MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
You must not like Manilla Road, then.
The Greatest Metal Song Cup - Part II, Round 4, Matches 82-87
- Thread starter LooseCannon
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Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
Someone did, it seems I need to audit the spreadsheet again.
KidInTheDark666
What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
That was me.
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
Detective Beauregard
Leviathan of Doggerland
I don't care whatsoever for non-John Bush Anthrax, but Armed and Dangerous is clearly the stronger track here. Antisocial is too punky for me.
Scorpions take the second match easily. It's not metal, but it's just too catchy of a song to not win here.
Engel is such a weird track with the whistling stuff. Alice's song bores me in comparison. Rammstein.
Black Dog is awesome, and even if it wasn't, it beats KISS by default. Zeppelin.
Deep Purp's lo-fi noise is too much for me to handle, while Zombie Ritual sounds like every Death song I've ever heard: riffs, Slayer tonalities, and shitty vocals. I don't care about either of these, so I flipped a coin and it came up Death.
Heir Apparent is the best song on Watershed, and a powerhouse of riffs and smashing dynamics. Necropolis stands no chance in my book. Opeth!
Scorpions take the second match easily. It's not metal, but it's just too catchy of a song to not win here.
Engel is such a weird track with the whistling stuff. Alice's song bores me in comparison. Rammstein.
Black Dog is awesome, and even if it wasn't, it beats KISS by default. Zeppelin.
Deep Purp's lo-fi noise is too much for me to handle, while Zombie Ritual sounds like every Death song I've ever heard: riffs, Slayer tonalities, and shitty vocals. I don't care about either of these, so I flipped a coin and it came up Death.
Heir Apparent is the best song on Watershed, and a powerhouse of riffs and smashing dynamics. Necropolis stands no chance in my book. Opeth!
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
It's absolutely metal. You mean to tell me on an Iron Maiden forum that that twin guitar riff isn't fucking metal? Go snoop down a junkyard bongo, Detective, your badge has been revoked.
I'm in the Detective's camp here, it's very hard rock to me.
Plus my first thought on Antisocial was "I don't remember Anthrax being Poseur Punk." If such a thing exists.
Plus my first thought on Antisocial was "I don't remember Anthrax being Poseur Punk." If such a thing exists.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
Antisocial is a cover of Nicko's former band Trust!
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
TheMercenary
Ancient Mariner
With Nicko on drums.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
Anthrax - Antisocial vs. Anthrax - Armed and Dangerous
Both tracks great, Armed and Dangerous wins on account of being better, with the added bonus of being an original Armed and Dangerous
Venom - Witching Hour vs. Scorpions - No One Like You
I'm more familiar with the Slayer live cover on the Divine Intervention tour, so I know there's a track there, but the production and playing is just atrocious. No One Like You is ok, I'm not opposed to it, but it's not good enough to be a a top level hit No One Like You
Rammstein - Engel vs. Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
Engel was a fairly standard Rammstein track, too much samples and dance music paraphernalia for my tastes. Welcome to My Nightmare is great Welcome to My Nightmare
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog vs. KISS - God of Thunder
God of Thunder is good but c'mon Black Dog
Deep Purple - Speed King vs. Death - Zombie Ritual
Zombie Ritual wasn't bad, I liked the riffs that sounded a bit like Kill Again by Slayer, but Speed King is monstrous Speed King
Opeth - Heir Apparent vs. Manilla Road - Necropolis
Didn't like either here, Opeth was played and recorded well but the songwriting was piss poor just a load of wanky prog shit slapped together, whereas Manilla Road was a decent enough NWOBHM song but played and recorded bad, with a phoney accent on the vocals. Manilla Road more my tastes, i.e. I could like a better band playing something similar whereas I'm unlikely to have any interest in any band playing that Opeth style Necropolis
Both tracks great, Armed and Dangerous wins on account of being better, with the added bonus of being an original Armed and Dangerous
Venom - Witching Hour vs. Scorpions - No One Like You
I'm more familiar with the Slayer live cover on the Divine Intervention tour, so I know there's a track there, but the production and playing is just atrocious. No One Like You is ok, I'm not opposed to it, but it's not good enough to be a a top level hit No One Like You
Rammstein - Engel vs. Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
Engel was a fairly standard Rammstein track, too much samples and dance music paraphernalia for my tastes. Welcome to My Nightmare is great Welcome to My Nightmare
