Awesome Music / Power Metal

Epicness is synonymous with Awesome Music. Power Metal is synonymous with Epicness. Now do the math.

If you're too lazy to go through all of these manually, click here.

Bands with their own pages:

• Helloween
• Kamelot
• Nightwish
• Rhapsody of Fire
• Sabaton
• Therion

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• Pick a DragonForce song. Any DragonForce song.
  • "Revelations" has such an amazing chorus.
  • Or Guitar Hero III's That One Boss: the infamous (and awesome, of course) "Through The Fire And Flames", whose hyper-epic two minutes and five seconds long guitar solo is actually played on two guitars in shifts due to its length, speed and complexity being too hard for just one.
  • Also, "My Spirit Will Go On" and "Storming The Burning Fields". And "Operation Ground & Pound".
  • "E.P.M" starts off like an 8-bit song and then...PURE EPIC.
  • "Disciples of Babylon", a magnificent drum intro, acoustic guitar solo, and as always, a very interesting set of lyrics.
  • "Soldiers of the Wasteland", their second longest song, is 9 minutes and 47 seconds of epic.
  • "Lost Souls in Endless Time" - utterly glorious, as is "Black Winter Night".
  • "Heart of the Storm" and "Cry Thunder". Welcome to the band, Marc.
  • "Heroes of Our Time" is downright inspiring.
• Winterfell plays power metal based off of A Song of Ice and Fire, and it is awesome. Stare into the eyes of your once dead friend, THIS GAME OF THRONES HAS REACHED ITS END!
• "Art of Life" by X Japan.
• Nevermore's The River Dragon Has Come" and "Final Product".
• German metal band Running Wild have a career of over 30 years of awesome music. But one song will always stand out: "Under Jolly Roger". Also "Riding the Storm", "Bad to the Bone", "Conquistadores" and "Ballad of William Kidd".
• Hammerfall. Hearts on Fire, Hearts on Fire, burning, burning with desire!
  • Let your voice speak for the revolution, all join forces with all the powers that you feel; Let your heart beat for the revolution, led by the Templars of Steel!
  • And their cover of Helloween's "I Want Out". How to do it in an awesome way? With Kai Hansen himself as guest.
• Blind Guardian. There is a reason they're one of the most successful and influential bands in a genre that's practically devoted to producing CMOA music. One particularly notable song is "Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)", which is CMOA music about a literary CMOA: when Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to a duel. "And Then There Was Silence" (both the studio and the live versions) and "Mirror Mirror" must also be mentioned. There are way too many. The Bards have mastered epic.
  • VALHALLA, DELIVERANCE. WHY'VE YOU EVER FORGOTTEN ME!!!
  • "The fate of us all lies deep in the dark, WHEN TIME STANDS STILL AT THE IRON HILL!" ...It's that awesome. Hell, might as well call Nightfall In Middle-Earth an Album of Awesome. "Caught in the afterlife, I've gone too far/when sorrow sang softly and sweet..."
  • STOP! Be quiet now!
  • "Theatre of Pain" deserves a mention. The version with words is pretty neat, but the the instrumental one is made of pure awsome. Also from the Somewhere Far Beyond album, the song "Somewhere Far Beyond". "Look around and see, the world is turning fast, faster day by day!" and the great bagpipe solo in the middle are awesome.
  • At the Edge of Time consists of nothing but pure musical awesomeness. Start off with "Sacred Worlds". Now wash it down with "Wheel of Time".
  • In 2015 they returned with their Beyond the Red Mirror album. While it can be said that it is made of awesome as a whole, the final song Grand Parade is a nine-and-half pure epicness from start to finish, even by Blind Guardian standards. And it's even better live.
  • If you became a Blind Guardian fan after playing Robot Unicorn Attack: Heavy Metal Edition, you probably have "Battlefield" playing in your head right now.
• "Don't Say A Word" by Sonata Arctica. Pity about the lyrics.
  • Hell, let's just say their whole discography is made of awesomeness concentrate and leave it at that. Or maybe not. For your consideration, "Black Sheep", "Flag In The Ground" and, damn, freaking "Letter To Dana".
  • The 9-minute epic "White Pearl Black Oceans" deserves a mention too.
