I'm basing this off my area, and also off the "bands most people don't know of" bit and not "bands hipsters would necessarily like."
- Voltaire: I find his songs funny, entertaining and the range of styles he has (as in, genre-based styles) makes him more individual and more fun to listen to. It's never "oh, it's this drivel again", and he has a number of more serious songs that generally reflect my opinions pretty well.
- ES Posthumus
- Immediate Music
- X-Ray Dog
- Two Steps From Hell
These are bands that have songs commonly known (such as in trailers for movies), but not many people actually know who they are, or listen to the other songs they all have. I enjoy them for the generally dramatic, instrumental (and with choir) songs that get my creativity going. Something without words to listen to while writing, or even drawing.
- E Nomine
- Rammstein
- Various Japanese artists
Sort of the same reason why I like the groups like Immediate Music, plus with some songs, they have really cool lyrics. For instance, I really like Rammstein's "Morgenstern" and found the message in the lyrics worthwhile, and most of the time, I find that these bands have unique rhythms in their songs that fuel different forms of writing (generally, more darker, ominous scenes come to mind). I found most of the German bands after watching Hellsing, because a lot of their songs are used in AMV's for the series. (And I don't end up leeching the words of the songs into stuff I'm writing).
