Top Ten Greatest Tandems In Metal
Collaborations of different types: Long-lasting, Short-lived or Side projects but you feel the magic when those two do something together - at songwriting or performing level. They just click and create masterpieces.Unfortunately some of them don't click at personal level and split sooner or later. Sometimes they are successful outside the tandem but sometimes they are not (or just not that successful).
Two of the most talented metal musicians of all time who created genre-defining masterpieces like "Stargazer," "Gates of Babylon," "A Light in the Black," etc. (1975-1978).
Jon of Iced Earth and Hansi of Blind Guardian. Demons and Wizards is a side project based on their friendship. They created only two albums together under this moniker, but the albums are awesome (they promised to do more).
Hansi has many mind-blowing vocal performances, but for me, his absolute best is "My Last Sunrise" from this side project.
Jon is very successful with his primary band, Iced Earth, and Hansi is with Blind Guardian. There's no drama here at all, but these two are really great together.
Jeff Waters (born February 13, 1966) is a Canadian metal musician and founder of the metal band Annihilator. He's best known as the guitarist for Annihilator, appreciated for his fast riffs and solos. Waters is also the primary songwriter in the band. Very often he has taken on the role of lead singer,... read more One of the greatest guitarists and one of the greatest metal drummers of all time. Both are very technical and fast. This is their trademark.
Jeff Waters is allegedly one of the top 3 lead guitar players in thrash, sharing this honor with Marty Friedman (Megadeth) and Alex Skolnick (Testament). Jeff is also a riff master.
Mike Mangini is officially the fastest metal drummer. He was the first person in history to break 1,200 notes, playing 1,203 single notes at the 2005 Winter NAMM Session. Later, Mangini reached 1,247 single strokes. He joined Dream Theater in 2011, and there were no hard feelings or drama (as far as I know).
Brothers who formed this great band Savatage, which is criminally underrated. Criss was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver at the age of 30 in 1993. Jon lost his brother and best partner and suffers to this day, but he somehow continued to write great music for Savatage.
Jon also formed another band called 'Jon Oliva's Pain' (which says a lot). The thrash metal band Overkill wrote a song named "R.I.P. (Undone)" on their 1994 album W.F.O. that pays tribute to Criss Oliva.
Songs Jon and Criss wrote and performed together (Jon - vocals, Criss - guitars):
"Hall of the Mountain King," "Gutter Ballet," "Jesus Saves," "Sirens."
The Newcomers
Awesome twin lead guitars and harmonies. Fast, long, and melodic solos.
My favorite solos: Strike, Riding the Eagle, The Man (That I Don't Know) - the second, outro solo; Diabolus, and All for One.
Jørn Lande is a Norwegian metal and hard rock singer known for his solo career as Jorn, and providing vocals for Avantasia, Masterplan, Ark, Beyond Twilight, Millenium, Allen/Lande, Mundanus Imperium, Vagabond, The Snakes, Ayreon. Great duets, even live. How cool is that - two of the best metal vocalists singing together! My favorite songs: Serpents in Paradise, The Scarecrow. There are some live versions of good quality on YouTube.
Great tandem! Jorn should be a permanent Avantasia member.
A side project of Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob) and Jorn Lande (Ark, MasterPlan, Avantasia, Beyond Twilight, solo). From its beginning in 2005 until 2013, guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Starbreaker) was the producer, songwriter, and main instrumentalist. In 2013, he left due to a busy schedule and was replaced by former Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki.
The Allen-Lande Project mostly offers melodic metal, ballads, and slow, epic songs. I am happy with that because the metal genre doesn't produce many ballads, and not all of them have such great vocals. Ballads need great vocals.
Songs: Master of Sorrow, When Time Doesn't Heal, Eternity.