Another great one is Luca Turilli, I had known about him for a long time but just checked out his music recently. He is the guitarist of Rhapsody, but he has his own side project(Luca Turilli) which is really great symphonic power metal. The songwriting is very similar to Rhapsody, but the symphonic elements seem even more prominent. Really good stuff.
Jason, if you're really interested in metal bands with a strong classical influence(I know alot of good folk influenced ones aswell) I could recommend alot, I listen to alot of that stuff. I don't want to take this thread too far off-topic though. You can PM me if you're interested.
Please share here, I don't believe it would be off-topic one bit. We can all benefit from your knowledge.
I'm currently listening to some tracks from Luca Turilli's Prophet of the Last Eclipse on Amazon.com. My first impression is that it probably could have a little less vocals and a little more solo work, and I while I am enjoying it, I would probably enjoy it a little more if it was tuned down a bit. I like the slightly darker side of metal.
Regarding the vocals, now that I listen some more, there are some interesting tales/stories being told. They sound like tales of fantasy, which could be quite interesting if I could hear the full tracks. In this case, maybe instead of reducing the amount of vocal work, just increased song length with more guitar licks would be pleasing. But again, I'm just hearing snippets, so I could be completely off-base here.
