Best rock/metal ballads?
 

Hevay Metal and Rock bands prove themselves the most accomplished and proficient often by virtue of the sometimes fantastic ballads they pen. Who can forget Gary Moore's "Empty rooms", Journey's "Who's crying now?" or even Zep's "Going to California", or GnR's "November rain"?
So which are your favourite rock/metal ballads?

ballads are usually so cheesey and over done... i can't stand them

You obviously haven't heard enough, then. Ballads can leave a warm and fuzzy feeling, and aren't necessarily cheesy.

I'm on a Queen binge right now and even their less-liked ballads are ripe with emotion. I still have to say Buckethead is king:

my complaint was aimed more towards metal ballads, i should have been more specific

Rock ballads are the scourge of the scene, yet I have many many soft spots for these type of tracks. Hold onto your hats as the jackhammer shows his sensitive side:



It came out when my parents split up so it holds reverence but it was also a fave with an ex-soppy I know.



I think the lyrics from this song are quite pessimistic and therefore fit in with my criteria lol.



'Outside my window it's lonely and cold, inside my heart there's a fire burning out of control'. Brillant lyric and some brilliant guitar playing too.



Despite my missus's myriad faults she still survived this test. I almost threw this track at her back in our early days. It was more to do with my Ridley Scott (director) fascination than the lyrical content in those days of shallow youth. She passed my questions by proxy.

Somebody LMK when i can inflict more crap onto you all

I think the best rock/metal ballad is Motley Crue's Home Sweet Home.

One of my favourites off a horribly underrated album here;


One off that most excellent of albums No More Shall We Part;


And of course;

Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Poison's "Every rose has its thorn", with its campfire/cowboy-type themes, the great acoustic guitar, Poison trying to be Bon Jovi (!), and to add to all that, Otto stopped making his marriage proposal to declare "Oh man! This is a GNARLY guitar solo!" and turned the volume way up! Now THERE is a true rocker! :)

This is about the only cheesy rock ballad I can bare to listen to these days.

Is Selling Out Bad?
 

Ballads definitely get a bad rap among people who are "real" music fans. For some reason they tend to write off the entire era that they believe was overcommercialized and a product of bands selling out. What selling out really means is tapping to the desires of the public and making music that a large portion of the population enjoys. Why is this always looked at as a bad thing? Just because a band does not sound the same as they did when they started making records and has changed their style to a more universally apealing one does not make they evil. With that said among these ballads that may be considered selling out but in my opinion are incredible are Ozzy's "mama im coming home" Warrants "Heaven", Motley Crue "without you" and "home sweet home", and probably my favorite "Love Bites" By Def Leppard and masterfully produced by Mutt Lange.

Agreed. (Congrats on your first post, btw!) :)
The thing is that bands don't suddenly start doing all ballads --- that would be wrong. But there's nothing wrong with a heavy band filtering their music with a little light relief, as it were. As I think I mentioned, Kamelot, one hard rockin' band, but they can put out an absolutely gorgeous ballad like "Abandoned". Nothing wrong with that.
In fact, in some ways I think it does the opposite of what you're saying --- if a heavy band suddenly brings out a ballad, more people may listen to them and begin to appreciate their music. It can be a way in for those who have never listened, nor thought of listening to this sort of music, and that surely can't be bad.
Anyway, I stand by my claim, which I've believed for over 25 years, that metal and heavy rock bands pen the greatest and most effective ballads. Yes, some pop songs are good (there's no denying the power of Harry Nilsson NOT MARIAH CAREY's "Without you" or even Phil Collins' "Separate lives" or "Against all odds"), but generally I would class them as lower quality and far less imaginative than rock songs.

My all time favorite ballad is Alice Cooper's Burning Our Bed.

ballads also have their place in the rock genre and i think that the 80's produced alot of good ones but my favorite has to be alone again from dokken not much of a fan of theirs but that song for some reason got under my skin. or the killing words by queensryche another good rock ballad that isn't sappy

annhilator (sp?) did a song called "only be lonely" which i thought was really cool especially for a band that was pretty much strictly thrash metal.

