Rate Your Music's Top 100 Power Metal Albums - Page 3

Power Metal is a subgenre of Metal music that developed primarily in Europe in the early 1980s. Power Metal combines elements of both Heavy Metal and Speed Metal, characterized by fast tempos and an emphasis on melody and harmony. The majority of Power Metal bands use soaring clean vocals rather than the guttural or high pitched vocals primarily used in Death Metal and Black Metal. Additionally, Power Metal often incorporates symphonic or classical instrumentation, a similarity that may lead some bands to be considered Symphonic Metal. The lyrics of the genre are often focused on high fantasy or mythological imagery, with specific textual examples such as The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Prominent bands of the Power Metal genre include but are certainly not limited to Helloween, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, and Stratovarius