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

[JudasMyGuide]

Hope you feel better man. You made some good picks!

Cheers, mate.

 

[DJ James]

Animal is a bonafide heavy metal classic, and its crass title shouldn’t dissuade you (yes, YOU!) from listening to it.

Getting all my other votes out of the way too before going into the probably the best matchup this game has seen: Blood of My Enemies, Melvins (nice surprise), Hendrix, Mean Streak (nice song, reminded me of Autograph).

I’m the Doctor vs. Welcome to Hell is the best matchup we’ve seen so far. This matchup might not strike the heavy metal listener that concerns themself with bands like Nightwish and things like clean singing or playing in time, but these two TITANS of the genre have spawned more imitators than can ever be counted. For years, punk, metal and rock bands all across the world have been trying to hone the atomic rock and roll meets speed metal meets punk sound of Motörhead (varying degrees of success). For my money, Inepsy got the closest. Similarly, bands have been trying to strike that same blackened speed metal vein that Venom so masterfully struck in the early 80’s.

Venom experienced a very productive handful of years in the early 80’s where they put out two of their best albums and a handful of their best singles. There’s about 30 songs from those early 80’s years that deserve to be in the “Greatest Metal song” conversation and Welcome to Hell is way up there. I use to be a Black Metal guy, but now I recognize Welcome to Hell as not only Venom’s best, but one of the GREATEST metal albums ever. Venom peaked very early on, but some of their later albums like At War With Satan and Prime Evil I like a lot too.

Ultimately, I think there’s going to be a couple Motörhead songs that advance far in this game, and I’m the Doctor is my 2nd favorite Motörhead song, but after intently listening to these two back to back, I am voting AGAINST my nominee in an attempt to promote Venom a little further in this game. I have much love for both bands, and Welcome to Hell is too powerful to deny.

 

[Riggatoni]

Cheers, mate.

Yeah I made some similar picks, except:

I chose Metal Daze over Blood of my Enemies. I don't like Manowar, so the choice didn't really matter to me.

I chose Venom Welcome to Hell over Motorhead's I'm the Doctor. I prefer Venom over Motorhead (I only like the Overkill album and a few songs off of Ace of Spades), but even then, I wouldn't consider Venom one of my favorite bands (but their first two albums are good and more consistent than Motorhead.

 

[DJ James]

Hole in The Sky has a great riff... Like a lot of Sabbath's other songs, thanks to lord Iommi. Ozzy also sings extremely well; his peak in the band, IMO, was in the albums Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage (which Hole in the Sky is on). His voice isn't for everyone, and he is not on the level of a singer such as Dickinson, but he made the most of his limited range!

Hold in the Sky is awesome, what a killer groove in that song, shame it has to go against Animal.

 

[Riggatoni]

Hold in the Sky is awesome, what a killer groove in that song, shame it has to go against Animal.

Personally it was an easy choice for me: Black Sabbath is one of my favorite bands, and I'm not too familiar with Wasp.

 

[LooseCannon]

I think of all the proto-glam bands, W.A.S.P. is probably the best. Used to be a user around here who was big into W.A.S.P. and I listened to them pretty deeply at the time. I wouldn't call them a favourite band, but I think there's more there to enjoy than in a band like Def Leppard and GNR, both of whom just don't do it for me.

 

[Riggatoni]

I think of all the proto-glam bands, W.A.S.P. is probably the best. Used to be a user around here who was big into W.A.S.P. and I listened to them pretty deeply at the time. I wouldn't call them a favourite band, but I think there's more there to enjoy than in a band like Def Leppard and GNR, both of whom just don't do it for me.

Yeah, I could never get into Def Leppard, but I like Appetite for Destruction, just not any other GNR album. Maybe I'll check WASP out.

 

[DJ James]

Yeah, I could never get into Def Leppard, but I like Appetite for Destruction, just not any other GNR album. Maybe I'll check WASP out.

Debut is an excellent place to start. Great mix of hard rock, glam and little (actually a lot) of that sweet, sweet early 80’s speed. As for a single song as a sampler, Hellion off that album is a good jumping off point. Excellent lyrics on that one too.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Ugh, I just don’t get Manowar’s popularity. Everything I’ve heard by them is so pedestrian. Going with Blood of My Enemies because it isn’t a song with my least favorite kind of metal lyrics – the “we’re metal and we’re so badass” ones.

Obviously the Melvins. Can’t stand the Deftones.

Neither of these are my thing, but I’m rolling with Venom. I’ve always found Motörhead to be overrated.

Ozzy-era Black Sabbath by default.

