BLAZE: The Rankings (Completed... At Last)

[rideon77]

I'm updating tonight.

I cannot wait

 

[Diesel 11]

30. Already Won
Average Score: 7.50/10
The Redemption of William Black 10/11

Jer and I lose a song we both really like in the form of "Already Won". This short yet impactful song from Blaze's most recent album manages to beat off some tough competition to make it into the Top 30. Featuring some of Blaze's finest vocals and an emotional performance all-round, it's a surprisingly great song, and I'm sad that it's been ousted now. There's only one track left from The Redemption of William Black - how high will "Eagle Spirit" get before it too becomes a thing of the past?

Comments:

A short but great song, Blaze does an excellent job and the chorus is awesome.

A spoken word intro breaks into some wah-laden jamming and a nice percussive verse riff. Blaze carves out a nice vocal line here. Nice build-up through the pre-chorus. The chorus is pretty good. Nice melodic lead callback to the pre-chorus. Ooh, a cool loud a capella bit in the next chorus! Sweet long note! The chorus is improved by some nice melodic lead accompaniment. Nice lower note ending. Well, that was actually pretty great in the end!

A short but catchy piece. It's heavy and well constructed - I like how the verses just flow into a simple but still great chorus. The solo is short and sweet, and the other guitar interludes are very good too.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 0
9 - 2
8 - 1
7 - 2
6 - 0
5 - 1
4 - 0
3 - 0
2 - 0
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

30. Already Won
31. Samurai
32. A Work Of Anger
33. Voices From The Past
34. City Of Bones
35. Independence
36. The Man Who Would Not Die
37. Life And Death
38. Alive
39. Identity
40. Stranger To The Light
41. Life Goes On
42. The World Is Turning The Wrong Way
43. While You Were Gone
44. Tearing Yourself To Pieces
45. Will To Win
46. Smile Back At Death
47. Prayers Of Light
48. At The End Of The Day
49. God Of Speed
50. Solar Wind
51. 18 Days
52. Evolution
53. The Hunger
54. Kill And Destroy
55. Letting Go Of The World
56. 1633
57. Human
58. The Trace Of Things That Have No Words
59. Dawn Of The Dead Son
60. Redeemer
61. Immortal One
62. Human Eyes
63. The First True Sign
64. The Dark Side Of Black
65. Stars Are Burning
66. Madness And Sorrow
67. Waiting For My Life To Begin
68. The Launch
69. Fight Back
70. End Dream
71. Robot
72. Remember
73. Reach For The Horizon
74. Destroyer
75. The Day I Fell To Earth
76. Nothing Will Stop Me
77. Land Of The Blind
78. Faceless
79. Serpent Hearted Man
80. Stealing Time
81. Are You Here
82. Living Someone Else's Life
83. The Dreams Of William Black
84. Blackmailer
85. Russian Holiday
86. Crack In The System
87. The Path & The Way
88. Hollow Head
89. Difficult
90. The Rainbow Fades To Black
91. Motherfuckers R Us
92. Beginning
93. Hatred
94. Dimebag
95. Fate
96. The Truth Is One
97. Forgotten Future
98. Eating Children
99. Fighter
100. Shall We Begin
101. One More Step
102. Judge Me
103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:

Spoiler

Silicon Messiah 5/10
Tenth Dimension 7/12
Blood & Belief 6/10
Promise And Terror 7/11
Infinite Entanglement 7/12
Endure And Survive 5/10
The Redemption Of William Black 10/11
#8: The Man Who Would Not Die 12/12 (6.61/10 avg.)
Bonus tracks 6/6 (5.65/10 avg.)
#9: The King of Metal 10/10 (4.91/10 avg.)

 

[Jer]

30. Already Won

Pffft. This song is better than anything on Silicon Messiah. Of course that was already true of “While You Were Gone”. No accounting for taste, I suppose...

 

[Diesel 11]

Pffft. This song is better than anything on Silicon Messiah. Of course that was already true of “While You Were Gone”. No accounting for taste, I suppose...

