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Last Active 09-15-18 5:26 pm
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| Keyboards in extreme metal
Done a list like this before but this time round I'm focusing specifically on extreme metal. Feel free to let me know of any good players/bands I've missed out | | 1 |  | Nocturnus
The Key
Arguably the first death metal band to have a full-time keyboardist. Louis Panzer helped to elevate their already space-themed death metal with his expansive synth parts. | | 2 |  | Samael
Passage
Samael has had keyboards in their music since the very start, but it wasn't until Ceremony of Opposites that this keyboard work, coupled with sampling, really shone through in a way that was rather unique in the black metal scene. Passage was probably the peak of their musical output, with a unique combination of symphonic black metal and industrial music. | | 3 |  | Rotting Christ
Theogonia
Rotting Christ have had a few keyboardists over the years, with frontman Sakis Tolis taking over the role in 2004. Whilst this means the band no longer have a live keyboard player, the synths still undoubtedly play a big role in their signature Greek black metal sound. | | 4 |  | Septicflesh
Communion
Legendary Greek death metal band that have applied synths and keys to their sound in a gothic, industrial and symphonic way throughout their long and almost consistently solid discography. | | 5 |  | Fleshgod Apocalypse
Veleno
Fleshgod Apocalypse started out as a technical death metal band, but they introduced some symphonic sections on their Mafia EP before hiring Francesco Ferrini as their full-time keyboardist. They have steadily improved their unique style of symphonic death metal since Agony, with Veleno being the latest and best example of that sound. | | 6 |  | Opeth
Ghost Reveries
Opeth started experimenting with keyboards on Blackwater Park when Steven Wilson started collaborating in the writing process, but it wasn't until Ghost Reveries that Opeth got themselves a full-time keyboardist. Per Wilberg's key sections are a cool mixture of hammond organs, moog synthesizers, mellotron and acoustic piano, clearly much more influenced by progressive rock and hard rock bands like Deep Purple, King Crimson and Yes. It's just a shame that after just two albums of this unique combination of progressive rock and death metal, Opeth dropped the extreme elements altogether and went full prog rock. | | 7 |  | Edge of Sanity
Crimson
After two albums of pretty much straight death metal, Dan Swano started adding progressive rock elements into the sound on The Spectral Sorrows, including keyboards. Crimson was the epitome of this prog-death sound. | | 8 |  | Dan Swano
Moontower
Speaking of Dan Swano, his only solo album Moontower also has some great synth parts for a death metal album. | | 9 |  | Pan.Thy.Monium
Khaooohs And Kon-Fus-Ion
Honestly Swano's projects could just occupy half this list. Same as the above two plus wacky avant-garde sections. | | 10 |  | Oranssi Pazuzu
Mestarin Kynsi
This is a wacky band that fuses black metal with psychedelic rock, dark ambient soundscapes and a bunch of other crazy stuff. Their keyboardist creates some utterly warped soundscapes. | | 11 |  | Hail Spirit Noir
Oi Magoi
Similar to Oranssi Pazuzu but much more of a focus on melody. | | 12 |  | Fear Factory
Soul of a New Machine
Similar to Nocturnus in that this is a very early example of death metal with keyboards, except here they have a much more industrial sound. Underrated and groundbreaking. | | 13 |  | Emperor
Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire...
Emperor's swansong record was a bombastic combination of progressive black, death and symphonic metal with some truly other-worldly keyboard sections that Ihsahn would incorporate into his solo material. | | 14 |  | Cradle of Filth
Dusk... and Her Embrace
Cheesy as hell, but one of the earliest examples of fusing gothic synths with black metal. | | 15 |  | Carach Angren
Lammendam
A more modern take on symphonic black metal, Ardek is a phenomenal player and arranger. Shame the band kinda sucks now but their first 3 albums are great. | | 16 |  | Dimmu Borgir
Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
These guys eventually added real orchestras to their albums, but their early albums feature all orchestration arranged on keyboards. | | 17 |  | Therion
Lepaca Kliffoth
Before this band became the legendary symphonic metal band they're now known for, they were much more death/doom in style. Although they've always had a keyboardist, this is the transitionary album where they started adding symphonic elements into their original death/doom sound before abandoning that on later releases. | | 18 |  | Children of Bodom
Hatebreeder
Alexi was a legendary frontman and guitarist, but it was Janne Wirman's keyboard parts that really won me over when I first heard Bodom. Warheart is still a killer opening track. | | 19 |  | Phlebotomized
Immense, Intense, Suspense
Another early example of keyboards in extreme metal, but the playing here is much more mournful, coupled with some great violin playing. | | 20 |  | Sadist
Above the Light
Phenomenal Italian tech-death band with some great synth sections. Above the light takes a lot of cues from horror music with its synths, whereas Season in Silence adds Christmas sounds to the mix. | | 21 |  | Dark Tranquillity
Damage Done
Dark Tranquillity didn't introduce a keyboardist into their lineup until 1999, but that added atmosphere has helped to give them a higher and more consistent quality of post-2000s output than any of the other gothenburg bands from their era. | |
TheSpirit
08.02.22 | would you consider metalcore to part of the extreme metal pantheon | Storm In A Teacup
08.02.22 | Monasteries? | Hyperion1001
08.02.22 | great list, deserves a feature.
…and oceans deserves a spot here imo, some of my favorite keys in extreme metal. | cloakanddagger
08.02.22 | @thespirit I'd say some metalcore but not all of it. Bands like Converge, Zao etc I would say yes but bands like Underoath, Trivium, Poison the Well and similar I wouldn't. Only possible metalcore keyboardist who I can think of that might belong here is Tommy Giles, although BTBAM hasn't been metalcore for years but they definitely still have some extreme parts in their newer albums.
@hyperion Thanks! I play keys in a metal band and I've always thought it was an underrated instrument in metal, especially extreme metal. I've heard of ...and oceans but never checked them out, will have to give them a listen. | TheSpirit
08.02.22 | huh interesting take considering converge and zao are more rooted in hxc while (earlier) underoath and trivium fall into the more metallic metalcore category. | cloakanddagger
08.02.22 | Yeah I've always found metalcore bands that have roots in hardcore to be, ironically, way more extreme than the metal-influenced core bands. There are some exceptions though, like I'd probably say stuff like Bleeding Through, The Agony Scene and Unearth to be extreme metal and anything else that's at the heavier end of that at the gates influenced sound. Obviously Underoath's first few albums are very black metal influenced too so they'd count for me but stuff like Killswitch, Trivium etc is a little too soft to be extreme metal I think.
Idk, metalcore is a weird genre, Jacob Bannon said it best, "too weird for hardcore kids, too punk for metal kids, and too ugly for everyone else" | artiswar
08.02.22 | great list | Muzz79
08.02.22 | Cradle aren’t “cheesy as hell”. That’s an annoying misnomer. | Supercoolguy64
08.03.22 | Today Is the Day, most notably on their self-titled as they lost their bassist and replaced him with a keyboardist | Heppasodge
08.04.22 | Sick list, love it. Enslaved and Borknagar do some pretty good keyboard stuff, Moonsorrow as well. Check around 3:00mins in Sacred Horse by Enslaved off 'E'. Quite a lot of black metal here, coincidence? I think not |
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