Not to hijerk this thread or anything but, tourists and wk, since you kids are into some metal, you ever heard of a group called Apocalyptica? A Finnish cello-only band that started out playing covers of Metallica. Man! Look, I'm now 63 and never really did get into the metal thing but my 30-something kid drug me to this here. I gotta say it was really intense and good! Cello? These guys make these giant fiddles SCREAM!
They do America once in a while, been here at least twice. Check em out. You won't be sorry.
Oh yeah, I've heard of them for sure. I'm 55 this year and I still go to several metal concerts every year just as I go to jazz concerts and even classical concerts as well. We very often go as a family and we all experience the music together. My kids love metal but they also like jazz and classical and even played as musicians in symphonies and jazz ensembles as well as rock and metal. When you understand the structure of music itself, it's all the same no matter the style or genre in which it is played.
Another band that uses strings in metal/rock format is Skillet. And although not purely stringed based as much as symphonic and a bit operatic influenced is the genre of symphonic metal. Very heavily European based and influenced, this genre is metal but with a clear underpinning in classical and well as opera influence. Here's some quick samples to give you an idea.
[video=youtube;cVrU2MVAWBU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVrU2MVAWBU&feature=related[/video]
Notice a trend in the vocalists? Who sez women and metal don't go together!
Not along the lines of symphonic metal but more on a point of musical diversity within metal. One of the original Bay Area thrash metal bands to come out at the same time as Metallica is Testament and their guitarist Alex Skolnick who in the early 90's left to go to NY and study music, specifically jazz guitar. From around 2000' till about 2008' Alex was the lead guitarist for Transiberian Orchestra and has since come back to rejoin Testament. The guy is a fantastic player and even today still does jazz with the Alex Skolnick trio.
When it comes to music, there are no rules, there are no limits. It's boundaries are only as far as the mind itself will take it!
