If you don't want to read this just skip to the next section, it's cool, I understand.
So I've been a long time rock fan. Started kinda late with Rock, sadly, I was 13 before I really got into music at all, and that band that did it for me was Nirvana. Over the years I've scoured everything I could find on hard rock & metal to find bands I could love, and I've found dozens and dozens (I don't think I'd go so far as to say hundreds yet though).
However, come say 2001-ish, new music seemed to die out, unless you like death growl, which is simply not my thing. And I like talent. Some bands have a great sounds and I can enjoy brainlessly for a while *cough*Korn*cough*disturbed*cough*godsmack*cough* but they get old quick. However some bands, like Metallica, Megadeth, AC/DC, Ozzy, Alice in Chains, and others become perenial favorites and after having listened to them non-stop for weeks at a time, I can take a short break, spice things up with something else, and then come back and listen to them again and enjoy.
By about 2004-ish it got to the point where there was simply NOTHING out there I could find that I liked that was new. I mean really, slipknot is just not my thing. In the meantime I'm branching out to other genre's, I picked up swing/jazz, classical music, and other crap. And I like it just fine, I do, but damn I really needed some kind of testosterone infused music to rock out to, and Metallica, god I love them, but they were getting OLD. I couldn't find ANYTHING and nothing seemed to help. People kept suggesting bands they liked, and anything I listened to never really grabbed me.
So now comes 2009, and by this time I'm thoroughly convinced good metal, and rock in general was dead, D. E. D. dead.
So in a last ditch effort I decided to go to youtube, and go through their suggestions. I started with Metallica, generic, everyone knows and loves metallica, but I figured the suggestions would be good. I went through suggested video after suggested video not finding crap, and then suddenly I found something I almost liked, it was an old video of Kamelot. They weren't quite right, but it struck a chord with me.
Suggested video there was a song with some bazillion views called Amaranth, by a band called Nightwish... Great, I'm thinking another Opeth type band that's all about worshiping satan, and dark and dismal and whatever, not really my thing, but I hit it anyways... SOB though, that sound was incredible, a little too uh, I don't know, still don't have the word for it, not quite what I'd like, I didn't care for the female singer that much, but it was definitely looking better, so I hit a related video from the same band. A song named Bye Bye Beautiful, and then I heard something else new (to me at least) callback. That same female singer and then a male singer taking turns singing the song, not a duet, but callback, and the male was awesome!
Nightwish, as it turned out had just gotten a new singer, and this new album was the first with her, and people hated her, at least according to the youtube comments. So I picked out an older one, "Wish I Had an Angel" OMFG this was it. This dark, gothic looking band was making music that was not your cliche blood drinking devil worshiping bulls**t, it was melodic, the singers were amazing, the lyrics were palatable. I looked them up on Wikipedia to learn a little about them, found their other albums listened to their singles, eventually bought their albums.
2 years later I'm hooked, and am still finding new bands in this genre. This brings me to why I'm making this thread.
I've found that at least in America, Symphonic Metal is a completely buried sub-genre of Metal, all but never played on radio stations (surprise surprise), everything is rap or pop or oldies anyways. This genre is huge in Europe, and I just wish it were here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, how many people have listened to much music in this genre?
What are your thoughts about the genre?
This genre is a mix of a classical-sounding symphony orchestra (unfortunately frequently synthesized) and power metal, and frequently has both a male and female lead singer.
Are there any bands you can suggest (that I'm not about to list myself)? Or one hit wonders, Nuclear Blast Europe has some cool little project songs where members of different bands get together and write and perform a song together, and some of those are absolutely incredible.
Here's a list of bands to start off with if you've never really gotten into it for one reason or another.
Nightwish
This is THE symphonic metal band. They're one of the earliest bands out there, and with Tarja Tarunen (remember that name) they were pretty much unique for years. They've grown and changed as time goes on. At this point their best singer is Marco Hietala the male lead and the guy with the epic viking beard, as Tarja was booted for being a diva. However Tarja is quite simply the best metal singer I've ever heard.
Haggard
This band is actually more like neo-classical metal. Just listen to them, you'll understand why. Not a fan of the growl, as usual, but damn if this band isn't incredible anyways.
