Rock Monsters Romania

Most of you have probably heard about the symphonic metal or simply about Nightwish.

Symphonic metal is a subgenre of heavy metal which combines drums and metal guitars with orchestral classical music. Because of that, the lead vocalists of these bands are especially women.

The roots of this subgenre are found in early death metal and gothic metal bands, but the first ever symphonic metal song, a cover of the Latin hymn “Dies Irae”, was released in 1990 by the American thrash metal band Believer. This cover heavily influenced “Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep C” by Waltari, and “Theli”, the Therion’s album, both released in 1996.

At the same time, Tuomas Holopainen decided to make his own band and, with the help of the classical soprano Tarja Turunen, Nightwish was born. In 1997, they released their debut album “Angels Fall First”, but they first hit the International success in 1998, after the album “Oceanborn” was released.

Also, in 1997, Within Temptation released their first album called “Enter”, which was very popular in the Netherlands.

Because the success of Nightwish and WT, this subgenre developed before the 2000s in many other countries, such as Austria (Edenbridge and Vision Of Atlantis), Germany (Xandria), Finland (Apocalyptica) or USA (Kamelot).

2000-2005 was the period with huge achievements for Nightwish, when they have released songs such as  “Nemo” or “Wish I Had An Angel”. In the meantime, another bands which are very popular today were formed in Norway and The Netherlands, the well-known Sirenia, Eluveitie and Epica.

After 2005, the symphonic metal took over the world, with bands formed in the Americas, Europe and Asia; some good examples are Metalwings (Bulgaria), Cellar Darling (Switzerland), Amberian Down (Finland), Ex Libris (Netherlands), Amaranthe (Sweden) or Aeon Sun (Romania).

Also, Tarja Turunen decided to start a solo career, left Nightwish and became successful for her new songs. Later, her replacement, Anette Olzon, did the same thing.

Now, symphonic metal is everywhere, in games, movies or just ads and, in my opinion, it is one of the most popular subgenres of metal. I can’t wait to see what future will bring to symphonic metal…