Who Really Invented Power Metal?

Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contrast with the heaviness and dissonance prevalent for example in extreme metal. Power metal bands usually have anthem-like songs with fantasy-based subject matter and strong choruses, thus creating a theatrical, dramatic and emotionally "powerful" sound.

Who really invented power metal? Was it really Helloween with The Keepers of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1 album as the legend goes, or is there more to this story?

Who really invented power metal? Was it really Helloween with The Keepers of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1 album as the legend goes, or is there more to this story?

Power metal is a bit more challenging to define than so many of metal’s other branches. The differences between thrash, death metal and black metal, for example, are all quite distinct, bearing unique characteristics that the others lack. That isn’t so much the case with power metal, which bears all the hallmarks of traditional metal as defined largely by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Twin melodies, high singing, fast riffs and faster drumming have just as much place in traditional metal as they do power metal. Of course, a lot of that came from Iron Maiden, but so did epic storytelling, though not in the same fashion as early prog rock. See why this gets tricky? Maiden’s vivid lyrical themes along with the ones conveyed from the mystical mind of Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow, Black Sabbath and the Dio band, rounded out yet another crucial component of power metal. Helloween is a German power metal band founded in 1984 in Hamburg, West Germany by members of bands Iron Fist and Gentry. Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Weikath, and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg. After the release of a self-titled EP and their debut album Walls of Jericho in 1985, it expanded into a quintet with the addition of singer Michael Kiske, Hansen choosing to focus on guitar instead. Under this line-up, they released the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums (1987 and 1988), which established Helloween as a notable heavy metal band and led to the creation of the power metal subgenre.

A Little History About Origins

Anthropologist Sam Dunn traced the origins of power metal back to the late 1970s, when the groundwork for power metal lyrical style was laid down by Ronnie James Dio. The fantasy-oriented lyrics he wrote for Rainbow, concentrated around medieval, renaissance, folk, and science fiction themes, directly influenced modern power metal bands.[5] It is mentioned that songs "Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black", from the 1976 album Rising and 1978's Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, "Kill the King" and "Lady of the Lake", respectively, might be among the earliest examples of power metal. In his 2011 documentary series Metal Evolution,[6] Dunn further explained how Rob Halford of Judas Priest created a blueprint for power metal vocal delivery. His almost constant high-pitched singing became one of the main characteristics of power metal. The twin-guitar sound promoted by duo of K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton highly influenced this subgenre. Another pioneer in the power metal genre is Jon Mikl Thor, who was a strong inspiration to the American band Manowar.

When Hansen co-founded Helloween with Weikath in Hamburg in 1984, their ambition was to become as big as the Scorpions. Their early records were fast and brittle, a distinctly European take on American thrash. Hansen was the vocalist on the band’s self-titled debut EP and their first album, Walls Of Jericho, before deciding that playing guitar and singing was more trouble than it was worth.