General Music Thread

[Ar-Pharazon]

zakkrusz wrote:

---

Well, some of my favorite bands are:

Kamelot
Within Temptation
Nightwish

Judas Priest
Evanescence

Breaking Benjamin
Linkin Park

I like pretty much anything, though I listen to hard rock, power metal, and industrial metal the most.

These, plus a whole lot more in the Symphonic Metal genre are in my CD collection.

After Forever
Amberian Dawn
Apocalyptica
Delain
Edenbridge
Epica
Leaves' Eyes
Lunatica
Sirenia
Tristania
Visions Of Atlantis
Xandria


Also more in the Goth Metal direction:

Elysion
Lacuna Coil
Memoira
Nemesea
Unsun
We Are The Fallen


Power Metal:

Dragonforce
Sonata Arctica


Death/Black/Mainstream/Other Metal:

Elvenking
Engel
Iron Maiden
Moonspell
Overtures
Rob Zombie
Savatage
Sawlegen
Seduce The Heaven

[Pingfah]

^ I have all of Iron Maiden's albums on CD, and several on vinyl, and a few Rob/White Zombie records, other than that I have nothing on your list.

Which would you recommend to a Trad Metal fan? I also like some thrash & groove metal, love Anthrax, Sepultura, Pantera.

[Zion Ravescene]

The only symphonic metal band I've really heard of Nightwish, mostly thanks to the epic power of the Internet.

[JayOwl]

Same actually. Nightwish are great though.
Linkin Part don't really count as "synthonic" and I prefer their more mellow stuff anyway.

I just ordered a ticket to see Owl City in London. This will be my first proper live concert. REALLY HAPPY AND EXCITED.

[marillion]

Round my old schoolmates, I was known as the kid who loves Rush, and while that's still very true, I have made a BIG effort to not just like but get into a lot of other music in recent years. So while Rush, Marillion, and a host of proggy bands are still favs, I have expanded my tastes considerably.

It helps that my 15 year old daughter and I share the same kind of ear for music.. So we're constantly bouncing new bands off each other..

My current standard rotation usually includes (but is not limited to) these bands.... I'd link them to youtube, but today, my office firewall decided to block it..

Walk the Moon
Panic! at the Disco
Gotye
The Sounds
Within Temptation
VnV Nation
Steam Powered Giraffe (seriously!!)
Keane (their new CD is the best one yet.. SO good!!)
Modest Mouse
Pythia

Just to name a few...

[Owain Taggart]

So, is this where the music thread is? Perfect timing!

I just went to the local music festival this year and boy was it epic. It's one of those festivals where it's one of the only local chances to experience good music for an entire weekend, where musicians will often mingle with fans and where musicians will often collaborate. A relaxed atmosphere kind of place.

I didn't attend on Saturday, but on Friday, the headliner was Daniel Lanois, musician and producer for artists such as U2 and Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, among others. You might remember a little song from the 90's called Jolie Louise, or perhaps The Maker, or The Messenger.





Sunday night, WABAM! Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) brought the house down with an incredible show. If anyone here has the chance to go see him live, go do so. He's an incredible live performer. I was never much a fan of the Barenaked Ladies, but I was very aware of their songs, but seeing this show gave me a whole new respect for the man. He came out here as a simple duo with Craig Northly (Whom Canadians will likely recognize for writing the song that ended up being used as the Corner Gas theme). No drum kit, sound was incredibly perfect, and amazing. He made us soon forget that what we were seeing wasn't a full band. The man has some awesome pipes, and could easily be an operatic tenor if he wanted to, and by god, he's actually quite funny on stage.

The great thing about this event is all the music that can be discovered over the coarse of the weekend. Found so much good music and even bought a few albums and even gained some appreciation for styles of music I didn't even know I had in me to like. Look up the Boxcar Boys on Youtube if you're interested. Same with Seesham, Lotus & Son. Great stuff. Fun weekend. Would do it all again in a heartbeat.

[JayOwl]

marillion wrote:

---

Keane (their new CD is the best one yet.. SO good!!)

TOTALLY agree with you here. They had some good ones before, but "Day Will Come", "Sovereign Light Cafe", "On The Road" and "Silenced By The Night" are all epic. I like all the others too, I just haven't listened to them much yet, I ought to get on to that.

[Kirby]

I have to admit that I don't listen to much music anymore. I'm a fan of stuff from the 60s through the 80s, but it's hard for me to geting into much pop/rock past say, 1991.Even the new music I listen to is from old school bands like Van Halen, Rush, Journey, etc. I do like Brad Paisley, who I think is a phenominal guitar player with teriffic instrumental songs. His songs with lyrics are ok, but I prefer it when he just plays.Mainly I listen to podcasts and sportstalk radio. I'm old.

[Ar-Pharazon]

Pingfah wrote:

---

^ I have all of Iron Maiden's albums on CD, and several on vinyl, and a few Rob/White Zombie records, other than that I have nothing on your list.

Which would you recommend to a Trad Metal fan? I also like some thrash & groove metal, love Anthrax, Sepultura, Pantera.

TBH, I was once only a trad. metal fan. Maiden, Priest, Metallica, Megadeth and a few others. And classic/hard rock was always my main thing.

I also have all the Maiden CDs. The 2-disc 1995 releases that have all the B-side releases included.

But since I heard Nightwish & Kamelot on Sirius Hard Attack around 2005-2006, it's been all symph metal all the time. I also heard Lacuna Coil there for the first time.

