I am pretty much saturated with free music from the many netlabels and happy "amateur" musicians who release music because they make music for music's sake, not money. If somebody wants recommendations, name a genre and I will see if I can drop some links. There is a lot of negative prejudice against free music which is a real shame.
I do think there is a "negative" connotation to free music. Free does not mean bad, or less good, than expensive music, when it comes to art.
As a musician, it is significantly harder to produce an entire album by oneself. But, thats the great part of releasing something into the world, its all mine. No one else's imagination touched what I wanted to create.
Set Up::: I use a synthesizer, a midi keyboard, and an APC 40. A decent pair of studio monitors, M-Audio BX5 D2s. I sometimes borrow a microphone for a friend that works in a music studio. I record everything on Ableton 8 or 9.
I always share my music for free, and give the listener the option to pay if they want. I am about to release a three track EP, you can listen the first track here.
http://fantasmafigueroa.bandcamp.com/album/afuera
EDIT:
It might not be everyone's cup of tea. I grew up listening to Chicago house/acid house. Influences: Brian Eno, Max Richter, Boards of Canada, Efdemin, Stars of the Lid... lots of ambient stuff.
Your definition of free is not the same as mine. I mean music that is freely licensed so everyone can share it as they like. Creative Commons licenses are the great standard here. Your music requires at least giving you/Bandcamp an e-mail address (a personal gripe of mine and instant tab closer) and says "all rights reserved".
Requiring email, instant tap closer, huh? I never had any feedback regarding this. Bandcamp was just an easy place to share. I just changed the setting.
http://www.ektoplazm.com/section/free-music will overwhelm you. The great thing is that it aggregates pretty much all good free releases are there. When you find something you like, try the netlabel it comes from. Often they focus on one particular style.
I don't know what "extreme metal" is nor have I found a Metal netlabel yet but the site with the worst redesign strategy in the free music world has some great ones. Might not be the style(s) you are into.
