Something that I’ve noticed happening over the past few years now in increasing frequency is the propagation of what I’m going to umbrella term as “dumb power metal”. If you’re a power metal detractor, this is where you’ll chime in with some goofball interjection of “but Pigeon, all power metal is dumb“, and to you I’ll say, take a hike (or you know, stick around and hear me out). My definition of dumb power metal is a broad one for sure, but I’ll point to a recent moment as a singular example of what I’m trying to illustrate here, that being Angus McSix’s track “Laser-Shooting Dinosaur” off their debut album Angus McSix and the Sword of Power. This is the new band formed by former Gloryhammer vocalist Thomas Winkler, whose singing I enjoyed in that band, and despite having little interest in the also purposefully silly lore that streaked through that band’s own albums, I was able to appreciate that Christopher Bowes was at least writing some well crafted power metal, reductive for sure, but memorable and charming in it’s own way. But in retrospect, I think the success of Gloryhammer might be screwing us as power metal fans in the long run, because when that band was alone in that lane, they came across as a quirky outlier that you’d tag with adjectives such as “fun” or “campy”, while giving them credit as a musically credible parody act. Yet their commercial success was undeniable, bringing with it a host of copycats, and that lane has become crowded with a handful of bands that are pushing the limits of silliness towards outright stupidity. And as a result, I suspect that to many new power metal fans, this is what they think this genre is. And to this power metal fan anyway, that makes me sad.
I’ll be the first to admit that throughout the history of power metal, there’s been a lot of ridiculous concepts both thematically and lyrically that have pockmarked otherwise fine bands and albums… the kinds that we’d just gloss over and ignore on purpose because the music was so enjoyable. There’s no denying that the lyrics on the first two Hammerfall albums aren’t deeply intellectual, they’re riding that mix of fantasy tropes and basic heavy metal brotherhood stuff that has been a part of metal tradition since the early days of Dio and Priest. But they weren’t childishly stupid either. I was driving to work when I first listened to that aforementioned Angus McSix album, and I just remember sitting at a red light feeling more and more annoyed at the vapidity that was pouring out of my speakers before I disgustedly switched over to sports radio. I say this fully admitting that perhaps I’m sounding like a grumpy old(er) power metal fan but I’ve started to hit that point of not giving a damn about that. One of my favorite power metal bands is Edguy, I’ve been a fan since the late 90s, and they had baked into them that Helloween-like tendency to pack a touch of humor in their albums, as on “Save Us Now” off Mandrake (an otherwise somber-toned album), or on the 80s hard rock pastiche “Lavatory Love Machine” off Hellfire Club (complete with absurd music video). Nothing about tracks like those felt forced, it felt like humor that radiated off the personalities of the band members themselves, those early 2000s audio interviews of a wise-cracking, goofy Tobias Sammet being ample evidence of that. It was also merely one aspect of their work, this being the same band that released the deeply introspective and spiritual Theater of Salvation.
So many fantastic bands echoed that spirit of indulging in a little bit of refreshing silliness, Blind Guardian with all their covers of classic rock songs such as the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, or their even more surreal cover of “Mr. Sandman” (I’ll never get over hearing Hansi singing “make her the cutest that I’ve ever seen”). The aforementioned originators in Helloween wrote the cartoonish rock n’ roll road anthem “Lost In America” on their 2015 album My God Given Right, where they wonder aloud if they should “plunder the sky bar”. Iron Maiden had a few of them too, dunking on manager Rod Smallwood with “Sheriff of Huddersfield”, or the absurd “Black Bart Blues”. Dragonforce largely used generic fantasy adjacent lyrics to the point of nullifying any meaning still played it straight faced, with their lyrics being almost placeholder vignettes for you to interject yourself into however you saw fit — and their reimagining of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” was funny not just because it was a cover of one of the most overplayed romantic ballads in history, but for the extra layer of just how perfect it fit as a Dragonforce song. Ditto for Sonata Arctica’s cover of “The Wind Beneath My Wings”. Point is that one, I’m not a humorless, po-faced grump shaking his fist at the idea of silliness in power metal or metal in general; and two, that when done right, its really endearing.
