i\'m not a big fan of the melodic sort of gothic metal stuff. within temptation\'s singer doesn\'t have a very appealing voice to me, it seems sort of like it\'s not very strong and doesn\'t fit very well. i do like dragonforce a little, but that\'s about it. for gothic metal/symphonic metal i enjoy mostly only virgin black, but they have more doom influence. i am glad though that bands like these are becoming more of what people think of when they think of this type of music, rather than evanescence. ben moody was a good guitarist, and rocky was a better guitarist than a drummer, i liked his stuff in living sacrifice and soul embraced. basically, i appreciate the music, but don\'t like it at the same time. oh wait, i like slechtvalk. they had a female vocalist who did a lot of classical style voicing.