Best keyboards

Night Prowler

Night Prowler

Customer Deathcycle Manager
Staff member
So what are your favorite keyboardists / keyboard sounds/style etc?

Lately I'd say anything Arjen Lucassen releases. As far as I know, he plays most keyboards on his albums except for solos here and there and it's pretty much the way I want keyboards to sound. Loud and bombastic and something that can actually be played and not some fake orchestra samples. Pretty much perfect example:

Also, Dan Swanö is amazing. Prime example, his 1998 solo album that he described as "what Rush would sound if they played death metal in the 70's". He played and produced everything on that album, including playing actual drums (not programming them). Can't think of a death metal album that has keyboards as prominent as this one.

Don't listen to them that much, but Rush also uses keyboards the way I like it. Also Leprous pretty much clicked for me just based on awesome keyboards sound.

On the other hand, most of Dream Theater has meh keyboards thanks to Jordan Rudess <_< Kevin Moore and Sherinian are cool. Never liked keyboards in Maiden either... well, they don't bother me, but they could've taken them all out in reunion albums and it wouldn't have made a difference IMO.

Discuss!
 
I could go for Tony Banks because that would be the obvious choice for me to choose. But I also could choose Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson.

As for keyboard sounds, the mighty mellotron wins in that category.
 
Nice topic! Here's what came to mind today.

Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish! Not per se when it's drowned by orchestra's. Just the pure work. Great melodies. Fine sounds.

I love the keyboards on Amorphis - Tales from the Thousand Lakes, by Kasper Mårtenson.

Sear Bliss, black metallers from Hungary used nice atmospheric keyboards. Stian Aarstad contributed a lot with his sound on the first three Dimmu Borgir albums, but also with Enthral (check the album The Mirror's Opposite End!)

I also thought Frank Boeijen's keyboards in The Gathering has been inventive and a strong addition to the band's music.

Further, from prog rock, I certainly consider Tony Banks as important. And also dominant when it comes to melodic, but also in a riffing kind of support, even more carrying than guitars. Rush belongs to the list as well. Subdivisions, Afterimage and Middletown Dreams are examples of great tracks with dominant, melodic keyboards. Richard Wright from Pink Floyd of course. No words to describe what he meant for the Floyd.

More black metal: Summoning! Deviser! Ancient (dark!) Dan Swanö playing on the Dawn of Flames album by gates of Ishtar. Especially on the title track and Perpetual Dawn! First album highlight: Season of Frost.

Death metal: Nocturnus! Original band. They were known for their science-fiction themed lyrics and use of keyboards, both of which were virtually unknown in extreme metal at the time. I love the sound on some songs. Here links to the debut album and two songs from the second album: 1 & 2.

Then's there's the guys that use keyboards as perfect counterparts to the guitars:
Stratovarius: e.g. Eternity. Or Children of Bodom with e.g. Lake Bodom or Silent Night, Bodom Night.

Last but not least: White Spirit and Dio. Fool for the Gods and Egypt and many other tracks wouldn't have been the same without the sounds of Malcolm Pearson and Claude Schnell. Especially Pearson brought versatile playing. Not everything was original, but on this epic track I thought it brought something new in music.

I don't find it easy to always describe the style or sound of a keyboard. And of course, how much I like a song or a band, that has to do with my preferences. Still, I think all these albums weren't that great if it weren't for the keyboards.
 
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Michael Pinnella from Symphony X. He plays amazing solos that aren't overly wanked (like Rudess) and he knows when to sit back and fill in atmosphere. I love the fact that he often plays straight piano, as well.

Second would be Tuomas Holopainen because of his restraint and genius ear for melody.
 
I really love Patrick Moraz's contributions to Yes. He only did one album but his playing is really great on it. If you're a prog fan and haven't yet heard it, do yourself a favor and listen to Relayer. Great guitar and bass playing on this too.

I also like the keyboards in Chalk Dinosaur, a band I've talked about a few times on this forum. They're mostly basic GarageBand synth sounds but I really like the way they're layered. Check out this keyboard interlude at 2:38. Totally out of the blue but with great phrasing and keyboard textures underneath.

A lot of my favorite keyboardists though are jazz players. Brad Mehldau released an album last year that I really loved. Very cool synths here!

And of course one of the pioneers in introducing electric keyboards to jazz and music in general, Herbie Hancock:

And since I'm listening to Tinseltown Rebellion as I type this, I have to post the great Easy Meat featuring an amazing keyboard section by Tommy Mars:



These are just off the top of my head, I'll post more if I think of them. I like Rudess sometimes, depends on the song really, but generally I prefer DS and KM. I do love his stuff in LTE though. I agree about Maiden's keyboards, I could do without them on the newer albums, but they really add to the music on SIT and SSOASS.
 
From those mentioned, I love Rudess, Wakeman, Emerson... Even Tony Banks on a good day (however, mostly on the Nursery-Foxtrot-Selling trio)...

But I feel obliged to mention the guy that got me into the rock/metal keyboards in the first place, the guy that made me buy keyboards when I was fifteen... (drumroll)... Jon Lord.
Geez, I have just blown the dust off my old Purple records. It's beyond amazing!
 
I'm not really a fan of shred keyboard. I have listened to a bit of Children of Bodom years ago, but it's not really my thing. If shred guitar can be accused of being dull, it increases tenfold when the same thing is done on keyboards - I just don't hear the expression, piano is by all means an expressive instrument, don't get me wrong - but the things that makes it that, the unmatched polyphony, of course disappears when you play it like a guitar solo one note at a time. I'm more into Purple and White Spirit as mentioned, Europe (Mic Michaeli is a great musician), and most of all, when I come to think of it - Swedish synth rock act Melody Club. Now, that's a keyboard sound I love.
 
Richard Wright, the unsung hero within Pink Floyd. His piano work had a beautiful melancholic feel, but was highly under utilized in the latter parts of the Roger Waters' dominated era.

Just listen:

Why does death come to early for such musical greats?
 
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