What I intend with this thread is to disscuss which song from any band you like would you consider it the most representative, I mean, which song contains most of the sounds that characterize the band, or which song you think expresses more the general sound of the band.

For example, and this is who this came to my mind, I was listening to 'The Power of One' from Sonata Arctica, and started thinking that this song contains most of the elements the band uses in their songs. It has slow parts, fast parts, soft heart-felt vocals, and high pitched vocals, etc... it would be a very complete and represntative song from Sonata Arctica.

So, I'd like you to disscuss this same thing with your favorite bands. Which song you think is most representative and why.

the first one that came to my mind was slayer's "raining blood" it just sums up their whole 80s material: a little atmospheric intro, then all-out all men play on ten aggression.

another one is definetely venom's "black metal", it's just so raw, necro, and (dare i say it?) BRUTAL and in-your-face that it's hard to find a better venom track. it's like a heavy smoking bass-vocied motorhead-addicted singer met a black sabbath cover band and told them "no, you're doing it all wrong. it's a HUNDRED sixty BPM, not sixty..."

Slayer's 'War Ensemble'
Blitzkrieg start, killer chorus riff, INCREDIBLE drumming, a great breakdown riff 'Be dead from above...when darkness falls', and a second guitar solo to die for (One of the only good Kerry King ones, in my opinion...it's a brilliant air guitar solo)...plus, Tom Araya's intro of WAAAAR ENSEEEEMBLEEE! is priceless. It's Slayer in a nutshell (maybe not so much as Necrophobic...that's an acorn )

Iron FUCKING Maiden 'Fear of the Dark'
Great sing-along intro, beautiful vocal and guitar melodies over the classic 'lilting' acoustic verse...then explodes out of the starting gates after the first chorus. Excellent drumming, some great verses, melodic riffs, air guitar-able solos etc. etc. THE Maiden song to see live, at least to sing along to. Special mention for Hallowed Be Thy Name as well.

I am not really into naming all my favourite bands here and then say of every band which song represents them best.

I do think it is interesting to discuss it from a more general point of view. What type of song makes a good representative song for a band? I think bands make that kind of songs on purpose. A lot of albums have one song that is a lot more catchy than the other songs. Examples; "Sister September" of Anorexia Nervosa, "The Ring(of Sorrow)" of Astarte, "Eyes Gaze to a Future Foreseen" by Bishop of Hexen etc. that type of songs are most representative in my opinion. Because they give a good general view on what the band is capable off.

Slayer isn't a good example, there are many good songs and we can't say that either of them is the "most representative". Just look at the first two replies to see what I'm talking about. For me Slayer's greatest song is "Angel of Death". And this happens with almost every good band, that's what makes them great, to have a large number of good songs.

But there are a couple of good bands that have a representative song indeed. I think Tristania's "Midwintertears" is a good example. Evanescence's "My Immortal" is their most representative. "Black Metal" by Venom, as Cursed said, is also a very good example.

Omg this is a good question phew....ummm nights blood by dissection. Has every element of Dissection that is key.

Morbid Angel - Rapture
Dismember - I saw them Die
Watain - Dark Salvation
Marduk - Baptism by Fire
Catamenia - The ancient

Actually this is hard for bands that have alot of albums...

Here are some I thought of

Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
Opeth - The Drapery Falls
Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger
Ayreon - Day Twenty: Confrontation
Stryper - Passion
Evergrey - Recreation Day
Pain of Salvation - A Trace of Blood
Rush - 2112
Killswitch Engage - Take This Oath
Anthrax - Safe Home
Porcupine Tree - Sound of Muzak

The one that comes to my mind is Via Nocturna from Therion, this song contains everything representative of this band: chorus, orchestration, great atmosphere...

Written by Dane Train on 25.05.2007 at 00:24

Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger

Good one.

I'll add -
Candlemass - Solitude
Darkthrone - In the Shadow of the Horns
Dragonforce - every single song

For Deep Purple I'd say Burn, it contains a lot of stuff I associate with them like awesome solos and catchy choruses.

Nightwish - Ghost Love Score...this is simply a "mega-song" from the "mega-band" and in ten minutes of ultimate music experience you can hear all kinds of their performance (maybe except the guitar solo such in Deep Silent Complete) from slow ballad to the quick and powerful passages

@hemlock: well, you would know dream theater's "a change of seasons" is their representative song just by looking at the song length. it must be such an exhausting experience to play it live.

i think the most famous metal bands such as metallica, megadeth, maiden or priest shouldn't be mentioned here, because they have too many great songs and they changed their style a lot of times so it's very hard to actually define their whole carreer(just imagine listening to priest's painkiller and then to united, it's just not the same band, and the same case is with metallica: nothing else matters with an orchestra, and then, just 4 years later, fraantic tic tic tic tic tic tic TOC)

whenever I think of these bands, the following songs come to my mind; whatever may be said - best song //most popular song/ most representative song.

Darkthrone - trasilvanian hunger
Emperor - Into the infinity of thoughts

Slayer - Raining Blood

Iron Maiden - Fear of the dark

Metallica - maste rof puppets

Regenesis by Textures; the arrangement is refering to the identity of the band.
W. Crew by Pitbulls in the nursery also.

Written by villain on 25.05.2007 at 21:14

Darkthrone - trasilvanian hunger
Emperor - Into the infinity of thoughts

I agree...hard to argue with those.

