An Intro to United States Power Metal (USPM)

We Have The Power Presents: The Top 50 US Power Metal Releases Of All Time, Part 1

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to write about the outstanding new album from Greece’s Sacred Outcry—a process that naturally involved a fair bit of groundwork and exploration into all manner of classic power metal, including the early US interpretation of the off-shoot. Upon completion, I realized my power bender really didn’t want to loosen its grip, so I kept going, and going, and going… Which eventually lead to a brash statement behind closed doors at LR HQ akin to, “You know, I think I could probably make a Top 100 Power Metal Albums of All Time list based on my current listening habits, and that list would include USPM.”

Hey, we all love making lists, and our favorite lists are those that relate to our favorite things. A great many of us do it in relation to music every year, and in the case of the Last Rites crew, we do so on a weekly basis in our super top secret, brain-meltingly magical Discord channel without the benefit of the public eye peeking in. Know this: When someone amongst the LR crew throws down a gauntlet concerning any sort of current Best Of list, the remaining crew holds that person to it, and if they don’t deliver said list at some point for examination / heavy condemnation, the offending party is flogged and forced to take part in a Walk of Atonement, Cersei Lannister style. Yeah, not really beneficial to anyone on the planet.

SO’S ANYWAY. There I was, wringing my hands and plotting all the wonderfully grim spells I would need in order to concoct my impenetrable list when it suddenly dawned on me… This is fucking impossible!

Okay, not impossible, but certainly… Unnecessarily uncomfortable. I have been listening to power metal—the US strain and its more familiar cousin that unfurled following the release of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I in ’87—pretty much from day one, and attempting to cram both sides of that particular time line into one tidy list proved to be an exercise in futility, so I decided to commence thusly:

» The Top 50 Most Essential US Power Metal Releases of All Time
» The Top 100 Most Essential Power Metal Releases of All Time Outside Of USPM

This of course meant more work, but the results allowed me to sleep sans grief. The top 50 USPM list is obviously on tap first, broken into two parts, and I’m honestly not quite sure how to deal with the other list because the idea of blurbing about 100 albums on my own makes my head spin right now. Suffice to say, I will do whatever time allows, and at the very least I will publish the top 100 sans blurbs.

If you’re new to the game or would perhaps appreciate some sort of a USPM introduction, the following will act as your 10¢ summary…

A) US power metal is largely a backwards looking phenomenon, meaning it didn’t really take hold inside the vernacular until well after many of these bands made their dents on the scene back in the ‘80s. Sure, some publications tromped out the term back then, mostly as a descriptor, but it didn’t really become an accepted and official off-shoot until piles of people decided it was necessary in order to gain some sort of separation between what bands like Manowar and Helloween rendered. There are shared tendrils between USPM and, for lack of a better word, Euro power, but there are enough differences to make individual lists reasonable.

B) The original USPM movement involved a relatively small faction of bands (though it didn’t seem all that small at the time) that took what was laid down by the NWOBHM, itself an amplification of punk and hard rock, and very simply punched things up with a more power: more aggressive drumming, more vigorous riffing, expanded melodicism, and of course plenty of potent singing. A concentration on fantastical elements and vocal acrobatic abilities were and still are favored, but it’s not a rule that’s fully set in stone.

C) Things become more complicated because USPM pretty much grew directly alongside speed and thrash metal, often getting its peanut butter in their chocolate and vice versa, making the sussing of details and drawing of lines an often prickly debate for anyone who fancies themselves some sort of historian or expert on heavy metal. Purists are, of course, total bastards about it, which is fine, and others are possibly too loose with the definition, which is also perfectly okay… to an extent. For the purpose of We Have the Power and this list, one defining element I decided to hold fast to is this: The bands need to be from these United States. I realize the off-shoot now exists as a “moderately difficult to discern” style played by bands all over the world, but doing it this way made things a little easier (on me), plus it gives an opportunity to shine a light on some bands that landed beyond the relatively brief 1983-1989 window.

Okay, here are the official Three Rules to the Game:
» One album per band
» Bands need to be from the United States
» Ranked only by year (Top 25’s are fine, but don’t trust publications that want you to believe there’s a value difference between an album that lands, say, 43rd as opposed to 44th)

INTO GLORY WE RIDE!
https://yourlastrites.com/2023/05/26/we-have-the-power-presents-the-top-50-us-power-metal-releases-of-all-time-part-1/