10 Favorite Power Metal Albums

[Blind Guardian]

^Totally forgot about Wuthering Heights,Far From The Madding Crowd is a masterpiece in my opinion.
Also,Elvenking. Haven´t heard that much since they changed their singer or whatever,from the newer songs i´ve heard they aren´t as good,but "Heathenreel" is probably among my 10 favorite records of all time regardless of genre.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Everything else except the first demo and Heathenreel by Elvenking is varying degrees of utter shit.

 

[Einherjar86]

Virgin Steele - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, pt 1 & 2
Virgin Steele - The House Of Atreus, pt 1 & 2

Finally someone else mentions Virgin Steele. I'm surprised that I don't hear them mentioned more on this forum, especially among the Manowar fans.

 

[blood_drunk]

Blind Guardian - Tales from the Twilight World
Lost Horizon - both albums
Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings
Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica
Evergrey - Recreation Day
Evergrey - Monday Morning Apocalypse
Dragonforce - Valley Of The Damned
Avantasia - The Metal Opera pt. I & II

no particular order..

and please stop to include stuff like Ensiferum and Children of Bodom in power metal. They're everything but power metal

 

[rms]

Finally someone else mentions Virgin Steele. I'm surprised that I don't hear them mentioned more on this forum, especially among the Manowar fans.

Saw them at PPUSA last year...put me to sleep haha

@guy who mentioned Dalriada, pretty sure they are viking/folk metal

 

[Hypnos]

^^i see them as folky power metal. not very viking at all

 

[Einherjar86]

Symphony X - Paradise Lost

Is this a good record?

 

[The Ozzman]

Is this a good record?

Yes.

 

[Anaon]

Is this a good record?

It depends on many things I really don't find it's the best Symphony X album...

A lot of stuff here sound more to me as symphonic metal than power metal...

Anyone could define what is power metal?

 

[rms]

Is this a good record?

Its the same as the Odyssey without the odyssey song

 

[waif]

The Odyssey is kinda mediocre, imo...

 

[Anaon]

The Odyssey is kinda mediocre, imo...

+1

Hard to carry on after the great V - The New Mythology!!

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Anyone could define what is power metal?

Focus on traditional melody, galloping sections, epic songwriting which focuses on fanfare and...well, being epic. Power metal is nothing without the overdramatic melodies and saccharine-ness. This goes for CoB too.

 

[waif]

I need to get Divine Wings of Tragedy, tbh

 

[waif]

Focus on traditional melody, galloping sections, epic songwriting which focuses on fanfare and...well, being epic. Power metal is nothing without the overdramatic melodies and saccharine-ness. This goes for CoB too.

vocals are usually high male operatic or falsetto-y. Frequent use of group vocals and choirs. Keyboards and orchestration are common. Lyrics topics tend to focus on fantansy/sci fi topics, lots of stuff about swords, quests, and dragons.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Vocals and lyrical styles don't matter, as with any genre and as evidenced by you-know-who

It's all about how bands structure the music, in every genre. But you are very right about constructing songs in a very orchestral way a lot of the time, despite not using an orchestra or even emulating one.

 

[rms]

its the galloping and long solos/epic choruses that make power metal

epic being symphonies and shit

 

[Einherjar86]

I'd also throw "anthemic" in there to describe the choruses.

 

[waif]

Vocals and lyrical styles don't matter, as with any genre and as evidenced by you-know-who

It's all about how bands structure the music, in every genre. But you are very right about constructing songs in a very orchestral way a lot of the time, despite not using an orchestra or even emulating one.

just throwing out some more characteristics of power metal...and the vocals are a definitive characteristic of the genre, in general.

 

[Anaon]

Hum... Thanks. I'm surprised about bands like Nightwish, Edguy, Rhapsody, for me it was symphonic metal because of sounds/lyrics/music etc

and power metal for me was epic for sure but just more efficient, without orchestra sounds... more powerful somehow