I started to listen death metal...only one band though, Amon Amarth.

Usually I don't listen to that kind of music, but...

My musical tastes are pretty narrow, actually. I listen to sound track music and classical. There are some forays into other genres I'll follow for a while, but I keep coming back to my old staple.

I like KUSC a lot, for example (http://www.kusc.org)

Hey All,

I couldn't resist posting to this topic. Amon Armath is a great band! I would have to say they are more Viking Metal than Death though, but who am I to judge anyways. For all of you fantasy music lovers (I guess everyone here) I have some great suggestions on fantasy inspired power metal bands. Sure it's a bit kitschy corny, but when Christopher Lee does guest vocals for one of your trakcs, that's pretty darn cool! So here are some bands I think people may enjoy.

1. Blind Guardian - Power Metal at its best. They put out an album in 98 I believe entitled Nightfall on Middle Earth based entirely on their interpretations of the Silmarillion. They have a new album coming out this spring, so be on the look! From Germany

2. Rhapsody - Italian Power Metal with huge dramatic epic storylines. Dragons, swords, and all that good stuff abound in here. Any album they put out is worth a listen.

3. Avantasia - Tobias Sammett's side project (he is also the lead singer of Edguy) feautres two Power Metal classics - The Metal Opera parts I and II. Incredible stuff here, full of well known guests spots by musicians throughout the metal scene. Definitely worth a listen and ultimate purchase!

4. LostHorizon - Power Metal from Sweden, their album A Flame to the Ground Beneath gives me chills every time I play it. Full of empowering imagery, they will make you believe in yourself, your life, and the intertwining of the two. One of my favourites!

5. Demons & Wizards - The side project of Hansi Kursch (lead singer of Blind Guardian) and John Schaffer (Shredmaster of Iced Earth) is full of incredible imagery, classic yet progressive riffs, and lovely fantastical overtones. They recently put out an album last year, entitled Touched by the Crimson King.

those 5 are all excellent. While I know it's metal, they are excellent selections for working out and exercise, yard work, or having a get together with some friends (sort of). Some other selections are.....

Hammerfall
Edguy
Iced Earth
Sonata Arctica

if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask or to add commentary!

Hails!

Dain

All very interesting groups!
I love all that I hear here on RR.
But for personal tastes, like Dooglio, I love Classical, music from all eras, love the 50's all thru present day, but can not listen to street rap or extreme punk. Heavy Metal, depends on the band. Some Opera, my husband refuses to listen to it, so it is with head phones.
I have played very loud the recent Phantom of the Opera so he had to hear it! Great movie.
But if I can tolerate his fondness for the guy who sings, "They just call me the Streak" and loves to annoy me with the constant playing of "The Hamster Dance" or "Star Trekken Across the Universe" , he can listen to a little Opera!


witchywanda

Besides fantasy music i like music with an "dark" style.

My favorite bands are:

Project Pitchfork, an german dark electro band

Apoptygma Berzerk, a band from norway, dark electro, too. But on their new cd they have an "Placebo touch"

Skinny Puppy, pioneers of electro and industrial from the usa. Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly was a former member

Moonspell, a gothic rock group from portugal.

Fields Of The Nephilim, the legend of gothic rock from england. They are back with a really good cd.

Thats a small part of my favorite music besides fantasy soundtracks.

Last but not least i like Cryo

Did you know any of this groups and what do you think about they.

I like most any kind of music except for rap and "hard" C&W. Classical from all the ages is great. Rock - from early to modern. People at work give me a hard time for having Jethro Tull, John Denver, Pink Floyd, Carmina Burana and Ring Cycle CDs all side by side in my shelf.

Yeah, Cryo is good! Though I've heard there are TWO Cryos in Sweden. One which plays synth music and one who does some fantasy. And I heard that perhaps "Fantasy Cryo" will change name, and he has some new ideas on new songs that we hopefully will hear soon

I too like Apoptygma Berzerk. At least their first album. Haven't heard the first one but it sounds a bit too rock-ish. What happened to the synthesizers?

Oh, anyone want to buy some synths? Cryo is selling out all his music hardware and will go totally software

I also like Cryo.

So...what kind of software will you be using? I'd really like to know!

Any Novation SuperNova II's in the "For Sale" bin? It's about time I update and I'm getting tired of my Rolands (JX-8P, D-20 and JV-90 with the vintage synth expansion board).

Unfortunately no Nova, but I had their first one the BassStation, but I sold that two months ago. What remains is: Waldorf Microwave II, Korg Wavestation SR, Yamaha TX81Z, Kawai K4r, two Behringer effects, a patchbay and a 20 channel Behringer mixer.

I've been using Cubase since the good ol' Atari ST days where I even tried out Steinbergs Pro-24, before Cubase was born So I will buy the midrange SL version. Then I'm aiming for the Native Instrument Essentials synth pack. Then East Wests Symphonic Orcherstra Silver Edition. And my dream synth would be East West's Symphonic Choirs, but that one costs around $1000!! But the sound quality is amazing!

