THE 25 GREATEST SYMPHONIC METAL ALBUMS
The symphonic urge has existed in heavy music since its earliest rumblings. Deep Purple unveiled their extraordinary Concerto For Group And Orchestra in 1969, a gleefully pretentious benchmark for future symphonically inclined headbangers, while the classical flourishes on Black Sabbath’s Spiral Architect and choral arrangements on Supertzar blew mid-70s minds. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore engaged the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra for Rainbow’s majestic 1976 epic Stargazer, planting seeds that started blossoming in the 80s with neoclassical guitar heroes Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads and Marty Friedman. Each metallic subgenre has since developed its own symphonic strain, reaching new heights of drama, emotion and virtuosity. Here are the greatest.
25 X JAPAN Art Of Life (1993)
In the early 90s, X Japan (née X) were at their height of popularity. With fame and fawning came limitless self-indulgence. Band leader Yoshiki purchased a Hollywood recording complex and dug into his Scrooge McDuck-ian vault to hire London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to join him on Art Of Life’s two-year-long recording journey. Rife with everything from an eight-minute piano solo, melodic thrash and enough synths to entomb Vangelis in spandex, it was 29 minutes of gloriously off-kilter, high-forehead glitz and classical-inspired speed metal precision.
LISTEN TO: Art Of Life
24 SIRENIA Riddles, Ruins & Revelations (2021)
Pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a symphonic metal band, Sirenia’s 10th studio album embraced the darker side of the human psyche, as themes of addiction and declining mental health took centre stage in this sprawling epic. The Norwegians welcomed huge, melodic death metal elements to an already bustling pallet of gothic synths,
