I've listened to some more albums...
Wintersun -
Wintersun (2004)
Genre: Melodic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, Folk Metal
Rating: 4.5 / 5
This band has only released one album in 2004 and it's already considered a metal classic. It basically takes the speed and epic feel of power metal, the vocals and melody of melodic death metal, the atmosphere of black metal, and creates a perfect synthesis. Some may find this too cheesy, but I feel it never goes overboard. They are actually coming out with a second album this summer, which has been in the making for years.
Kyuss -
Blues For The Red Sun (1992)
Genre: Stoner Metal, Heavy Metal, Psychedelic Metal
Rating: 4.5 / 5
This is Kyuss' second album and along with
Welcome To Sky Valley it's considered one of their two classic albums. Overall, this album is just as good as the proceeding album, but I wasn't a fan of The Thong Song. It's pretty boring, which prevents this from being a perfect album. All in all though, the riffs are great and there's a nice dash of psychedelic rock in here as well.
Animals As Leaders -
Animals As Leaders (2009)
Genre: Progressive Metal, Instrumental Metal, Jazz Fusion
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Now this is some fresh stuff. There are no vocals, but the music will draw you in anyway. It's very complex, varied, and experimental, but it should be quite accessible as well. There's a ton of melody and this album will occasional get pretty heavy as well, but the pacing is never too exhausting. A couple boring filler songs aside, you can't go wrong with this. I can't wait to hear their second album.
Estatic Fear -
Somnium Obmutum (1996)
Genre: Death Metal, Folk Metal, Symphonic Metal, Gothic Metal
Rating: 5 / 5
I thought
A Sombre Dance was a perfect album, but this is even better! It's heavier than the proceeding album and contains more touches of doom metal and gothic metal. The structure of the album is not very accessible though, as it consists of two short passages and two extremely long songs (30 minutes and 18 minutes respectively). There is never a poor section of this album though, so don't worry.