My votes go to:
Tarot - Shadow in my heart
Black Label Society - Rust
Iron Maiden - Children of the damned, Wasting love, Out of the shadows
Edguy - Wash away the poison

And the best one imo: Godsmack - One Rainy Day

This Love - Pantera
Cemetery Gates - Pantera
The Ballad - Testament
Sorry?! - Suicidal Tendencies
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow - Suicidal Tendencies

Most of the metal ballads I enjoy are by power metal bands.
Like;
Gamma Ray - Lake Of Tears
Angra - Bleeding Heart
Stratovarius - Forever
Sonata Arctica - Good Enough Is Good Enough
Nevermore - The Heart Collector
Cradle Of Filth - Nymphetamine

Written by BlueHeart on 12.07.2012 at 21:48

In my opinion, possibly the best metal ballad ever is "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche.

I was going to say that as well. It's a great song. I remember when it came out but I wasn't that impressed back then.

Hard Rock, but man I Love "No One Like You" by The Scorpions. My Favourite hard rock song ever. It's impossible not to air guitar to it.

Written by helofloki on 13.07.2012 at 02:03

I like to say 'Guardian' by Fates Warning. From start to finish this is epic, cheesy but brilliant. The tempo change is kickass and smooth. I love Jon Arch's vocals too, just a classic metal sound.

I love that song too.

Metallica, Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, Fates Warning or Queensryche all of them have good ballads. "Nothing Else Matters", "Silent Lucidity", "Journeyman" for example. But all of the bands I mentioned have great ballads in some of their albums.

Kamelot's Abandoned and On The Coldest Winter Night. Anathema's Forgotten Hopes and My Dying Bride's Black God are perfect, too

Just remembered that Evergrey have a gift to write ballads. It also helps that Tom S. Englund can pretty much do what he wants with his beautiful and unique voice.

Two of the most brilliant examples:

Words Mean Nothing (from Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy)
I'm Sorry (from Recreation Day)

Devin Townsend has some good ones, Deadhead and Nobody's Here come to mind immediately. Kamelot's Abandoned is indeed incredible if my memory serves!

Not sure if it's strictly a ballad, but Godflesh's Anthem is pretty amazing.

FLOTSAM & JETSAM - Better of dead
JACOBS DREAM - Sarah Williams
MAD MAX - Thoughts Of A Dying Man

Written by BloodTears on 31.08.2014 at 22:06

Just remembered that Evergrey have a gift to write ballads. It also helps that Tom S. Englund can pretty much do what he wants with his beautiful and unique voice.

Two of the most brilliant examples:

Words Mean Nothing (from Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy)
I'm Sorry (from Recreation Day)

I'm Sorry is a cover.

I don't really have an extensive knowledge of their work, but I do like ...And the Distance.

Written by Wukk on 09.09.2014 at 04:42

Written by BloodTears on 31.08.2014 at 22:06

Just remembered that Evergrey have a gift to write ballads. It also helps that Tom S. Englund can pretty much do what he wants with his beautiful and unique voice.

Two of the most brilliant examples:

Words Mean Nothing (from Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy)
I'm Sorry (from Recreation Day)

I'm Sorry is a cover.

I don't really have an extensive knowledge of their work, but I do like ...And the Distance.

Still beautiful though You only listened to their earlier stuff?

Written by BloodTears on 09.09.2014 at 11:04

You only listened to their earlier stuff?

Nah, just a couple of songs off each of their albums. I love their style though, A Touch of Blessing and Blinded were two of my metal gateway songs.

Silent Crying by Conception. Absolutely heartbreaking

Iron Maiden - Wasting Love
Helloween - A Tale That Wasn't Right
Helloween - In A Middle of Heartbeat
Battle Beast - Angel Cry
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Stratovarius - Forever

In english:
SteelHeart - She's Gone (really powerfull voice )
Yngwie Malmsteen - Dreaming (transports you)
Iron Maiden - Wasting Love (great lyrics)
Helloween - In a Middle of a Heartbeat (sad)
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters (a great classic)

In spanish
Warcry - El Amor de una Madre (extremely sad story )
Ankhara - Junto a mi (has a lot o feeling)
Avalanch - Lucero (great song about platonic love)
Kraken - Fragil al Viento (about the meaning of things from the love perspective)
Angeles del Infierno - Jugando al Amor (describes bad relationships)

Wasted Years a ballad? Really?

Written by raveneffect on 16.02.2015 at 15:27

Wasted Years a ballad? Really?

Had a lapsus there meant Wasting Love.