In retrospect and I suspect even at the time, all those little moments of humor just made me appreciate those bands all the more because it smacked of genuineness, the willingness to pull down the mask a bit and reveal a bit about who they were as people offstage. So when I see so much of power metal heading into this lazy, cheap laughs getting, nerd-audience baiting direction, it sorta explains why I’ve felt so unenthusiastic about the state of power metal as a whole over the past few years (the positive enthusiasm I felt at the beginning of the 2010s has definitely dissipated). As one of the frequent contributors at the r/PowerMetal discord put it, “Silliness is fine in PM, it’s just when it goes too far and you get bands doing “The Sword of Poo Poo Pee Pee”, and you can just tell there’s nothing behind it“. Exactly, there’s nothing behind it. Sadder than the Angus McSix Laser Dinosaur song was it reminding me about the career trajectory of Victorius, a once promising power metal band that broke onto the scene in 2014 with a strong debut in Dreamchaser, followed up by two other pretty good albums, only to see them take a turn for the dumb in 2018 with their EP Dinosaur Warfare – Legend of the Power Saurus. They followed it up with the Space Ninjas From Hell album, and their last record was Dinosaur Warfare Pt2. – The Great Ninja War. Of course.
I guess this makes me an old power metal fan, because it seems like a lot of discussions on the r/PowerMetal subreddit initiated by new fans to the subgenre are people who are mostly attracted to stuff like this and the likes of Gloryhammer (of course, and understood), Grailknights, Wind Rose, Rumahoy, or frigging Hevisaurus. Hey maybe I’m wrong and it’s selective vision on my part… but I kinda doubt it. Because it’s very reminiscent to what happened to folk metal around ten to fifteen years back when the genre went from gorgeous, haunting, mystique soaked music to humppa abusing drinking songs and Finntroll wearing elf-ears onstage the next time I saw them on tour (still the most disappointing live show I’ve ever seen), years after they were recording blistering blackened folk metal albums that were amazing. The hope as always is that these newcomer fans will eventually stick around long enough to discover the actual depth that does exist within power metal, with amazing bands and records that aren’t dealing in the most basic nerd-baiting nonsense just for clicks and views. If you’re still of the position that I need to lighten up and relax, promptly piss off, I’ve been listening to metal for a long time and I’m allowed to think some of this crap is just that, disposable garbage that shouldn’t be representing the face of the subgenre. But what can I do, apart from spill my thoughts on this blog… because no matter how much I’ve come to loathe it, the plastic swords and hammers and spiky plastic colorful body armor will continue, on stage and in the crowd and it will get dumber and dumber until that aforementioned “The Sword of Poo Poo Pee Pee” will become an actual song title, and not just a pointed jab in a Discord channel.
So I’ll do the only thing here that I can do, because I can see that this trend isn’t going away anytime soon, not as long as there are gullible droves who’ll lap up every ironic second of it. I’ll recommend an amazing, old school power metal album that was just released this year that has artistic depth, a serious disposition, and features the vocal talents of one of the genre’s most overlooked greats in Daniel Heiman, this being the sophomore album by Greece’s Sacred Outcry, Towers of Gold. This is it everyone, this is the most convincingly well done old school pure power metal record I’ve heard in a very long time. I say pure power metal because while in the past few years I’ve crowned albums by both Seven Spires and Dialith as my albums of the year, those bands are doing crossover power metal fusions; Spires with melodic death metal elements and Dialith blending symphonic and gothic metal into their power metal swirls — all wonderful in their own right for sure, but not examples of classical power metal the way Sacred Outcry is doing it. The weird thing about Sacred Outcry is that it was a project hatched in the late 90s that did some demos back in the day but didn’t put out a debut until 2020 with Yannis Papadopoulos on vocals (yeah that Yannis!), a debut that is just as excellent as it’s successor by the way (I didn’t realize Yannis had this kinda performance in him, but anyway back to Daniel and the new one). I can’t express to you all just how happy Sacred Outcry’s Towers of Gold makes me, it’s like someone finally pushed the curtain back a bit and let through some glorious autumn sunlight into this summer darkened dreary room (yeah that’s reality with 100 degree temperatures, summer fun my ass, the Beach Boys can go to hell).
