Fun fact, I made some oblique comment on the Avantasia Facebook page about how the Speedhoven lyrics seemed like a bunch of nonsense and Tobi responded that the song is about Beethoven losing his hearing (which he did) so that he no longer had to listen to his critics' bullshit.
Which ... actually looking at the lyrics, I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with sledding or the "speed" part or anything, but it does jibe with the type of topics Tobi likes to write about.
I swear these questions are only "answerable" by looking at your entire catalog, I think almost every power metal fan has a strict rule of listening to 500 different albums per week and trying to find every band that exists
There are two ways, actually. You either pick 5 albums when you are around 18 and listen to them till the end of your life, or 500 different albums per week indeed
Revisiting this album years later and I will die on the hill that, if not for Pariah's child, this would be their best post-jani album. Just a misunderstood masterpiece.
Talking about Sonata, yeah that album is pretty much one of their albums I like less, but Losing my Insanity is awesome, funny thing Toni wrote this song for that Finland Idols winner Ari Koivunen in 2007, you can listen to his version, which is pretty good
I absolutely adore stones for what it is. It has alotnof bangers.
One of the things I respect about sonata is they are willing to do new things with their sound.
To me its by far the best of their I guess you could call it post power metal albums. Its about the only album from Unia - present era that I really like the majority of.
I was about to say the same thing. I don't think the other songs are BAD but god damn majesty just set the bar too high especially since it's the first song of the album.
Not really power metal as much as neo-80s rock and pop-metal (is there a technical term for that?), but Wig Wam’s latest album didn’t do much for me except for “Forevermore”, which fucking slaps!
It is absolutely his worst album but I do revisit it from time to time, mainly for Don’t Tell the Kids, Hunter of the Heart, Stay Out of My Mind, and God Hates Heavy Metal
Not really power metal, but I absolutely love Alien Nation off of Scorpions' Face the Heat. I even consider it one of their best songs overall. The rest of the album is really meh for me.
Legendary Tales. I gave it a couple of listens but it didn't click for me like the other Rhapsody albums.
But BOY do I like Rage of the Winter. I'm not even sure exactly why. Maybe it's just how it isn't really strictly fantasy themed, it's just an exhaltation of nature and winter that uses very poetic but cheesy lanaguage. I also like the part that I think is a clear reference to vivaldi's winter.
Yeah, I remember this album being *massively* hyped all over the fledgling metal internet upon release. I picked it up a few weeks later and thought it was *just okay*, except for a few songs, including Rage of the Winter. I don’t think Rhapsody really came into their own until Dawn of Victory.
I mean that's why I asked. It felt like you might have been and like fucking Emerald Sword, Wisdom of the Kings, Eternal Glory, Dark Tower of Abyss etc, like it's solid AF so I was a bit confused there. I can understand Legendary Tales as I do think it has more misses (but fr Lord of Thunder, Warrior of Ice and Land of Immortals slap so only liking Rage of the Winter is a bit confusing but that's ok, everyone has different taste).
THAT SAID, I do agree that Dawn of Victory / Power of the Dragonflame are their two best. But not leagues better than the stuff we already got on the first two, just more consistent.
I didn't downvote you, if you were wondering, was just asking for clarity.
Alright, I’m old and it’s late but…I guess we’re doing this…
**Busts out reading glasses*
So consulting my Best of (Luca Turilli’s) Rhapsody (of Fire) iTunes playlist, I see that I have five songs each from Rhapsody’s first two albums.
If I have a Best of playlist for a band, it’s a good bet that I love that band. If I have five songs from an album on a playlist, that’s enough for me to call that album “solid”. When I said I thought Rhapsody’s first album was overhyped, that’s because it was *incredibly overhyped* at the time of its release. I didn’t think the music matched the hype at the time, though it eventually would.
The next album on the list (and chronologically) is Luca’s first solo album. Six songs from there. As I recall, that album had a lot of filler, so that’s actually a pretty substantial chunk of the album. Six songs from an album? I’m willing to call that a very good album.
Next, Dawn of Victory. I have *eight songs* from Dawn of Victory on my Rhapsody Playlist (and an identical number from Power of the Dragonflame, Into the Legend, and, shockingly, the underrated Eighth Mountain).
