Power Metal

Power metal took shape in the second half of the 1980s, when German bands — Helloween foremost among them — crossed the speed of speed metal with wide melodic choruses and high-register vocals. The two volumes of Keeper of the Seven Keys, released in 1987 and 1988, became the template the genre would follow for decades: twin guitars, constant double-kick drumming, fantasy lyrics and a sense of grandeur that the metal of the day associated more with traditional heavy metal.

The genre branched out through the 1990s. Scandinavia pushed power metal toward the melodic and neoclassical, with Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica; Italy added orchestra and choir along the path opened by Rhapsody; and Brazil produced its own synthesis in Angra, mixing virtuosity, Brazilian music and progressive writing. It is now among the most international genres in metal, with strong scenes in Japan, Latin America and northern Europe.