Power Metal/Awesome Music

Epicism is synonym of Crowning Music of Awesome. Power Metal is synonym with Epicism. Now do the math.

Helloween, Kamelot, Nightwish and Therion have their own pages.

"NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER GIVE IN! Rise from the fire if you're gonna win! Sing with your soul, soon you'll be old. Fight the demons inside you! THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT CAN BE DONE! Climb every mountain with power so strong. Dusty roads, on the way. Leaving the past behind you!"
 * Pick a Dragon Force song. Any Dragon Force song.
 * Here's an example: "Scars of Yesterday".
 * "Revelations" has such an amazing chorus.
 * Or Guitar Hero III's That One Boss: the infamous (and awesome, of course) "Through The Fire And Flames".
 * Whose hyper-epic two minutes and five seconds long guitar solo is actually played on two guitars in shifts due to its length, speed and complexity being too hard for just one.
 * Also, "My Spirit Will Go On" and "Storming The Burning Fields". And "Operation Ground & Pound".
 * How could you not mention "E.P.M"? It starts off like an 8-bit song and then...PURE EPIC.
 * There's "Evening Star" too, guys...
 * "Disciples of Babylon", a magnificent drum intro, acoustic guitar solo, and as always, a very interesting set of lyrics.
 * "Soldiers of the Wasteland", their longest song, is 9 minutes and 47 seconds of epic.
 * "Heart of the Storm" and "Cry Thunder". Welcome to the band, Marc.
 * Winterfell plays power metal based off of A Song of Ice and Fire, and it is awesome. Stare into the eyes of your once dead friend, THIS GAME OF THRONES HAS REACHED ITS END!
 * "Art of Life" by X Japan.
 * Nevermore's The River Dragon Has Come".
 * Late German metal band Running Wild had a career of over 30 years of Crowning Music of Awesome. But one song will always stand out and will always remembered by the most epic intro ever: "Under Jolly Roger".
 * "Riding The Storm", "Bad To The Bone", "Conquistadores" and "Ballad of William Kidd".
 * Sabaton. Singing about real life wars would be noble enough, but the fact that every song practically begs to be played at full blast makes it entirely awesome. "Primo Victoria", "Attero Dominatus", and "40:1" spring to mind.
 * "Panzer Battalion" has to be one of the best.
 * "Panzerkampf" comes to mind. O MOTHER RUSSIA, UNION OF LANDS...
 * Also, from their new CD, "Uprising".
 * Hammerfall. Hearts on Fire, Hearts on Fire, burning, burning with desire!
 * Let your voice speak for the revolution, all join forces with all the powers that you feel; Let your heart beat for the revolution, led by the Templars of Steel!
 * RIDERS!!! OF-THE-STORM!!! One with the wind, defenders of creation!
 * The sound of our cause, the meaning of life. Beyond stars and skies, now raise your hands and let it all come out! BRING THE HAMMER DOWN!!! SLAM IT DOWN TO THE GROUND!!! ONE FLAG, ONE WORLD UNITED!!!
 * And their cover of Helloween's "I Want Out". How to do it in an awesome way? With Kai Hansen himself as guest.
 * Blind Guardian. There is a reason they're one of the most successful and influential bands in a genre that's practically devoted to producing CMOA music. One particularly notable song is "Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)", which is CMOA music about a literary CMOA: when Fingolfin challenges Morgoth to a duel. "Valhalla", "And Then There Was Silence" (both the studio and the live versions) and "Mirror Mirror" must also be mentioned. There are way too many. The Bards have mastered epic.
 * "The fate of us all lies deep in the dark, WHEN TIME STANDS STILL AT THE IRON HILL!" ...It's that awesome.
 * Hell, might as well call Nightfall In Middle-Earth a Crowning Album of Awesome. "Caught in the afterlife, I've gone too far/when sorrow sang softly and sweet..."
 * STOP! Be quiet now!
 * "Theatre of Pain" deserves a mention. The version with words is pretty neat, but the the instrumental one is made of pure awsome.
 * If we're talking about songs from the Somewhere Far Beyond album, then the song "Somewhere Far Beyond" must be mentioned. "Look around and see, the world is turning fast, faster day by day!" and the great bagpipe solo in the middle are awesome.
 * "At the Edge of Time" consists of nothing but pure musical awesomeness.
 * Start off with "Sacred Worlds". Now wash it down with "Wheel of Time".
