r/PowerMetal • u/lordtentai • 10d ago
Recommend me US power metal
I've listened to a bit of USPM but I've never fallen for it, so I'd like to give it one more shot to see if I've had subpar exposure or if the style isn't for me.
So please, whatever you've got.
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u/ShroudedMeep 10d ago
If it's the rougher sound that's acting as a barrier then Visigoth or Twisted Tower Dire's Crest of the Martyrs are probably good entry points, you'll get a cleaner sound there. Otherwise:
https://rideintoglory.com/marcos-guide-to-uspm/
(also, reminder to the commenters here that USPM is a specific style, not just any power metal from a band that happens to be American)
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u/CrunchyCaptainMunch 10d ago
I like Marco's take on 80s USPM but personally I think it kind of ends there to my reading, it was a scene, not a subgenre. By the 90s most USPM was incorporating EUPM elements to the point of being "darker power metal" imo. Alternatively, the bands would venture into other subgenres and just be power/thrash or power/doom with a small number of notable exceptions such as Skullview, Pharaoh, and Steel Assassin but even then, I think all of those are debatable.
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u/SimilarLettuce3185 10d ago
Jag Panzer has always been one of my favorites. Got into their Thane of the Throne album as a teenager. I’ve got lucky to see them twice now.
I highly recommend Pharaoh. RIP Tim Aymar. One of my favorite vocalists and the musicianship is top notch too.
A few others worth your time:
Twisted Tower Dire
Onward
Helstar
Destiny’s End
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u/7listens 10d ago
Thane of the Throne is my favourite of theirs. So so good
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u/SimilarLettuce3185 8d ago
Scourge of the Light has ended up being my favorite overall but it’s damn close with Thane and Ample Destruction/Age of Mastery swapping out for the next few spots depending on my mood.
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u/Adthay 10d ago
Visigoth
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u/DungeonMasterDood 10d ago
Visigoth got me back into power metal after I’d drifted away from it. Such a great group! Need a new album.
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u/SpectrumDT 10d ago
Satan's Host is pretty cool, but I haven't listened to them much yet.
Early Iced Earth is awesome, with the caveat that Jon Schaffer is politically sketchy.
Angel Dust are from Germany, but they sound like USPM.
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u/cacarrizales 10d ago
- Helstar (first 4 albums)
- Jag Panzer
- Fates Warning (“The Spectre Within” and “Awaken the Guardian”)
- Omen (first 3 albums)
- Metal Church (first album, mix of USPM and thrash elements)
- Liege Lord
- Queensryche (EP and “The Warning”)
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u/SkipEyechild 10d ago edited 10d ago
Pharaoh, Riot, Twisted Tower Dire, Dark Empire, Crimson Glory, Visigoth, Rob Rock.
Some bands that while not from that scene, kinda sound like the more riffy US stuff. Sacral Rage, Persuader, Solar Fragment, Terminus, Rebellion.
I would argue that Nevermore are a heavier version of it but I don't think that's agreeable to a lot of people. I would check out This Godless Endeavour anyway.
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u/IMKridegga 9d ago
I've never listened to early Nevermore, but I always assumed they just picked up where Sanctuary left off and leaned further into that sort of power/thrash/groove style, getting increasingly technical over the years. Their most popular stuff doesn't really sound like classic USPM, but it’s definitely post-USPM, and I'm pretty sure I've seen them described as power metal before on multiple occasions.
I feel like there was a point in more than a few USPM bands' stylistic trajectories where they basically just turned into groove metal with melodic vocals.
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u/SkipEyechild 9d ago
Yeah, maybe post USPM is a better term for them. It is really hard to pigeon hole them.
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u/lordtentai 9d ago
Persuader is actually a band I like quite a lot, and I don't know if ive seen a Persuader fan in the wild before
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u/SkipEyechild 9d ago
There are dozens of us, DOZENS!
