Try The Gathering, Dream Theater and Apocalyptica (Apocalyptica actually did a track with Cristina Scabbia from LC called "Anything But Love")

Maybe Racer X, or Michael Schenker Group.

I had a weird impulse to listen to Queens of the Stone Age about 20 minutes ago, not sure why. Any other bands like them?

Next request is somewhat out in left field. Is there anything like Joe Satriani's "Satch Boogie"out there? Upbeat, almost like swing, I guess you could say.

You could always try Kyuss. Most of the QotSA members were in Kyuss.

Try some of Jeff Beck's work, "Scatterbrain" is a good one, not that upbeat. Joe Satriani's "Surfing With the Alien" also good.

@Hank, I've heard of Kyuss through Pandora the other day, it played a song, I'm guessing a mix of 3 or 4 songs in one, totaling about 18 minutes. It was rather odd.

And xEMGx, I know both songs you suggested. Scatterbrain....ehh. I don't really like. It seems a bit...erratic, to say the least. Surfing with the Alien is a great piece of work. I prefer hearing live versions of it.

Quite an old band now but try Symphony X one of the most important symphonic metal bands around.

I guess Dream Theater could be a symphonic metal band, I prefer their instrumentals, cause their singer is not my favorite.

^ And yeah, I'll think Symphony X is a great mention.

Last month I found two names that seems to be really interesting.

Ihsahn - IHSAHN on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Former singer of black metal band Emperor. Now he has 3 solo albums. I like the last one very much (After) - interesting metal with saxophone, strange sound but great and very inspirative.

Leprous - Leprous on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

This band plays now with Ihsahn on summer music festivals. Sound for open-minded metalheads :D They have between influences such names like Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Pain of Salvation, Tool... and also classical music ;)

If you like progressive metal and don't know about these two names, I really recommend :)

Ihsahn is an amazing musician. His stuff with Emperor had such a huge influence on some of the more recent symphonic black metal bands and he's done a lot of work with the more avant-garde/post-black metal genres.

If you liked his solo albums (I would highly recommend checking out The Adversary and angL) then you would definitely like Peccatum, specifically the album Lost in Reverie. The band features his wife, Ihriel, on vocals so there's this really cool dynamic between the two.