Long rock/metal songs that are actual songs...

...not just endless noodling or a bunch of different musical themes mashed up (like 2112).  The only ones I can think of at the moment are ACOS and Rime of The Ancient Mariner, but I suspect you can think of more, BUT remember no noodle-laden stuff like the '73 live version of "Dazed and Confused" or mashups like SDOIT.  I mean songs that have a sense of cohesion from start to finish.  

How long is long?
I submit Voices.

ACOS has a sense of cohesion but SDOIT doesn't?
 
 
 
 
(I'd say neither are songs to be clear. Neither is the Incident. Those are all suites which is fine. It doesn't diminish their artistic value at all. It just somehow seems more epic to some people if they're 40 minute "songs.")

portnoy311


ACOS has a sense of cohesion but SDOIT doesn't?

To me SDOIT sounds like several different songs mashed up with an overture that introduces the separate and distinct ideas with bookends (about to crash and its reprise).  It's cohesive as a group of ideas but I wouldn't call it a stand-alone song, it's more like a rock opera (actually it IS a rock opera).  
 
Something like Foreplay/Long time by Boston is close but only clocks in at 7+ minutes.  I guess that's long by radio standards, but I'm thinking over ten minutes here.

SeventhSon


 Something like Foreplay/Long time by Boston is close but only clocks in at 7+ minutes.  I guess that's long by radio standards, but I'm thinking over ten minutes here.

That was going to be my vote.  Bohemian Rhapsody is the only other example i can think of.

sarcophage

Bohemian Rhapsody is the only other example i can think of. 

Good one.  

Ok, I'm going back to ToT here but "In the Name of God" and "This Dying Soul" certainly qualify.  I don't even think of them as long songs because they flow so well.  I wonder if DT albums even count in this discussion because they have so many really well written long songs when you think about it.  Some sound forced/contrived/etc. and others are clearly mashups of unrelated ideas but many DT long songs are really singular statements with thematic consistency throughout.   

Trial of Tears?

I second Trial of Tears and will add Lines in the Sand (I've been listening to FII a lot this week).
 
Close to the Edge fits the bill, to me at least. It is cohesive. 

Though only 8 minutes and kind of noodle or jam driven in the bridge "War Pigs" is certainly a *song*. 

 
But obviously I'm biased. ;)
 
Matt
www.theocracymusic.com

Isis' "Threshold of Transformation" immediately comes to mind.

Pardon the long list below but it's late and I feel like splurging.... diving into total power metal territory but it fits the bill so I thought I'd answer the topic's question :) trying to keep this to only songs that pass 10 minutes (and that I think are top quality songs)....
 
Aquaria - Judgment Day
Avantasia - The Seven Angels; The Scarecrow
Blind Guardian - And Then There Was Silence
Celesty - all three parts to Legacy of Hate (10+ minutes for each part, 32-ish minutes total)
Edguy - Theater of Salvation; The Pharaoh; The Piper Never Dies
Gamma Ray - Heading for Tomorrow
Helloween - Halloween; Keeper of the Seven Keys
Nightwish - Ghost Love Score; The Poet and the Pendulum
Rhapsody [of Fire] - Symphony of Enchanted Lands; Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness; Sacred Power of Raging Winds; Erian's Mystical Rhymes; The Mystic Prophecy of the Demonknight; The Frozen Tears of Angels; Heroes of the Waterfalls' Kingdom
Sonata Arctica - The Power of One
Stratovarius - Destiny; Visions; Elysium
 
... and lots more if you get into black metal!  Hope that broadens your list a little :P

Great list Firewings.

Matt Smith

But obviously I'm biased. ;)

Matt
www.theocracymusic.com

Sounds like a song to me!

I'll submit Octavarium, Home By The Sea, Jesus of Suburbia, and The Outlaw Torn.

Firewings

Blind Guardian - And Then There Was Silence

It's not 10 minutes, but not including Sacred Worlds is a crime. Incredible song.
 
Here are some of my favorite songs longer than 7 minutes in length that hopefully fit the bill, no particular order.
 
Blind Guardian - Sacred Worlds,   Wheel of Time
Pantera - Cemetery Gates
Muse - Citizen Erased
Avenged Sevenfold - Second Heartbeat,   I Won't See You Tonight Pt 1,   Save Me,   A Little Piece of Heaven (such a fantastically bizarre song )
Alterbridge - Blackbird
Symphony X - Accolade II,   When All is Lost (Kinda solo-based, but its still coherent IMO), 
Rainbow - Stargazer (slightly more jam based, but I say it counts)
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Star One - It All Ends Here
Aryeon - Age of Shadows,   Dawn of a Million Souls,  Liquid Eternity,   Day 12: Trauma,   The Sixth Extinction (Pushing it on the multiple themes, but its still pretty coherent)
Theocracy - Laying the Demon to Rest
Dream Theater - Raise the Knife
Between the Buried and Me - Swim to the Moon (I realize this one is a bit of a stretch, but its one of the longest songs I know that has a legitimate chorus... it's also the only BTBAM song I can possibly include in this list.)
Kamelot - Memento Mori
 
 
Just to list a few. 

Prophet`s Song by Queen,Alexander The Great by Maiden plus any song of their last 2 albums!

Tool's 10,000 Days epic.

Would Green Carnation´s song "Light Of Day, Day of Darkness" fit in?
It ticks in at 60 minutes.....

Driving the Last Spike by Genesis (11 minutes)
 
Telegraph Road by Dire Straits (14 minutes)
 
Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits (8 minutes)
 
Shine on You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd (25 minutes)
 
Stream of Consciousness by Dream Theater (11 minutes)
 
All of these flow seamlessly, it seems to me. 

