MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
I’m not a Helloween fan and I don’t love a lot of this song, but it’s certainly more cohesive than Wuthering Heights, which just sounds like the worst kind of prog.
THE CRUSADE OF EPICS: Results -> A Change Of Seasons wins!
- Thread starter Night Prowler
- Start date
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
I have to be contrarian here. While I really don't care for the vocals in either, the music in the Wuthering Heights song is far more interesting to me than straight power metal for 14 minutes.
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
“The King For A 1000 Years” has some great moments, particularly in the instrumental sections, but now very confusing whenever the singer starts singing. Also the ending should have come sooner.
“Lost At Sea”... fucking hell, the first 7 minutes were an utter mess. The quieter passage it went into was interesting, and also kudos to the outro, but otherwise, yeesh. Rust In Peace + Alestorm + crazy changes + shitty Danish singing = this shit did not need to be 16 minutes long and it isn’t good.
Lost At Sea, but that’s merely a pity vote since it’s been decimated already. Neither song is all that great. Helloween’s is better, but it’s got a landslide win already.
“Lost At Sea”... fucking hell, the first 7 minutes were an utter mess. The quieter passage it went into was interesting, and also kudos to the outro, but otherwise, yeesh. Rust In Peace + Alestorm + crazy changes + shitty Danish singing = this shit did not need to be 16 minutes long and it isn’t good.
Lost At Sea, but that’s merely a pity vote since it’s been decimated already. Neither song is all that great. Helloween’s is better, but it’s got a landslide win already.
The King For A 1000 Years is an OK song. It has some great riffs and it's well produced, but is brought by down by some parts that drag and by stupid lyrics. All parts with "We are king for a 1000 years" are super annoying.
Lost At Sea has weaker production but excels at pretty much everything else. Nils is a way better vocalist, lyrics are way better and there are no parts that drag. It's exciting as fuck and goes in different directions constantly. Salt in general is probably the best power metal album of the decade. I really expected it to get more votes here
Lost At Sea has weaker production but excels at pretty much everything else. Nils is a way better vocalist, lyrics are way better and there are no parts that drag. It's exciting as fuck and goes in different directions constantly. Salt in general is probably the best power metal album of the decade. I really expected it to get more votes here
Results of Round 9:
Helloween - The King For A 1000 Years
King Crimson - Starless (Nominated by @The Flash)
Mastodon - The Last Baron (Nominated by @Night Prowler)
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
This King Crimson song is fine, but it isn’t particularly interesting until it goes off on a jazz odyssey about 3/4 of the way through, which is actually pretty cool. But most of the track is unremarkable.
This Mastodon song doesn’t particularly excite me either, and I’m not thrilled with the vocals or the over-reliance on hypnotic rhythm to carry it through its runtime, but one thing I can say is that it’s never boring. Even when it’s feeling samey, there’s enough going on that you just pay attention to different parts of the music and it doesn’t get tiring — and there’s a songwriting payoff later on, too.
So, sorry @The Flash, but @Night Prowler ’s nominee takes this one. Winner: Mastodon
This Mastodon song doesn’t particularly excite me either, and I’m not thrilled with the vocals or the over-reliance on hypnotic rhythm to carry it through its runtime, but one thing I can say is that it’s never boring. Even when it’s feeling samey, there’s enough going on that you just pay attention to different parts of the music and it doesn’t get tiring — and there’s a songwriting payoff later on, too.
So, sorry @The Flash, but @Night Prowler ’s nominee takes this one. Winner: Mastodon
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
Mine was an easy vote for Mastodon because The Last Baron is actually a song.
King Crimson may be one of the godfathers of prog, but that piece of music does very little for me. Sure, there are some interesting parts - but they drag on for far too long. Jam-type songs just aren’t my cup of tea.
I actually recall this Mastodon song being one of the weaker tracks from Crack the Skye, which is by far their strongest album to me. I’ll admit that it’s been a while since I’ve listened to the full album, though. There’s a riff in this song at around 8:20 that is far more interesting to me than anything in the King Crimson track; there’s so much energy and power here. Mastodon’s vocals (sometimes) are an acquired taste, but the songwriting here is more cohesive.
King Crimson may be one of the godfathers of prog, but that piece of music does very little for me. Sure, there are some interesting parts - but they drag on for far too long. Jam-type songs just aren’t my cup of tea.
I actually recall this Mastodon song being one of the weaker tracks from Crack the Skye, which is by far their strongest album to me. I’ll admit that it’s been a while since I’ve listened to the full album, though. There’s a riff in this song at around 8:20 that is far more interesting to me than anything in the King Crimson track; there’s so much energy and power here. Mastodon’s vocals (sometimes) are an acquired taste, but the songwriting here is more cohesive.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Starless does very little for me once the vocals end. The first half is nice and emotive, but it quickly goes off the rails into weird ascending chromatics and then just jazz fusion. Loses all interest for me.
I really, really dislike Mastodon's vocals (especially when Brent Hinds is singing as he is here for most of it), but this song is pretty cool and way more my style. It definitely goes off the rails in certain places, such as the weird YYZ-worship section around 6:00, but it keeps moving nicely.
I really, really dislike Mastodon's vocals (especially when Brent Hinds is singing as he is here for most of it), but this song is pretty cool and way more my style. It definitely goes off the rails in certain places, such as the weird YYZ-worship section around 6:00, but it keeps moving nicely.
