Symphonic metal

The metal subgenres most typically featuring a subset of symphonic bands are gothic metal, power metal, black metal, death metal and classic heavy metal. As with many other metal bands, those adopting a symphonic style may feature influences from several metal subgenres. Music workstation keyboards and orchestras are often a key feature of the style, distinguishing symphonic from non-symphonic bands within the same metal subgenre. Other instruments, including guitars, bass and drums, may in some cases play relatively simple parts in contrast to the complex and nuanced keyboard and/or orchestral parts, typically in the case of symphonic heavy metal and symphonic gothic metal acts. The use of such instruments (as well as the lead vocals) to play simpler, catchier melodies than those of the average non-symphonic band arguably makes the symphonic style one of the most accessible in metal. Bands that do not use live orchestral instrumentation on their recordings or when playing live typically utilize factory presets on workstation keyboards (i. e., strings, choirs, pianos, pipe organs, etc.) to conjure up a "pseudo-orchestral" sound, where parts are played idiomatically according to keyboard technique. This is particularly characteristic of lesser-known bands on tighter budgets. Some symphonic metal bands abstain from using keyboards entirely, preferring to use orchestral backing tracks pre-recorded by a live symphony orchestra and/or choir during an album session, or recorded using virtual software instruments in a sequencer. This is particularly characteristic of bands that feature deeper and more complex arrangements which could be more difficult for one or two keyboardists to reproduce faithfully in a live performance. On average, songs under the symphonic metal umbrella are often highly atmospheric, though more upbeat than those of many non-symphonic metal bands; songs with morbid themes routinely feature prominent major-key fanfares. Particularly central to creating mood and atmosphere is the choice of keyboard timbre. It is nonetheless hardly possible to generalize about the role played by the classic metal instruments (guitars, bass and drums) within symphonic bands, as it can entirely vary depending on the metal subgenre to which the symphonic band mostly belongs. Lyrics cover a broad range of topics. As with two of its often overlapping elements, power metal and opera (including symphonic progressive rock), fantasy and mythological themes are common. Concept albums styled after operas or epic poems are not uncommon. Bands in this genre may often feature a female lead vocalist, usually a soprano. Male vocalists (baritone or bass-baritone), are also common in gothic metal. Growling, death-metal-style vocals are not unknown but tend to be used less frequently than in other metal subgenres (a notable exception being Mark Jansen in Epica). Backing vocals, often consisting of a choral ensemble or full choir, may be employed. It is common for bands, particularly female-fronted bands, to feature operatic lead vocals. Such bands may be referred to as operatic symphonic metal and include the likes of Epica, Nightwish (Tarja Turunen, then Floor Jansen), Haggard, ==Origins and evolution==

One of the earliest songs by a heavy metal band to include string arrangements is "Spiral Architect", the closing track of the fifth Black Sabbath album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, released in 1973. In the 1980s, Celtic Frost experimented with orchestration, woodwinds, horns, and choral voices in the albums To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium. A 2021 article by Metal Hammer listed the latter at number two in its list of the best twenty-five symphonic metal albums. Appearing on their 1990 album Sanity Obscure, it foreshadowed the operatic approach used by the bands Therion (named after the Celtic Frost album To Mega Therion) and Nightwish. According to Jeff Wagner in his book Mean Deviation, the song was a creative watershed in metal, and except for Mekong Delta, no other extreme metal band at the time had merged the genre with classical music so seamlessly. The gothic metal band Saviour Machine, which formed in 1989 and released its first studio album in 1993, has also been referred to as symphonic metal. 's Lori Lewis and Christofer Johnsson with symphonic orchestra and choir during the live classical show at the Miskolc Opera Festival, Hungary, 2007. More bands began combining symphonic and extreme metal elements in the early '90s. Dutch band The Gathering released their demo An imaginary symphony in 1990 combining death growls and synthesizer leads, leading to their first album Always in 1992 which was one of the first albums combining death growls, synthesizer leads and female soprano singing. Finnish band Amorphis released The Karelian Isthmus combining death metal with melodic synthesizer leads. Dutch band Orphanage released their demo Morph in 1993 also combining synthesizer leads, death growls and also female soprano singing. In 1995 the Norwegian band Theatre of Tragedy released their self-titled album Theatre of Tragedy with death growls, synthesizer leads, and female singing. The Swedish band Therion were influential through their use of a live orchestra and classical compositional techniques; gradually these elements became a more important part of Therion's music than