[Reaper16]

For NewPhin (and whoever else), a list of metal albums that blend heavy & light passages, blend genre, are good.

*Legend*
Band Name (brief description of band):
Album Name
Album Name

Agalloch (An Oregon band that expertly blends Post-Rock, Black Metal and European Folk music. I think they are the best band in America.):
Pale Folklore
The Mantle
Ashes Against the Grain

Angra (a Brazilian Power Metal band. The compositions are awe-inspiring. So much Latin influence):
Temple of Shadows
Aurora Consurgens

Ansur (progressive metal. The vocals suck but the instrumentals are the kind of thing you're looking for if you like how Opeth blends heavy and melodic so well):
Warring Factions

Athiest (Death Metal has always been the subgenre of metal that has played up the genre's inherent jazz influence the most. Athiest, perhaps moreso than any metal band, is jazz music. Crazy-good.):
Piece of Time
Unquestionable Presence
Elements

Baroness (Southern-fried, sludgy, subversive use of minor and major scales):
Blue Record

Crotchduster (a comedy side-project from members of death metal band Capharnaum. They shift complete genres on a dime with multiple song parodies within a single song. The album has to be heard to be believed.):
Big Fat Box of Shit

Dan Swano (an influential producer and member of numerous metal bands. Does rare solo work. If you like Opeth you will like):
Moontower

Disillusion (German band. Fits the description of musical blending. Title track is tremendous):
Back to Times of Splendor

Edge of Sanity (A Dan Swano band. Both of these albums are twisting, turning, tornadoes of musicality. Both albums consist of a single 40-50 minute long song):
Crimson
Crimson II

Kalisia (French band. They put out an EP in 1994. They're full-length concept album didn't come out until last year. It was my second fav album of 2009. This band is insane in an organic, uncontrived way):
Skies
Cybion

November's Doom (a Chicago-based band that meshes Doom & Death metal. Tons of light/dark interplay):
The Pale Haunt Departure

Persefone (a lot like Kalisia. Balls-out crazy. So Exciting yet altogether musical):
Core
Shin-ken

Sigh (a Japanese band that was originally a band heavily inspired by Scandinavian Black Metal but grew increasingly and rapidly more experimental. Their most recent album, for example, is musically accomplishing the blending of bombastic German symphony, German thrash metal and Japanese pop/rock. It is far from their most experimental album):
Hail Horror Hail
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams
Imaginary Sonicscape
Gallows Gallery
Hangman's Hymn
Scenes from Hell

UneXpect (a Canadian band that makes surprisingly organic, natural sounding music that also happens to be chaotic. Opera, free jazz, circus music, and all kinds of disparate shit join up in the effort):
In A Flesh Aquarium

So, 25 albums isn't a bad starter list. I could have listed an infinitely large number of other bands that are more straightforward (and yet not straightforward at all). The albums that did get listed are the ones that are complex and perpetually exciting, the ones that keep you on the edge of your seat because you don't know what will happen next, the ones that accomplish all that without sounding gimmicky or sounding like they are "forcing it."