  • "Caleb", the prequel song to "Don't Say a Word" and "The End of This Chapter", is a goddamn masterpiece.
• Iron Savior's "Deadly Sleep". Starts out with perhaps the greatest guitar solo known to mankind and only gets better. Iron Savior, a band that truly puts the power in power metal, also has "Wings of Deliverance", which is equally awesome. Also "Titans Of Our Time", and "Tales Of The Bold", because, respectively, a character piece from the perspective of a Mad Scientist and a song about glorifying adventurers are awesome. But then it was written by Kai Hansen!
• van Canto. One Band. One drummer. Five singers. The only Band playing Hero Metal a capella. And doing so awesome.
• "Unleashed" by Epica.
  • "Storm The Sorrow", the perfect mix of well...everything.
  • "Consign to Oblivion (A New Age Dawns part III)". Two albums later, they're still using it as their show closer. There's a reason for this.
  • "Chasing The Dragon" for running the gamut of all they can do with their music.
  • "Martyr Of The Free Word", the key change itself is epic.
  • They also have their own version of "The Imperial March". The entire Jedi Order would have sworn allegiance to the Emperor after hearing this.
  • They took Epic Rocking to another level with "Kingdom Of Heaven".
  • "The Obsessive Devotion" is a song that a whole opera can be played around. It'll take you somewhere else. "Dance Of Fate", "Mother Of Light" and "Death Of A Dream/Living A Lie/Fools OF Damnation" are all WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up there too.
  • The band itself is already epic, but they have taken a step further by covering the the theme songs to Attack on Titan!
• Children of Bodom in general. Half of their songs exist purely to provide a framework around which to build ludicrous guitar and keyboard solos.
• Axel Rudi Pell has released an impressive fourteen studio albums in twenty years of Awesome Music. While the lineup has changed frequently, the band still mantains a consistent and powerful sound. And even with two decades under his belt, Axel shows no sign of slowing down, either. His band has Johnny Gioeli, as in the singer for Crush 40. That's right: the guy who sings most of the songs for freaking Sonic the Hedgehog is in a power metal band. Does it get any more epic than that?
• Hibria's entire Defying the Rules album, especially the title track.
• Avantasia's cover to "Lay All Your Love on Me".
  • Which is just a drop in the bucket for him. Add in "Twisted Mind", "The Toy Master", "The Wicked Symphony", "Dying for an Angel", "The Scarecrow" and "Scales of Justice." What makes this more awesome is that all those songs are from only two of his seven albums.
  • Special note goes to Angel of Babylon's Villain Song, Death is Just a Feeling: majestic, theatrical, and maybe even a touch mournful, all sewn perfectly together by the soaring, ferocious growl of Jon Oliva's vocals.
  • Throw in "Journey to Arcadia" as well. A fantastic ending to the three-album Scarecrow Saga.
  • Moving away from The Wicked Trilogy and into The Metal Opera, there's "Reach Out for the Light", "Breaking Away", "Glory of Rome" and "Avantasia."
  • "The Seven Angels" is fourteen minutes of pure awesome.
  • "The Story Ain't Over" is ostensibly a Break-Up Song, but it's also perfect for falling in Love at First Sight with a Badass Biker.
• A lot of Delain's album April Rain, but particularly the title song and "Invidia"^note no relation .
• Masterplan is a band with many, many, examples, but especially "Crimson Rider", "Far from the End of the World" and "Black in the Burn."
  • "Spirit Never Die":
    NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER GIVE IN! Rise from the fire if you're gonna win! Sing with your soul, soon you'll be old. Fight the demons inside you! THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT CAN BE DONE! Climb every mountain with power so strong. Dusty roads, on the way. Leaving the past behind you!
• Altaria has a lot of epic music, but here are some highlights:
  • "Unchain the Rain": We´ll drown our sorrow to this endless sea. Together we´ll unchain the rain.
  • "Valley of Rainbows": Fallen angel, out of danger give me a sign.