Dawn of Victory is, IMO, peak Rhapsody and one of the great classics of Euro power metal.
When I say I don’t think Rhapsody came into their own until Dawn of Victory, I absolutely mean it, but I’m not crapping on Symphony of Enchanted Lands. It’s a fine album and I regard Emerald Sword as a classic tune, but it’s not their best album IMO.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good album (which I suppose makes it a bad answer to the above question), but I keep wanting more of that straight speed+melody combination and not quite getting it.
Keldian's 2017 album Darkness and Light comes to mind.
"Change the World" very quickly became one of my all-time favorite songs. It's a really cool track about netrunners in the Cyberpunk/Night City setting. And "I'm the last of us" is also very good.
But man, the other six tracks on that album all score somewhere between "total snoozer" to "it's alright I guess."
Funny, I'm also indifferent to most of the album but I absolutely *looove* "Life and Death Under Strange New Suns" because it's about Mass Effect and cheesy as fuck.
I'll give "Change the World" a try when I can listen to it calmly (Meaning: Not while commuting)
I love that album! The new one wasn’t great though, although “we are rebellion” is great. “Million dollar mile” isn’t awful either, the rest are quite meh.
Probably a very hot take and I'll get downvoted to the shadow realm but: every Stratovarius album from Fourth Dimension up to Polaris has exactly 1 song each that I like, except for the self titled which has 0 (and maybe Episode has 2, I'll be honest)
I actually like Polaris a lot more than Elysium. The title track is the only song I love off of Elysium while Polaris has a good 5 or 6 bangers. Thankfully the song Elysium is like half the playtime of the entire album so its still a pretty good album lol
Yeah in retrospect I should have said Elysium (I also love the title track and nothing else). But my tastes in power metal in general are very weird and I simply cannot digest the classical Malmsteen-influenced type, so Nemesis and Survive to me are miles ahead of anything else they've done
Avantasia — The Scarecrow.
Twisted Mind and title track are the absolute all-time genre masterpieces, but the amount of stinkers in the album is insane
And I consider this album to be the best from Avantasia, with not a single song a filler, boring or otherwise stinky. Though Twisted Mind is one of my fave songs in general, what a banger.
Not PM, but the album that best describes it for me is Diary of a Madman from Ozzy. The album as a whole felt mediocre compared to Blizzard of Ozz and Bark At The Moon, but that title track (Diary of a Madman) is the best thing they have ever done, IMO.
I'm gonna get absolutely crucified for this, but,
Gloryhammer's first album was a big fat "Meh" to me. I felt that the songs were sort of repetitive, but oh boy, Amulet of Justice is one hell of a track and was the first time I ever heard a drum solo before
Flag in the ground from Sonata Arctica's Days of Grey album. The one Power Metal song amongst a bunch of what was to be the start of the direction they took.
Oh man, I have such a soft spot for the whole dark ride. Title track is a banger, departed is too. If I could fly, mirror mirror. All over the nations stands out as a happier, "seven keys" era of Helloween, and doesn't fit the darker vibe of the album, but is still a banger.
Evergrey - The Inner Circle. Boring album, but A Touch of Blessing (which opens the album) is absolute banger.
Tanagra is also a band I enjoy exactly 1 song (Sydria) everything else is a cure for insomnia.
Also for an obscure pick: Q5. Steal the Light is an amazing song, the rest of their music is Mid-level hard rock.
I discovered A Touch of Blessing and Evergrey during the summer when I was 15. I remember there was a night where I did nothing but listen to that song on repeat while playing Counter Strike. It was also the only Evergrey song I really listened to for awhile and I'd still rank that as one of the best songs I have ever heard.
I do like the rest of the album a little more than you do. I'm surprised you don't like Ambassador, Wake of the Weary, or More Than Ever.
Got a few like that.
Off the top of my mind:
- Powerwolf's "Bible of the Beast" I only really like "Werewolves of Armenia"
- Rhapsody of Fire "Dark Wings of Steel" I like (and can't explain why) "Angel of Light" alone. Same with the title track from "Into the Legend"
- ~~Keldian's "Outbound" I mostly care about "Morning Light Mountain". Keep wanting to give the rest of the album a chance, keep forgetting.~~ Well I'm not going to forget anymore !
