The Power Metal Thread

I was listening to some of their songs yesterday, they're pretty good.

I bought Unia recently for the cover of Out In the Fields, only to find out when I got it that the seller had incorrectly stated it as a bonus track (It's only on the Japanese copies).

After reading through this thread, some power metal bands that I like but have not seen mentioned are (and I'm not saying they are the best or anything, just that I personally listen to them more than I do other bands of this genre):
--Dungeon (australia)
--Galloglass
--Feinstein (Third Wish)
Any fthoughts from fans or haters?

Dungeon is a good one. I find Galloglass a little too samey.

Lari wrote:

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.

they are. SA has never come close to matching them and with the direction the band is going now I stopped buying their material.

TheNazgul wrote:

Dungeon is a good one. I find Galloglass a little too samey.

If you want to get some Galloglass get Heavenseeker. It is not even remotely original but it is fun. Dungeon didnt do much for me.

random thoughts...

'Ecliptica', great album, if someone is looking to get into and understand that sort of thing, that's one of the albums I'd point to. 'Silence'? Not so much. 'Silence' to me is like all the bad things about the debut, amplified a hundredfold, and giving flower-metal-hating-obsessed people about a dozen barrels of gunpowder. I never, ever got the praise for that one. 'Silence', 90% of it, THAT is 'flower metal'. Sorryyyy..


Galloglass..Sweet name...dragon is too much like Blind Guardian's...... songs didn't catch me, but that's too bad because I want to be able to say, 'Galloglass, I like that band'. Isn't that an awesome band name? Yep..

exact33 wrote:

Lari wrote:

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.

they are. SA has never come close to matching them and with the direction the band is going now I stopped buying their material.

I agree. I now hate SA. They've morphed into some kind of prog band and it just doesn't work for me.

I heard something from their newest one and it was god-awful. No huge huge loss, since I haven't been able to get past Tony's accent on roughly 50% of their material anyway, but yeah.

I was working in my yard today with my MP3 player on and one of the tracks that came up on "random" was Sonata Arctica's version of "Still Loving You".

All I could think was "What happened to this band?". They took a Scorpions song that I find to be "uber-lame" and totally made it rock. I especially enjoy the "evile" laugh after the song starts just like the original then changes into a rocking tune.

That's the SA I used to love.

I think they butchered 'I Want Out' but the Scorpions cover was cool.

I thought the cover of I Want Out wasn't too bad. The Scorpions cover is brilliant, they really made it their own. They've covered Fade To Black and Die With Your Boots On as well. It's all on the Takatalvi EP they released last year. I like their cover of Out In the Fields too, but it's only available on the Paid In Full single and as a Unia bonus track.

Flag In the Ground is the only decent track i've heard from their new one so far.

Lari wrote:

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.

*sniffle*
This makes me sad

Rhapsody is fantastic

MetalFRO wrote:

Lari wrote:

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.

*sniffle*
This makes me sad

Rhapsody is fantastic

I like Rhapsody too but their last one was pretty miserable. I am not holding out a lot of hope because, like manowar, they have gone all operatic and forgotten its metal.

Any of you have Mob Rules? What do you think?

TheNazgul wrote:

Any of you have Mob Rules? What do you think?

I have owned some of the mob rules stuff and never thought much of them until I got Radical Peace. This albums rocks!!! It is by far the best thing they have done.

I will introduce 2 bands into the thread that I don't know that I've seen mentioned.....


Beginning with: Labyrinth, a band a lot of power and prog/power fans would do well to delve into...




'In the Shade' which is off the debut 'No Limits'.. 'No Limits' came out in 1996 and as far as I know the closest thing to it is some select Stratovarius and later period Fates Warning stuff... this album has an extremely well mixed blend of what people would call 'power' and 'prog', and takes delicious risks with the dark, smoky feel present throughout, and the unique electronic influence. Also Fabio Lione's debut on vocals, and though one could still call him an acquired taste, he soars.




'Lady Lost In Time'..off of 'Return To Heaven Denied'. I believe by this time it's important to point out that in a lot of power metal bands that employ speed, keyboards or both, there isn't 'floweriness' in it that attracts me...if it spoke to me that way, I wouldn't be into it......I enjoy this music because of the diversity on another emotional spectrum that it tends to traverse...I like balance and variety in my music. So we come to 'Return to Heaven Denied'.. which is one of my favorite albums BECAUSE: 1. The longing, soaring, romantically tinged atmosphere that everything about this album conjures up is very big and very personal to me. 2. Rob Tyrant on vocals is monstrous in his technique and emotive resonance, 3. Melodically, the Labyrinth approach is unique, they are neoclassical without sounding stuffy or derivative, they are proggy without fear, they are melodic, hook-laden, and full of guitars that riff, shred, and weep with equal intensity. This track is a great example of what the album has to offer.




