Pretty much as the title reads. I love rock and roll, and always have. Been binging hard on Motorhead throughout the year, and recently have discovered Running Wild as well. Listened to Marilyn Manson and System of a Down for as long as I can remember, and Alestorm is always good on the side. We all know the long lists of good bands from the 70s up to around 2005, and that is music that can last one a lifetime.

But I don't want to get left behind. I want to find good music of the same genre that is relatively new (or maybe even brand new.) Stuff that covers the whole fantasy elements of metal, or hits those hard world topics that seem to have become extremely relevant these days. The problem is? They sure don't push for that anymore. The industry wants us all to eat up their pop garbage, with the upbeat hand-clapping nonsense here and billions of love songs over there.

I'm sick of it. I need music about acid rain, fortune telling pirates that look into the future and see Nazi Germany, and the Armenian Genocide (Don't worry guys, SOAD will have that new album out any day now.) And I need it to be new, because boy oh boy does the world of today have plenty of material for musicians to write about.

What do you guys listen to?

Some of my favorite rock music came out of the 90s all the way to the mid 00s. I too am a huge fan of SOAD and an aficionado of modern rock myself where ever it can be found. And its out there, though not always easy to find because mainstream music has changed as it always does.

One group that I consider a personal favorite is Queens of the Stone Age. They've been consistently active since the late 90s and still going on strong. Expecting a seventh album soon. Their stuff don't consist entirely what you're looking for, as it seems to more so be able personal struggle (especially their most recent stuff) but its still good. I consider their recent album three years back to be perhaps one of their best. Some dark [censored]. Here are two songs you could try listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-90obSa1Az4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2V_8tSWgys

Wish I could link more but it seems they were removed from Youtube. Can try looking at their older stuff as well though. Just as good.

I love music about those kinds of things as well, so I'll post some stuff that's new or relatively new that has these kinds of themes.


First of all, there's Jon oliva's pain (JOP) and it's a band started by Jon oliva, who was a the singer and keyboardist for a band called savatage and also one of the main writing forces behind trans siberian orchestra (which has all the members from savatage as well as a bunch of other members).


JOP is still coming out with new stuff, and he writes songs about madness, addiction, apocalypse, war and terrorism. Also in his days of savatage he wrote a lot of songs with fantasy elements.


Jop - maniacal renderings (the keyboard and guitar solos on this song are amazing)

https://youtu.be/zEF91FaMLBY


Jop - death rides a black horse

https://youtu.be/gstvLZZpvXY


Jop - guardian of forever

https://youtu.be/JwPJFPNkyEk



And a couple goodies from savatage:


Savatage - ghost in the ruins

https://youtu.be/KjFxcC-WF2A


Savatage - morphine child (this song is a masterpiece )

https://youtu.be/kn2yN9F3_TE



If you like any of the above I can recommend some more like it. Moving in though.


Sabaton. They are a newish band, and have a new album coming out in a month. They write mostly songs about war, ww1, ww2, and even older wars. They even have an album called carolus Rex, about king Carl from Sweden who became a king at 15 and the three powerhouses of Europe all went to war against him and he managed to fight and defeat two of the armies and finally lost trying to march on Russia.


Sabaton - to hell and back

https://youtu.be/XE4BxPwu4zI


Sabaton - white death

https://youtu.be/iLTpKs2ylP4


Sabaton - carolus rex

https://youtu.be/Us2ylGAwBnk


Sabaton - shadows (this song is about sauron from lotr).

https://youtu.be/NlsRsRo1PI4



Were you aware Judas priest came out with a new album 2 years ago? They were the kings about writing about fantasy and sci fi and demons and warriors from the future. Their new album is just killer, with gems such as:


Judas priest - battle cry

https://youtu.be/ss5uhrzXI-s


Judas priest - tears of blood

https://youtu.be/uYyhTz01lqQ


Judas priest - halls of Valhalla

https://youtu.be/VddfDsrVdcs


Judas priest - secrets of the dead

https://youtu.be/4orNgfVdgww



You may or may not like this next one. They are more of a symphonic metal with a female frontwoman, the Viking looking bassist does backup singing (he's also a great singer ). But they are still coming out with new stuff and still going strong, they are called nightwish.


Here's a few songs from their new album that came out last year.


