?Classics? of power metal CONCLUSION - Things I learned about power metal

I thought of copying and pasting all of the "things I learned about..." sections at the end of each post, but that seemed a little annoying given that there are sixteen of those posts.*  Nonetheless, I've spent a lot of time thinking about power metal and occasionally even listening to it over the past year-plus of the "?Classics? of power metal" project.  And yeah, I do flatter myself into thinking that I've learned a few things.

1)  I like power metal

The starting premise was that I liked the idea of the genre more than I liked actually listening to it.  I was struggling to reconcile why I, a listener who likes things too heavy to be a serious pop fan** and too melodic to do anything but gravitate to the hookier side of metal, couldn't seem to connect with power, do more than appreciate it from a distance.  I think I was reacting to its roots in '80s metal.  Something about European men shrieking about wizards in a way that reminded me in their inflection and guitar tone choices of douchey American men shrieking about hedonism was a barrier that I kept finding, well, a barrier.

Well, it clicked.  The best can use this tool set to create exactly the anathemic bangers I'd hoped they could.  Part of it is just expanding my knowledge of what PM can be - more on that below.  And part of it could be saturation - I wanted to give every act every chance to show me its strengths, such that I'd at least appreciate why they resonated, so I really spent a lot of time listening to these records in the hopes of having something intelligent to say about them.  Whatever the reasons or explanations though, there was some amazing music in this collection of records.  Most of these would-be classics actually are, well, classic.  I don't like everything, but I liked most things here!  As I got to think about the language of power metal I got more impressed with those who were able to use these tools as they were intended.  I've discovered so many songs that fill me with joy that I wish others who don't metal could appreciate.  

Going back to the start... I spent a big part of the intro post ragging on Helloween, or more accurately explaining why I held them at arm's length a little whilst being a fan.  The arm's length is shorter now, as I've discovered a new level of admiration for their melodic sophistication.  Oh, and a lot of their songs just kill.  I'm less inclined to describe PM as "cheesy" now, not because it isn't often just that, but because I don't want to unfairly dismiss the things at which the subgenre excels.

2)  Power metal is diverse

Like pretty much everyone who doesn't (or didn't) listen to all that much PM, I had a limited idea of what power metal was.  Listen to a low-hanging PM playlist or streaming station, and you know what you'll get - a type.  All male singers, all fast guitar arpeggiating with or without the hooks to support it, all swinging swords in the general direction of dragons.  That "type."  From seeing acts that I'd enjoyed ranging from Iced Earth to Unleash The Archers described as power metal, I hoped there was more to it than just that type. 

And there was!  This project has kind of been exactly what I hoped it'd be in that regard.  Why did PM have to be so light and insubstantial?  It doesn't - there's plenty with heft.  I didn't know that USPM was even a thing, really, so it was exciting to discover how many boxes it ticked; the brawniness and the attempts that were still being made to appeal to those outside the metal bubble complement each other so nicely on the melodic side of USPM.  Why did PM have to be so focused on fast playing to the exclusion of songcraft?  It doesn't - these foundational tricks can be used to write songs of all speeds and structures.  Just in the world of vocalists, I wanted a mix of voices, some gruff and metal-ish, some melodic and sprightly, some melodramatic, some restrained.  We got a bunch of vocal styles just during the course of the project.  I love having the edge of Running Wild and the ambition of Angra and the full-on stage actor's performance of Falconer all being clearly part of the same subgenre.  I feel almost angry at the fact that Discourse has allowed power metal to be pigeonholed the way it has, and want to loudly proclaim that power metal wears many faces.

Lyrically it wasn't all dragons either... although I quickly decided that my predisposition against fantasy lyrics would just have to be set aside if I was to dive into PM.  Maybe not quite the diversity I hoped for there.  But can I again mention how amazing Falconer is at using that language to craft meaningful, relevant lyrics?  Meanwhile, you've got Running Wild preferring history, Wuthering Heights and Lovebites taking a philosophical bent, Judicator flat out putting trauma to a musical soundtrack, Ascension with a deranged narrative about derangement, and so on.  But more importantly, it's okay if your songs are about dragons if you can make that shit rock in an interesting way. 

3)  You don't know what you don't know

Looking back to my earlier posts, you can see a lot of confused fumbling about trying to figure out who influenced what.  As mentioned, before I started I didn't have a clear sense of what USPM was, just that most of what I thought I liked was EUPM and kinda brushed off the fact that the bands called EUPM weren't always European.  So, there's a fair amount of "wait, frickin' Metal Church are considered power metal?  Since when?!"  I had no idea what specific lane, say, HammerFall were considered to be a standout example of.  I think I'd have have been less confused by that Wuthering Heights record if I'd at least listened to more Blind Guardian first, to have sort of a jumping-off point.  And my knowledge of the foundational acts still has some big holes because there's a lot of music and I originally had no idea how it fit together when I was assembling a hodgepodge of records to write about.   I think it stands to reason.  Introductions and explanations of the style in a manner in which I'd have understood are in short supply, and I had to muddle through it.  The closest I've come to a guide to the style that maps out its interesting edges - and yes, I'm talking about that Metalstorm.com list yet again - is literally a list of a hodgepodge of records.  There are ways I'd have structured this differently if I were starting now,*** but I just didn't know enough then to have done it that way.

