Merry-Go-Round by Motley Crue.

There are so many massive power metal ballads from the 90's and early 2000's that I love. First and foremost:

Potentially the best metal ballad for me is Demons And Wizards' Fiddler On The Green

The Big 4 of Sava-Ballads for me are: When The Crowds Are Gone, Believe, Alone You Breathe, Not What You See. Although, All That I Bleed is great, too.

Sonata Arctica have some massive ones. Letter To Dana, Draw Me, The Misery, Talluah

In terms of NOT huge power metal ballads, Opeth's Face Of Melinda and Harvest are pretty high on my life. Not really a metal song, but Low Man's Lyric is the better Metallica ballad than Nothing Else Matters (and Mama Said, too)

EDIT: Impossible to not mention two huge ones by Devin Townsend. Funeral and Suicide.

Two more softer pieces that aren't the obvious ones. This acoustic version of this Cult of Luna ballad always gives me goosebumps.


The original is great too:


I love Departer by Katatonia too:

Nevermore and Warrel, particularly because of his style of singing, did metal ballads the best, IMO.

Every album and EP, there are 2 killer ballads and that goes to his solo stuff too. Sanctuary is the exception as didn't do any ballads on the first album, though some started as.

Cult of luna have been mentioned. They usually have one softer song in every album, but I think those tend to be the weakest song of the album. The exception is Crossing Over, from Salvation. Whenever I need to listen to something soft and melancholic, that song hits the spot

No way. And with Her Came the Birds, Passing Through and We Feel the End are excellent too.

Paradise Lost - Disappear
My Dying Bride - for my fallen Angel
Panopticon - Beast Rider
Mastodon - Sparrow
Danzig - Ashes
Sabbath - Solitude
AIC - Down in a hole
Lick my love pump - Spinal Tap

Testament: "Return to Serenity". This is pretty much my favorite song of all time. Testament has a couple of other ones, like "The Ballad" and "Trail of Tears". "Trail of Tears" is particularly noteworthy due to the subject matter.

Pantera: "Cemetery Gates". It is still pretty heavy, but probably qualifies as a ballad to some extent.

Alice in Chains: "Nutshell"

X Japan - Endless Rain.

Easy, nothing comes close to that piece of art.

Cemetery Gates is a solid choice.

How about A tout le monde by Megadeth? The lyrics are cringe but it’s a great song.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/kDNnobC49AA[/youtube]

Mindrot's Across Vast Oceans
Deep Purple's Soldier of Fortune
Sabbat's Advent of Insanity

One of the greatest "softer" songs (it's still damn heavy): Vessel by While Heaven Wept.

Everyone knows where Scorpions went in the 80s, but already during the 70s they had Fly People Fly, In Trance, In Your Park and We'll Burn the Sky among others.

Hell yeah.



What no Master of the Wind? That's definitely my favorite Manowar ballad. The Crown and the Ring's great too. I'm less enthused by Heart of Steel.

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Glad to see some mentions of Guardian by Fates Warning - that one's always stuck with me.

I'm also really partial to There Stood the Fence by Toxik. Poignant.

Blaze Bayley has always had a strong ballad game, especially during his solo career. While the recent albums' ballads tend to be somewhat formulaic, I really enjoy the rawer edge that came on songs like Regret, While You Were Gone, and the Promise and Terror cycle.

Also, is it me or do power ballads seem less common nowadays in modern melodic metal circles? I can only think of a small handful in the last ten years or so.

Agreed.

Agent Steel - Traveler

This one has always maintained a certain magnetism with me.
Cyriis' sonorous voice really sells it.

What was the closest Slayer ever got to writing a ballad?

Any death metal ballads? A lot of BM can be considered “softer” or ballad like (see: malice through looking glass by COF). Cant think of any for DM though.

Well, there's Morbid Angel's Desolate Ways.

Hypocrisy have several like Request Denied, Deathrow (No Regrets), Slippin' Away, etc...

This is the only one I could think of (I don't consider Voice of the Soul a ballad). It has a power ballad structure.

Close, I guess. But not quite. Maybe Opeth would qualify? Harvest? Not exactly DM, but on a DM album. I suppose

Turn On Your Light by Judas Priest is criminally underrated. It builds so well.

I think that would be 'Spill the Blood' if only for the clean guitar and slower tempo.

Other ballads, relatively softer/slower songs:

Metallica - One
Black Sabbath - Children of the Sea
Iron Maiden - Children of the Damned
Opeth - Face of Melinda
Queensryche - Anybody Out There?
Judas Priest - Out in the Cold
Danzig - Sistinas
Danzig - Blood and Tears
Pantera - This Love
Pantera - Hollow
Paradise Lost - No Forgiveness

The Queensryche song is called 'Anybody Listening?', not 'Anybody Out There?'.

Savatage has great ballads indeed. The live version of When the crowds are gone is especially haunting with the younger Oliva's amazing guitar work in it. All that I bleed is very good, Alone you breathe is also fantastic. I even like the lesser known b-side This is where you should be. It has a certain nostalgic vibe to it, like lamenting a lost summer love and thinking back on it with equal amounts of fondness and sadness.

Armored Saint Last Train Home

Are we including Soundgarden?

'Black Hole Sun' and 'Fell on Black Days' are stellar.

Oh man I hate that song. The only blight on an otherwise totally killer album.

Hey, wouldn't the song How the Gods Kill count? I love that one. The song that got me interested in Danzig.

Damn, sorry abut that. Yeah, it's 'Anybody Listening?" I don't know what song I was thinking when I typed my original post. I used to make mix tapes of power ballads back in the day. Here are some more favorites:

Queensryche - I Will Remember
Testament - The Legacy
Iron Maiden - Wasting Love
Bruce Dickinson - Tears of the Dragon
Death Angel - A Room With A View
Anorphis - Elegy
Metal Church - Watch the Children Pray

Watain They Rode On" Incredible guitar work
Skid Row "I Remember You" Amazing preformance from Baz.
Def Leppard "Too Late For Love" One of thier more epic sounding songs
Dokken "Alone Again" This song really hits home for me, classic early metal sound.
Motley Crew "Home Sweet Home" After watching John Cena play this piano, I ahd to go back and listen. Such a great fun song.

Does Comfortably Numb Count? Cause it’s the GOAT of all and any rock ballads.

I guess if you mostly listen to Portal and Sloth then this sounds like a ballad?

I've always like the Finntroll instrumentals (soft not ballads).



This one is simpler, have to be in the right mood.

Spot on, my favourite Testament song. Skolnick's frilly bits are just beautiful and the solo extends so smoothly (like all his solos really).

There's also the half-ballad The Legacy from their Souls of Black album. It's not as cohesive a song but it has this interesting mix of gentleness and creepiness.

I would imagine you were thinking of Is Anybody Out There? On Pink Floyd's The Wall.

I don't think anyone's mentioned Catch the Rainbow from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow yet. To this day the only song to literally send shivers down my spine on first listen.

Well of course there are!

Hypocrisy - Reincarnation
God Dethroned - The Day You Died
Gardenian - If Tomorrow's Gone
Dark Tranquillity - Lethe
Crematory - Caroline

The Cure destroy too Pink Floyd

Siamese Twins