Have you taken a look at Cakewalk's Sonar? I always found that interface much easier to get used to compared to Cubase (at least in the earlier versions). Not to mention it's got 32 bit VST instruments enabled. When I was doing my hard disk recording, I used Sonar (v2.0) with my 24-bit Event Electronics Layla pushing out of my 20/20 BAS reference monitors. Decent setup before my Layla got fried by a lightning strike. These days I stick to Acid Pro 5 for creating any music for my Flash files. Have an 11GB sample library and growing. But for nostolgia sake, I still have my keyboards just in case. I've had an interest in the SuperNova II primarily because I enjoy Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre and the SuperNova II can achieve a similar style. I've also been following
Bjorn Lynne for several years now and he uses one and likes it a lot from what he's told me.

I took a look at EastWest's Symphonic Choirs and it seems pretty cool! But man is it ever a resource hog!

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Kompakt software)

? 38 GB Free Hard Disc Space, DVD Drive

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS (for Native Instruments software)
? Win XP, Pentium III/Athlon 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, DVD drive
? Mac OS X 10.2.6, G4 800 MHz, 1 GB, DVD drive

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM (for Sound Library)
? Win XP, Pentium IV/Athlon 3 GHz, 2 GB RAM, DVD drive
? Mac OS X 10.3*, G5 1.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, DVD drive

SUPPORTED INTERFACES
? WIN: VST?, DXi?, ASIO?, DirectSound?
? MAC: VST?, Audio Units?, Core Audio?, Core MIDI?, RTAS?

Direct from Disk extension from soundsonline.com is required.
Registration is required within 14 days (by web, fax or mail).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (WordBuilder software)

? Windows stand-alone version: Windows XP
? Mac stand-alone version: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
? MFX plug-in version: Sonar 4.0.3 or higher + Windows XP
? VST-MA plug-in version: Cubase/Nuendo v2/v3 or higher + Windows XP/Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
* Logic users must use standalone version with WordBuilder

Yes, perhaps a bit on the strong side But oh my god what a sound! I'll see what my budget allows me. When I sell my hardware synths I should be able to pick up a few softsynths. Native Instruments has a few really good packs, Essentials and another one Electroni Instruments 2 XL or something. Not good for fantasy but great for electric sounding grooves

I would say I hear very different kinds of music, but the common point is that they all can be summarized as Progressive Rock!!!

This term was first used to describe the music of the 70' Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Camel and many more. This kind of music dies with the upcoming punk generation ans had a strong revival in the 80' with bands like Marillion, IQ, Pallas and Pendragon. That was when I discovered this music.

Today, prog-rock is very diverse and has different subclassifications:

Art-Rock: Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, Sigor Roos, Overhead
Retro-Prog: Transatlantic, The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard
Heavy Prog: Dream Theater, Opeth, Pain of Salvation, Tool, The Mars Volta

I'm sure I forgot half of my music collection.

And of course, all the masters from the past: The above mentioned Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Kansas, Saga, Led Zeppelin, Alan Parson's Project, Kate Bush and so on and so on...

My Wife likes electronic music, so I learned about Björk, Buddha Bar, Ian Simmons, too and integrated them in my musical taste.

Any more Prog-Fans here? (Actually, they are a rare breed... )

if you really want to know what am I listening,,,,this is what I am listening,,,,,

(BLACK METAL)- +mayhem+ satyricon+ dimmu borgir+ dark throne+ emperor+ dark funeral+ apraxia+ ancient+ ajattara+ immortal+ 1349+ carpathian forest+ absurd+ gorgoroth+ god dethroned+ falkenbach+ nachtfalke+ hecate enthroned+ impaled nazarene+ deicide+ dark tranquillity+ kataklsym+ abyssos+ at the gates+ as hope dies+ forgoten tomb+ forgoten woods+ bal-sagoth+ catamenia+ children of bodom+ vinterland+ blood stain child+ dismal euphony+ funeris nocturnum+ gates Of ishtar+ liar of golgotha+ summoning+ absyic hate+ graveland+ lunar aurora+ keep of kalessin+ Thors Hammer+ thorns of ivy+ algaion+ Zyklon+ (PAGAN METAL) - +nokturnal mortum+ negura bunget+ thyrfing+ drudkh+ elend+ forest of fog+ heidevolk+ geist reich+ himinbjorg+ death of folk+ kult perunov+ slavogorje+ (NSBM) - +burzum+ nargaroth+ dark thule+ moonblood+ (VIKING+FOLK METAL)- Amon Amarth+ ancient rites+ Bathory+ ensiferum+ einherjer+ Skyforger+ finntroll+ TyR+ Faun+ pagan altar+ waylander+ Wintresun+ (DEATH METAL)- obituary+ diecide+ morbid angel+ six feet under+ cannibal corpse+ death+ vital remains+ impaled+ slayer+ old mans child+ malevolent creation+ hypocrisy+ dying fetus+ arch enemy+ Crown Of Thorns ( The Crown)+ behemot+ opeth+ avatar+ (OTHER)- +bloodhunt+ bullet for my valentine+ lacrimas profundere+ lock up+ lamb of god+ my dying bride+ pain+ afi+ pscyhoparadox+ paradise lost+ SATAN PANONSKI+ LET 3+ Hladno Pivo+ rammstein+ sins of thy beloved+ system of a down+ sirenia+ stone sour+ sepultura+ garmarna+ undercoat+ wongrawen+ therion+ amorphis+ machine head+ mudvayne+ deftones+ the haunted+ as i lay dying+ the black dalhia murder+ staic-x+ danzig+ Metallica+ Trivium+ Atreyu+ Slipknot+ sisters of mercy+ moospell+ dream teathre+ in extremo+ LAIBACH+ blind guardian+ kratos+