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Joined: June 29 2015
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Topic: Balllads by bands that don't normally do ballads Posted: November 16 2016 at 05:43
The other day I came across the track "Lost in your memory" by Threshold, and immediately fell in love with it. Brilliant chord sequences and melodies, even though the song structure is pretty conventional (verse/chorus etc) I thought it was extremely enjoyable. I decided to track down more of Threshold's music, but as predominantly metal band they are not generally to my taste. However, I have downloaded that track to my collection.
This has got me thinking: what other tracks am I missing out on because I don't listen to prog metal (or even heavy prog)? What are the best examples of gentler tracks done by heavier bands?
They dont' need to be wussy ballads (I do like rock after all) but they of course should be GOOD tracks!
Joined: March 09 2007
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 06:14
Uriah Heep wrote some nice ballad type songs bhack in the 70s, "Rain", "The Easy Road" come to mind. Nice, very well written and performed songs, from a quite heavy rock/metal band.
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 07:07
Heep released at least three compilations of ballads so it's difficult to call them a band that doesn't normally do ballads. However, Come Away Belinda (which is also the title of one of their ballad compilations) is rather fine nevertheless.
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 07:17
Not really prog metal but the title track of Transatlantic's "Bridge Across Forever" is a very cheesy ballad amongst some heavy-ish prog (but personally I love it).
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 11:10
Rosscoe wrote:
The other day I came across the track "Lost in your memory" by Threshold, and immediately fell in love with it. Brilliant chord sequences and melodies, even though the song structure is pretty conventional (verse/chorus etc) I thought it was extremely enjoyable. I decided to track down more of Threshold's music, but as predominantly metal band they are not generally to my taste. However, I have downloaded that track to my collection.
This has got me thinking: what other tracks am I missing out on because I don't listen to prog metal (or even heavy prog)? What are the best examples of gentler tracks done by heavier bands?
They dont' need to be wussy ballads (I do like rock after all) but they of course should be GOOD tracks!
Thanks
Threshold has at least 2 or 3 ballads per album. They have pianoballads (piano and vocals).
Of course they are not a ballad-band (do they even exist?) but they have a lot of ballads uptill now.
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 11:15
All the bands that are mentioned, play loads of ballads...
Rush has at least 1 or 2 ballads per album. Let's say 1 ballad per album, that makes up for 20 or 25 ballads. Uriah Heep has dozens of ballads.
Even Molly Hatchet (esp. in their hairmetal days) released ballad after ballad. After 1995 (their comeback) they at least released 1 or 2 ballads per album. Even acoustic versions of their own songs.
I (for myself) can't for the love of god, name a band, that have only released 1 ballad in their career. Maybe the ballad-rich "Set the World on Fire" by Annihilator? Or any other thrashmetal band that followed Metallica into top40-balladry?
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 15:55
It is probably a sad thing to admit, but I was able to re-create the Monster Ballads CDs from within my own collection. Pretty much all of the songs are on hair metal albums that are within my collection. I only had to track down a few of the songs from other sources.
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Posted: November 16 2016 at 16:00
man... who didn't once have that in their collection...
they taught us how to love.. they taught us how to live
I think the Spawn of Satan got my copy though.. I was lucky to
get away from her with my Rickenbacker and a still functioning penis so I
count myself lucky
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Joined: June 29 2015
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Posted: November 17 2016 at 05:24
Kingsnake wrote:
Rosscoe wrote:
The other day I came across the track "Lost in your memory" by Threshold, and immediately fell in love with it. Brilliant chord sequences and melodies, even though the song structure is pretty conventional (verse/chorus etc) I thought it was extremely enjoyable. I decided to track down more of Threshold's music, but as predominantly metal band they are not generally to my taste. However, I have downloaded that track to my collection.
This has got me thinking: what other tracks am I missing out on because I don't listen to prog metal (or even heavy prog)? What are the best examples of gentler tracks done by heavier bands?
They dont' need to be wussy ballads (I do like rock after all) but they of course should be GOOD tracks!
Thanks
Threshold has at least 2 or 3 ballads per album. They have pianoballads (piano and vocals).