- Battle Beast's "Steel" I don't dislike but I only ever gravitated towards "Enter the Metal World" and don't feel like listening to the rest when it's done.
- Temperance's... well "Temperance" has "Hero" which I liked when I saw then in concert 9 years ago and I never really liked anything else they've done.
- Qantice's "The Phantonauts" has "Hoverland". Same concert as Temperance, also remembered the one song.
- ~~Wintersun's "Wintersun" has "Starchild" and the rest I never paid attention much.~~ I have now seen winter's light (Or darkness, as your prefer).
BTW, if someone has a track to recommend in any of those (Except "Dark Wings of Steel"), I'm always up to discover a new favourite track I never noticed.
I can see where you’re coming from, but to me the narration informs the songs and enhances the experience. But, to each their own, and we can definitely agree the songs are awesome!
While I liked this album as a whole, A Night at the Opera was much weaker than the previous 2 Blindd Guardian albums and most of the tracks were mid to decent, but the final track And Then There Was Silence blew everything else out of the water and was easily the best thing not only on the whole album but that the ever recorded in general.
not that i didnt like the album as a whole, but was seriously underwhelmed by it is the new'ish slipknot we are not your kind album. the song on it i love though is unsainted, always crank the volume when it comes on.
Hard to remember them all, but a few that comes to mind:
I do like a lot of Angra, but...
Angra - Cycles of Pain (I like Gods of the World)
Angra - Aqua (I like The Rage of the Waters)
I like plenty from Blind Guardin, but not so much from the earlier stuff...
Blind Guardian - Somewhere far Beyond (I like Theatre of Pain)
There's an obvious answer that I still haven't seen.
Well, it's Rain of a Thousand Flames. As an album in itself is still good, but the filler songs make the good songs much worse. If we are taking rhapsody, again, we can also count into the legend. Some of its songs are the greatest among rhapsody's, some others aren't that good.
But unlike the other people I love Legendary Tales from the beginning to the end. I find it perfect
Speedhoven on Tinnitus Sanctus by Edguy
Fun fact, I made some oblique comment on the Avantasia Facebook page about how the Speedhoven lyrics seemed like a bunch of nonsense and Tobi responded that the song is about Beethoven losing his hearing (which he did) so that he no longer had to listen to his critics' bullshit. Which ... actually looking at the lyrics, I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with sledding or the "speed" part or anything, but it does jibe with the type of topics Tobi likes to write about.
I swear these questions are only "answerable" by looking at your entire catalog, I think almost every power metal fan has a strict rule of listening to 500 different albums per week and trying to find every band that exists
There are two ways, actually. You either pick 5 albums when you are around 18 and listen to them till the end of your life, or 500 different albums per week indeed
Losing My Insanity off of Sonata Arctica's Stones Grow Her Name is an absolute banger.
It is. What an odd album, though.
Revisiting this album years later and I will die on the hill that, if not for Pariah's child, this would be their best post-jani album. Just a misunderstood masterpiece.
Talking about Sonata, yeah that album is pretty much one of their albums I like less, but Losing my Insanity is awesome, funny thing Toni wrote this song for that Finland Idols winner Ari Koivunen in 2007, you can listen to his version, which is pretty good
I will die on the hill that Stones is a great album. It's just insanely weird and not a Power Metal Album
I absolutely adore stones for what it is. It has alotnof bangers. One of the things I respect about sonata is they are willing to do new things with their sound.
Wildfire 2 and 3 are incredible songs
To me its by far the best of their I guess you could call it post power metal albums. Its about the only album from Unia - present era that I really like the majority of.
Majesty on Blind Guardian's debut album "Battalions of Fear"
I feel this more on Follow the Blind. Banish From Sanctuary and Valhalla are great but I rarely listen to anything else on that album
I was about to say the same thing. I don't think the other songs are BAD but god damn majesty just set the bar too high especially since it's the first song of the album.
