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 25-2021: Helloween – Helloween

    It would be tempting to compare Helloween’s first album after the return of singer Michael Kiske and founding guitarist Kai Hansen to the reunion that made Iron Maiden a three-guitar band. A better comparison would be Testament’s reunion with Alex Skolnick and Greg Christian. Maybe a weird comparison, but like…

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  • Album of the Week 24-2021: Galneryus – Union Gives Strength

    During the period leading up to the release of ‘Union Gives Strength’, Galneryus consistently referred to the release as a “special album” in marketing outings. So what’s so special about it? They probably did not want to give the impression that it’s one hour plus of new material, as roughly…

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  • Album of the Week 22-2021: Burning Witches – The Witch Of The North

    Around the time Burning Witches started writing for last year’s ‘Dance With The Devil’, the Swiss band seemed to realize that they needed a little more variation in order to stand out from the crop of younger traditional heavy metal bands. On that particular album, the increased variation in tempos…

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  • Album of the Week 19-2021: Blind Guardian – Tales From The Twilight World

    Transitional periods are often interesting and somewhat risky for bands. In case of Blind Guardian, ‘Tales From The Twilight World’ and ‘Somwhere Far Beyond’ still feature the band’s early speed metal roots fairly prominently, but the arrangements in particular already hint at the more theatrical sound they would later come…

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  • Album of the Week 17-2021: Gamma Ray – Sigh No More

    Gamma Ray’s second album ‘Sigh No More’ is generally considered the black sheep of their discography. That probably has to do with the album’s relatively dark, somewhat cynical tone rather than with its actual musical content. No one will ever hear me say that ‘Sigh No More’ is the best…

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  • Album of the Week 09-2021: Witherfall – Curse Of Autumn

    Witherfall drew my attention with their sophomore album ‘A Prelude To Sorrow’, which to this day I consider a masterpiece of dark progressive power metal. At the time, my hope was that the other activities of vocalist Joseph Michael and guitarist Jake Dreyer did not go at the expense of…

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  • Album of the Week 08-2021: Epica – Omega

    While many bands that are often mentioned in the same breath as them tend to settle into a routine of simple songs of heavy-light contrasts that allow their singers – often female, but the likes of Kamelot are in the same category – to shine, Epica keeps reinventing itself and…

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  • Album of the Week 05-2021: Persuader – Necromancy

    Every year, there is at least one album that should have made my year list, but I got my hands on it too late. Persuader’s new album ‘Necromancy’ would have easily made this year’s top 10. Initially, I was mildly disappointed that their six-year album drought only resulted in seven…

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  • Album of the Week 04-2021: Crystal Viper – The Cult

    Crystal Viper’s previous album ‘Tales Of Fire And Ice’ saw the band treading more melodic power metal waters. It could very well be a divisive album among their fan base, but I personally thought the refreshing take that album provided on the Polish band’s formula was exactly what they needed.…

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