Lovebites is a band I've never heard of before. A word to the wise - for every band, not just them - if you don't feel comfortable in front of camera, you don't need to do performance videos. There's no rule saying you'd have to.
I really hate the overtuned production, I can tolerate it in the more extreme genres, but here it works to the song's detriment, definitely. It's a pity, because it's a fun little melodic song with bright atmosphere and good energy, nice guitar work and if they weren't trying to make it sound like fucking Periphery, it'd be much better. The vocals are fine, if a bit bland - I'm not exactly sure which female metal singer do they remind me the most of, but they definitely do.
I don't know which Helloween album is my favourite one, honestly, but if someone told me
Better Than Raw is the best of the Deris era ... or even of the band in general, I just
might be inclined to tacitly agree. Back then, it was where everybody noticed they are doing some nice PM work again - though the cover was way more tacky than it needed be - and to this day it still stands for everything the Deris era represents. A bit heavier, but immensely catchy and boasting a powerful energy - this was before Grapow and Kusch split off and Grosskopf might be among my favourite all-time underrated bassists. For a band I value more for their consistency than their highest highs, I still like Midnight Sun very much. Let's keep it brief -
Helloween, for me, as is probably expected.
Now
@Magnus can watch and see that I don't hate black metal per se. Darkthrone might be my favourite of the "classic" BM bands. Though this particular song...
Well, for one,
Panzerfaust is closer to the Venom/Motorhead adoration we've been talking about than something akin to
Transilvanian Hunger or
Funeral Moon, more Celtic Frost-like... eh, again. Also, what the fuck is going on with Culto's vocals? He can sound great, cold and haunting, why does this sound like a drunken first take in his attempt to ape Misfits' era Danzig? It literally sounds like he's dying, Bon Scott-way. It's the Csihar situation all over again, isn't it? And do the lyrics have to be written by Vikernes, of all people?
Why do you black metal guys hate vocals so much?
The chainsaw buzz is fine, I guess, but I primarily like black metal for its atmosphere and this sounds like Fenriz and Culto are just taking the piss.
Thorns sounds like some unholy (and I mean the
wrong type of unholy) misbegotten combination of black metal and Neuraxis or some other technical melodeath of the turn of the millennium. It
should be more interesting, on paper, but the seven minutes felt just as monotonous, with some of the really annoying guitar trills, the vocals feeling disconnected from the song itself and the song kinda goes nowhere. In a way, it reminded me of
Cephalic Carnage, whom I'd probably listen to much rather. I really don't know, but I'll go with the band favouritism of the duo I otherwise like and who only had their weaker moment -
Darkthrone.
So, a first trio match. Finally we have Def Leppard at their cheesiest best, with a song that sports both melodies irresistible and a sound so vile it should be banned in several countries. It is just as sickeningly sweet as Journey are, though there's still some juicy guitar here. It's no Coming Under Fire, but I like it anyway, somewhat in the "guilty pleasure" mode of appreciacion, but that's given, I guess.
GNR are definitely the best band of this match, technically. I was rather surprised recently at how actually skilled they are at their respective instruments - at least when compared with similar bands - and how much did they try to make the songs catchy and memorable. There's this nose for both riffs and melodies that should not be overlooked. Mr. Brownstone is not my favourite track off
Appetite - I'm not generally a fan of the Bo Diddlesque beats and the chorus sounds a bit too wacky (and even more so in the context of the album), but just listen to those guitars. That's like a fine, juicy steak. The song has an undeniable swagger and even though it's - for me - somewhat lower in the rakings of the songs off their debut, it's very cool and gets you bobbing in no time.
D-A-D are the type of music I'd put on when I'm drunk in the evening and wnat something cheesy from the 80s, to fill in the decadent mood. You know, like
Take Me Home Tonight or
Jessie's Girl. Or even
Make Me Lose Control. Which I honestly don't mean as a condemnation and in a way I can appreciate it, but although I might check the band out later for more, it's not enough and I'm going with
GNR.
The next match is much easier than it probably should be. I mean, I love Judas Priest, they are one of the bands I went out of my way to see live even slightly after their prime and there's many a song by them that I deeply love and cherish. And yet, I find their discography very uneven and definitely not every tack beloved by fans is among my personal favourites as well. That goes for Ripper too. To put it closer to the street vernacular of today, I just don't vibe with the song. The intro guitars are too sharp and annoying, Halford's vocals are a tour of his most obnoxious aspects - from the random detached falsettos in the verse to the hiccups... the song tries to be complex in its short runtime, but Gentle Giant these blokes are not and it just sounds like a mess or like a novelty track. Seriously, the
Wings of Destiny album has such awesome stuff otherwise, why did this particular song had to become the most popular off it?
