Yeah, when I first heard about the group I was expecting more of a throwback to early Helloween and Gamma Ray, but so far I like the more rock-oriented direction they've chosen to go.  I really like this song too... it's from their forthcoming full debut album later this month.  Hopefully the rest of the album sounds as good as this.

yeah that was pretty awesome as well.  I'm curious, what's the definition of power metal?  Most metal I know is pretty powerful. 

"Power metal" is the term generally used to describe speedy and melodic styles of metal, usually with a splash of keyboards and sometimes cheesy uplifting lyrics, i.e. Helloween, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius, to name some of the bigger ones.  Of course back in the day it was more straight-forward, now you have bands that try to work in operatic and symphonic vocals and melodies into their music (Nightwish, Rhapsody, Avantasia).  There's so many different sub-genres of metal these days it's mind boggling.

I love you so much right now; you've just listed off a who's who of bands I love.  Maybe not Favorites (those honors go to Dream Theater, Elvenking, and Rush), but still awesome. 

Your Opinion on Dragonforce?  

Aww, we got a "bromance" goin on haha :)  As for Dragonforce... now there's a band that everyone feels the need to voice their opinion over these days lol.

Believe it or not, they (along with a good dose of classic Iron Maiden and Helloween) are the main reason I got into metal in the first place.  Their demo album got put up on our network in college back in 2002, and I was instantly hooked.  I had always liked classic hard rock / heavy metal, but mainly just the more mainstream stuff they play on the radio all the time, i.e. AC/DC, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, the Crue, etc.  Then came 2002, which was like a perfect storm of metal for me, because you had GTA Vice City come out, which had some of the best 80's metal tracks ever on the soundtrack, Tony Hawk 4 was the first time I ever heard Maiden's NOTB... and then once I started really taking a liking to metal.. BAM... Dragonforce's debut album hits in early '03!  Instantly hooked, I became a huge fan of theirs, and it led me to seek out similar sounding bands after reading reviews comparing them to some of my now favs that I listed above.

Nowadays... it's a different story with them.  Their schtick is stale, they play the same song over and over again with the same words, just slightly rearranged each time.  The first two albums were great, then came Inhuman Rampage, where every song on the album seemed to bleed together.  To this day I can't name any other tracks off the album except for Through the Fire and Flames and Operation Ground and Pound... and I bought it the day it came out in the US!  Their last album was even worse, and I just recently heard their new single, which is just a 4-1/2 minute version of every other song they play.  New singer sounds good, but that's not nearly enough to breath new life into the band when they refuse to at least try something different with their sound and songwriting.

Thanks for making this thread I see some great music in there. I see the OP likes some power/epic/fantasy metal stuff and power metal in general...I don't listen to the genere anymore but 7-8 years ago I used love it. So I wanted to post a not very famous band I liked.

Domine- The Hurricane Master

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao58Xcb985I

It still sounds good to me. I still like a lot of power metal music, expecially Gammaray, older Helloween and Masterplan, still I can't help it but it feels like a bit derivative genre to me. I prefer listening to melodic hardrock and Heavy Metal bands like Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.

Rainbow - Kill The King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ZfrCPKEqM

Judas Priest - Exciter (live Unleashed In The Est, easily one of the best metal live albums ever)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7wQLogDm3o

Uriah Heep - Easy Living

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKxZY0DIxIk

These 3 songs are old must be heard at lest once.

As for prog I wouldn't even know where to start, about Dream Theater, they have made 3 fantastic albums I really love: Images, Awake and Metropolis are some of my favourites ever, as for their later work I have mixed feelings but I won't go in details. Rush are one of my favourites bands, I also love their newer works, Snake and Arrows was great album, even tough the mixing wasn't so great, I would recommend to any fan with a Ps3 to get the Snake an Arrows live on blu-ray, it's better. The new upcoming album also sounds promising

I would recommend Porcupine Tree (again) to anyone, I think they are the best of modern progressive. They have evrything: tecnique, melody, originality. (Gavin Harrison -the drummer- is incredible )

Waiting Phase 1 / 2 (live)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg5K5rjCezE   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mQhMEMdnU&feature=related

Way Out Of Here (live)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95QS3c_Tei4

What happens now? (live)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l0MqQwpXRk

As for my favorites I won't post Pink Floyd, but everyone who likes prog and rock in general should (or must?) listen at least once to Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here albums, also Live At Pompeii if you want to go a little more in depth. Nah... I've changed my mind I'll post just one. (I can't resist)

Careful With That Axe Eugene (Live At Pompeii)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYMyxTFwuz8

Going back to recent times. I love Arcturus, a progressive/simphonic black metal band from Norway, they have made 2 great albums La Masquerade Inferale and Sham Mirrors.

Arcturus - Ad Astra (from La Masquerade Infernale)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXBs0SNjX5w

I may add something more later.

I would contribute but I don't do much of that hard metal/hard rock, whatever you wanna call it. I'm going through an electro/dubstep phase at the moment, all thanks to SSX's amazing soundtrack.

who says it all has to be heavy metal or hard rock?  This is a thread about GOOD music regardless of genre.  The OP has pop, electronic, classic rock, country, punk, ska, etc. 

Ohhhh, my apologies then. I read it and thought it was like a "metal" appreciation thread. In that case, I will contribute not a particular band but a youtube channel. It's called ClubStepUK and they put out a good amount of Electro/Pop/dubstep-esque music and they highlight a lot of different artist and give out free downloads for most of their songs. I know it's the cool thing to hate on this genre now a days but I gave it a try and I find myself liking a lot of their content. Check it out if your into it. Here's just one of the many tracks they got.

Here I have some: (Sorry, I have no idea how to embed)
Alestorm (The sunk'n Norwegian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcOPXnCmtcE
Anubis Gate (Hold Back Tomorrow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF6UcqP-2z4
Amorphis (battle for light)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GMo5nuh250
Brainstorm (below the line)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjvkU-0A3xI
Circle II Circle (Out of Nowhere)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJ9Xjkn2Fk
Cloudscape (Cloak & Daggers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfmAyRWqyHY
Darkwater - Fields Of Sorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSBABjYRczk
Dreamscape - Clockwork
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGhrAOpupbY
Firewind - I will fight alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttzbvvwJsf8
Harmony - Don't Turn Away - with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6I6hzsOS_U
Icarus Witch - Black Candles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSgVnixu5-A
Korpiklaani - Päät Pois Tai Hirteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlBUjdqZXGs
Pagan's Mind - Into The Aftermath (This might play an ad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAvfKKu-C40&feature=fvst
Pathosray - Aurora
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHTNekTldQs
Redemption - Another Day Dies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ESvenRJAwI
Silent Force - Fall Into Oblivion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNKTavLfxu4

(Yes, just some!)