The Greatest Metal Song Cup - Part II, Round 4, Matches 82-87

What is your favourite song in each match? Vote in all six matchups!

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  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .
Song 37 - Thin Lizzy - Rosin Dubh

Neither of these songs clicked with me initially, but I found myself enjoying Thin Lizzy more moving into the second half of the song.

Song 38 - Firewind - Hate World Hero

It's cheesy, it's bombastic, but that's why I nominated it: these are the qualities I value in a song. On that basis I've got a lot of time for the Theocracy song as well, which was solid and enjoyable throughout. I've read the arguments about the lyrics, but for me this is a case of simply not caring rather than being bothered. I'd take them over the immaturity that permeates some other metal band lyrics, at any rate. Manowar have never really clicked with me.

Song 39 - Mastodon - Sultan's Curse

I love a bit of Symphony X - and Allen's vocals in particular - but Fallen is not the song I'd have perhaps chosen. I was still expecting it to win, but the Mastodon song is doing it for me. Going to have a punt on that one this round.

Song 40 - Pierce the Veil - King for a Day

The lists are at it again, huh?

Song 41 - Iced Earth - Melancholy

I quite liked both songs this round, but ultimately I felt the Iced Earth song was a bit more dynamic.

Song 42 - Evanescence - My Immortal

I love this song; very glad to see it nominated. The instrumental break in particular just works for me.
 
Thin Lizzy.

Firewind gave me some big Gamma Ray - Avalon vibes. Good song but got too repetitive towards the end there. Manowar wasn't great compared to what I've heard from them. Theocracy easily had the best music despite a wank part I could do without.

Fallen has one of the coolest instrumental sections. Sultan's Curse is middling Mastodon.

...
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Fastway were unmemorable, Melancholy is great and passionate.

Practical tie in the last round, I liked both songs and voted for FFDP for fitting my mood more at the moment.
 
Maybe I'm just not into rock legends but the only part I found myself enjoying in the Thin Lizzy track was that nicely elongated instrumental section. Otherwise this definitely has Steve Harris vibes ("Death of the Celts" comes to mind). Uriah Heep though! Now that is straight up my alley! It's not metal, like, at all, but man it's such a fun little song. Yeah, complete with a hippie dippie drive, but I love it. I need to get back to spinning their shit. David Byron's voice is fantastic.

- I will be writing up my thoughts on the power metal trio in a separate post. Stay tuned. -

I listened to the Mastodon song, and the whole time I was just thinking, "Yes, this is a Mastodon song." The first SECOND of "Fallen" ALONE blows it out of the water. I hear more of a sultan's curse in "Fallen" than I did in the whole Mastodon song. "Fallen" is fucking AWESOME, one of the best Symphony X rockers, and Russell's voice is GODLY. The way he moves through cleanly and then ramping up in intensity for the finale is amazing. And don't forget the guitar-synth duel that builds into a guitar-synth dual. Fucking love it and yeah no shit I'm voting Symphony X.

Both Pierce the Veil and Sunn O))) pleasantly surprised me. PtV is kinda cringe, but I was really bobbing my head the whole time. Sunn O000 sounds way more creative though. It really sounded like they recorded in a cave, and the way the vocals kept shifting was super cool. Might have to check these guys out proper.

Against a lesser opponent, I may have voted for Fastway. "Say What You Will" is a solid glammy metal tune with a great riff that I heard a lot on SiriusXM back in the day. But "Melancholy" is an Iced Earth classic, and Barlow is amazing and I love him. Easy choice.

And finally, FFDP vs Evanescence. Sorry, neither of these songs are metal. The FFDP song is washed out hard rock, and just not for me. I expected far better from that title, but this whole song is hollow. Yes, especially the lyrics (which I will also discuss in the aforementioned future post). Now I've heard a lot about "My Immortal" but I wasn't expecting this. Oh my god. Beautiful fucking song. Love the piano, Amy Lee is fantastic, and by the end I was beyond floored. I really like "Bring Me to Life", and now I'm gonna have to play that whole album. Evanescence.
 
The Wizard is my least favorite song on Demons and Wizards. This Thin Lizzy track is also pretty mid with some cooler parts so I'll just vote for the band I favor, which is Uriah Heep.

The power metal trio are all strong songs, but the most impressive one is Theocracy. They'll definitely go on my watch list.

Mastodon are mediocre, while Symphony X are good and this is an above-average song by them.

I've always liked this Pierce the Veil song a lot, great pop metal. Sunn O should probably rename themselves as Shitt-O. Some of the worst music I've heard.

Melancholy is one of Iced Earth's best Barlow-era songs. Fastway's song is solid and inoffensive, but this match isn't even close.

I think both of the songs in the last pair are pretty great and iconic, even if I don't listen to either band very often. These might be the best songs from both bands, but I'll vote for Evanescence since that song has been with me since my early teens.
 
Maybe I'm just not into rock legends but the only part I found myself enjoying in the Thin Lizzy track was that nicely elongated instrumental section. Otherwise this definitely has Steve Harris vibes ("Death of the Celts" comes to mind). Uriah Heep though! Now that is straight up my alley! It's not metal, like, at all, but man it's such a fun little song. Yeah, complete with a hippie dippie drive, but I love it. I need to get back to spinning their shit. David Byron's voice is fantastic.

- I will be writing up my thoughts on the power metal trio in a separate post. Stay tuned. -

I listened to the Mastodon song, and the whole time I was just thinking, "Yes, this is a Mastodon song." The first SECOND of "Fallen" ALONE blows it out of the water. I hear more of a sultan's curse in "Fallen" than I did in the whole Mastodon song. "Fallen" is fucking AWESOME, one of the best Symphony X rockers, and Russell's voice is GODLY. The way he moves through cleanly and then ramping up in intensity for the finale is amazing. And don't forget the guitar-synth duel that builds into a guitar-synth dual. Fucking love it and yeah no shit I'm voting Symphony X.

Both Pierce the Veil and Sunn O))) pleasantly surprised me. PtV is kinda cringe, but I was really bobbing my head the whole time. Sunn :ph34r:00 sounds way more creative though. It really sounded like they recorded in a cave, and the way the vocals kept shifting was super cool. Might have to check these guys out proper.

Against a lesser opponent, I may have voted for Fastway. "Say What You Will" is a solid glammy metal tune with a great riff that I heard a lot on SiriusXM back in the day. But "Melancholy" is an Iced Earth classic, and Barlow is amazing and I love him. Easy choice.

And finally, FFDP vs Evanescence. Sorry, neither of these songs are metal. The FFDP song is washed out hard rock, and just not for me. I expected far better from that title, but this whole song is hollow. Yes, especially the lyrics (which I will also discuss in the aforementioned future post). Now I've heard a lot about "My Immortal" but I wasn't expecting this. Oh my god. Beautiful fucking song. Love the piano, Amy Lee is fantastic, and by the end I was beyond floored. I really like "Bring Me to Life", and now I'm gonna have to play that whole album. Evanescence.
Don’t sleep on the first Evanescnece. Definitely of its time but was a massive album for good reason.
 
Don’t sleep on the first Evanescnece. Definitely of its time but was a massive album for good reason.

My favourite of the singles was the "lesser one" Everybody's Fool


I've already posted this one here on the forum, with the video kinda hitting similar to Nightwish's Noise.
 
I believe the next round has one of my nominations coming up, and I wanted to give a little context on it.

"Towers Of Gold (Tempus Edax Rerum)" is the nearly 15-minute long epic title track to Sacred Outcry's Towers Of Gold, which just came out in May of this year. It's a concept album, and this song is the big climax of the story, so there's a lot of "theater of the mind" going on, as Bruce would say. It probably works best within the context of the album, but I think it's also strong enough to stand on its own, and I guess we're about to find out if that's true.

The singer is the legendary Daniel Heiman from Lost Horizon, who sounds like he hasn't aged a day in the last 20 years. He has insane range and he uses it. The song also has a few musical nods to other epic metal tracks, including a busy bass section that recalls "Halloween", a silence-into-solo-bass part reminiscent of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", and some choral parts that bring to mind "Suite Sister Mary"; but on the whole the track very much has its own identity and goes through quite the musical journey, so please do yourself a favor and listen to the entire thing before making a judgment. It's up against a Blind Guardian track (albeit a weak one in my estimation), so it may have an uphill battle against familiarity bias.