I was wondering who besides the mighty Heiman was responsible for such an incredible record, that surely someone with power metal bonafides was pulling the songwriting strings. Surprise of surprises, its George Apalodimas of The Eternal Suffering, one of the most unheralded symphonic black metal bands that released one of my favorite records in the genre, Miasma, to virtually no acclaim in 2010 except for the few people who were trying to download a supposed leak of Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadabra off Soulseek before it was released and ended up with it instead because of someone intentionally mislabeling mp3s (for a few weeks there people were mistakenly raving about how awesome the new Dimmu was on the UltimateMetal.com forums and who knows where else, until Dimmu released the “Gateways” single and the jig was up). God what the memory holds onto. Anyway, figures that it would take a symphonic black metal dude to start delivering new power metal here in the dawn of the post-pandemic era that might just have the power to re-focus this subgenre and renew the faith of old hands like myself. Fortunately there are also some people within the power metal world who are also contributing to the fight against “dumb power metal”, like the guys in Saint Deamon, whose League of the Serpent is an incredible power metal release that came out back in April and has been on my recent heavy rotation (featuring the underrated talents of Jan Thore Grefstad, Highland Glory’s first vocalist). I’ll also shout out here the new album Hellriot by Mystic Prophecy, a band as eternal and reliable as any in the power metal/thrash sphere and doing an admirable job of filling the void left behind by Tad Morose and others in that heavier vein.
I realize I’ve been complaining quite a bit here, so I’ll conclude things on a positive note by saying that I think there’s something to be hopeful about. On Metallum, Towers of Gold already has 8 reviews posted for it, a pretty high number for an album that just came out in late May by a very underground band, and that’s an encouraging sign that word is spreading, and of course that those reviews are just as glowing as I feel when I listen to it. Recently, in reading posts and talking to fellow power metal fans, I’ve been feeling that there is a growing undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the direction that the subgenre’s heading in, and that there’s an increasingly vocalized urge to find stuff that’s it’s exact opposite (be it in sound or spirit). That may result in more people checking out progressive metal for the former, just to find something that satisfies sonically, but regarding the latter, I think there are people in bands working on new material that also feel the same way. I’m encouraged by a demo I listened to recently from a new power metal project called Glyph which is very promising. Year end list maker Fellowship released a strong debut album and there’s the promise of new music in the future from them, and there’ a new Spires album in development as well. We’re for sure in a drought of quality power metal lately, but there are a few rain showers here and there, hopefully it’ll start pouring down soon to help wash the dumb away.
August 31, 2023
I must admit, I find this article refreshing because I feel much the same way.
I’m not against humor in power metal, but it can get old quickly. I’ve never been particularly fond of Alestorm, Wind Rose are better when not doing ironic covers of meme songs (I did think “Stonehymn” was mostly good!), and *do not get me started on those last couple Victorius albums* – I agree, they’re garbage, lol. Angus McSix isn’t anything particularly great and Winkler seems like an asshole considering what went down between him and Gloryhammer – then again, Chris Bowes has had his asshole moments too (see: those racist “joke” texts that got leaked).
I thought that Fellowship album was great (and r/powermetal raving about it is why I checked it out lol) – very catchy, very nice melodies and very earnest. They seem like they’re having fun and they aren’t resorting to cheap jokes to do it. I also thought last year’s Edenbridge album “Shangri-La” was pretty damn good – nice riffing, good orchestration and Sabine’s unique vocals all make for an enjoyable symphonic power metal experience.
Also, I will now check out that Sacred Outcry album and see if I like it. Thanks for the heads up.
