I used to think heavy metal was about as fantasy-oriented as power metal, but honestly the more I listen to, the less that feels like the case. There’s lots of songs out there with more grounded and “real” lyrics than I’d initially realized. Maybe that has to do with the punk influences or something
Honestly I think both are, and we're, still true.
*were
Yeah it’s more of a mix between the two than something like power metal (or thrash if we go in the opposite direction) that leans way more to one side and I find that really interesting
Yeah, it’s punk bleeding into the NWOBHM which then bled into everything else. Some bands diversified: see Maiden going from street level songs about sex workers to concept albums based on sci-fi novels eight years later… but even then they had “Phantom…” on the debut.
Obviously there’s still a lot of overtly fantasy themed songs out there and it’s still a perfectly common theme in the genre, especially in USPM. I just found it interesting that it wasn’t necessarily as inherent to the genre as I originally thought