Anyway, enjoy (I hope).
 
I will give it a fair chance, I really will, but since the "weak" Blind guardian track was nominated by yours truly, I'll give my little context to support the familiarity bias. :ninja:

(I had a write up prepared and thought-through this whole time, I would still post this after the next round starts, so it's a moot point, anyway)

Anyway, the opposing song is Thorn from Nightfall in Middle-earth. And it is a song that I genuinely disliked for quite some time. It always felt to me too brooding and dreary and worst of all - on the album it is sitting quite close to Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns), which I considered the superior and more memorable ballad for a long time. The songs are not entirely unsimilar and they are all packed at the beginning of the second half of the album, so the sequencing might not be the most fortunate.

And yet, as I was creating my nominations list, it suddenly clicked and I knew I have to pick this track.

I might have already written here about the fact how the recent re-read of The Silmarillion moved me and inspired me - it was also the first time I read it in the original English - and ever since then, Nightfall in Middle-earth, the album dedicated to that, has been an even more special treat than before.

Indeed, Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill) is a deserved classic, but after reading how Fingolfin went to challenge the Satan himself, channeling his inner Oromë

"Now news came to Hithlum that Dorthonion was lost and the sons of Finarfin overthrown, and that the sons of Fëanor were driven from their lands. Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted upon Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband’s gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came."

suddenly the track packs an even greater punch. Same goes for the aforementioned Noldor, with visions of the Kinslaying and the crossing of the Helcaraxë vividly before my eyes.

So I guess you wonder - is it that? Is he championing Thorn because of the book?
Well, yes and no.

Thematically - and that was also one of the things that I used to find detrimental to the song - the song is from the sub-story of The Fall of Gondolin, when Morgoth captures Maeglin and tries to convince him to betray Gondolin and let it be destroyed. The "thorn" and the "edge of thorns" from the chorus are the thorns that hide the secret entrance.

But that's not really a reason to like the song now, is it? For one, of all the three great substories (Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Lúthien, Children of Húrin) the Gondolin one is definitely the narratively weakest and this is not even about the fight or destruction - this is more like a small vignette, unassuming in its scope. It's just a brooding ballad, isn't it?

But then it clicked. When I was reading The Silmarillion, I wrote here on the forum how I had completely forgotten how much relentlessly bleak the book was... but that's not entirely correct. The strongest emotion, the one Tolkien was obviously enamoured with, is the one of sorrow.

I personally am very much convinced that of all the Valar, it was Nienna who might have been Tolkien's personal favourite:

"Mightier than Este is Nienna, sister of the Feanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope. Her halls are west of West, upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar where all is glad. She goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are near to her own; and all those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward from the walls of the world."

And it is precisely this that Thorn captures and encapsulates like no other song on the album. The melodic line of the choir in the chorus is unbelievably wistful, the atmosphere is more or less ruminative, it is a song you have to progress to. I had to, at least. But it is no mean feat enough to try to cover the famous hard-to-read book filled with content lyrically - it's on another level to encapsulate the emotional (and to a degree, spiritual) takeaway I had from it.

That is more important to me than the haunting acoustic intro - again very atmospheric, full of nostalgia and yearning; it also reminds me of the fact this band covered Oldfield's To France (which is another song that isn't all too dissimilar to this one, I guess)... neither did I mention the fact Hansi shows the fullness of his range here, as at the beginning he sings very low (is that, like F2? Or lower/higher?), it sounds almost atypical... I didn't talk about the crunch of the riffs...

But honestly, on a purely personal level, apart from the above the song is also ultimately nostalgic for me - again, the melody in the chorus is very evocative of 90s-power-metal fantasy, or at least it sounds that way to me. It is the sunshine of of my boyhood, the time when fantasy was still naive and filled with Faërie, when the days were long and the Sun was shining yellow in a kookish, early-afternoon slant.

I have started to hear the song anew. It is quite likely that other people won't, but, you know... "there never was much hope. Only a fool's hope."

And yes - enjoy! (I also hope)
 
- I will be writing up my thoughts on the power metal trio in a separate post. Stay tuned. -

Call me Diesel. One day ago - never mind how long precisely - having listened to the latest round of the GMSC while driving to and from work, and having been given a brain-wrinkle by one of the contestants, I thought I would write a bit about my thoughts on it. It is a way I have of driving off my depression and regulating my day off from work. Whenever I find myself obsessing over something in my head; whenever it is a bright and sunny September day and I don’t have enough to complain about in my life; whenever I find that Judas and Knick are having a disagreement on lyrics in metal, such that they go on for a full extra page on it; and especially whenever I feel I have far too many thoughts in my head to just keep them there - then, I account it high time to get to writing them down as soon as I can. This is my substitute for doing something useful with my life. With a philosophical flourish LC throws himself into a game; I quietly take to posting. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards posting on a Maiden fan forum with me. The only surprising thing is how much worse my essay writing abilities are compared with Perun.

Having taken the previous day to read through all the posts on Theocracy and its lyrics, I feel I have a little something to add myself. This post is not intended as a response, per se, as much of it I was thinking of before I’d even read the back-and-forth primarily between Judas and Knick, but I will quote any posts I feel I have something to add to, disagree with, or which segue with my own points. My purpose with this post is, to be clear, not to criticize Theocracy on the basis of their religious lyrics. I feel that Theocracy are actually just a good springboard to discuss something larger than they are.

My goal with this post is to lay out my thoughts on the following: 1.) Lyrics in metal, and how they are used. 2.) Christian lyrics, and how they are used. 3.) Theocracy’s “I Am”, and where it stands between the aforementioned points.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

I. Lyrics in metal.

Let’s be honest: the majority of lyrics fucking suck.

Heavy metal was basically founded by a group who sang about weird sleep paralysis moments, rhymed “masses” with “masses”, and wrote love songs about weed. Objectively, Black Sabbath’s early lyrics leave a lot to be desired, but emotionally these songs connected with people. If they were a little clumsy, the heavy guitar balanced it out. And frankly, I enjoy “Sweet Leaf” a lot, because it’s so silly and simple and played so straight. Not because it’s good, but because it’s ridiculous.

There is something about a simple lyric that is perfectly connected to its music that will drive it home to you. You can look at our collective favorite band, Iron Maiden, and see how simply a song like “The Trooper” is constructed:

You’ll take my life, but I’ll take yours, too.
You’ll fire your musket, but I’ll run you through;
So when you’re waiting for the next attack,
You’d better stand - there’s no turning back.


Steve Harris is certainly no Alfred, Lord Tennyson, whose “Charge of the Light Brigade” inspired “The Trooper”. Steve’s poem is simple and straight forward, with an AABB rhyme scheme. Compare that opening stanza to Tennyson’s:

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
- Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
- Rode the six hundred.


There’s something about the way Tennyson has structured the rhymes, the words, the syllables, and the pauses, that you get the sense of the gallop of horses, the frantic nature of the charge, and the fatal end staring the soldiers in their faces, just by reading this poem. You don’t even have to see it or hear it, but you can feel it.

So Steve doesn’t replicate this. What he does that’s cool, though, is completely shift the perspective of the narrative. When you read “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, you’re immersed in how these characters are fighting a hopeless battle. But when you’re listening to “The Trooper”, you yourself are fighting this battle, and you yourself are faced with merciless death coming at you from all sides. The lyrics are simple and straightforward, but it still hits you hard. You feel the bravado and the valour as you charge into the battlefield, and you feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins, and you feel the last gaps of breath and your life comes to a close by the end. And this is all underscored by Steve ability to accompany his ‘poem’ with music, which also simulates the adrenaline and the galloping of horses and the excitement and danger staring you in the face. And that’s when the AABB rhyme scheme, simple though it is, clicks for you; because its simple nature adds a slight poetic flair to the narrative. You can be a badass soldier and a literary scholar at the same time!

And not all lyrics have to be simple. Some are much more poetic and more laboriously placed together. I think Bruce Dickinson has always been a little better about this than Steve. The whole Chemical Wedding album is a really good example of melding poetry and metal into one sonic force that you can totally rock out to, but will also leave you thinking about the words and what they mean for countless hours. Steve often gives me vibes of just jotting down the first thing he can think of, all structures be damned. For instance:

You dance on the graves who bled for us.
Do you really think they’ll come for us?


