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Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

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Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#81

Post by a_gnostic »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #62
scop wrote: post #40

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.…

Blind Guardian is well known in Europe, but very little overseas. I went to a concert once and the mood was really good. The crowd sang for themselves for half an hour. The band was going for 3 hours altogether. Everyone was friendly (nothing else I expected with power metal).

> but very little overseas

Except in Japan (1).

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwPlMB_dAo8

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#82

Post by a_gnostic »

RajT88 wrote: post #73

Big metal fan here, as are some of my friends. The Power Metal genre is less popular here in the US for sure. For example as great as the playing is for bands like Rhapsody my friends and I always found them too silly to get into. Some other bands make the cut of course. But why this resistence to the genre in general? My working theory is one of culture: Songs about dragons and shit probably resonate a lot better if…

Tennessee, Texas, Minnesota, and California have castles. They pop up all over the U.S. if you look hard enough. Some of them are fassades, and some of them are 100% legit imported organic homegrown European.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#83

Post by hn_go_brrrrr »

camel-cdr wrote: post #53
feldrim wrote: post #5

Impressive work. I believe Encyclopaedia Metallum[0] would be a better source for the corpus, though the noise rate would be higher as there are many one-song/single/demo album bands, along with bands making music in multiple genres in different eras in their lifetime. 0. https://www.metal-archives.com/

Encyclopaedia Metallum is an amazing resource, it's also quite scrapable. I managed to quickly throw thogether a set of small bash scripts to crossreference the midgard [0] leaks with metal artists. [0] The midgard (Nazi online shop) sales record was leaked, including personal information, so I won't link it here

Is that cross-reference published anywhere?

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#84

Post by hn_go_brrrrr »

tmtvl wrote: post #52
agubelu wrote: post #49

I'd like to use this thread to spread the word of our lord and savior Powerwolf. I discovered them just over two years ago and they immediately became my favorite band: their mix of themes, aesthetic and impressive vocals are amazing. Plus they're a ton of fun live and sound just as good :)

I dunno, I got one of their albums on Google Play Music (before Google killed it) and it just didn't grab me the way Hammerfall or Grand Magus did. The album I picked up is 'Blessed And Possessed', so I dunno, maybe I just picked up their 'Demolition', to make a Judas Priest parallel. Which of their albums would you recommend to start with?

I really enjoy Blessed and Possessed, so I don't think your analogy holds, unfortunately. If you want to give them another try, Sacrament of Sin is worth a listen.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#85

Post by powermetal »

NamTaf wrote: post #44
scop wrote: post #40

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.

European/german power metal bands tend to be more speed metal based. American power metal retained closeness to heavy metal more. I would recommend him to try out bands like Helstar and Jag Panzer next.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#86

Post by powermetal »

RajT88 wrote: post #73

Big metal fan here, as are some of my friends. The Power Metal genre is less popular here in the US for sure. For example as great as the playing is for bands like Rhapsody my friends and I always found them too silly to get into. Some other bands make the cut of course. But why this resistence to the genre in general? My working theory is one of culture: Songs about dragons and shit probably resonate a lot better if…

Its nothing to do with the USA. Older metal genres are in general quite niche today. Death metal and black metal is ubiquitous everywhere. Power metal and speed metal are relatively obscure these days.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#87

Post by generationP »

tmtvl wrote: post #52
agubelu wrote: post #49

I'd like to use this thread to spread the word of our lord and savior Powerwolf. I discovered them just over two years ago and they immediately became my favorite band: their mix of themes, aesthetic and impressive vocals are amazing. Plus they're a ton of fun live and sound just as good :)

I dunno, I got one of their albums on Google Play Music (before Google killed it) and it just didn't grab me the way Hammerfall or Grand Magus did. The album I picked up is 'Blessed And Possessed', so I dunno, maybe I just picked up their 'Demolition', to make a Judas Priest parallel. Which of their albums would you recommend to start with?

The Sacrament of Sin is their best; almost every song on that one is great. It's one of the rare examples of a band that was boring and bland at first and then greatly improved. Call of the Wild is a close second. On their other albums I like 1-2 tracks each.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#88

Post by powermetal »

justforasingle wrote: post #4

I found power metal because I was looking for a more positive sub-genre of metal. What I was listening to before often had ahrimanic themes - death, violence, satanism etc.

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.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#89

Post by robin_reala »

iosonofuturista wrote: post #30
agravier wrote: post #11

Oh hey Matt nice to see you around here. This post is popular, maybe release the code? :)

I second this motion... I really want to apply this to stoner doom and really see if it's all about "bong" "wizard" "weed" "mammoths" or not!

Ah, another MWWB fan.

Re: Power Metal: is it really about dragons? (2018)

#90

Post by generationP »

> 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.

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