Nightwish - weak fantasy

https://youtu.be/IEsS6NNt3Bo


Nightwish -yours is an empty hope

https://youtu.be/ABi2DqNbYYE


Nightwish - my Walden

https://youtu.be/pIGBNhPN0eY


Symphony x is another symphonic metal band, the singer can go from heavy metal vocals to soft high pitches and is very talented (honestly the whole band is talented). Here's a few from them, they just came out with a new album as well.


Symphony x - Eve of seduction

https://youtu.be/DbTSLVx7dgE


Symphony x - to hell and back

https://youtu.be/siUT6zrisTo


Symphony x - legend

https://youtu.be/xItp2ta67ok


Symphony x - reign in madness

https://youtu.be/PW_Gizv8Lh8




Anyway, there's some stuff to get you started, it's hard to judge if you'll like them or not based on what examples you've given, but who knows maybe these will get you some new listening for a bit?

Sentinel, that's a really good list.

I'm a bigger fan of Nightwish's older stuff when Tarja was still with the band. The last Nightwish album I got was Dark Passion Play. Perhaps I should give them another chance soon.

I am a big time metal head. My favorite bands are classic Metallica, Slayer, Mercyful fate/ King Diamond, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson, Emperor, Moonspell, and old Cradle of Filth. I have traveled all over the U.S and Canada during the late 90's and early 2000's, following these band wherever they played. I also like classic rock like the Doors, the Righteous Brothers, Queen and Jimi Hendrix. I also enjoy 50's rock like Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Ben E. King, and Richie Valens.

If you like good metal, one band I like in particular is Trivium. They started in 1999, but didnt make their first album I think in 2003 or 2004. They didnt really take off though until the 2nd album, in 2005.


The singer had an amazing range in his voice and the drummer is incredible.

Yeah, it wasn't the same after she left.

Well before, Tarja gave the group the operatic sound that made me first take note of them. The new lady (who I think has a great voice), just sounds too much like a pop star, making the band's sound a bit less interesting, IMO.

Annette left nightwish like 2 years ago and they got a new singer who's more metal than both tarja and Annette, but she can also do the operatic stuff.


Check out her versions of ghost love score (which for the second half and the very end of the song I think she does better than tarja ) and romanticide (which Sounds way more metal with her in it).
https://youtu.be/4V_eoR6r1Tw

https://youtu.be/zz_7OCCQlXs

Wow I did not know that! I haven't kept up with them for a while so, yes, I will check it out! Thanks for the info!

Holy Smokes! I did not know that! Like Chesire, I had not kept up with them.

Like it was suggested anything from Jon Oliva is great. I generally speaking prefer the Savatage days. I miss Cris Oliva.

Fish The former lead singer of Marillion back in the early and mid 80's might have a few albums you might like and some of the songs from Marillion might interest you as well.

He last album 2013 A Feast of Consequences had about half of the songs dealing with WW1.

Fish - Crucifix Corner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1nw9OuC1DI

Fish - Thistle Alley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOf17tHJBTU

Fish - High Wood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3OE8TvCJTQ

Marillion with Fish - Fugazi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVGHQxWWCyg

Marillion with Fish - Forgotten Sons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtiUoEbwD7Q

Rage - Black and White https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Ke_aSjMqc

Yeah I was like you two, when tarja left I tried to stay around but I just didn't like annette's pop vocals. While she is talented, I don't think she fit that type of music.


The instruments for the two Annette albums are fantastic, but I think her vocals are a detriment to the type of music.


So yeah the band was basically dead to me, then I heard about the new singer and decided to check her out. To me, it's a revival of the band. She can do about 7/10 tarja songs better than tarja, and she can do all of annettes songs better.


Check out on YouTube you can watch the concert DVD of wacken 2013 (when floor was still the temporary replacement for Annette after she had only 48 hours to learn the setlist ), it's called showtime storytime (the two videos I posted earlier are from that DVD).


She actually became one of my top 3 favourite vocalists now.


Here's a video I took from the nightwish concert a few months back of them playing Sahara (a song from dark passion play) a song they haven't played since 2009 and wasn't on the setlist for the tour until they sprung it on our concert in Calgary.

https://youtu.be/oJ0pyqsAkj8

Sahara is one of two songs I actually really like on Dark Passion Play (the other being The Poet and the Pendulum). I'll definitely listen to this when I get off work. Thanks for sharing!