Below is just a short offering of our favorites, and we can only hope you enjoy reading about them as much as one can enjoy listening to them. This was a year of incredible excitement and consistency in the world of power metal, a genre which has reaffirmed its footing as a relevant facet of metal with a varied roster of artists making the final cut. A combination of artistic vision, originality, musicianship, and production quality came together to form this year’s list of favorites, as well as the staying power of the album throughout the year. Music taste is highly subjective, and the following list comes from the combined judgement of the Sonic Perspectives contributor team. Be it rooted in a sci-fi escapade, a conceptual journey through time and space, or facing a dragon head-on, the tales told by these masterful power and symphonic artists have made a striking statement: these subgenres are stronger than ever before, and they’re here to stay. Gathering influences from early speed metal or pure orchestral grace, the varied approaches to storytelling and capabilities of modern production are just some of the things that have made this batch of releases so strong. Whether looking for something more traditional from a familiar face or an experimental and punchy debut, there is something for everyone to be found in the list below. Flanking these accomplishments are a wave of newcomers eager to demonstrate compositional prowess alongside refreshing vocal might.
This feat was accomplished by a litany of genre flagships stepping up with new releases packed to the brim with intensity, speed, and sheer technical magnificence.
Though power metal is often referenced through the narrow lens of awesome adventures and fantasy quests, longtime titans and zealous newcomers alike have done much work to remind the scene that there is more than caricature to be found in a genre which has its roots in heavy metal. Much of this bounty has come from a surge of power and symphonic metal releases, twisting together the threads of speed and grandeur to mark one of the most notable years for the sister sub-genres in more than a decade. In a year which has proven to hold its fair share of challenges, 2020 has at the very least provided a spectacular flood of new music to feast one’s ears upon.