Do graves bleed now? Who’s coming for us - the graves??

BUT. What song do people constantly bring up when you ask them what their favorite Iron Maiden song is? More often than not, the mystically religious “Revelations” and the contemplation of control that is “Powerslave” are far outweighed by those who cite the also existential but much more simple “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. Into the abyss I fall, the eye of Horus is powerful and fun to think about, but people connect to Waiting in my cold cell, as the bell begins to chime a lot more. Steve succeeds as a lyricist because he can fully craft an image inside people’s heads that they can connect to. (And we don’t have to get into the plagiarism arguments right now.)

Now so far we’ve gotten into the serious approaches to lyric writing, one more simple, and one more poetic. But we also have to talk about silly lyrics - the ridiculous ones. And Maiden have had a few of those (all of No Prayer for the Dying, pretty much). But when I think of silly lyrics in metal, I think my mind goes towards Mercyful Fate and Manowar more right now, particularly since they’re more applicable within the GMSC right now.

When I listen to a Mercyful Fate song, the lyrics are helping to paint the music for me. The blazing dual guitar already brings a hellish atmosphere, but the lyrics, often about Satan, work with underscoring that. When King Diamond sings an oath about worshiping Satan, I’m on board, because it’s incredibly ridiculous and yet being sung so straight, yet orchestrated with some of the most intense and amazing guitar work I’ve ever heard. And when he’s singing about a ‘curse of the pharaohs’, it’s some really shitty poetics, but affective in giving across the campy atmosphere that I really enjoy about the song.

Away out in Egypt in the Valley of Kings,
Where the mummified pharaohs
Pretend dead in their sleep, yeah;
Well, don’t touch, never ever steal
(Unless, you’re in for the kill),
Or you’ll be hit by the Curse of the Pharaohs!
Yes, you’ll be hit; and the Curse is on you!


It’s dumb, but effective, campy in all the right ways I want my silly metal to be. Manowar, on the other hand, outline a silliness in metal that is not for me at all, and is mostly just dumb. Sure, I can laugh about how The gods made heavy metal, and they saw that it was good, but I kinda draw the line at May your sword stay wet, like a young girl in her prime… yuckkkk. And the song currently in play during this round, “Brothers of Metal, Pt. 1”, is a good example of how much I hate when metal bands sing about being metal. I listen to metal to listen to metal, not hear people sing about how I’m listening to metal. Just be metal and stop overcompensating, noob! This song is dumb and I will not be voting for it.

I feel like this discussion kind of opens to the door to discuss the lyrics of the other songs in this current round, too. I won’t go through all of them, but I’ll do a few highlights of which ones I don’t like, and which ones I do.

I like the lyrics to “The Wizard” in the context of the song. Something about, as Judas called it, the “stupid hippie crap” really fits the vibe of the song and moreover makes me enjoy it. They’re far from good, I mean Me and my magic man kind of feeling fine is dumb as fuck, but they fit the vibe of the song in relation to its music. It’s the kind of simple song you could get high to, and that’s what makes me enjoy it.

I like the lyrics to “Fallen” in the context of the larger story they’re telling. It’s not a mind-blowing story, but coupled with the music the narrative really hits hard. The original person who unleashed horrors by mirroring his own image and playing god within the song itself, realizing his mistake in the final bridge, is powerful shit. It’s another case where things are simple and straight-forward, yet the narrative grips you, mostly because you’ve got Russell Fucking Allen on vocals.

Conversely, I hate the lyrics to “Wrong Side of Heaven”. Here you have a song that’s so simple that it just rings hollow. I hate the macho vibes of FFDP in general, and I just genuinely couldn’t figure out what the song was trying to say without looking it beyond “I’m not just a tough guy, I have emotions, too”. Sure, the music video may be powerful, but the song itself is just… whatever. There’s nothing in these lyrics that makes me want to dig in, and nothing in the music that will keep me there after the lyrics have already failed me. And one thing that kind of gets me is the way they call God a ‘she’ in this song. Not because I’m offended that God wouldn’t be called He like in the Bible; in fact, I really like the concept of a female God in a creative, countercultural way. But that’s the thing, nothing about this song feels creative or countercultural. Calling God ‘she’ here just feels like a cheap win for Five Finger Dip Shits to pat themselves on the back. It’s not a terrible song, it just bores the shit out of me and has nothing deeper going on to warrant it being here.

So let me finish this section by saying that, yes, lyrics are very important to me as a listener and consumer of music. No, that doesn’t mean that I need every line to be mind-blowingly complex or something; I just want there to be some meat there for me to latch onto. Whether that’s via an interesting narrative, or through simple lyrics simply connecting with the music, I want the songs I listen to and sing along to to have something worth listening to and singing along to. Lyrics can’t make or break a song by themselves, but bad lyrics that do not connect via the music will absolutely dampen my appreciation of a song.

II. Christian lyrics.

This year when I flew to Germany, I visited a couple churches that are dramatically different from each other. The first was the Freiberger Dom, an Evangelical-Lutheran church in Freiberg, Saxony. Freiberg is where my mom grew up, so it’s effectively my German home; and thus, I’ve been in the Dom several times over the years, whether touring it or actively participating in it. Some years ago we attended a Christmas Eve service that was absolutely packed; this trip we listened to an incredible organ concert that was so loud that it felt like the building was shaking. Closing your eyes focusing solely on the music, it felt like you were in the midst of a tempest, not on land or sea, but within a magnificient and angelic fight over the battlefields of heaven itself. To me, the organ is a fantastic instrument that pretty much encapsules an entire orchestra into a bunch of pipes.

The interior of the church almost goes hand-in-hand with this. I actually have some picture that I took this trip to show you what it looks like:

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This is the perspective when you stand in the front of the church and look towards the back, where the massive organ stares up at you on the second floor, as though it represents all of Heaven in one giant musical instrument. You can’t see them too clearly here, but the pillars are adorned each with a member of the Ten Virgins/Bridesmaids from one of Jesus’s famous parables. Five of them are happy, having had enough oil to last through the night; and five are mournful, and their lamps have gone out. Elsewhere in the church you’ll find a few different portrayals of Jesus, one of which I personally found to be scarier in a way than most horror films. Here’s a picture I found online:

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I mean, this is like a straight-up Slayer album cover, no? Basically what I’m trying to get at is that the impressions that I get when I stand inside of this church are 1) that it’s incredibly metal as fuck, and 2) that Christianity is a mixture of majesty, but also of suffering. It’s a Serious Matter, and you need to face this suffering head-on to avoid the eternal suffering you will find should you avoid it.

The other church I visited this year was the Dresdner Frauenkirche, a Lutheran church in Dresden, Saxony. We walked inside, and a man at the front stood at a podium and gave us a little introduction to the Frauenkirche, telling us that he wishes us not a life free from suffering or from pain, but one filled with mercy and grace. The Dom is the kind of church that I can really wander around in and try to take in every little detail, because there’s just so much that’s going on in their interior. Conversely, the Frauenkirche, to me, has one singular spectacle instead of many, and that’s the display at the very front of the church. Here’s a picture I took of it:

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I mean, how amazing is that? My mom and I actually got into a bit of a discussion about it. Her argument was that this display, while cool, is so grandiose that it’s almost like an idol, taking away your mind from God and onto human achievements. I disagreed; to me, this is almost like a little glimpse into the majesty of Heaven, and if us mere mortals can craft such a beautiful work of art, then how much greater must Heaven actually be?

Basically, my impressions of the Frauenkirche were that 1) this is also metal as fuck, but in a very different way, and 2) that Christianity is a mixture of majesty, and of beauty. The glory of God must be absolutely breathtaking, and if imperfect creatures such as us can actually have a relationship with a being of that magnitude, then we are incredibly blessed to be given such an opportunity.

Okay. So what the hell do these two churches even have to do with the object at hand? Basically I wanted to mention them to showcase that people have differening approaches to how they illustrate Christianity to themselves and to others. For some, the dominant feature is the suffering. Jesus came and bled and died for you. His death was gruesome so that you might live for eternity with him. Get that through your skull! For others, the dominant feature is the beauty. There is a being who created you, who loves you, who controls everything, and he wants to have a relationship with you. How incredible is that!

