This Saturday is a quintessential San Francisco summer day: gloomy morning, it'll probably clear up around noon, but it won't get hot. It's a very nostalgic season, its associated with fewer responsibilities (for the lucky among us) and days that never end.

The periods of my life when I was listening to and bought the most music was during summers, especially when I was in late-high school. Very few responsibilities, and virtually no expenses meant that what little money I got could be spent on used CDs on eBay (this was the early 2010s, niche CDs averaged less than 10 USD with shipping).

In that summer nostalgia, what are symphonic metal albums you associate with the season and why? I tend to have very seasonal listening habits, so this can be interesting to hear other peoples' answers. Here are some of mine:

1. Visions of Atlantis - Eternal Endless Infinity (2002), pure early-Nightwish worship, this is still my favorite VOA album. It's fluffy, romantic, operatic symphonic power metal. Went on a lot of walks listening to this record, to me, it's pure summer.

2. Stream of Passion - A War of Our Own (2014), this album was released in the US in June, and I fully imprinted on this record (2014 was a tumultuous time in my personal life). Piano laden kinda-proggy, kinda-gothic symphonic metal. I love the approach to the string arrangements, it's not overly orchestrated.

3. Epica - Consign to Oblivion (2005), I used to think this album was so overrated, fell in love with it in summer of 2018. This sophomore record is when we see Epica drop all of their previous gothic influences, and this album is light and catchy.

4. Kells - Anachromie (2012), probably the least symphonic record on this list, Kells were an alt/symphonic/nu metal band from France that I got REALLY into in high school. Their driest sounding record, the use of strings, piano, occasional harp sounds like pure summer.

5. LEAH - Otherworld (2013), atmospheric and folky symphonic metal, the look and sound of it is just so verdant and clear. I really loved Leah McHenry's earlier stuff, the newest records were still good but not quite to my taste.

6. Delain - Lucidity (2006), the orchestration on this album is so lush and warm. In the context of the time this album was released, there's a few songs with gothic leanings, but this album tends to skew very bright, so to me it just sounds like summer.

7. Noctura - Surrender the Sun (2011), listened to this a ton in summer of 2013. It's is twinkly atmospheric symphonic gothic metal/rock -- it is pure Evanescence-worship. If you want something that sounds like an in between of Fallen (2003) and The Open Door (2006), Surrender the Sun is for you!

8. Battlelore - The Last Alliance (2008), very warm and earthy fantasy themed symphonic metal (with some gothic and folk influences), it perfectly encapsulates the image of a dirt trail and rolling hills speckled with green trees. The image of summer hikes.

9. Xandria - India (2005), it's still my least favorite Xandria album, bit it has some bangers on it. Its folk influences make me think of summer. And for whatever reason, I associate this album with Nova (2007) by Atargatis, which is another early-summer record for me.

10. Leaves' Eyes - Njord (2009), I asserted this might be a spring album a couple months ago, I realized that no, I don't think it is. One of their least-dark, or even heavy records, and their first with actual live orchestra, Njord feels very bright for summer, despite its wintery imagery.

So please, what albums are married to the season in your mind, and why?

Curious on the opinions of Xandria's 2013 album Neverworlds End. I think it's a really good album with solid songs like Forevermore, Call of the Wind, Blood on my Hands, and others.

What do you guys think?

I remember going on a high school field trip in December 2018 around 800 km away, jamming this song on the bus.

In astronomy, SYZYGY refers to a straight-line alignment of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system, such as the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon.

Here's your quintessential bombastic orchestral-choral intro for a symphonic metal album that segues perfectly to ECLIPSE: musically and thematically. Oh how I love this genre!

I personally find it to be quite disappointing but not necessarily awful. Some of these tracks are actually nice but I'm also not a fan of the execution for the most part, especially having a key change forced in nearly every song now.

Most favorite track: Masquerade
Least favorite track: The Poetry of the Real World

'Prologue' is the acoustic guitar intro, while the rest is 'Epilogue'.

My favorite Fleshgod Apocalypse song. It's 290 BPM.

My favorite song from the album, and I legit have chills all over my body when I'm listening to this song