US power metal
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
In short
The American version, rawer and closer to thrash than its melodic European cousin.
How it sounds
- Riffing closer to thrash, with aggressive palm muting and variable tempos.
- Very high vocals, often at the top of the register.
- Epic, martial or mythological lyrics; rawer production than the European version.
Hear what that means
- Harmonies harder than Britain's from 3:02
Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction
NWOBHM's twin leads played faster and with more aggression, and a vocal pitched high enough to sit above the guitars.
Open on YouTube at 3:02 - Before Helloween
1983, American, and already doing what German power metal is usually credited with inventing. The family tree looks upside down for good reason.
Open on YouTube - Close to thrash
Fast, raw and hard-edged, sharing bills and equipment with the thrash bands. The tell is that the singer is singing.
Open on YouTube
Loaded only when you press play — nothing reaches Google before that. 2 of 3 are cued to a second read from the upload's own tracklist.
The specifics
- Tempo
- 150-200 bpm
- Song length
- 4-7 min
- Tuning
- E standard, twin guitars, and a vocal pitched high enough that the guitars stay out of the top of the mix.
- Production
- Cheap, bright and slightly thin — these records were made on independent budgets and sound it, which is part of why the genre stayed a cult concern.
- Written about
- Battle and fantasy, Defiance, Steel and swords, Working-class American life, occasionally
What each part is doing
- Guitar NWOBHM's twin harmonies played faster and with a harder edge, with the palm-mute used more aggressively than the British records used it.
- Bass Busy and audible, following the guitars through harmony rather than sitting on roots.
- Drums Fast and driving with double kick for emphasis, and much closer to thrash's attack than to European power metal's polish.
- Vocals Extremely high and clean, with vibrato and no rasp — the genre's defining and most divisive feature.
What it isn't
That it is European power metal's American cousin. The influence ran the other way: these bands predate Helloween, and the German scene took the twin harmonies and the high vocals from them and added the keyboards and the choruses. The American genre stayed underground and the European one became enormous, which has made the family tree look upside down ever since.
Told apart from
- Power metal European power metal has keyboards, a fantasy libretto and a polished production. US power metal is rawer, harder-edged and much closer to thrash.
- Traditional heavy metal US power metal is the American continuation of traditional metal after NWOBHM, and the two overlap heavily at the start.
- Speed metal Speed metal is faster and simpler; US power metal writes longer songs with more harmonic movement.
- Thrash metal The two scenes shared bills and equipment in early-1980s America, and several bands sit on the line — the tell is whether the singer is singing or shouting.
The genres this one is most often mistaken for. Written, not derived.
History
In 1980s America outside Los Angeles, bands took NWOBHM in a harder direction than the Europeans did. Manowar built an entire cult of 'true metal'; Jag Panzer and Omen stayed cult classics. The genre never sold much, but it has a strong international revival today.
Descended from
Siblings on this branch
Sounds like this, elsewhere in the tree
- Celtic metal 1.0 apart by rating · meets it at Heavy metal
- Oriental metal 1.0 apart by rating · meets it at Heavy metal
- Progressive power metal 1.0 apart by rating · meets it at Heavy metal
Closest by the three ratings, among genres at least 4 steps away in the tree. A rating match is not a musical claim.