This Enslaved song has terrible vocals as expected, though mercifully they’re used sparingly. The drumming is also mindless cut time dreck for the most part, though it commits the additional sin of not managing to keep time properly in the faster sections. (If you’re going to lapse into brain dead high speed pot banging, the least you can do is execute it with surgical precision.) There are about 4 cool musical themes spread across the roughly 10 minute track, with some nice harmonized riffs and mood-setting melodic choices, but there’s so much repetition and the transitions are so clunky that I can’t really compliment the songwriting. So, not completely without merit, but not good.
This Moonsorrow song also has expectedly terrible vocals, which unfortunately play a larger role in the track. The drumming is far better, though, mostly opting for endless double kick drumming, but doing us the courtesy of keeping time when the inevitable high speed cut time drumming shows up. The songwriting here is also far better, with a tangible melodic journey that doesn’t bore or jar until the needlessly drawn out mega-outro.
Not a fan of either track, but sorry,
@Magnus, it’s an easy call for
@Perun ’s nominee when forced to choose between the two.
Winner: Moonsorrow
But I'll give it a better shot this year.
