[Reaper16]

14. Pharoah – Bury the Light

This album is pretty much American power metal at its best. It takes its song structure from Iron Maiden and its hard edge from bands like Jag Panzer or old Queensryche (I mean “hard edge” relatively, of course). Bury the Light will have you in equal measure headbanging and marveling at vocalist Tim Aymar’s deep vibrato. The guitar licks and harmonized parts are pretty unique in the genre. You might not notice if you don’t listen to a ton of power metal, but this album feels refreshing amidst all the stagnant, repetitive albums that the genre has seen in recent years. This is the most straight-up metal album I have on this list. If you are like me than you love harmonized guitar and badass riffs. This album brings you those things. Constantly. It’s a constant stream of melody and rifbundle of stickse from which to lap. Godamn, this album rules.