I am not critiquing either of those approaches, and what I’ve outlined here is a very small example that is in no way representative of all Christians and their beliefs. There are so many ways to engage in Christianity and to be a Christian. And I think that both these ways are valid in their own right; on the way hand, it is incredible that Jesus had to suffer so much to save a sinner like me; on the other hand, it is incredible that God is so loving that he would actively want to bring an ant like me into his kingdom. Both views are valid, and both views can coexist.

But there’s just one problem. I’m an atheist.

I grew up in a Baptist church. I know most of the Bible like it’s just basic world history. I’ve heard the arguments, I’ve heard the counter-arguments. And still I just don’t believe. I think a lot of this is pagentry, I think that religion was created for two primary reasons: 1) To control others, which is what I have seen firsthand in my country and which I sorely despise. 2) To help individuals find a sense of security and peace of mind. The second reason I have no issue with. It’s hard to be a human, and if religion helps you, then by all means, embrace it. I’m the kind of person who is filled with doubts and anxieties and depression and fears. In my darker moments I have also had to just get in touch with the universe around me, as though I speak to God in my own way. The logical part of my brain knows that he likely isn’t out there, but it can be comforting at times just to talk within myself to something greater that doesn’t exist but within my head.

What I’ve found most interesting since becoming an atheist is that I feel more in touch with Jesus than I ever did while I was a Christian. When I went to church and to a Christian private school, all of this was basically just history, stuff I had to know. And I love history, it’s always been my favorite subject in school and I still get caught up in Wikipedia deep dives. But I learn history both because it’s fun and because it relates to our future in a way. Y’know, learn from the past so you don’t repeat it, etc. And that’s basically what the Bible was. This is history, it’s stuff that’s already happened, it’s stuff that’s real. Okay. Noted. I believe it.

But did I experience it? Did I connect with it? Not really. It wasn’t until that whole foundation disintegrated that I’ve actually been able to understand it. To me, Jesus has become a greater person in my mind than back when I thought he was my God. Of course I view it now through a more fictional lens, but he feels closer to me now than he ever did. I think it’s because now I know that I can criticize him and not just bow before him. In that way, he and I have built up a rather good relationship together. It feels like we’re friends now.

I know I’m getting sidetracked here, but I feel like laying all my cards down on the table makes sense given where I’m about to be going forward in this post. Because now that we’ve discussed how Christianity has differing ways of viewing and experiencing it, we can discuss one specific aspect of being a Christian that is pertinent to this discussion: worship.

Why do we sing about and to God? There’s a few different ways, and I’d like to tackle three. The first takes us back to the Freiberger Dom. We sing about God to explore the suffering he went through to give us that eternal life in the first place. Here’s a song that illustrates this point:


It’s a simple track that progresses forward in a ballad-like structure. The verses detail how great God is, but the chorus clinches it by detailing how Jesus suffered, thinking of us “above all”. I still get chills listening to this song; it’s beautifully emotional. 10/10, for real.

The second is one that embraces the majesty of God. “Above All” does that in a way, but here’s another that, maybe doesn’t showcase how powerful God is as God, but how powerful God is as he moves through us:


It’s another ballad-type track, and another song I still love a lot. There’s a lady in the church my family goes to who absolutely blows everyone out the water every time she sings it. Whenever she’s on stage you can feel that full power of God moving through her. Another 10/10, for real.

Of course I also have to mention the classic hymn “Amazing Grace”, which is a simple but powerful song about how majestic God is that he can “save a wretch like me”. Classic for a reason, kind of the “Hallowed Be Thy Name” of Christian songs.

But as good as these two approaches may be, I think that the most powerfully emotional way to sing about and to God is one that eschews the soft piano and teary eyes for something that just makes you want to jump up and down. Let me give you a couple of examples:


This was always one of my favorites when I was younger. There’s something about the simple refrains throughout this song that just works as the music keeps building. I mean, it’s so simple, right? It’s based around Isaiah 40:31, which is already a beautiful passage talking about how God will lift us up on wings like eagles, and the way this song just keeps coming back around is fantastic. This Chris Tomlin version is good, but it doesn’t hold a candle to watching a worship team play it faster, with everyone singing along and each musician exploding within to create their sound.

But I’ve got an even better example, and for that I will turn to none other than the greatest piece of Christian media ever… VeggieTales! Yeah, I’m bringing out the fucking VeggieTales. Just listen to this song and tell me it isn’t an incredible piece of music:


Of course this song uses a gospel choir, which is already different from the more white-washed Protestants of my youth. In general I find that white people take this shit more seriously than most of the black people I’ve met. The latter are always in tune with the sermon, with the music, and they have fun with it.

What I’m trying to say is, you gotta have some fucking JOY for Christ’s sake! Maybe I’m just too much like my namesake who danced as the Ark of the Covenant was being marched into Israel, but I think the most powerful way of looking at Christianity is simply that: 1) God is a magnificent being far beyond our mortal understanding that wants to have a relationship with small creatures such as us; 2) to do so, he came down and suffered the worst death imaginable so that we might live forever with him; 3) and THEREFORE, celebrate it! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord! It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t sing, if you can or can’t play an instrument, it’s the fact that you’re leaping to worship God with the joy within your heart that makes all the difference.

So now I hope I’ve outlined what aspects I like about Christian music. Of course the metalhead in me enjoys embracing the suffering; the wide-eyed child of wonder still within me embraces the majesty; but neither are worth much if we cannot embrace the joy that is within us too. And I hope that now you also know that I am not coming from a place of hating Christian messages in music just because they’re Christian, because, while I don’t often seek out Christian songs, there are quite a few that I love, particularly ones that I grew up with as a kid and still can get me feeling and/or moving.

So, with all that out of the way, let’s finally bring this all home to the song in question: Theocracy’s “I Am”.

III. Theocracy’s “I Am”.

In 2018, a film was released called I Can Only Imagine, an adaptation of the story behind MercyMe’s 2001 contemporary Christian hit of the same name. My family loves this film, my mom in particular, but watching it I was really struck primarily by two things: 1) I mean, nice story, but it’s not at all what really happened; and 2) this is a boring fucking song. I mean, seriously. Even the song it was paired with on the single, “Word of God Speak”, is 10x better than “I Can Only Imagine”. Sure, it’s emotive enough, but it just doesn’t do anything for me, certainly not compared to the [heavily altered] story behind it featured in the film.

Surrounded by Your glory -
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You, Jesus,
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in Your presence,
Or to my knees, will I fall?
Will I sing, “Hallelujah!”?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine… I can only imagine…


On paper it’s nice enough, but nothing about the music stirs any emotions in me. I’ve heard this song sung at a funeral before, too, and it was even worse then.

This is the problem I face with a lot of Christian songs: they try to be emotive, but end up feeling incredibly basic and hollow. The lyrics are simple and straightforward, and get shot in the knees by the similarly basic and straightforward music. And they lack any and all joy. It's like you're thinking about how awesome God is, but you're not feeling it, you're not experiencing it.

So now we come to Theocracy’s “I Am”. Well, the music is more interesting than “I Can Only Imagine”, sure, but there’s literally only one point in this song that connected with me, and that’s the chorus. It’s the one moment where I could glimpse the majesty of Heaven just as I did in the Frauenkirche. And it only comes up twice in an eleven minute song. Ouch.

Okay then, what about the suffering? Well, starting in the final stretch when the singer sings I am humility, the one who laid it all aside, I was really starting to connect with the song at last, feeling in touch with Jesus as he made the greatest sacrifice. But then it just kept dragging on and increasing in blander ways (Your hero in these bloodstained pages) and I lost touch with it again.

So much for the suffering and the majesty. What about the joy?

Still looking.

Still looking.

Damn, this song is emptier than the goddamn tomb.

Look, I appreciate the approach these guys took, but it just does not connect with me at all. It’s incredibly repetitive, all those “I am…” statements come flashing at you as though they’re trying to meet a quota, and there wasn’t a single moment where it finally clicked. At best, they were just lyrics. At worst, there were moments where I was rolling my eyes (I am [...] the promise of Israel… also, frankly, if you have to say I am humility, I don’t think that you… are humility). The two moments I liked were emphatically not where the song decided to either peak, or cycle back around to. And the sad thing is, I actually like the idea of what this song could have been, just not at all in its execution.