Is Stairway to Heaven a ballad? If so, I guess that would be my favourite, even if it is overplayed .. but many ballads are.

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton is another ballad that has made a permanent impression with me.

@Jackhammer, good call on Whitesnake. :p

edit :

Kamelot have a lot of nice medieval-ish ballads (Don't you cry, Elizabeth: I - Mirror Mirror, Glory, Sailorman's Call), but they're so embarassing. If I ever listen to them, I make sure noone else is around. It's like worse than being seen singing and dancing solo to Careless Whisper.

Changes by Black Sabbath: simple yet deep, a great track off of Vol. 4

Why would you consider them embarrassing? They're great musicans, good songwriters, have a real following... I don't see it...

I'm easily embarassed and Kamelot's ballads, for all their niceness, are cheesy as hell .. Maybe not as cheesy as Mighty Rhapsody, but still .. ;)

The Pretenders' song "I'll Stand By You" is a nice ballad that I was just reminded of by the way.

krokus-'our love'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7Zt5dvIL0

Metalica - Fade to Black (perhaps not a ballad per se, but in Ride the Lightning, it IS a ballad compared to the thrashing monsters in the album)

Savatage - All that I Bleed

Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave

Dream Theater - Anna Lee

Like the first poster with Journey "Who`s Crying Now" Toto "I Won`t Hold You Back" and Aerosmith "Dream On" These are three ballad/slow songs that I love.

Seize the Day - Avenged Sevenfold
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUkoL9RE72o&ob=av3e

I Love ballads of all types...

...and I Love Hammerfall

--------

Dreams Come True



never thought I'd feel again...
...feel the darkness fade...and see the morning Sun arise
never thought I'd feel alive...again...
...senses dull and blunt from all the lies

now...when I hold Your Face so close to mine...
...I see a place where the Sun will shine...with You it is divine

looking down into Those Eyes...
...I know...I'll be lost and never found again
kiss me once and I will surely melt and die...
...kiss me twice and I will never leave Your Side

dreams come true...

Journey has some great ballads (although "Open Arms" annoys me). However, I don't think of Journey as clearly a rock band. Great White, on the other hand, obviously rocks more than not; and "Save Your Love" and "The Angel Song" are great, forgotten ballads.

Pantera - Cemetery Gates
Metallica - Fade to Black
Megadeth - A Tout Le Monde

Zakk's farewell ballad

all my fave power ballads come from the hair metal era:-

White Lion - When the Children Cry
Bon Jovi - I'll Be there For you, Bed of Roses
Skid Row - Wasted Time
Bad English - When I See you Smile
Bad Company - If You Needed Somebody
Tesla - More than Words Can Say
Extreme - More than Words
Mr. Big - To Be With You

yes, I was a huge hair metal fanatic

and a coupla non-hair metal ones:-

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Kansas - Dust in the Wind

hey lizzybenny, you didn't do an intro thread, some of us are dying to know you and about you

Ozzy's Mama I'm Coming Home is a great ballad.

"More Than Words Can Say" is by Alias.

Bad English had multiple great ballads, including the forgotten "Possession." I don't think of the band as a rock band, but maybe it was.

I'm not sure if there have been any great rock ballads since the mid-90's.

Tesla? Alias?

they all look the same to me, hence the confusion

Shakra...

Love Will Find A Way




´cause You and me belong together...
...Love is gonna find another way
I´ll never be without You...
...be without You

Look up "Atonement" By "Heaven Shall Burn"

Its really good.

Angel Eyes...
...You have Angel Eyes
such a smile...lights up my Life...

...You're a dream come true
now I'm holding You...
...and I'll never...never let You go
I will never let You go...

...Angel Eyes
my Heart relies...
...on the Love You give to me

now lil Jane I guess thats what we'll call her...had all the homies goin crazy......had to join a convent wanted to be a baller....now the bitch **** every guy she sees.....

Steelheart was great

"Far From Home" by Five Finger Death Punch is one of my favorite modern metal ballads. It is kinda cheesy (I think most ballads are) but it could fit right in with most of the classic ballads mentioned already.

Boston / I need your love...