Opposing it is Man on the Silver Mountain.... and man, did I ever want to vote for a song this much! I remember back in high school, I was slowly getting into various classic rock acts and I just kept hearing about these "Rainbow" blokes, the band that started because Purple were too small for Blackmore's ego. I was disinclined to go and check them, I have this tendency to get into side and solo projects only reluctantly and this seemed the usual type. Also, I heard I Surrender on the radio before and I didn't want to have anything to do with this particular band.
And boy oh boy, was I mistaken. The first listen, the first time I listened to the album from start to finish, that was one of the moments I remember even now, 15 or more years later. I was absolutely flabbergasted by the fact the album contained pretty much no filler, that every fucking single song was prime stuff. And it is all encapsulated in the very first song on the album.
Now, I admit that I have spoken against the overall Dio adoration here. I do find him a bit overrated (much like a lot of genuinely good or great things are often ultimately overrated in the eyes of the public) and I often personally connect with other singers more. But here, this first acquaintance with the man... that was something special.
Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
Someone's screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
I'm the MAN ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN.
Really, if you can vocally reproduce this, just go and try if you're not by the way able to lift the Eiffel Tower, just like that. My tip would be that you might.
But it's not just the vocals. Have you heard the riff? Fuck everything he ever did in Purple - and there's a ton of classics as well - if there was one riff to be his legacy, heck, scratch that,
rock's legacy as a whole, this one is a serious contender. And just listen to those noodlings under the pre-chorus! You'd almost miss it in the heat of the moment, but it helps the song to create the perfect flow it has.
Eh, that must be enough, enough of blind fanboyism,
MAN ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN MUST WIN!
In the next match, I'll be brief. Whiplash might be my favourite song off my least favourite album of the classic 'Tullica era, but that's not saying much. It is, quite possibly, the best example on that debut album of how from the very beginning, they were always about he melodies. Metallica were not the Beatles of thrash just beause they brought it into the mainstream or just because they were always a bit more high-brow and aiming up, but also because they always wanted to be
captivating and to thrill the listener not just with riffs or energy or moshing moments (though they had those, too), but with their melodic talent as well. To me, personally, Whiplash has the catchiest chorus of the entire KEA album and since the song doesn't really suck even in the other aspects, I'd be willing to vote for it primarily...
...but just now I checked and saw that Pantera's This Love has
no votes whatsoever as of now. And that just hardly seems fair. I admit I am partial to this particular track ever since I got the haunting verse riff under my skin when playing
Doom II (it was the basis for the score for levels 18 and 27, in case anyone remembers) and to this day I still sometimes can't get it out of my head. Anselmo is keeping it in the "passionate" and not yet "obnoxious" category, Darrell plays some nice stuff in the pre-chorus and in his solo and the chugging section doesn't annoy me like Domination did.
Also - just noting that the album version is somewhat longer and feels more well-rounded in its second half.
Whiplash might be a bigger classic, but This Love deserves at least some love and I haven't had enough opportunities to unleash my redneck side, so
Pantera it is.
As for the last match... I wish I cared more.
Testament are one of the classic thrash bands I've never quite gotten into. To me, they lack a certain character that would distingush them for me from the multitude of their peers. I mean, when I see people mentioning they should have been counted in the Big 4, my reaction would be "surely you're talking about Overkill, right?" (and even then, it would not fit, as the 4 was kinda supposed to represent the different "prog - pop" - "tech" - "crossover/punk" - "brutal" approaches and neither of those bands represents these this distinctly, but I digress)
Practice is certainly one of their catchier songs, I honestly appreciate the typical 80s sound, the shifts feel really natural and I honestly love the instrumental section, the guitar here thrills me more than almost anything else in this round (well, except for the other song in this match and the band we don't talk about, heh, heh). It still feels like one of the myriads of thrash songs that got released in the 80s, but it is a very solid track nonetheless with occasional flashes of brilliance.
Rust in Peace... is million times more technical and generally probably closer to what I look for in music, in the past and up to this day. The almost tribal intro and the chorus with the descending riff itself immediately scream "classic" at you. I just wish Dave didn't use any distortion or other fuck ups on his voice - it's ugly enough as is, the beginning of the verse is absolutely atrocious.
Enough rambling, we all know what I'm going to vote for, it's
Megadeth.
