I have to say Freedom Call, for the following reasons:
I have been listening to power metal (excluding Helloween, been listening to them for ages) for about four years now. I have spent a down payment on a BMW on the cult music called Power Progressive Metal. And Freedom Call was the first to make me say, power metal is going down - the - tubes. Aside for some rare power metal releases lately, power metal has now become "blinded by the coolness of obscurity and I am one of a small few who follow this cult" metal...
Freedom Call is superior because they began to tear down the walls of my clouded mind in this insane world of music. The Crystal Empire of which my money flowed into was soon destroyed after about two listens. Of course it would take over a year to fully understand how brainwashed I was, but now I see the light, thank you, thank you, thank you...Freedom Call