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Editorials

IN DEFENSE OF POWER METAL

 Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 11:00am by

axxisProfessor Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges, ever the metal theologian, asks in this morning’s blog post what, exactly, the appeal of modern power metal is:

Seriously, though — can anyone explain modern power metal to me? I like the ’80s stuff. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept — that’s good, strong music (given the right albums). But at what point did power metal become so saccharine, synthed-out, and bloody ridiculous? The only “power” it has is in making me laugh.

In response to his own question, Lee posits the following:

Modern power metal is pop music with everything turned up.

… but then proceeds to attempt to explain away this theory by over-intellectualizing. And therein lies the problem, Cosmo; I’d like to suggest that power metal ought to be subject to zero intellectualization, rationalization or any kind of deep thought. It’s cheesy and it’s ridiculous but it sure is fun, and that’s the end of it. Any attempt to invoke European history as inspiration — while this might explain why American metal musicians aren’t as willing to be so overtly corny — is already taking things too far. Power metal is big, dumb, and goofy in just about every way but if you take your brain out of the equation and just let the music flow directly into your ears it sure is really fucking fun. Less intellectualization, more listening.

And not for nothin’, all metal is pretty damned ridiculous when you take a step back and look in from the outside. Black metal? Come on. It doesn’t get any sillier.

-VN

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  • Mike

    I think what Cosmo Lee is referring to is something called Flower Metal. There are some great bands out there that are considered “Power Metal” like Nevermore, Persuader, latter-day Mystic Prophecy, Agent Steel etc etc that write great heavy metal songs. In fact, one power metal album, Gamma Ray’s “The Land of the Free” is in my top 20 list of best heavy metal albums.

    • Zoker

      Persuader is one of the best power metal bands if not the best one…but, as you said, it’s very different too, I don’t know if they can be defined power metal…

      • Trux

        what about Blind Guardian ??…… NIghtfall in middle earth is one of the best all time records. Period.

        • Ziltoid

          NIME is one of the most pretentious, overdone, flowery pieces of power metal crap ever.

          Imaginations from the Other Side is their last good album. Luckily, it’s great.

    • Ziltoid

      Glad to see that what I was thinking of was addressed in the first post, Flower metal is pretty much universally bad, with Kamelot being the only exception. Of course, Kamelot happens to have a vocalist that’s much better than most power metal vocalists, as well as an oddly subtle riff oriented style. Seriously, on first listen, the rhythm guitars sound standard, but if you give albums such as The Black Halo more attention, you can see the very tasteful, subtle riffing that adds a little bit extra to their music.

      But a high thumbs up for Persuader.

    • Erek

      I’ve been a Persuader fan since they came out. They are setting up to release a new album in the near future as well.

      Another good band to check out is Stormwarrior.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.wordpress.com/ groverXIII

    Falconer is the best power metal band out there, in my opinion, because their singer doesn’t sing in the ultra-high register like most power metal singers. That makes the cheesy nature of lyrics about wars and bards and kings more tolerable. Plus I’m a D&D nerd, so that sort of thing doesn’t bother me as much.

    • Ziltoid

      Grover, are you aware that this music video exists?

      http://www.youtube.com/v/mkyYr5ipSog

      Seriously, it’s a shitfest. They might as well be doing that crabcore stance.

      • Flava Flav

        You seem to have ignored the “music” component of Falconer’s music.

        • Ziltoid

          The music is boring as well.

      • mcmxcix

        In falconer’s defense this is when they went through some member changes and lost the fantastic singer they originally had – matthais blad. Listen to the albums that have him on it, even most falconer fans generally regard these blad-less albums as pure suck.

  • msv81

    Power metal and black metal are both fucking horrible.

    • RockOutWithMy…YouKnow

      count it!

    • Zoker

      Black metal is way worse… and power metal itself isn’t that good…

  • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/46e389eb8b79606050d3d447431ff6ac?s=80 Nate

    Power metal to me is a bunch of clean-looking gallant, flowing long-haired dudes playing happy, melodic music in major scales, with operatic vocals about some fantasy setting. Being a fantasy nerd since birth, this is some of the coolest shit around to me. I don’t see how it’s pop music… pop music is a simple beat all the way through, and it’s not even that happy anymore. Maybe he means j or europop with guitars… because I could see a similarity in that.

    • Ziltoid

      No, power metal is really close to pop music. It most often follows the verse-chorus structure, tends to have very simple drum parts, lots of catchy clean vocals, etc.. That’s why you need the ballsy stuff, not Sonata Arctica or Stratovarius shit.

