"Dark" Power Metal?

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[Baldr]

Can anyone recommend some Power Metal bands in the vein of Dark at Dawn, Macbeth or Rebellion, with deeper vocals instead of the usual wailing? I really dig the style, but it seems to be pretty rare.

Actually I'm generally interested in unique Power Metal, read: as long as it's not yet another Gamma Ray/Angra/Hammerfall clone.

Suggestions?

 Rebellion - [Arise - The History Of The Vikings Part III] War

[hERICtic]

Evergrey? Its dark metal, but more along the progressive side, with hints of power. Good vocalist. Clean, but midrange. I'll look at my collection later (1,000) cds and see what I have.

[PowerMetal59]

A few suggestions some of which you may already be familiar with:

Angel Dust - Border of Reality, Bleed, Enlighten the Darkness or Of Human Bondage
Tad Morose - Any album, can't go wrong
Bloodbound - Nosferatu or Tabula Rasa, more great Urban Breed vocals
Iron Mask - Hordes of the Brave or Shadow of the Red Baron
Her Whisper - The Great Unifier
Heed - The Call, If you liked Daniel Heiman's work in Lost Horizon, you'll enjoy this
Grand Magus - Iron Will
Evil Masquerade - Fade to Black
Killer - Immortal
Lair of the Minotaur - The Ultimate Destroyer or War Metal Battle Master
Nightmare - Insurrection, Genetic Disorder or Cosmovision
Paragon - Law of the Blade, Steelbound, The Dark Legacy, Revenge or Forgotten Prophecies
Pharaoh - Be Gone or The Longest Night
Rage - Soundchaser or The Unity
Tarot - Suffer Our Pleasure or Crows Fly Back
And I'm sure you are familiar with the mighty Grave Digger

No high pitched wailers on this list and all are talented and unique bands in the Heavy/Power Metal scene. Hopes this helps.

[Chris Foley]

Persuader, Dark Empire, Angel Dust, latest Bloodbound, Eyefear (also progressive, similarities to Evergrey with their most recent), Kiuas, Morgana LeFay, Nightmare, Pathosray (also progressive), Steel Prophet (although more U.S. PM, high vocals).

I've probably missed quite a bit, and I'm sure you will have heard most of these...

[Baldr]

Thanks for the suggestions already!

Let's see what I already know...

Evergrey: I have "The Inner Circle", I'd put that album definitely into the prog genre, though that's not a bad thing per se, I love Symphony X and Circus Maximus. That album in particular was lacking a bit of power IMO, the vocals were nice though definitely. Any album I should check out in particular?

Angel Dust: Ah, the almighty Angel Dust. Really good stuff. It's a shame they split-up :(

Heed: While I love his vocals (Lost Horizon's "A Flame to the Ground Beneath" is one of the greatest metal albums ever written IMO), the instrumental aspects of Heed can't hold a candle to LH.

Grand Magus: Yeah, GM is awesome, especially the vocals.

Lair of the Minotaur: I could never get into this band. I guess that's a bit too rough and dirty for my taste.

Paragon: Love the band.

Rage: I hear about them often, checked them out a bit now and then but they never grabbed me. Maybe I should give them another try.

Tarot: Tarot is good, not a band I regularily pick for repeated listens though.

Pharaoh: Checked them out a few times after reading glowing reviews of their stuff, but while it wasn't bad by any means it didn't hook me either. Maybe I'll give them another spin.

Steel Prophet: Yeah I know them, quite a "quirky" band. Fun though.

The other bands listed I probably haven't heard yet or can't remember, though I  recognize some by name. I'll check out all of them as soon as possible, thanks a ton for the suggestions! Keep them coming and don't hesitate to mention something that was already mentioned before, I'll listen to the bands that get multiple nods first.

[hERICtic]

Wow. Im away for an hour....and tons of bands pop up. Some I was going to mention. Such as Heed (incredible band, wonder if they're ever going to put another cd out), Paragon, Angel Dust (Enlighten the Darkness, awesome), Dark Empire (first 5 song ep better than the actual album that followed it), Persauder (great band, same vocalist from Dark Empire) and Bloodbound.

Im just unsure exactly what you mean by Dark Power metal. Not happy sounding but with gruff vocals? If that is the case, some of the band mentioned above and that I'm about to mention really arent what you are looking for. Everygrey, Angel Dust, Heed and Bloodbound are all great vocalists. Mid-to higher range.

Ok, let me throw out some other bands.

Arch Nemesis http://www.myspace.com/anemesis
Brimstone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9inxaCE0cX8
Grave Digger http://www.myspace.com/gravediggerclan
Hollenthon (too death metal maybe) http://www.myspace.com/hollenthonofficial
Gladiators http://www.truemetal.org/gladiators/engl_index.html
Sabaton http://www.myspace.com/sabaton
Seventh One http://www.myspace.com/seventhone
Misery Inc http://www.myspace.com/miseryincband
Black Destiny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH20UI9GoJg
Storm Warrior http://www.myspace.com/stormwarriorofficial
Nostradameus (earlier stuff is happier, later stuff more dark) http://www.myspace.com/nostradameus
Naildown http://www.myspace.com/naildown

Ok, I'm wiped out. Plenty of stuff to listen to from me and the others. Let us know what you have and what you actually ended up liking!

[Mouse]

Echo of Dalriada

[Baldr]

Ok, let me throw out some other bands.

