Back when I started spouting BS about metal in the late 90s, it was a big deal for an unsigned band to make it big. You almost
had to be on a label back then, preferably the big 4 metal labels, Relapse, Metal Blade, Century Media or Nuclear Blast. However, times have changed- now everyone and their grandmother (my grandmother has a label called Ancient Taint records that specializes in polka, ska, big band death metal) has a record label, and even then with the proliferation of digital media with sites like bandcamp and soundcloud, the record label has been marginalized. Bands are simply releasing stuff themselves or releasing it through their own imprint or label (i.e the latest Noumena's new album Death Walks With Me, was released on a label, Haunted Zoo Productions started by 2 of the band members). A number of simply brilliant unsigned bands have crossed my path over the last few years from the likes of The Living Fields and Vore, who finally went on to get signed, to The Fifth Sun to The Pax Cecilia, both now defunct. So I thought I'd throw together a list of fairly recent, relevant unsigned (as of this writing) metal bands that released something recently and and are still active (at least to my knowledge). I tried not to have any crossover from my "
1o Metal Bands You Need to Hear Now" feature, so my apologies to Thrawsunblat who are on that list, but are also deserving of being on this unordered list, being unsigned an all.
15. Feared
The Lowdown: Groove laden, chunky melodic death meets thrash metal featuring current session members of Six Feet Under, drummer elite Kevin Talley and Demonoid vocalist Mario Ramos. Based in the home of Swedish death metal, Stockholm, founder Ola Englund has a knack for being some monstrous, catchy grooves through the band's 3 album career, and their current release Furor Incarnatus is chock full of them. I imagine they won't be unsigned for long as they have the smell of a Metal Blade band, despite England's bizarre-sense of humor.
RIYL: Gorefest, Grave, Six Feet Under, Pantera.