Symphonic Metal 1990s Albums

Stairway to Fairyland is Freedom Call’s bright, fantasy-tinged power-metal debut, built from soaring melody, brisk rhythm and sparkling keyboards.

The Fourth Legacy gathers heavy riffs, flowing keyboards and narrative-minded melody into a grand Kamelot power-metal statement.

Inquisition Symphony uses the low end and sharp attack of cellos to translate metal riffs into a different kind of sound.

Siege Perilous is an early Kamelot album that adds classical color and story-minded drama to melodic-metal power.

Oceanborn combines shining keyboards, fast guitar and operatic vocals in Nightwish’s symphonic-metal language.

Destiny uses fast guitar, shining keyboards and soaring vocals to create grand-scale power metal.

Dominion combines heavy guitar and dramatic melody with restrained classical color.

Angels Fall First is Nightwish’s debut, combining acoustic color, rushing metal and Tarja Turunen’s classical vocal presence.

Visions combines fast guitar, flowing keyboard and Timo Kotipelto’s high vocal range with unusual clarity.

Enter is Within Temptation’s debut, combining sinking heavy guitar, spectral keyboards and Sharon den Adel’s clear voice.

Plays Metallica by Four Cellos proves how naturally the weight of metal riffs can meet the force of low-register cello.

Episode brings Stratovarius’s fast twin leads, grand keyboards and steady rhythm section into one broad flow.

Eternity finds Kamelot’s debut-era sound in the meeting point of heavy guitar and neoclassical melody.

Fourth Dimension introduces Timo Kotipelto and gives Stratovarius’ fast rhythms, flowing keyboards and high-reaching vocal a clear new shape.

Dreamspace finds STRATOVARIUS in a phase that captures Stratovarius in a transitional phase, joining Timo Tolkki's neoclassical guitar language to a more inward-looking a

Twilight Time is an important early Stratovarius album, combining fast-moving riffs, flowing keyboard and Timo Tolkki’s guitar and vocal.