[wrathzombie]

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Ha, ha, ha.
 
 
Can someone help me? I just heard a group that sounded pretty good. The name was Led Zeppelin and the song was Stairway, uh, Stairway to the stars...no, no, no-that's not it-does this ring a bell with anyone? Funny....it sounded vaguely familiar. I think they were British. The guitarist was pretty good. Some old guy, I think.

Sarcasm!!! Prepare yourself for BME wrath!!!!

 

[129207]

 
In all seriousness, I like My Arms, Your Hearse. 

 

[MorbidToaster]

 
On Opeth...If you don't like Watershed or BWP I'm pretty sure you don't like Metal.

 

[Jmstrmbn]

Trying to get into more metal, so far I really like kamelot and dream theater, can I get some recommendations that are similar to these groups?
 
Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[MorbidToaster]

Nightwish, Hammerfall, Rhapsody of Fire, Symphony X, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Demons & Wizards...I could go on and on. Lots if great Power Metal out there.
 
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Trying to get into more metal, so far I really like kamelot and dream theater, can I get some recommendations that are similar to these groups?
 
Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Jmstrmbn]

Thanks for the help, I'll have to give them a listen over the next few weeks.

 

[Jibrille]

Check out Seventh Wonder. Great progressive metal band featuring the new lead singer of Kamelot.
Earlier Sonata Arctica
Ayreon
Sabaton
Evergrey
 
And if you're willing to check out progressive with some death grunts check out Orphaned Land and Opeth

 

[markm1]

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Sarcasm!!! Prepare yourself for BME wrath!!!!

Sorry....couldn't resist. I'm going to slap my hand now.

 

[markm1]

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On Opeth...If you don't like Watershed or BWP I'm pretty sure you don't like Metal.

This is actually pretty funny! OK-I will say that probably along with hundreds of thousands of other people, BWP renewed my interest in prog and lead me to Porcupine Tree and Mars Volta among others.

 

[markm1]

Quote:

Check out Seventh Wonder. Great progressive metal band featuring the new lead singer of Kamelot.
Earlier Sonata Arctica
Ayreon
Sabaton
Evergrey
 
And if you're willing to check out progressive with some death grunts check out Orphaned Land and Opeth

The cool thing about metal, is there's alot of it and it is all over the map.
 
I'll second Orhapned Land. I very much enjoy 2010 Never Ending Way of Orwarrior...although it may suffer from "everything but the kitchen sink" itus. Pretty darn ambitious.
 
I'm going to post here some of my favorite-over the top, throw in everything but the kitchen sink epic symphonic recommends. When I think of power metal, there is also some cross over into symphonic metal. I'm going to address this style. If you have no interest, just skip this post.
 
Power metal sometimes morphs into symphonic metal which sometimes morphs into goth metal. It's too bad, because when people read the word goth, they think of HS kids with make up and black nail polish. But, there are some pretty good bands-mostly European as it seems to be a European style that is fading into the sunset.
 
So, without further adieu, if you want to look into symphonic metal in general which sometimes has a power metal similarity, there are some good operatic metal bands.
 
I think Therion is worth checking out especially if you have any interest in arcane mythology. Particularly their 2004  double disc Lemuria/Sirius B is breathtaking IMO. Allmusic states, 21-track explosion of classical, choral, and heavy metal excess. When I first heard it I fell in love w/ this group because they were so unique sounding to me. But, let's just say they over the top to put it mildly. Gothic Kaballah and Secret of Runes (which is entirely based on Norse mythology) are good too. Yes, there is a dork factor here, but if you are in the mood for sweeping Epic stuff-It's highly recommended.
 
If you like these kinds of ambitious epic music events, Tristania perfected a kind of goth metal that used to be referred to as "beauty and the beast" vocals with alternating gorgeous female vocals alternating with DM growls and sometimes clean male baritone vocals. 1999's Beyond the Veil is sort of a classic-lush with lots of strings, etc. It's not power metal, but I think their is a kind of cross over-we're talking epic sounding orchestrated metal. World of Glass continues the theme and is quite strong for this style. I also like  Ashes which brings in some BM influences and then Illumination is mostly female vocals but quite classy sounding. They dump the metal styling here, and it is basically a goth hard rock sound, but very well done.
 
 
And for something different, the heavy metal blog BNR metal pages has turned me on to a variety of experimentalish bands or at least bands that I probably wouldn't have heard of.
 
Also in the operatic realm (a style I would never have guessed I would like having absolutely NO interest in opera otherwise) I really like an Australian band called Virgin Black.
 
In 2007-8, they released two albums. It was actually supposed to be a trilogy. But, I've only found two parts. One was equal parts metal and opera the other more metal and less opera. The more opera version Requiem: Mezzo forte.  I really like it, but the first time I heard it I was puzzled-it is a lot of classical and opera mixed in with dynamic doomish/gothish metal. They  hired a symphony and hired professional opera singers and the vocalist studied under an operatic coach. The second disc, Requiem: Fortissimo, the band switches gears into primarily doom death with operatic overtures. Sort of old school doom death with classical opera touches. Sounds weird as hell-but I'm telling you-it is quite a listen.
 
OK and getting my full dork operatic power metal thing on here, I think Nightwish's 2004 release Century Child is excellent.
 
I'll just close by saying, I get into these metal phases. These are styles that I've largely grown out of. But, I'm sure I'll revisit these albums again.
 
 

 

[macrocheesium]

Quote:

This is actually pretty funny! OK-I will say that probably along with hundreds of thousands of other people, BWP renewed my interest in prog and lead me to Porcupine Tree and Mars Volta among others.

That's the opposite of how it was for me. My interests went like, Porcupine Tree --> Opeth --> Metal. I'm sure my life would be pretty different right now if I hadn't read about PT in that Head-Fi thread.

 

[MorbidToaster]

My segway back into Metal was Watershed, so Opeth is definitely a milestone for me. 
 
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That's the opposite of how it was for me. My interests went like, Porcupine Tree --> Opeth --> Metal. I'm sure my life would be pretty different right now if I hadn't read about PT in that Head-Fi thread.

 

[Jibrille]

The cool thing about metal, is there's alot of it and it is all over the map.
....
I'll just close by saying, I get into these metal phases. These are styles that I've largely grown out of. But, I'm sure I'll revisit these albums again.

 

We seem to have pretty similar tastes as i Iove all the bands you listed.
If you haven't heard them, check out Haggard. It's an interesting project with like 20 people in the "band" fully mixing metal and classical (not just synths). Horrendous live though as the main songwriter can't growl for **** without the help of studio magic. Awakening the centuries and eppur si muove are wonderful. Last album is quite different from the earlier ones.

I'm one of the few who actually prefers illumination and ashes over the earlier Tristania albums. Over time I've attributed this to Morten Veland's songwriting after he continued with Sirenia (almost every song has the exact same structure)
World of glass was the first album without him and I think a large improvement over the earlier stuff before the genre change.

And I can understand about phases. I've actually been listening to a lot more electronic, indie rock, and even pop music lately. But I'm going through the After Forever discography this week.

 

[macrocheesium]

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My segway back into Metal was Watershed, so Opeth is definitely a milestone for me. 
 

 Watershed was my first metal album.

 

[markm1]

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That's the opposite of how it was for me. My interests went like, Porcupine Tree --> Opeth --> Metal. I'm sure my life would be pretty different right now if I hadn't read about PT in that Head-Fi thread.

Well, I think it's great that you had an open mind. I was slow to the extreme vocals party. I went for years refusing to buy any music that didn't have actual singing. I guess I had an image of neo nazi skin heads or something. But, I finally became convinced that I was missing out on some pretty engaging music. For me it was stoner rock and doom that had elements of extremity-bands like YOB or even HOF-not extreme vocals, but not exactly Fleetwood Mac, either!
 
Then, I felt like I was hearing "core" vocals in music I should othewise be open too-bands like Isis-they were a big one for me that made me open my eyes a little and early Neurosis. Hell, I'm not even sure how I would characterize the vocals onThrough Silver in Blood or eEemy of the Sun to the unitiated. I just figured if I liked Kyuss and Sleep, I should probably at least listen to HOF and Neurosis.
 
I think of so many people in my life who would enjoy the musicality of a lot of the bands we love, but as soon as they hear growled vocals would just dismiss the whole thing.
 
In fact, I remember listening to BWP for the first time and as soon as the DM vocals came in, I remember thinking....no way, I can't be listening to this crap..and then reading the lyrics hearing the acoustic elements, the proggy bits and so on and thinking, OK, I'll give this some time......
 
Gateway drug, man!