Xanadu and Natural Science by Rush

The Tori Amos masterpiece, "Yes, Anastasia" (9:33) 

Echoes by Pink Floyd

2112 by Rush
 
At the End of the Day by Spock's Beard and the other one which the name escapes me.

Dream Theater - Learning To Live
RUSH - Cygnus X-1 Book 2: Hemispheres
RUSH - The Camera Eye
RUSH - Xanadu
RUSH - Natural Science
 
 
Also, if ACoS is the example given for this topic I submit 2112 qualifies. ACoS is several different segments tied together by a common theme just as 2112 before it. 

Moon Safari - A Kid Called Panic; 13:56 and it has a proper chorus and everything.  And is effing awesome.
 
Xanadu by Rush is a good one too.

Anesthetize - all those sections fall in perfectly. Perfect transitions!

charles827


Anesthetize - all those sections fall in perfectly. Perfect transitions!

As awesome as Anesthetize is....I've never felt like it was a cohesive "song"...it feels more like three completely separate (though very awesome) unrelated ideas strung together.
 
Arriving Somewhere But Not Here feels more like an actual song to me than Anesthetize does. 

Thanks SeventhSon!
 

Lambo_Diablo_Svtt

Firewings

Blind Guardian - And Then There Was Silence

It's not 10 minutes, but not including Sacred Worlds is a crime. Incredible song.

I agree, but if I were to include songs less than 10 minutes but longer than 6-7, oh god, that would've taken me hours to type up

you'd have a better chance listing the dozens of songs 8 or more minutes, and then just removing the songs that sound like more blatant suites like Side B of Abbey Road.

Original poster: Do you mean epic, long songs that sort of have the structure of "normal" songs, just on a larger scale? To me, a song like Pink Floyd's Echoes is like that. It's really just kind of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle section-chorus, but every section is long and there are some long transitions. Or The Great Nothing by Spock's Beard. It establishes a strong chorus, repeats it a few times, kind of gets away from it, and then comes back to it in a HUGE, dramatic way in the end. That provides cohesion to me.

 

Whereas 2112 or Thick as a Brick, while still good songs IMO, are structurally quite different from "normal" songs.

^^ This

Io

Original poster: Do you mean epic, long songs that sort of have the structure of "normal" songs, just on a larger scale? To me, a song like Pink Floyd's Echoes is like that. It's really just kind of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle section-chorus, but every section is long and there are some long transitions. Or The Great Nothing by Spock's Beard. It establishes a strong chorus, repeats it a few times, kind of gets away from it, and then comes back to it in a HUGE, dramatic way in the end. That provides cohesion to me.

 

Whereas 2112 or Thick as a Brick, while still good songs IMO, are structurally quite different from "normal" songs.

Yeah, I'm talking about songs that aren't suites, aren't mostly instrumental noodling, and aren't arranged like a bunch of separate and unrelated ideas mashed up.  I'm not in any way invalidating works that are suite or mash ups, I personally love that type of musical exploration.  I'm curious about long songs that don't exhibit these cliche`s normally associated with long songs.  I'm also interested in the reason why some long songs are widely accepted, even by radio (like Stairway to Heaven), but others are shunned as tripe. 

ohhhh, I've got a good one:
 
"Scene from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel.

SeventhSon


ohhhh, I've got a good one:

"Scene from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel.

This is when the forum needs a "like" button...
 

SeventhSon

Io

Original poster: Do you mean epic, long songs that sort of have the structure of "normal" songs, just on a larger scale? To me, a song like Pink Floyd's Echoes is like that. It's really just kind of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle section-chorus, but every section is long and there are some long transitions. Or The Great Nothing by Spock's Beard. It establishes a strong chorus, repeats it a few times, kind of gets away from it, and then comes back to it in a HUGE, dramatic way in the end. That provides cohesion to me.

 

Whereas 2112 or Thick as a Brick, while still good songs IMO, are structurally quite different from "normal" songs.

Yeah, I'm talking about songs that aren't suites, aren't mostly instrumental noodling, and aren't arranged like a bunch of separate and unrelated ideas mashed up.  I'm not in any way invalidating works that are suite or mash ups, I personally love that type of musical exploration.  I'm curious about long songs that don't exhibit these cliche`s normally associated with long songs.  I'm also interested in the reason why some long songs are widely accepted, even by radio (like Stairway to Heaven), but others are shunned as tripe. 

 
 
In that case ACoS does not fit as it's mostly instrumental noodling with several separate, distinguishable segments. 

Speeding Wheels

In that case ACoS does not fit as it's mostly instrumental noodling with several separate, distinguishable segments. 

Interesting because I hear that song as one very long, but consistent, piece with a constant musical and lyrical theme.  But, I can also see your point of view because it doesn't have a distinct arrangement that is easily identifiable.  For whatever reason though I picture it as a long *song* in my head, not a suite or a vehicle for senseless noodling.    

There's a lot that's open to interpretation here. What constitutes "instrumental noodling"? How long is "long"? etc.

I would cite Close to the Edge, And You and I, The Revealing Science of God, The Remembering, Ritual, and Gates of Delirium, and Awaken by Yes. All clock in at longer than 15 minutes, and all seem like cohesive "songs" to me. Each has sections of various lengths that could be called "instrumental noodling" (and I left the Ancient off this list for that reason), but can't most guitar solos be considered "instrumental noodling"?

Also, Halloween and Keeper of the Seven Keys by Helloween (each is 13+ minutes).

Pirates by ELP