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Featured Album
Actin' Up (2023)
Featured Stoner Metal Album
The Mountain Of Gold (2018)
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Featured Progressive Metal Album
Death Atlas (2019)
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Browse World Metal Bands
24 bands found
Toronto's Crimson Shadows occupy a thrilling crossroads between melodic death metal and power metal, pairing guttural vocals and blast beats with the anthemic, twin-guitar harmonies and soaring choruses of the epic power metal tradition. Their profile rose substantially after winning the Wacken Metal Battle in 2013, leading to a deal with Napalm Records and a series of albums — including Kings Among Men and Glory on the Battlefield — that made them one of Canada's most distinctive heavy metal exports.
Crownshift are a Finnish metal supergroup formed in Helsinki in 2022, uniting members who previously served in Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Wintersun, and Finntroll — including guitarist Daniel Freyberg, drummer Heikki Saari, and bassist Jukka Koskinen, all alumni of Norther — with vocalist Tommy Tuovinen of MyGrain. Their self-titled debut album, released via Nuclear Blast in 2024, showcased a potent blend of melodic death metal intensity and power metal catchiness, generating immediate buzz as one of the year's most anticipated heavy metal releases.
Dendera formed in Portsmouth and developed from a classic heavy metal-minded group into a more modern melodic metal band without losing their taste for big choruses and guitar-driven drama. Their early EP We Must Fight and debut album The Killing Floor introduced a sound rooted in galloping rhythms, twin-guitar leads, and high-register vocals, drawing energy from traditional British metal and power metal. Pillars of Creation broadened the songwriting with more aggressive riffing and a larger sense of scale, while the Blood Red Sky material showed the band moving toward darker tones and a sharper modern edge. Mask of Lies marked a heavier and more contemporary phase, bringing together clean vocals, screams, polished production, and songs shaped by personal conflict, resilience, and pressure. Dendera's strength has always been the combination of musicianship and directness: they write with the precision of a metal band that values solos and layered arrangements, but their hooks are built to land immediately in a live setting.
Elvenking are an Italian folk and power metal band from Sacile whose music joins fantasy, folklore, melody, and heavy metal drive. Formed in 1997 by guitarists Aydan and Jarpen, the group established its identity with Heathenreel, then continued to refine a bright, fiddle-colored metal sound across albums such as Wyrd, The Winter Wake, The Scythe, Red Silent Tides, Era, The Pagan Manifesto, Secrets of the Magick Grimoire, Reader of the Runes - Divination, Rapture, and Luna. Elvenking fit metal scope directly through power metal speed, melodic guitar work, folk-metal instrumentation, and a long international career in European heavy music. Their songs often balance uplifting choruses with darker narrative elements, giving the band a flexible tone that can feel celebratory, melancholic, or theatrical. The folk elements are not merely ornamental; violin lines, acoustic passages, and dance-like rhythms frequently shape the songs' movement. Elvenking's appeal lies in their sense of color. They make metal that values storytelling and melody as much as force, creating a world where festival energy, fantasy imagery, and sharp musicianship all belong to the same spell.
Fifth Angel formed in the Bellevue suburb of Seattle, Washington in 1983 and emerged as a key early act in the Northwest heavy metal scene alongside Queensrÿche and Metal Church. Their self-titled debut album (1986), produced by Terry Date on Shrapnel Records, showcased a high-energy style rooted in Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and the more polished Time Will Tell (1989) on Epic Records — produced by Rush collaborator Terry Brown — brought wider exposure. After a lengthy hiatus, the band reformed and released The Third Secret (2018) on Nuclear Blast, followed by the concept album When Angels Kill (2023).
Greyhawk play classic heavy and power metal with a heroic, high-fantasy pulse. Ride Out introduced the band's appetite for galloping riffs and big melodic gestures, while Keepers of the Flame gave that style a full-length stage: twin-guitar leads, charging rhythms, clean theatrical vocals, and choruses that sound written for raised fists rather than studio restraint. Call of the Hawk kept the momentum alive with compact, riff-forward songs, and Thunderheart pushed the band into a broader melodic power-metal space with "Spellstone," "Ombria (City of the Night)," and the title track showing different sides of their approach. The lineup's strength is its balance of old-school conviction and lively playing. Darin Wall's bass and the drums keep the songs driving, Jesse Berlin and Rob Steinway bring the shred and harmony work, and Rev Taylor's voice gives the material a recognizable dramatic profile. Greyhawk's themes lean into fantasy, perseverance, and mythic imagery, but the appeal is not just escapism. The songs are built on sturdy riffs, bright solos, and the kind of triumphant pacing that makes traditional metal feel immediate.
Helloween are one of power metal's defining bands, turning speed metal velocity, twin-guitar melody, and soaring vocals into a template that reshaped European heavy metal. The early Walls of Jericho material still carried a raw, thrashing edge with Kai Hansen singing and playing guitar, but the Keeper of the Seven Keys albums expanded the band's reach dramatically after Michael Kiske entered on vocals. Those records established the combination that became central to the style: fast drums, harmonized leads, heroic choruses, fantasy-colored scale, and a sense of brightness that did not sacrifice force. Later eras with Andi Deris kept the band active through lineup changes and added a harder, earthier vocal character, while the Pumpkins United reunion brought Hansen and Kiske back into the fold alongside Deris for a three-singer, seven-member version of the band. Helloween's catalog is vast, but its core achievement remains clear: making melodic metal feel fast, grand, technically sharp, and emotionally huge.
Mad With Power Fest is Madison, Wisconsin's premier annual power metal and melodic metal celebration, created by the band Lords of the Trident. Since its 2017 debut, the festival has grown into North America's largest dedicated power metal gathering, uniquely combining heavy metal with arcade games and mead. The event consistently showcases rising and mid-tier power metal acts alongside international headliners in a setting that embraces the genre's inherent sense of fun.
Metal Church emerged from the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s as one of thrash and power metal's most distinctive voices, with David Wayne's piercing vocals on their self-titled debut and 'The Dark' establishing them as peers of Metallica and Megadeth. The band's revolving lineup over the decades — including stints with Mike Howe, whose return on 'XI' was celebrated before his tragic passing — has never diminished their commitment to riff-driven, uncompromising heavy metal.
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World Metal Index is an index of World heavy metal bands — death metal, black metal, thrash metal, doom metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, and all heavy music. Browse bands by genre, find metal concerts near you, and discover the World metal scene.