      • Flava Flav

        Verse-chorus is in everything. Look at Morbid Angel or Death or most thrash metal. I always found it strange that metalheads make a big deal out of being “better” than pop music while pop and metal share such fundamental compositional features.

        • Ziltoid

          That structure is the one thing that makes Death not as good as everyon makes them out to be IMO, but Morbid Angel mixed things up quite often. Yes, verse-chorus is in most things, but power metal almost NEVER deviates from that pattern. At least a good chunk of other extreme metal does, and even when they don’t, they have the un-pop-ish other parts (harsh vocals, aggressive guitar and drum parts, etc.).

      • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/46e389eb8b79606050d3d447431ff6ac?s=80 Nate

        Lol what is ballsy power metal? I’m quite content with my firewind/dragonland.

        • Ziltoid

          Anything that sounds like Persuader. They are pretty much the definition of how to do ballsy power metal.

  • bearbomb

    Nostalgia acts.

  • Zoker

    I got into metal starting from Hammerfall and Nocturnal Rites and for an year or so Power metal was all I was listening to… I have to thank the genre but even if I still like some old stuff, the most part of the bands and the newer albums of some good old bands (see Sonata Arctica… yeah, I like their first four albums) do nothing for me… they sound all dull and repetitive, I wouldn’t say goofy, just uninspired…

  • Austin

    Listen to Sign of the Cross by Avantasia and tell me that’s not a metal song. Fuck that track is brilliant! I don’t own that many power metal albums, but even the doubtful have to admit that power metal, like it or not, takes so much of what metal is (especially the corny aspects) and turns it up to 11. Take Manowar for example: are they oiled-up, borderline-retarded, loin-cloth-wearing cans of cheez wiz? Sure they are. But are they metal? No fucking question!

  • Frampler

    It’s the high pitched wailing that turns me off power metal. If I wanted to listen to a guy who sounds like he’s been kicked in the nuts, I’d just kick someone in the nuts!

  • http://hookinmouth.net Hookinmouth.net

    All I gotta say is that that bitch’s torch is about to be extinguished.

    • Tonberry

      Giggity giggity.

  • M@

    I learned long ago, that trying to convince someone to like something that they do not like is a useless proposition.

    However, I will say that I think Power Metal appeals to metal fans that likes heavy music (heavy rifts, fast-paced drumming) that is uptempo yet still melodic at its core. In addition power metal usually contains virtuosity and over good musicianship from all the band members. I think the typical power metal fan likes the fantastical elements and is willing to overlook some ham-fisted lyrics and lack of innovation.

    I think it is like all genres of music, you have a few really amazing bands that define the genre, a handful of other good bands and a whole lot of generic shit.

  • Cryzthormagnusian

    Look no furthur than Future World by Helloween.

  • Glenn

    What’s with all the anti-intellectualism? Why shouldn’t we think critically about an element of popular culture? As many previous comments have indicated, power metal is meaningful in important (and various) ways to people. Exploring how that meaning takes shape and how it interacts with other parts of society can perhaps broaden our understanding of those things. Simply dismissing power metal as “cheesy and…ridiculous but it sure is fun, and that’s the end of it…” is a strange cop-out for an otherwise intelligent blog on metal, but it’s also a revealing statement about cultural values.

  • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt (AKA: Dallas Coyle’s Juicy Curl))

    If you’re too TRoo and KVLT that you cant step back and throw on some Dio, Scorpions, Helloween or any decent current Power Metal Band- then go fuck yourself and ‘lighten up francis’.

    It may be cheese but yknow what? its good time music for good times.

    And like Vince said..take a look at Black Metal for christs sake.

    • msv81

      For me, it has nothing to do with being Troo/KVLT/whatever, I simply hate the falsetto vocals, the leather pants/over the top outfits, the lyrics about mystical dragons in far off lands (D&D, etc.), the music, basically everything about the genre irks me in the worst of ways. I do not find it “fun”; in fact, the chessiness of it makes me want to puke.

      I like other chessy/comedy metal bands; I can get a giggle out of Dethklok, Psychostick (their first album, anyway), Austrian Death Machine, etc., but that’s because I actually dig the music. To each his own, I’m not trying to talk shit on power metal fans. It’s just not at all for me.

      • msv81

        *cheesiness* oops\

      • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt (AKA: Dallas Coyle’s Juicy Curl))

        I will agree with you about the falsetto vocals! And good for you fine sir that you can find the CHEESE in it! Fuck it its for laughs.