 * If you became a Blind Guardian fan after playing Robot Unicorn Attack: Heavy Metal Edition, you probably have "Battlefield" playing in your head right now.
 * Anything and anything by Rhapsody (of Fire), but especially their triumphant return with "Unholy Warcry". Epic version.
 * To put it in perspective: Rhapsody made some truly kickass music, then decided that it needed a story to be the Crowning Music of Awesome for. So they wrote one that they got Christopher Lee to narrate and sing.
 * FOR THE KING, FOR THE LAND, FOR THE MOUNTAINS, FOR THE GREEN VALLEYS WHERE DRAGONS FLY, FOR THE GLORY, THE POWER, TO WIN THE BLACK LORD, I WILL STAND FOR THE EMERALD SWORD!!!
 * "Wizard's Last Rhymes", which is only a goddamned full-throated symphonic metal version of the 4th movement of Dvorak's Symphony for the New World, which is already awesome.
 * And then there's their awesome cover of the Manowar song "The Power Of Thy Sword".
 * "Don't Say A Word" by Sonata Arctica. Pity about the lyrics.
 * Try "Replica" on for size.
 * "My Selene".
 * "The Cage".
 * "Deathaura", "Fullmoon", and "Fly With the Black Swan".
 * Hell, let's just say their whole discography is made of awesomeness concentrate and leave it at that. Or maybe not. For your consideration, "Black Sheep", "Flag In The Ground" and, damn, freaking "Letter To Dana".
 * The 9-minute epic "White Pearl Black Oceans" deserves a mention too.
 * Iron Savior's "Deadly Sleep". Starts out with perhaps the greatest guitar solo known to mankind and only gets better. Iron Savior, a band that truly puts the power in power metal, also has "Wings of Deliverance", which is equally awesome.
 * Also "Titans Of Our Time", and "Tales Of The Bold", because, respectively, a character piece from the perspective of a Mad Scientist and a song about glorifying adventurers are awesome.
 * Of course it's awesome; it was written by Kai Hansen!
 * Iron Savior did Iron Maiden one better with their cover of "Running Free".
 * Van Canto. One Band. One drummer. Five singers. The only Band playing Hero Metal a capella. And doing so awesome. Not only are they playing covers of already awesome songsin an absolutely over the top kind of way. Their own [ sound even more awesome.
 * Once! We have been told a secret...
 * What can top this cover?
 * Why, the answer is short and simple. Master! Of Puppets!
 * That's the way how covering by van Canto works: you take an epic and awesome rock'n'roll song and crack awesomity up to eleven hundred.
 * "Unleashed" by Epica
 * Just "Unleashed?" Pft. Try "The Phantom Agony," "Run for a Fall" or "Design Your Universe (A New Age Dawns Part VI)."
 * "Storm The Sorrow", the perfect mix of well..everything
 * What, no love for "Consign to Oblivion? (A New Age Dawns part III)". Two albums later, they're still using it as their show closer. There's a reason for this.
 * "Chasing The Dragon" for running the gamut of all they can do with their music.
 * "Martyr Of The Free Word", the key change itself is epic.
 * They also have their own version of "The Imperial March". Let me put it this way: Yoda the entire Jedi Order would have sworn allegiance to the Emperor after hearing this.
 * They took Epic Rocking to another level with "Kingdom Of Heaven".
 * "The Obsessive Devotion" is a song that a whole opera can be played around. It'll take you somewhere else. "Dance Of Fate", "Mother Of Light" and "Death Of A Dream/Living A Lie/Fools OF Damnation" are all WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up there to.
 * Children of Bodom in general. Half of their songs exist purely to provide a framework around which to build ludicrous guitar and keyboard solos.
 * Axel Rudi Pell has released an impressive fourteen studio albums in twenty years of Crowning Music of Awesome. While the lineup has changed frequently, the band still mantains a consistent and powerful sound. And even with two decades under his belt, Axel shows no sign of slowing down, either.
 * Avantasia's cover to "Lay All Your Love on Me".
 * Which is just a drop in the bucket for him. Add in "Twisted Mind", "The Toy Master", "The Wicked Symphony", "Dying for an Angel", "The Scarecrow" and "Scales of Justice." What makes this more awesome is that all those songs are from only two of his five albums.
 * Throw in "Journey to Arcadia" as well. A fantastic ending to the three-album Scarecrow Saga.
