\m/ The Metal \m/

[Starman]

Playing metal while playing D&D is pretty cliche.

If you play nothing but metal, you are missing a lot of the best music ever made. It's like only ever playing dwarven fighters without trying other races and classes. Or only ever playing dungeon crawls without ever trying wilderness exploration or political intrigue.

Start exploring classical and jazz as well as the pop, rock, roots, and blues that laid the foundation for metal. I'd start with the Rolling Stone 500 Albums list. The rankings are very much arguable, but I'd say the most important albums are on their. Pay particular attention to the top ranked albums from the 50s and early 60s and work your way to the 90s.

All that said, how can no one have mentioned Led Zeppelin yet? You are making Baby Jesus cry.

I also recommend Mastodon and Wolfmother.

Dude, this is a thread about metal. That's what we're going to talk about. I bet most of the people posting here do listen to more than just metal; but since this is a thread about metal, they are not going to start throwing out everything else that they listen to.

As far as metal, I am a huge fan of symphonic and power metal, cheese and all. That would include (in no particular order):

Nightwish (my fave)
Therion
Sonata Arctica
Blind Guardian
Cellador
Rhapsody of Fire
Visions of Atlantis
Avantasia
Edguy
Dragonforce
Dream Evil
Hammerfall
Iced Earth
Epica
Heavenly
Within Temptation
Kamelot
Stratovarius

 

[rogueattorney]

Another recent favorite:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgvqEJstNrw"]Torche, "Across the Shields"[/ame]

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I like classic stuff (Maiden, Priest, Sabbath, Megadeth, Slayer, et cetera). Lately I've been checking out stuff like Baroness, Mastodon, The Sword, High on Fire, Torche, Isis, Pelican, Red Sparowes, and the like. Digging the Red Fang album, too.

 

[rogueattorney]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuKGeHTHS_Y&feature=related"]Pelican, "Final Breath"[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qii59-7JAM"]Baroness, "A Horse Called Golgotha"[/ame]

I could seriously do this all day. I better stop.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I once based a portion of my campaign on King Diamond lyrics, including an NPC represented by a miniature with the KD-style white face.

 

[Flobby]

Dude(s), although Led Zepplin and Deep Purple are great bands, they're not very D&Desque epic metal..

 

[Marx420]

Wow, you guys covered some ground while I was schoolin'.

Rogueattorney-Liking Red Fang's stuff alot, and that video was freakin' hilarious. I'll have to locate their stuff online cause I already splashed out my monthly album budget today...

Nice list of power metal there starman, will take me awhile to explore all that but I already got a few promising hits from it.

Torche I didn't like at all first but I'm starting to warm up to them after a few spins of meanderthal.

philotomy and wheeler, I'll have to find out who Red Sparowes and King Diamond are respectively, as I admit I haven't heard of either but they sound cool.

I agree with flobby that Deep Purple probably isn't metal enough to be on the heavy/heavier playlist but my flac rips of them enjoy a premium position on my other rock/psychedelic section.

Thanks all for helping this proto-metalhead hang with the best of em'.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some great suggestions in here...let me add some more.

If you like Black Sabbath...(if? IF?)...don't forget Heaven & Hell, which is essentially the Dio lineup of Sab under a new name.

Tony Iommi has 2 solo albums, the first of which, Iommi, features him using the same formula Carlos Santana did for a couple of albums (and Slash is doing right now): get a bunch of stellar guest vocalists to sing different tracks on your album.

(Really, its hard to go wrong exploring the Dio/Ozzy/Black Sabbath/Deep Purple/Iommi/Blackmore band tree...)

Given the subject matter, you probably can't go wrong with any of the shredders from the 1980's forward: YJM, Impelliteri, Chastain, MacAlpine and so forth...especially those who preferred instrumental music.

Early Scorpions is especially good for this kind of fun. Check out the classic "Sails of Charon": [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDNXCIQyd04]YouTube - SCORPIONS [ SAILS OF CHARON ] PROMO-VIDEO.[/ame]

Then there is Krokus. They had a series of singles that explored quasi-fantasy/sci-fi themes (think John Carter of Mars/Road Warrior-ish), starting with "Screaming in the Night" from the Headhunter album:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPJND0fl0-A]YouTube - Krokus-Screaming In The Night[/ame]

Hard rock supergroup Blue Murder had a couple of epic tunes- like "Ptolemy"- that had a nice feel to them.

King Diamond had some interesting albums. I used to own Them and Abigail, but I eventually sold them.

The German band Helloween has some nice horror-esque songs and blazing guitar. Check out "Keeper of the 7 Keys". [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIIwVStGok]YouTube - Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys (Part 1 of 2)[/ame]

If you like the Zep knock-off bands, check out Bonham (featuring Bonzo's kid), Fastway (featuring Fast Eddie Clark of Motorhead fame) and Katmandu (featuring Fastway's original vocalist).

Metal Church's early work would be to your liking, like "Watch the Children Play" and "Metal Church."

And of course, where would this thread be without bands like Earth or Sunn.

Buckethead, Bootsy Collins and Bill Laswell have done some interesting metal/industrial/funk/world beat fusion work under the band names of Material and Praxis. Bootsy's project, Zillatron, mined similar metal fusion on the album "Lord of the Harvest."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ku_24KAaU"]YouTube- Zillatron ( Bootsy Collins ) - Count Zero[/ame]

And I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the one and only Meshuggah song I like, "Bleed," which has Far Realms adventuring written all over it...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc98u-eGzlc"]YouTube- MESHUGGAH - Bleed[/ame]

Less obvious choices would be the solo work of Alex Skolnick (Testament/Savatage/TransSiberian Orchestra)- he has some jazz and jazz fusion versions of metal tunes; Rodrigo y Gabriella with their flamenco fusion versions of metal tunes; Apocalyptica who do chamber fusion interpretations of metal tunes. Really a headwarper for someone expecting metal to hear these reworked tunes.

I could go on...

 

[Lanefan]

Astral Doors
Battlelore
Blind Guardian
Demons & Wizards
Dio
Dragonforce
Helloween
Him
Iron Maiden
Krypteria
Lordi
Nightwish
Sabaton
Sonata Arctica
Staring Problem
The Sword
Turisas

Given as you've listed three past/current faves of mine here (those being Dio, Lordi and Nightwish) I'll have to check out some of the others you've noted. That said, I recently picked up a The Sword CD and wasn't exactly overwhelmed.

In fact, I just finished running an adventure based on a Lordi song. "Ghosts of the Heceta Head" tells of a ghost being driven out of her lighthouse by a bunch of other ghosts...this got the wheels churning: what if the party have to defend the lighthouse's ghost and-or whatever it is the other ghosts are seeking? So I cooked up an adventure around this and ran it.

Another band suggestion if you want to get *really* old-school with fantasy-based quasi-metal: Uriah Heep. Though nowhere near as loud as later bands, they, along with Black Sabbath, kind of invented the genre.

Canadian banger Thor also has some decent fantasy-based tunes on his earlier (mid-'80's) albums. He took the '90's off and has since come back with a bunch of newer stuff over the last 8 years or so, none of which have I heard.

Lan-"let the blood run red, let them all be dead [Thor]"-efan

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

A few more:

Witchcraft
Sleep
Russian Circles