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- Chris Chantler
- Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes (1998) Iced Earth’s first four albums were more complex, but Jon Schaffer’s tech-thrash chops and Matt Barlow’s dramatic pipes reach their pinnacle on this more direct offering.
- Virgin Steele - The House Of Atreus Act II (2000) Subtitled ‘A Barbaric-Romantic Opera’ - and actually staged as musical theatre (in Germany) - the New Yorkers’ 10th album is the conclusion of their retelling of Aeschylus’s Greek tragedies, a monument to total conviction and obsessive zeal.
- Queensryche - The Warning (1984) Before conquering the mainstream with Operation: Mindcrime, Seattle’s prog-metal pioneers had a precociously firm grasp on their own brand of high-tech, visionary power metal, evident in the bravura dramatics of Geoff Tate’s voice and the dark, pensive arrangements.
- Cirith Ungol - King Of The Dead (1984) These Tolkien-indebted Californians formed as early as 1971, embracing the 80s metal revolution on versatile 1981 debut Frost & Fire.
- Helloween, 'Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II' (1988) The second installment on Helloween’s ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys’ series built upon everything the band had laid out in the previous year.
- Blind Guardian, 'Imaginations From the Other Side' (1995) Blind Guardian helped to further define the power metal style throughout the ‘90s with standouts like ‘Imaginations From the Other Side.’
- Helloween, 'Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part I' (1987) With Kai Hansen resigning from double duty, focusing on just guitar, Helloween landed on the uber young Michael Kiske as their new frontman.
- Gamma Ray, 'Land of the Free' (1995) Kai Hansen is one of power metal’s most revered musicians, renowned for his neoclassical playing and lovable nasal-toned singing.
- Nocturnal Rites – Grand Illusion
- Dragonforce – Inhuman Rampage
- Riot – Thundersteel
- Sonata Arctica – Winterheart’S Guild
- Hammerfall – Glory to The Brave
- Stratovarius – Visions
- Lost Horizon – Awakening The World
- Kamelot – Epica
- Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle Earth
- Helloween – Keeper of The Seven Keys Part II
Unsung heroes of European power metal, Nocturnal Rites had two secret weapons: (a) the gloriously soulful and distinctive voice of Jonny Lindkvist and (b) better songs than everyone else. You could pick any of the Swedes’ eight albums, but Grand Illusionmarginally outstrips the rest, not least because it showcased a heartfelt desire to modernise th...
Purists may sneer at the idea that Dragonforce have more to give than remorseless speed and cheddary lyrics, but Inhuman Rampage didn’t become globally successful by accident. For all their goofiness, the UK-based international crew nailed their unique, breakneck take on power metal’s sonic rudiments in style here, and songs like Through The Fire A...
Long before the term ‘power metal’ was co-opted by the post-Helloween set, New York trad metal veterans Riot were chucking their own two-cents into the genre’s gustatory juices. Thundersteelis a flat-out power metal insurgence, brimming with blistering leads, clattering kicks and vocal notes so high that only dogs can hear them. Maybe. Either way, ...
Power metal’s detractors generally decry the genre as cheesy nonsense, and it’s hard to deny that they have a point. However, the best way forward is to fully embrace le fromage, and Sonata Arctica’s wonderfully bright-eyed and Disney-tinged sing-alongs amount to the heavy metal dairy farm’s twinkling zenith. Winterheart’s Guildremains their finest...
More than any other band, Hammerfalldeserve credit for kick-starting the power metal explosion of the mid-to-late 90s. When this, their debut, emerged in 1997, it seemed like a stirring reclamation on old school metal values, albeit with a sugary melodic streak a mile wide. Many bands have improved on the Swedes’ formula, but this blueprint still s...
Finland’s premier power metal mavens formed in the late 80s but it was almost a decade later that they really hit their stride, perhaps buoyed by a sense that the world was beginning to come round to their bombastic way of thinking. Visionsis simply a classic power metal record: preposterous, slick, immaculate and bursting with killer tunes.
One of those lost classics that should have been far more successful than it was, Lost Horizon’s debut album offered explosive power metal that was giddy on steroids and cosmic wonderment. Packing a devastating punch and making their contemporaries sound a bit weedy in the process, the likes of Sworn In The Metal Wind and Welcome Backstill sound ri...
For many, the connoisseur’s power metal standard bearers; Kamelot have been America’s greatest exponents of the genre for 25 years. Their first concept album, Epicaencapsulates everything that these diehard virtuosos do well, including countless euphoric vocal refrains, symphonic bluster and eye-watering (but oddly accessible) technicality. A gleam...
Arguably the genre’s most popular exponents, Blind Guardian have always been noticeably heavier and more adventurous than the vast majority of their peers. Their sixth album remains their most quintessentially power metal statement: a 66-minute concept piece based on Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, it’s a wildly cinematic and absorbing triumph for ambi...
Inadvertently inventing the modern notion of what power metal is all about, Helloween were righteously huge in the late ‘80s and it was this, their legendary third album, that sealed the deal. From immortal anthems like Eagle Fly Free, Dr. Stein and I Want Out to the epic journey of the title track, Keeper Part 2has been highly influential and stil...
- Sacred Outcry – Damned for All Time. [Cover artwork: George Apalodimas] Without question, there are an infinite amount of cases similar to what Greece’s Sacred Outcry endured regarding their debut full-length, but very few are lucky enough to have a comparable positive outcome resulting in a triumph as significant as Damned for All Time.
- Goldenhall – Collide. [Cover artwork: Claudio Bergamín] The fact that a year as dreadful as 2020 decided to provide two remarkable power metal albums equally deserving of the top spot seems every bit as fortuitous as it is unjust.
- Seven Spires – Emerald Seas. [Cover artwork: Junki Sakuraba] The second band on this year’s list to bring a substantial level of theatricality to the table is Boston’s Seven Spires.
- Unleash the Archers – Abyss. [Cover artwork: Adam Burke] Hello, I am an idiot. Perhaps you’re already aware of this, but in case you need further proof related to power metal, consider the fact that I have Unleash the Archer’s Abyss in my number four spot after saying this approximately three months ago
Sep 13, 2020 · Symphony X – The Divine Wings of Tragedy. Year of release: 1997. Label: Zero Corporation. Symphony X is famous for being one of the most progressively-oriented power metal bands that dominated ...
Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contrast with the heaviness and dissonance prevalent in, for example, extreme metal.
