Power Metal Reviews

High tempos, soaring vocals, memorable choruses, and majestic melodies – often harmonies – all made me an avid power metal fan as an early teenager. And despite getting into other genres through the years, my love for power metal never really faded away. As a result, quite a large part of my Album of the Week reviews have been about power metal albums. You can find all the power metal reviews published on Kevy Metal right here. Overlaps with my heavy metal reviews inevitably exist.

If you are looking something that isn’t listed here, I might still have reviewed it. I didn’t start properly tagging my reviews until a few years in. You can use the search bar to search for any artist or release you want to know more about using the search bar at the bottom of the page.

  • Album of the Week 35-2019: Them – Manor Of The Se7en Gables

    On the surface, Them seems like another one of those King Diamond and Mercyful Fate-inspired bands that seemed to pop up everywhere especially around Northern Europe about a decade ago. They even have the aesthetic down better than, say, Attic and Portrait. In fact, Them began existence as a King…

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  • Album of the Week 34-2019: Helloween – 7 Sinners

    After the departure of guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch, Helloween was adrift for a while. ‘Rabbit Don’t Come Easy’ was a confused mess and ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy’ an overlong double album that tried too hard. ‘Gambling With The Devil’ was a welcome return to…

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  • Album of the Week 32-2019: Sex Machineguns – Barbe-Q★ Michael

    A lot of people, myself included, consider Sex Machineguns’ first two albums superior to the rest of their discography. However, I do feel that their excellent third album ‘Barbe-Q★ Michael’ kind of gets lost in the shuffle because of that. There are plenty of excellent metal tracks to be found…

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  • Album of the Week 31-2019: Aria – Cheryez Vse Vremena

    ‘Cheryez Vse Vremena’ is the second album Aria recorded with their current – and best – singer Mikhail Zhitnyakov and in a way, it shows. Where its predecessor ‘Feniks’ had to reestablish them as the Iron Maiden-inspired heavy metal band they always were with their new singer, ‘Cheryez Vse Vremena’…

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  • Album of the Week 26-2019: Megadeth – The System Has Failed

    Originally devised as a Dave Mustaine solo album, ‘The System Has Failed’ eventually became Megadeth’s comeback on multiple levels. Not only did it feature Mustaine returning to activity after an intense arm injury sidelined him for at least a year and a half; it is also more or less unequivocally…

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  • Album of the Week 25-2019: Savatage – Hall Of The Mountain King

    Depending on the era, Savatage is either the most classy of the first generation US power metal bands or the vehicle for producer Paul O’Neill’s rock opera ambitions. The first album O’Neill produced for the Floridians, however, screams eighties power metal. Often literally. Everything worthwhile about American heavy metal in…

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  • Album of the Week 17-2019: Black Sabbath – Mob Rules

    Black Sabbath completely reinvented itself when Ozzy Osbourne left and Ronnie James Dio took over. ‘Heaven And Hell’ turned out to be one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time and made Sabbath catch up with the blossoming NWOBHM scene with class and conviction. Its follow-up ‘Mob Rules’…

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  • Album of the Week 15-2019: Catharsis – Imago

    Although seen as a genre predominantly from northwestern Europe, some of this century’s most interesting power metal releases are actually from elsewhere and don’t always make it over to the west. Some bands try to make the transition by translating their songs to English, but ‘Imago’, the third full-length of…

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  • Album of the Week 14-2019: Jupiter – Zeus ~Legends Never Die~

    Multiple times over the last few years, I had feared that Jupiter would disband. There have been several line-up changes and I thought the final nail in the coffin would be the reformation of Versailles, the hugely popular, but slightly inferior band that almost the entire original line-up came from.…

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