4 Non-Stereotypical but Awesome Metal Songs

Hi, all!

So, as you may or may not know, heavy metal has a special place in my heart. No, not as in like steel-beams-heavy-metal. That stuff sucks, man! I mean the musical genre, that one genre that gets your blood pumping, hair swaying, (If you have long hair, that is. Which I sadly lack. Dammit.) and eardrums close to bursting.

If you believe those stereotypes, that is.

But, little-known fact, not all metal is like this. Some genres are actually quite chill and still counts as metal. And not all metal bands are clad in sparkly spandex and have long, flowing, blond hair or have pentagrams and upside-down crosses carved into their bloody forehead. And, shock-horror, not all metal is satanic and directly created explicitly to hail the devil.

In this post, I’ll highlight a few songs that are not only completely awesome and catchy but are also quite different to what is stereotypically highlighted as ‘metal’.

Élan – Nightwish

This song is quite simply amazing. It’s very much a perfect song for anything fantasy and is quite different to what normally comes to mind when someone says that they like listening to heavy metal – not quite AC/DC, is it?

Nightwish in all their glory.

For one, the vocals delivered by one of heavy metal’s great female artists Floor Jansen are quite soft and feminine. No screamo here! The electric guitar still gets your head moving without overpowering the vocals, and there’s a hint of folkish style in the use of the wind instruments. This is – and always will be – one of my favorite metal songs, and is probably what got me into the symphonic side of metal, rather than the slightly generic (although still admittedly really really fun) bands like System Of A Down and Megadeth.

 

 

Come, taste the wine,
Raise the blind,
They will guide you from the light.
Writing noughts till the end of time.
Come, surf the clouds,
Race the dark,
It feeds from the runs undone.
Meet me where the cliff greets the sea…
                                                                      – Èlan, Nightwish                                                                              

Skalds and Shadows – Blind Guardian 

First of all, let’s put the fact that this was the theme for that abomination of a video game film In the Name of the King and its infamous director Uwe Boll behind us – they are both nameless. NAMELESS I TELL YOU.

Alright, now that is out of the way, let’s talk about the song. And holy crap, is this an awesome song or what! There’s is literally like no electric guitars or bass. Or even drums. It’s extremely medieval sounding and quite orchestral.

Actually, there’s quite a question to be asked about whether this song actually qualifies as metal at all. I’d say it does, since it is performed by a seasoned and quite masterful power metal band, and the vocals are still power-metal-ish. It’s absolutely perfect as ambient background music for a night spent with the lads – that is, if you’re going to spend the night playing Dragon Age or Skyrim and the lads are all nerds, like me.

Would you believe
In a night like this?
A night like this.
When visions come true
Would you believe
In a tale like this?
A lay of bliss.
We’re praising the old lore
Come to the blazing fire and
See me in the Shadows,
See me in the Shadows… 
                                                                      – Skalds and Shadows, Blind Guardian                        

Omnos – Eluveitie

Okay, I’m not gonna lie; this is a really creepy song. I don’t know what makes it creepy for me: Anna Murphy’s slightly haunting voice, or the fact that it’s sung entirely in Gaulish. And there’s that spoken part… Yeah. Creepy.

Yeah. Creepy.

But still, this song is totally awesome, and quite sad actually. If you can find the translated lyrics, they’re pretty interesting too.
Usually, Eluveitie music would have a lot of really harsh vocals, and Anna Murphy would kinda just sit in the background playing the hurdy-gurdy. But every now and then she’d lead one of the songs, and those are always my favorite of theirs. Murphy’s voice is quite stellar, actually. Her post-Eluveitie solo music is really awesome too.

Nightfall – Xandria

So. Nightfall by Xandria. Where to start?

Xandria, posing quite…eh, awesomely?

 

Well, the vocals are just insane.

Dianna van Giersbergen has this awesome operatic voice that is just… well, in the very essence of the word, awesome. It sort of floats through you, if that makes sense. There are the awesome thumping drums and awfully rhythmic guitar.

And the lyrics are pretty awesome, too. If not a little, eheh, doomsdayish. The way I interpret it (and a lot of others, apparently) is that it’s saying that society’s worship of money and material matters will cause our demise – thus the use of the term “Hrimata Eleison” alongside all those slightly morbid lyrics.
(Kyrie Eleison means “God have mercy” in Greek. Hrimata roughly means money in Greek. So, replacing the word Kyrie, “God”, with the word Hrimata, “Money”, highlights how society has basically replaced the worship of God with the worship of money. Clever, right?)

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So, that’s my first full post/pointless rant about music so far. Have any songs up your sleeve that you think should be added to the list? Have any lingering thoughts on this matter? Either way, go ahead and write your thoughts down in the comments below.
Go on, don’t be shy!

Anyway, thanks a bunch for reading through that post – yeesh, it’s a mess – and I’ll see all you dudes later!

From your music-loving pal,

Thomas “The Mad Writer” McKenna