I still listen to the occasional "other" stuff, since I do own a lot of CDs and I still buy the occasional "other" CD, like the new VH, the Doobie Brothers from a couple years ago. I'm waiting on the new KISS CD.

I would recommend anything in my original lists, at least to sample on youtube.

Seduce The Heaven, a Greek metal band, has a few different things going on in just their first release. I'm waiting for their first CD to hit.



This is a good example of Moonspell's work. Brutal vocals and great musicianship. Though they change it up occasionally.




I also like prog metal like Dream Theater & Circus Maximus.

[tomalak301]

Thanks for starting this JayOwl. At another board I post at, they talk about music all the time, yet here other than the "What song are you listening to" thread, I don't know the musical tastes of you guys. Looking forward to following this thread, and maybe posting a thing or two.

Right now, I'm listening to mostly country music (Just bought and am listening to Zac Brown Band's new Album Uncaged ) but always look forward to hearing new recommendations. However, maybe it's just my "Mainstream" tastes in music, but whenever I hear a track from an album that is up for Album of the year on many critic's lists', I can't help but be a little bored. Again, maybe I'm not trying hard enough so musical recommendations are always good.

Can't say I have a favorite artist at the moment, but since I'm been following the country genre the most, I have to say maybe The Band Perry, Little Big Town and Zac Brown Band are my favorites currently. I also still really like the harmonies of The Dixie Chicks and SheDaisy.

As for non-country acts, I do admit to finding Lady Gaga catchy, and wish she would cut back on the get-up. I've seen her before she became Lady Gaga and she is beautiful and has a great voice. The whole Monster thing is just something I don't get.

[JayOwl]

^That's ok. Yeh, I didn't like that either. To be honest I'm running out of things to say on the board and I'm starting to use it less and less. If this goes well then maybe there'll be some more things on here that interest me.

Lady GaGa... while one or two of her songs are OK, most are really quite standard IMO. She did look really nice before she was famous yes, but she must be mentally unstable in some way. I've heard of The Band Perry, I just haven't heard them as far as I can remember.

[Eyes]

General question, are there any symphonic metal bands as good as Nightwish? I've tried various bits of Delain and wasn't a fan, Within Temptation I know a few songs that are good but I want more (Memories and Faster). It really has to be a female vocal doing the lead, I can only stand music that hard with one, it's why I shy away from metal more often than not, but Nightwish are just too amazing to leave alone. Plus they work male vocals well into their tracks and it doesn't leave my ears hurting.

This Kamelot band does sound interesting though...

ON THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM, with Lady Gaga, I don't think anyone who likes pop can deny that Bad Romance is a masterpiece, and I like several of her singles, but at the same time I find her massively overrated beyond that. Born This Way is a patchy album at best and there's only a few songs I listen to from it any more.

[Ar-Pharazon]

Eyes wrote:

---

General question, are there any symphonic metal bands as good as Nightwish? I've tried various bits of Delain and wasn't a fan, Within Temptation I know a few songs that are good but I want more (Memories and Faster). It really has to be a female vocal doing the lead, I can only stand music that hard with one, it's why I shy away from metal more often than not, but Nightwish are just too amazing to leave alone. Plus they work male vocals well into their tracks and it doesn't leave my ears hurting.

This Kamelot band does sound interesting though...

ON THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM, with Lady Gaga, I don't think anyone who likes pop can deny that Bad Romance is a masterpiece, and I like several of her singles, but at the same time I find her massively overrated beyond that. Born This Way is a patchy album at best and there's only a few songs I listen to from it any more.

The Within Temptation songs you listed are both from the last album, which was somewhat of a departure from their earlier work.

I love everything they've done, Sharon has an amazing range which you can hear on some of their earlier albums (Mother Earth & The Heart Of Everything in particular).

Kamelot is frickin' awesome. Especially the Roy Khan era, and especially the last 4 albums he did (Epica, The Black Halo, Ghost Opera, Poetry For The Poisoned).

Sadly, Roy has left Kamelot. I think their music will still be "Epic", but Roy brought a certain amount of theater to it along with a great voice.
Thomas Youngblood has always written & performed great music, so I'm hopeful.

The one thing that's closest to classic (aka: Tarja era) Nightwish that I've heard is the newest Xandria album.

They have a new singer, Manuela Kraller, who's about as close to Tarja voice-wise as anyone.

The first video from the new Xandria album:

[JayOwl]

^Most of the Nightwish I know comes from the Anette (current) era. I think Eyes prefers her too. Still, I'll give that one a listen. I don't usually listen to metal- Nightwish is the closest I get.

Listening, it really does sound like old NW- quite operatic. I like it. I find that most metal is far too harsh for my tastes with male vocals, (they usually start that piercing scream.. don't like it) despite the fact that a lot of my favorite music does have male vocals. Nice song anyhow.

[Ar-Pharazon]

Annette is good within the greatness that is Nightwish. I preferred Tarja a great deal more. Tarja's voice was a far better fit for that style of music.

As far as death metal, when I first heard that type of thing around 1991, I flat out hated it. I think it was Vader and one or two other groups.
The screaming and really bad musicianship turned me off that style for a long time.

For me to listen to it now, it has to have some good points. Like I said, Moonspell has good musicianship. I like Scar Symmetry, Fear Factory, a few others.

I have to be in a darker mood than normal to really enjoy black/death/doom metal though. So, a "special occasion" kind of thing.

Draconian is another good example of listenable doom metal, with an added female vocal (at least on this track).