The History of Power Metal

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Power Metal Fantasy: New Power Metal Spotlight II + USPM Videos ! You can download last night's show at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1me_NDHS_XvTCzeD7hKD2Y2T14_eiAeeY/view?usp=sharing and here was the playlist: Album: Marco Garau's Magic Opera (Italy) - Battle of Ice 1. The Black Sorcery 2. The Cursed Crown 3. The Legend of the Demon's Cry 4. Assault on the Castle 5. Ride Into the Sun 6. White Dragon 7. The Shadow Man 8. The Book of Evil 9. Under Siege 10. Battle of Ice Single: Bloodbound (Sweden) - Odin's Prayer (from the album Tales from the North, coming July 7th!) US Power Metal Music Videos: 1. Queensrÿche - Queen of the Reich [Queensrÿche, EP 1983] 2. Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King [Hall of the Mountain King, Album 1987] 3. Queensrÿche - Nightrider [Queensrÿche, EP 1983] 4. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - I'll See the Light, Tonight [Marching Out, Album 1985] 5. Overkill - Hello from the Gutter [Under the I...

  Tune in to twitch.tv/mickkarnage tonight at 10:15 PM - 1 AM Eastern Time to hear one new power metal album, one new power metal single and see every music video Rate Your Music lists as US Power Metal - both as a primary and secondary genre! \m/

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Power Metal Fantasy: New Power Metal Spotlight I ! You can download the show at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VefuwHriG3jLkSRbbaNToOTidFnbMWnN/view?usp=sharing The next Power Metal Fantasy will be on Saturday - stay tuned for the event page and time! Here was the playlist: Album 1: Twilight Force (Sweden) - At the Heart of Wintervale 1. Twilight Force 2. At the Heart of Wintervale 3. Dragonborn 4. Highlands of the Elder Dragon 5. Skynights of Aldaria 6. A Familiar Memory 7. Sunlight Knight 8. The Last Crystal Bearer Album 2: The Lightbringer of Sweden (Sweden) - The New World Order 1. The Continuing 2. The Beast Is Rising 3. Free the Angels 4. Heroes of the Past 5. Strike Back 6. Where the Eagles Fly 7. Lucifer 8. Back from the Dead 9. The Caveman 10. Fly Away Single 1: Galneryus (Japan) - Run to the Edge [from the upcoming album Between Dread and Valor, which will be released March 1st] Album 3: Silver Bullet (Finland) - Shadowfall 1. Overture to...

  Tune in to twitch.tv/mickkarnage tonight at 8:30 PM - 1 AM Eastern Time for Power Metal Fantasy: New Power Metal Spotlight I! \m/ Last week, I announced that today's show would be all USPM music videos, but so much great power metal has come out over the past seven days that I have four and a half hours of material from that alone! Because of that, I'll wait for a week where there's less new releases to do the USPM music video show. \m/

  Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Power Metal Fantasy Music Video Show II! The next show will feature USPM music videos and the Facebook event page for it is https://www.facebook.com/events/554930043224725/ You can download Saturday's show at https://drive.google.com/file/d/11sT44AOdsWxbAKjPy1tFXo7DPt2ZZFZx/view?usp=sharing and here was the playlist: Album 1: Skyblazer (Sweden) - Infinity's Wings (2023) 1. Prologue 2. Shine Forth! 3. Eyes of Serenity 4. Across the Heavens 5. Turning Time 6. Under the Blazing Sky 7. One Million Ways 8. Infinity's Wings 9. Eternalize the Dream 10. Skyblazer Album 2: RuinThrone (Italy) - The Unconscious Mind of Arda (2023) 1. Prologue 2. The Dreamweaver 3. I Am the Night 4. Earendil 5. The Past Is Yet to Come 6. Where Wise Men Stop 7. In Penumbra 8. The Eldest 9. Blessed by Loneliness 10. For Those Who Remain 11. Where You Belong Power Metal Music Video! 1. Orphaned Land (Israel) - All Is One [All Is One, Album 2013] Rate Your Music - Music...