And as far as Marduk goes....I'm going to have to argue for Panzer Divison Marduk.
It sums up what Marduk is: incredibly fast, heavy, and out for some blood. It's got blazing fast riffs, rapid blastbeats, and some simple but forceful vocals. If someone asked me to explain Marduk to them...I'd play that song.

you know the transilvanian hunger riff... it just rings in my mind when I remember Darkthrone

others
Megadeth - Hangar 18

Bathory - a fine day to die

Amorphis - Black Winter Day

Led Zeppelin is kinda hard I think, probably Stairway to Heaven or Achilles Last Stand. Both of these songs show the progressive side of the band but also the soft and heavy ones. Also very nice lyrics which I think is a major part of Led Zeppelin.

For me

Darkthrone : Transilvanian Hunger
Metallica : One
Megadeth : Holy Ways
Immortal : The sun no longer rises
Death : Empty Words
Deicide : Dead By Dawn
Destruction : Nailed to the Cross
Kreator : Violent Revolution.

Written by Hyvaarin on 25.05.2007 at 07:35

Dragonforce - every single song

Would this have anything to do with the fact that every single song DragonForce has sounds EXACTLY THE SAME (with the exception of the crappy ballads )?

Written by Ellrohir on 25.05.2007 at 17:23

Nightwish - Ghost Love Score...this is simply a "mega-song" from the "mega-band" and in ten minutes of ultimate music experience you can hear all kinds of their performance (maybe except the guitar solo such in Deep Silent Complete) from slow ballad to the quick and powerful passages

Well, for me, I won't represent Nightwish with Ghost Love Score, I think I would better choose one of the before Once albums .. let me pick Gethsemane coz of the great keys, great chorus, great intro & ending ..

your oppinion...but for exapmple me don't like Gethsemane at all...i like 35 their other songs very much, but right this one...so i definitely won't represent my most favourite band with song i don't like :-)

and not to off-topic only :

Rhapsody - Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness - This is then the epic end for the legendary tale Because of its length some parts maybe boring for someone, but there are moments which really rock and i love it

Written by Dane Train on 25.05.2007 at 00:24

Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons

I agree! That song really shows all the great sides from Dream Theater.

I would go for these songs:

Stratovarius - Will The Sun Rise
Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes To Midnight
Gamma Ray - Rebellion In A Dreamland
Helloween - Future World
HammerFall - Heading The call
Grave Digger - Excalibur

I Choose these:

Manowar-Manowar
Amon Amarth- The God, His son and Holy Whore.
Moonspell- Alma Mater
Immortal- Sons of The Northern Darkness
Judas Priest- Painkiller
Morbid Angel- Chapel of Ghouls

Before this turns into a listing thread and is locked, I am going to show everyone a proper post for this kind of topic.

In the case of one of my all-time favorite bands, Vital Remains, a song that is most representative of them would be "Devour Elysium". It starts off with unmatched brutality, then goes into a fantastic melody, then back to brutality, then at the middle of the song, there is a perfect blend of both melody and brutality. This song is a fine example that a death metal song can be both brutal and melodic at the same time. I'd like to see In Flames try to do that!

Written by RavenLord on 31.05.2007 at 20:03

Written by Hyvaarin on 25.05.2007 at 07:35

Dragonforce - every single song

Would this have anything to do with the fact that every single song DragonForce has sounds EXACTLY THE SAME (with the exception of the crappy ballads )?

I think that's it, exactly. Watching them live is like seeing and hearing a repeat of each song, modified slightly, around 12 times.

Well, most people know of Finntroll, and how their sound is upbeat and folky (aside from the latest release, which is darker), and one song that has pretty much every element of what they do is 'Segersång' off their first album, 'Midnattens Widunder'. It's only 2 minutes long, but it is so representative of their sound! In fact, when I want a fix of Finntroll, I can be satisfied with this song alone.

My favourite band, Blind Guardian, cannot be so easily pegged for sound, but if I was to choose one Blind Guardian song to play to someone who had never heard them before, I would play 'And the Story Ends'. I can't really figure out why, but it just carries their whole concept really well. It's not even my favourite song by them, but it's the one I'd pick for a newbie.

Written by Dane Train on 25.05.2007 at 00:24


Pain of Salvation - A Trace of Blood

I will have to dissagree, although thats a great song =P
I think the song that best represents Pain of Salvation is Oblivion Ocean, because the band is just as oblivious as this song

Generally I find a bands most representative song comes from a single off there most well known album, for example:

Motorhead-Ace Of Spades
Guns N Roses- Paradise City

But there are also those bands that made so much transformation in there career its hard to have 1 song to represent everything theyve done, or at the same time, the exact opposite, an entire career of the same songs makes it hard to choose 1 to stand above the rest, like Manowar.

Written by Doc G. on 05.06.2007 at 08:42


Motorhead-Ace Of Spades

Agree with it !!

I created a playlist quite a while ago with 20 songs which I consider "metal classics," I guess they would be the most representative songs from each band in the playlist:

Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Iced Earth - Angels Holocaust
Slayer - Angel of Death
Stratovarius - Black Diamond
Venom - Black Metal
Amorphis - Black Winter Day
Sonata Arctica - The Cage
Death - Crystal Mountain
Amon Amarth - Death In Fire
Katatonia - Ghost Of The Sun
Megadeth - Hanger 18
Carcass - Heartwork
Morbid Angel - Immortal Rites
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Blind Guardian - Mirror Mirror
Decapitated - Spheres of Madness
Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger
DragonForce - Valley of the Damned
Kreator - Violent Revolution
Iron Maiden - The Wicker Man