  • Trux

    To this day I happen to like power metal the most of all metal subgenres…

    yes, I said it…

    • Sacajawea

      I agree. We shall be “gay” together!

  • Alex_P

    Control Denied. Whenever anyone tries to reduce power metal to dumb fun, I bring up Control Denied. They are layered, dense, and contain a wide range of influences. Of course, they are a league of their own, and a studio-only project, but whatever.

  • Robert

    I think everybody is focusing on Power Metal’s lyrics and everybody is missing a couple of points: some PM singers are fucking great and the guitar work some of these bands have is hard to top.

    My favorite Power Metal bands are Helloween, Gamma Ray and Primal Fear. Every Helloween CD has fantastic guitars, Primal Fear’s singer is one of the best in the world, Gamma Ray’s The Land of the Free (and some other albums too) is one of the best metal albums ever. If PM is guilty of something is of being repetitive, which Primal Fear is balancing with some traditional HM stuff.

    PM lyrics are dubbed as “dumb”, how about traditional Metal, like Judas Priest’s lyrics? Are they any better? (need to say that my fav band of all is Priest and my first tattoo of many was Priest’s symbol).

    And one more – Power Metal saved the 90′s! While Priest, Maiden, Dio, Ozzy, Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, etc where lost, disappeared, issuing shitty albums, etc, Power Metal provided me with some fucking good albums that kept my hunger for new music fed.

    • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt (AKA: Dallas Coyle’s Juicy Curl))

      “Power Metal saved the 90’s! While Priest, Maiden, Dio, Ozzy, Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, etc where lost, disappeared, issuing shitty albums, etc, Power Metal provided me with some fucking good albums that kept my hunger for new music fed.”……………

      Power Metal saved the nineties??

      Maybe Maiden and MegaDAVE faltered but lets see…

      Priest released ‘Painkiller’ Which will NEVER leave my stereo,

      Pantera Hit mainstream music with a fucking baseball bat with ‘Vulgar’ and ‘Far Beyond Driven’

      Ozzy released ‘No rest for the wicked’, ‘No more tears’and ‘Live and Loud’

      And any Anthrax with John Bush is stellar in my opinion.

      So ya…you may want to re-think that.

      • Robert

        No, I don’t have to re-think it, but maybe explain myself a bit more.

        When I say “the 90′s” I’m generalizing the biggest part of the decade. 1990 had some great albums: Painkiller could very well be (to me) the best metal album ever made and I just loose it anytime Painkiller sounds. Another absolute masterpiece released in 1990 is Rust in Peace. Pantera’s Cowboys, Vulgar and Far Beyond are also fantastic. But then what? 1991 – Priest disbanded, Metallica released their first big sell-out (Black Album) that I HATED with my guts; Megadeth started selling out in 1992 and continued that path till their peak in 1999 with Risk; Pantera become a growling ball of noise (to me) with The Great Southern in 1996; Ozzy didn’t release anything that I liked after 1991′s No More Tears (live n loud is not new music); we dissent about Anthrax – I only liked Sound of White Noise (1993) with Bush and that’s it, my favorites are 1988′s Euphoria and 1990′s Persistence; Dio released his last good album in 1990 (Lock Up…) and then crappy Strange Highways and Angry Machines…; Queensryche went pop / grunge / who knows.

        In general, to me, the 80′s were FULL of great albums that lingered a bit into the 90s, but by mid 90s I had nothing new to listen to, except Power Metal and Dream Theater.

        I’ve also always wished that the first Thrash Metal (early Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, etc) lasted a bit longer instead of all going Death, Black, etc. I never got into that.

  • brandonmetal

    i listen to brainstorm, primal fear, and cage, but i’ll pass on anything remotely involving dragons.
    i don’t get why people still form power metal bands, though. they can’t possibly be getting chicks doing power metal, right?

  • http://www.metalpodcast.net ron

    What about Angra, Wintersun, Symphony X, Rhapsody, Adagio, and fuck it, even Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica? In their prime, these bands were fucking amazing. Excellent songwriting coupled with amazing soloist performances. It’s unfair to dismiss an entire genre only because of the myriad of shitty copycat bands that seem to populate it.

    Then again if you just plainly don’t like the genre, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    • Ziltoid

      Symphony X, Angra, and Wintersun are the only good bands you listed. The rest are pretty much exactly the problem with power metal.

  • http://www.prosaicparadise.com/ Kim

    I love this thread if for no other reason than it gives me more power metal bands to check out. Great comments M@, Glenn, Robert!

