No kidding. I’m an ardent Amy Lee/Evanescence fan thanks to her voice. But will we get new Evanescence any time soon? I mean, it’s been 5 or six years hasn’t it? Who knows.
In the meantime, this is what Amy Lee has been up to, thanks to Amazon music… There’s a whole album of this stuff. I’d be so excited if I were 5.
@ineffablebob I must say that I am deeply and sincerely disappointed in @Daagar and @Thraeg. If you are going to talk Symphonic metal and not mention Symphony X?
For shame.
Their style ranges a fair bit, their older stuff being much more classically influenced, their newer of a more power metal bent (but retaining the symphonic/ neo classical influence).
And if you don’t know Rhapsody of Fire, you owe it to yourself
Yes, that is Christopher Lee. Sadly Fabio Lione left in the last year, and with him and Lucca Turilli both gone it loses some of the magic for me. But if you are going to watch one video in full MAKE IT THIS ONE!
That said I will also second Daagar’s recocmendation for Xandria, and good lord you are not on the Epica train yet? HOW?
Another from the intense side before switching tracks a bit… Sonata Arctica
I like them a lot, but also maintain that they are second tier to a Symphony X or Kamelot. The music composition or lyrics aren’t as great, while not also embracing the full cheese of Rhapsody of Fire. But a very solid band.
So you like female vocals @ineffablebob? Try Dark Moor
or how about Leaves Eyes
And if you like the new Nightwish? How about looking into the new lead singer’s former band, After Forever
I’m barely scratching the surface here. Gonna hit the page break so I don’t cap the video limit in a post.
I am also gonna tag @ineffablebob so that he goes insane.
The new Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody project is also pretty great! Different everyone except Turilli, but I like it better than his pure solo albums (where the old vocalist was pretty fuckin bad).
Also, Freedom Call is good, cheeseball fun in the power-symphonic vein. I’m, uh, not sure I’d ever call Freedom Call good, but sometimes you just wanna hear that squeaky lil dude wail over some guitars and synths, man!
If we’re tossing in Sonata Arctica, then why not the band I kept thinking the first Sonata Arctica album was blatantly ripping off, good ol’ Stratovarius? (haha Stratocaster + Stradivarius get it lol). A band that’s hired and fired so many guys named Timo that I’ll never be able to keep their roster straight.
And how have we made it this far into a female-vocal-fronted metal conversation without bringing up ol’ Lacuna Coil? FOR SHAME GENTLEMEN. SHAME ON @Thraeg @CraigM @Daagar, and @kerzain alike!!
I don’y enjoy Lacuna Coil, so I forgot they existed.
I’m also posting from a phone, so my recommendations will be sparse.
But here are some of my favorites (Evanescence has already been touched on):
Skarp is fun for me. I enjoy hardcore vocals, so sue me.
Otep can sound a little derivative at times, but she delivers some catchy tunes for the most part.
Grayceon has been talked about before in this thread, but I absolutely adore them to no end:
Kylesa just announced a hiatus after releasing an album last year (fuck), but they have a crushing discography (except for one or two more recent psychedelic entries). Laura shares vocal duties with Phillip, but she’s lead on 90% of their stuff.
Man, I listened to a lot of Otep trying to impress some girl in middle school.
She’s got a kid and lives in a Pagan polyamorous triad nowadays.
Just thought y’all needed to know that.
So I’m rolling now
So how about something with female vocals, and a whole lot darker and heavier? Therion fits that bill
And that Blind Guardian has not come up is an utter crime
AND DAMN YOU @ArmandoPenblade I was literally copying that Lacuna Coil exact song and was also gonna tag Stratovarius (and lol to the, partly true early on, rip on Sonata Artica)
Aw, hell why not go all in. Royal Hunt
(partly included because the background arcade games)
And a band that has been done for a decade now, due to the unfortunate death of the lead singer, Elis
Admittedly finding good videos of them is really hard these days. Griefshire worth looking into though.
Here’s a fun break in the pattern
Yup, Nobuo Uematsu makes an appearance.
Another obscure one, Suspyre
Or Serenity
And another one that, though not always symphonic, definitely needs inclusion. So I’m picking one of my favorite Savatage tracks
And any talk of Symphonic needs to include one of the progenitors, Mr. Donuts himself.
