Top 10 Metal Musicians with University or College Degrees
This list is ranking the Metal Musicians with University or College diplomas.I ranked them by 4 criteria:
1) musicianship (how good they are at what they do in metal bands)
2) type of the diploma (uni > college)
3) difficulty of the studied subject
4) how far from music the field of study is.
But you can use your own criteria while voting and remixing.
Mike Mangini is an American drummer. Since 2010, he has been a member of progressive metal band Dream Theater, following the departure of founding drummer Mike Portnoy. Graduated from Bentley University - computer science major.
At #1 because he was also a Professor - before joining Dream Theater, Mangini was an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, Percussion Department.
And yes, a great drummer.
Adam Nergal Darski (born Adam Michał Darski; 10 June 1977 in Gdynia), is a Polish musician and television personality, best known for being the frontman for the black/death metal band Behemoth.
Darski was born Adam Michał Darski in Gdynia, Poland, raised Catholic, and started playing guitar at age eight. He goes by the stage name Nergal (naming himself after a Babylonian deity), and he is the founder, lyricist, main composer, frontman and manager of the band Behemoth, which he started when he was still a teenager. He also plays lead, rhythm and acoustic guitar.
Steffen Kummerer (born June 1, 1985) is a German guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He is the leader, main songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist for the progressive technical death metal band Obscura as well as the blackened melodic death metal band Thulcandra. He has a Master degree in Media Technology Engineering.
Currently he's one of my most favorite metal musicians (Obscura). Also, judging by his music and lyrics, he's very intelligent.
He holds a university degree in publishing, multimedia communication, and journalism.
His roles in Fleshgod Apocalypse (technical death metal) - Guitars, Vocals (backing), Orchestration (2007-present)
Current Obscura bassist attended the Music College in Regensburg, and afterwards got degree at Hamburg Music and Art University.
Man, all Obscura members are highly educated - Steffen Kummerer, Rafael Trujillo, Sebastian Lanser and Christian Münzner are also on this list.
Rafael (born 1994) graduated from Munich Guitar Institute in 2014. Currently he's studying Jazz at Amsterdam Conservatorium, University of Arts.
He's a lead guitarist for Obscura.
He's an Electrical Engineer. Attila Csihar is a Hungarian black metal vocalist, best known for providing vocals on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album.
Floor Jansen is a Dutch singer-songwriter and vocal coach. She is currently vocalist of Nightwish and leader of Revamp.
Dianne van Giersbergen is a Dutch dramatic soprano singer, songwriter, and vocal coach who is well-known for being the frontwoman and founder of the progressive metal band Ex Libris and German symphonic metal band Xandria. Classical music degree from the ArtEZ School of Music, where she was taught classical singing and received her degree with honors.
Obscura drummer graduated with honors from Anton Bruckner University (Austria), where he studied percussion (with a minor in piano)
Michael Portnoy is an American drummer primarily known as the former drummer, backing vocalist, and a co-founder of the progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater. Known for his technical skill as a drummer, Portnoy has won 30 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine. Sorry guys, he actually dropped out and I am not sure if he got a diploma later so he probaly doesn't belong in this list. He studied at Berklee College of Music (where Mike Mangini was a Professor).
Roy Sætre Khantatat, is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. Commonly known as Roy Khan or simply Khan, he was the lead vocalist for the symphonic power metal band Kamelot from 1997 to his departure in 2011. He co-wrote most of Kamelot's songs with the band's guitarist and founder Thomas Youngblood during his tenure. He studied opera for three years. I didn't put him high on this list because I didn't find information whether he got a degree after these 3 years of studying or not.
He has a degree in psychology (he's one of the Savatage and TSO lead singers)