Thanks to Pandora Intro III
Pandora Tackles Symphonic Metal Giants
After Forever, Therion & The Gathering
Pandora Tackles Symphonic Metal Giants
After Forever, Therion & The Gathering
Follow The Yellow Brick Road.....
I was beginning my playlist. I started to catalog. I was delving deep. There was history.
Not everything I was getting to know was on youtube but that was quickly beginning to change. I would lose links. I called them the youtube gremlins. Mostly the BMG group who didnt care too much for all their content spreading across the inner-nets for free. Citing copyrights, users began to get harassed or worse, taken off youtube entirely and so would go their links. It still happens but when I began my endless search, it might have been at its peak. So occasionally I would 'lose' a song or a version, only to find it later. The next 3 are actually songs I clicked thumbs-up on my Pandora player- but couldnt find on youtube. Until now that I am writing this update.
The main point here is, Thanks to Pandora, I have another 3 great songs to add to my lists. Although at the time I couldnt find these songs on youtube, which did lead me to other great songs, other huge journeys, other discoveries and more.. And now here, today again they point me in more directions, allowing for reflection and my 100% dedication to sharing this experience, with you.
In this update I have featured After Forever, Therion & The Gathering. Bands which I consider to be among the top tier of this sub-genre, this sisterhood, this sub-classification or association, if you will- as the off-shoots. The hyphen metal. Symphonic/Power/Gothic Metal. Among the top-tier I would also place Epica, Within Temptation, Nightwish and perhaps Sirenia as the very most popular bands in this list. They all place together rather nicely since they all have been around since basically the same time period. Therion and The Gathering are the elders, Nightwish and Within Temptation the parents and Epica, Sirenia and After Forever the princesses. But even being ranked so high, these bands are still very much under the radar of the more popular hyphen-death metal genres such as Symphonic Black Metal and the like, (which so far I havent been inclined to include any of those bands - even the pioneers - here in this blog).
So let's delve into these 3 hidden gems from 3 of the top-tiers in this sisterhood and follow down where the yellow brick road takes us to. Or better, perhaps as a reference to the fantasy, the rabbit hole.
After Forever- Yield To Temptation (NL, 2000 Symphonic Metal)
At the very intro you know you have certainly dropped down the rabbit hole away from bland commercial music. A full choir beckons, in a true classical mode then a slow, crawling death metal section complete with death metal grunt vocals. This contrast is the Beauty and Beast vocals which a few of the symphonic metal bands employ. Worthy of note here, is this song is from After Forever's debut CD. The average age of the band at the time, Ive read was 19. Its very impressive in fact, to take in the scope of what they laid down so early in their careers. From the choir intro to the sheer pounding that occurs later in the song, its easy to see the band's influences. To have written off After Forever at that time, as a Nightwish clone (which was done) is so shortsighted to what this band proved capable of, time and time again.
Follow my links below to other entries I have included in my blog already and how truly important I view them and the uber-talent that is Floor Jansen. I am, forever in debt to them.
Thankfully, then this happened: After Forever Blows My Mind P1
This is just shock and awe: After Forever Blows My Mind PII
Only after months of sulking upon hearing of After Forever's disbanding, this happened and I wished I was there to have witnessed what I refer to as The Greatest Moment in Symphonic Metal History
Therion- Morning Star (Draconian Trilogy) (Sweden, 1998 Symphonic Metal)
Among the top-tier is Grandaddy Therion. I cannot place all I can say about this landmark band here so please follow the links below. I thumbs-up'ed this song because at the time I had only placed the bombastic attack of Utharka Runa in my playlists and this song reminded me of others that I have shared also below. What is to be said about Therion is how they completely mix their take on classically based sounds and operatic choirs, with their mythos and metal stylings into fully realized pieces. And they do it like no other... still after all this time. Follow the yellow brick road through the links below. Take note they have a recent release called Sitra Ahra (NL, 2010) and understand there is more than 1 wizard behind this curtain.
More in-depth update dedicated to what I think about Therion and 4 songs I love: Getting Into Mega-Therion
The Gathering- In Motion #1 (NL, 1995 Alt Metal)
From the monolith epitaph known as Mandylion. The Gathering has albeit slowly become one of my guilty pleasures. Reading the comments on just about any single video post of theirs on youtube is also quite entertaining. I seriously have no idea how its possible so many people who call themselves rabid-obsessed fans of a band (with such a long history) - yet they have no idea how to classify the band's music. Listening to this song repetitively, now as I attempt to do just that (for your benefit), I have come up with a description that fits at least this 1 song. I would say its haunting-non goth, enlightened upbeat doom, atmospheric non-boring, non-dated progrock, non-classically symphonic Female fronted non-metal. Luckily, it doesnt suck. As you fall into this rabbit-hole of impossibility, re-imagine this at the time of its release. How The Gathering went from a doom-death-thrash style to this enigma in one solid bound. Adding the angelic Anneke on vocals didnt hurt either. But here in this song, its the sheer presence the band displays, through such solid songwriting and performance. It is completely obvious that they had tapped into something special and for us, the listeners, we get to experience it time and time again.
I certainly had already fallen in love with Anneke's voice and ability by the time I had programmed my Pandora player and this song had escaped me. Luckily I clicked thumbs-up and have kept it in rotation ever since. Below are other songs I so highly recommend to you- but I wish to do so without sounding like one of those people who dont know what The Gathering sounds like.
I am not one of those people who think shes an angel - I know it: Falling in Love with Anneke
Worthy of noting here, now that The Gathering has moved on w/o Anneke with the highly capable Silje, I do believe thier follow up to the rather straight-laced West Pole (2009), should be a stronger effort, now that she has been warmly accepted in a very hot seat. The first glimpse of the follow up is an amazing 10 minute effort called Heroes For Ghosts which was released earlier this year (2011).
I hope you have been inspired taking from Following The Yellow Brick Road with me and this over view of 3 from the top-tier, next up Pandora dishes out something different, bands I never heard before.
Next Update: Thanks to Pandora, now I know them too.
