So, like I said just in the last round
I get similar dissonance with Mercyful Fate and King Diamond, needless to say. I still don't really know what possessed Diamond to try to sound like a Smurf, which is just inherently funny, whatever justification you might come up with. If you want eerie, well, see the above comment on black metal - that sounds ghost-like, that sounds like a banshee, not Mickey Mouse. It's really a pity, because other than that, Abigail is really a superb album (I was listening to that one recently)
I can withstand and appreciate extreme vocals, because they are intentionally abrasive and primarily percussive and whatever - it is an intentional injection of "ugliness" that can have its place, especially in a genre that thematises the transgressive, that is enthralled by ugliness and distaste in a very Romantic kind of way. But Diamond's vocals are extreme in a completely different matter. Just like death metal vocals can encapsualte aggressiveness and primal agression (or decay) and black metal vocals can imitate the ear-piercing shriek of a banshee or an actual ghastly wail in a haunted castle, these helium-induced buzzings are
pure - and - simply - inhenrently - silly. And I just can't stand that, or at least not the discrepancy with the very serious and well-wrought instrumental part of the things that actually attempts to sound ominous and cool and dark and whatever ... and what is undermined at
every opportunity by this bizarre parody of ... something.
(BTW,
@Magnus - this is also my actual problem with Attila Csihár, memes and silly talk aside - I can appreciate the type of sound Mayhem are attempting on
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and sometimes they would even succeed - although I'm quite disinclined to heap much praise on a band with Euronymous and Vikernes, but I digress - but then Attila comes in and sounds either like
Dave Mustaine with throat cancer or like
Homer Simpson trying to
pass an unwieldy stool and it just completely gets me out of it. And I don't even think it's about his capabilities, I'd imagine he might be quite versatile as a vocalist (especially for an extreme one), it's what he decides to do with it. I am
not against harsh vocals in general and I realise the importance of experimentation, but not all things are of the same merit and some ideas are just ... bad. Counterproductive.)
I really like A Dangerous Meeting as a song, its guitarwork thrills me, it's quite melodic in an 80s sorta way, but doesn't really feel trivial. On its own it would be possibly one of my favourites to win the entire cup.
Whereas Paranoid is probably among the most overrated songs on the definitely most overrated album by my favourite band. It has a good drive and the melody, limited as it is, is strangely catchy, but nothing special, really.
And still, I'm voting for
Paranoid. Diamond's bizarre vocal choice/preference is intentional, it's just stupid in both the conception
and the execution. To borrow a simile from Todd in the Shadows, it's like the snare sound on
St. Anger or Jar Jar Binks in
The Phantom Menace - a terrible idea that you can actually
see is terrible and it's
always there. Always when you try to concentrate on the actual good stuff, the Duel of the Fates starts playing and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon face off with Darth Maul in the most glorious lightsaber combat ever, you get a sudden switch to Jar Jar accidentally wiping out the entire army with his shenanigans or something.
I don't even know if Diamond could have been able to
not be aware how terrible it is and that no-one told him, in an "emperor's clothes" kind of situation, or if he was more then well aware and it's merely a not-so-thinly-veiled "fuck you" to the listener.
But here's my fuck you right back. Not voting for Mercyful Fate, not because of third-grade-level contrarian Stanism, but because you literally decided to drown all your talent in a stupid gimmick. And
"meesa angry at yousa for that".
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Aaaand what I wrote in the previous post again
Anyway, we were listening to Meteora the other day (which I liked much more, both back in the day and nowadays) and while I can somehow appreciate the melodies and sometimes even the general vibe, I still can't fight off the feeling that it's both way too simplistic (and LP always were this one trick pony... that unfortunately tried to learn other tricks as well) and that ... well, like I said in the best band thread years ago - I can't help but it sounds like acne.
Papercut is even worse than Crawling and
Keeper is a power metal classic that I actually thought about nominating myself (on wifey's insistance I went with Halloween). What a glorious song.
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I don't hate Sabaton, even nowadays, but I'm not too crazy about them either. The gimmick wears off soon, Brodéns vocals are ... idiosyncratic to say the least (being able to hit less notes than Lemmy and yet being able to succeed as a singer somehow is definitely a feat, I guess) and to say the band is a one trick pony is an insult to ponies, unless we consider the three-beat gait of a basic canter a "trick", but I admit that early in their career, they had a lot of fun, unassuming, catchy songs and if you were willing to get in the vibe, they managed to be quite immersive.
And Rise of Evil is definitely their best song and to this day the only song of theirs that remained in my rotation, despite it being quite deliberately... eh,
assuming. A sombre, plodding epic (yeah, it's simplistic in structure, but feels epic anyway) and despite the lyrics being, well, Sabaton (so once again below even Lemmy) and suffering from many a history-influnced metal song lyrical diseases (just name-drop the most clichéd terms and then it's going to be, like, wow, deep - 'Arry, much as I love him dearly, has the same problem), it's delivered with such conviction and in such a context I just can't help but not only accept it, but to also be kinda moved by it, each time. They took the dark subject and gave it an appropriately dignified treatment.
