Power Metal

I'm one of those metalheads who can't stand Death or Black metal. For the most part, it's the vocals. I can't stand them for the most part. There are exceptions, like a couple of Black metal bands and Dethklok, but I can't stand those two genres.

So instead I focus on genres with cleaner vocals, like thrash, traditional, (some) folk, speed, classic, and yes, power metal.

So why power metal? Isn't it call "Happy metal"? Well, that's only part of the genre. For the most part, yes, power metal is a little more upbeat than most other metal genres, but a few power metal bands are pretty dark, as well. Power metal is a genre of metal usually known for fast guitars, epic sounds, theatricality and stereotypically, lyrical themes inspired by fantasy. For the most part, it's really popular in Europe but obscure in the US, but the popularity of bands like DragonForce are changing that (more on that later)

So I discovered the genre when I was a freshman in college. I read an article in "Guitar World" magazine about power metal, but it never really piqued my interest. I was still into Pantera at the time. At some point, I bought Helloween and DragonForce albums and holy schnikies, my view on power metal changed.

Quite simply, I LOVED IT.

I'd just been to a certain theme park that January and it made me into a bit of a fantasy literature enthusiast, so power metal was just right for this next stage of my life. Pretty soon, I started getting into bands like Rainbow (an early precursor of the genre), HammerFall and Blind Guardian. I can safely say that power metal is one of my favorite genres along with thrash and the New Wave of Traditional Metal that I've been writing about lately.

If you want to get into power metal, here's some albums that I can suggest, based on the ones I've heard:

DragonForce, "Valley of the Damned"
Helloween, both "Keeper of the Seven Keys" albums
Gamma Ray, "Somewhere Out in Space"
Blind Guardian, "Somewhere Far Beyond"
Freedom Call, "Eternity"
Iron Fire, "Blade of Triumph"
Three Inches of Blood, "Long Live Heavy Metal"

Those are just a sample, but they're really good albums. I'm still looking for more, but I'll try and post a few once I've found them.