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog vs. KISS - God of Thunder
God of Thunder is good but c'mon Black Dog
Deep Purple - Speed King vs. Death - Zombie Ritual
Zombie Ritual wasn't bad, I liked the riffs that sounded a bit like Kill Again by Slayer, but Speed King is monstrous Speed King
Opeth - Heir Apparent vs. Manilla Road - Necropolis
Didn't like either here, Opeth was played and recorded well but the songwriting was piss poor just a load of wanky prog shit slapped together, whereas Manilla Road was a decent enough NWOBHM song but played and recorded bad, with a phoney accent on the vocals. Manilla Road more my tastes, i.e. I could like a better band playing something similar whereas I'm unlikely to have any interest in any band playing that Opeth style Necropolis
srfc
Ancient Mariner
What don't you like about the production? I think maybe there should be some allowances given to the year it was recorded in, it certainly sounds better produced than Led Zeppelin 2 or Black Sabbath to me. And there's no problems with the musicians or the engineer (Martin Birch)
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Well, one way to get me to vote for Anthrax is to give me literally no other option. "Antisocial" starts off surprisingly melodically and has pretty good riffs, but the half-sung verse vocals mostly blow and the punky chorus sucks. The solo's pretty good, though. "Armed And Dangerous" has a nice 12-string acoustic groove at the beginning, but wow, the production sucks ass. Like, they could actually take some pointers from a black metal producer, for fuck's sake. There are some good riffs squeezed in here between a lot of less interesting ones, and I'm not sure this track actually succeeds as a song -- but Belladonna sounds less bad on this one, and I think there's a little more musical meat on the bone, so I guess I'll toss it to option #2. Winner: Anthrax - "Armed And Dangerous"
"Witching Hour" sounds like Motörhead recorded themselves in a bathroom with the worst mono tape player available, but with a somewhat better singer. Peppy but simplistic with an OK solo, not much worth remembering here. On the other hand, "No One Like You" is a stone cold classic with killer riffs and leads, great vocal melodies, lots of punch, and delicious light and shade in the songwriting. I vacillated between this track and a couple of other Scorpions songs when deciding what to nominate by them, but in the end this one was the complete package, and it takes this match oh so easily. Winner: Scorpions - "No One Like You"
"Engel" is whistly, riffy, assertively Teutonic industrial tunage. It doesn't really go to many different places aside from that sample solo, but its basic groove is pleasant enough. "Welcome To My Nightmare" has a surprisingly gentle opening. When the verses get peppier they don't work quite as well. There are some weird musical undercurrents here, with a little western twang and a hint of Italian street music, then the horn section...hmm. The vocal melodies aren't really working for me, though, and neither are the froggy-sounding synths. Not really a fan of either track, but I'll go with the more metallic and more MaidenFans-supported option here, DiesKidsInTheDarkel3663's nominee. Winner: Rammstein - "Engel"
"Black Dog" is perhaps the ultimate example of the overplayed song, but it's got a great lead vocal and some truly bizarre rhythmic choices, so it still manages to be subversive even after hearing it so many times. "God Of Thunder" has an OK main riff and an OK vocal melody, but it's so repetitive and plodding. I think I actually prefer the faster Paul Stanley demo (minus the weird chorus), though this isn't actually a good song in either of its forms. A very easy call for Zeppelin here. Winner: Led Zeppelin - "Black Dog"
"Speed King" starts with a noisy, pointless solo, then goes to church for a while before doing some very basic bluesy whatever, with another pointless guitar-and-keys jamming detour in the middle. This is barely a song in the first place, and what's here isn't very good. "Zombie Ritual" has some cool eastern guitar melodies, and the cut-time drumming actually kind of works here, surprisingly enough. The vocals are terrible, of course, but I've heard so much worse by now. And the vocal rhythm actually adds something worthwhile to the music in the pre-chorus, at least -- though the chorus kind of sucks. The overly frenetic solo feels a bit out of place, but it's not bad. Still an easy call for @Magnus's nominee. Winner: Death - "Zombie Ritual"
Like so much Opeth, "Heir Apparent" has superb music with absolutely horrendous extreme vocals -- the perfect crème brûlée with an unavoidable layer of fecal matter on top. It is what it is, you know? "Necropolis" has a nice driving groove, but the singer sounds like what you'd get if you kept all of the least appealing aspects of Bruce's voice and dropped the rest. The chorus is repetitive and never really takes off, but the bridge is pretty good and the solo is great. Good song overall, but sorry @Perun, it's still completely outclassed by SKiDDar's nominee here, even with the Muppet tax in effect. Winner: Opeth - "Heir Apparent"