I mean it - I would vote for this quite great track in most other rounds, but
Daughter of the Sun is FUCKING BRILLIANT and Blood Ceremony are among my most pleasant surprises and discoveries of this entire cup. Yeah, you could say it's "retro", but that's pretty much the only bad thing you could say about this thrilling, magnificent piece of work. And in that case, grow up, you effin' zoomer. Where has this band been the entire time? I just finished a re-listen right now and I literally want it to win this entire cup. It is absofuckingcuntingflabbergastingly delectable and I sincerely thank
@Wogmidget for nominating it.
But it's being stomped to death by Sabaton. So I'm also kinda hating
Woggy for nominating that one as well, I guess.
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With Legend, I'm still not sure if the band's supposed to be serious or not, but what I wrote what seems like ages ago probably still stands
On the other hand, Legend's Wizard Vengeance has the wonderful, idealistic, garage cheese I so appreciate in the power metal bands, the bass guitarist knows what he's doing (see the instrumental section for some cool bubbly shenanigans) and despite the terrible production, it all sounds extremely catchy.
Well, except for the vocals. These are absolutely horrendous when on their own and even worse when they're harmonising. Really, combined with the somewhat inane vocal melody, you kinda have trouble taking it seriously. But... it still results in a lively, memorable track. Especially since the whole approach seems more high-brow than its competition.
Honestly, I don't know. If I wanted to be edgy and pseudo-profound, I'd say that Legend fail to be as good as they'd like to be and Saxon fail to be as bad as they'd want to be.
That said, I still value the concept and overall attitude more, so Legend it is.
and what I wrote about In Flames definitely still stands
However, it is pitted against In Flames The Quiet Place. You know, I heard the whole Soundtrack album probably once at most... and I'm not even sure if I've ever finished it. I gave it a fair listen, for Kid's sake - we very often agree on stuff we like - but I'm not up to this, sorry. This is precisely the type of '03 music I've been trying to run away from ever since. I'm not even sure if the song is bad per se, it's just that it mostly sounds like Linkin Park with growls and I don't need that. Like, ever. I've hard enough time trying to convince myself to listen to Sepultura's nu-metal output and Deftones' momentary lapses of taste, this is just emo-bro to the extreme. Sorry, really sorry, you know I love you, mate, but this really doesn't do it for me, although I gave it two listens just to be certain.
so
Legend it is.
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I could never shake off the feeling Gamma Ray are kinda discount Helloween - with all the passion, but none of the musical ideas/memorability - though I'd still prefer them over many a non-power metal band. Rebellion is certainly one of their best efforts, even I'm not going to deny that, but the multi-part, multi-faceted experience of Blind Guardian on what seems to be their best album by popular vote, with the duumvirate of Olbrich and Hansi beating the single, lone mast of Kai Hansen in the band charisma contest even by sheer numbers makes me go with
Imaginations. And band bias aside - I have always felt the opening and closing track of that album are a bit underwhelming, boring, that they are too mid-tempo and certainly not thrilling enough, but last year (I actually know the exact moment/day, but whatever) it somehow clicked and I had that particular song on rotation for quite some time.
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My relationship with Queen is a tempestuous one - I first hated them for the stuff I heard on the radio (We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, Heaven For Everyone, *shudders* You Fool No One), then I started listening to their discography and fell in love with I, II,
Opera, Races and Jazz, then I kinda learnt how to appreciate most of the rest of their career, then suddenly it unclicked and I just couldn't stand the band for the longest time and nowadays I'm slowly returning to appreciating them to
some degree at least. I'd say there are several reasons for that, some of which are ... well, if not
ineffable, then at least somewhat
nontransferable and would require me to make this post even longer than it already is, but one of the reasons - and you may call it a "hot take" as the youngsters on the internets seem to do so today - is that the band is almost ridiculously ... "nerdy"?. I mean, their talents and strengths are undeniable, but all are merely on this artificial, plastic side. Everything by them feels like a
construct. There's nothing natural to them, they feel really stilted and when they try to "rock out", they sound like the whitest band in existence, it just feels incredibly cringy, as if a moshpit of middle-aged accountants. Like seeing my father drunk dancing. They have no bottom, they have no swing, they have no
soul. Yes, Mercury is quite rightly praised for bringing some of the music hall vibe and influence to the band, but with these "heavier" songs it just shows that that's what they are - an
act. This is what people say about Dream Theater and I can see where that might come from, but DT always had not just the Trucci riffs, but the rhythm section (with Portnoy especially bringing his natural aggression and feel in the mix) and by choosing to play outright metal, you always maintain
some kind of edge - Queen have mostly just the riffs, if anything (Dead on Time has an awesome riff by May, btw).
Stone Cold Crazy isn't such an abomination like Sweet Lady is, in fact it's the closest to it all actually
working, at least instrumentally, but the vocal dissonance strikes again - because Mercury goes all in with the flamboyance (and no, despite his popular image, that
isn't his only
modus operandi - see White Man, for example, which has other problems, true, but not this one, or A Prophet's Song) and the harmonies and it completely subverts the mood of the track. Once again it sounds like an "experiment", an artificial construct and my general feeling from the track is quite horrendous. Always has been. Sorry.
Whereas in the other corner we have classic Scorpions with a really nice Uli workout, one of the highlights of their best (or possibly at least most consistent) albums. I've already sang praises of this particular era here, so let's just say I'm going with
Charon.
), but I certainly appreciate the inclusion of 
Each song would have won against any other song in this round (except possibly "Keepers").