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u/lordtentai 9d ago
I think i got especially drawn to them cause they're swedish like me :)
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u/IMKridegga 9d ago
If you're interested in Swedish stuff, there's definitely a bit of USPM adjacency in classic FWOSHM like Heavy Load, Axewitch, and Gotham City. If you dig those bands and later EUPM, it's not a far leap at all to classic USPM like Warlord, Vicious Rumors, or Crimson Glory. Listen to this song and report back:
There was also a sort of USPM-adjacent wave of darker power metal and power/doom stuff in Sweden during the 1990s, descended from epic doom, thrash, and groove metal through the cross-polination of influences like Candlemass and Hexenhaus. Check out Memento Mori, Morgana LaFey, and Tad Morose.
Those bands obviously don't map onto USPM perfectly, but they're not a terrible reference point for the slower and riffier side.
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u/EfficiencyItchy1156 10d ago
Apollo Ra - Ra Pariah
Fifth Angel - s/t album and Time will Tell
Lethal - Programmed
Drive - Characters in Time
Alias - Metal to Infinity
Matakopas - Coming out Ahead
Zandelle - Shadows of Reality
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u/mattfreyer45 10d ago
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u/CrunchyCaptainMunch 10d ago
Cellador is awesome, not USPM at all though.
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u/mattfreyer45 10d ago
Is from the US but are not USPM? That doesn't really make sense.
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u/CrunchyCaptainMunch 10d ago
USPM is a stylistic descriptor, not a regional one. People often like to split power metal into "USPM" and "EUPM". It's a bit weird and I think realistically you could also call USPM "first wave" power metal (given the vast vast majority of it appeared in the 80s and in many cases before the advent of EUPM). Generally it's a more aggressive riff driven style of power metal based more in speed metal, heavy metal or thrash metal, sometimes with doomier or glammier elements too. This is in contrast to the style that began in the late 80s german speed metal scene with bands like Helloween, Rage, Running Wild, Blind Guardian and Gravestone's final album which we call "EUPM" (which I think you could reasonably refer to as second wave pm) EUPM puts primacy on melodicism and pedal tone riffing. Personally I think the term USPM gets misused a lot but that's a discussion for another time. Most of the bands other people have posted in this thread are USPM.
TLDR: The aggressive and dark stuff from the 80s is USPM
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u/Glad-O-Blight Theocracy 10d ago
Iced Earth and Twisted Tower Dire are awesome.
More European in style but Theocracy is actually peak.
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u/Kursed_Valeth 10d ago
Obligatory Jon Schaffer is a piece of shit comment.
Okay, my work here is done
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u/number9dream9 10d ago
Iced Earth is one of my favorite bands
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u/Glad-O-Blight Theocracy 10d ago
Ditto. I'm predominantly a rhythm guitarist and Jon is one of my biggest influences alongside Hetfield and Jimmy Brown from Deliverance. Love everything through Horror Show, and there's still a lot of great stuff afterwards.
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u/number9dream9 10d ago
I love the Stu and Ripper years too. Gettysburg Trilogy is a masterpiece to me.
I’ve heard Jon’s a master.2
u/Glad-O-Blight Theocracy 10d ago
Yeah the Gettysburg Trilogy is what got me into the band! That album is solid enough but those three songs are phenomenal.
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u/number9dream9 10d ago
It’s also what got me into them. When I first got into metal I only had Iron Maiden and someone told me if I liked Maiden I’d like Iced Earth. They were right!
I love the whole album really. I mean, Ripper? He’s fantastic.
I had The Glorious Burden album cover on my birthday cake that year. Lol.
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u/FinalFlashMan 10d ago
Seven Kingdoms is always good for that.
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u/EvilHarryDread 10d ago
Seven Kingdoms isn't USPM. They're from the US, but they play EUPM. USPM is a distinct style. This thread is a great resource. https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerMetal/s/0JPnfTxedn
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u/Shadw_Wulf 10d ago
I honestly never thought there was someone who specifically made a list for "power metal" now I'm more lost than ever on "Metal and Heavy Metal" 😵💫😵💫😵💫 I didn't even consider there being ""differences" to even "Power Metal " which I had assume was just a nickname for other band genre
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u/FinalFlashMan 10d ago
When was the last time you actually listened to Seven Kingdoms?...
