Power metal is either brazen ego worship and/or or similarly (to death metal) talking of topics like mass murders and rapes. Though unlike the more neutral/clinical approach of death metal, power metal lyrics usually come from an angle of glorifying these things. edit: I am merely relaying the common lyrical subjects of the genre. I made no judgment whether its a good or bad thing.
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Your experience of the lyrics might benefit from learning about literary devices. For example:
> For people who might not know, Rhapsody of Fire broke into in two bands, one keeping the original name and the other becoming Rhapsody. Ehm, this is not what happened. In 2006 Rhapsody became Rhapsody of Fire to avoid some trademark dispute. Then they split around 2009, though the main chunk is still called Rhapsody of Fire whereas the spinoff is called Luca Turilli's Rhapsody.
The trademark dispute was with the Rhapsody streaming service - I don't think it was ever announced, but I suspect the streaming service paid them money to change their name since the band definitely came first.
I remember when this happened.
I tried googling a bit but I couldn't find quickly enough an article that mentions Rhapsody, the streaming service, as the other party in the trademark dispute.
However, I do remember the whole thing when it happened because I had just discovered the band.
I only recently discovered Blind Guardian. Typically listened to thrash, rarely power metal. Man, what excellence. Brilliant vocals, great choruses, distinct and unique sense of melody both on guitar and vocals. Something I really love about them is that vocals, guitars, and drums all have very prominent and distinct parts. In many bands I feel like one instrument will often dominate and the band becomes boring. I.e.…
Here in Spain they were arguably the biggest power metal band ever. Shirts with their art were very common - a tier below Maiden shirts, but putting up a respectable fight in popularity. They also filled some of the best venues - not stadiums, but the tier right below, the premium venues, which I think is a great achievement for such a niche genre. When I was a kid I loved some of their classics like Mirror Mirror, b…
Love S&M 1&2, “All Within My Hands” being maybe my favorite from the two albums.
One thing of note: I essentially only listen to metal and classical. Everything else is dead boring to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> but very little overseas Except in Japan (1). 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwPlMB_dAo8
Japan and Metal have a unique relationship at this point.
I don’t know much about it, other than knowing some of my favorite bands have huge followings there. Can anybody educate me how the Japanese metal scene functions? Are there certain genres that have a hold or is it totally diverse?
I only recently discovered Blind Guardian. Typically listened to thrash, rarely power metal. Man, what excellence. Brilliant vocals, great choruses, distinct and unique sense of melody both on guitar and vocals. Something I really love about them is that vocals, guitars, and drums all have very prominent and distinct parts. In many bands I feel like one instrument will often dominate and the band becomes boring. I.e.…
In fairness, early BG very much aligns more with speed metal, which is a fairly close sibling to thrash. It was that vector that got me into them more than my latter appreciation for power metal in all its bombastic soaring-vocal glory.
Good point. Hearing that low E quickly chug gave me a known point of familiarity that allowed me to explore with enjoyment.
People not familiar with metal music may find it interesting to learn that actor Sir Christopher Lee - or, Lord of the Rings's "Saruman" - was an active part of the power metal scene in the later stages of his life.
I can't listen to music with vocals at work, but I still listen to power metal 20 years later in quite a few contexts - gym, car, walk, simply active listening. I can't argue with the quality of the lyrics being cringey though. I've always thought it's a combination of the genre being niche and being founded on a set of lyrical themes that are restrictive - and maybe particularly challenging -, and also, the fact tha…
I can imagine some lyrics can be hard to listen to for an english speaking native. Manowar made a german version of "Heart of steal" it's called "Herz aus Stahl" it's so bad when I heard it for the first time I thought "Oh man I hope we don't sound that bad to all the people who speak english when we're singing english."
FWIW, Kreator, Scorpions, Destruction, Sodom, and basically every other German metal band probably have better English than most native speaker groups for the past 40+ years. Americans in particular seem to do quite poorly at speaking other languages partly because to be American, particularly in cities, one needs to know several dialects given the many different creoles and vernacular groups due to the country being so massive and diverse.
I only recently discovered Blind Guardian. Typically listened to thrash, rarely power metal. Man, what excellence. Brilliant vocals, great choruses, distinct and unique sense of melody both on guitar and vocals. Something I really love about them is that vocals, guitars, and drums all have very prominent and distinct parts. In many bands I feel like one instrument will often dominate and the band becomes boring. I.e.…
I still consider "Nightfall in middle earth" one of the best albums of all times. I remember waiting in front of the recordstore on the releasday in 1998, came home and listened to it from start to finish a few times while reading the newest "Rock Hard" magazine, good times. Even today it's one of the few albums I still enjoy listening from start to finish.
I definitely consider NIME to be best BG album. They tried to replicate the same level of complexity in their follow up albums, but the sound engineering and mixing just never felt the same. NIME sounds crisp and clear and every after is too layered and muddy
I only recently discovered Blind Guardian. Typically listened to thrash, rarely power metal. Man, what excellence. Brilliant vocals, great choruses, distinct and unique sense of melody both on guitar and vocals. Something I really love about them is that vocals, guitars, and drums all have very prominent and distinct parts. In many bands I feel like one instrument will often dominate and the band becomes boring. I.e.…
A thread about Blind Guardian and there is no obligatory link to a crowd singing The Bard's Song? Let me remedy this https://youtu.be/i-IcX_bccFc
I tend to lean more into the Valhalla crowd chanting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_VFJn2kJM>
Not Power Metal, but I thought I’ll take my chances. Any recommendations for someone who loves Rammstein , despite only knowing 2-3 words in German? I haven’t found many while searching for industrial metal.
static-x, especially the older stuff.
Second the recommendation for Static-X, though there ain't any new stuff, RIP Wayne.
Unfortunately Industrial ain't my wheelhouse, so I can't say much beyond that.