm. 

-The Wilderun song was good and I liked the vocalist.  His growls were deep and his cleans were melodic.  Not my favorite of the stuff you recommended, but solid. 

-Haken- Crystallized.  That song was truly epic in every sense of the word.  I heard more variety in those 20 minutes than I have in many 50+ hour games.  I feel like after that song, I need a long nap, it's like a musical food coma. 

My favorites of your recommendations are definitely Onmyo-Za, Omnium Gatherum, and new Pyramaze. 

[EmeraldSword]

Yeah, I gave you an eclectic list to begin with so I didn't expect everything to mesh for you. Glad to hear you liked that Haken track.

You might also like this track off that EP album:

HAKEN - Darkest Light (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlHs17dQY8

Oh, and here's one I forgot to add to the list. It's one of the best Soilwork songs I've heard in recent years and has a funny video of an old dude getting down with some hilarious dance moves, hah:

SOILWORK - Rise Above The Sentiment (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LEKU7cBOak

[Goblin Shark]

I've never been too big on Soilwork's or In Flames' newer material, but that Soilwork song was neat.  I'd never heard Soilwork that experimental. 

Anyway, a band I kinda discovered on my own during my time with Pool of Thorns is Last Call Chernobyl.  I mainly was interested in them because our band homework was to find cool stage moves to incorporate into our show to make it more exciting.  I know I get bored when I just see the band just standing still, even if their music is killer.  I mean, at least a crappy punk band is jumping around, generating excitement, leaping into the crowd...

Here's a montage of his moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZnq0XkUNY (I incorporated less intense versions of those kinds of moves into my performance, because I did not want to risk destroying my instruments, and it just naturally fit with the body movements I make anyway when listening intently to heavy music.) 

Here's the song in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZETlz50rEb4

[xpsychedelico]

Some folk metal...
Nine Treasures - Arvan Ald Guulin Hunshoor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tw8BW0PB_k
Balkandji - Videnie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyVizaSlRU4

Dir en Grey has climbed in popularity in the US over the past few years, but still, they fit most of your criteria :)
Different Sense (from Dum Spiro Spero): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpuYs1DE97k
Ryojoku no Ame (from The Marrow of a Bone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=570C-s2gSr8
Rasetsukoku (from Dum Spiro Spero): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FcVMcNeEWk
The Fatal Believer (from The Marrow of a Bone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thpBOjEyaFQ
Uroko (from Arche): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBradbc-dY

[Goblin Shark]

Nine Treasures- I LOVED the music and the way it interwove metal with Chinese classical... but I HATED the vocals.  They sounded muffled, weak, monotonous, and totally out to lunch.  They lacked power, clarity, and dynamic qualities.  I've seen and heard so many metal bands whose music is amazing, but a weak vocalist kills it.  Like putting dime store ketchup on artisan pomme frittes.   

I'm pretty familiar with Dir en Grey and that band is totally hit-or-miss for me.  I love the music in the Dum Spiro Spero stuff, but the vocals sound overly processed and lack any sort of organic quality.  On the other hand, the material from The Marrow of a Bone has much more organic vocal production, but the music itself is more "pop rock" to my ears than metal.  If I could have the Dum Spiro Spero album with The Marrow of a Bone's vocals, then it would be perfect. 

Man, if those Onmyo-Za albums (Fuujin Kaiko and Raijin Sousei) weren't so expensive to import, I'd have bought them months ago.  So far, that and Eluveitie have been my picks of this litter.  I have the Eluveitie album Slania (I love it) and still want to buy Origins. 

To add something to this thread that tickled my fancy, here's what I've heard so far of Dog Fashion Disco's Ad Nauseam album.  These two songs couldn't be any more different, but that's what I like about the band.  They play whatever the fuck they want, genre barriers be damned.  I wish I'd known about them earlier, because I want this album now.  I encourage folks to listen to both songs.  Same band, same album, couldn't be more different. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCd0586QF2A Title track (it's got a groovy swing rock feel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V2BIJ3PED8 Covered in Blood (it's a damn good thrash song.)