Everything Dream Theater

[CDFN]

I never liked power metal. It's just so damn cheesy, most of it just makes me cringe.

[Prime Mover]

I'm mostly talking the old stuff like Iron Maiden, and old bands which eventually became prog (like Fates Warning). Not really that cheesy. It's when it got taken in by hairmetal bands did it really get terrible. Arguably, PM was the original precursor to Prog Metal. Old DT is pretty much like an Iron Maiden clone with more virtuosity. Iron Maiden went on to do epics, concept albums, and odd time sigs, effectively becoming prog (Bruce Dickenson uses the term quite often).

[CDFN]

Oh, I love IM and FW, I was thinking about stuff like stratovarius.

[Prime Mover]

Strat isn't power metal. Well... I mean, I guess they are, but they're kind of a horrible offshoot: "virtuoso metal", I guess I would call it. I used to have a number of albums from bands like that back in the day... I hated all of them (not sure why I got them in the first place). Rhapsody, Strat, and a few others I can't remember. Horrid stuff. But most powermetal fans will be quick to disassociate themselves with those.

The cornerstone powermetal bands are probably Iron Maiden, Helloween, and Iced Earth, along with a lot of bands that are now classified as prog (Symphony X, Fates Warning, to name a few). Obviously, there's a fine line with powermetal into complete and utter cheeseball rock. Quite a few powermetal bands cross into that, but the good ones are able to mostly stay away from it.

I guess the definition of powermetal are things that would probably be considered, by today's standards "hard rock". It's more a direct descendant of the old 1970s metal bands like Sabbath and Deep Purple. It's dramatic, often pretty "fun", and tends to stay away from personal angsting.

I really feel that if you're going to be that angry sounding, it should be done with a large grain of salt. Power Metal bands are all about over-the-top drama, where-as I think thrash bands really get caught up in actually being aggressive and angry, at least it sounds like it to me.

Anger and aggression can be a fun means to high energy, but at the end of the day, it's really hard to believe that it's REAL, there-for I prefer a large dose of "nudge nudge, wink wink" with my metal. Devy and Maiden offer that in spades, which is why I love both, even if they're really different.