• Stratovarius. For a start, check out "Black Diamond" and "Hunting High and Low". If you're looking for faster material, listen to "Find Your Own Voice". Needless to say, after over 20 years, the band still makes awesome material, such as "Darkest Hours" from their 2011 album Elysium. Add to that "Twilight Symphony", "Father Time", "Eternity", the "Strato"-instrumental trilogy ("Stratovarius", if you can find it; "Stratosphere" and "Stratofortress") and "Elysium", the last of which is a particularly good example of this, Epic Riff and Epic Rocking.
• "Horn of Fate", which is about The Elric Saga. On the subject of Domine, there are many other awesome songs: "The Mass of Chaos", "Dark Emperor", "The Eternal Champion", "True Leader of Men", "The Fall of the Spiral Tower", "Battle Gods", "the Aquilonia Suite", "The Sun of the New Season", "Tempest Calling"...
• Edguy, when they're not singing about banging stewardesses, have made a career out of delivering the awesome. "Vain Glory Opera", "Mysteria", "Angel Rebellion", "Tears of a Mandrake", "Down to the Devil", "Babylon", "Scarlet Rose", "The Spirit Will Remain" ...the list goes on, really.
  • "Out of Control", which is made especially awesome by being a collab with Blind Guardian.
  • "Hymn", which takes a song by Ultravox and utterly blasts it out of the park.
  • "Theater of Salvation" may well be Edguy's answer to "Bohemian Rhapsody". Twelve minutes of pure awesome.
• Gamma Ray as a whole, especially their No World Order album, with pieces like "New World Order", "Follow Me" and "Lake of Tears" in particular.
  • Then there's the jaw-dropping awesomeness of "Lust for Life".
  • And from Majestic, how about "Blood Religion"?
• Sanctuary's debut is one 40-minute celebration of the Metal Scream. And it is AWESOME.
• Katra's "One Wish Away". Bonus points for awesome video. Most of her songs deserve mention here, especially "Tietaja", "Beast Within", "Grail of Sahara" and "Out of the Ashes".
• Lost Horizon's "Highlander The One" is this all the way through, but it has several moments that are there to blow you away, for instance 'HIS SWORD, SOLE COMPANION! AALLLLWAAAAAAYYYSS THEEEEEEREEEE!!!' and, of course, that amazing vocal solo near the end. The sheer epicness of that vocal solo was parodied by PelleK/Johanson in Nothing But Metal where they claim to be so skilled that they can warm up their vocal chords by singing "Highlander", as it is child's play for them, apparently. To summarize: WHOA-OH-OH-AH-AH-AAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHOA-OH-OH-AH-AH-AAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• Queensrÿche - "Queen Of The Reich", Tate's performance on this track makes even Halford and Dickinson at their prime blush.
• Freedom Call, another German band, has some pretty awesome music, too. Take "Warriors of Light" or "Warriors" as examples, especially when the guitar solos come in. PURE AWESOME.
  • Starlight, which takes a love song and enhances it with the Power of Rock.
  • But perhaps king of them all is "Metal is for Everyone", a song that is basically one long Badass Boast for every Power Metal song out there.
    Welcome to a metal wonderland
    Where all as one unite
    Hear vikings, dragons, wise men say
    Raise your hands up high
• Versailles has many great songs, but of note is "Faith & Decision", which, as sixteen-and-a-half minutes of pure awesome, is an Epic Rocking song that truly lives up to the trope name.
• "The Voyage", by Timeless Miracle. How a 14-minute song manages to be this catchy defies description. All of their other music is similarly epic.
• Primal Fear's "Soar" has got to have one of the best opening riffs in power metal history.
• Lonewolf's two last albums (Made in Hell and Army of the Damned) count as pure awsomeness. Some tracks that deserve mentioning are: "Divine Art of Lies", "Sea Wolf", "Lonewolf", "Army of the Damned"... and a hell of a lot of others that would fill an entire paragraph.
• Theocracy makes christian music that is actually good. "I AM" is eleven minutes of poetic epicness. Other amazing tracks are "Mirror of Souls" and "Tower of Ashes".
• Gloryhammer (including Christopher Bowes of Alestorm on keyboards) basically take every power metal trope and turn it up to eleven. Fast paced drums? Check. Fake-orchestral keyboards? Check. Vocals that range from low growls to high pitch wails? Check. Ridiculous costumes? Oh so very much check (the lead singer wears GREEN LEATHER PLATE ARMOUR! In the second album he is pretty much dressed as Iron Lantern).