Written by valcrist on 08.02.2015 at 02:14

In english:
SteelHeart - She's Gone (really powerfull voice )
Yngwie Malmsteen - Dreaming (transports you)
Iron Maiden - Wasting Love (great lyrics)
Helloween - In a Middle of a Heartbeat (sad)
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters (a great classic)

Gotta agree with you on Dreaming by Malmsteen. I would also throw in Crystal Ball off that album. I didn't like Joe Lynn Turner in Rainbow after Dio, but he does a great job on Odyssey.

Rainbow - Catch The Rainbow

Fiddler on the Green by Demons And Wizards. No contest. For one thing, it's actually a ballad, instead of just a slow and melancholic song, which many mistake for a ballad, but it's also just beautifully written. There's great build-up to a vocal explosion near the end, and the guitar sound (electric one) has this haunting pain to it.

Beyond the Realms of Death - Judas Priest
Fade To Black - Metallica
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

Written by Infernal Eternal on 24.06.2015 at 21:11

Cirith Ungol - Finger Of Scorn
It is a semi-ballad (if such a thing exists), by a truly underrated band. Don't attack me or sth, most of your answers are quite predictable. Heavy and power metal aren't the only subgenres with ballads. In more traditional stuff, Manowar are suberb, although most people hate them (they are partly right, Manowar are too cheesy nowadays).

Written by BlueHeart on 12.07.2012 at 21:48

In my opinion, possibly the best metal ballad ever is "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche.

Totally agree on this one; is not your every day ballad; I think what gives it a boost is that it includes some symphonic melodies and has that prog feeling typical of Queensryche.

Without any question:

Judas Priest - Beyond the Realms of Death

Apparently I said Dream Theater's "Another Day" in this thread about 8 years ago. Sure, could be the best. Could also be "Surrounded". Or something by Nightwish. Iron Maiden. Maybe Metallica. Queensrÿche? Possibly. I just don't know. There's so much.

Ah fuck it. It's probably "Space-Dye Vest" by my mighty Dream Theater. Yeah. That's it. Hearty, sad, emotional, beautiful and all that.

I haven't read all the pages yet I am up to about page 8 I think, I have difficulty following the basic concept of what classes as metal, what as rock, when it comes to ballads, I see little difference.
I have always loved great ballads from all genres, Now I've read it all - several tracks on here I already had on my player, others I have added to my playlist, I have 7 pages of foolscap of new tracks to listen to.

I will mention a few here that I like

Avenged Sevenfold - Dear God and Afterlife
Doro & Udo - Dancing With An Angel
Annihlator - Phoenix Rising
Dream Theater - The Answer Lies Within
Faith No More - I Started A Joke
Five Finger Death Punch - Remember Everything
Gotthard - Heaven
Mono Inc - In My Darkest Hours, In My Heart, Voices Of Doom
Poets Of The Fall - Carnival Of Rust
Rammstein - Stirb Nicht Vor Mir (Don't Die Before I Do)
X-Japan - Endless Rain

I also love loads of the others that I have read on these pages, can't understand why, perhaps they aren't classed as Metal or Ballads, but Magnum - On A Storytellers Night, The Spirit, Thunder - Castles In The Sand, and I think Helloween's - Keeper Of The Seven Keys can be classed as a Power Ballad.

For my sins I also like Pop-Punk ballads like Simple Plan's - Perfect, Blink 182 - I Miss You, Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends, Goo Goo Dolls - Iris, Brand New - Jesus Christ, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down (Sorry if I've overstepped the mark)

Opeth - Benighted
Pantera - Hollow
Pantera - The Sleep

The three I've listed above leave me completely dumbfounded as to how in the fuck a human being could actually, physically do it. With Hollow it's not the technical aspect, but the sheer emotion behind it. You can take some classical master, I don't care who. Sure, every note will be perfection, but you WILL NOT achieve the gutwrenching emotion of that song. Can't do it.

I don't know how the great and the good on this forum feel about Disturbed, but I have just come across their superb cover of The Sound Of Silence

Written by Enteroctopus on 10.03.2016 at 20:43

Opeth - Benighted
Pantera - Hollow
Pantera - The Sleep

The three I've listed above leave me completely dumbfounded as to how in the fuck a human being could actually, physically do it. With Hollow it's not the technical aspect, but the sheer emotion behind it. You can take some classical master, I don't care who. Sure, every note will be perfection, but you WILL NOT achieve the gutwrenching emotion of that song. Can't do it.

Awesome selections. I could not agree more on Hollow. That;'s one of my favorite Pantera songs. The Sleep is also an underrated classic. I love that song. I'm going got add Children of the Damned by Iron Maiden, Anybody Listening by Queensryche, The Bleeding by FFDP (don''t hate on me, not a big FFDP fan but that song has a ton of emotion in it), Still Loving You by Scorpions, Under Your Spell by Primal Fear, In This River by Black Label Society. I could probably come up with a ton more but I have drinking to do.