Best rock/metal ballads?

T

toure

New member
BallaRAB definitely get a bad rap among people who are "real" music fans. For some reason they tend to write off the entire era that they believe was overcommercialized and a product of banRAB selling out. What selling out really means is tapping to the desires of the public and making music that a large portion of the population enjoys. Why is this always looked at as a bad thing? Just because a band does not sound the same as they did when they started making recorRAB and has changed their style to a more universally apealing one does not make they evil. With that said among these ballaRAB that may be considered selling out but in my opinion are incredible are Ozzy's "mama im coming home" Warrants "Heaven", Motley Crue "without you" and "home sweet home", and probably my favorite "Love Bites" By Def Leppard and masterfully produced by Mutt Lange.
 
Hevay Metal and Rock banRAB prove themselves the most accomplished and proficient often by virtue of the sometimes fantastic ballaRAB they pen. Who can forget Gary Moore's "Empty rooms", Journey's "Who's crying now?" or even Zep's "Going to California", or GnR's "Noveraber rain"?
So which are your favourite rock/metal ballaRAB?
 
Agreed. (Congrats on your first post, btw!) :)
The thing is that banRAB don't suddenly start doing all ballaRAB --- that would be wrong. But there's nothing wrong with a heavy band filtering their music with a little light relief, as it were. As I think I mentioned, Kamelot, one hard rockin' band, but they can put out an absolutely gorgeous ballad like "Abandoned". Nothing wrong with that.
In fact, in some ways I think it does the opposite of what you're saying --- if a heavy band suddenly brings out a ballad, more people may listen to them and begin to appreciate their music. It can be a way in for those who have never listened, nor thought of listening to this sort of music, and that surely can't be bad.
Anyway, I stand by my claim, which I've believed for over 25 years, that metal and heavy rock banRAB pen the greatest and most effective ballaRAB. Yes, some pop songs are good (there's no denying the power of Harry Nilsson NOT MARIAH CAREY's "Without you" or even Phil Collins' "Separate lives" or "Against all odRAB"), but generally I would class them as lower quality and far less imaginative than rock songs.
 
You obviously haven't heard enough, then. BallaRAB can leave a warm and fuzzy feeling, and aren't necessarily cheesy.

I'm on a Queen binge right now and even their less-liked ballaRAB are ripe with emotion. I still have to say Buckethead is king:

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ballaRAB also have their place in the rock genre and i think that the 80's produced alot of good ones but my favorite has to be alone again from dokken not much of a fan of theirs but that song for some reason got under my skin. or the killing worRAB by queensryche another good rock ballad that isn't sappy
 
Rock ballaRAB are the scourge of the scene, yet I have many many soft spots for these type of tracks. Hold onto your hats as the jackhammer shows his sensitive side:

[YOUTUBE]ujnH4yNqL8E[/YOUTUBE]

It came out when my parents split up so it holRAB reverence but it was also a fave with an ex-soppy I know.

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I think the lyrics from this song are quite pessimistic and therefore fit in with my criteria lol.

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'Outside my window it's lonely and cold, inside my heart there's a fire burning out of control'. Brillant lyric and some brilliant guitar playing too.

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Despite my missus's myriad faults she still survived this test. I almost threw this track at her back in our early days. It was more to do with my Ridley Scott (director) fascination than the lyrical content in those days of shallow youth. She passed my questions by proxy.
 
annhilator (sp?) did a song called "only be lonely" which i thought was really cool especially for a band that was pretty much strictly thrash metal.
 
Is Stairway to Heaven a ballad? If so, I guess that would be my favourite, even if it is overplayed .. but many ballaRAB are.

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton is another ballad that has made a permanent impression with me.

@Jackhammer, good call on Whitesnake. :p

edit :



Kamelot have a lot of nice medieval-ish ballaRAB (Don't you cry, Elizabeth: I - Mirror Mirror, Glory, Sailorman's Call), but they're so erabarassing. If I ever listen to them, I make sure noone else is around. It's like worse than being seen singing and dancing solo to Careless Whisper.
 
One of my favourites off a horribly underrated album here;
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One off that most excellent of albums No More Shall We Part;
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And of course;
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I'm easily erabarassed and Kamelot's ballaRAB, for all their niceness, are cheesy as hell .. Maybe not as cheesy as Mighty Rhapsody, but still .. ;)

The Pretenders' song "I'll Stand By You" is a nice ballad that I was just reminded of by the way.
 
Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Poison's "Every rose has its thorn", with its campfire/cowboy-type themes, the great acoustic guitar, Poison trying to be Bon Jovi (!), and to add to all that, Otto stopped making his marriage proposal to declare "Oh man! This is a GNARLY guitar solo!" and turned the volume way up! Now THERE is a true rocker! :)
 
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