The Energon Pub

Hey everybody, just wanted to know if anyone can recommend some good "starter" from these bands. I've heard these bands for years and didn't pay much attention to them until recently, so I'm ready to take the plunge. Any recommendations on where to start? Note: I'm not one of these guys that "hates the new sound, loves the old sound," so even the most recent albums are viable recommendations. I'll also probably add a few bands later, because a bunch of them have been floating around in my head for a while, but these were the only ones I could remember off the top of my head.

Slipknot
Lamb of God
Needtobreathe
Thin Lizzy
In Flames

Any recommendations are welcome. Thanks.

Good starting Slipknot is Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. You could try Iowa, but that's a bit of an intense album. Listen to them In this order:

Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
All Hope is Gone
Iowa
Slipknot

For Lamb of God, all I really know are the first three albums, but they are very good albums. New American Gospel, Ashes of the Wake and As The Palaces Burn, they all sort of do the same stuff, with NAG being probably their roughest or maybe like, least accessible one. AofW and AtPB are probably more in line with what they're doing nowadays (although I really don't know for sure) and they are the two that LoG were at the height of their mainstream popularity for, so there's that.

In Flames, that depends on what type of In Flames you're after. If you want their more straight Death metal days, all you really need is The Jester Race. If you want that Gothenburg melodeath style, the best ones for that are Whoracle and Clayman, with half album nods to Colony and Come Clarity, although those two, it's really just a handful of good songs and not worth the entire disc (just my opinion, but, you know that already). Most recent In Flames doesn't do anything for me, it's kind of too watered down and boring, and the other albums all don't excite me for various reasons. Lunar Strain (debut) is decent, but At the Gates did that same album better. Soundtrack to Your Escape had the dubious task of following Clayman, and stood no chance. I think there's another album that I'm forgetting, so I guess that tells you what I'd most likely think about it.

The other bands, alas, I can be of no help. Thin Lizzy is probably my least favorite classic rock-type band, and with absolutely no offense at all intended to prowl123, Slipknot is a little to light to register on my rock-o-meter. Hope these recs are of any use to you.

Buy 'The Hunter' by Mastodon. Never listen to anything else again. I know I won't.