The Power Metal Thread

TheNazgul wrote:

Pretty good definitions. The problem is trying to narrow it down. Take a band like Ravage. I've seen them labeled as thrash. pm, and NWOBHM and I hear all three.

Yes, bands like that are a hybrid. Another good example of a hyrbid band is Wolf. And even Ultimatum.

exact33 wrote:

Metallic Blaze wrote:

Personally, I love both kinds of power metal almost equally. Though I'd give the slight edge to the Euro style. I love the melody.

melody is what does it for me too. I like power metal a lot. I think it might be my favorite style but i love prog and kraut/space rock an awful lot too.

Cool man. Yeah, I know you and I have the power metal brethren ring in common!

Here's one of my favorite 'newer' power metal songs!

Nightwish is another hybrid band (many bands are nowadays). They mix elements of symphonic metal, gothic metal and power metal!

This is why they are one of my favorite bands. I dare you to listen to it.

If you do ... and do not like it ... you're probably not much of a power metal fan. Or you're prejudice against women.

Both conditions are wrong.

And for the record, here are my top 20 favorite power metal bands:


1. Pagan's Mind
2. Avantasia
3. Nocturnal Rites
4. Hammerfall
5. Secret Sphere
6. Metal Church (80s only!!!)
7. Manowar
8. Virgin Steele
9. Brainstorm
10. Nightwish
11. Kamelot
12. Sonata Arctica
13. Cryonic Temple
14. Blind Guardian
15. Iced Earth
16. Helloween
17. Stratovarius
18. Silent Force
19. Heavenly
20. Vision Divine

And this is my top twenty power metal records:

1. Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian
1. Fates Warning - The Spectre Within
3. Heir Apparent - Graceful Inheritance
4. Manowar - Into Glory Ride
5. Manilla Road - Crystal Logic
6. Brocas Helm - Black Death
7. Cloven Hoof - A Sultan's Ransom
8. Warlord - And the Cannons of Destruction have begun
9. Cauldron Born - Born of the Cauldron
10. Recon - Behind Enemy Lines
11. Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction
12. Savage Grace - Master of Disguise
13. Satan - Court in the Act
14. Metal Church - Metal Church
15. Satan's Host - Metal From Hell
16. Virgin Steele - Invictus
17. Blind Fury - Out of Reach
18. Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory
19. Thunder Rider - Tales of Darkness and Light
20. Omen - Battle Cry

Metallic Blaze wrote:

And for the record, here are my top 20 favorite power metal bands:


1. Pagan's Mind
2. Avantasia
3. Nocturnal Rites
4. Hammerfall
5. Secret Sphere
6. Metal Church (80s only!!!)
7. Manowar
8. Virgin Steele
9. Brainstorm
10. Nightwish
11. Kamelot
12. Sonata Arctica
13. Cryonic Temple
14. Blind Guardian
15. Iced Earth
16. Helloween
17. Stratovarius
18. Silent Force
19. Heavenly
20. Vision Divine

good list! Ill have to compile mine sometime...

I think MB's definitions are pretty good. I love the melody of the Euro kind and the heaviness of the American kind.

Cage = best example of American Powermetal (in my book).

Metallic Blaze wrote:

Here's one of my favorite 'newer' power metal songs!

Nightwish is another hybrid band (many bands are nowadays). They mix elements of symphonic metal, gothic metal and power metal!

This is why they are one of my favorite bands. I dare you to listen to it.

If you do ... and do not like it ... you're probably not much of a power metal fan. Or you're prejudice against women.

Both conditions are wrong.

I fail to see what all the whoop-de-doo is about this band. I bought one of their CDs a while ago to see what all the hype was about... sounded like Stratovarius had a love child with the chick from Lacuna Coil. I like Strato (to a degree) and I like LC but the combo of the two didn't do much for me.

Metallic Blaze wrote:

And for the record, here are my top 20 favorite power metal bands:


1. Pagan's Mind
2. Avantasia
3. Nocturnal Rites
4. Hammerfall
5. Secret Sphere
6. Metal Church (80s only!!!)
7. Manowar
8. Virgin Steele
9. Brainstorm
10. Nightwish
11. Kamelot
12. Sonata Arctica
13. Cryonic Temple
14. Blind Guardian
15. Iced Earth
16. Helloween
17. Stratovarius
18. Silent Force
19. Heavenly
20. Vision Divine

Pagans Mind is a top 3 band of mine, amazing band. 95% Progressive 5% Power

MetalRob331 wrote:

Pagans Mind is a top 3 band of mine, amazing band. 95% Progressive 5% Power

Yeah I agree. That's why I sold the PM disc I bought; way too prog for me.