  • High fantasy concept albums? Their first album tells the story of Scottish warrior Angus McFife and his quest to find the Hammer of Glory and the Amulet of Justice, and use them to defeat the evil wizard Zargothrax and his army of undead unicorns. Ridiculous song titles? The first song on their first album is called "The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee", and the last is called "The Epic Rage of Furious Thunder". Yes, they are admittedly basically a parody of Power Metal, but it's a very silly, tongue-in-cheek, "yeah we know it's stupid, but we love it so we're gonna indulge in it" kind of parody. Not to mention, their music is genuinely very awesome, once you get into the swing of how ridiculous it all is. They deserve extra points for not only being so absurdly ridiculous, that they're actually awesome, but also for being one of the few Power Metal bands to actually create a complete, comprehensive and compelling story and telling the whole story in one album.
  • Their second album, Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards, has Angus McFife returning to stop Zargothrax from destroying the entire universe. The epic finale has Angus, a Hologram and a cyborg barbarian King of California duking it out with an army space demons from the 18th hell dimension.
• While its classification as power metal is sometimes debated, This Godless Endeavor by Nevermore is one of the best metal albums of the 2000s. It manages to have some truly catchy songs while also proving that you don't need to mostly use Harsh Vocals to be brutal as hell.
• "Inside the Circle", by Solar Fragment. Star Wars metal, featuring Hansi Kürsch as the voice of Emperor Palpatine.
• British power metal band Neonfly, who describe themselves as 'stadium metal', are all over this trope.
  • "A Gift to Remember" from their first album, Outshine the Sun. That chorus is impossible not to sing along to.
  • Also from Outshine the Sun, "Ship With no Sails". Especially the bit from 4:03 to 4:23.
  • From their second album (Strangers in Paradise), "Whispered Dreams". "FIRE! FIRE! I'LL BE WAITING BY YOUR FUNERAL PYRE!"
  • "Heart of the Sun", also from Strangers in Paradise. It's about - of all things - a 16th-century Spanish conquistador called Lope de Aguirre. The 'we're the wrath of god' line even comes from something he supposedly once said, as does the 'princes of freedom' line.
• Powerwolf is a Power Metal band whose music is about Transylvanian Catholic werewolf warrior priests who come to life at night to battle the forces of Hell. If that sounds like the single most metal thing you've ever read, here's "Army Of The Night" and "Blessed & Possessed" to get you started.
• Throw a dart anywhere at the Manilla Road discography and you're guaranteed to hit a song that'll downright compel you to don your sword and axe for the glory of Valusia. They aren't considered the Trope Makers of "epic metal" for nothing.
  • "Necropolis" from Crystal Logic (one of the albums that comprised the genesis of power metal as a whole) is probably Manilla Road's most famous song, and it's no wonder why it has such staying power as an absolute classic of the whole genre. From the driving, almost thrashy rhythm section practically made for headbanging to the masterful retelling of The Shadow Kingdom delivered through Mark Shelton's quirky but inspiringly energetic Skeletor-esque vocals ("Lost in Necroooooopolis! LOST IN NECROOOOOPOLIS!"), you can't help feeling like the king of Valusia yourself after listening.
  • The following album, Open the Gates, gives us METALSTRÖM! Everything that was already so glorious about "Necropolis" is taken to the extreme in a short but magnificent tapestry equal parts thrashy, epic, and melodic. Mark's vocals on both this song and the album as a whole have matured into stunning baritone roars that suit the more aggressive edge perfectly, a trend that only heightens in the coming albums.
• Axxis is a lesser known band with a very distinct sound and powerful sound with fantastic songs such as "Utopia", "Blood Angel" and "Talisman" to name just a few that can leave one banging their head uncontrollably. The aptly named "Rock is My Religion" is somewhat softer than their usual fare but acts as a giant Badass Boast for the metal genre itself.
• Unicorn's "Vampyrial" acts a three course meal, starting itself with a slow and steady buildup acting as the appetizer before exploding into pure power metal goodness in the middle as the main course and then finally settling down with a slower segment as the dessert to bring the song to a close.

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