 

[Diesel 11]

29. What Will Come
Average Score: 7.50/10
Infinite Entanglement 8/12

Another song from the Trilogy manages to sweep past "Already Won" by just a hair, as it had two votes for 10 and the previous song had zero. "What Will Come" is a really nice acoustic ballad from Infinite Entanglement Pt.1, and works as a nice send-off for William Black before he sets out on his journey. Blaze sounds masterful on it, and Thomas Zwijsen reminds us of why the two pair up so often - because they sound damn good together. Great song and well worthy for an inclusion in our Top 30.

Comments:

But the album knocks it out of the park again with this acoustic track. Backed by Thomas Zwijsen's calm and controlled guitarwork, and Anne Bakker's exquisite violin playing, Blaze does an excellent job telling of William Black's launch into the atmosphere. Somehow these three never seem to be able to do any wrong; they complement each other perfectly.

Very nice acoustic guitar and violin. Blaze sounds really good on this softer bit. He sounds cheesier on the louder part, especially on the lower notes. The chorus is sort of catchy. The "whoah-oh" part is pretty good. I'm not sure the acoustic arrangement fits the lyrics later in the song. This faster chorus later in the song is pretty cringey.

A nice little acoustic piece, reminiscent of "Russian Holiday", especially with the tempo change later on. It's a pretty little tune, if nothing more, and serves its purpose in regards to advancing the story.

Nothing short of beautiful.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 2
9 - 0
8 - 2
7 - 1
6 - 2
5 - 1
4 - 0
3 - 0
2 - 0
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

29. What Will Come
30. Already Won
31. Samurai
32. A Work Of Anger
33. Voices From The Past
34. City Of Bones
35. Independence
36. The Man Who Would Not Die
37. Life And Death
38. Alive
39. Identity
40. Stranger To The Light
41. Life Goes On
42. The World Is Turning The Wrong Way
43. While You Were Gone
44. Tearing Yourself To Pieces
45. Will To Win
46. Smile Back At Death
47. Prayers Of Light
48. At The End Of The Day
49. God Of Speed
50. Solar Wind
51. 18 Days
52. Evolution
53. The Hunger
54. Kill And Destroy
55. Letting Go Of The World
56. 1633
57. Human
58. The Trace Of Things That Have No Words
59. Dawn Of The Dead Son
60. Redeemer
61. Immortal One
62. Human Eyes
63. The First True Sign
64. The Dark Side Of Black
65. Stars Are Burning
66. Madness And Sorrow
67. Waiting For My Life To Begin
68. The Launch
69. Fight Back
70. End Dream
71. Robot
72. Remember
73. Reach For The Horizon
74. Destroyer
75. The Day I Fell To Earth
76. Nothing Will Stop Me
77. Land Of The Blind
78. Faceless
79. Serpent Hearted Man
80. Stealing Time
81. Are You Here
82. Living Someone Else's Life
83. The Dreams Of William Black
84. Blackmailer
85. Russian Holiday
86. Crack In The System
87. The Path & The Way
88. Hollow Head
89. Difficult
90. The Rainbow Fades To Black
91. Motherfuckers R Us
92. Beginning
93. Hatred
94. Dimebag
95. Fate
96. The Truth Is One
97. Forgotten Future
98. Eating Children
99. Fighter
100. Shall We Begin
101. One More Step
102. Judge Me
103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:

Spoiler

Silicon Messiah 5/10
Tenth Dimension 7/12
Blood & Belief 6/10
Promise And Terror 7/11
Infinite Entanglement 8/12
Endure And Survive 5/10
The Redemption Of William Black 10/11
#8: The Man Who Would Not Die 12/12 (6.61/10 avg.)
Bonus tracks 6/6 (5.65/10 avg.)
#9: The King of Metal 10/10 (4.91/10 avg.)

 

[Shmoolikipod]

2 great songs, Already Won is very surprisingly good, you look at the tracks and you think it's just a little don't and not the best on the album...

