An energetic, uptempo rock track featuring heavy guitar riffs and drums. Perfect for extreme sports, car races and other fast action footage.
Scale the Summit is instrumental metal at its finest! Blending soothing melodies with tight and heavy metal sections, they demonstrate their technical skill while exploring innovative ideas – an outstanding display of instrumental metal!
1. Doom
Doom metal is one of the darkest heavy metal subgenres, typically featuring slow instrumental tracks with thick chords and bass-heavy instrumentation. Doom music also encompasses various themes and influences as deep as the abyss itself; early examples came from Black Sabbath and Pentagram who both took inspiration from 1970s horror flicks in their music; this key component would later be exploited by Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Trouble and many others.
Winter and Paradise Lost were pioneering bands of doom metal. Both groups helped bridge the gap between Sabbath’s blues leanings and more traditional metal sounds like Pentagram and Saint Vitus; both also utilized religious themes within their lyrics – something common to doom music; however these bands used religious references not as endorsements of faith but for aesthetic and symbolic reasons such as alluding to Last Judgment or using cross-shaped headstones as aesthetic devices.
In the 1990’s, extreme metal was brought into doom metal through bands like Cathedral, Anathema, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride who combined elements from both genres to form what could be described as doom/death music. Most of these instrumental bands created influential albums which helped establish doom/death as an influential subgenre of doom metal for decades to come.
Doom music has long been at the heart of popular culture. Thanks to bands such as Cathedral, Swallow the Sun and My Dying Bride who blend mournful introspection with triumphant guitar riffs. Additionally, avant-garde bands such as ryr have helped push doom beyond its genre-defining status by employing experimental tones and textures on their albums such as Transient (using spectral guitar tones to create an ethereal feel) or The Avalon Inferno (demonstrating their transcendence over sonic boundaries).
2. Death
Death metal stands out among heavy metal genres as one of the darkest subgenres for its graphic lyrics, yet bands are capable of using music alone to convey emotion without recourse to words. French metal legends Gojira have an incredible instrumental track on their 2003 album The Link that features birds chirping before an intense wave of thrashing guitar and dynamic drumming comes rushing in from behind a wall of sound.
Even without vocals, this song tells a powerful narrative about a fallen soldier returning home with the spirit of an ancestor who has passed. Both music and atmosphere perfectly capture this moody narrative; making this track an essential listen for death metal fans.
Chuck Schuldiner’s death metal titans Death were masters of lyrical storytelling. However, Death proved you didn’t need spoken words to document Genghis Khan – an estimated killer responsible for killing over 40 million people – as his warpath used violent riffs and drumming as an expressive canvas to display his brutal machismo.
Gojira and Death may be masters of thrash metal music without vocals, but there are numerous outstanding examples in death metal history of instrumental death metal without vocals as well. One notable piece from Master of Puppets called “Orion,” for instance, tells a tale about Cthulhu and Ktulu without using words at all – making this masterpiece perhaps the greatest song in metal history.
Dream Theater’s epic from their 2017 release “Ghost Stories” proves prog metal can also be beautiful and emotionally charged. The six-minute song takes listeners on an extraordinary sonic voyage through space and time, each new passage opening up further virtuosic flair from guitars and keyboards like musical detours from fantasy world.
Instrumental metal music has experienced an upsurge in popularity thanks to many young musicians pushing the limits of technical skill and musical creativity. Artists such as Animals As Leaders, Scale the Summit, Chon and Russian Circles are known for putting a modern spin on heavy metal with innovative arrangements of complex guitar riffs combined with dynamic drum patterns to produce an irresistibly captivating soundscape that cannot be ignored by listeners.
3. Power Metal
Power Metal music stands as one of the three genres without words in metal music without words, offering upbeat and heroic tones without keyboards in the forefront. Power Metal is an offshoot of both speed metal and traditional heavy metal styles and often incorporates elements of both genres for an epic fighting feel that typically excludes keyboards while using symphonic elements instead. Power Metal also departs from black metal’s darker atmosphere by offering up more upbeat and heroic tones instead.
Originating in the 1980s as a response to heavier, more aggressive thrash metal movements like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, progressive metal has its roots in classic bands such as Helloween, Gamma Ray and Blind Guardian as well as American outfits Iced Earth and Symphony X. Prog metal incorporates long instrumental passages and unusual time signatures typical of progressive metal with uplifting vocals, classical-influenced guitars and keyboards and themes that explore fantasy worlds or human nature lyrically.
Power Metal can sometimes be confused with Symphonic Power Metal, an underground subgenre combining symphonic elements with power metal’s fast pace and strong riffing – both styles offer something for fans of metal of all genres alike.
Power metal music can be difficult to appreciate for those unfamiliar with its genre. Bands such as Sweden’s HammerFall with their leather warrior costumes and plastic swords may appear ridiculous to outsiders, yet those who embrace power metal know it to be an extremely powerful musical genre.
If you’re searching for an unforgettable power metal band, Stratovarius from Finland should not disappoint. Since 1984 they’ve been producing amazing albums that demonstrate their mastery of this genre; with iconic guitar solos that blaze into an epic guitar solo showdown; vocalists with majestic voices singing along magnificent melodies, and their signature blend of classical keyboard arrangements and classical guitar work that makes for one delicious musical feast after another – so much so they have their own page on Epic Metal Index!
4. Symphonic Metal
Symphonic metal music genre stands as one of the strongest among all metal genres. Combining both heavy metal’s raw power with classical’s grandeur and grandeur, this genre uses keyboards and orchestral instruments to create atmosphere and mood, with emotive vocals often taking on dramatic themes – creating highly emotional music which many bands utilize orchestral arrangements for.
Symphonic metal draws its inspiration from traditional heavy metal themes, but is typically more melodic and approachable than other subgenres of metal. Guitars, bass and drums tend to be used less frequently compared with other genres and emphasis is put more on keyboard timbre and vocals compared with guitars bass drums drums than in traditional metal genres; sometimes operatic or bombastic styles may even make this genre too theatrical or overdone for some listeners.
Nightwish, Within Temptation, Xandria and Stratovarius are some of the biggest and best symphonic metal bands; others such as Therion and Haggard also stand out. Some bands like Xandria excel at successfully blending classical with metal elements; this may be best demonstrated in one band’s repertoire like themselves.
Symphonic metal is an evolving genre that gives both musicians and listeners a creative outlet. While its identity may sometimes be debated, symphonic metal clearly has its own special place among other genres and can be an extremely moving musical experience.
Symphonic metal may lack some of the heaviness and brutality associated with heavy metal music, yet others contend it adds emotional depth and richness that would otherwise be lacking in heavy metal songs. Either way, this genre has quickly become one of the most significant developments in metal history.