"Witching Hour" sounds like Motörhead recorded themselves in a bathroom with the worst mono tape player available, but with a somewhat better singer. Peppy but simplistic with an OK solo, not much worth remembering here. On the other hand, "No One Like You" is a stone cold classic with killer riffs and leads, great vocal melodies, lots of punch, and delicious light and shade in the songwriting. I vacillated between this track and a couple of other Scorpions songs when deciding what to nominate by them, but in the end this one was the complete package, and it takes this match oh so easily. Winner: Scorpions - "No One Like You"
"Engel" is whistly, riffy, assertively Teutonic industrial tunage. It doesn't really go to many different places aside from that sample solo, but its basic groove is pleasant enough. "Welcome To My Nightmare" has a surprisingly gentle opening. When the verses get peppier they don't work quite as well. There are some weird musical undercurrents here, with a little western twang and a hint of Italian street music, then the horn section...hmm. The vocal melodies aren't really working for me, though, and neither are the froggy-sounding synths. Not really a fan of either track, but I'll go with the more metallic and more MaidenFans-supported option here, DiesKidsInTheDarkel3663's nominee. Winner: Rammstein - "Engel"
"Black Dog" is perhaps the ultimate example of the overplayed song, but it's got a great lead vocal and some truly bizarre rhythmic choices, so it still manages to be subversive even after hearing it so many times. "God Of Thunder" has an OK main riff and an OK vocal melody, but it's so repetitive and plodding. I think I actually prefer the faster Paul Stanley demo (minus the weird chorus), though this isn't actually a good song in either of its forms. A very easy call for Zeppelin here. Winner: Led Zeppelin - "Black Dog"
"Speed King" starts with a noisy, pointless solo, then goes to church for a while before doing some very basic bluesy whatever, with another pointless guitar-and-keys jamming detour in the middle. This is barely a song in the first place, and what's here isn't very good. "Zombie Ritual" has some cool eastern guitar melodies, and the cut-time drumming actually kind of works here, surprisingly enough. The vocals are terrible, of course, but I've heard so much worse by now. And the vocal rhythm actually adds something worthwhile to the music in the pre-chorus, at least -- though the chorus kind of sucks. The overly frenetic solo feels a bit out of place, but it's not bad. Still an easy call for @Magnus's nominee. Winner: Death - "Zombie Ritual"
Like so much Opeth, "Heir Apparent" has superb music with absolutely horrendous extreme vocals -- the perfect crème brûlée with an unavoidable layer of fecal matter on top. It is what it is, you know? "Necropolis" has a nice driving groove, but the singer sounds like what you'd get if you kept all of the least appealing aspects of Bruce's voice and dropped the rest. The chorus is repetitive and never really takes off, but the bridge is pretty good and the solo is great. Good song overall, but sorry @Perun, it's still completely outclassed by SKiDDar's nominee here, even with the Muppet tax in effect. Winner: Opeth - "Heir Apparent"
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
It sounds like the band is playing in an echoey, bassy cave. The bass, guitars, and keyboards all occupy the same frequency range, making the overall tone pretty mushy. The drums lack definition.
Listen to Black Dog for comparison. Released just a year later, but has light years better sound (the drums especially, but also the clarity between instruments). I suspect part of the issue is the lack of remasters available on Purple's catalog, whereas someone like Zeppelin has remastered/rereleased their tunes many times.
Also, Birch only engineered Flight of the Rat and Hard Lovin' Man, which still sound pretty shit, but I think you can hear a bit more definition between instruments.
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DJ James
A coma stole my name.
I understand different tastes and everything like that, but the constant dogging on Mark The Shark Shelton’s voice irks me. They’re not bad, I in fact find them great. I just don’t like seeing one of the greatest underground legends in heavy metal being dragged for anything. I’m connected to a lot of music on an emotional level, and there’s not many deaths that have hit me as hard as Shelton’s did. I don’t know, I know this isn’t the place for proper discussions on heavy metal and there’s a lot of bias on every side, but I wish you all would show him more respect.