I’ve been laughing at the grotesque bulk of Malmsteen stuffed into his leather clothes from the 80s in videos like Arpeggios from Hell for more than a decade now. Thanks for the reminder :)
“Morphine Child” is the best song ever produced by Savatage or Trans-Siberian Orchestra, full-stop.
Therion is a super good call, though. Surprised I didn’t think of that, but yeah, perfect.
I’m not tapped out, not by a long shot. I am merely conveniently stopping, lest I overload you @Otthegreat. It also takes me a long time, mainly because I stop and listen along the way.
It also is a fuzzy line from power metal (which tends to have a lot of symphonic influence), symphonic metal, folk metal. For example would I classify Ayreon as symphonic? At times, yes. But not all.
Ayreon is awesome by the way.
Agree strongly.
I’ll never stop finding Donuts funny.
Oh man, that reminds me!!!
NEW AYREON TRACKKKKKK OMFGGGGGGG
But seriously watch that video, it introduces the full cast, goes into the plot backstory, and has all sorts of neat technical details about he music/instruments, too! Plus, ya know, 13 minutes of new Ayreon material :-D
Are you all conspiring to push me to @Thraeg -like levels of music consumption? There’s probably a dozen bands there that I’ve never heard of, and I bet most of them have hours of discography to get through!
Several of the suggestions are artists that I’ve run across before, particularly Epica, Savatage, After Forever, and Lacuna Coil. Even Sonoca Artica, who happened to be performing with Nightwish when I saw them last year. (Sadly SA wasn’t great in that show…maybe an off night?) Not new to me, but still good to see them all coming up in conversation!
Is this some ill-conceived attempt to drag me into a thread about music you know I don’t understand? :-)
Haha alright, I’ll take your word for it.
While I’m here, I guess I may as well poke around a bit and see what all the fuss is about anyway.
ONE OF US ONE OF US
fuckdiscouse
New Mastodon:
Old Mastodon:
Old Mastodon is Far Superior. They will never create a song better than Hearts Alive and/or Capillarian Crest.
Tons of great recommendations, some of which I’ve never heard of and am looking forward to checking out.
What’s that, @ineffablebob? You need even more? I guess if you insist…
It also is a fuzzy line from power metal (which tends to have a lot of symphonic influence), symphonic metal, folk metal.
Yeah, lots of crossover among symphonic, power, prog, folk, gothic, etc. metal. I was originally trying to confine my recommendations to the general neighborhood of power-symphonic bands with soprano operatic vocals, i.e. the style popularized by Nightwish. But if you guys are going to expand the purview, I can range a bit further afield.
Therion fits that bill
Great choice for a band that’s symphonic but not power metal. I’d also add Haggard along the same lines. And if you can stand the heavier side of things, there are also a few symphonic death metal bands, like Ne Obliviscaris and Fleshgod Apocalypse.
[Luca Turilli’s] Rhapsody [of Fire]
Definitely check out Twilight Force if you like any version of Rhapsody.
Blind Guardian… Freedom Call… Stratovarius
Oh man, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see those because if I start talking about ALL power metal we’ll be here all day. But I can throw in a few female-fronted (non-symphonic) power metal bands – Seven Kingdoms, Battle Beast, Helion Prime, White Skull, and Mindmaze.
And heck, since they’re at least symphonic-adjacent, how about guitar-free metal? Apocalyptica (cello metal) and Van Canto (a capella metal) both gained attention with covers but have done a fair amount of original songs too, and transcend gimmick status.
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Holy cow, this thread exploded. Thanks for all the additional suggestions - I knew of at least some of them, and in my defense I was focusing on ‘female lead’ symphonic outside of my Kamelot suggestion. But I clearly have many more I need to check out.
Lacuna Coil drives me nuts. The female lead is excellent. The guy sucks. So conflicted.
Leaves Eyes is similar. Great female lead, but kinda goes wonky in some songs with too much growling (hush - I already said I have limited metal tastes).
I think that’s why I enjoy Nightwish - they always have great female leads, but it doesn’t fall apart when Tuomas joins in. The Evergrey suggestion a bit pre-thread-explosion sounded good for the same reason.
(off current topic)
Ahhh I still recall the first Therion album with some fondness… ;)
They have a great and varied back catalogue with many excellent albums, well worth checking out! But my favourite is still when they were in the transitional phase between old and new:
