Ah, the infamous power ballad. For many headbangers, a love/hate relationship exists with this tried and true song format. Prior to the ascent of hair metal and MTV, power ballads highlighted the warring energies of the light against heavy dynamic made for some of the finest moments in heavy music.

So how did we get to the point where the natural reaction is to cringe at the very mention of the term? Hordes of hair bands brought metal to the mainstream, selling millions upon millions of records, typically due to sappy tunes that weren't indicative of a band's true sound. There was no hiding what was at play and these acts were readily dismissed as sellouts by the heavy metal faithful.

But that doesn't mean it's all bad. Alice Cooper, ever the musical chameleon, kept pace with the current music scene when he released the smash hit "Poison," which flipped the script on "love to hate" to "hate to love" as the song, cheesy as it is, proved to be far too catchy to discard alongside other feckless power ballad cash-ins. Even within the glam scene itself fortunes were to be had (by way of song, not just royalty checks) in Cinderella's "Nobody's Fool" and Pantera, unrepentantly heavy as they retooled their sound, were in on the game with the ageless "Cemetery Gates."

We're not giving away all of them away and to see what other power ballads don't suck, watch the video above.

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