'Slave to the Night' which is off the self-titled..one of the more straightforward songs there.....the self-titled album has loads of crunchy guitar, more experimental keys that are less 'in your face' as the orthodox standard seems to be, and song structures that feel more utterly alive than a lot of material on their other albums. Rob unleashes a glass shattering scream at mid-point, and he goes even higher live.




next, Vanishing Point. Vanishing Point may not be as accessible to metalheads as Labyrinth because there are less guitars, but they may be more accessible to melodic rock or AOR fans. Sound confusing? Many times this band takes an approach which I usually don't care for too much, which is making the rhythm guitar pretty basic, but the band does not often make you feel like anything is 'missing' because at their core, Vanishing Point writes fairly simplistic material influenced by sorrowful and soaring classic hard rock, glitzed up by the grandeur and volume of modern melodic metal. Vanishing Point also has one of my favorite vocalists in the form of a fine baritone/tenor Silvio Massaro, and for you Australian people, you have no choice but to like them.





'Samsara', from the second album 'Tangled in Dream'..Now, again, how what something like this is expressing can be seen as 'flowery' or 'ga-hey' is beyond me, but in any case, here's a good example of something from this period of the band. At this point, VP had yet to embrace the amount of faster power metal style they would later incorporate, and while that has yielded some of their best work, the experimentation in it's place on this album and their debut is wonderfully tasty. FYI: Sonata Arctica has covered 'Two Minds, One Soul', which is from this album, and NO, it is not better...it's mechanical, ineffective, flowery, and Kakko does not carry the weight of Silvio in his performance.




'Once A Believer' off of 'Embrace the Silence'...the newer approach is instantly evident, but so is the fact this just has some of the best ... everything the band has presented thus far. I wanted to find 'If Only I' instead, initially', but this will do just fine.




'A Day of Difference' from 'The Fourth Season'...a throwback in some ways, as well as an amazing song that introduces some great variety in their fourth album. Yeah, Peter O' Toole samples FTW also.

I have heard plenty of Labyrinth on my LASTFM station and to be honest the more I hear of them the more I can see myself liking this but it just doesnt stick right away. The songs with speed are not for me as I like my power metal groovy not speedy. The songs withthe more mid tempo melodic pace excel.

As far as Vanishing Point I think these guys have the potential especially in the atmosphere of their music. Sometimes they tend to drag songs out too much and they almost become too boring. I like these guys more then Labyrinth as they are a little more melodic and slower tempo.

Two good bands but nothing I would go out searching for.

MetalRob331 wrote:

I have heard plenty of Labyrinth on my LASTFM station and to be honest the more I hear of them the more I can see myself liking this but it just doesnt stick right away. The songs with speed are not for me as I like my power metal groovy not speedy. The songs withthe more mid tempo melodic pace excel.

The album you want is very definitely 'Freeman', then..very evolved midtempo sound there most all the way through...'Dive in Open Waters' is fast, but it's awesome. I think for people like me who do love fast fast fast as well, they have some of the absolute best out there.

MetalRob331 wrote:

As far as Vanishing Point I think these guys have the potential especially in the atmosphere of their music. Sometimes they tend to drag songs out too much and they almost become too boring. I like these guys more then Labyrinth as they are a little more melodic and slower tempo.

That's my only complaint about 'Embrace the Silence'...one or two songs just sort of felt like fragments of the others, where they dragged. That's one reason they should experiment more with the guitars again...that problem wasn't there in the early stuff...but the tradeoff is they had slightly less outstanding songs per album..

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

The album you want is very definitely 'Freeman', then..very evolved midtempo sound there most all the way through...'Dive in Open Waters' is fast, but it's awesome. I think for people like me who do love fast fast fast as well, they have some of the absolute best out there.

I will have to look into this album then....

One band I have found myself getting into is Freedom Call... They have the perfect mix of melody and aggression and know when to punch you in the face as well. Their album Eternity has some of the most powerful choruses in all of power metal.