September 1, 2023
Yeah it gets old quickly, also when the best of the lot came out of the gates first (Gloryhammer), all the rest of it seems so superfluous anyway. Good call on that Edenbridge album, they’re also one of those bands that deserves commendation for sticking to their guns and being very consistent over the years, that was a good record too. I think you’ll appreciate Sacred Outcry, I will say that it’s a bit dense at first, so if it doesn’t take in the first listen keep at it. Appreciate you reading and commenting! \m/
September 2, 2023
Wow, what a great read!
I agree with everything you wrote here. I started my power metal band, Luminator, a few years ago. We were influenced by Stratovarius, Manowar, Edguy and Symphony X. We have a great medieval fantasy concept, plenty of harpsichords and choirs, big falsetto screams, harmony guitars leads, high energy drums; everything you expect from the power metal label.
Yet that’s not what the market wants.
All the top power metal bands right now are four-on-the-floor dance metal or gimmick cheese metal. These are supposed to be our power metal ambassadors, our industry leaders? What happened to the fast anthemic sing along chorus, the keyboard/guitar dueling solos, the speed?
Recently we recently opened for Rhapsody of Fire, Windrose, and Seven Kingdoms. A majority of the crowd was there for Diggy Diggy Hole. There went crazy for that song, but mellowed out when RHAPSODY, the headliner, pioneers of the genre, came on stage? What is going on?!
I respect the gimmick bands but they need a different label from Power Metal. It isn’t powerful, and it isn’t even metal anymore. Maybe “fantasy rock” would be more appropriate. Or whatever Gwar is labeled.
I appreciate you making this detailed post. It’s hard (as someone in this genre) to speak on these things, as I would look like a salty/jealous baby. It’s nice to see I’m not alone. Hopefully the market swings around and the spirit of power metal is heard again.
Some current bands I think are doing a great job are Veonity, Immortal Guardian, Lör, and Civil War (Carpenter on vocals has been a great improvement).
I know there’s hope, we just gotta get the good stuff to the listeners!
September 2, 2023
Thanks for commenting, and I’ve added your EP to my playlist to check out! I’m okay with taking the salty/jealous baby heat in this case, being just a fan making an observation. Agreed on the respecting bands who deserve it — I respect Gloryhammer for the sheer detail and craft they’re putting into what is still essentially parody power metal, I even think Nanowar of Steel do put some effort into their silliness, much like the real Manowar put forth effort (yet come across as silly despite not intending too). I like that there’s avenues in power metal that can put a smile on our collective faces, but I value effort too. A band like Twilight Force is putting a lot into what they’re doing and it shows, I think its just the lazy, low-effort stuff out there that bums me out. I hope that people getting into that stuff will eventually check out the quality stuff like Rhapsody at some point and really delve deep into the genre, that’s really all we can hope for so bands like yours get the support too.
September 2, 2023
Thanks!
Nicko made a great point about nerd culture becoming pop culture. The thing to remember about pop culture is that it changes quickly. The gimmicky bands will burn bright and short. Sure, ninja space dinosaur stuff is awesome the first two times, but is it sustainable?
Fans of “lol random/awesome sauce” content move on quickly. Maybe tomorrow it’s ninja cats in a rap video, or a new meme about wizards and orbs, or a new wave of music for gnomes.
Yes, it’s cool to be cheesy now, but that’ll change, and the original power metal people will remain. We may never achieve commercial success, but that’s not typically a driving factor. There was no market for power metal when it was created, it was just born of passionate people who loved fantasy, melody, and energy. I’m sure Luca Turelli didn’t start wearing flowing blouses and playing neoclassical scales because it would be profitable or marketable.
I think you can make a case study of 3 bands and their impact:
1. One Hit Wonder
Windrose were dwarves long before Diggy Hole, and that’ll continue, even after the popularity of that meme dies. Minor commercial success through a “meme song”.