 Tune in to twitch.tv/mickkarnage tonight at 9 PM - 1:15 AM Eastern Time for tonight's Power Metal Fantasy! This time, I'll be playing the two power metal albums that have been released this year so far in their entirety, plus a power metal music video that was added to Rate Your Music's database last week and all the music videos that have power metal as a secondary genre on Rate Your Music! I can't wait to see you there! \m/

WE MADE IT TO 1987!!! \m/ 1987 was an incredible year in the history of power metal. According to Rate Your Music's power metal page , 1984 saw 1 release, and 1985 and 1986 both had 3 releases, taking up 0.02% of the music that came out in those years. In 1987, the number of power metal releases was  37 - over twelve times as many as 1985 and 1986, and taking up 0.22% of the music from that year!   It'll take me over a month to get through each release, and what's even more amazing is that 37 is a small number compared to the incredible rate power metal releases will be coming out at in later years! Our first release of 1987 comes from Detroit's first power metal band: Raven Payne! (I love that they spelt it "payne" - NWOBHM masters like Tygers of Pan Tang, Tytan and Witchfynde would be proud!) Looking into their history, it turns out that the band was originally formed in 1983 under the name Vampirella - presumably named after the legendary comic book charact...

 It's Omen time again! Today, I'll be looking at the band's third album and second to have power metal as a primary genre on RYM: 1986's dazzling The Curse ! Let's check out the album cover: The serpent from Warning of Danger   is back, and it means business! Keep everyone away from it or else you too will face... the curse!  It's a nice, gory, uber-metal album cover and I imagine it would really stand out if you saw it while browsing through records. Bands like Cannibal Corpse would go way more hardcore with ultra super mega metal gory album covers later on, but for 1986 standards it's pretty violent! It's also uncommon to see covers like this in power metal - usually it's more Dungeons & Dragons type art. Flipping the record over, we get to see the band, all looking metal with cool shirts, long hair, blue jeans and sneakers, and the close-up of the serpent's skin is a killer detail that looks great. On the inner sleeve, we get this kickass ...

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to The Power Metal Fantasy Music Video Show! Next week's show will be the Power Metal Fantasy Music Video Show II, and the Facebook event page for it is at https://www.facebook.com/events/729698315019500 You can download last night's show at  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_jVEE0D1To6H1o2Q1riUAPUCy_jXkmOy/view?usp=sharing and here was the playlist: 1. Lovebites (Japan) - Judgement Day [Judgement Day, Album 2023] 2. Helloween (Germany) - I Want Out [Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II, Album 1988] 3. Helloween (Germany) - Halloween [Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I, Album 1987] 4. Blind Guardian (Germany) - Blood of the Elves [The God Machine, Album 2022] 5. Nightwish (Finland) - Sacrament of Wilderness [Oceanborn, Album 1998] 6. Alestorm (United Kingdom) - The Battle of Cape Fear River [Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum, Album 2022] 7. Wind Rose (Italy) - Gates of Ekrund [Warfront, Album 2022] 8. Beyond the Black (Germany) - Winter Is Coming [Beyond th...

WELCOME BACK, POWER METAL WARRIORS! Tonight at 7:30 PM - 1 AM Eastern Time, I'll be hosting a special edition of my Twitch show Power Metal Fantasy where I'll be playing all 65 music videos with power metal as primary genre on Rate Your Music! Tune in at twitch.tv/mickkarnage \m/ I'm starting early tonight, but usually, Power Metal Fantasy shows are 9 PM - 1 AM Eastern Time every Saturday. Soon after each show, I plan on posting playlists and download links to each episode! I started doing Power Metal Fantasy a few months before I began this blog, but I have the full episode archive available for download at https://heavymetalrarities.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=55511 \m/ In other news, I'll no longer be able to post reviews daily - at least temporarily, since I'll be working extra hours next week. Still, I'll do my best to update this blog as frequently as possible, and I can't wait to finish my review of Omen's The Curse  and the thousands of o...

KICKASS, MORE HELLOWEEN!!! This time I'm looking at Judas , a 12" EP that Helloween released in 1986. Before we get into the music, let's check out the artwork: The front cover is really cool, and keeps the classic Helloween pumpkin theme going. The way it's designed to resemble a skull is so metal, and having the band's logo on a flag lodged inside the pumpkin is a killer creative touch. Let's check out the back! This time, we get a pumpkin count of four and a Helloween logo count of one! It's not as pumpkiny as before, but there's still plenty of pumpkins to go around, and the awesome pumpkin side numbers from Walls of Jericho get to make their triumphant return. I love the live shots of each member, and the way to photos are arranged is so eye-catching. The back also has a message that says "JUDAS IS DEDICATED TO ALL POLITICANS WHO TALK HUMAN BUT ACT LIKE MONSTERS" - something unusual to see on a power metal record, where the lyrics tend to...