Hey, thank you for reading this. I want to start writing power metal. You know, Helloween, Hammerfall, Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray.

Can anyone help me with the theory and which musical devices are used in all the instruments and voice. Thank you very much!

Hmm, i write things fairly close to the general idea of modern Power Metal so i might give you some focus points, i'd say at least generic stuff should be fairly easy to write. i'm familiar with only HF and BG from your list, so i'd suggest generally fast pace and riffs(when it comes to the main riff of the song), anthem-choruses with power chords on the guitar, lots of melodies, fast solo's with lots of shredding and sweeping.

use stuff that sounds epic, like power chords in major progression, C-D-E and F-G-A are the most commonly used in nwobhm/power metal, Running Wild- Raise Your Fist(F-G-A) or Manowar - The Blood of My Enemies(C-D-E). they also sound pretty nice when reversed (E-D-C) like in Blind Guardian - Welcome To Dying's intro riff, and also when they get reversed and come back, like in the song Manowar - Thor(which by coincidence is what i'm listening to right now)

also for a slightly more modern sound, when it comes to riffs try to balance power chords with fucked up or minor/major 2 string chords, like on old Hammerfall songs, for example on Stone Cold the main riff is something like this(only 8th notes throughout):

D---7------9-----10---7------------------|--7-------9------10-----7------------------|12--------10----------9-----12---------10---------9------|
A---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|--8-8-8--8-8-8--8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-|10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-|
E-------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|

so as you can see they're not just masturbating the old power chords to no end and they were experimenting with these different sounds of the 2-string distorted major and fucked up 6-semitone interval chords, which is something you will find mostly in more modern power metal sounds.

also, something that metal bands and especially Manowar has done for 28 years now is the balance of the 2 outlying notes in the major progression(more specifically, they mostly switch from E to C on the same main riff), there's actually so many Manowar songs that use that i think i'm losing track of them and it's instantly recognizable, i'll try to list them in chronological order: Blood of My Enemies, Brothers of Metal, The Gods Made Heavy Metal, Return of the Warlord, House Of Death, Hand of Doom, Warriors of the World United(on that track this transition is most easily audible) and from the last EP, Let The Gods Decide.

sorry if you dislike Manowar but i think of their music as the most simple version of power/heavy metal, in my opinion Hammerfall and Blind Guardian are simply Manowar made more complex and with more experimentation. it's no secret that if Into Glory Ride was a little more over the top, faster and had symphonies it would be Nightfall In Middle Earth, or if Warriors of the World was a bit more varied it would be Legacy of Kings. not saying any band is worse or better than the other, it's simply the state of affairs in my opinion. basically i see Manowar as the bare bones of the power/heavy metal genre, and if you want to play that genre, just look at what they are doing and try to improve on that in whatever way you like.

i can't really get into too much detail because it's pretty much your job to compose your own stuff but that is the big picture as far as i can tell.

Thanks, so changing chords on like one on each bar?

Written by Angel Of Mercy on 09.05.2010 at 18:55

Thanks, so changing chords on like one on each bar?

you didn't get the point. it's not about changing chords once every X measures, it's about making music that sounds good, and come to think of it, it just loses it's charm if you start out saying "ok, so every other bar i'm gonna change the chord"

so yea, change the chords, but don't do it mechanically like every other bar or something