Granted, I'm still pretty far away from a comprehensive understanding of PM.  And granted, some of that is the fake smart in which I've heard of a bunch of things, and know what people say about quite a few bands/records that I haven't personally actually listened to.  Still, I at least have a better sense of how it evolved, and a general sense of classifying the subtypes.  It's something.

4)  I can sort of describe what sounds good to me

I have a few more qualifiers to describe what I like.  I already knew I liked mid-range voices who enunciate their words, and that I like big hooks delivered in an energetic way, and that I like bands with multiple vocalists.  Add a few other fun quirks that you often get in PM.  I like a folk-inspired tune extrapolated in a metal way.  I like multiple instruments passing a riff between them.  I like wordy phrases, especially choruses being full sentences rather than a few words.  I like transitions between sections of a song without gaps.  I remain a sucker for a final-chorus key change, if the chorus is good enough to support it. 

Bigger picture, I think my favorite pockets I've discovered are PM with just enough edge to be unabashedly head-bangable.  I mentioned USPM above, although it still tends to have the '80s sheen I complained about in my earlier posts.  I think my single preferred overall style is the modern extrapolation that freely mixes USPM and EUPM elements into something that's, I dunno, pleasantly aggressive.  You could argue that HammerFall tried something like that - I just wish I liked their songs better - but both the Lovebites and Paladin records were incredibly exciting finds for me, because as I attempted to describe, they were full of familiar elements while neither sounded like anyone else I'd heard.  So, that's one of my targets for more exploration.  The other is the intersection of folk metal and power metal.  That's been both as thrilling and diverse as hoped, and - spoiler for anyone who actually read this far - will likely be what I do with my next super-big writing project of this scope.

5)  There's always another rabbit hole

I listen and write slowly, so I knew I'd only be doing ten or fifteen or so records.  But I did have the idea that okay, after I did this, I'd kinda have a handle on PM.  Ha!  I've accumulated not only a catalogue of bands whose discographies need exploring, but all sorts of tangents.  For instance, while sorting out Adramelch and the like, on one Reddit recommendation I checked out Fates Warning's Awaken The Guardian, and now that gives me a whole new discography to explore, regardless of whether I want to hear how they evolved into and out of, briefly, being a PM band or whether I just want another take on prog-metal.  Meanwhile, I clearly "need" to spend more time with Matos-era Angra which in some ways is a different band than the one that wrote Temple Of Shadows.  If I want to talk intelligently about power metal today, doesn't that require at least having tried the Battle Beast In Black bands?  What about something in fun corners of the power-adjacent sphere I haven't touched at all, like the Abstrakt Algebra record?  Or the Ensiferum/Wintersun axis?  Or Slough Feg?  Or, or, or...  Hell, I'm only partway through picking my way through the Running Wild and Avantasia discographies, and those were the bands I discovered that seemed like they'd be the least challenging to run the catalog.  Meanwhile, there's new music coming out every day, and my list of stuff to check out keeps growing!

One could argue that I should spend more time listening to music and less time writing about it, but I'd respond that the one feeds the desire for the other.  Still, I think I'd like to go listen to some metal now.

But first, the stupid requisite ranked list.

If there's something more tedious than quibbling over subgenres, it's artificially scored ranked lists.  Do I indulge in them anyway?  Yep!  Often while emphasizing that it's not a competition.  And the fact that as mentioned above, pretty much all of these records are either great, thoroughly worthwhile if flawed, or both.  Really, all except for #s 15 and 16, I enjoyed pretty thoroughly on some level.  And I still learned a lot about what I do like from writing about the ones I didn't.  But, a totally arbitrary list of the records featured in this project, ranked according to my personal taste and nothing else!

1)  Falconer - Falconer

2)  Helloween - The Dark Ride

3)  Avantasia - The Scarecrow

4)  Running Wild - Death Or Glory

5)  Ascension - Under The Veil Of Madness

6)  Paladin - Ascension

7)  LOVEBITES - Awakening From Abyss

8)  Manilla Road - Open The Gates

9)  Angra - Temple Of Shadows

10)  Avantasia - The Metal Opera

11)  Judicator - At The Expense Of Humanity

12)  Wuthering Heights - The Shadow Cabinet

13)  Kamelot - Epica

14)  Adramelch - Irae Melanox

15)  HammerFall - Glory To The Brave

16)  Ancient Bards - The Alliance Of The Kings

Next:  I have a few stand-alone metal record reviews/?Classics? of metal planned next, at least one of which is PM.  And I'll also be continuing the "slow speed dating" thing to get brief tastes of a few more power metal classics.  But I do have another big project of a similar scale to this one that I'm hoping to do at some point.  As always though, only when I get around to it!

*Honestly, a lot of times the "lessons" were things I came up with at the last minute, for the format. 

**Don't get me wrong, I'm way too old for genre purity.  Do I try to make a little room for some pop in my life (and some hip-hop, and country, and folk, and etc.)?  Yes!  Do I spend most of my time in rock and increasingly metal, and feel happiest there.  Yup.

***""So, you're going to say that besides knowing Sonata already, just checking out a few 'symphonic' bands will cover all the bases?  You're going to attempt to get a representative sample of power metal without ever having sat down and listened to a Nightwish record?  Well, that's certainly one way to do things..."