Another lame match here. Y&T, I guess. But I don’t like either.

Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower captures my favorite thing about Bob Dylan songs – when they’re performed by someone other than Bob Dylan. Black Betty is also a solid fun bouncy tune. Best match in this round for sure. Giving a sympathy vote to Ram Jam.

Nah, if we’re talking like, debut-Human, when Chuck was singing in about the same range as Mikael, he’s a good two steps ahead. I’ll accept arguments that he’s a little bit too clinical with limited expression but damn the sound of his voice on Leprosy and Human in particular is so fucking chiseled.

You and I have different definitions of "chiseled," I suppose. I listened to a few tunes off of each album and to me he has the kind of death metal vocals I dislike - the "regurgitating your meal for your young" kind. I greatly prefer the harsh guttural roars of an Akerfeldt or the dude from Amon Amarth. But I will say that outside of these bands I would rather hear clean singing, so I am in no means a death metal enthusiast. Death in general for me is a one-note band; they offer a thrashy evil death metal style and not much else. I suppose they were pigeonholed into that because of their name, though.

 

[LooseCannon]

I tend to agree that the Mötorhead-Venom matchup is the strongest of this round. I'll be voting for Venom as well, but it's a close one. And yes, Magnus, that's why I do lists - gotta cover the bases, or someone will forget to nominate a favourite song and be sad it's not here. Plus that way we can say we really did consider everything.

 

[Confeos]

Not a very exciting round, and can't do a big write-up this time anyway.

Blood of My Enemies
Melvins
Motörhead
Sabbath
Y&T
Hendrix

 

[Shmoolikipod]

I guess this is the oldschool round, nothing really modern other than Melvins Vs Deftones.

Both of these are pretty bad, Blood of My Enemies is still much better.

Some of you guys prejudiced against Deftones... Change is great. Melvins didn't grip me as tightly.

Welcome to Hell.

Animal.

I mixed up this match with the previous one. Montrose breezed by, Mean Streak.

Man, this one is tough. Both of those kill. Have to go with Watchtower though.

 

[KidInTheDark666]

Death in general for me is a one-note band; they offer a thrashy evil death metal style and not much else. I suppose they were pigeonholed into that because of their name, though.

Cmon, late-era Death is one of the greats of prog metal.

 

[Riggatoni]

Cmon, late-era Death is one of the greats of prog metal.

Exactly. I don't really like death metal, so I don't really care for Death's early stuff. But I dig Death's later albums Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance, they are prog masterpieces.

 

[KidInTheDark666]

Exactly. I don't really like death metal, so I don't really care for Death's early stuff. But I dig Death's later albums Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance, they are prog masterpieces.

Yeah, I'm not the biggest death metal guy either so I prefer when things get either really proggy or really melodic, like melodeath obviously.

 

[Detective Beauregard]

Cmon, late-era Death is one of the greats of prog metal.

Exactly. I don't really like death metal, so I don't really care for Death's early stuff. But I dig Death's later albums Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance, they are prog masterpieces.

I will check their later stuff out.

 

[KidInTheDark666]

I will check their later stuff out.

Some of the tracks from their final album have already appeared in this game (Scavenger of Human Sorrow and Flesh and the Power It Holds) so if you didn't enjoy those, I guess it can't be helped. For a prog fan anyway, I think the band got far more interesting towards the end of their career

 

[Diesel 11]

Death in general for me is a one-note band; they offer a thrashy evil death metal style and not much else. I suppose they were pigeonholed into that because of their name, though.

This is a crazy take. Death are widely regarded as one of metal’s most consistent boundary-pushers, starting off with a very pure early death metal style before heading further and further into proggier territory and arguably leaving death metal behind entirely on their last album. Throughout this they experimented with different sounds and Chuck’s vocals kept changing throughout the band’s discography. I wouldn’t argue with you if you’d said that Chuck reuses the same song template on almost every Death song (riff/verse/pre-chorus/chorus/bridge/solo/verse/pre-chorus/chorus), but to say they were a one-note band is one of the craziest takes I’ve ever heard on this board.

 

[Mosh]

Death is definitely one of the most versatile early extreme Metal bands.

 

[srfc]

I think of all the proto-glam bands, W.A.S.P. is probably the best. Used to be a user around here who was big into W.A.S.P. and I listened to them pretty deeply at the time. I wouldn't call them a favourite band, but I think there's more there to enjoy than in a band like Def Leppard and GNR, both of whom just don't do it for me.

I think with W.A.S.P. other than the hairspray and sleazy lyrics on some albums, they are just a straightforward Heavy Metal band.