Good list. I would say though, spend more time with 90's Metal Church, especially Hanging In The Balance.

And MB, Helloween is way too low on that list.

tohostudios wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

Pagans Mind is a top 3 band of mine, amazing band. 95% Progressive 5% Power

Yeah I agree. That's why I sold the PM disc I bought; way too prog for me.

They focus more on melody and songwriting then most prog bands. They keep the noodling to a minimum.

tohostudios wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

Pagans Mind is a top 3 band of mine, amazing band. 95% Progressive 5% Power

Yeah I agree. That's why I sold the PM disc I bought; way too prog for me.

I really tried to like PM but I would rather listen to Circus Maximus any day.

I like power metal. Savatage is just about my favourite band ever. And Iced Earth and about a million German bands.

I didn't originally like keyboards in my metal. That was like back when I was only into the older sound of Maiden and Priest and Megadeth. I first warmed up to them in 97 when Stratovarius released Visions. That is a just perfect record. Now I don't mind keyboards and enjoy pretty much every kind of metal. And Timo Tolkki was teh smurf poo in Finland after that. He was voted 'best guitarist' several years in a row.

Axxis is among my favourites. Real great melodic metal band. Only the post 2000 material is 'power metal', but there's some insane hooks in their songs. A bit like Pink Cream 69. But a unique sound nonetheless. My wife hates them.

MetallicBlaze mentioned Nightwish and I've been a big fan since Wishmaster. I originally shied away from the band because of the (then fat) chick singing, but after hearing Wishmaster I was sold on them. Great music, epic, fast, melodic... I like the new vocalist too. Actually Tarja's operetic vocals kind of annoyed me most of the time. Wishmaster is still my favourite album though. The operetic singing works quite well there because of the sheer power in the music. The post-Wishmaster stuff is hardly power metal anymore, at least it's not as insane fast, but it's still good.

On the thrashier side I love Angel Dust. They're supposed to have a new album out soon... but they've said that the past six years, so I ain't holding my breath. Mystic Prophecy is a more recent favourite. I've been picking up their back catalogue this year. Would love to see either band live. I really enjoyed the album Deception of Pain by the Mystic Prophecy vocalist R.D. Liapakis' former band Valley's Eve, too. I've also ordered Mercury Tide's (Angel Dust's Dirk Thurish's project band) album Why?.

Blind Guardian was among the first metal bands I got into. I love their 90's albums. Imaginations from the Other Side is the best album ever! Twilight World, Far Beyond and Nightfall are also spectacular. I'm going to do a Blind Guardian discography thread at some point.

Let me think of more obscure stuff. From new bands, I got into Machine Men after seeing them first in 2004. I've been following them since. I have all their albums and I've been catching them live every several times already.

Machine Men - No Talk Without the Giant

The vocalist is a Bruce Dickinson clone, and the sound is also quite close to his solo material.

Another Finnish band - Downfall. They only have one album, but it was quite good. Downfall - Dark Parade

I can't believe I didn't mention Gamma Ray, Helloween, Rage or any of the others. But I guess everyone likes them anyway, so no need to bring them up. Rage is somewhat new to me though. I had Perfect Man for the longest time before exploring them more. In the last year I've collected most of their albums.

I just saw Gamma Ray a couple of weeks back. I have a huge mancrush on Kai Hansen. Great band, great songs. I love all their material from Land of the Free onward. Kai introduced the title track from the new album "This is not a tribute, this IS the greatest song in the world". A Tenacious D reference, but that made me think they actually do sound like what Tenacious D WANTS to sound like. Or, let me rephrase, Tenacious D is a loony band thinking they sound something like Gamma Ray, when in fact they play most their stuff accoustic. Anyway, the show was awesome.

Power metal bands I DON'T like. Rhapsody - not ballsy enough and I can't stand the vocalist Fabio Leone. I got suckered into buying their album Symphony of Enchanted Lands ("you MUST hear it, it's AWESOME!") back when it was new, and then AGAIN into buying Dawn of Victory, after I heard "it's much better and heavier and AWESOME!" enough times. They are both terrible, in my opinion. I have one of Luca Turilli's solo albums and I think that's much better, if only for the fact there's no Fabio Leone. Addition by deduction.

Another band I don't like - Hammerfall. The second coming of heavy metal in Scandinavia! Bleh. Generic bland by-the-numbers metal with a whiney vocalist. Manowar owns these guys, and I don't even like Manowar. I still own a copy of Legacy of Kings though. There's a couple of okay tunes.