The lack of transition into this section is super annoying, but I'll be damned if that's not a killer riff.
This sums up my thoughts on the song too. That's my main issue with King Crimson barring some favorite songs.
The Last Baron is epic af. The hypnotic rhythm which @Jer is talking about carries the song for me, and I also love Brent's vocals on it.
Results of Round 10:
Mastodon - The Last Baron
Opeth - Ghost Of Perdition (Nominated by @MrKnickerbocker, @Mosh, @Saapanael)
Opeth - The Leper Affinity (Nominated by @Midnight)
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
I mean....no. Fuck you, NP. Big boy gets a promotion and thinks he can come back in here and screw with all the little people! Nah, I reject this bullshit!
Ghost of Perdition
Ghost of Perdition
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
The Leper Affinity has the distinction of being the fourth best song on an album with no bad songs. I've never heard a more powerful, emotive, and thought-provoking song about a colony of lepers in my life. However, there's nothing in it that makes you feel like you're being elevated to a higher plane of existence like the "Ah, ah, ah" part in Ghost of Perdition, or Mikael's tasteful solo and the climactic "If one cut the source of the flow" part that follows. Then the "Ah, AH, AHHH" part comes back, and I forgot about the "dundundundundundundundundunt, dundundunt... dundundunweeeeeee" part in the middle with the syncopated double bass and the epic growling of the song's title... see, I said it. Epic.
Ghost of Perdition, easily. However, if it were facing Blackwater Park's title track (which I surely hope is part of this game), I would have no choice but to vote against it. For that track is Supreme Divine Opeth.
Ghost of Perdition, easily. However, if it were facing Blackwater Park's title track (which I surely hope is part of this game), I would have no choice but to vote against it. For that track is Supreme Divine Opeth.
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
Opeth is one of those bands that would probably be one of my favorites if it weren’t for the unscalable wall of Akerfeldt’s extreme vocal sound. He has literally the worst, most unlistenably annoying extreme vocals to me out of the whole sorry genre, but he sounds great when he sings clean. What a tragedy.
“Ghost Of Perdition” is great, minus the vocal skid marks when he goes extreme. It goes through a number of nice phases and has that cool angelic middle part. It’s not quite as cohesive as some other epic-length tracks, but it holds together pretty well.
Meanwhile, the music in “The Leper Affinity” is outstanding. The steady layering of new and different guitar parts creating complex harmonies is fucking great, and the song has a really coherent progression from start to finish. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the vocals here are extreme rather than clean, which is a real punch in the gut.
I really had to think about this one, but in the end the music from @Midnight ’s nominee is just on a different level, and that ultimately outweighs any other factors. Sorry, MrSaapanickermoshelbocker. Winner: Opeth - “The Leper Affinity”
“Ghost Of Perdition” is great, minus the vocal skid marks when he goes extreme. It goes through a number of nice phases and has that cool angelic middle part. It’s not quite as cohesive as some other epic-length tracks, but it holds together pretty well.
Meanwhile, the music in “The Leper Affinity” is outstanding. The steady layering of new and different guitar parts creating complex harmonies is fucking great, and the song has a really coherent progression from start to finish. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the vocals here are extreme rather than clean, which is a real punch in the gut.
I really had to think about this one, but in the end the music from @Midnight ’s nominee is just on a different level, and that ultimately outweighs any other factors. Sorry, MrSaapanickermoshelbocker. Winner: Opeth - “The Leper Affinity”
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
The great divide on Mikael’s extreme vocals on this board is supremely interesting! Virtually everyone I know who likes Opeth used Mikael’s extreme vocals as a gateway drug to heavier genres (myself included) and still consider his tone the gold standard.
Oof. An Opeth-off
Despite being pro-glass gargling I find Mikael's harsh vocals too painful-sounding at times. He sounds like he's doing damage, and he actually did, didn't he? The vocals he did for Katatonia are a classic example of what I mean. Johan Hegg was more of a gateway drug for me, backed up by Tomi Joutsen.
Despite being pro-glass gargling I find Mikael's harsh vocals too painful-sounding at times. He sounds like he's doing damage, and he actually did, didn't he? The vocals he did for Katatonia are a classic example of what I mean. Johan Hegg was more of a gateway drug for me, backed up by Tomi Joutsen.
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Lampwick 43
Barstool Warrior
I was gonna update but there were only 10 voters last time I checked. I will update in the morning. Get the votes in.
Already summed up my thoughts on GOP a while ago:
Already summed up my thoughts on GOP a while ago:
The Leper Affinity isn't as varied but it doesn't have annoying parts and the beginning ("WE ENTERED WINTER ONCE AGAIN") is probably better than anything in GOP. Easy vote here.Most overrated Opeth song. "Ghost of mother" growling parts are too forced. The clean parts that follow are too folky/upbeat/silly/whatever and I don't like them either. "ayayayayay perdition" parts are also super annoying to me and I think female backing vocals would've been more appropriate for those parts. There's too much of them either way. Song picks up in quality with "Darkness by her side" part (+ Lopez kicking ass) and at 4:54 we get the penultimate appearance of the classic Opeth riff. Weird vocal part at 5:55 is awkward af. At 6:25 we get some awesome music and some more forced growlingAt 7:37 the classic Opeth riff makes its final appearance in Opeth's discography and the awesomeness lasts until 9:06. The rest of the song is just repeating the "ayayay perdition" nonsense. There's a lot to like in this song but overall it's a mess in terms of arrangement.