Do you listen to Opeth? You should be listening to Opeth. Though these days they're more a prog band with a hint of metal as opposed to the other way around (and I am okay with that). Speaking of, Porcupine Tree are pretty amazing for darker prog, but not really as hard, so I'm sure others will have some better suggestions.

A friend turned me on to Chthe'ilist, as that their first album had some Legend of Zelda influence (I'm a big fan). Solid riffs, mixed bag solos, maybe a little too relentlessly growly for me to listen to much, but it was fun. However, in the liner notes they specify "no pitch shifting effects were used on the vocals". I can see that being a point of pride in death vocals and all, however, there were a TON of other effects used (which were cool, and some clever sounds too) including some pitch shifts on the delays. Why are you drawing this arbitrary line, and where are you drawing it? If you didn't mention it, I wouldn't have noticed, I'd have said, "hey, cool vocals, neat effects".

Non-metal news, I'm opening up for Autumn next week (90s ethereal goth) and next month, GENE LOVES JEZEBEL!!! The Jay Aston version! Must not fanboy out!!!!