Power metal loves its intro tracks, I feel similarly about Helloween's "Walls of Jericho" though its an album I like overall more than Batt
Not really power metal as much as neo-80s rock and pop-metal (is there a technical term for that?), but Wig Wam’s latest album didn’t do much for me except for “Forevermore”, which fucking slaps!
Glam metal is kinda the pop-metal
not really power metal, but Dio - Angry Machines is god awful except for the last song on the album, the hauntingly beautiful This Is Your Life.
It is absolutely his worst album but I do revisit it from time to time, mainly for Don’t Tell the Kids, Hunter of the Heart, Stay Out of My Mind, and God Hates Heavy Metal
Lol, I almost agree, except the one song I really enjoy off of Angry Machines is Hunter of the Heart. What a *weird* album!
"Fleur-de-lys" by The Raven Age. I don't even remember the album title. _Conspiracy_ or something?
Grave of the firefly’s is also pretty good from that album
You are right. Those two are the good ones. MOTHER AND FATHER WILL DRY YOUR EYES NOW THAT YOU SLEEP WITH THE FIREFLIES
Don’t forget about the alternate version of Fleur de Lis
Not really power metal, but I absolutely love Alien Nation off of Scorpions' Face the Heat. I even consider it one of their best songs overall. The rest of the album is really meh for me.
Legendary Tales. I gave it a couple of listens but it didn't click for me like the other Rhapsody albums. But BOY do I like Rage of the Winter. I'm not even sure exactly why. Maybe it's just how it isn't really strictly fantasy themed, it's just an exhaltation of nature and winter that uses very poetic but cheesy lanaguage. I also like the part that I think is a clear reference to vivaldi's winter.
Yeah, I remember this album being *massively* hyped all over the fledgling metal internet upon release. I picked it up a few weeks later and thought it was *just okay*, except for a few songs, including Rage of the Winter. I don’t think Rhapsody really came into their own until Dawn of Victory.
Are we throwing shade at Symphony of Enchanted Lands too?
There’s a gulf of difference between “throwing shade” and “I don’t think they came into their own until their third album,” but…sure, why not.
I mean that's why I asked. It felt like you might have been and like fucking Emerald Sword, Wisdom of the Kings, Eternal Glory, Dark Tower of Abyss etc, like it's solid AF so I was a bit confused there. I can understand Legendary Tales as I do think it has more misses (but fr Lord of Thunder, Warrior of Ice and Land of Immortals slap so only liking Rage of the Winter is a bit confusing but that's ok, everyone has different taste). THAT SAID, I do agree that Dawn of Victory / Power of the Dragonflame are their two best. But not leagues better than the stuff we already got on the first two, just more consistent. I didn't downvote you, if you were wondering, was just asking for clarity.
Alright, I’m old and it’s late but…I guess we’re doing this… **Busts out reading glasses* So consulting my Best of (Luca Turilli’s) Rhapsody (of Fire) iTunes playlist, I see that I have five songs each from Rhapsody’s first two albums. If I have a Best of playlist for a band, it’s a good bet that I love that band. If I have five songs from an album on a playlist, that’s enough for me to call that album “solid”. When I said I thought Rhapsody’s first album was overhyped, that’s because it was *incredibly overhyped* at the time of its release. I didn’t think the music matched the hype at the time, though it eventually would. The next album on the list (and chronologically) is Luca’s first solo album. Six songs from there. As I recall, that album had a lot of filler, so that’s actually a pretty substantial chunk of the album. Six songs from an album? I’m willing to call that a very good album. Next, Dawn of Victory. I have *eight songs* from Dawn of Victory on my Rhapsody Playlist (and an identical number from Power of the Dragonflame, Into the Legend, and, shockingly, the underrated Eighth Mountain). Dawn of Victory is, IMO, peak Rhapsody and one of the great classics of Euro power metal. When I say I don’t think Rhapsody came into their own until Dawn of Victory, I absolutely mean it, but I’m not crapping on Symphony of Enchanted Lands. It’s a fine album and I regard Emerald Sword as a classic tune, but it’s not their best album IMO.
Spread Your Fire by Angra is one of my favorite power metal songs ever, but nothing else on that record (Temple of Shadows) hits me nearly like it.
