A new year, time to fire up another of our new sections. It's not often recognised, at least outside of their fanbase, that heavy metal and heavy rock bands often write some of the best and most moving ballads. In this section we're going to feature some I consider to be up there among the best. They may not all be famous --- either the bands or the songs --- but we'll do our best here to introduce you to, as it were, the softer side of metal and rock (wouldn't that be magma? Ah well...) in this recurring feature.
Starting off with German metallers Accept, this is from their debut album, released all the way back in 1979, and a surprisingly nice little track called “Seawinds”.
Moving on with “Letter to Dana”, from Sonata Arctica's album “Ecliptica”, also, incidentally, their debut, though released twenty years after Accept's, in 1999.
One of my own favourite metal bands, Kamelot include this on their album, “The fourth legacy”. Although released in the same year as Sonata Arctica's debut, Kamelot had by then been going for four years, with three more albums under their belt. This is “Glory”.
1999 seems to have been a good year for metal and rock ballads! Royal Hunt went one better than Kamelot, this being their fifth album, “Fear”, and a gorgeous little ballad called “Follow me”.
And to wrap up this first edition of “Velvet Fist”, let's take a real classic from Metallica, all the way back to 1991 for a great track from the “Black Album”, it's “Nothing else matters.”