EPICA
True to the name, they really are epic. This is the only female singer that (IMO) give Tarja a run for her money, and in many ways I feel is on par with Tarja. Simone Simons is f**king hot too, I put her on my exceptions list. I promised my wife I won't cheat, but if it's Simone all bets are off. To which she said: "Fine, I'm f**king Ben Afflack." Deal.
Within Temptation
Whenever I think of this band, I think of their infamous Black Symphony concert. Sharon Adele is an incredible singer and their music is fairly straight forward compared to some other bands, but their quality is top notch.
Sirenia
This band has had a number of different singers, but almost anyone who likes the genre can find at least one of their albums that they really love.
Therion
This is the band that put the genre on the map. Basically the one and only band older than Nightwish. Nightwish may have brought the genre into the mainstream in Europe, but it was Therion that pioneered the genre and they're by no means slouches themselves, in fact, they are arguably the best band in the genre.
Sonata Arctica
This is another one of the biggest bands in the genre. I myself have never really gotten into this band too much, but they have a massive following, so I'll link this song and you can decide for yourself. You'll probably like them, and call me stupid. So be it.
The Diablo Swing Orchestra
This band, technically speaking isn't really Symphonic Metal. They're far more avante guard than Symphonic Metal, however. The singer is almost a dead ringer for Tarja, vocally speaking, and the band is pretty badass. Their sound though is more what I would call Swing-Metal. It's got that 1950's swing band bounce with the bass (violin, not guitar) and the trumpet playing. F**king love this band to death. (BTW this is their only song sung in Latin, the rest is English)
OK well this is getting to be a huge post, so I'm gonna call it quits here for now. If you want I can add more, and if you want, please do add more. I'm sure there's more bands out there I haven't found. But this will give you a good place to start if you like the genre.
So I've been a long time rock fan. Started kinda late with Rock, sadly, I was 13 before I really got into music at all, and that band that did it for me was Nirvana. Over the years I've scoured everything I could find on hard rock & metal to find bands I could love, and I've found dozens and dozens (I don't think I'd go so far as to say hundreds yet though).
However, come say 2001-ish, new music seemed to die out, unless you like death growl, which is simply not my thing. And I like talent. Some bands have a great sounds and I can enjoy brainlessly for a while *cough*Korn*cough*disturbed*cough*godsmack*cough* but they get old quick. However some bands, like Metallica, Megadeth, AC/DC, Ozzy, Alice in Chains, and others become perenial favorites and after having listened to them non-stop for weeks at a time, I can take a short break, spice things up with something else, and then come back and listen to them again and enjoy.
By about 2004-ish it got to the point where there was simply NOTHING out there I could find that I liked that was new. I mean really, slipknot is just not my thing. In the meantime I'm branching out to other genre's, I picked up swing/jazz, classical music, and other crap. And I like it just fine, I do, but damn I really needed some kind of testosterone infused music to rock out to, and Metallica, god I love them, but they were getting OLD. I couldn't find ANYTHING and nothing seemed to help. People kept suggesting bands they liked, and anything I listened to never really grabbed me.
So now comes 2009, and by this time I'm thoroughly convinced good metal, and rock in general was dead, D. E. D. dead.
So in a last ditch effort I decided to go to youtube, and go through their suggestions. I started with Metallica, generic, everyone knows and loves metallica, but I figured the suggestions would be good. I went through suggested video after suggested video not finding crap, and then suddenly I found something I almost liked, it was an old video of Kamelot. They weren't quite right, but it struck a chord with me. Suggested video there was a song with some bazillion views called Amaranth, by a band called Nightwish... Great, I'm thinking another Opeth type band that's all about worshiping satan, and dark and dismal and whatever, not really my thing, but I hit it anyways... SOB though, that sound was incredible, a little too uh, I don't know, still don't have the word for it, not quite what I'd like, I didn't care for the female singer that much, but it was definitely looking better, so I hit a related video from the same band. A song named Bye Bye Beautiful, and then I heard something else new (to me at least) callback. That same female singer and then a male singer taking turns singing the song, not a duet, but callback, and the male was awesome!
Nightwish, as it turned out had just gotten a new singer, and this new album was the first with her, and people hated her, at least according to the youtube comments. So I picked out an older one, "Wish I Had an Angel" OMFG this was it. This dark, gothic looking band was making music that was not your cliche blood drinking devil worshiping bulls**t, it was melodic, the singers were amazing, the lyrics were palatable. I looked them up on Wikipedia to learn a little about them, found their other albums listened to their singles, eventually bought their albums.
2 years later I'm hooked, and am still finding new bands in this genre. This brings me to why I'm making this thread.
I've found that at least in America, Symphonic Metal is a completely buried sub-genre of Metal, all but never played on radio stations (surprise surprise), everything is rap or pop or oldies anyways. This genre is huge in Europe, and I just wish it were here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, how many people have listened to much music in this genre?
What are your thoughts about the genre?
This genre is a mix of a classical-sounding symphony orchestra (unfortunately frequently synthesized) and power metal, and frequently has both a male and female lead singer.
Are there any bands you can suggest (that I'm not about to list myself)? Or one hit wonders, Nuclear Blast Europe has some cool little project songs where members of different bands get together and write and perform a song together, and some of those are absolutely incredible.
Here's a list of bands to start off with if you've never really gotten into it for one reason or another.
Nightwish
This is THE symphonic metal band. They're one of the earliest bands out there, and with Tarja Tarunen (remember that name) they were pretty much unique for years. They've grown and changed as time goes on. At this point their best singer is Marco Hietala the male lead and the guy with the epic viking beard, as Tarja was booted for being a diva. However Tarja is quite simply the best metal singer I've ever heard.
[YOUTUBE]ueiOqaSvHp0[/YOUTUBE]
Haggard
This band is actually more like neo-classical metal. Just listen to them, you'll understand why. Not a fan of the growl, as usual, but damn if this band isn't incredible anyways.
[YOUTUBE]2iTlu3STCdI[/YOUTUBE]
EPICA
True to the name, they really are epic. This is the only female singer that (IMO) give Tarja a run for her money, and in many ways I feel is on par with Tarja. Simone Simons is f**king hot too, I put her on my exceptions list. I promised my wife I won't cheat, but if it's Simone all bets are off.
To which she said: "Fine, I'm f**king Ben Afflack." Deal.[YOUTUBE]UAlRf9qf9d0[/YOUTUBE]
Within Temptation
Whenever I think of this band, I think of their infamous Black Symphony concert. Sharon Adele is an incredible singer and their music is fairly straight forward compared to some other bands, but their quality is top notch.
[YOUTUBE]JwWRUVVadQg[/YOUTUBE]
Sirenia
This band has had a number of different singers, but almost anyone who likes the genre can find at least one of their albums that they really love.
[YOUTUBE]ouZQ7rgAq-I[/YOUTUBE]
Therion
This is the band that put the genre on the map. Basically the one and only band older than Nightwish. Nightwish may have brought the genre into the mainstream in Europe, but it was Therion that pioneered the genre and they're by no means slouches themselves, in fact, they are arguably the best band in the genre.
[YOUTUBE]-ZtCRJld08c[/YOUTUBE]
Sonata Arctica
This is another one of the biggest bands in the genre. I myself have never really gotten into this band too much, but they have a massive following, so I'll link this song and you can decide for yourself. You'll probably like them, and call me stupid. So be it.
[YOUTUBE]G1zkXdqcajk[/YOUTUBE]
The Diablo Swing Orchestra
This band, technically speaking isn't really Symphonic Metal. They're far more avante guard than Symphonic Metal, however. The singer is almost a dead ringer for Tarja, vocally speaking, and the band is pretty badass. Their sound though is more what I would call Swing-Metal. It's got that 1950's swing band bounce with the bass (violin, not guitar) and the trumpet playing. F**king love this band to death. (BTW this is their only song sung in Latin, the rest is English)
[YOUTUBE]gsmAF9cVPm4[/YOUTUBE]
OK well this is getting to be a huge post, so I'm gonna call it quits here for now. If you want I can add more, and if you want, please do add more. I'm sure there's more bands out there I haven't found. But this will give you a good place to start if you like the genre.