Of course they are not a ballad-band (do they even exist?) but they have a lot of ballads uptill now.
So what are some other good examples? they have quite a large discography and I don't have time to try them all!
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Posted: November 17 2016 at 07:39
Rosscoe wrote:
Kingsnake wrote:
Rosscoe wrote:
The other day I came across the track "Lost in your memory" by Threshold, and immediately fell in love with it. Brilliant chord sequences and melodies, even though the song structure is pretty conventional (verse/chorus etc) I thought it was extremely enjoyable. I decided to track down more of Threshold's music, but as predominantly metal band they are not generally to my taste. However, I have downloaded that track to my collection.
This has got me thinking: what other tracks am I missing out on because I don't listen to prog metal (or even heavy prog)? What are the best examples of gentler tracks done by heavier bands?
They dont' need to be wussy ballads (I do like rock after all) but they of course should be GOOD tracks!
Thanks
Threshold has at least 2 or 3 ballads per album. They have pianoballads (piano and vocals).
Of course they are not a ballad-band (do they even exist?) but they have a lot of ballads uptill now.
So what are some other good examples? they have quite a large discography and I don't have time to try them all!
Cheers
Okay, here we go, they have also a few very long songs that have quiet passages, I will not include those, because they have heavy sections aswell
1. Keep It with Mine (from the debut album, featuring Damian Wilson), a ballad featurin acoustic guitar, very folkish
2. Under the Sun (from Psychedelicatessen, featurin Glynn Morgan), a pianoballad. I find it kinda dull
3. Innocent (from Psychedelicatessen, featuring Glynn Morgan), a powerballad, written by Morgan himself (he wrote two songs for the band on his own, this one and the heavymetal song Will to Give). Innocent was for a long time the most famous song by the band, played live a lot, and even featured an official music video.
4.Forever and Clear (both from Extinct Instinct). Forever is a powerballad, reminiscent of Innocent and Clear is a pianoballad. Both feature Damian Wilson.
This is going to take a while, so I will just list the songs per album:
- Clone: Chance and Sunrise on Mars. The latter one really reminds one of David Bowie and features a great ending guitarsolo.
- Hypothetical: Sheltering Sky and Keep My Head. The first is a powerballad with a heavy midsection. The latter one is more of a soft pop song, but has a nice vocal hook.
- Critical Mass: Falling Away, which is reminiscent of Sheltering Sky. The end section of the titletrack (Lucky) is an acoustic section with stunning vocals and a nice synthlead, but it's not a seperate song.
After that I lost interest in the band, because suddenly all the songs started to sound the same. Maybe someone else can point the ballads on Subsurface, Dead Reckoning and March of Progress/For the Journey.
From Clone - Dead Reckoning the vocals were by Mac Dermott, the latest two albums feature Damian Wilson.
When you want to hear the softer side of the band, maybe you can try Wireless: Acoustic Sessions, wich features some ballads, but aswell some acoustic renditions of heavier songs.
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Posted: November 19 2016 at 12:38
Sweet's Anthem No. 1 (Lady of the Lake). And some fine symphonic elements on board, to boot. But the album that it's on, Level Headed, is a whole other animal entirely than the average Sweet offering that preceded it. That's probably why their warbler Brian Connolly wanted out in its aftermath.
"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
Black Sabbath are a band that don't normally do ballads. However the ones that i think of of Changes and She's Gone are in competition with one another to be two of the most appalling results of this otherwise fine band. Now if you come along to Lonely Is The Word by the Heaven And Hell line up it's a much better story.
Deep Purple do When A Blind Man Cries (sadly omitted from the vinyl re-release of Machine Head when it should be closing the album as per the CD). One could always thrown in Child In Time to complete that blind man Gillan and Co had going.
Wonder if King Crimson could be a rare ballad type band. I suppose so. Matte Kudesai, Cadence And Cascade, Lady of The Dancing Water, Book Of Saturday... no too many already. Oh well.
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Balllads by bands that don't normally do ballads
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Heep released at least three compilations of ballads so it's difficult to call them a band that doesn't normally do ballads. However, Come Away Belinda (which is also the title of one of their ballad compilations) is rather fine nevertheless.
Rosscoe wrote:
