I feel like Pantera are underrated a bit on the forum - sure, they're appealing to the lowest common denominator, they're very macho and one-note and they almost sound dated to a degree, but still, Dimebag's guitar (I mean primarily what he's playing, not the tone that leaves a lot to be desired) and even Anselmo have this certain... charm of sorts. A certain slightly charismatic appeal that other similar bands never possessed, IMHO. That said, this song is nothing special, just like the entire
Driven album - decent, but certainly not exceptional.
Suicide Tendencies, whom I'm not a huge fan of in general, are bringing their best, however, and bring this unexpected emotionality that can't be maimed even by the singer's voice. I also like the - relative - complexity of the track. I really like the progression of the song.
Suicidal Tendencies.
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I admit that very recently I
almost got into King Diamond - I was playing
Abigail on repeat and to be perfectly honest, there is a certain charm to that record, despite it being rather hard to take the vocals seriously.
This song isn't as good as the best of Diamond or Fate I've heard so far, but it
is surprisingly catchy and Diamond is (even more surprisingly, I'd say) much more palatable than usual. Or maybe I've already lost my mind and got perverted by the Smurf wailing, the fuck I know.
That said, the Ozzy track is a deserved classic and - much like the entirety of the first two albums - among the best his solo career has to offer. The switches between the dreamy and the heavy, Randy being actually rather subtle here, the general atmosphere ... it makes for a rather untrivial mixture, actually my first thought would be comparing it to Angra's Holy Land (the title track, not the album in general), but the comparison is not okay. I guess maybe Remember Tomorrow (or its obvious inspiration Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You) might be a better fit?
That said, the match is closer than it should be, blame me overplaying the early Ozzy albums or Diamond being less obnoxious, but the victory of
Madman is much less sure than I thought coming into this round.
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I don't care at about the song by Def Leppard (thought it's really fine, especially the chorus - this is the first album where they started to be actual fun, the beginning of the sell-out and I mean that as an endorsement, not a condemnation) ... it's just that Cum On Feel the Noize is so fucking overrated and overplayed and just generally annoying. I mean, I don't like it much even in the Slade version which does at least sport the "BritGlam" sound that makes it a slightly more endearing ... although of all the Slade singles, this is certainly one of those I don't feel the particular need to hear ever again. This version does not bring any improvement, apart from making it sound more 80s, with the added "benefit" of the incredibly stupid lyrics sounding even worse here than in the case of Slade who could kinda pull it off thanks to their lower-class-ruffian image (though I along with Starostin wonder if their entire misspelling shtick wasn't a comlex ploy to have a song with the word "Cum" played on the radio). I have never heard QR being mentioned in a different context than "the previous Randy Rhoads band" and there's nothing here, really, to prove that false. Anyway, the solo is rather fine, I admit, but still - thank you, next.
Def Leppard.
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Despite me listening to several of the latter albums, the only reason for Annihilator to exist are the first two albums - and what albums these are! Allison Hell is balancing on this very precarious ledge of being rather catchy, yet rather hectic and aggressive
and having a cool, old-school type of sound. That's a combination thrash bands should strive for and achieving it is not really easy.
Opposing that is Tullica's Spit Out the Bone, which definitely is a return to glory of sorts for them, there's no denying that - I was loving the track back when the
Hardwired album came out and I still kinda am. Yes, it's less relentless than Dyer's Eve, but that's to be expected - they were almost thirty years older by then and the fact they recaptured the old spirit at least somewhat is laudable in itself. That said, the length does hurt the track a bit - seven minutes is just way too fucking long. Still, I'd like both these songs to succeed and since Bone is currently losing, well,
Spitting it is.
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The next match I'm really not happy about, but seeing as I hate Sex Pistols and I'm at worst lukewarm on Nightstalker (I know of better stoner bands) I'm voting for the much more acceptable offering of the
Children of the Sun.
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When I was putting together my nominations list, I knew I would include some Elisa-era Dark Moor, definitely, and not just to keep enough female-fronted metal songs in the game. I genuinely feel that the band was a lightning in a bottle in the early 00s power metal scene, with creative and incredibly catchy songwriting, underrated musical talents (I genuinely think the Garcia-Maroto guitar duo needs more love and recognition) and tons of energy. In fact, I quite proudly nominated
two of their songs, since I thought they would be underrepresented in the cup; this is the first one.
Also, since I picked this particular song, I was wondering whether to nominate Freedom Call's Tears Falling
because I really wanted to have at least some work that's unabashedly optimistic, invigoratingly catchy, going fully
fairy tale and bringing into life a certain concept I've been thinking about elaborating here on the forum; a certain weird 90s/00s feel that is inherently connected with nostalgia for me, somewhat represented in the early 00s fantasy and power metal boom (which was also prompted a bit by the LOTR movies, by the way) but not being dated to that period only; I get a similar feeling off Blind Guardian's Lost in the Twilight Hall and The Last Candle, which are from 1990. And it's tangibly present in their 2006 song Otherland as well. But I digress.
Anyway, since the optimistic, joyful and bravely naive
(I mean that - it takes a much more bravery/courage to be optimistic, idealistic and naive nowadays than to be cynical, edgy and so on) has been already taken by A New World, which is the overall better song, Freedom Call had to go.
But it's not just about nostalgia or ineffable feelings; I find the song to be incredibly solid, incredibly catchy and immsensely well-done on its own merits. I know of bands who'd use only the pre-chorus as chorus. I know of bands who couldn't provide such a sweet solo (*cough * cough Sonata Arctica *cough).
Yes, as some have written, it is not breaking any new ground. But neither are dragons. Dragons are old and clichéd. But you need them in your life much more than you probably realise.
I have already written about my problems with Storytime
Storytime is one of their tracks I almost dislike, actually, because the "I am" structure of the track combined with the theme feels to me a bit like their first jumping the shark, dogwhistling, whatever - I would expect Tuomas to come to me and yell to my ear "FAIRYTALE! WONDER! DISNEY! I'M THE LOST LITTLE BOY!" next.
And although I love Anette - a million times more than Floor - she really sits wrong here for me, in the combination. And in the video.
In a way, it is this single that might have been the point of no return for me, at least in hindsight. Going by gut instinct alone, I feel like I could trace (almost) everything I hate about EFMB and H:::::N back here.
and even musically there's something iffy for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, at first I thought it was another case of Tuomas' regurgitation of past successes, but it might be the other way around, that this song was actually the more original one and it's been copied since and I confuse the previous and the latter songs in hindsight. And yet, even if this song is indeed original and didn't copy the riff or the melody of any previous track (of which I'm not completey sure of), it's still an attempt at a rehash of Dark Chest of Wonders at least. And is it better? No, no it isn't.
And Dark Moor at least have a guitarist, anyway.
Dark Moor.