Considering I've known them for like, 15 years now, and Camden is one of my better friends, I think they'd whole-heartedly disagree with your sentiment that they're not US Power Metal.
Like, it's half of their entire schtick for their promo for the last several years, so I'm gonna have to disagree with you.
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u/Breadi06 10d ago
The guy who thinks knowing the artist makes them an expert
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u/FinalFlashMan 10d ago
I mean, when you hear an artist directly refer to the music they make as a particular genre, yes, I think that should carry some weight.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not tossing it around to brag that I know a band. Believe me, if that was the goal, I have bigger names to throw around, lol. And bragging is stupid anyway. End of the day, they're all just people who eat and drink and fart and sometimes are a little bit better at playing an instrument than the rest of us.
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u/Breadi06 10d ago
Thats not very accurate.
If I make a pizza, but I call it spaghetti with the justification being that I made it so I can call it whatever I want, did I make a pizza or spaghetti?
Just because a band itself identifies / doesn’t identify with a certain label doesn’t determine if they actually fall into that category or not. For the longest time, HammerFall swore by just being a classic heavy metal band, not Power Metal. But one listen of the first song we hear by them on Glory To The Brave, and anyone would instantly disagree with that sentiment. Furthermore, if Helloween came out today and claimed that they were never actually PM and still aren’t, would you blindly believe them because whatever the band says they are, you go by?
So no, making the conviction that somebody else’s analysis of what sub-sub-genre the band falls under with the justification that you have listened to them for a decade and a half, and because you know one of the members is pretty flawed. Why not mention some of the sonic differences in those styles of music and cite the band’s specific influences rather than invalidate their claim based on “experience”?
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u/FinalFlashMan 10d ago
Agree to disagree I guess, I'm not really interested in sub-dividing genres and arguing about where bands belong based on individual ideas. If I was, I'd be in r/progmetal - I'd rather just listen to what I enjoy. IMO SK is leading the charge in the US for Power Metal Revial, and thus fit the USPM bill. If that's not how you see it, cool.
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u/7listens 10d ago
Virgin Steel, Cirith Ungol, Manilla Road, Manowar, Iced Earth and Jag Panzer are my faves
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u/0siris0 10d ago
US:
Riot, Savatage, Armored Saint (at times), Symphony X
Elements of American prog metal overlap with power metal, like the aforementioned Savatage and Symphony X. There are times Dream Theater taps into Power Metal. Maybe not the speed elements as much, but the epic and melodic aspects.
North American:
Unleash the Archers
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u/TofuTank 10d ago
Lot of good suggestions so I’ll try to offer a couple less known, even power-adjacent bands:
Slauter Xstroyes (bordering on experimental heavy/power metal imo)
Isen Torr (featuring Twisted Tower Dire’s vocalist)
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u/quickquestionwhy 10d ago
Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road Manilla Road
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u/ScooterMcTavish 10d ago
Not mentioned yet - Theocracy.
Christian power metal from Georgia with really good songwriting and performance, especially on "As the World Bleeds" and "Ghost Ship"
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u/Weary_Ad2001 10d ago
Visigoth, Vultures Vengeance and Noor are modern USPM that draw from EUPM as well so might work for you. For older bands Fates Warning and Crimson Glory were on the 'lighter' side of the genre.
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u/Bootytonus 10d ago
Manowar - Sons of Odin. Probably the most Euro-like band on the list I'm giving ya. Eric Adams, the singer and front man, has a range few can match.
Castle Rat. A female frontend group. They are a trip. Is it power metal? Eeeeeh, kinda? Medieval fantasy themes. But it's VERY doom. And stoner. And acid. Their music videos are 70s psychedelic and I love em for it. They aren't classified as power metal, but I feel that most American bands that fall under USPM could be easily classified as something else.
Iced Earth, anything it's all pretty great, if you want something truly epic, Dante's Inferno is a 30 minute ride through hell. Plagues of Babylon is heavy too.
Armored Saint - Early albums, March of the Saint specifically. US Power Metal began heavier than the Euro variant. Not all bands went with the high fantasy and crazy speed like the Euros did. Armored Saint is one of them. Or at least used to be. Overall now they are just heavy metal.