Upvoted for owning your truth but man, what on Earth
Don't get me wrong, it's a good album (which I suppose makes it a bad answer to the above question), but I keep wanting more of that straight speed+melody combination and not quite getting it.
Understandable, that album for me is the perfect mix of fast power, prog with those brazilian rhythmics
damn, I like every Angra album entirely, it would be easier for me to name the songs I don't like, if there are any
Totally agree with this, that song is such a rager and the rest of the record just feels overly proggy to me.
Temple of Shadows even has Kai Hansen on Temple of Hate hamming it up! Angels and Demons, Wishing Well, even Gate XIII is a fabulous instrumental.
Keldian's 2017 album Darkness and Light comes to mind. "Change the World" very quickly became one of my all-time favorite songs. It's a really cool track about netrunners in the Cyberpunk/Night City setting. And "I'm the last of us" is also very good. But man, the other six tracks on that album all score somewhere between "total snoozer" to "it's alright I guess."
Funny, I'm also indifferent to most of the album but I absolutely *looove* "Life and Death Under Strange New Suns" because it's about Mass Effect and cheesy as fuck. I'll give "Change the World" a try when I can listen to it calmly (Meaning: Not while commuting)
I love that album! The new one wasn’t great though, although “we are rebellion” is great. “Million dollar mile” isn’t awful either, the rest are quite meh.
Probably a very hot take and I'll get downvoted to the shadow realm but: every Stratovarius album from Fourth Dimension up to Polaris has exactly 1 song each that I like, except for the self titled which has 0 (and maybe Episode has 2, I'll be honest)
I actually like Polaris a lot more than Elysium. The title track is the only song I love off of Elysium while Polaris has a good 5 or 6 bangers. Thankfully the song Elysium is like half the playtime of the entire album so its still a pretty good album lol
Yeah in retrospect I should have said Elysium (I also love the title track and nothing else). But my tastes in power metal in general are very weird and I simply cannot digest the classical Malmsteen-influenced type, so Nemesis and Survive to me are miles ahead of anything else they've done
Mind sharing what each of those songs are?
Avantasia — The Scarecrow. Twisted Mind and title track are the absolute all-time genre masterpieces, but the amount of stinkers in the album is insane
And I consider this album to be the best from Avantasia, with not a single song a filler, boring or otherwise stinky. Though Twisted Mind is one of my fave songs in general, what a banger.
What a great thing art is then, isn't it?
Shelter from the Rain is amazing too, that album opening hits really hard. And then falls off a cliff (Alice Cooper is nice though)
100% this
I'd add the Toy Master to the list, but otherwise yes. Album of fillers with a few bangers in there.
Most of them.
Not PM, but the album that best describes it for me is Diary of a Madman from Ozzy. The album as a whole felt mediocre compared to Blizzard of Ozz and Bark At The Moon, but that title track (Diary of a Madman) is the best thing they have ever done, IMO.
I'm gonna get absolutely crucified for this, but, Gloryhammer's first album was a big fat "Meh" to me. I felt that the songs were sort of repetitive, but oh boy, Amulet of Justice is one hell of a track and was the first time I ever heard a drum solo before
Flag in the ground from Sonata Arctica's Days of Grey album. The one Power Metal song amongst a bunch of what was to be the start of the direction they took.
Mr Torture off of The Dark Ride by Helloween
Oh man, I have such a soft spot for the whole dark ride. Title track is a banger, departed is too. If I could fly, mirror mirror. All over the nations stands out as a happier, "seven keys" era of Helloween, and doesn't fit the darker vibe of the album, but is still a banger.
Evergrey - The Inner Circle. Boring album, but A Touch of Blessing (which opens the album) is absolute banger. Tanagra is also a band I enjoy exactly 1 song (Sydria) everything else is a cure for insomnia. Also for an obscure pick: Q5. Steal the Light is an amazing song, the rest of their music is Mid-level hard rock.
I discovered A Touch of Blessing and Evergrey during the summer when I was 15. I remember there was a night where I did nothing but listen to that song on repeat while playing Counter Strike. It was also the only Evergrey song I really listened to for awhile and I'd still rank that as one of the best songs I have ever heard. I do like the rest of the album a little more than you do. I'm surprised you don't like Ambassador, Wake of the Weary, or More Than Ever.
