I've been a huge fan of Gamma Ray and Stratovarius for a while, kai Hansen is a talented individual who even in the days of Helloween was a force to be reckoned with as a songwriter and a musician. Every band he's been in and played a part in such Iron Saviour and Helloween as well as Gamma Ray have really been original.

Songwriting skills is something that not everyone has in a band and yeah anyone can snap up a guitar learn a few chords and learn the metal rhythms and tbh, I think that's what the forefront of the scene band brigade is, nothing too serious, revolutionary, nothing fantastic and some of the bands get so much praise, they get labelled as the next generation, the new wave of metal and there are bands out there who don't get the recognition they deserve for being different, original and passionate.

Power Metal is FULL of cliches hell yeah, C D E 4-4 200bpm dungeons and dragons, wizards and odin with a twin lead guitar showdown.

Gamma Ray though, are power metal but Rebellion in Dreamland compared to Armageddon, Beyond The Black Hole, Heart of the Unicorn, Into The Storm, each one is very different to the other. Some fit the cliche like a nice clean pair of socks and others are like wow, a religious experience almost.

Stratovarius, some albums are fantastic but a lot of their songs are uninspired and lacking, which happens when you have the whole Yngwie Malmsteen's illegitimate child thing going on with the guitarist. Neo classical, kinda gets old after a while.

Speed isn't everything either.

There are other power metal titans out there. Avantasia, Ayreon, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, Symphony X, Hammerfall and even Helloween and Manowar I'd call power Metal.

I did look into them bands you mentioned, I didn't hear anything that really clicked with me though, sadly. =(


But aye, Power Metal's a shadow of its former self, the big boys are pushing forward and exploring other styles whilst keeping their fantasy, mythology and literature inspired theme close to heart. Blind Guardian's last album was absolutely amazing.

I believe that for any band of any genre to really make an impact and show that metal's not dead, needs some form of progression in their music, something that makes it all worth it.

Dragonforce were a good band, VERY good but the bands mentioned there and in your last post show that they're just lucky, another power metal band but they got their fame and they went downhill.

Oh and MCR there was an accident didn't mean to put them in.

Just to say, one of my favourite extreme genres has to be Doom Metal. Think Early Black Sabbath but with the dark, heavy and operatic vocals of modern metal. slow it right down, crank up the distortion and you have some VERY atmospheric stuff. There's a band called Mael Mordha who do it and combine piano and folk instruments into their sound. Isole is good too as is Electric Wizard.

If there's another bone I must pick, I think its the difference in sound. The 70's and early 80's had the best tones from the amps, you had to play like you meant it to get a good overdrive (I've played with amps from that era) and a bass player could use as much treble and volume as they liked without the guitarist moaning about their lack of a spotlight. =p

If all the bands reverted to valve amps, the tone from that era THEN we'd see who the real players are. The age of Line 6 everything is a horrible thing!

Oh, and songs over 5 minutes are godly. Just saying. Old or new. Anything over 10 minutes is beyond godly, if it can be pulled off because you have to be a hell of a songwriter and a skilled musician to pull that off and not loop the same 3 chords over and over. To make a progressive song, smurf me, must take a lot.

Keyboards, Keyboards are not gay in any way and should be used more. Bass, should be louder and singers should sing like they mean it. More baritones and bass singers like mr Johnny Cash please, less super high singers! D:

Ok Now I'm getting carried away!!