their death metal roots, culminating on the 1996 album Theli. Another key early influence was Finnish progressive metal band Waltari's album Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep C. In mid-1996 Rage released Lingua Mortis, the band's first collaboration with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Mid '90s many more bands followed like After Forever, Nightwish, Rhapsody of Fire and Within Temptation, Rain Fell Within, Epica, Delain, Leaves' Eyes, Xandria, and Edenbridge. The genre slowly started to form around powerful female lead vocals and the heavy use of classically influenced keyboard playing. Some combined these elements with Power metal, with its relatively upbeat fantasy themes and stylized keyboard sounds, while others combined these elements with Death metal with heavy riffs and intense double bass sections on drums. ==The symphonic style in metal subgenres==

The term "symphonic metal" denotes any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements; "symphonic metal" then is not so much a subgenre but rather a cross-generic designation. A few bands simply refer to themselves as "symphonic metal", as in the case of Aesma Daeva, and the term is applied by some to generically ambiguous metal bands like Epica and post-2002 Nightwish. Following heavy metal's tradition of classifying its subgenres based on the differences among the musical structures in the electric, "metal" part of bands' sound, the label "symphonic" is usually prefixed to the subgenre to which a band mostly belongs. No "symphonic metal" band being simply symphonic, a subgenre definition could be attributable to any bands simply defining themselves as symphonic metal. Symphonic heavy metal and symphonic gothic metal bands are the main objects of such neglect of classification, originating the misperception of "symphonic metal" as a coherent and separated metal subgenre excluding symphonic black, death, and power metal bands. Symphonic elements are often implemented in songs by bands of other subgenres. Symphonic black metal Symphonic black metal has similar components as melodic black metal, but uses keyboarding or instruments normally found in symphonic or classical music. It can also include black metal bands that make heavy usage of atmospheric keyboarding in the music, akin to symphonic metal or gothic metal. The symphonic aspects of this genre are normally integral parts of a band, and as such are commonly used throughout the whole duration of a song. The prototypical symphonic black metal bands are Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Emperor and Carach Angren. Symphonic power metal }} Symphonic power metal refers to power metal bands that make extensive usage of keyboards, or instruments normally found in classical music, similar to symphonic metal. These additional elements are often used as key elements of the music when compared to regular power metal, contributing not only an extra layer to the music, but a greater variety of sound. Bands in this genre often feature clean vocals, with some bands adding relatively small quantities of screams or growls. The first prototypical symphonic power metal song was "Art of Life", a twenty-nine-minute song performed by Japanese heavy metal band X Japan in 1993. A defining role for the style's development was played by Italian band Rhapsody of Fire since their groundbreaking 1997 debut, Legendary Tales, first with a baroque approach influenced by Vivaldi and Paganini, and subsequently with a growing film-score-oriented turn employing full orchestras and choirs. The influence of symphonic and operatic music are equally audible in cognate bands Luca Turilli's Rhapsody and Turilli / Lione Rhapsody. Rhapsody's contributions to symphonic metal are best exemplified by short songs like "Emerald Sword", "Dawn of Victory" and "Lamento Eroico", and long suites such as "Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness", "The Mystic Prophecy of the Demonknight" and "Erian's Mystical Rhymes". Finnish band Nightwish, who debuted the same year, also performed symphonic power metal, their style being well exemplified by songs like "Wishmaster" from the album Wishmaster and the rest of their discography until the year 2000. Since the album Century Child, they gradually decreased their power metal influences, with over 10-minute epics like "Ghost Love Score" from the album Once and "The Poet and the Pendulum" from the album Dark Passion Play as the best examples of their new course making a more extensive use of orchestral elements. German band Blind Guardian also introduced some symphonic elements in the album Nightfall in Middle-Earth, although it wasn't until 2002 with A Night at the Opera when they established their symphonic power metal style, mainly with the song "And Then There Was Silence". They gradually composed more and more symphonic songs such as "Sacred Worlds" and "Wheel of Time", both featured on the album At the Edge of Time, and "The Ninth Wave", "At the Edge of Time", "The Throne" and "Grand Parade" from their latest album, Beyond the Red Mirror. They also made orchestral versions of previously released songs like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Theatre of Pain", both included on the compilation album The Forgotten Tales. Blind Guardian went deeper into symphonic music with the album Legacy of the Dark Lands, a fully orchestral