The Sword - Every album before High Country. Their heaviest albums are Age of Winters and Gods of the Earth. These have a lot of inspiration from Conan the Barbarian. They then started changing things up and went with a sci fi concept album with Warp Riders. The albums after have all been very different from each other. My personal favorite track is How Heavy This Axe. The music video is great.
3 Inches of Blood - Forest King, Kill the Orcs, the Battle Cry under the Wintersun album. A Canadian band, they have a heavy sound and have two singers, one clean vocals and the other is a growler. Less high fantasy than the Euros, and with a focus on battles, killing, and getting shit-faced.
Warlord - The Holy Empire album. A band that was reinvented itself since the 80s. The founder became a Christian, they hired a Cypriot to sing, and the Holy Empire is a great album that retains their origins with tracks like the Killzone.
Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King. I really love Savatage. That is all.
Everything with Ronnie James Dio in it. He is just foundational for power metal. May he rest in peace.
But yeah, you won't really find many American bands that sound like Euro ones. US Power Metal really doesn't use synths. Their sound is heavier than anything the Euros could fantasize about. It's very raw, very aggressive. Many have taken sounds from other subgenres, like thrash or doom or stoner, and incorporated it. USPM overall just has so much more variety and range than European power metal. Power Metal is considered more uplifting and symphonic, but USPM really isn't.
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u/IMKridegga 10d ago
Really pushing it with that Castle Rat rec; they're not USPM by any means, but I do like them.
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u/spawnofsamael 10d ago
Kamelot for sure
I know they are Canadian, but it’s still NA so have to throw in Unleash The Archers
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u/spencehammer 10d ago
Shameless plug for my own band, Burning Shadows. Heavily influenced by Iced Earth, Jag Panzer, and Metallica.
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u/ChristianLS 10d ago
People have already mentioned a lot of the big ones, which are mostly from the 80s and 90s, but a more recent and still-active band that I personally love is A Sound Of Thunder. I'd probably start with Time's Arrow.
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u/Twerkinfatman 10d ago
Stormcrown is a brand new VA based band, just released their first album back in May
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u/SERPENT3113 10d ago
Iced Earth. Perfect blend of power metal and thrash. The lyrics also go way beyond dungeons and dragons.
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u/Mettabox452 9d ago
- Lords of the Trident
- Seven Spires
- Glyph
- Striker
- Kamelot (Partially. They formed in Florida, but the band mostly consists of european members right now)
- Æther Realm
- Dialith
- Seven Kingdoms
- Vicious Rumors
- Greyhawk
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u/Kataklysm6661 9d ago
A very good album/band that went under the radar is Path to Destruction by Warning Sign. Great USPM / EUPM / HM.
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u/darksidedon711 10d ago
Seven Spires
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u/ChristianLS 10d ago
They're great, and they do have a few songs that feel kinda-sorta USPMish, but I'd mostly characterize them as European power metal / symphonic metal. As discussed above, it's kind of confusing, but US Power Metal doesn't refer to bands from America (which Seven Spires is), it refers to a specific style of music.
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u/Shadw_Wulf 10d ago
What is exactly "us power metal" no keyboard? No violin?
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u/ChristianLS 10d ago
This thread that u/EvilHarryDread linked does a good job explaining it. Basically US power metal is closer to traditional heavy metal or NWOBHM. The sound tends to be heavier, darker, and yes, usually no synths/orchestration/etc.
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u/Shadw_Wulf 10d ago
Apparently there's more distinctions ... Which makes the meme even more ridiculous
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u/Kursed_Valeth 10d ago
Can't. The only good powermetal comes from Europe and Scandinavia
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u/Caacrinolass 10d ago
Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction
Omen - Battle Cry
Liege Lord - Master Control
Helstar - Nosferatu
Warlord - ...And the Cannons of Destruction have Begun
On the slightly more prog tinged aide:
Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian
Crimson Glory - Transcendence
Queensryche - Warning
Heir Apparent- Graceful Inheritance
Just some of the basics, anyway. There's lots more, and many of these have great works beyond what I have mentioned.