A Different Genre

Lately I've been embracing a new kind of metal genre. Since late last year, I've been collecting and listening to symphonic power metal bands on my iTunes. They sound way better than death metal.

Metal isn't all about screaming, growling and adrenaline-trashing. You can still enjoy metal without all that. There exists several metal bands that incorporate orchestral and harmonic sounds engineered to metal, mostly from Europe. Synthesizers and classical organs play an important role in their music, which blend in with the heavy riffing of guitars, bass and double-pedal drums. These breed of orchestral metal heads have a genre of their own, simply called Symphonic Power Metal.

These are my 3 most favorite symphonic metal bands that I enjoy listening to.

Kamelot is a power metal band that incorporates many elements of symphonic and progressive metal into their music. The band was founded in 1991 and was originally hailed in Tampa, Florida. Although Kamelot is an American metal band, the vocalist is a Norwegian who studied to be an opera vocalist for three years before joining the band.

Recommended hits: Karma, Ghost Opera, The Haunting (Somewhere In Time), The Spell, The Black Halo, March of Mephisto, The Coldest Winter Night, Soul Society, Centre of the Universe, The Human Stain

Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic power metal band, formed in 1996. Nightwish is considered one of the bands responsible for the development and rise in popularity of symphonic metal at the end of the 1990s, as well as the creation of the subgenre symphonic power metal. The original female vocalist was Tarja Turunen, and was replaced in 2007 by Anette Olzon.

Recommended hits: Bye Bye Beautiful, Amaranth, Nemo, Phantom of the Opera, I Wish I Had an Angel, Ghost Love Score, Over The Hills and Far Away, Gothic Sanctuary, Sahara, End of All Hope.

Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band which puts emphasis on the use of operatic elements and death grunts, and also performing some song passages in Latin. The band was founded in 2002 and the frontwoman Simone Simons sings with the most beautiful mezzo-soprano vocals in metal (and she's only 22).

Recommended hits: Blank Infinity, Cry for the Moon, Never Enough, Solitary Ground, Dance of Fate, Sensorium, Mother of Light.