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Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars of metal with different elements of classical music, such as symphonic instruments, choirs and sometimes a full orchestra, or just keyboard orchestration.
Symphonic metal bands can feature classically trained vocalists, in which case they can be attributed nicknames such as opera metal or operatic metal. Perhaps the most prominent examples of symphonic metal bands are Swedish band Therion, Finnish band Nightwish, German band Xandria, Italian band Rhapsody of Fire, American bands Lorna Shore and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Dutch bands Epica and Within Temptation. Those bands place a large focus on elements prevalent in in addition to the more basic classical components utilized more widely in the genre. Many people who participate in this genre of metal music have a degree in musical thought or have been taught how to sing in a classical style.
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 at times play relatively simple parts in contrast to the complex and nuanced keyboard and/or orchestral parts. 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 Music 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.
It is more difficult to generalize about the role of the classic metal instruments (guitars, bass and drums), as they vary depending on the metal subgenre to which the symphonic band mostly associates. With varying frequency, symphonic bands may employ these instruments (as well as the lead vocals) to play more simple, catchy melodies than non-symphonic bands, which arguably make the symphonic metal style one of the most accessible in metal.
Songs 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.
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. styled after operas or 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 metalThe Manitoban (PDF-file, page 25): "Opera Metal for the Masses" stored at webcitation.org and include the likes of Epica, Nightwish (Tarja Turunen, then Floor Jansen), Haggard, Therion, Operatika, Dremora, Dol Ammad, Visions of Atlantis, Aesma Daeva, and Almora, among countless others. The operatic style is not tied exclusively to symphonic metal, but may appear in avant-garde metal, progressive metal and gothic metal. Many bands featuring operatic female vocalists also have a male vocalist who uses Death growl for contrast, in a vocal style often referred to as "beauty and the beast".
An early prototypical symphonic metal song was "Dies Irae" by American Christian thrash metal group Believer. Appearing on their 1990 album Sanity Obscure, it foreshadowed the operatic approach used by the bands 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 band continued with operatic and symphonic elements on their next release, Dimensions (1993), on the multi-song suite "The Trilogy of Knowledge". 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.
The band Therion were influential in forming the genre 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. 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.
Nightwish, Rhapsody of Fire and Within Temptation all released their first album in 1997. Within Temptation's sound was usually defined as gothic metal, being overall simpler than Nightwish's power metal, but both bands shared two frequent symphonic metal elements: powerful female lead vocals from Tarja Turunen and Sharon den Adel respectively, and the heavy use of classically influenced keyboard playing.
Many new symphonic bands appeared or came to wide attention in the early to mid 2000s, including Rain Fell Within, After Forever, Epica, Delain, Leaves' Eyes, Xandria, and Edenbridge, all featuring female vocals and the characteristic keyboards. Power metal, with its relatively upbeat fantasy themes and stylized keyboard sounds, tended to be an important influence on these groups.
The term "symphonic metal" has sometimes been applied to individual songs or albums by bands that belong primarily to the basic, non-symphonic style of their subgenre. However, the term is sometimes used to describe stylistic elements increasingly present in a growing number of metal music subgenres.
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 Antonio 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 songs like "Ghost Love Score" from the album Once, "The Poet and the Pendulum" from the album Dark Passion Play and "The Greatest Show on Earth" from the album Endless Forms Most Beautiful 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.
Within Temptation's brand of gothic metal combines "the guitar-driven force of hard rock with the sweep and grandeur of symphonic music". The critic Chad Bowar of About.com describes their style as "the optimum balance" between "the melody and hooks of mainstream rock, the depth and complexity of classical music and the dark edge of gothic metal". 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.
The symphonic death metal scene includes deathcore bands mixing the two genres together, starting in the late 2000s with 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.
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