2. Change Theme, Confuse Fans
Gloryhammer leaned hard into the “fantastical” theme, losing their medieval roots. From castles, to holographic sorcerers, to riding unicorns through space? Band loses original fanbases, scrambles to keep the newest fans, stuck in a difficult situation where everyone loses.
3. Genre Leader/Ambassador
Sabaton carved out an entire new definition for power metal. Today, many of the top pm bands follow in Sabaton’s footsteps. No more major scale, no guitar solo battles, no keyboard solos, slow down the drums and put a kick drum on every beat. Hell, most don’t even cover fantasy themes anymore! Sabaton is the biggest power metal band for the last few years, yet I find it difficult to say these guys play the same genre as Helloween, Kamelot, or Blind Guardian. But did Helloween ever need 9 buses, 12 trucks, and 1 tank for a tour? Commercial success can change the definition of our genre just like that!
That’s a lot of words to come back to the point that maybe this is what “power metal” is now: dumb.
Or maybe we’re dumb for holding onto the old ways.
“Back in my day, power metal was about dragons and battles and fair maidens….”
We’re starting to sound old!
September 2, 2023
Gloryhammer never really vibed with me, so its copy-cat spinoffs don’t have a chance in hell of pleasing my ears.
I think what’s happened in the last few years is that nerd-culture has completely taken over pop culture. You’re no longer a weirdo for liking superheroes, dragons and magic. Since you’re no longer shamed for it, there’s a lot of more out-and-out nerds out there now. However, such nerds aren’t going to be natural metal heads, yet the stuff of power metal is very nerdy.
So I think some power metal bands have decided to “bridge the gap” in the market and by making their music catchier, easier to listen to and more accessible they can reach this larger more profitable audience; or as you call it “nerd-baiting”. I do like that term.
September 2, 2023
I think you’re onto something with the nerd observation… I remember as early as in the first half of the 2010s when Power Glove were support on some power metal tours, the crowd for those shows did tend non-metalhead and it was a very different vibe, not bad mind you but just noticeably different. I have seen some of the comments towards my article on reddit and Facebook talking about how someone misses the heaviness in power metal, that a lot of these “dumb” power metal bands are relying on heavy synths, simplistic riffing, and glossy pop production to the detriment of actually introducing anything truly heavy into their sound. It’s definitely leagues apart from something like Tad Morose’s Modus Vivendi for sure. I’d like to see heaviness return to more power metal as well, it doesn’t always have to be vocal melody dominated music.
September 2, 2023
Doubt you’d say any of this to our faces.
September 2, 2023
Wha…? That I like your single? Of course I would. Looking forward to hearing more.
September 6, 2023
You may be overlooking something, Pigeon. The silly direction that power metal is headed in may be an attempt to market to children. As a parent, that’s what I think of when I hear about laser dinosaurs and space ninjas.
Consider Sabaton’s audience (though they have denied being a power metal band in the past, many people consider them to be such). My husband and I attended one of their concerts purely for the vastly superior opening band, and we were shocked at the sheer number of tween boys and their families attending. We spoke to many of them, and noted the Sabaton t-shirts they wore. Market to the children and you may well hit the jackpot: not only do you wring tickets out of the kids, but also tickets out of the parents who must attend with them. It’s like a two-for-one deal.
I compare the silliness of contemporary power metal to the all-too-often-seen shift in many symphonic metal bands to playing generic pop or rock over time: Bands want to make money, and some (many?) will do whatever it takes to reach that end. Make goofy songs to sell to kids, switch from playing a heavy metal sub-genre to pop music and trot out the overused canards about “trying new things” and “staying fresh/relevant” – in the end, it’s all for the money. Power metal, symphonic metal, etc. have limited fan bases. Expand into generic music or kids’ music and the odds of hitting pay dirt increase.
