Best use of synths in a metal song..

Now lookie-here, i fully realize many people are scornful of the use of synthesizers within metal, and often times point to increased synth-inclusion as the time when their favorite band really began to "lose it". I, however, am not a number, i am a free-man; and consequently could not really give much of a damn of the collective critisim of tha bovine masses, and actually enjoy many, many metal/rock songs which incoporate synthy-goodness. How about you fine folks?.. what are your favorites?

Off the top of my head; i give you these fine examples:

Stormbringer by Deep Purple (the way the synths end just as the final solo begins gets me everytime

Sabbra Cadabra By Sabbath.

Turbo Lover (seriously!) by Judas Priest.

Van Halen - Jump (..etc)

Probably "Pull Me Under".

Anything where it is used for atmosphere and not up front. Nocturnus and early Coroner comes to mind...

I like how they're used on Bloodbound's "Nosferatu" album.

I like the synths from Dream Theater's "Scenes for a Memory" album. Adds a lot to the feel of the music on a few of the tracks.

Always enjoyed what Led Zeppelin did with Kashmir, In the Evening, No Quarter, In the Light.

I like the keyboards, piano and synths on the Angel Dust albums. They are used well especially on Border of Reality and Bleed.

Just about every Deep Purple song.

plancha7 wrote:

Turbo Lover (seriously!) by Judas Priest.

I was hoping you were just kidding, but then I saw "seriously!" and nearly facepalmed.

plancha7 wrote:

Van Halen - Jump (..etc)

Yeah, this is a near-perfect example.

I'll throw Dream Theater's "In the Presence of My Enemies" parts 1 and 2 in there - awesome work by Jordan Rudess in that, w/ some nice vaudeville-esque stuff as well!

Like them on CHANGE OF ADDRESS by KROKUS, on THE ULTIMATE SIN by OZZY, on SOMEWHERE IN TIME by MAIDEN, on TURBO by JUDAS, on LONG WAY TO HEAVEN by HELIX, TRICK OR TREAT by FASTWAY and a long etc....

I gotta love "Jump" by Van Halen, but.....

"Stargazer" by Rainbow owns all!!!

Deep Purple's Jon Lord is playing a hammond organ so I am not sure if they should included but I will second Judas Priest's Turbo

manny wrote:

Deep Purple's Jon Lord is playing a hammond organ so I am not sure if they should included but I will second Judas Priest's Turbo

And a Hammond got a totaly different sound, very 70s of course.

Rainbow - Stargazer has good use of synths, I'll second that.

Rainbow in the dark - Dio

I was considering that one as well.

These albums from the 90's...

Amorphis- Elegy
Tad Morose- A Mended Rhyme
Tad Morose- Sender of Thoughts
Royal Hunt- (all of them))

and for old skool "jumpy" 80's Pomp, Mark Mangold's band Touch. Touch was awesome.

everything power quest makes (although you may want to yell JUMP at times)

SAHB Healer wrote:

These albums from the 90's...

Amorphis- Elegy
Tad Morose- A Mended Rhyme
Tad Morose- Sender of Thoughts
Royal Hunt- (all of them))

and for old skool "jumpy" 80's Pomp, Mark Mangold's band Touch. Touch was awesome.

Good call with Royal Hunt. While keys are prominent in RH, they don't override the rest of the instruments.

Well, we gotta differentiate between what are 'keyboards' and what are 'synths'. I always take 'synths' to mean a musical part which is pre-programmed and ready to play with the push of a button. These pre-recorded sections often serve as a type of rhythm for the track. They're often played as loop which resurfaces at specifical intervals during the song, and often accompany the other parts which are played live by actual musicians.

The band that comes to mind right away is The Who. They had a lot of use for synths beginnin with Who's Next. Songs like Baba O'Reilly, Won't Get Fooled Again, Who Are You, Sister Disco, all have pre-recorded syth loops which were pre-programmed by Townshend and are ready to go whenever they play live. No one needs to play those parts...although someone could if they wanted.

I remember reading the back of the debut Bosto album and how it boasted that they pulled off that recording without the use of synthesizers. You were supposed to be mighty impressed that they could make all that sound with just a couple guitars, bass and drums. I was pretty impressed. How 'bout you.

As for keyboards, as in Hammond Organ, Electric Piano and such, there have been quite a number of awesome players over the years in Rock music, and the addition of such instruments has, for the most part, greatly enhanced the music, adding another dimension, or layer to a band's sound.

A few divergent things come to mind. Prog Rock has had the most use for electric boards. And, there is just an insane example of this on Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick album. I still think that this album is the most impressive piece of music available in any genre of Rock. It's insanely impressive how he keeps one song constantly moving forward for 4o someodd minutes. The keyboard parts here are exhausting in their complexity.

I loved how keyboards were used on Faith No More's The Real Thing and Angel Dust albums, on songs like Falling To Pieces, Underwater Love, Land of Sunshine, Everything's Ruined. Queensryche also used them sparingly on Rage For Order. I love their use on The Whisper and The Killing Words. Maiden was also equally frugal in their use of them on Seventh Son. Another great album.

Marc Mason wrote:

I loved how keyboards were used on Faith No More's The Real Thing and Angel Dust albums, on songs like Falling To Pieces, Underwater Love, Land of Sunshine, Everything's Ruined.

Yeah, FNM always had good keyboard work, and it always fit the music. I thought "Album of the Year" had some good keyboard work as well, though it was a tad more subtle in places. "Mouth to Mouth" had a fun keyboard line

Somewhere in Time - Iron Maiden
Moonchild - Iron Maiden

A Touch of Evil by Judas Priest

xyz wrote:

I gotta love "Jump" by Van Halen, but.....

"Stargazer" by Rainbow owns all!!!

Agreed!

I prefer the sound of old school keyboards to synth based models.

Mellotron - a tape loop based device to create string sounds (listen to Zeppelin, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and others)

Hammond B3 - No keyboards sound better than the Hammond B3. Popularized in jazz by Jimmy Smith in the 50's, it would become the key ingredient in 60's rock and proto-metal.

Fender Rhodes electric piano

Wurlitzer electric piano

As for synths, the original Moog would be my preference.

I've always been a fan of keyboards and have no problem with them being used in metal...in fact I think alot more bands could stand to extend their sonic palette beyond guitar/guitar/bass/drums.

As for favorite track using actual synthesizer, I'd vote for Subdivisions by Rush.

Evergrey has some of the most atmospheric synths out there.