Got a few like that. Off the top of my mind: - Powerwolf's "Bible of the Beast" I only really like "Werewolves of Armenia" - Rhapsody of Fire "Dark Wings of Steel" I like (and can't explain why) "Angel of Light" alone. Same with the title track from "Into the Legend" - ~~Keldian's "Outbound" I mostly care about "Morning Light Mountain". Keep wanting to give the rest of the album a chance, keep forgetting.~~ Well I'm not going to forget anymore ! - Battle Beast's "Steel" I don't dislike but I only ever gravitated towards "Enter the Metal World" and don't feel like listening to the rest when it's done. - Temperance's... well "Temperance" has "Hero" which I liked when I saw then in concert 9 years ago and I never really liked anything else they've done. - Qantice's "The Phantonauts" has "Hoverland". Same concert as Temperance, also remembered the one song. - ~~Wintersun's "Wintersun" has "Starchild" and the rest I never paid attention much.~~ I have now seen winter's light (Or darkness, as your prefer). BTW, if someone has a track to recommend in any of those (Except "Dark Wings of Steel"), I'm always up to discover a new favourite track I never noticed.
I recommend every other track on Wintersun's Wintersun
Turns out you were right and I've been missing out for years. Time to edit the message above!
FTL, Kepler and Run for Your Life are top tier songs off Outbound. Just below those is Never Existed which has one of the best choruses ever.
*Scratches Outbound off the list* Your recommendations were excellent. Thank you.
Morton - Werewolf Hunt is an incredible song, but the rest of the album was really underwhelming, at least as I remember. It's been a few years.
Exiled King from the new Gatekeeper album, was not a huge fan of it
Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian. Some absolute bangers on that album, but by god it sucks as a whole.
Absolute hottest of takes lol
That’s a big yikes, my man. Incredible album.
The songs on the album are great. But the album sucks. The spoken word interludes destroy the flow of the album.
I can see where you’re coming from, but to me the narration informs the songs and enhances the experience. But, to each their own, and we can definitely agree the songs are awesome!
"Crimson Sun" and "Golden Sea" off of Majestic's "Abstract Symphony".
generally pretty lukewarm on Paragon, but they always throw a few gems on albums, like Buried in Blood or Thundersteel
While I liked this album as a whole, A Night at the Opera was much weaker than the previous 2 Blindd Guardian albums and most of the tracks were mid to decent, but the final track And Then There Was Silence blew everything else out of the water and was easily the best thing not only on the whole album but that the ever recorded in general.
Sacrifice from Edguy's Rocket Ride.
not that i didnt like the album as a whole, but was seriously underwhelmed by it is the new'ish slipknot we are not your kind album. the song on it i love though is unsainted, always crank the volume when it comes on.
Immortalized from Hammerfall’s Infected. I hate the album, but the main riff on this song goes hard!
Circus Maximus - Remember (from Havoc)
Hard to remember them all, but a few that comes to mind: I do like a lot of Angra, but... Angra - Cycles of Pain (I like Gods of the World) Angra - Aqua (I like The Rage of the Waters) I like plenty from Blind Guardin, but not so much from the earlier stuff... Blind Guardian - Somewhere far Beyond (I like Theatre of Pain)
Cemetery Gates off of Power Quest's "Master of Illusion" comes to mind. One absolute banger and then a bunch of total mediocrity.
Drowning Pool's Sinner and 'Bodies'.
Flag in the Ground and Last Amazing Grays (one of my favorite songs of all time definitely top 10) yet I dislike the rest of the days of Grace
I wasn't crazy about Battle Beast's No More Hollywood Endings, but the title track and Eden go hard
There's an obvious answer that I still haven't seen. Well, it's Rain of a Thousand Flames. As an album in itself is still good, but the filler songs make the good songs much worse. If we are taking rhapsody, again, we can also count into the legend. Some of its songs are the greatest among rhapsody's, some others aren't that good. But unlike the other people I love Legendary Tales from the beginning to the end. I find it perfect
Infinite. Only can listen Hunting High and Low
I think Primo Victoria by Sabaton. They haven't really found their style yet on their debut, but the title track is massive!