"Blackout" has some cool dual-guitar riffage and a punchy verse and pre-chorus. The chorus isn't great, but the little guitar run under it helps. Great solo. The screamy shit at the end sucks, though. Still a very good song overall. "Kiss Me Deadly" is just a pop song playing dress-up in metal clothes with a passable solo at the end, but it's got consistently strong vocal lines and everything about it works well. This may be sacrilege, but sorry
@The Dissident, I think the cosplay song is actually slightly stronger here.
Winner: Lita Ford - "Kiss Me Deadly"
"Black Sabbath" starts with some rain on the graves (it's just rain, rain, rain), then some sparse atmospheric noodling while Ozzy delivers a decent verse vocal. Man, this song plods -- I'm ready to check out around the halfway mark. OK, finally we get a little pep in the last quarter, but none of this is particularly inspiring. The solo is solid, I suppose. Well, that was a whole lot of nothing. "Black Hole Sun" is an overrated, overplayed grunge ballad, but it does have a great vocal performance and strong vocal melodies. Kim Thayil also gives Kerry King a run for his money as one of the worst guitar soloists in popular heavy music. But despite my criticisms, I do still like the song, so sorry
@____no5, but this is a pretty easy call for
@The Sentient's nominee.
Winner: Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"
"Poison" has Desmond Child's fingerprints all over it, which is both good and bad. It's certainly catchy, and it has a nice big chorus, but the backing vocals and synths can be a little cloying. The guitar parts are tasteful, but nothing too special. Still good overall, though. "Hell Bent For Leather" has a bright, driving groove and some nice guitar melodies. The song is only half-sung, and the chorus isn't the best, but the bridges and the first solo are great, and the second solo is still pretty good. Kind of uneven, but still good overall. I could actually go either way on this one, but I assume the board's massive Priest bias will weigh in here, so I'll say congratulations to
@DJMayes and support the MaidenFan nomination instead.
Winner: Alice Cooper - "Poison"
Pantera fucking sucks. The main riff of "Walk" sounds like some trashy outtake from
Reload, and Phil Anselmo doesn't have anything appealing to offer here at all. He sort of meanders around a bad melody when he's not just barking. The solo is technically adept, but has nothing to do with the rest of the song and doesn't follow any kind of coherent through line. Yeah, that was five minutes of my life I'll never get back. Fucking Pantera. "Into The Storm" gets right into the video gamey guitar tones and some pretty catchy vocals. It's all very shrill and frenetic like most Blind Guardian, which is cool for a while until it starts to give me a headache. Something about the production, maybe. Blind Guardian doesn't write the most cohesive songs out there, but this one mostly stays on the rails with a few diversions, and its competitor is so weak that
@Spambot's nominee takes this one...in a
walk.
Winner: Blind Guardian - "Into The Storm"
"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" has a pretty cool riff and a strong vocal line through the verse. The acoustic part feels a bit incongruous, though, and the vocal melody meanders there. The guitar interlude is also pretty flaccid and off the beat. The chunkier bridge is pretty good, though Ozzy going so high there feels a bit weird. The outro is almost interesting, but the guitar fills there aren't so hot. This ultimately feels like a sketch of a potentially good song that needed more time in the oven, and
Bruce's cover with Godspeed is a far superior version, IMO. "Immortal Rites" has overly busy riffage and vocals somewhere between bad non-melodic thrash and very tame Cookie Monster, but at least it keeps new musical ideas coming at a decent pace. Not a fan of either track here, but sorry
@Mosh, I think
@KiDDo's nominee was more consistent and more interesting.
Winner: Morbid Angel - "Immortal Rites"
"Fairies Wear Boots" retreads a lot of little guitar melodies from other tracks on
Paranoid, and while the vocal lines are generally solid, they have a weird Zeppelinish affect to them. Most of this track is a big uneven jam, though, with a few memorable parts and a lot of water treading. It's fine in the end, but nothing special. "Destiny Falls To Ruin" sets an effective mood, has interesting-enough guitars, and the vocals and melodies are pretty good. I like the uptempo bridge that leads into the first solo, though the solo itself is merely OK. The second solo is much better. The track didn't wow me, but it was pretty decent overall, and I think it was more focused than its competitor -- and congratulations
@MindRuler, that's enough to take this match.
Winner: Solitude Aeternus - "Destiny Falls To Ruin"