album composed by singer Hansi Kürsch and guitarist André Olbrich that kept the band's spirit but was credited to the Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra, as Hansi was the only member of the band to perform on the album. Twilight Force Rockharz 2016 24.jpg|Twilight Force Kamelot_in_2019_with_Lauren_Hart.jpg|Kamelot Rhapsody Buenos Aires 2010.JPG|Rhapsody of Fire Nightwish au Rockhal 2015.JPG|Nightwish Epica - Wacken Open Air 2018-0909.jpg|Epica Blind Guardian Group.jpg|Blind Guardian Symphonic gothic metal }} Symphonic gothic metal was first pioneered by American band Saviour Machine. One of the first gothic metal bands to release a full album featuring "beauty and the beast" vocals, where death metal vocals are contrasted with clean female vocals, was the Norwegian Theatre of Tragedy in 1995. From then on after the departure of lead singer Liv Kristine in 2003, she and her future husband, Alexander Krull, formed the symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes. The band is one of the pioneers of the "beauty and the beast" vocal style. The contrasting styles of vocals are also sometimes performed by only one vocalist, an example of this being Ambre Vourvahis of Xandria, combining and layering her clean (and occasionally operatic) vocals with her deep gutturals on the band's 2023 album The Wonders Still Awaiting. Other bands, such as the Dutch Within Temptation in 1996, expanded on this approach. A debut album, Enter, was unveiled in the following year, followed shortly by an EP, The Dance. Both releases made use of the beauty-and-beast approach delivered by vocalists Sharon den Adel and Robert Westerholt. Their second full-length, Mother Earth, was released in 2000 and dispensed entirely with the death metal vocals, instead "relying solely on den Adel's majestic vocal ability", apart from one B-side track that did not make the final album release. Their third album, The Silent Force, arrived in 2004 as an "ambitious project featuring a full orchestra and 80-voice choir accompanying the band". The result was another commercial success across Europe The commercial success of Within Temptation has since resulted in the emergence of a large number of other female-fronted gothic metal bands, particularly in the Netherlands. A typical example of their most symphonic sound can be heard in the songs "Jillian (I'd give my Heart)" and "Our Solemn Hour". Another Dutch band in the symphonic gothic metal strain is After Forever. Their debut album, Prison of Desire in 2000, was "a courageous, albeit flawed first study into an admittedly daunting undertaking: to wed heavy metal with progressive rock arrangements and classical music orchestration - then top it all off with equal parts gruesome cookie-monster vocals and a fully qualified opera singer". Founding member, guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen departed After Forever a few months after the release of their second album, Decipher. Jansen would go on to form Epica, another Dutch band that performs a blend of gothic and symphonic metal. Their debut album, The Phantom Agony, emerged in 2003 with music that combines Jansen's death grunts with the "angelic tones of a classically trained soprano, Simone Simons, over a lush foundation of symphonic power metal". The music of Epica has been described as combination of "a dark, haunting gothic atmosphere with bombastic and symphonic music". Like Within Temptation and After Forever, Epica has made use of an orchestra. Their 2007 album The Divine Conspiracy was a chart success in their home country. This blend of symphonic and gothic metal has also been arrived at from the opposite direction. The band Nightwish from Finland began as a symphonic power metal act and introduced gothic elements on their 2004 album Once, particularly on the single "Nemo". They continued to mix their style of "bombastic, symphonic and cinematic" metal with a gothic atmosphere on their next album, Dark Passion Play, in 2007. The Swedish group Therion also introduced gothic elements to their brand of symphonic metal on their 2007 album Gothic Kabbalah. Symphonic death metal }} Bands described as symphonic death metal include Ex Deo, Septicflesh, Children of Bodom, MaYaN, and Fleshgod Apocalypse. Haggard's 2000 album, Awaking the Centuries, has been described as death metal–styled symphonic metal. Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Skyfire, Starkill, and Wintersun are known for their symphonic melodic death metal sound. Mechina combines symphonic death metal with industrial metal. The symphonic death metal scene includes deathcore bands mixing the two genres together, starting in the late 2000s with The Breathing Process and Winds of Plague. In the early 2010s, Make Them Suffer developed the symphonic deathcore subgenre further in their earlier material, as did Betraying the Martyrs, known to "temper the punishing brutality of deathcore with melodic flourishes pulled from symphonic and progressive metal, giving it a theatricality that feels distinctly European." It was not until the late 2010s and early 2020s when the symphonic deathcore scene started rising in popularity with bands like Shadow of Intent, Lorna Shore, A Wake in Providence, and Drown in Sulphur. Some bands such as Worm Shepherd, Carnifex in their later albums, and Mental Cruelty combine the genre with symphonic black metal. ==See also==