Top 5 Power Metal Bands.

[The Butt]

Harsh vocals don't make a band melodeath. You guys both have a severe, SEVERE misunderstanding of the genre if you think that.

Musically it's power metal, the harsh vocals don't change that. The same way clean vocals don't automatically stop a band being black metal, for example. Get it? Got it? Good.

Moving on.

Also for the record I actually like a few DragonForce songs... (lol they had harsh vox on Inhuman Rampage are they melodeath guise? :V)

 

[razoredge]

this is a sad state of affairs

 

[JGMetalhead]

With melodic vocals, CoB would be power metal. Without it, they're melodeath. Pretty much end of discussion.

Man, my top 5 will be tough 'cause I refuse to include any of the bands that have gone weak in recent years (Sonata, Edguy, Freedom Call...)

Blind Guardian
Helloween
Gamma Ray
Falconer
DragonForce

*expects to get made fun of for that last one, but hell, I love 'em.*

You must be a very brave man to list DragonForce. But I heard their latest is an improvement, the tid bit I heard from the music video from the commercial was kind of interesting. It felt as if they weren't their predictable selves, kind of...

 

[RedFox742]

You must be a very brave man to list DragonForce. But I heard their latest is an improvement, the tid bit I heard from the music video from the commercial was kind of interesting. It felt as if they weren't their predictable selves, kind of...

Less predictable only compared to Inhuman Rampage. Only a diehard fan would notice the tweaks, tbh. But I like having at least one band who I can rely on to consistently deliver what I like: epic sound, shredding solos, absurd-yet-uplifting lyrics. Unlike Sonata or Edguy, whose changes of direction have really disappointed me, DF pretty much refuses to evolve, which means I'll continue to like what they're doing.

They have their own niche that nobody else has really entered (Cellador was doing it too, but then went poof somehow), and I like that. It'll be definitely interesting to see how they sound with someone new on vox, too.

 

[Bitencourt29]

I'm not a Power Metal fan but I enjoy both Iced Earth (with Barlow) and Blind Guardian. Their project (Demons and Wizards) has decent stuff as well.

Can't stand bands like Hammerfall, Helloween or Gamma Ray uke:

 

[Hail The Wizard!]

DragonForce

Looooool.

 

[The Butt]

I'm not a Power Metal fan but I enjoy both Iced Earth (with Barlow) and Blind Guardian. Their project (Demons and Wizards) has decent stuff as well.

Can't stand bands like Hammerfall, Helloween or Gamma Ray uke:

Gamma Ray more like Ramma Gay amirite

 

[JGMetalhead]

I'm not a Power Metal fan but I enjoy both Iced Earth (with Barlow) and Blind Guardian. Their project (Demons and Wizards) has decent stuff as well.

Can't stand bands like Hammerfall, Helloween or Gamma Ray uke:

You don't like any Helloween? Just stop listening to any kind of power metal then. I understand your dislike for Gamma Ray. I haven't had the urge to listen to them lately myself.

 

[RedFox742]

I didn't list Kamelot, but they deserve a mention. The Epica/Black Halo duo is terrific.

Nightwish do, too (oh yay I like both DragonForce and Nightwish, lay on on everybody).

 

[JGMetalhead]

Kamelot is definitly a good band, they have a few bum albums I think but still they have some great work. I am not sure they were mentioned but your absolutely right, they deserve a mention indeed.

However your kind of dragging on after adding Nightwish, I think DragonForce already caused a possible flame war in here

 

[Alteredmindeath]

BLIND GUARDIAN
SAVAGE CIRCUS
IRON SAVIOR
WHITE WIZZARD
RHAPSODY OF FIRE

 

[razoredge]

Helloween and Gamma Ray has some good songs... to me power metal is much ilke commercial metal of the 80's, you have to pick and choose songs. Not much there to put on a full play and enjoy it all. Kamelot is about the only exception to this I have found so far... and even then I havent listened to Epica and Black Halo for nearly a year. They put on a great concert as well.

 

[JGMetalhead]

Razoredge, Helloween have plenty of good songs. Stop being an unreasonable hater.

 

[razoredge]

Im not being an "unreasonable hater" they all have some good songs per album. Edguy, Strat, most all of them. But I find a full 60 minutes of power metal to get uncomfortably old and even more so when you start stacking bands and realize they are all mostly doing the same exact thing. I see nothing unreasonable about hearing and noticeing that.

 

[Doomguy]

Stratovarius are amazing too...How the hell can anyone consider Bodom PM. Stupid

Something Wild and Hatebreeder clearly have power metal traits in them. The only real non-power metal icon in those albums is the vocals.

 

[JGMetalhead]

Doesn't matter. Its still melodeath because of the theme and vocals constantly backing up the power chords.

 

[razoredge]

just curious what the significance of power chords is here ?

 

[RedFox742]

they are all mostly doing the same exact thing.

*shrug* so are most death metal bands, you become a genre fan because you like that style of doing mostly the same thing.

If you need every song on an album to sound radically different, you're in the wrong genre of music; go listen to alt-rock.

 

[razoredge]

good point about the strict sub-genres and why I listen to progressive metal and progressive rock or the handful of self identifying or defining metal and rock bands. Why I can enjoy some Helloween or Gamma Ray and see most of what the others have to offer as spin offs.

 

[jussstin]

1. Helloween
2. Sonata Arctica
3. Manticora
4. Stratovarius
5. Blind Guardian

Except for Manticora, all of the above bands' latest albums have been a bit disappointing. Possibly why I've gone off Power Metal a bit in the last few years.