READERS’ CHOICE: THE FROG METAL EDITION

MetalGF and I just booked a trip to Paris during the upcoming holiday season, and we’re pretty excited. On the way there we’ll be hanging in Amsterdam for four nights and indulging in all the fine delights that city has to offer; we’ll most certainly be ringing in Christmas the green way, ifyaknowhatimean, like any good Jews would. I shit you not, there is actually a flight from JFK to Amsterdam that leaves at exactly 4:20pm and you better believe we’re on it; some stoned paper pusher at Delta airlines who’s in charge of flight scheduling surely had a good laugh when he slipped that one into the books. In any case, we’ll be in Paris for a whole 5 nights (including New Year’s Eve) and I’m really hoping MetalGF agrees to go to one metal show with me, be it a famous touring band or some local bands at a hole in the wall. There’s nothing quite like experiencing metal in other countries, ya know? In that spirit, here are some of the best reader-submitted French bands to hit my inbox lately:

• Memories of a Dead Man: Video for “Single Thought and Emptiness Wishes” posted above. Kinda sounds like whatever’s halfway between Swallow the Sun and Mastodon, if you can imagine such a thing; big, epic, airy passages mixed with furious riffs of stone. [Thanks: Benoit Debrun]
• Clampdown: These guys are closer to the Gojira sound, especially rhythmically and vocally… I also hear elements of Textures. The first track on their MySpace, “Visions of Splendor,” is phenomenal. [Thanks: Mohamed.O]
• Outcast: Death metal with a healthy dose of technicality and a keen sense of power groove. [Thanks: brandonmetal]
• Them Martyrs: These guys are actually Irish, but they seem to spend a good deal of time in France and even recorded their new album French Extremity there. They sound like a less awesome and less technical version of East of the Wall that wears their post-hardcore influence right out on their collective sleeve.

Now I just need to learn to speak French. At least a few words of it. Like, quick.

-VN