No idea how bands like that are considered metal.
It's bands like that shitty keyboard dominated pop band people shat themselves over in the power metal thread that deserve the title of metal less than Slipknot.
How is Sonata Artica "Pop Metal"? I would have went with cornbally Power Metal. I sense no popiness in them.
Here's how I feel: if a band is so fucking self-conscious that it has to resort to whiny fucking pseudo-intense "depth" in its lyrical content in order to take itself seriously, then it fails not only as metal, but as music in general.
How is Sonata Artica "Pop Metal"? I would have went with cornbally Power Metal. I sense no popiness in them.