So with Saori Kobayashi’s newest album, Terra Magica being released today I was thinking that I’d like to branch out and try listening to some new artist/music, so I would like to know who are some of your guys’ favorite musical artist. I’m a metalhead so I generally listen to heavy metal bands with the rest of my music library consist of albums from various games and anime soundtracks, and some of my cultural music (Arabic/Islamic music).
I don’t have a particular number in mind for how many I want to list off, but for my list I’m going to start at the bottom of the list and work my way up to my favorite artist. I will be listing the artist name, their genre, my favorite album by that artist, and finally my favorite songs by them (not necessarily form the favorite album). Also I might leave some comments about the artist and my overall opinion about them.
Additionally, please feel free to make your list however you want, but I do ask one thing and that is that you list your favorite song from the artist that you mention.
P.S I’ll leave some honorable mentions at the end.
9. Artist Michiru Yamane and Michael McCann
Genre: Video Game Soundtracks Composers
Favorite Album: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night OST and Deus Ex: Human Revolution OST respectively
Favorite Songs: Michiru Yamane — 1. Lost Paintings; 2. Prayer; 3. Wood Carving Partita
Michael McCann — 1. First and Last; 2. Icarus; 3. Namir (trailer edit); 4. Penthouse.
So the reason these guys are ranked so low on the list is because I haven’t really heard that much music by them (only one album each). And the reason they are ranked together is because they both composed some of the greatest videogame soundtrack that I have ever heard. The soundtrack for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are both phenomenal, with in my opinion have no bad songs in their soundtrack but instead have several outstanding ones. However with both artist currently working on the soundtracks for 2 new exciting games coming out in 2017 (Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, respectively) I am very enthusiastic to listen to some new music by them.
8. Artist: e Nomine
Genre: Monumental dance, Gregorian vocals, Techno / Trance
Favorite Album: none in particular
Favorite Song: 1. Vater Unser; 2. Wolfen (Das Tier in Mir); 3. Carpe Noctem
Honestly I don’t know how I found out about these guys at all, most likely accidentally while searching for Gregorian chanting on YouTube. So these guys are a German musical project and trying to describe their type of music is pretty hard, because they actually call their type of music as Monumental Dance, which is this weird combination of trance, techno, and vocals that resemble Gregorian singing and chanting. Unfortunately they only released 4 albums, with their last one being released in 2004 and a single in 2008, nevertheless I really like their songs.
7. Artist: Skillet
Genre: Rock, Metal, Christian Rock.
Favorite Album: Awake and Alive
Favorite Song: 1. Hero; 2. Awake and Alive; 3. Whisper in the Dark
These guys are a great metal band and they make some of my favorite rock songs and I would definitely recommend anyone who likes such bands like Three Days Grace or Breaking Benjamin to check these guys out. And honestly if you’re worried about their being too many religious/Christian themes in their songs I can tell you right now that you would need to look really, really hard to notice and even then, when there actually is any it can be interpreted in so many other ways like many songs are.
6. Artist: Bullet for My Valentine
Genre: Heavy metal, hard rock, Metalcore
Favorite Album: Scream, Aim, Fire
Favorite Song: 1.Waking the Demon; 2. Tears Don’t Fall (Part 2); 3. Ashes of the Innocent
This band is definitely one of the more heavier rock bands that I listen to. If you like songs that are on borderline screamo check these guys out.
5. Artist: Battle Beast
Genre: Heavy metal, Power metal
Favorite Album: ?
Favorite Song: 1. Neuromancer; 2. Die Hard Warrior; 3. Iron Hand
So these guy are a Finnish metal band that for some reason do all their lyrics in English despite it not being their native language and what not. They are a fairly recent new band to me, but from everything I have listened to from them so far they are definitely a great band with music that just wants to make me get up and go berserk. Speaking of Berserk, a couple of their song are inspired by Berserk and make references to it. Such examples would be the song Iron Hand referring to Guts, Kingdom referring to Griffith’s dream and the Crimson Behelit, and one song straight up named Band of the Hawks.
4. Artist: Three Days Grace
Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Metal,
Favorite Album: One-X
Favorite Song: 1. Never too Late; 2. World so Cold; 3. Time of Dying
One of my favorite bands ever Three Days Grace was always a band I was listing to ever since high school and till now. Their songs always had lyrics that I that were phenomenal and tackled issues that I personally went through. However the lead singer David Gontier was forced to resigning from the band in 2013 due to medical reasons, and was replaced by his successor Matt Walst who has done an excellent job of keeping the style of Three Days Grace going.
3. Artist: Saori Kobayashi
Genre: Video game music
Favorite Album: Panzer Dragoon Orta
Favorite Song: 1. Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu ~Art Thou the Holy One~; 2. Anu Orta Veniya; 3. Mother
Saori Kobayashi the legendary composer of Panzer Dragoon series that we all know and love. She really is a unique composer that has her own style of music that I haven’t heard anywhere else before. Before I thought I wouldn’t get to listen to her style of music outside of Panzer Dragoon but thanks to Solo Wing and a couple of his most recent post on the website, we got to learn about some of her other albums that she worked on. And with her newest album Terra Magica, being released today and being heavily reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon, it is essentially a love letter to any Panzer Dragoon series fan.
2. Artist: Susumu Hirasawa
Genre: Experimental, Avant-garde, Electronic, Progressive rock
Favorite Album: Berserk OST
Favorite Song: 1. Sign; Forces 1.5; 3. Rotation (LOTUS-2); 4. Parade
Susumu Hirasawa is a freaking legend. Trying to place his style of music into a certain genre wouldn’t do him justice considering how unique it is and different than anything I have ever heard. He is a one man band that has written, composed, arranged, and sung some of my favorite songs ever. He is best known for his work on the original Berserk anime soundtrack, among other things he has done.
1. Artist: Breaking Benjamin
Genre: Hard rock, Alternative metal
Favorite Album: Dear Agony
Favorite Song: 1. I Will Not Bow; 2. Crawl; 3. So Cold.
Freaking Breaking Benjamin, my favorite band/artist EVER. These guys are the ones that kick started my journey into Metal with their song I Will Not Bow, being by far my favorite song ever even till now. I’m personally not a big fan of their first album but everything after that has always been great for me, and when the band went on hiatus way back in 2010 I was really disappointed, but then out of nowhere they came back with a new album in March of 2015. I freaking flipped the Hell out, especially after coming back from such so long break and still maintaining their style of music.
Bonus Pick: NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack. So the reason I’m not putting this in the list is because this video game soundtrack was created by multiple artist that contributed to it. (mainly Keiichi Okabe). Just about every single song in this OST stands out on its own and is defiantly my favorite video game soundtrack. If I were to make a list of my favorite video game soundtracks this would be the top dog, followed by the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night OST and Deus Ex: Human Revolution OST in 2nd, and the Panzer Dragoon series OST in 3rd.
Honorable mentions:
Artist: Revo of Sound Horizon
Genre: Video Game Composer
Favorite Album: Bravely Default OST
Favorite Song: 1. Silence of the Forest; 2. A Melody of Nostalgic Reminiscence
Just like Michiru Yamane and Michael McCann this guy made a fantastic video game soundtrack
Gregorian vocals: l love me some Gregorian chanting epically like the one in the Halo theme song so if anyone knows about any great songs that that uses Gregorian vocals please let me know about them.
Martin O’Donnell: Composer of Halo soundtracks