The origins of power metal

Many people call Dio, Iron Maiden, and Helloween the pioneers of this genre, but there were power metal bands that existed before them. Two bands come to mind. Heavy Load, a power/heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1976 and released their first album in 1978. Many describe Heavy Load as Heavy Metal, Epic Metal,Power Metal, or all three. Stormwitch also comes to mind. Stormwitch formed in 1979, but released their first album in 1984. There were heavy metal and hard rock bands who existed before that who had a major influence on the genre, but I would call these two bands one of the first. If you know a band that undoubtedly played power metal that existed before that, hit me up. I'm counting Rainbow as more heavy metal and a huge influence rather than actual power metal.


Helloween came much later, releasing a different kind of power metal. It was energetic, and had more of a pop metal sound. Sure, Helloween might be the fathers of modern power metal, but the real power metal existed before that. As you might have noticed, I prefer USPM and the original power metal over the more modern sound. The older version of power metal was heavily NWOBHM influenced, and was very riff driven.

Helloween's first album was speed metal, but after that they pretty much laid down the foundation for all modern power metal bands to follow. Stormwitch and Helloween were both pioneers of two different kinds of power metal. Stormwitch only found moderate success, while Helloween became pretty huge. To this day, I will prefer Stormwitch to Helloween. Stormwitch's first three albums were pretty fantastic. If you haven't listened to Stormwitch, you really should. I want to smash my head through a wall when people think Hammerfall's cover of Ravenlord is the original.

Heavy Metal and Power Metal are definitely pretty similar, though most metal genres have something in common with heavy metal. Maybe there was power metal that existed before the late 70s. Send me a comment if you know any.