I'm aware of SV, Shitfucker and Abigail already and will be giving those other recs a shot. However, those three I mentioned aren't really what I'm after; they're too punky/sloppy/black metalish. Along similar lines, Midnight are just too damn slow too often. I want speeeeeeeeed and falsettos.

Speed and falsettos you say? Leader (Nld) fits the bill pretty well. Mysto Dysto is also fantastic, but they venture into thrash a lot. Check out Trojan and Phantom (the "Cyberchrist" one) also. Mysto Dysto is really "off the rails", while the latter two are just really solid blazing speed metal. I could rec some more bands but it might get too "power metallish" for you. Hope I've got a better idea of what you're looking for now, though.

Great speed metal from Finland. See if that works for ya!

Allllllllright here's my rundown of the bands suggested that were new to me:

Witchgrave - Way too Venom-ish. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it means it's nowhere near fast enough.
Infiltrator - Riff-wise this is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, but I wish the vocals were more like singing and less like a gruff harsh vocal.
Intoxicated - See above. Not quite as good, though.
Iron Dogs - Hard to say what it is, but this just isn't doing it for me at all. Not huge on the vocals, but the guitar tone and the bulk of the riffs I'm hearing just aren't really doing anything for me.
Superchrist - Same deal as Iron Dogs, really, but riffs are worse still.
Leader - Way too power metally/thrashy.
Trojan - Too fancy/highbrow, if that makes sense, especially in the choruses, intros, bridges, etc. Fuckin' rips though, and those verse sections are pretty close to what I'm after.
Phantom - This one's far too power metal and fancy. That robo-eaglewolf on the album cover rules though.
Mysto Dysto - This loses some points for being too fancy and having a vocalist who's more histrionic than mean, but it earns many of these points back for being totally bonkers and fast as shit ("Power of the Law"...goddamn!)
Ranger - This is pretty good, nice and sleazy, but the overall feel could stand to be meaner. A more ambitious vocalist would definitely be a huge plus.

Coincidentally I found this band Iron Curtain from Spain while I was poking around. They're pretty sweet:

Do you guys know of any good blogs that tend to focus more on power/heavy metal? I feel like most popular sites only write about death/black/doom nowadays and there have to be some that spice it up a bit.

I don't know any blogs but you could try heavymetalrarities. Its another forum which talks mostly just about Heavy/Power

Am I the only person here who doesn't like High Spirits very much? They're not BAD, the riffs just seem kind of boring to me, the vocals mediocre.Like Dawnbringer it just sounds so forced to me. There are some good moments but they seem to get lost overall. Im going to give it another couple of shots but I have tried Another Night a few times due to recs here and elsewhere and so far I cant get into it.

I pretty much agree man. Those type of vocals don't do much for me and it's just way too tame. Not my cup of tea.

I dig High Spirits but can totally get why people wouldn't like them - they're pretty laid back in a lot of ways and that's not going to be everyone's thing.

I've seen High Spirits tonight and their set was very cool! I Love their stuff but I do understand why someone wouldn't dig them. They're very catchy, voluntary simple and hard rockin' opposed to Chris Black's other band Dawnbringer which is pretty complex (both the lyrics and the music) heavy metal with a touch of extreme. Black is a very genuine dude with a real knack for melodies and a full blown vision of what he wants to be and that's well reflected through his music. I bought the new album, I expect it to be as good as Another Night

I'm a big fan of his projects and I took the time to talk to him about his collaboration with the weird Finn musician Jussi Lehtisalo (I did a series about his many projects) called Aktor and they have a full length coming! Good news since their single was awesome, BOC inspired heavy/rock. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtTflxxRPFU

Did anybody go?

(Grim Reaper at Ragnarokkr)

and here's Riot playing Sign of the Crimson Storm and Wings are for Angels! Unf!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9RrxjBf3_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR74aZERw_w

Their new singer Todd Michael Hall is sounding pretty good.

Sounds good... looks like a dingus in his satiny muscle shirts with his sweeping grandiose arm movements.

It definitely is a great album.

Describe "very best vocals" by naming other albums from that collage of yours, please.

Why don't you just describe why you disagree if you are so interested in discussing this matter?

Is there such thing as depressing/melancholic power metal? If so, I'd be very interested in some recommendations.

This is really cool! Takes a few surprising twists and turns... Very much feeling the BOC influence, which is always welcome. Any idea when the album drops?

That's essentially a little contradictory. As in depressive bands I'm not completely sure, but yeah, there's certainly some melancholic ones, like Crimson Glory, which is excellent. Also, Virgin Steele are known to play with melancholic themes throughout their superb The House Of Atreus albums, but they are far from depressive.

So not that I know

Yeah, I kinda figured so haha but I was just a bit curious. Thanks though. Haven't listened to CG and VS in seemingly years, completely forgot about them.

Later Sonata Arctica perhaps? Not depressive, but certainly melancholic.

Chozzen Phate has some sort of downer songs. Check out their 1995 demo. Kamelot 'Epica' and 'The Black Halo' are also pretty melancholy at times, especially the latter. I'd also recommend Solitude Aeturnus's first two, but they're at least as much doom as power metal, so I dunno if that's what you're looking for.