 

[Confeos]

The fun thing about this dragging out is that I can look at my comments about each song and sometimes feel completely different. "Already Won" is a decent piece, and I don't remember which score I gave it, but at #30 it feels too high, somehow. Same goes for "What Will Come".

 

[Shmoolikipod]

What Will Come is very obviously classic, like the acoustic wow who gave it 5? Do beautiful, who gives this 6?! 7 at least, ohohoh part isn't Heaven Can Wait but it's good, Blaze sings great.

1000 Years and Calling You Home pale in comparison, 1000 Years is going up too high and should switch places with Solar Wind and its awesome chorus.

There are still at least two songs that should go before The Truth Revealed as much as it isn't better than Stranger to the Light those two are worse.

Escape Velocity and 1000 Years have not good verses and terroble choruses, TTR is beautiful

 

[Lampwick 43]

I'm curious to see at what point the songs will enter the 8.0 range. Around #20 maybe?

 

[Diesel 11]

I'm curious to see at what point the songs will enter the 8.0 range. Around #20 maybe?

Nope.

 

[Shmoolikipod]

I listened to Tenth Dimension and Blood and Belief and fit since conclusions:

Soundtrack is the best song on BAB and Regret is close behind

Hollow Head is underrated and Will to Win is generic, and should switch places with Hollow Head in this list.

The intro to Ten Seconds is still bloody awesome


Moving to Tenth h Dimension:

Forgotten Future has more happening in it than I thought

Stealing Time is better than End Dream and Speed of Light is better than Leap of Faith,
It appears Meant to Be separates the album very clearly to two parts, while the title track doesn't have this same effect (I think it's supposed to be 4 4 4 but it ends up 8 4).

Nothing Will Stop Me and Land of the Blind are by far the weakest songs.

Kill and Destroy is still awesome.

This leaves us with the 3 long tracks that of course remain the greatest ones, the title track is super Eric but Meant to Be is top tier ballad (could do with less Latin female vocals) and it's ultimately verybe.

Stranger to the Light is very otherworldly and of course doomy and fearful, I believe at this part the doctor actually gets to the tenth dimension if I understand the storyline correctly. Can't believe it's only 40 here, clean your ears .

And now The Truth Revealed, I admit it's very good and mystic but it's not fucking better than Letting Go of the World!

 

[Shmoolikipod]

Everyone loves State at the Sun
Now the list don't matter, we all know it won

 

[Diesel 11]

Sorry for lack of updates lately; I'll try to get back to it over the weekend, been going to bed earlier and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to keep posting as much.

 

[Shmoolikipod]

Sorry for lack of updates lately; I'll try to get back to it over the weekend, been going to bed earlier and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to keep posting as much.

 

[Shmoolikipod]

The beginning of Stars Are Burning reminds me of Dawn Patrol for obvious reasons, I want to say the chorus is so brilliant, I love the fast dark turn it takes both in music and lyrics! Strong solo as well, verses not so much.

Solar Wind really still sounds like a better version of 1000 Years, but I must give it some credit because I called it trash some posts ago. It's a good song.
I love the first chorus in Dark Energy 256 as well, it's like in Stars Are Burning and it makes the next chorus super exciting.
Calling You Home takes a good 2 minutes to really develop and I feel it is very weak, safe to say it's my least favorite song on the album, good thing it's followed by Dark Energy. Human is probably next-to-last, the songs here are very good!

Independence sounds like Fear of the Dark more and more, aside from the obvious similar melody, the chorus is a little similar (In-de-pen-deeeence and Fear of the daaaaark), and I heard the same background picking like in the quiet part in Fear with the power chords. The title track and A Work of Anger are super duper, I'm surprised Anger went out before A Thousand Years

Spoiler

I love Blood

 

[Diesel 11]

28. Blood
Average Score: 7.57/10
Endure And Survive 6/10

Part II of the Trilogy moves into its second half with "Blood", a mad stomping powerhouse of a song that beat some really heavy competition to get here. Voting was centered around the 7 mark, but there were also two votes for 10 that showed that this song did have some fans backing it. Not enough to bring it higher, but then again, it's in the Top 30. Getting there and beating out a bunch of the songs we've already passed over is probably a miracle in and of itself.

