Metal Reviews

Jesus Christ, I just saw the video for the new Avantasia single, which is quite possibly the worst serious song Tobias Sammet has ever written, and now I can't keep this any longer: what an absolutely abysmal year 2007 has been for power metal! Quite possibly the worst year for the genre since the mid 90s. I thought it would be a great year but so many bands have released disappointing albums. Here's my opinion of some of the year's major PM releases.

Helloween - Gambling With the Devil
Awesome album, but you know that something is wrong with a genre when the oldest band kicks the ass of other major bands that are 10 years younger.

Sonata Arctica - Unia
A quite decent chunk of this album is lifeless, forgettable garbage. A really bad attempt at progression.

Freedom Call - Dimensions
Slightly better than "Circle of Life", but still a far cry from Eternity. Pretty much FC on autopilot.

Elvenking - The Scythe
This is actually better than most of the reviews made me believe, but it's their weakest album yet.

Twilightning - Swinelords
Wow, what the fuck happened here? Nosedive of the year!

Kamelot - Ghost Opera
Good, but not very ambitious and a step down from "The Black Halo" and "Epica".

Nocturnal Rites - The 8th Sin
Some good songs but the second half pretty much sucks and it doesn't have much lasting power.

I haven't heard the new Gamma Ray but I can't see Kai completely screwing up an album.

Even worse is that it seems like many major bands are running out of steam. Sonata Arctica doesn't even want to play PM anymore, Rhapsody and Hammerfall are really starting to go through the motions, Freedom Call has released two downers in a row and Twilightning and Elvenking are also moving away from the PM sound. Helloween and Gamma Ray are still going strong and I think Stratovarius can recover from their s/t debacle, but many bands have started to go downhill in the last few years and I'm quite worried for the genre's future

It hasn't been the beat year but there is some good stuff those that come to mind are the latest Thunderstone,Mystic Prophecy,Elvenking(not their best but good cd)Helloween and Silent Force .
But was dissapointed with Sontata Arctica , Kamelot , Ride The Sky, Masterplan ,Labyrinth,Primal Fear. Nocturnal Rites latest is ok but not their best.
Helloween is the pick so far and is far superior to their former members releases from earlier this year.

I fully agree, and don't forget the new Primal Fear. Just lifeless, with no really good riffs to speak of.

It's not just power metal. All genres are suffering, in my opinion. Bands are either trying to sound like someone else, or they're being a little too ambitious.

I hope 2008 is better.

2007 seems to be a good year. I like, if not love, all the 5 2007 albums I have so far.

There were more than five albums released this year, you know...

Of course, but those albums I do have are fantastic.

The albums that I have are great too. However, the majority of albums released this year were mediocre at best.

You guys are insane. This has been the best year for metal in who knows how long. On the power/prog/traditional side of things, here all are albums I'd give above an 80:

Manticora- The Black Circus Part II
Symphony X- Paradise Lost
Helloween- Gambling With the Devil
W.A.S.P.- Dominator
Saxon- The Inner Sanctum
Circus Maximus- Isolate
Agent Steel- Alienigma
Kamelot- Ghost Opera (no, its not as good as The Black Halo or Karma. Its still a very good album)

Not to mention the other good power/traditional metal albums like the new Iced Earth, Grave Digger, King Diamond...

Then there's the new Rush. Which is fucking awesome.

And then there's Mekong Delta's Lurking Fear, Dekapitator's The Storm Before the Calm, Overkill's Immortalis, Bywar's Twelve Devil's Graveyards, Ensiferum's Victory Songs, Korpiklaani's Tervaskanto...

And these are just the albums that I think warrant a score above a 70. Most years when we do the top 15, I'm usually forced to include albums I think are at best average (50/100 or so) and at worst bad (40/100 or so). This year, I will be forced to exclude albums that I think are good, and some of which I think are very good. Its been pretty fantastic. And I can't speak for bands like Sonata Arctica and Freedom Call and Hammerfall because I don't listen to that stuff, but really, there's plenty of great albums to check out from this year.

Truuueee that. I didn't fully enjoy any of the albums mentioned. Although I think i'll end up enjoying the new Avantasia just because I'm going to marry Tobias Sammet.

Sorry, cupcakes. Tobias is already married to Kai Hansen.

All good yes, but those bands are a mixture of prog and aggresive power metal (except Helloween).

I thought this year was amazing for metal but I hardly listen to power metal... comments I've heard about power metal bands have seemed to center around pretty much all the stuff being disappointing except the Helloween. There was some gnarly trad and prog metal released.

That's right it's been a great year for prog/traditonal metal this thread is about Power Metal only.

I see where you're coming from, but I think you're defining power metal a bit too tightly; power metal is not all sausage festing flowerfests, you know, as much fun as that can be sometimes (mmm... sausage fest).

Maybe not a great year for power metal, but it's been a killer year for metal overall.

Man, I can't believe people complain about power metal in a year when Cage, Paragon, Rebellion, Iced Earth, Grave Digger, Morgana Lefay or Manticora released albums that range from excellent to masterpiece. Power metal doesn't mean only happy flowery music (yes, maybe in this respect only Helloween and Gamma Ray are worthy of note this year), expand your horizons a little.

The only major dissapointment for me this year was Primal Fear, especially coming after the excellent Seven Seals.

So you have heard them all ? I mean ALL ?


+1.

I also agree with Brahm_K's and OldSchool's posts but I am too lazy to quote them.

Notice how I said the majority of albums. I couldn't have listened to all of them, as some albums have not been released yet.

As a whole, I don't think power metal has been disappointing this year, but I will agree that a lot of the popular bands have released weak CDs (Twilightning, Sonata Arctica, Nocturnal Rites, etc.).
There have still been excellent releases from popular power metal bands (Thunderstone, Cage, Kamelot, etc.), but...

.... part of the problem (from my eyes) is that lately the unknown bands have released the best CDs. Destination's Calling, Wildpath, Crimson Tears, Endless, Dawn of Destiny, Keldian and others have given us killer CDs, but nobody else seems to have them and they're not easy to acquire.


There's so many bands though, every year will have surprises and disappointments.


Clint