Because they could’ve still brought things together if the music was any good. But for fuck’s sake, this singer is annoying as shit. It really feels like they grabbed a random worship leader and put him in front of the mic. He’s a competent worship leader, sure, but this is supposed to be goddamn metal, and he’s got all of the god without any of the damn metal.

The voice was an instant turn off for me, and the Dream Theater wannabe musical side didn’t help either. I’m not a big Dream Theater fan; they have a few songs I like but a lot of their ideas are dragged down also by a lackluster singer and a lot of bloat. This song checks those boxes too, but I’d still rather listen to Images and Words in full than “I Am”.

Finally, the production. Sterile. Lifeless. Boring. Pass.

So yeah, this song didn’t connect with me lyrically, but even moreso it didn’t connect with me musically, either. I get why Judas submitted it, I get why others voted for it, but it just isn’t for me. Not because the lyrics are too preachy (even though - despite being based on literature thousands of years old - they are not for me either), but because the song as a whole is not what I want from both metal or Christian music.

And I think Judas said it himself when he said (I’m paraphrasing here) that these lyrics are just too on-the-nose in general. It’s just serious and straight-forward Bible quoting. As Jer succinctly put it, it’s “just a circle jerk for people who are already believers”.

I want to feel something, whether it’s the suffering, the majesty, or the joy of knowing Jesus. All I feel about “I Am” is boredom. 5/10.

So I’ll be voting for Firewind, whose song “Hate World Hero” has worse lyrics than “I Am” does (oh my god, if you have to say “I’m a hero!” then you’re obviously not a fucking hero!!!), but has a really good chorus with a nice ‘80s/’90s pop feel feel. The vocalist kinda sounds like Blackie Lawless, but the music throws my mind back to another Christian song, “Place in This World” by Michael W. Smith, which is a great early ‘90s Christian ballad that I really like. It’s about… well, here’s the chorus:

I’m looking for a reason, roaming through the night
To find my place in this world, my place in this world
Not a lot to lean on, I need your light to help me find
My place in this world, my place in this world


Anyway, my place in this world is not in voting for “I Am”. Thousand year old books be damned.

Addendum

I hope the last section doesn’t come off as more harsh than I intended it to, I just figured being blunt would be better than sugar-coating it. Overall I just thought that this discussion was super interesting, Theocracy gave me a lot of thoughts I wanted to write about, and I felt like adding to the conversation with this post.

The final thing I do want to mention is that I disagree with those who said that people should keep politics and religion etc out of music. I think that music is a great way to channel your beliefs and your opinions, especially when it comes to politics and religion. Some of the most powerful songs are ones that took a stand, I mean why else does Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” still resonate with us? Why else does punk still grip us through its simplistic but bold manner? Why else do I enjoy Steve Harris talking about how religion is used for destruction in “For the Greater Good of God”?

But just as I think people should put all of themselves into their lyrics, I can also criticize lyrics, for whatever reason I choose. Whenever I listen to a song, lyrics hold just as much weight as production, as the vocals, as the individual instruments. It’s part of what makes up a song, it’s part of what holds it together. It’s part of why I love the music I love, and dislike the music I don’t. So hopefully my ramblings provided some additional thoughts in this discussion, and I look forward to the next round in the GMSC!
 
Here's my votes:

Heep over Lizzy. I'm coming to the conclusion that other than Lizzy's mega hits, I'm just not a big fan of them.
Theocracy in the power metal trio. Lyrics are a bit naff in places but they really do rock.
Symphony X over Mastodon but it was closer than I thought. I might finally be coming around on Mastodon.
Pierce the Veil is super naff, but Sunn O))) is more like Sunn Oh it's shit
Iced Earth, obviously.
Evanescence well above 5FDP which is a band that is truly shit.
 
Thin Lizzy dispels Uriah Heep's magic, Theocracy's prayers give it the strength to win the power metal trios match. Mastodon is fallen to Symphony X. Pierce the Veil is crowned and Sunn O))) is deposed. Iced Earth successfully overthrows Fastway. Evanescence gives the death punch to Five Finger Death Punch.

Program note: I'll be travelling over the next couple of weeks to see my sister and a little indie band called Iron Maiden, so poorly known it couldn't even qualify any songs for this tournament. Updates will still happen but may be slow.






Part 1, Round 8, Matches 43-48


Play In Round
Match
43
Live at Donington Division​
Annihilator - Human Insecticide
vs.
Metallica - Harvester of Sorrow​
@Perun
Nominators
Popoff 500​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links

Play In Round
Match
44
Rime of the Ancient Mariner Division​
Keep of Kalessin - Against the Gods
vs.
Gojira - Global Warming​
@Night Prowler
Nominators
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon

Play In Round
Match 45
Rime of the Ancient Mariner Division​
AC/DC - Sin City
vs.
Queen - Ogre Battle​
Popoff 500
Nominators
Popoff 500​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links

Play In Round
Match 46
Rime of the Ancient Mariner Division​
Blind Guardian - Thorn
vs.
Sacred Outcry - Towers of Gold (Tempus Edax Rerum)​
@JudasMyGuide
Nominators
@Jer
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links

Play In Round
Match 47
Fear of the Dark Division​
Jag Panzer - The Crucifix
vs.
Angra - Nothing to Say​
@____no5
Nominators
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links

Play In Round
Match 48
Fear of the Dark Division​
Arcturus - The Throne of Tragedy
vs.
Soen - Jinn​
@Magnus
Nominators
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon
Links
 
Annihilator vs Metallica - talk about two different ends of the thrash spectrum. Annihilator is very raw and brash and aggressive, and Metallica is far more thought out, methodical. I like the groove of Harvester but I really enjoy the rawness of Insecticide. I'll give it to my countrymen over the Americans and pick Annihilator.

Keep of Kalessin vs. Gojira - This Keep song is kind of a mess. Constant double kick pedals that overwhelm everything else going on, a screamy vocalist who changes pitch up and down. There's occasionally something that appeals to me, but there's a lot to get through to find the appeal for me. Once the time change kicked in, it got a bit better. Really like the intro to this Gojira track, it's different to what I typically associate for them. Unfortunately, the vocals remain a bit of a barrier for entry for me into Gojira. The time changes are interesting and I appreciate the middle bit a fair bit. It's an easy pick for Gojira for me here.

AC/DC vs Queen - I don't really even need to listen to these songs, but I did. Sin City is purile, basic, and functionally interchangable with about 80 other AC/DC songs, the best examples of which are elsewhere in this game. Meanwhile Ogre Battle is deep and interesting, fun, once inspired dozens of song-offs in the old Maidenfans IRC chat, and has a great video game series named after it. Queen.

Blind Guardian vs. Sacred Outcry - one song I am very familiar with, one I have never heard, so this should be interesting. Thorns is one of my less favourite songs off Nightfall, but that's almost like saying "one of my less favourite children". I like it a lot, it's got a great groove, and a great Hanzi performance. But man, I just feel, deep in my core, that a Blind Guardian song isn't reaching its potential if it's not got that epic power climax. Always great when two board members feel passionate, and I feel a little bad pitting two songs against each other. A little bit. Almost not at all. This is my first time listening to Sacred Outcry. I find there's a lot of ideas here, and this is a song that maybe could have used a bit of editing to pare it down to the central bits, but the central bits are good. Overlong. Singer's alright too, in that lovely cheesy power metal way. There's a few moments when he sounds like he's twisting his nuts randomly and hitting falsetto all over the place. I have to admit, I am getting some SSOASS rip off vibes towards the end (if you're gonna rip off a song, that's a good one to pick). I'll go with Blind Guardian, but it's close. Gonna check out that whole album sometime from Sacred Outcry.

Jag Panzer vs Angra - Two bands I've never really "gotten", so a good opportunity to delve back in. Jag Panzer felt pretty indulgent and like we never got anywhere, a bit of a ballad without a reason that I can tell. I liked some of what it did in the instrumental but it was a miss for me. Intro to the Angra song is interesting for sure, has a neat groove. I like the main chorus, but it does get a little too cheesy for my liking in the instrumental. It never feels like it gets there, but it gets closer than the other song. Angra.