But by the same token, bands need to bend a little if they want to get their music out there. Wind Rose has taken some flak here, but I argue that Diggy Diggy Hole is a marketing approach that works with today’s silliness-obsessed audience. I found them through an ad on YouTube for “dwarf metal”, and as a Tolkien nerd the idea of that amused me greatly. However, Wind Rose has not stuck to this type of music: Their latest album Warfront has no such songs at all, or even any humorous ones, and it’s great album. Diggy Diggy Hole served as a launchpad for this band; without it, it may have taken much longer to reach as many fans, or it may never have happened at all. Sometimes, you have to work with your potential audience, but this does not necessarily precipitate more modern power metal goofiness.
The fans who want the silliness – many or even most of whom may be children – are in charge now. But like all other trends, this will not last.
September 28, 2023
The phenomenon of kids going to Sabaton shows is something that I’ve noticed since the band’s early days of touring the states back in 2012 onwards, and the band leaned into it with the bringing them on stage stuff, Joakim handing out his sunglasses, etc. It was a clever thing that fans began to get the word out on and it drew more people to bring their kids to the shows, and I think Sabaton are generally well meaning guys as well in that regard. I’m sure other power metal bands have done it (I’ve seen kids at other gigs, Sonata and Hammerfall to name a few), but Sabaton really made it a part of the show — but what they didn’t do is dumb down the lyrical aspect of their music (whether or not their kick drum laden musical sound is “dumb” is certainly a fiery debate in power metal circles).
Similarly, you’ll notice I didn’t really mention Windrose in the article because yeah I agree, one goofy cover of an internet meme song that happened to go viral doesn’t disqualify the fact that Windrose 99.99% of the time are releasing music that they take very very seriously. I even like some of their albums a decent bit, not a favorite band mind you but I think their concept is intriguing (as a Tolkien nerd myself) and they do a good job. “Diggy diggy hole” is a ridiculous song, but it’s also just one song, they didn’t just abruptly change their entire musical direction and start writing idiotic, dumbed down nerd baiting lyrics to capitalize on it’s success.
The difference between those two bands and something like the inane Laser/Ninja/Dinosaur lowest common nerd-baiting denominator stuff is that there’s nothing behind that stuff, its shallow and low effort. I suppose it’d be one thing if they really were intentionally marketing towards kids in an overt way (I suppose I should’ve given Hevisaurus a break then…) as a children’s act but they’re not. And the bands that we all grew up loving as power metal fans didn’t have to resort to such pablum to get the attention of an audience — I suppose it brings up the question of whether or not these tactics are absolutely necessary in the present day where attention spans are spliced into tiny slivers spread across a plethora of things. If that’s true then yeah, I guess I’m getting old and ranting about things changing, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong either. The good news to me is that like I mentioned, there are others, loads of others who are sick of all this cheap, “dumb” stuff and are making an effort to produce and promote its opposite, and I’ll be one of those from here on out.
September 23, 2023
I will say Grailknights new album across the galaxy went in quite a ballsy direction as it seems to lean way more on the melodic death metal in terms of vocals compared to thier older albums which were mostly clean power ranger themed metal that used harsh vocals sparingly(usually in the villain songs like rise of the dark knight or black spiders web).
September 28, 2023
I guess I’ll have to give it a shot… I remember Grailknights as a passing curiosity way back in the day, a band that seemed to write sometimes straight-faced music (albeit steeped in Grailknights lore, whatever that is), but just dressed outlandishly. It’s possible they’re a cut above the rest of the bands I cited in the article, I should give them a chance again at least.
November 4, 2023
I know I’m a tad late to the party, but I want to give my two cents. I generally agree with what you’re saying. It does seem power metal is in danger of becoming a novelty genre, when it is capable of so much more. Lately I’ve been listening to more US power metal, and I can’t help but wonder if the recent excessive silliness on the European side has subconsciously influenced that shift. That said, there’s still a lot of stuff on that side of the pond I enjoy. Blind Guardian has remained one of my favorite bands because, occasional silly covers aside, they make powerful, meaningful songs that have resonated with me over the years. Of course, it’s possible for a power metal band to just be fun without being “dumb”. Twilight Force embodies every power metal cliche in the book, but they play it so straight that it works.