Comments:

A more sinister song, is Track 3. Here we hear of William Black's murderous soul and learn that not everything is as it seems in this world. The guitarwork is pretty nice too.

A replay of Black's murders leads into an off-kilter musical intro and a bizarre bird call guitar lead. An awkward a capella verse with guitar accents leads into an equally awkward chorus. Vocal phrasing is bad throughout. The story interlude has nice backing music. The final chorus reprise seems to work a little better, and it ends on a high note. This one improved in the second half, but not quite enough.

This song is very interesting for me. The music itself is merely good without being special, to be honest (the chorus is the highlight), but I value it for playing an important part in advancing the story - we finally get to know who William Black really is, and I like how he's established as a bit of an anti-hero with a dark past filled with suicide and murder.

An important song in terms of the overall story, and the song itself is decent enough.

I love Blood

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 2
9 - 0
8 - 1
7 - 2
6 - 1
5 - 1
4 - 0
3 - 0
2 - 0
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

28. Blood
29. What Will Come
30. Already Won
31. Samurai
32. A Work Of Anger
33. Voices From The Past
34. City Of Bones
35. Independence
36. The Man Who Would Not Die
37. Life And Death
38. Alive
39. Identity
40. Stranger To The Light
41. Life Goes On
42. The World Is Turning The Wrong Way
43. While You Were Gone
44. Tearing Yourself To Pieces
45. Will To Win
46. Smile Back At Death
47. Prayers Of Light
48. At The End Of The Day
49. God Of Speed
50. Solar Wind
51. 18 Days
52. Evolution
53. The Hunger
54. Kill And Destroy
55. Letting Go Of The World
56. 1633
57. Human
58. The Trace Of Things That Have No Words
59. Dawn Of The Dead Son
60. Redeemer
61. Immortal One
62. Human Eyes
63. The First True Sign
64. The Dark Side Of Black
65. Stars Are Burning
66. Madness And Sorrow
67. Waiting For My Life To Begin
68. The Launch
69. Fight Back
70. End Dream
71. Robot
72. Remember
73. Reach For The Horizon
74. Destroyer
75. The Day I Fell To Earth
76. Nothing Will Stop Me
77. Land Of The Blind
78. Faceless
79. Serpent Hearted Man
80. Stealing Time
81. Are You Here
82. Living Someone Else's Life
83. The Dreams Of William Black
84. Blackmailer
85. Russian Holiday
86. Crack In The System
87. The Path & The Way
88. Hollow Head
89. Difficult
90. The Rainbow Fades To Black
91. Motherfuckers R Us
92. Beginning
93. Hatred
94. Dimebag
95. Fate
96. The Truth Is One
97. Forgotten Future
98. Eating Children
99. Fighter
100. Shall We Begin
101. One More Step
102. Judge Me
103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:

Spoiler

Silicon Messiah 5/10
Tenth Dimension 7/12
Blood & Belief 6/10
Promise And Terror 7/11
Infinite Entanglement 8/12
Endure And Survive 6/10
The Redemption Of William Black 10/11
#8: The Man Who Would Not Die 12/12 (6.61/10 avg.)
Bonus tracks 6/6 (5.65/10 avg.)
#9: The King of Metal 10/10 (4.91/10 avg.)

 

[Diesel 11]

27. The Brave
Average Score: 7.64/10
Silicon Messiah 6/10

If I were voting now, I'd at least give this song a 7, because it's got some pretty great moments and it's quite catchy stuff. Alas, I gave it a mere 6 back when we were voting and called it the worst song on the album. Currently I'd say that titled belongs to "The Hunger", but never mind, because this song ended up pretty high anyway. There were a lot of votes for 5 and 6, but also a good amount of voters between 8 and 10. Thus it comes down about halfway between the numbers and brings the song to the #27 spot. Fortune favors "The Brave", it seems.... sorry, you knew that was coming.

