The Best Power Metal Album - Metal Storm Awards 2025

Arion - The Light That Burns The Sky

Symphonic power metal typically comes with expectations of a more delicate, flowery tone, but Arion bring a crunchy metallic heft and vocal intensity to The Light That Burns The Sky, alongside the added bombast from the faux choirs and strings. It's an approach that pays off handsomely; the bite of the riffs and thundering force of the percussion accentuate the impact and memorability of these songs, which already soar courtesy of gripping chorus hooks. There's also a delightful vocal cameo from Melissa Bonny to savour, and to remind of what is missing from recent Ad Infinitum.

Avantasia - Here Be Dragons

Opening with one of the best singles of the year, Avantasia's Here Be Dragons contains everything that we love about Avantasia: stunning vocal performances by a roster of famous friends, warm and cheery production, and a collection of unabashedly sappy ballads, addictive pop hits, and soaring power metal anthems, all under the direction of magical maestro Tobias Sammet.  Nobody knows how to write for such massive collaborations quite like Avantasia, finding just the right melodies to put their guests to work, and even their off-the-rack writing ranks among the most grandiose power metal anthems being produced today.  Here be dragons and all the power metal excellence that's associated with them.

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Battle Beast - Steelbound

One of the "B"s in Battle Beast stands for Bossa Nova, apparently.  A glamorous and ritzy affair, Steelbound pushes the "Twilight Cabaret" angle and continues eking out a personal corner of the powerful pop metal party.  There are now a bunch of killer acts embracing the unabashedly pop-forward variety of heavy metal (scene flagship Sabaton is further down in this very category), and all its melodramatic vocal hooks, saccharine synths, and verse-chorus-verse blueprints make for great fun but are a quickly familiar formula, so Battle Beast put their weight into little signatures that mark this sound as distinctly theirs.  Steelbound produces many new Battle Beast classics and gives Noora Louhimo some brilliant moments in the spotlight for her last album with the band after more than a decade at the front.  A change of vocalists always means a change of seasons, but with the strong writing on Steelbound, it seems the Beast will weather this change just like always.

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Dynazty - Game Of Faces

The three years between Final Advent and Game Of Faces is the longest gap yet between releases for the prolific Swedish power metal band Dynazty, but they have made good use of that time. Nils Molin's wonderful voice sounds better than ever and is afforded stronger vehicles with which to let it shine than he has been afforded since joining Amaranthe. Game Of Faces features a good mix of faster romps, danceable hits, and Sabaton-esque mid-tempo anthems, and Dynazty demonstrate aptitude at every approach.

Hagane - Top Of The Tower

Top Of The Tower is the first album with Hagane’s new four-member line-up. “Can they cook?” you ask. Hai. Like Masahari Morimoto-san on OG Iron Chef. And today's secret ingredient? POWER! The album showcases the band taking a variety of approaches. “Start Our Journey” and “Heart Scream” see the band shifting into top gear and testing their endurance (as well as the durability of their instruments) while most of the album is more 3rd-/4th-gear mid-pace and features the band’s ability to craft songs. Even when not going full-throttle the songs are infectiously energetic, even joyous to listen to. Most importantly they merit multiple listens to just focus on what each of the members is doing, particularly the bass. While Nagi’s emotive vocals, Sakura’s shredding, and Junna’s “pigtails & drumsticks” drumming are all loudly vying for your attention, Sayaka’s basslines are like the ocean: they cover 67% of the fretboard’s surface. The four had been together for about a year when they dropped their first full-length; quite the way to kick off their journey.

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Helloween - Giants & Monsters

The one power metal band that needs no introduction, because they were our introduction to power metal: the giants and monsters of Helloween.  Still going strong with their Intergalactic Planetary Super Sentai Pumpkins United lineup, Helloween learned a few years ago that there's no point in limiting yourself to one of the best singers in the scene when you could have three: not only can they keep up their stylistic flexibility and bounce between stomping hard rock bangers, screaming bloody murder, and majestic high-speed chases across galactic skies, but now they can tag in the best man for the job whenever the wind changes.  Feel-good sing-alongs and epic quests are the bread and butter of power metal, and it's what Helloween still excel at 40 years after they set the standard with solid gold.

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Judicator - Concord

Judicator entered Concord with a majority-new line-up since previous release The Majesty Of Decay, but the chemistry between the new guitar duo of Chad Anderson and Dayton Andersen and vocalist/bandleader John Yelland from their time together in Disforia is evident across this venture into the Old West. The long-discussed similarities of Judicator and Blind Guardian, while still present, feel less prevalent with each passing record, and the band are continuing to develop their own voice. Part of this involves unexpected cameos of harsh vocals, blastbeats, and saxophone in the album's middle portion, but Concord's strengths come in those core power metal ideas of soaring anthemic choruses and rip-roaring riffs, both of which the album has in ample supply.

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Majestica - Power Train

Trains have long been rumored to be the most metal mode of transportation, naysayers be damned! Obviously more so than tanks. No longer constrained by commitments to Sabaton, Tommy Johansson could take his post-ReinXeed project Majestica to full-throttle, especially on the vocal side. Lighthearted melodies and fantastical lyrics are perhaps part of the course for power metal, but where Power Train stands out is full commitment to catchy songwriting, with the epic orchestration, powerful riffing, and the behemoth that is Johansson's vocal performance all creating an album that does more in 45 minutes than most do in over an hour.

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Sabaton - Legends

Looks like Sabaton's last album did a better job of bringing closure to World War I than the Treaty of Versailles did, because these camo-clad crusaders are done with the 20th century for now and they're reaching far back into history again.  Fitting the gravity of the name Legends, Sabaton are breaking all the rules this time.  Not the musical ones, which remain very much in place according to their award-winning formula, but the historical ones: they invade Russia during the winter, get involved in a land war in Asia, and pursue Lu Bu.  But they get away with it, as Legends brings some new career highlights and a veritable army of march-along choruses wrapped in brilliantly gleaming production.

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Steel Arctus - Dreamruler

Steel Arctus returned to the scene after the heroic effort of Master Of War in 2022, this time delivering an even mightier blow of epic heavy/power metal against the Dreamruler. Here on this third album the Greek warriors of steel take listeners on an epic fantasy-themed adventure, with exhilarating high-end riff melodies and classic wailing solos attacking left, right, and centre, as the adrenaline-fueled rhythms and heroic battle-cry vocals lead the charge into glorious battle once more. The Greek heavy metal scene is thriving right now and Steel Arctus are at the very forefront of it; why not join them on this epic quest of and discover what lies behind the mighty Dreamruler?

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