I also want to chime in regarding your remarks on folk metal. While I did wince a bit when Finntroll started wearing those ears, I personally think they’re still quite good musically. I do agree though that the genre has unfortunately become saturated with drinking songs. I don’t mind the occasional drinking or tavern number, but I think it’s best to limit them to one per album. However, I firmly believe there is still “gorgeous, haunting, mystique soaked” folk metal being made. For me the new Cruachan album fits the bill.
November 4, 2023
Thanks for reading, no matter how late! Yeah I agree with your larger point that there is good power metal still happening, almost in a way as a reaction to the silliness that’s been prevalent among many prominent bands. I’m very surprised this morning to listen to the new Serenity album, and hear them ditching the dumbed down arena metal approach they’ve been coasting on for the past two albums in favor of something far more substantial and emotive. So hope abounds in that regard I suppose. As for the folk metal thing, I’ve actually been thinking that folk metal has had a nascent movement of really great, serious, rootsy releases by credible artists over the past few years, and yeah I loved that Cruachan album so friggin much, I’m still listening to it all these months later. They’re one of those bands that seemingly stuck to their guns and never went the way of cheap thrills to gain an audience. I’m not sure about Finntroll anymore, Ur jordens djup was a refreshing more blacker album for them but that was ages back, and yeah you’re right that their albums since have played it straight, I just don’t get why they come off as so gimmicky live. It didn’t help that they were all drunk off their gourd at that show too, almost as if to lean into the whole drunken troll thing.
January 3, 2024
Late to the party vol.2
I heard a term ‘Wackenisation of Power Metal’ to describe bands that try gimmicks to get to good spot on Wacken Festival and get the boost to their career there. It happened to folk metal before, power metal soon after, now we’re at the high of ‘wackenisation metalcore’ with bands like Necrogoblikon or Electric Callboy. Luckily it turns around after a while. I find current wave of polish folk metal really refreshing and for the most part really good without being too cheesy. Albums like: Helroth – ‘I, Pagan’ Cronica – ‘Ukony’, fantastic Łysa Góra – ‘W Ogniu Świat’ in more ambient style: Weljar – ‘Tur’. List goes on. My band Likho joined the wave with our debut album ‘I Am The End’ lately and while we also have our share of cheesy drinking songs (ekhm ekhm The Beerholder) I hope we won’t come down as a joke band but it looks like our ‘serious’ songs are doing well
January 21, 2024
Oh I remember all too well what happened to folk metal many years back, and that term “Wackenisation” is a good one I might steal hah, yeah it definitely is happening to power metal now. I’m taking note of those bands you listed to check them out because as you’ve pointed out, folk metal has started to slowly turn things around with some really inspired new releases in the past half decade, and with power metal there is really great new albums coming out that have that fiery old spirit in them like Sacred Outcry and even lighter stuff like Skyblazer, with heart on sleeve earnestness and just real passion, so hopefully the power metal turnaround is already in progress and will be quicker than folk metal. Will check out Likho — as I wrote in the article I dont think the occasional lighthearted tune is a problem, I love bands who do that. It’s the bands who make it their entire point of existence that I find just utterly overdone, boring, and pointless in that “why am I listening to this?” kinda way.
January 4, 2024
[…] 19th, 2023 | No Remorse Records] — It ain’t “Sworn in the Metal Wind,” but after reading Metal Pigeon‘s rant about power metal not taking power metal seriously anymore, I checked out Sacred Outcry. […]
February 5, 2024
It is interesting that for some power metal just like myself the dumbness is in other subgenres -glam metal, black metal, some trash metal- and we love this genre because it can be more serious -precisely due to the references to fantasy, history, and folk tales, and due to the neoclassical approach. Not only Power Metal can be dumb. Depending on the subgenre we are into, metal fans accept or not the dumbness that somehow is inevitable in the genre.
February 6, 2024
Once again I am reminded of the saying “Opinions are like assholes”. ..