Ashes to Ashes and Arch Nemesis have very depressing sounds for power metal. Dark, heavy riffs and deep vocals - lots of atmosphere too.

I think the first Mephisto album has a kind of sad, distant atmosphere, although it may be more due to the nasally/effeminate vocals and murky production, as I'm not sure about the lyrics (but now the kinda whiny "And pleeeeeease don't denyyyy it" of their eponymous' chorus is stuck in my head). Secrecy is arguably more progressive than power metal, but their lyrics tend towards angst. There are some individual songs as well, like Metal Church's Method to Your Madness which is very melancholic despite being total melodic speed metal (and my favorite Metal Church song).

'Dreaming Neon Black'/'Dead Heart'-era Nevermore is pretty depressive, I'd say. Heavy riffing, anguished vocals, dark themes.

maybe the first DEPRESSIVE AGE album?

Angel Dust's "Bleed" and "Enlighten the Darkness" maybe? Both pretty 'down' albums.

Nah, Chris said this summer but no idea. I know he has full freedom for his lyrics/vocals so that's cool!

Kind of funny how the flower metal band of the late '90s, in the early '90s made some really proggy, gloomy, and all-around weird power metal.

I've been listening to a lot of Anthem recently; I had never really appreciated how good they are. Tightrope and Bound to Break are both fucking great. There's a lot of American influence in their style, to my ears, especially in the vocals.

It's Riot V now

But I'm not that much into his whole gigolo appearance hahaha

This would have been my suggestion. While we're on the topic of Dreamspace, are there any albums that are similar to it in the Power Metal world? Twilight Time is good but it's not quite the same. I personally think what Tolkki was doing at the start was a much better direction than the direction they ended up following. I'm already a fan of Ashes To Ashes, but I personally don't consider them similar.

I'm also looking for any albums similar to Dawning by Archetype. I've tried quite a few bands on the archives with no real sense of direction such as Fantasy Opus, Cloudscape, Conception, Circus Maximus, Harmony, Nightmare World (actually really like this, would like it if they released a full length album) and others, but none of them sit with me as well as Archetype does.

Soooo...any more speed metal recs? I got some cool stuff out of what was suggested but the recs trended toward too rough/punky/extreme metallish on one end of the spectrum and too fancy/power metallish on the other. I want that juicy bit right in the middle!

Batjim, have you tried Harbinger yet? From what I could find of your request you were getting pretty specific with the vocals so I don't know if those will resonate with you. They definitely don't sound overly trained or technical to me, but the guy can sing for sure.

Anyways, I think they rule and maybe you will too:

It hasn't come out yet (I don't think) but Metal Inquisitor's new album "Ultimo Ratio Regis" fits the bill.

Clips available: http://www.amazon.com/Ultima-Ratio-Regi ... Inquisitor

And related to that, Battleaxe - Heavy Metal Sanctuary (which is also came out this year)

I wasn't trying to be *too* specific, I just wanted something that was both a) not super trained/technical/wanky/beautiful but also not b) a guy hoarsely shouting non-notes like Lemmy or Cronos. Anything in between will do - a dude who's got a ballsy voice with some muscle to it, but I don't care if he's got a spectacular range, and I don't want him to be able to be described as "refined" at all. I guess what I'm envisioning is like a blend of Speedwolf, Midnight and Striker but with vocals more like striker than the non-singing of those first two.

I'll check out these new recs later tonight when I can listen to musics, thanks.

Alright, misread your request initially and thought you wanted the rougher vocals. Here's some that might be a little more what you're after. Apologies if some of these were already mentioned, didn't go back to look.

Evil Killer
http://evilkiller.bandcamp.com/

You know about Volture right?
http://volture.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-edge-2

Blade Killer
http://stormspell.bandcamp.com/album/blade-killer

Gladius
http://stormspell.bandcamp.com/album/je ... hlur-vol-1

Stallion
http://stallion2013.bandcamp.com/

So, I'm still working through the list I got from some of you guys last week, but just dropping in to say wow, how good is Keldian's album Outbreak?? Only a few tracks in, but this is *precisely* what I love about Euro power, great hooks, upbeat tempos, fantastic vocals, wimpy guitars, everything!

I've had an extremely hard time trying to find power metal that has both huge wailing Euro-power hooks and choruses and almighty guitar riffage. The European, especially German power metal bands that have an extra dose of riffage (Abraxas, Paragon, Iron Savior, STS 8 Mission, etc., etc.) usually have a pretty restrained vocal style. My power metal holy grail is something like "The Marriage of Helloween and Helstar". Like take that Keldian album, kill the keyboards, jack up the tempo, rev the vocals up an octave and a half, and dump the combined riffing power of Nosferatu, Iron Savior, and Alice in Hell into a balls to the wall shrieking, wailing, riffing colossus.

(Keepers Helloween, no Deris shit)

I'm pretty sure we've talked about Midnight Priest in here before, but I've been rocking the debut a lot in the car lately, and I just have to say they are fucking awesome at writing riffs. Check out how they rock this "Two Minutes to Midnight" style opening riff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-QDdFm2CpI

Damn that is awesome.