Arcturus vs Soen - I seem to recall not being in love with Soen in the GMAC, but they'll get another chance here. Arcturus is doing some interesting things, but there's a weird lo fi sound over the music that I don't love in the intro. Still, this has a nice doomy feel. Time change is a little too abrupt to be top notch for me, but still quite nice. I liked this Soen more than I remember, but I'm still going to give it to Arcturus.
 
"Human Insecticide" has cool, interesting thrash riffage and some nice bass fills throughout. The vocals are less appealing and not as memorable, though they're not bad. I like the hard left turn the song takes for its third quarter, where it kind of goes off the rails a little bit with various rhythmic adventures before pulling it back in. Good stuff overall. "Harvester Of Sorrow" has a nice groove and verse melody, but it plods and repeats too much and the chorus isn't anything special. The solo is nice, though, as are the riff convolutions near the end. Both songs are good with some weaknesses, but I think @Perun's nominee has a little extra verve to it. Winner: Annihilator - "Human Insecticide"

"Against The Gods" has an annoying guitar tone, and boy, it wastes no time going all in on the potbanging. The vocals aren't good, but I've heard much worse. The rhythmic play around the 1/4 mark is the first interesting thing on offer here, but the song moves away from it way too quickly. There are also some interesting guitar melodies that occasionally emerge from the drum-and-scream soup, but they don't last for long. When the drummer's PCP finally wears off around the 3/4 mark things get a lot more tolerable, but the simplistic riff progression there isn't interesting enough to justify its runtime. Yeah, that's almost 9 minutes of my life I'll never get back. "Global Warming" has much better music right out of the gate, and holy shit, the vocals are clean...until they're not. It's weird, this song has some proggy elements to it, yet it still winds up feeling really repetitive because the verse and chorus riffs get brutally overused. I can't say I enjoyed the song overall, but it was probably the least annoying Gojira song I've heard to date, and it completely decimates its competitor. Sorry, @Night Prowler, but your nominee is Jeremy Renner and @Mosh's is the snowplow. Winner: Gojira - "Global Warming"

"Sin City" is a perfectly inoffensive, mediocre AC/DC song that does all the AC/DC things in acceptable fashion. I wouldn't turn it off if it started playing, but I'd never seek it out on purpose. It's...fine. "Ogre Battle" does a bunch of backward Queeny stuff before settling into a pleasant-enough melody with some nice rhythmic change-ups. It's kind of all over the place, and I can't say that it's all that great, but it's definitely a lot more interesting than the AC/DC track, and that's enough to win this match. Winner: Queen - "Ogre Battle"

"Thorn" has a pleasant acoustic vibe in the initial verse and the outro, and Hansi sounds good and gets to show some range. I'm not a fan of the rhythmically and tonally awkward pre-chorus, but the chorus is solid aside from the video gamey guitar accents. The heavier verse is a lot less appealing than the acoustic one, unfortunately, though I do like the guitar interlude and the piano bridge. A very mixed bag for me, though not bad overall. "Towers Of Gold (Tempus Edax Rerum)" is my own nominee, which I already introduced a bit. I love the flow of this song through its many different themes and moods, and the track is a real showcase for Daniel Heiman's range as a singer. The initial section with the paranoid high-pitched vocal fills is probably the weakest part, but everything else is pure gold (pun intended). I also appreciate how much "theater of the mind" is at work here without derailing the flow of the song, and the guitar work is top notch throughout. Sorry, @JudasMyGuide, but even without considering own-nominee bias this would be a complete no-brainer for me. Winner: Sacred Outcry - "Towers Of Gold (Tempus Edax Rerum)"

"The Crucifix" has a great pipe organ and vocal opening, and a promising start to the acoustic verse, but the softer singing here sounds a little underpowered and "off" for some reason, and I'm not thrilled with the synth sounds. The heavier parts seem unfocused, and the amateurish feel of the vocals carries through into these sections too. The guitar duet sounds like the guitarists from a Judas Priest tribute band jamming with the rhythm section of an Iron Maiden tribute band. Actually, this entire track has the feel of a pretty good garage band reaching a bit beyond their abilities and not quite getting there. Hmm. "Nothing To Say" is way more focused and polished from the jump. I like the proggy aspects and the use of some native instruments. The synths are a bit twee, and Andre Matos has some wimpy aspects to his voice that I'm not fond of, but otherwise this is a very good song from a very good album. (Nice to see Holy Land represented here!) Sorry, @____no5, but @Black Bart's nominee is clearly superior IMO. Winner: Angra - "Nothing To Say"

"The Throne Of Tragedy" has great atmosphere, and the distorted whispers aren't bad, but when the vocals open up I still think the singer sounds like a depressed foreign version of Fred Schneider from the B-52s. There are some nice melodic lines on the guitar, and the synths provide welcome texture, but the song feels like it meanders a bit. I really like that bizarre jazzy guitar solo near the end, though. "Jinn" has a striking string-and-vocal opening, and I really like the folk metal chorus. The verse doesn't grab me as much, the vocals feel a little underpowered, and the song feels a little unfocused at times, but it's still good. Hmm, this one's quite close, and I think it would be reasonable for either track to win the match, but sorry @Shmoolikipod, I think @Magnus's nominee has just a little more character to it. Winner: Arcturus - "The Throne Of Tragedy"
 
I just love that bass on this Annihilator track! Also their ability to play aggressive but with the focus still on the melody is amazing. Of course brilliant guitar work but boy that bass here! Speaking of the essence of bass, or in this case the absence: Harvester Of Sorrow. I never really could get into ...AJFA. There are a couple of great songs on it but overall it bores me to death. Unfortunately Harvester Of Sorrow isn´t on my list of favorites so @Perun ´s nomination Annihilator wins hands down.

The round of the mods! But it isn´t the sound of the Gods. I never listen to these 2 bands for a few reasons: the vocals are a turnoff and the music overall is lightyears from my alley. Keep Of Kalessin just isn´t for me. Some nice ideas but overall not a great song. I was surprised to hear nice melodies in the Gojira song. I´m already prepared for a redfaced @Night Prowler, @Mosh ´s nomination gets my vote.

Queen should be the obvious to pick but Ogre Battle isn´t one of their strongest and feels quite sloppy and uninspired at some points. Sin City is a nice rocker, great stuff. AC/DC

The Sacred Outcry song started to begin very interesting around the 9 minute mark and has some parts throughout the song that should get me thrilled but it never did. It battles against one of the highlights (if not "the" highlight) of the NIME album by Blind Guardian. This would be the perfect song to get someone into their music. Thorn isn´t just a song, it´s a magical musical journey and I would´ve nominated it myself if I didn´t pick something from their IFTOS album. I´m truly sorry @Jer but the winner is crystal clear. Blind Guardian

I used to be quite a big Jag Panzer fan a quarter of a century ago but Ample Destruction was never my favorite. The Brazilian Helloween does a great job here. Carolina IV from that album is their best but this song is great too so my vote goes to Angra.

Two bands I never listened to but this was an interesting match. I didn´t dislike the Arcturus song, at moments I even got a Moonspell vibe.
The melodies of Jinn are beautiful. The singer has an accent but it doesn’t bother me that much. Soen
 
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Metallica's riff monster. No contest.
Queen's song is fun, but Sin City is a cool AC/DC banger. Maybe Bruce's version made me appreciate it more.
Towers Of Gold is an interesting song from an interesting band, a 15-minutes long beast that feels epic and I can imagine Helloween could write a song like this. Great find, but Thorn is probably one of the few BG's songs I like with a medieval vibe that is so nice. Either way I'm happy.
Not a fan of both songs, but Angra's one is nice.
 
Although I like Metallica more than Annihilator in general - although I can't put up the pretense of knowing the latter's entire discography - and despite ...And Justice for All being my overall favourite and one of my favourite thrash albums ever, Harvester of Sorrow is probably its weakest track; they would get better at this type of plodding tracks later - I mean, what else is this than a prototype to Sad But True? - on their 80s albums, these are usually among my least favourite tracks in general (and hey, I love ReLoad!) Harvester does not feel as constipated and pointless as Leper Messiah and it's not a tune I'd personally skip or something, but it's not a particularly stong contender either.

The Annihilator track, on the other hand, has killer riffs, insane energy and is very catchy - even though the chorus somewhat feels to me as if it was inspired a bit by Overkill' Rotten to the Core. Also the middle part with the syncopated riff is pretty irresistible. This is some prime old-school stuff! I think I should go back to this band soon and maybe even try out the albums I've missed in the meantime. Annihilator.

