Are you familiar with any Melodic Death Metal aka Melodeath? More notable bands in the genre include Arch Enemy (anti-theist, anti-establishment themes, their current and previous lead vocalists are vegan, the lead guitarist is vegetarian, and they have a song about animal cruelty I was hesitant to post which, though not extremely graphic, I'm unsure don't know your level of sensitivity to such), Soilwork, At The Gates, Hypocrisy (themes of Aliens, Sci-Fi, Conspiracy Theories), In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Amon Amarth, Carcass, Heaven Shall Burn (themes of anti-racism,anti-fascism, societal ills, all members vegetarian). There is a good lesser know band in the genre called Infinite Tales, with themes of societal ills, and several songs about the destruction of our environment. I enjoy the genre because it provides the melody, if not more, of more mainstream genres of Metal, while also having the extremity of non-mainstream genres, providing the best of both worlds. Particulary like 80's Black Sabbath, and 90's-00's Sevendust. But here's a couple tastes of Melodeath:

My favorite hobby(until Covid hit) was going to a metal/industrial show as often as possible. That averaged to about one every 45 days or so. I'd say that my mid-life crisis was getting back into a mosh-pit. Now it is keeping in shape so I can stay in the pit with the younger ones. I love going to shows and finding other intelligent professionals who just like to get the crap knocked out of themselves.

My strong recommendation is for you to look into Gojira. I saw them at the Chicago Open Air festival in 2016 and Gojira was certainly one of the highlights. I have not had a chance to see them yet again, but they are on my VERY short list when things clear up. I believe they are playing in Chicago with the Deftones in August.

I'd say I'm not as much into traditional or death metal - much more into 90's/00's industrial. So if you enjoy bands like Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, KMFDM, Rob Zombie(ish)I can point you in a few different directions.

Also, one of my favorites is a smaller band named 3Teeth. They have opened for Tool and Rammstein - and now headlining small shows of their own. I've had the pleasure of seeing them several times, gotten to chat/hang out with those guys and they are fantastic artists AND great people.

Link goodness:

Gojira

3teeth

Pardon the wall of text, like I said, this is my "thing".

Hello , all hail those who dabble their toe into the Heavy Metal musical waters. Agnostic.com has no shortage of alternative/ heavy music groups . 3 X all told. Which is proof positive the genre continues to go from strength to strength . SLAYER... .

Hello, check these guys out from AZ

Hi! What are your favorite bands?