5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #129

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Holy Thunderforce, by Rhapsody of Fire

One of the things I've always liked best about power metal is that it's basically classical music on steroids, especially in the case of Rhapsody of Fire. They manage to take neo-classical music and launch it into the stratosphere. Plus, the fact that all of their songs are about swords, wizards, dragons, kings, etc. makes them even more cool. You're not about to hear anything like that in a top 40 pop or rap song now are you?

2. Hallowed Be Thy Name, by Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are the blue print for modern power metal. With their dual guitar harmonies, extended song structures, and classical influenced play style it's pretty easy to see how so many bands of the past 30+ years have gained a great deal of influence from them. Plus, many of Iron Maiden's tunes are based in the realm of fantasy, mythical, and biblical themes so that is yet another blatant characteristic that many bands have taken from.

3. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves, by Rainbow

But where would bands like Iron Maiden be if it weren't for the likes of Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore? Rainbow seamlessly blended medieval music with the likes of hard hitting rock n' roll already in the mid-70's. Not a whole lot of other bands were doing what they were doing back then, and even if they were certainly not the amazing way they were doing it. In my opinion Rainbow is the father of the power metal genre.

4. Mirror Mirror, by Blind Guardian

Other bands have gone on to carry the power metal torch, however. One of my absolute favorites is Blind Guardian. They have been around since 1987, but they are just as relevant and heavy as any power metal band today. They definitely lean a lot on the fantasy themes in terms of their lyrical content and include a great deal of symphonic and classical elements to the musical side of things. They have evolved a lot over the years, but you can tell a Blind Guardian song when you hear one.

5. Plagues of Babylon, by Iced Earth

Iced Earth is one of the most famous power metal bands in existence. They have also been around since the mid-80's, and like Blind Guardian are still just as relevant and heavy. If anything, they have gotten progressively heavier over the years. The only consistent member is founding rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer who constantly has members coming in and out in order to keep things fresh (I would assume, or hope). They have a symphonic edge to their sound as well, but some times it's just straight up balls to the wall angry guitar sound with melodic edge.