I guess I'll be the only one here to mention these guys.
Blind Guardian
Dream Theater
Rhapsody
Stratovarius
Lost Horizon
Iced Earth
Manowar
Etc...
I love it all. The bigger the sound, the better. Choirs, screaming guitars, relentless machine gun percussion, orchestras, and soaring opratic vocals. All in one song.:victory:
Those boys from Strawberry hill got the fanciful, lyrically loopy, classicly inspired many instrumented thing going, though. And they still sound good today. From the early sixties to the present, they played to crouds all over the world. Their sound hasn't really changed much, but it has evolved with technology. More recently, they have gone back to their roots with acoustic versions of many of their past hits.
Expect instruments commonly found in bluegrass and classical music creating sounds that swim together with the lyrics to form some esoterical form of rock that is mainly soft and melodeous, but on occasion rises with power rivaling anything else out there. Their ability to convey an emotion and alter your mood to accept a feeling is, in my opinion, unrivaled.
I strongly suggest any of you posessing a legal download service to try them out, if not, buy a CD, try that pandora music thing, or visit strawbsweb for teasing little clips of recent live shows. You just might become hooked, as I did.
Cheers,
Kennith
i saw them live once just before they split. Fleur was absolutely amazing on the fiddle. 