    • Robert

      Thanks for the compliments.

      I agree with you, there are some bands mentioned here that I have never heard of before, great learning tool! I have to say – in the early 90′s I ditched Stratovarious, Blind Guardian, Angra, Edguy, etc, because I felt that I was listening to the same band over and over, so I stuck to the bigger ones. Maybe I need to re-check them.

      Forgot to mention Helloween’s bass player – he is amazing! My favorite one along with Steve Harris. Their “new” (in quotation marks because he has been in the band for 15 years) singer is horrible, just horrible. Helloween is so good that I love them DESPITE the horrible vocalist. Their guitar player that’s been in the band from day one (Michael Weikath) is extraordinary (the “other” lead guitar has changed from Kai Hansen [who left to form Gamma Ray] to Roland Grapow to Satcha Getzner, all 3 are also great).

      Helloween has 2 albums that EVERY metal collection MUST have: Keeper of the Seven Keys parts 1 and 2. You have to skip Chamaleon and then almost all the other albums are at least very good, if not great, some of them: Walls of Jericho, The Time of the Oath, Better than Raw, The Dark Ride, Rabbit Don’t Come Easy…the opening track of Keeper of the Seven Keys The Legacy (A King for a 1000 years) is UNBELIEVABLE, worth every penny you pay for the album.

      Gamma Ray started with 3 Power Metal / Heavy Metal albums (with Ralph Scheepers as vocalist, who then left / got dumped to join Primal Fear). They are very good and Scheepers just blows you away. Then their all time high / impossible to duplicate Land of the Free was released. I like Power Plant a lot too. Their problem is being repetitive AND stealing too much and too obvious from Priest and Maiden (Land of the Free II features a copy of The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner among others). Still I like them, Kai Hansen is fundamental to the whole Power Metal scene. They are releasing a new album this month and I will buy it.

      Primal Fear is that Power Metal meets Judas Priest combo that I can’t avoid. Their discography is pretty even, maybe their lows are Devil’s Ground and Black Sun, but the first 3 and the last 3 are very good albums. They are touring the US in June and I will definitely go to the gig in Austin TX.

      • Petey

        Ignitor is playin that show too.

  • DemonicLemming

    Power metal is fun. Arguably, the majority of my metal collection is made up of various power metal bands, which doesn’t bother me a bit. Are there shitty power metal bands? Sure, but shitty bands exist in ANY genre of music, so that’s not really a valid argument. Power metal uses high-pitched vocals at times, but plenty of popular metal uses “vocals” that are nothing more than grunted non-words; again, invalid argument. Power metal has bands that focus on things like D&D/Middle-Earth style ideas, but, again, if we want to make a critical analysis of metal lyrics, most suck and almost all are repetitive at some level; at least power metal isn’t glued and nailed to the generic topics that most metal bands stick with.

    If one don’t like power metal, fine, but none of the arguments put forth in the original post are valid, or even intelligent arguments to make against the genre.

  • Carbonthief

    I agree that most power metal is just for fun, but the truly great power metal bands take it a step further and are worth looking deeper into.

    For example, Kamelot, and Avantasia, and Ayreon. Of course, in these cases, that’s their prog influences showing through. Except maybe Avantasia.

  • Anon

    “Modern power metal is pop music with everything turned up.”

    I have always thought this myself. Also, most melodic death metal is just power metal with harsh vocals.

    But I like both genres because they’re so catchy and listenable. It’s basically pop music played with metal instrumentation.

    But if I want something more artistic and uncompromisingly heavy, then I’ll listen to doom, thrash, black, death, etc.

  • d00shc00gr

    In defense of power metal… it’s pretty fucking sweet

  • nick

    Armageddon and Andromeda are a couple to check out. They’re more on the progressive side and absolutely rip.

  • Atari

    Pop with metal instrumentation? Perhaps this is merely my ignorance shining through, but what?

    Isn’t ALL music just a variation of all other music?

    Even some classical stuff by Beethoven has what I would call a ‘chorus’.

    Is there something WRONG with good melodies? Should all ‘real’ music be as bland as possible, using dissonance in every note?

    Are you against a chorus?

    I think that it is a fundamental rule of music that, in general, a good chorus can keep you interested in a song long enough to appreciate the rest of it.
    If a song doesn’t have a good chorus (or doesn’t have a chorus at all) then I generally won’t listen to it.

    I need something catch, heavy and, preferably, technical.

    Hmh. *Shrug* I don’t get it.