 * "Blizzard on a Broken Mirror", "Another Angel Down", and "The Seven Angels".
 * "Death is Just a Feeling". Just listen to it.
 * Moving away from The Wicked Trilogy and into The Metal Opera, there's "Reach Out for the Light", "Breaking Away" "Glory of Rome" and "Avantasia."
 * A lot of Delain's album April Rain, but particularly the title song and "Invidia".
 * Masterplan is a band with many, many, examples, but especially "Crimson Rider", "Far from the End of the World" and "Black in the Burn."
 * "Spirit Never Die":


 * THUNDER AND LIGHTNING TAKE ME HOME
 * Altaria has a lot of epic music, but here are some highlights:
 * "Unchain the Rain": We´ll drown our sorrow to this endless sea. Together we´ll unchain the rain.
 * "Valley of Rainbows": Fallen angel, out of danger give me a sign.
 * It's a shame nobody here has mentioned Stratovarius. For a start, check out "Black Diamond" and "Hunting High and Low". If you thought the band was a little faster, listen to "Find Your Own Voice". Needless to say, the band still makes awesome material, such as "Darkest Hours" from their latest album Elysium. Note: the three founding members aren't even in the band anymore! Stratovarius is just power metal at its finest.
 * Add to that "Twilight Symphony", "Father Time", "Eternity", the "Strato"-instrumental trilogy ("Stratovarius", if you can find it; "Stratosphere" and "Stratofortress") and "Elysium", the last of which is a particularly good example of this, Epic Riff and Epic Rocking.
 * "Horn of Fate", which is about The Elric Saga.
 * On the subject of Domine, there are many other awesome songs: "The Mass of Chaos", "Dark Emperor", "The Eternal Champion", "True Leader of Men", "The Fall of the Spiral Tower", "Battle Gods", "the Aquilonia Suite", "The Sun of the New Season", "Tempest Calling"...
 * Edguy, when they're not singing about banging stewardesses, have made a career out of delivering the awesome. "Vain Glory Opera", "Mysteria", "Angel Rebellion", "Tears of a Mandrake", "Down to the Devil", "Babylon", "Scarlet Rose", "The Spirit Will Remain" ...the list goes on, really.
 * "Out of Control", which is made especially awesome by being a collab with Blind Guardian.
 * "Hymn", which takes a song by Ultravox and utterly blasts it out of the park.
 * "Theater of Salvation" may well be Edguy's answer to "Bohemian Rhapsody". Twelve minutes of pure awesome.
 * Gamma Ray as a whole, especially their No World Order album, with pieces like "New World Order", "Follow Me" and "Lake of Tears" in particular.
 * Those, while great, are no match for the jaw-dropping awesomeness of "Lust for Life".
 * And from Majestic, how about "Blood Religion"?
 * IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, AND IT'S ONLY JUST BEGUUUUUN
 * Sanctuary's debut is one 40-minute celebration of the Metal Scream. And it is AWESOME.
 * One is obligated to add "BATTLE ANGELS".
 * Katra's "One Wish Away". Bonus points for awesome video. Most of her songs deserve mention here, especially "Tietaja", "Beast Within", "Grail of Sahara" and "Out of the Ashes".
 * Lost Horizon's "Highlander The One" is this all the way through, but it has several moments that are there to blow you away, for instance 'HIS SWORD, SOLE COMPANION! AALLLLWAAAAAAYYYSS THEEEEEEREEEE!!!' and, of course, that amazing vocal solo near the end. The sheer epicness of that vocal solo was parodied by Pelle K/Johanson in Nothing But Metal where they claim to be so skilled that they can warm up their vocal chords by singing "Highlander", as it is child's play for them, apparently.
 * The After Forever album, Evoke to Envision: it's perfection.
 * Queensryche - "Queen Of The Reich", Tate's performance on this track make even Halford & Dickinson at their prime blush.
 * Queensryche in general could count.
 * Freedom Call, another German band, has some pretty awesome music, too. Take "Warriors of Light" or "Warriors" as examples, especially when the guitar solos come in. PURE AWESOME.
 * Pick any song by Iced Earth.
 * Versailles has many great songs, but of note is "Faith & Decision", which, as sixteen-and-a-half minutes of pure awesome, is an Epic Rocking song that truly lives up to the trope name.
 * "The Voyage, Part 1" and "Part 2", by Timeless Miracle. How a 14-minute song manages to be this catchy defies description. All of their other music is similarly epic.