A few more - Wizard, Primal Fear, Kamelot... actually there's a million (mostly German and Finnish) power metal groups I cannot get into. I am not an innovation freak or demanding bands to re-invent the wheel, but I think a band needs at least some identity and a bit of a unique sound to be relevant. 90% of the european scene lacks it.

I think I wrote enough for one post. And I lost my train of thought anyway. I was supposed to talk about my love for power metal.

I absolutely agree with you about Rhapsody.

Nightwish used to be one of my favorite bands. Like Lari, "Wishmaster" is still my favorite.

But Tuomas' penchant for writing bloated, self-indulgent songs has just gotten out of control.

And for me, Tarja's operatic vocals were what separated the band from all the other female-fronted bands doing basically the same thing. Annette's not bad but she's also not distinctive IMO.

Generic vocalist + self-indulgent songwriting = me no longer liking Nightwish.

TheNazgul wrote:

I absolutely agree with you about Rhapsody.

Rhapsody shreds, Manowar begs!

scottmitchell74 wrote:

I think MB's definitions are pretty good. I love the melody of the Euro kind and the heaviness of the American kind.

Cage = best example of American Powermetal (in my book).

Cage is the American incarnation of Judas Priest/Halford!

Metallic Blaze wrote:

And for the record, here are my top 20 favorite power metal bands:


1. Pagan's Mind 10/10
2. Avantasia 10/10
3. Nocturnal Rites 9.5/10
4. Hammerfall 9.75/10
5. Secret Sphere 9/10
6. Metal Church (80s only!!!) 10/10
7. Manowar 9/10
8. Virgin Steele 9.5/10
9. Brainstorm 9.5/10
10. Nightwish 9.5/10
11. Kamelot 5/10
12. Sonata Arctica 7.5/10
13. Cryonic Temple 9.5/10
14. Blind Guardian 9/10
15. Iced Earth 9.75/10
16. Helloween 9/10
17. Stratovarius 10/10
18. Silent Force 9.75/10
19. Heavenly 9.5/10
20. Vision Divine 8.5/10

my list of power metal albums:

1. Keldian Heavens Gate 2007 Perris Records
2. Sonata Arctica Ecliptica 2000 Century Media Records
3. Bloodbound Nosferatu 2006 Metal Heaven Records
4. Grave Digger Tunes of War 1996 GUN Records
5. Hammerfall Legacy of Kings 1998 Nuclear Blast Records
6. Falconer Falconer 2001 Metal Blade Records
7. Masterplan Masterplan 2003 AFM REcords
8. Helloween The Keeper of the Seven Keys 2 1988 NOISE Records
9. Gamma Ray Land of the Free 1995 NOISE Records
10. Luca Turilli King of the Nordic Twilight 1999 LMP
11. Edguy Theater of Salvation 1999 AFM Records
12. Cryonic Temple Blood Guts and Glory 2003 Limb
13. Brainstorm Liquid Monster 2005 Metal Blade Records
14. Iron Savior Condition Red +2 2002 Noise Records
15. Angra Angels Cry 1999 Century Media Records
16. Freedom Call Crystal Empire 2001 C.B.H. Records
17. Blind Guardian Nightfall in Middle Earth 1998 Century Media Records
18. Running Wild Black Hand Inn 1994 FAD Records
19. Primal Fear Nuclear Fire 2001 Victor Records
20. Sabaton Primo Victoria 2005 Black Lodge Records
21. Iced Earth Something Wicked Comes this Way 1998 Century Media Records
22. Legend Maker The Path to Glory 1997 Sentinel Steel Records
23. Silent Force Infatuator 2001 Insideout Music
24. Avantasia The Metal Opera 2001 Century Media Records
25. Guardians of Time Machines of Mental Design 2003 Facefront Records

so I guess I should contribute but don't know where to begin or what would be a worthwhile addition after these couple pages, so someone give me an idea. I can write a *lot* about a whole entire genre the way this thread is and don't want to bore people.

exact33 wrote:

my list of power metal albums:
2. Sonata Arctica Ecliptica 2000 Century Media Records

Those first two Sonata Arctica albums were pretty awesome.

And how about Children of Bodom's Follow the Reaper. That's like European power metal with growl vocals.

Quote :

Wizard

I really like this band as well.

I like this song would this fit as "power metal"

Very much so. I hear a little Nocturnal Rites and the singer is fairly distinctive.