"Wind Up Toy" has a bright and appealing opening riff. The verse and pre-chorus aren't great, and the chorus is a bit saccharine. The falsetto vocals hiding in the right channel are also pretty annoying. The bridge is alright and the solo is good. The sound effects and spoken parts are a bit much. Not something I'd choose to listen to again, but I wouldn't turn it off if it was already on. "Screaming In The Night" has an ominous atmospheric intro that flows nicely into a smooth verse and a strong pre-chorus. This eventually builds into a big, memorable chorus. The interlude and solo are both really good too. Sorry,
@The Sentient, but this is a very easy call for the list nominee.
Winner: Krokus - "Screaming In The Night"
Ah, "Hair Of The Dog". Gotta love that riff and the copious cowbell. The verse is so-so, the pre-chorus is a little better, and the chorus is catchy and perhaps unintentionally hilarious. Yes, voice box solo FTW! Greater than the sum of its parts, this one's an infectious head-bobber for sure. "I Don't Need No Doctor" is peppy and has a good main riff. The singer's pretty good, though the verses ride more on the emotion in his performance than on the melody. The chorus is alright and the solo is good. Thumbs up for the big rock ending. These are both pretty good, and I'd be fine with either one winning, but I think I connect more viscerally with the Nazareth song.
Winner: Nazareth - "Hair Of The Dog"
"Bird Of Prey" has a pretty cool opening riff with some Queeny vocal harmonies. The high notes on the verse melody are pretty cringey. The airy synth-and-guitar interludes with the "ahhhs" are interesting. The tail end of the song feels a little directionless and fades out kind of abruptly in the end. Yeah, this one's kinda "meh" overall. "Knocking At Your Back Door" has a pretty good ominous synth-and-bass opening, eventually breaking into an appealing guitar-and-organ groove. The vocal lines are good and the solos are pretty good. The song didn't need to be quite so long, but otherwise there isn't much to complain about -- and sorry,
@Spambot, but that's more than enough to win this match-up.
Winner: Deep Purple - "Knocking At Your Back Door"
"Thus Spake The Nightspirit" is almost interesting at the beginning with the synths and whatnot, but the production is truly ear-splitting, and the cackly Gollum vocals are godawful. The endless guitar trilling and repetitive drums make me want to slit my wrists pretty early on. Some of the guitar leads are OK, but they're drowning in the rest of this toxic sonic soup. The atmospheric interlude with spoken words and a little bit of clean vocals is a welcome respite, but nothing can save this aural sewage in the end. "Vortex" has got to be the worst Megadeth cover I've ever heard.
Kidding. It sure takes its sweet time with the atmospheric opening, but the spoken word and piano parts work pretty well, and the interludes with computery synths with distant guitars are interesting. The heavier guitar bits have that sort of trashy Nine Inch Nails feel to them. They're repetitive, but I like when they harmonize later on. This feels more like a soundscape than a song in the end, but congratulations
@Magnus, its competition was so bad that it still takes an easy win here.
Winner: Thorns - "Vortex"
"Avidya Nivrtti" has a nice melancholy eastern feel to its opening, and then it flushes its good will down the toilet by diving right into potbanging and Gollum nonsense. The urgent riffs in the middle are pretty cool, and the vocals veer toward the lower end of the shitometer at times, but the negatives still far outweigh the positives here. "Vermin" jumps right into the mindless thrashing and Cookie Monster vocals out of the gate. The riffage improves afterward, but aside from that the music is still poisoning the blood of my eardrums. Yeah, that wasn't much of a song in the end -- more a collection of riffs and a bunch of noise. Not a fan of either track here, but sorry
@DJ James, I think
@Perun's nominee showed a little more craftsmanship overall.
Winner: Rudra - "Avidya Nivrtti"
"Favourite Sin" has an uneasy opening, then breaks into a really appealing effervescent lead. I like the bluesy/funky undercurrents here. The singer is good and the vocal lines are strong. Great solo. The atmospheric spoken word bridge works well too. I like the rhythmic change-up at the end. Really good overall. "Eruption" was a thunderbolt that shattered people's expectations of guitar heroism in the late 70s and paved the way for the "guitar gunslinger" model of 80s hard rock and metal. It really can't be overstated just how jaw-droppingly important this track was for the art form and its penetration into the mind of the general public -- but at the end of the day, it's just a solo committed to tape and it's not a song. So while I acknowledge its immense historical role, this is the Greatest Metal
Song Cup, and
@The Sentient's nominee is the better song.
Winner: Cage The Gods - "Favourite Sin"