"Thor (The Powerhead)" has a pretty good opening riff. The production is terrible and the guitars are way too low in the mix. Some of the vocal melodies are pretty good, but other parts are poorly phrased and not memorable at all. Way too much repetition across the board, even extending to the solo. At least the singer is actually singing, rather than the half-sung approach he's taken on the other songs in the GMSC so far, and he sounds good. WTF is with that outro? There were a few bright spots here, but most of the song is a mess. "Outlaw" has a cool intro and some great flavor work behind the main riff. I like the energy here, and the singer's good. The vocal lines are pretty solid but not great. The chorus has a 70s feel that seems a little out of place. The harmonized guitar parts are nice, if a bit straightforward, and the solo is very good. Not sure how I feel about all the spoken word stuff near the end. A pretty good song overall, and sorry
@Kalata, but that's more than enough to win this match.
Winner: Riot - "Outlaw"
"Stricken" kicks off with a good nu-metal riff. The singer's a little more angsty than I'd care for, but he otherwise sounds good. I'm not sure the vocal melodies play well off the riffs here, but otherwise they're fine. Very strong solo. "Bodies" has an awesome main riff with the wah alternating in and out, and the clean callbacks following on. The verse and pre-chorus have great atmosphere and build-up, but the chorus is big and dumb. The bridge is OK. Both songs are pretty good but also mixed bags. The Drowning Pool song is a little more uneven, but it's got higher highs and sounds more unique, so I'm going to give it the nod here.
Winner: Drowning Pool - "Bodies"
"Annihilation Of The Wicked" jumps into the annoying-ass drumming right out of the gate, but gives some nice sinister, melancholy guitar respite for a bit afterward. Jesus, here comes the mindless pot-banging and Cookie Monster shit again. Two and a half minutes into an eight and a half minute song and my ears are already bleeding. God, this is terrible. Stream of consciousness PCP-driven bullshit. Six and a half minutes now, just grit my teeth and bear it. Fuck, this is awful. Everything about this song completely blows except for a small handful of guitar leads. Wow. "Overactive Imagination" is too frenetic and rushed for its own good, but it has some cool riffs and great leads. And while the vocals predictably suck, they're nowhere near the pit of despair caused by Nile's vocals. Honestly, this competition was over within the first 10 seconds -- sorry,
@Diesel 11, but
@Shmoolikipod's nominee effortlessly threw yours in the wood chipper and just moved on with its day.
Winner: Death - "Overactive Imagination"
"Demon's Gate" has some silly tone-shifted vocals in the intro, but builds nice atmosphere afterward. I'm not sure the wimpy bass sound is a good fit here, but the guitar tone is strong and the singer sounds pretty good. The vocal lines are pretty memorable, and the song generally changes things up right around the time the repetition is starting to get noticeably stale. The eastern interlude is pretty good and I like the solo. Starting to check the clock around the six and a half minute mark, though, because there aren't really enough musical ideas here to justify the run time. Not bad, but not great. "Scent Of Death" has a nice melancholy clean intro that flows well into a somewhat plodding main riff. The singer is pretty good, as are the vocal melodies. OK, this same groove is starting to wear out its welcome after three and a half minutes. I like the shift to double-time drumming around the four minute mark, and the eastern interlude is a welcome respite from the rut the song had gotten in. I like the long-held vocal note over the slow crunch, and the bridge that follows is pretty cool. I like all the eastern melodies in the vocals and the backing guitars here. The song could stand to lose 2-3 minutes of repetitious fat, but it's otherwise pretty good. Congratusorrylations,
@Confeos, but one of your nominees was noticeably stronger than the other.
Winner: Solitude Aeturnus - "Scent Of Death"
"At Dawn They Sleep" thinks it's being clever with the rhythmic play at the beginning, but it doesn't sound very good. The main riff works much better. The mostly non-melodic vocals also aren't good, but we've heard so much worse already that it feels disingenuous to complain about them. Oh hey, imagine that, shitty solos in a Slayer song -- color me surprised. Feels like this song has already run its course around the halfway mark, but it just keeps on going. The escalating tempo part is interesting, at least, and the bridge is pretty solid. Fuck, another shitty-ass solo. I really don't know why Slayer is held in such high regard among thrash fans -- they can write some good riffs, but that's about it. Oh wonderful, more Pantera. "5 Minutes Alone" has a serviceable nu-metal riff, I guess. Phil Asshole-bro sounds terrible as usual, like he's struggling to take a shit after his hourly steroid injection. Yeah, there's almost nothing to latch onto here that has any musical value, aside from a few disjointed bits of the riffs. The solo is completely directionless. The outro almost gets interesting rhythmically, but not quite. I wish I'd actually spent five minutes alone rather than six minutes listening to this tripe. Both songs are bad, but sadly this is an easy win for Slayer.
Winner: Slayer - "At Dawn They Sleep"
"Stormbringer" has some pretty cringey synths in the intro, but it soon settles into a solid groove with a pretty good verse, though the pre-chorus and chorus kind of come apart at the seams. The first solo doesn't go much of anywhere, but the second solo is better. This song definitely needed more time in the oven, as what's here is OK at best. "Hot For Teacher" brings more fire in its first few seconds than the Deep Purple song did for its entire runtime. The pre-chorus and chorus are both great, and the verses and spoken word sections do their part for this admittedly juvenile "theater of the mind". The guitar work is all great, as expected. I'm sure this song will go down in flames because of all the irrational DLR hate around here, but there is absolutely no contest between these two songs -- the Van Halen track completely slays the Deep Purple one.
Winner: Van Halen - "Hot For Teacher"
