Progressive power metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Power metal 1984
Galloping tempos, choral hooks and lyrics about dragons and battles. Optimistic by definition.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II. The closing track runs thirteen minutes and deserves them.
Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II (1988) - 3 What you asked about
Progressive power metal 1994
Power metal choruses laid over prog structures and meters.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy. The title track runs twenty minutes.
Symphony X, Symphony X (1994) - 4 Where to go next
Blackgaze / post-black 2007
Black metal tremolo over shoegaze harmony: the same density, but the result comes out luminous instead of frozen.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Deafheaven - Sunbather. It opens with nine minutes that justify the whole genre.
Deafheaven, Sunbather (2013)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Progressive power metal descends from, in order. Progressive power metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.