"Gangland" has good energy and a solid main riff. I'm not thrilled with the singer, but he gets the job done. The vocal melodies are OK, but nothing particularly memorable. The solos are pretty sweet. A solidly good song, certainly better than the Maiden song of the same name. "Denim And Leather" is totally serviceable bluesy hard rock. The vocal melodies in the verse are good, but the chorus is kind of lame, and the song doesn't really have much energy in general. The lyrics are cheesy as hell, too. The solo's good, but not great. And yeah, the song runs on too long. OK, this is a pretty easy call.
Winner: Tygers Of Pan Tang - "Gangland"
"Elficidium" certainly has some elfin flavor going on with its synth pan pipes and strings. Oof, those synth horns sound terrible, and then we get the full pot banging and Cookie Monster treatment. Half a bonus point for using pipe organs, though, and I appreciate the clean vocal respite, however brief it may be. "At The Heart Of Winter" has a classy clean intro, eventually working its way into some pretty good but overly distorted riffage, and then unfortunately Gollum comes out to play. The music here is all quite good, but the vocals are completely absurd. Still, the strength of the music is more than enough to make this a clear call for
@Perun's nominee.
Winner: Immortal - "At The Heart Of Winter"
"The Siren" has a cool opening lead, but the orchestration sounds silly. I like the middle eastern feel of the verse. The chorus with the male vocals is less effective, but OK. The interludes in the middle are very nice. This perhaps leans a bit too far in the direction of being a soundtrack rather than a song, but it's quite good for what it is. "The Pharaoh Sails To Orion" has an ominous start and soon gets into that great neoclassical piano lead. The occasional orchestra hits are real sour notes, and the male vocals are pretty bad. The call-and-response section with Tarja is interesting for its contrast, but the vocal melodies kind of fall apart there. The Tarja-only chorus works much better. The various solos are all good-to-great, especially the flute bit, and the heavier interlude that follows is great, especially once the backing vocals come in. Love the outro with all the neoclassical fills, too. Well, this one is closer than I expected, as "The Siren" is much more consistent in quality, and is certainly better than the first half of its competitor; but the second half of "The Pharaoh Sails To Orion" comes back so strongly that it really feels like it more than redeems the opening stretch. I would be fine with either track winning, but sorry
@Diesel 11, I've got to go with the higher highs of
@Wogmidget's nominee here.
Winner: Nightwish - "The Pharaoh Sails To Orion"
"Love Bites" is an excellent power ballad with lots of atmosphere and great vocal melodies. Love all the color work on the guitar, too. It's very sweet, but I wouldn't call it saccharine myself. Not much to fault here, really. "You Could Be Mine" is one of the most overplayed and overrated songs of the early 1990s. I swear to god, this thing was playing every 15 minutes on MTV and the radio and it made me want to stick an icepick in my ears. I mean, it's OK and all -- the riffs and vocal lines are pretty solid, as is the solo, though the chorus is weak and whiny until the very end of the song, and the bridges are lame. The song is just undercooked and underpowered in general, and this horse was beaten to death, resurrected, and beaten to death again several times over. Sorry
@The Sentient, but
@DJMayes's nominee takes this one in a walk.
Winner: Def Leppard - "Love Bites"
"Time Stands Still" is unfortunately not a cover of the similarly titled Rush song. Bad synth horns? Check. Video gamey guitar tone? Check. Overly shrill vocals? Check. Patchwork songwriting? Check. Yep, that sounds like Blind Guardian. Some of the parts are pretty strong, like the chorus and the interlude, while others just tread water or aren't very good. It's OK overall, I suppose. "Apex" is already sounding superior in its first few seconds. I like both the clean and distorted guitar work leading into and through the verse. The singer's really good, though her phrasing could be better in places. The Maidenesque interludes feel a little unnecessary and out of place, but the rest of this works well. The chorus is solid and the solos are very good. I like it. Congratusorrylations,
@LooseCannon, but this is an easy call for your second pick.
Winner: Unleash The Archers - "Apex"
"The Eagle Has Landed" has a pretty great extended atmospheric intro with nice fills, but then it settles into a plodding, merely OK groove. The more atmospheric verse is better, but the vocals don't really hold up there. Already checking the clock at the 4 minute mark. Yeah, this chorus kinda blows. Thank Christ for the double-time feel toward the end, as I was in danger of nodding off. Despite some nice parts that was pretty mediocre overall. "Blasphemy And The Master" has a suitably creepy atmospheric intro. Not really on board with the psychotic spoken word section, but the riffage that follows is pretty interesting. The singer is too over the top in general, but he sounds decent when he reins it in a bit. There are some good vocal melodies in there, but some don't land as well. I like the pipe organ and choral section. The deconstructed solo doesn't really work for me, but the real solo soon afterward is much better. Now I'm checking the clock at the 6 and a half minute mark. I don't know, this song's kind of a mess at times, and not all of it works, but at least it's rarely
boring, and that's enough for
@srfc's nominee to win this match.
Winner: Hell - "Blasphemy And The Master"
