Resurrected Power Metal Thread

[SentinelSlain]

Everybody who like Awaken the Guardian era Fates Warning should hear the Kingsbane demo.

Like naow.

 

[SentinelSlain]

 

[waif]

Not bad. Also reminds me strongly of Shadowkeep. But then, Shadowkeep are also fairly reminiscent of Awaken-era Fates Warning.

 

[Einherjar86]

 

[Ikiharmaa]

Orden Ogan wasn't bad, nice!


you guys need to check out Thaurorod. The old demos are with a baritonic(?) singer and are both unique and epic. After Lumi left they've had some trouble keeping a singer apparently.. so the 2010 album is fine, but could be better. They even had Luppi perform the vocals for a while at some point.

Here's some of the old material:

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

easily the worst genre in metal for the past few years.

 

[Cronopio]

You don't know what you're talking about, Krig ...

 

[Einherjar86]

He's a purist! A reactionary purist. Fucking Lost Horizon...

Honestly though, I barely listen to power metal at all anymore; and I don't bother looking for anything new.

 

[Einherjar86]

I realize I fellate this band way too much, but as far as power metal goes these guys are all I really have left:

 

[UltimateApathy]

but as far as power metal goes these guys are all I really have left:

LOL what? Then you really need to get out more *wink* There are plenty of Power Metal bands as good as or better than Orden Ogan, I'm sure you'll find something here you like:

Pathfinder


Thy Majestie


Sabaton


Ensiferum



Dragonland


Wintersun



Freedom Call


Wuthering Heights


Balflare


Luca Turilli


Stratovarius


Keldian


Ancient Bards


Sunrise


Celesty


Bride Adorned


Fairyland


Therion



Rhapsody Of Fire



Haggard



Children Of Bodom



Sonata Arctica



Nightwish (old)


Heavenly


Fairyland
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwZICo043F8&fmt=18[/ame]

Elvenking


Freedom Call


Dragonforce


Gamma Ray


Epica


Helloween


Blind Guardian


Power Quest


Holy Knights


Battlelore


Iced Earth


Amorphis

 

[UltimateApathy]

That covers about every subgenre of Power Metal there is, haha

 

[Einherjar86]

Jesus Christ, I know every single one of those bands; but they either a) broke up, or b) turned into (or always were) absolute shit.

Orden Ogan is the only power metal band actively releasing good material. Just my opinion. I hold out hope for the next Keldian album, but that's about it. The newest Wintersun was pretty good, but I want more traditional power metal.

I don't identify Amorphis with power metal at all.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

My problem with what Jari did on the newest Wintersun is that you can tell there are tracks on top of tracks on top of tracks on top of tracks....
It's just too much.
Nothing right now is coming close to what Blind Guardian has done in the past. Or Heavenlys 'Sign of the Winner', and 'Dust to Dust'.
The first two Pyramaze albums were pretty good.
And Dragonland released a damn good album with 'Under the Grey Banner'

Hibria 'Defying the Rules' is amazing as far as im concerned. But they have turned to garbage.

I still dig Rhapsody, but the have never been a "holy fuck" type of band. Just solid stuff, nothing more.

basically what im saying is that the genre is all but dead.
Meanwhile black metal and death metal keep churning out badass releases every single year.

 

[Einherjar86]

The new Wintersun is very dense; I enjoy the music, but I wish there were more cool guitar lines.

Blind Guardian's last record was decent, but doesn't touch the stuff up through Nightfall. And I agree with you entirely on Rhapsody and the first Hibria record. What the fuck happened on that second album? It lost all the punch the first one packed.

 

[A1a23]

I only listened to the new Wintersun briefly, and it already sounds plagued with way too many keyboard tracks. The guitar should have also been way higher in the mix.

 

[Krow]

The only power metal bands I follow at this point are Powerwolf and Sabaton.

 

[Einherjar86]

I wasn't wowed by Sabaton's last release, and I totally forgot about Powerwolf. Their last album was good?

 

[Krow]

Its pretty much the same as before. They dont really deviate from their formula much. I'm not going to act like it's better than Lupus Dei but it's definitely better than Return in Bloodred and probably better than Bible of the Beast.

It's fun fist pumpy type stuff and you'll catch yourself singing along.

 

[UltimateApathy]

Jesus Christ, I know every single one of those bands; but they either a) broke up, or b) turned into (or always were) absolute shit.

Orden Ogan is the only power metal band actively releasing good material. Just my opinion. I hold out hope for the next Keldian album, but that's about it. The newest Wintersun was pretty good, but I want more traditional power metal.

I don't identify Amorphis with power metal at all.

Orden Ogan are pretty good and that song you posted was certainly quite solid, but let's be honest about various aspects of the music: their orchestral/symphonic work is not as mind-blowing as Haggard, Fairyland, or Celesty, their choirs aren't a powerfully epic as Bride Adorned, Blind Guardian, Thy Majestie, or Therion, their keyboards aren't as blisteringly-good as Balflare, Sonata Artica, or Children Of Bodom, their guitar solos aren't as technically-complex as Pathfinder, Rhapsody of Fire or Dragonforce, they don't have the soaring operatic vocals of (again) Pathfinder or early Nightwish and they aren't as brutal or intense as Wintersun or Ensiferum - they're just reasonably decent in all the above categories, but master of none.

As misguided as you may be, I'm just curious: which bands do you think turned into "absolute shit" and which do you think were that way to begin with?

 

[UltimateApathy]

basically what im saying is that the genre is all but dead.
Meanwhile black metal and death metal keep churning out badass releases every single year.

You clearly don't follow Power Metal much or you wouldn't be making ridiculous statements like "the genre is dead" - I could just as well go into the Slam Death Metal and proclaim it dead even though I know next to nothing about the scene.
I was signed up on a Power Metal forum some months ago and I could clearly see that there is a constant flow of good releases coming out all the time.
In fact I found a good number of the bands posted above there, but let me ask you this: how many of the songs that I posted did you actually listen to?
I'll bet the answer is a big fat "zero" - you basically just listen to the handful of Power Metal bands that are well-known outside Europe and Japan and assume that if their quality degrades a bit over time the genre has "died," meanwhile you blindly ignore the lesser-known bands out there like Pathfinder etc. that are currently producing some of the best Power Metal in history.

The genre is well and truly alive, but I can understand your lack of understanding in this regard since you live in America which is well-known for its lack of decent Power Metal of any kind, and a lack of copious amounts Power Metal fans on this particular forum certainly doesn't indicate that the genre itself it somehow fading away.
Also your statement about "badass" releases in Death Metal and Black Metal compared to Power Metal further underlines your ignorance with regard to what modern Power Metal is mostly about - it's certainly not about being "badass" at all, it's about creating technically-complex and intricate truly beautiful music that incorporates elements of classical music (choirs and orchestra), electronic music (keyboards), and of course Metal. There are plenty of European bands that you haven't bothered to find/listen to that are doing this precisely this better than ever before.