-----

Keep of Kalessin's very name immediately piqued my interest and this particular song reminded me of Primordial a bit, although it's less ... well, primordial, I guess, and with slightly less machismo. I find the simplistic black-metallish basis very catchy, the lead guitar in the chorus are a nice touch and I honestly enjoy the overall conceptuality. The outro is insane! Even taking only the music into consideration, it is more of a "theatrical narrative" than any truly prog song ... but - and I hope this won't be too controversial - so do classic Opeth feel to me. All those 10 minte classic tracks of theirs... they feel structured much more like prog-black than prog-death songs, but this is nethier the time nor the place for that discussion. Anyway, I like it very much and I immediately put this band on my "to do" list.

As for Gojira, I am partial to them since I first came across them while they were opening for Metallica... and saw how this perfectly competent and interesting band got a lukewarm or almost even hostile reaction from the "NOTHING ELSE MATTERS" 'Tullica crowd. Especially egregious since right after, the other opening track were Machine Head, who were worse, had shit sound and yet got excited reactions.
Well, whatever, my first album I picked was From Mars to Sirius. Comparing it with other albums in their discography, I'm not really sure if it's the best one, but it certainly is representative, methinks and I am supportive of the band in general, but even then there's something here that prevents me from embracing the band completely. And it's not a lack of identity - this very song switches between what I can only call an attempt at marrying Muse with Voivod, interspersed with some -core parts and the atmosphere is certainly original. It is also not a lack of technical proficiency on their behalf. It's just... I like it, but I'm never particularly inclined to go back to them. Also, funnily enough, for as static as the Kalessin song is, it was here in Global Warming when I realised how overdone and endless does the ending feel ... I know it is the ending of the entire album and it's probably understandeable in that regard, but on its own, I was wishing we'll be over this already. Also, the noodly riff overstays its welcome as well.

With the exception of Opeth and possibly Cormorant, I usually like "evolved" black metal more than "evolved" death metal, if you know what I mean (although in the basic, old-school form, the preference is reversed). I am not surprised to see it is so here as well.

What? NO votes whatsoever so far for Keep of Kalessin? That's insanity, travesty and foolishness! Keep of Kalessin, of course! (@Magnus , you're going to vote the same, aren't you?)

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So, the BOB match, right? (that's Brutally Overrated Bands, in case someone wondered). In general, I prefer Scott-led AC/DC to their later incarnation with Johnson and their 70s discography is pretty consistent as a whole. Sin City may be a tad overrated, but it's a fine track. Not sure why would someone pick it for their "best songs ever" list, metal or otherwise, but I guess that's Popoff for you.

Or, more exactly, one of his sides, because the other song he nominated, Ogre Battle, on the contrary comes from one of the few Queen albums I genuinely like as a whole (along with Jazz, Races and mostly Opera) and it kicks off the absolutely kick-ass second (or "Black") side of that album, taking the listener on a fascinating, creative and passionate journey culminating in the absolutely stellar March of the Black Queen. The guitar is excellent here, the vocal melodies are a bit cheesy, maybe (especially that "Now, once upon a time...", it sounds almost kitschy), but ridiculously catchy, the song is untrivial, energetic, fun. Creative. Man, I wish they kept doing stuff like this. By the 80s, these tracks were a rare occurance indeed (though sometimes they did appear - e. g. Princes of the Universe), though their descent into trivial banality began already some time around News of the World, but I digress.

Queen, because the band that usually annoys me more brought their best here.

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Ugh, I really hate voting in this next match. I promised Jer to be as unbiased as possible and to be fair, Sacred Outcry are exactly the band for me. I forgot about it, but once Jer started listening to this band on repeat (as evidenced in the Now Playing thread) I actually went and checked the band out - though I think it was the other album - and I liked it a lot. Honestly, even this song is awesome - the band is incredibly tight, Heiman has fucking pipes (so this is what he's been doing? All the while everyone's been waiting for another Horizon album for ... *checks the calendar* twenty years, huh?) the song most of all sounds like vintage Helloween (and I mean that as a very high praise). It's immediately catchy, it's epic, and although you lot were talking about Rime or SSOASS, no, the subdued section is actually much better than that. The piano was a nice touch and the buildup to the final stretch was sublime. I will replay this 15-minute track right after I'm finished with writing and voting in this round. From my fleeting acquaintance, this song just might be a 9,5/10 or even 10.

Unfortunately, it is pitted against a track I not only nominated, but have a personal investment in. I already wrote about its appeal for me yesterday:
I will give it a fair chance, I really will, but since the "weak" Blind guardian track was nominated by yours truly, I'll give my little context to support the familiarity bias. :ninja:

(I had a write up prepared and thought-through this whole time, I would still post this after the next round starts, so it's a moot point, anyway)

Anyway, the opposing song is Thorn from Nightfall in Middle-earth. And it is a song that I genuinely disliked for quite some time. It always felt to me too brooding and dreary and worst of all - on the album it is sitting quite close to Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns), which I considered the superior and more memorable ballad for a long time. The songs are not entirely unsimilar and they are all packed at the beginning of the second half of the album, so the sequencing might not be the most fortunate.

And yet, as I was creating my nominations list, it suddenly clicked and I knew I have to pick this track.

I might have already written here about the fact how the recent re-read of The Silmarillion moved me and inspired me - it was also the first time I read it in the original English - and ever since then, Nightfall in Middle-earth, the album dedicated to that, has been an even more special treat than before.

Indeed, Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill) is a deserved classic, but after reading how Fingolfin went to challenge the Satan himself, channeling his inner Oromë

"Now news came to Hithlum that Dorthonion was lost and the sons of Finarfin overthrown, and that the sons of Fëanor were driven from their lands. Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted upon Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband’s gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came."

suddenly the track packs an even greater punch. Same goes for the aforementioned Noldor, with visions of the Kinslaying and the crossing of the Helcaraxë vividly before my eyes.

So I guess you wonder - is it that? Is he championing Thorn because of the book?
Well, yes and no.

Thematically - and that was also one of the things that I used to find detrimental to the song - the song is from the sub-story of The Fall of Gondolin, when Morgoth captures Maeglin and tries to convince him to betray Gondolin and let it be destroyed. The "thorn" and the "edge of thorns" from the chorus are the thorns that hide the secret entrance.

But that's not really a reason to like the song now, is it? For one, of all the three great substories (Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Lúthien, Children of Húrin) the Gondolin one is definitely the narratively weakest and this is not even about the fight or destruction - this is more like a small vignette, unassuming in its scope. It's just a brooding ballad, isn't it?

But then it clicked. When I was reading The Silmarillion, I wrote here on the forum how I had completely forgotten how much relentlessly bleak the book was... but that's not entirely correct. The strongest emotion, the one Tolkien was obviously enamoured with, is the one of sorrow.

I personally am very much convinced that of all the Valar, it was Nienna who might have been Tolkien's personal favourite:

"Mightier than Este is Nienna, sister of the Feanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope. Her halls are west of West, upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar where all is glad. She goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are near to her own; and all those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward from the walls of the world."

And it is precisely this that Thorn captures and encapsulates like no other song on the album. The melodic line of the choir in the chorus is unbelievably wistful, the atmosphere is more or less ruminative, it is a song you have to progress to. I had to, at least. But it is no mean feat enough to try to cover the famous hard-to-read book filled with content lyrically - it's on another level to encapsulate the emotional (and to a degree, spiritual) takeaway I had from it.

That is more important to me than the haunting acoustic intro - again very atmospheric, full of nostalgia and yearning; it also reminds me of the fact this band covered Oldfield's To France (which is another song that isn't all too dissimilar to this one, I guess)... neither did I mention the fact Hansi shows the fullness of his range here, as at the beginning he sings very low (is that, like F2? Or lower/higher?), it sounds almost atypical... I didn't talk about the crunch of the riffs...

But honestly, on a purely personal level, apart from the above the song is also ultimately nostalgic for me - again, the melody in the chorus is very evocative of 90s-power-metal fantasy, or at least it sounds that way to me. It is the sunshine of of my boyhood, the time when fantasy was still naive and filled with Faërie, when the days were long and the Sun was shining yellow in a kookish, early-afternoon slant.

