Its time for EL to pick a new hot chick avatar anyway

okay

Strapping Young Lad - Death/Thrash Metal with Industrial Influences

All Hail the New Flesh

Shitstorm

Strapping Young Lad represents the darker side of their bipolar frontman, Devin Townsend. They are one of the most intense bands I have ever listened to, absolutely pummeling the listener with a wall of sound. Despite the intense music, the lyrics are hilariously tongue-in-cheek. The star of this band is vocalist/guitarist Devin Townsend, one of my favorite vocalists, providing an astounding range from sheer

rage

to powerful

emotion

, although the former is more heavily relied on in SYL.. Gene Hoglan, one of the most practiced drummers in existence, provides a powerful backdrop complete with some of the most accurate and fast double bass and blast beats I've ever heard. Their albums City and Alien are highly recommended to those who can handle their intensity.

Death - Death Metal/Progressive Death Metal

Baptized in Blood

Spirit Crusher

If you've ever wondered where death metal got its name, here is your answer. Death came out of nowhere with their 1987 debut, Scream Bloody Gore, taking the intensity and speed of thrash metal and increasing it tenfold, creating a whole new genre that ended up named after them. However, after a few albums of straight-up death metal, they decided to play with it a bit and added progressive elements, ending up as one of the first progressive death metal bands. Unfortunately, the driving force behind Death, vocalist/guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, died in 2001 from brain stem cancer. Former members have gone on to other well-known metal bands, such as Cynic, Strapping Young Lad, Iced Earth, and Testament.

Pain of Salvation - Progressive Metal

Idioglossia

In the Flesh

Probably one of the most diverse bands in metal, Pain of Salvation have songs that fall into numerous genres and subgenres, from standard progressive metal (see Idioglossia, above) to emotional ballads (see In the Flesh, above) to, on one notable occasion apiece, rap and disco. All of their music has some characteristics of progressive metal, however, such as shifting time signatures and tempos, odd polyrhythmic sections, and powerful, melodic vocals. Every album they have made is a concept album, even their first two live albums have a story. The most obvious aspect of their music is their vocalist, Daniel Gildenlöw, who boasts a massive 4-octave vocal range, going from deep bass notes to soaring soprano notes in the same song. Gildenlöw is also the lead guitarist and almost exclusive songwriter for the band - to date, only one song has been written with the help of another bandmate. Looking past the vocals, however, one can see the incredible skill all five members of the band possess. Pain of Salvation are still around, but have gone through three member changes since their 2007 album. They are currently recording a new album, due out this fall.

C: Exploding middle finger

Why the fuck would you use that? It's so fucking overused it angers me.

I recommend hot chicks.

Yes, it is fucking obnoxious.

Holy crap its EL.

o/

You act as though this is a shocking event. Use embassies more, fuckass.

FUCKING AMATEURS. You always forget about Flask.

But Flask does not forget about you.

We forgot Crunka, too.

That's how I've always seen it. Not necessarily exact founders, but without us, this alliance would have had a much different start.

Yeah, same. I mean, neither of the real founders did much of anything for the RIA.

I came as soon as it was announced on the RIA boards, so it may technically been a day or two after it started, but by nation creation date, Shadow, beef, and I were all started on the same day with beef ahead by a couple hours, then Shadow with about a one hour lead on me. I don't know about you, though.

Yeah, I made my nation right when that topic went up on RI. I was in the AIM chat, Yuu Yuu Hakusho 2, and was member #2 (I think) on the old boards. No idea what time my nation was made, though.