Comments:

The studio version sounds a bit tame compared to when it's played live, but still very enjoyable. Listen to the rhythm guitars, they're doing some really tight stuff.

I'm not quite sure how popular this song is - I suppose we'll find out when we get to the ranking stage! - but I don't think it's an unpopular track. I don't think it's too outstanding, though. The riff is nice, the pace is a nice change from "The Hunger", but the pre-chorus and the actual chorus itself aren't the best and as a whole it flies by to fast to leave much of an impression. It's just... there. Decent but not the best.

Now there's a fucking riff!

... Now we're back. And in full force, dare I say! This song to me sounds like "Born As a Stranger" done right. Tasty intro riff and solo, another good performance from Blaze, and the sudden stop before the chorus is an interesting surprise on first listen.

Very solid rocker.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 2
9 - 1
8 - 4
7 - 0
6 - 3
5 - 5
4 - 0
3 - 0
2 - 0
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

27. The Brave
28. Blood
29. What Will Come
30. Already Won
31. Samurai
32. A Work Of Anger
33. Voices From The Past
34. City Of Bones
35. Independence
36. The Man Who Would Not Die
37. Life And Death
38. Alive
39. Identity
40. Stranger To The Light
41. Life Goes On
42. The World Is Turning The Wrong Way
43. While You Were Gone
44. Tearing Yourself To Pieces
45. Will To Win
46. Smile Back At Death
47. Prayers Of Light
48. At The End Of The Day
49. God Of Speed
50. Solar Wind
51. 18 Days
52. Evolution
53. The Hunger
54. Kill And Destroy
55. Letting Go Of The World
56. 1633
57. Human
58. The Trace Of Things That Have No Words
59. Dawn Of The Dead Son
60. Redeemer
61. Immortal One
62. Human Eyes
63. The First True Sign
64. The Dark Side Of Black
65. Stars Are Burning
66. Madness And Sorrow
67. Waiting For My Life To Begin
68. The Launch
69. Fight Back
70. End Dream
71. Robot
72. Remember
73. Reach For The Horizon
74. Destroyer
75. The Day I Fell To Earth
76. Nothing Will Stop Me
77. Land Of The Blind
78. Faceless
79. Serpent Hearted Man
80. Stealing Time
81. Are You Here
82. Living Someone Else's Life
83. The Dreams Of William Black
84. Blackmailer
85. Russian Holiday
86. Crack In The System
87. The Path & The Way
88. Hollow Head
89. Difficult
90. The Rainbow Fades To Black
91. Motherfuckers R Us
92. Beginning
93. Hatred
94. Dimebag
95. Fate
96. The Truth Is One
97. Forgotten Future
98. Eating Children
99. Fighter
100. Shall We Begin
101. One More Step
102. Judge Me
103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:

Spoiler

Silicon Messiah 6/10
Tenth Dimension 7/12
Blood & Belief 6/10
Promise And Terror 7/11
Infinite Entanglement 8/12
Endure And Survive 6/10
The Redemption Of William Black 10/11
#8: The Man Who Would Not Die 12/12 (6.61/10 avg.)
Bonus tracks 6/6 (5.65/10 avg.)
#9: The King of Metal 10/10 (4.91/10 avg.)

 

[Shmoolikipod]

Wow I really jinxed it
The guitars on Blood are simply amazing, and the spoken text part is easily the best one in the trilogy, awsome song with an infective chorus, I love it!

The Brave is also very good but it's much more standard. Great solo.

Obligatory TTR is still in

 

[Forostar]

My predicted top 10 is still intact.

 

[Confeos]

For once I think these are pretty accurate rankings - "The Brave" sits fairly close to where I would put it, and "Blood" has grown a bit on me. I can't really complain here.