I found Rhapsody's first two albums OK, but since the third album, I have rebaptised their style as Symphonic Disney Power Metal. Their choruses could fit pretty well in the next
Lion King movie if you remove the double bass drums. The song
Power of the Dragon Flame is excellent tough.
I wonder if Rhapsody is in the Guiness book of records for having the worst narrator ever.
Hammerfall have some very good guitars, but the singer sings like a woman... well if you like Sonata Artica, you probably don't care about that.
Dream Theater is an awesome band. As Grimar said, it is prog music, but since it is fast for prog music, many metal fans love them also. Petrucci is a guitar god! In fact, all musicians are excellent except the singer that is pretty average.
I don't agree with Kipi about Maiden. IMO they are still underestimated. Power Metal would not exist without Maiden and Helloween (and Helloween would not exist without Maiden). Of course, they have fillers on their albums, but who hasn't?
@ Fiberfar, thanks for the reply. You answered my question very well. Since I am not a big fan of Manowar's epic songs, I am pretty sure I won't like the other Virgin Steele's albums very much.