Arch Nemesis http://www.myspace.com/anemesis
Brimstone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9inxaCE0cX8
Grave Digger http://www.myspace.com/gravediggerclan
Hollenthon (too death metal maybe) http://www.myspace.com/hollenthonofficial
Gladiators http://www.truemetal.org/gladiators/engl_index.html
Sabaton http://www.myspace.com/sabaton
Seventh One http://www.myspace.com/seventhone
Misery Inc http://www.myspace.com/miseryincband
Black Destiny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH20UI9GoJg
Storm Warrior http://www.myspace.com/stormwarriorofficial
Nostradameus (earlier stuff is happier, later stuff more dark) http://www.myspace.com/nostradameus
Naildown http://www.myspace.com/naildown

Thanks a lot, let me comment on those first since I could easily listen to them thanks to the very convenient links Of course I could only listen to one or two songs form each band so I might not do them justice and so forth, just some first impressions.

Arch Nemesis - This has potential, I'll check out the albums.

Brimstone - Also very good... at first glance the vocals were a bit out of place, but it works out surprisingly well.

Grave Digger - Of course I know Grave Digger... though I haven't heard them in quite a while. Last I heard them was when Rheingold was released, it's probably time to give them some more listening time.

Hollenthon - Yeah I know the band, not really Power Metal and not really my cup of tea. I really dig symphonic stuff, but somehow not Hollenthon's brand of it.

Gladiators - Power Metal with Rob Halford like vocals? No thanks 

Sabaton - I know Sabaton, couldn't get into them yet. The vocals in combination with all the other bells and whistles are a bit overdramatically forced IMO.

Seventh One - They seem to make decent power metal, but they don't really deviate from the standard sound and formular at all, do they? Still, I'll check out their albums.

Misery Inc - Sorry, this is just horrible

Black Destiny - Now this is very nice. The vocalist from Rebellion too? Will get the albums.

Stormwarrior: - I know the band. Got their debut album when it was released since I was big into old Helloween at the time and they were heavily influenced by them. Nice band, though also not one I'd call original in any way.

Nostradameus: Not bad at all, will check out further.

Naildown: Power Metal with Metalcore vocals? 

Whew, quite some interesting stuff already. Didn't like all of it of course, but that was to be expected from such a mass. Will check out some full albums of the ones that cought my eye before I tear into the other lists of PowerMetal59 and Chris Foley.

[hERICtic]

I'm not sure how you think the vocalist for Gladiators sounds like Rob Halford. Sounds more along the lines of Grave Digger in my opinion. Here is another clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xdZoNb-G7g

As for Misery Inc. From my understanding they have two albums out. The first is very good. The second was awful. Maybe those were the clips you listened to.

[hERICtic]

Should have added this to my last post....listen to Misery Inc again. Scroll down to the clips to the last few. Those were from the debut album. Totally different sounding.

[Bad_Bud]

Brainstorm.  Start with Ambiguity and work your way toward the present.  Andy Franck rules.

And someone already mentioned Tarot.  That's another good one, for sure.

Symphony X - Paradise Lost might also even fall under this somewhat.

[KevO]

Maybe Crescent Shield? They're not exactly power but that doesn't necessarily sound like what you want anyway. Either album they've released works.

http://www.myspace.com/crescentshield

[Baldr]

I spent all day today sampling music... blessed be vacations.

Some more comments:

Seventh One: To add to my earlier first impression, they might not enter new grounds but they squeeze a ton of juice out of the old formular. Simple, yet extremely effective songwriting here.

Gladiators: Yeah he sounds more like the guy from Grave Digger on that song. The one I heard first was an MP3 from their homepage. Still don't like it at all though.

Misery Inc: Ok, that song isn't so offensively bad, but it's still not my kind of music.

Persuader: I had heard the name before numerous times but only just listened to them for the first time. I really like what I've heard so far. Excellent suggestion, thanks

Dark Empire: Not sure about this one yet, I think I like Persuader more. Definitely not bad. Quite different from Persuader even though they share (or used to according to their MySpace) their vocalist.

Brainstorm: I know Brainstorm, one of my favourite Power Metal bands! Soul Temptation being my favourite album. The suggestion reminded me that I haven't checked out the newest album yet.

Bloodbound: Very nice.

Eyefear: Definitely more prog than power metal, but it's pretty good.

Kiuas: This is really good! Some kick-ass riffs and the vocals are great too.

Nightmare: I'm surprised I hadn't heard about this band before considering it's been around since the 80s. I love their super-thick guitar tone. Otherwise pretty solid.

Evil Masquerade: Another one I think I should have heard about before considering it's some kind of "super group" made up of veterans from various high-profile bands. I liked what I heard so far.


Now there was really some killer stuff there, thanks a lot. I'll need some time to digest all this, so if you recommend more (by all means do) I probably won't be able to respond this quickly.

 Kiuas - [The New Dark Age #02] Conqueror

[Master Cthulhu]

It's called "Doom Metal"

[hERICtic]

Personally, the debut from Bloodbound is their best. They stole every lick from Maiden. But I will state their latest is their darkest. Their second cd, with a different vocalist was completely generic.

Here are some more bands:

Iced Earth

http://www.myspace.com/icedearth Listen with Barlow as the vocalist, not Ripper.

Savage Messiah. Leans more towards power metal thrash :http://www.myspace.com/savagemessiahmetal

Savage Circus: http://www.myspace.com/savagecircus Their first album was a copy of Blind Guardian. Their second one a darker version of Iron Savior (naturally since Piet is in the band and yes, its the same vocalist as Persauder and Dark Empire. Guy does get around)