Best orchestral metal production?

[MetalMiller]

And here´s the symphonic death metal overdose!

 

[ahjteam]

Waltari - Yeah!Yeah!Die!Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep C
Celesty - Vendetta

 

[Empathy]

And here´s the symphonic death metal overdose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKyzwqIT7s

I'm really not too sure about this one. They've expertly handled the addition of a full orchestra to the general grindy-shitstorm that is Fleshgod; but that doesn't fix the inherent problem of the overall Fleshgod shitty-grindstorm sounding like, well, shit. Not a bad kind of shit I suppose, just a huge contrast to the crystal-clear Dark Passion Play sound.

 

[B36arin]

The Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction? Not your standard symphonic metal, but it contains a symphony orchestra.

 

[MetalMiller]

I really like this. Check out 3:40.

 

[Ermz]

Boy, some of these records are serious dungeon master shit. Far out

Still making my way through them. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

 

[userchanged1]

Using real orchestra's doesn't say anything as to the quality of song/sound. As fas ar orchestral arrangements go, Therion is pretty lame compared to Rhapsody for example, even though I think both use real orchestration. If you're looking for complex arrangements, Rhapsody's first two albums are pretty much as good as it gets.

On the other hand, if i'm not mistaken 2 steps from hell uses only sample libraries from EWQL. And I don't think anyone would claim it sounds fake. In fact they do a lot of Hollywood scoring stuff.
It may not be metal, but as far as orchestral stuff goes there's also these guys: E.S.Posthumus, Future World Music, Immediate music, X-Ray Dog, Globus, etc...

 

[Skinny Viking]

If you're looking for complex arrangements, Rhapsody's first two albums are pretty much as good as it gets.

If you can get over possibly the worst narrator in history

For the record, I own every Rhapsody disc. I'll take the 2 Therion discs I mentioned over them any day but that's me ... Opinions and all that

 

[Nebulous]

Why aren't I owning this thread already, Ermz? WHY?

Ok, you may know some of these already so bare with me. These range from dense/ heavy to lighter mixes, so you should cover the work you need to do. Anything with an *** next to I'd also recommend musically for you

Rhaopsody of fire - The frozen tears of angels. They also have a new one but I haven't heard it yet. You will need some of these if/ when you work with Winterstorm haha
***Circus Maximus - Isolate. One of my top albums next to In search of truth and lots of variety between synths and orchestra's.
Kamelot - Epica and Black Halo
Blind Guardian - A night at the opera (got slammed, and still does, for having too much orchastration. I love it), Nightfall on middle Earth (many fan's favourite of theirs), At the Edge of time (newest).
Eyefear - Basically any of them. The Unseen was mixed by Borgren IIRC.
Iced Earth - the crucible of man. Somethign a little heavier.
Pagan's Mind - God's Equation and Enigmatic Calling. Both of these are a bit more progy, can be light on the orchestration most of the time.
Pyramaze - Legend of the bone carver
Serenity - Fallen Sanctuary

That's all I can think of at the moment

 

[userchanged1]

If you can get over possibly the worst narrator in history

true that

 

[Virgil.]

Delain - April Rain. Such a great album.

(ignore the cheesy video and give this album a chance.)

 

[sinewavealex]

The best orchestral albums in metal IMO are
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
Septic Flesh - Communion
Septic Flesh - The Great Mass

Dimmu Borgir is excellent too, but not all were recorded with orchestra.
In Sorte Diaboli has no real orchestra, just plugins. The parts are arranged beautifully, and sound amazing, but it can't be compared to the magnitude of Nightwish's DPP orchestra parts.

Fleshgod Apocalypse sounds original no doubt, but I'm almost certain these are East West Symphonic Orchestra samples (if not other plugins).

For inspiration, and though it's not metal, I turn to the God of War soundtrack. It sounds very metal in its spirit. The "making of" video is also pretty great.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcxjKlUcjXo&feature=player_profilepage[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZpftYn17Bc&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Sacha]

Kamelot - the Black Halo

 

[Nebulous]

I'd also recommend After Forevers' final self titled album

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Forever_(album)

 

[tfrel]

Iced Earth's Glorious Burden has some nice orchestration.

Also Dream Theater - Octavarium at the end.

 

[Deathshake]

I've always liked Timeless Miracle's sound, even if it is keyboards:

 

[black.death]

I'm going to get severe hate for this but I just remembered that Cradle of Filth's album "Damnation and a Day" featured a real 40 piece Budapest orchestra and 32 voice choir.

This production cost Sony tens of thousands of dollars and sold maybe 40,000 copies resulting in Cradle of Filth being dropped with the quickness.

 

[DanLights]

I'm going to get severe hate for this but I just remembered that Cradle of Filth's album "Damnation and a Day" featured a real 40 piece Budapest orchestra and 32 voice choir.

This production cost Sony tens of thousands of dollars and sold maybe 40,000 copies resulting in Cradle of Filth being dropped with the quickness.

Best Cradle of Filth album and one of my favorite albums ever. The production is perfect and the orchestra is mind-blowing, used in a good way unlike the Dimmu one that came out round the same time, too bombastic and overpowering, this cof album on the other has beautiful parts, incredibly dark parts and parts that are just pure metal. Not to mention going through the album with the booklet in hand following the lyrics is an experience in itself.

 

[Nebulous]

Good one there. I was going to recommend Midian, but forgot (somehow) about DNAAD.

 

[arvoitus]

Epica's latest album is really awesome.

This song really has a great atmosphere:




This song from their second album is also a cool masterpiece: