Hard rock piano?

[jason]

I was listening to Guns n' Roses: Use Your Illusion in the car this afternoon (I know, I'm lame) and realized just how much I love the piano in some of those songs.

Would anyone happen to know, and be able to recommend some piano music that compares? I guess it would be "hard rock" piano.

 

[MEk]

I know this almost definitely not what you're looking for, but X Japan does some great piano ballad/rock songs(Silent Jealousy, and Tears for example). Queen comes to mind aswell(Though I'm sure you're aware of them), great rock songs with lots of piano. I really don't know anything quite similar to GNR, unfortunately. "November Rain" had a huge impact on me, especially the guitar solo at the end, great stuff. I heard the new stuff Axl has been working on is really great and epic, but unfortunately it doesn't look like he's going to release an album anytime soon.

 

[jason]

Ya, that whole Chinese Democracy album things is turning in to quite the disaster for Axl Rose. I'll check out X Japan.

 

[mhoarse]

Quite an old thread, but just stumbled upon it and figured I'd chime in with another recommendation which, like MEk's, is "almost definitely not what you're looking for" - The Bad Plus. They're being called the new "bad boys of jazz" and they're a piano-bass-drums trio who play covers of Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Pixies, Aphex Twin, etc among their great original tunes. Well, worth checking out anyway, even if it's not quite what you were asking for.

But hard rock piano? Maybe try Faith No More (though he is definitely not much of a keyboard player), Muse's 'Origin Of Symmetry' album, the later harder-edged Bowie stuff (like "Outside")... that's about all I can think of...

 

[chromaticism]

If you'd like to listen to piano in an aggresive hard rock context, try going along Emerson, Lake and Palmer first. Keith Emerson's really aggressive on the keys. You can also try to listen to classical pianist/prog rock specialist Vitalij Kuprij playing with his band "Artension" where his virtuosic piano work mingles along with heavy prog rock. I'll provide here an artist example list where piano work is in a heavy rock context:

1. Adagio.
2. Dream Theater.
3. Symphony X.
4. Queen.
5. Artension.
6. Jordan Rudess.
7. ELP.
8. Liquid Tension Experiment.
9. Derek Sherinian.

Probably, most prog rock bands would make it on my list as they involve a lot of keyboard work. I hope that helps.