I have started to hear the song anew. It is quite likely that other people won't, but, you know... "there never was much hope. Only a fool's hope."

And yes - enjoy! (I also hope)

And unfortunately, the emotional connection trumps everything. I am a human being, after all.

Seriously, Loosey, why did you have to put these songs against each other? I have to vote for my song and I do so only very reluctantly, because the Sacred Outcry song deserves love and recognition. I'll be checking out this band immediately. But I just can't, I have to go with Blind Guardian here, although I really wish I could have voted for the SO song. In fact, of this entire round (and maybe even the previous one) these are the two songs that should go further and I would willingly sacrifice all the rest (though I'm also really grateful to @Night Prowler for introducing me to Keep of Kalessin). @Jer , I'm really sorry, I might've actually voted for your pick over some of my own nominations, you chose very wisely and thank you for introducing me to this band in general and to this song in particular.

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And to be honest, I don't like the fact I have to choose in this next match either. Jag Panzer are definitely a band I should get to know better, my knowledge is very passing and insufficient, but this track here is very solid. Maybe the random falsettos I could do without - well, maybe the vocals in general are not exactly my favourite style, but the song is pretty atmospheric, I like the old school production (it gives the song more edge, honestly), the guitars have a good groove going on and the solo part was very memorable. In fact, I'm very much incentivised to try out more and check this entire album and maybe even other stuff by this band. A good pick, No. 5.

Also, as we were talking about the lyrics - what the heck? Are these lyrics again explicitly Christian or am I reading it wrong somehow? (I don't think I am, I'm just surprised).

In the opposite corner there's Nothing to Say, the opening track to one of the more idiosyncratic and beloved power metal albums Holy Land - I won't deny I am a fan and for a really short time I was thinking about nominating either this track or the title one (to have more of the creative weirdness). Or even Carolina IV. The groove is here as well, though of a different kind, the catchiness is classic Angra and ... well, it's time to admit it: Andre Matos (may he rest in peace) is just as much "not my favourite style" of vocals, with all the histrionics and weird inflections and piercing head voice... he reminds me of Keeper-era Kiske or Jon Arch a bit. And yet, the song is catchy as it is because of him, no denying that. The rhythm section is also tight as fuck, but instrumentally, the band excels primarily with the guitars - good as the Jag Panzer guitarists genuinely were, Loureiro and Bittencourt are a duo you don't simply fuck with.

Also, to me it's a representative of the whole album, which I deeply love and cherish, for its inherent musicality and fascinating concept. I am really sorry, but I'm going to have to vote for the Brazilians here. And yet, the fact that this match that was supposed to be absolutely no contest was one, because the opposing song was really good and helped me discover another band. But I'm voting for Angra, of course.

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Arcturus are a band that is a bit hit-or-miss for me - honestly from what I heard so far I'm not even sure if they have a particular style - but the members are very apt at making their musical background progress into genuniely intriguing, yet atmospheric results. Some of the off-kilter choices and switches here still sound coherent in the context of the whole, he riffs ("ostinatos"?) are pretty damn catchy and emotionally, the song has this je ne sais quoi quality I didn't quite expect - it isn't doomy or dour, not exactly haunting... it kinda reminds of the "goths lost to time" atmosphere the most mysterious song on the internet has. Actually I replayed this song once more, just to put my finger on it, but I'm still somewhat at loss for words. Even musically, this song is rather amorphous and chatoyant, I can't really catch it in my fingers, but I definitely like it.

Just a little warning - the Soen song is being linked to different versions on YouTube and Spotify, at least for me, one has violin, the other has piano, but I didn't listen to them both back to back to be sure how vast the difference is.
Am I crazy, or does this sound literally like Newpeth? Including the vocals - I don't know who Joel Ekelöf is, but if he's not Akerfeldt long-lost brother, than he certainly must be Akerfeldt himself under a pseudonym.
But it's not just that, it's also the complex, doomy riff that sounds pretty much like Mikael is doing nowadays (Next of Kin?), the shifts to the almost whispers, I'd say even the guitar tone. Also, Lopez is on the drums, though I've heard more breathtaking stuff from him, I almost didn't notice him until the outro. In general, I like this, though it's a bit derivative, I like the melodic choices and aping the greatest band ever is always a legit choice in my book.

But I'll go with the band with more personality, and that's Arcturus here. But once again I must thank to the nominator of the other band - this time Shmoolikipod - for bringing this band to my attention.
 
Sacred Outcry are exactly the band for me. […]
From my fleeting acquaintance, this song just might be a 9,5/10 or even 10. […] I have to vote for my song and I do so only very reluctantly, because the Sacred Outcry song deserves love and recognition.
Well, thanks for saying that. I figured it would be right up your alley and you might actually struggle a bit to decide.

I forgot about it, but once Jer started listening to this band on repeat (as evidenced in the Now Playing thread) I actually went and checked the band out - though I think it was the other album - and I liked it a lot.
Their first album (Damned For All Time) has a completely different lineup except for the bass player, and its songs were written about 20 years earlier, so it’s nowhere near the same level as Towers Of Gold, IMO (though it‘s still pretty good).

And unfortunately, the emotional connection trumps everything. I am a human being, after all.
Yeah, at the end of the day votes like this are just a popularity contest, and music is an inherently emotional thing, so songs and albums from yesteryear are always going to have an advantage over newer ones. In the GMAC one great album after another kept getting knocked out by (IMO) mediocre Rainbow albums “because it’s Rainbow!”, and in this match as soon as I saw that I was up against a song from a beloved album by a beloved band, I figured the merits would wind up mattering less than the memories, “because it’s Blind Guardian!”

As K.K. would say, it is what it is, you know? But maybe I can still sway the Symphony X fan club to vote my way…

@Jer , I'm really sorry, I might've actually voted for your pick over some of my own nominations, you chose very wisely and thank you for introducing me to this band in general and to this song in particular.
You’re welcome. I highly recommend the Towers Of Gold album as a whole — I thought it was pretty great on the first spin, and my respect and admiration for it has only grown with each subsequent listen. At this point it will almost certainly be my album of the year for 2023 (only the new Lynch instrumental album has even a chance of approaching it), and when I finally get enough distance to give it a fair review I think it has a very good chance of breaking the 9/10 threshold, which is extremely rare (only Maiden’s top two albums hit those levels for me). Put simply, it’s become an all-timer for me — it’s just that good.
 
I tried to give Soen some time in the limelight in the GMAC with Tellurian, their second album. Failed pretty badly, it didn't advance one round past Sabbat's Dreamweaver (deservedly, honestly. Dreamweaver is one of my top finds from the GMAC).

Jinn is the Soen I come back to most nowadays. Very bass heavy, and combined with Joel's confident singing gives the peaceful sound I love early Soen for. The distorted parts contrast so well with the verses, first the chorus, then that dirty doom riff. Love the bass tone there. It all flows so naturally. And it ends with a great percussion violin outro, which I only now realize is very similar to a part in BG's Wheel of Time, which I also nominated.

Am I crazy, or does this sound literally like Newpeth? Including the vocals - I don't know who Joel Ekelöf is, but if he's not Akerfeldt long-lost brother, than he certainly must be Akerfeldt himself under a pseudonym.
But it's not just that, it's also the complex, doomy riff that sounds pretty much like Mikael is doing nowadays (Next of Kin?), the shifts to the almost whispers, I'd say even the guitar tone. Also, Lopez is on the drums, though I've heard more breathtaking stuff from him, I almost didn't notice him until the outro. In general, I like this, though it's a bit derivative, I like the melodic choices and aping the greatest band ever is always a legit choice in my book.
No, you're not crazy, that's one of the most common problems people have with Soen. Second only to being Tool clones, which they haven't been since the first album. Why those are problems, I have no idea, as you said. Especially when a former Opeth member is on the drums... Good point about this being similar to Newpeth specifically, yet at the same time I couldn't see Mikael writing Soen's stuff. It's different enough for me that they're their own thing. But maybe that's just me being a Soen fan before I was an Opeth fan.

Also, they've been rapidly switching their style. This song is from their 2017 album Lykaia, and they made 3 albums since then, leaving behind most of the quiet stuff and personal lyrics. The main thing that remained is the riffing style. It's a shame imo, but at least the criticisms they get nowadays are fair ::)
 
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