The Greatest Metal Song Cup - Part II, Round 5, Matches 73-78

[KidInTheDark666]

I'll admit it's one of Saint's better songs, but it's no match for anything on The Sound of Perseverance really.

 

[Kalata]

Some thoughts:

Alter Bridge's Fortress is an effective and solid song from their style. The riff of Armored Saint's Warzone is enough for a win! The Spirit Carries On has a beautiful solo and vibe, Kamelot's Wander is one of my favorite ballads (that chorus!)! Walk In The Shadows should be one of Queensryche's best songs, Myrath's Wide Shut has some very nice ideas (DT vibe). Power And The Glory (classic Saxon with its chorus and great riff, old school vibe) vs Warriors Of The World United (I have to say the tempo, riff, drums and powerful chorus are so good and classic) is a curious matchup, wow.

 

[Confeos]

Many good songs in this round.

Voting:
Dan Swanö
Alter Bridge
Death (Warzone is great and a reminder that I need to listen to more Armored Saint, but I'm going with the tune that I'm the most familiar with)
Kamelot
Myrath (tough choice though)
Manowar

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Well, well, well, how d'y'do, you old cunts? I disappear for a while and this game turns into utter travesty, doesn't it?

Swano might be the Todd Rundgren of Northern Death Metal, but it's still, you know... metal. Iggy with his usual take on Lou Reed with half the charm and twice the vodka just doesn't do it for me.

Zombie's dated but cool groove chug over Nickelback for housewives.

I like Death, but not the constipated extra "I'm smarter than you" Schuldiner of Perseverance, I'll throw @MrKnickerbocker a bone and go with Armored Saint (the album's really good)

My nomination, duh.

I wouldn't need to dislike Rÿche as much as I do to vote for the delectably Orientalist Myrath.

Manowar are stupid and fun, Saxon are merely the former.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

I missed out on a lot of rounds, I feel the craving, I need to gently cup some songs.

 

[LooseCannon]

I'll get an update up tonight!

 

[LooseCannon]

I lied, it took an extra day.

Looks like Dan Swano has added reality to Iggy and his stooges. Meanwhile, White Zombie can't take Alter Bridge's fortress. Death is naught but a scavenger of human sorrow in a warzone. Kamelot wanders like a spirit carrying on. Queensryche walks in the shadows with their eyes wide shut. Saxon wins an incredible cheese off. All the power and the glory to them!

---

Part II, Round 5, Matches 67-72
​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 67​	Virtual XI Division​
Def Leppard - Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)	vs.​	Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow​
@Jer	Nominators​	@srfc​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +4	Record​	0-2-0, 0 pts, -6​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 68​	Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Division​
Nightwish - Storytime	vs.​	Annihilator - Alison Hell​
@DJMayes	Nominators​	Popoff 500​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +8	Record​	2-0-0, 4 pts, +13​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 69​	Sanctuary Division​
Sonata Arctica - FullMoon	vs.​	Metallica - The Thing That Should Not Be​
@DJMayes	Nominators​	Popoff 500​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +2	Record​	2-0-0, 4 pts, +14​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 70​	Somewhere in Time Division​
Beastie Boys - Sabotage	vs.​	Sentenced - Fields of Blood, Harvester of Hate​
Radio EHS 100	Nominators​	@Magnus​
0-1-0, 0 pts, -3	Record​	0-2-0, 0 pts, -8​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 71​	BBC Archives Division​
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter	vs.​	Motörhead - Killed by Death​
@Perun	Nominators​	Popoff 500, Best Music Art 100​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +5	Record​	1-1-0, 2 pts, -7​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 72​	Hell on Earth Division​
Blind Guardian - Time Stands Still	vs.​	Nightwish - The Siren​
@LooseCannon	Nominators​	@Diesel 11​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +9	Record​	1-1-0, 2 pts, +3​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

 

[Diesel 11]

I’m not always a fan of Jer’s nominations but “Mirror Mirror” is a great Def Leppard song and certainly better than Suicidal Tendencies.

Hate voting against Nightwish but I gotta give credit where credit is due. “Alison Hell” is a bona fide thrash classic.

I like “The Thing That Should Not Be”, but it’s probably still the weakest song on MOP. Giving out a power metal pity vote.

Great song but “Sabotage” is not metal.

Extreme metal legion vote.

Okay this time I can vote for Nightwish. “The Siren” is awesome, underrated, with Tarja and Marko both at their best and that violin solo is awesome.

 

[Kalata]

Support for Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes), Storytime, FullMoon (the heavy riffing of The Thing That Should Not Be is effective enough) and actually for both The Siren (that vibe) and Time Stands Still - all are melodic and (anthemic) classics.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

I lied

Mirror Mirror sparks joy. How Will I laugh Tomorrow does not spark joy.

-------

The first two albums by Annihilator are brilliant, but with Nightwish it's personal, you know? The female touch. And I'm not talking about the singer, I'm talking about Holopainen's inner sissiness.

-------

The Song That Should Not Be is one of the two blights on Master of Puppets, along with Leper Messiah - both slow, dreary, sound constipated and can't end too soon. Also, the chorus just sounds... drunk somehow, and not in a good way. What a weird song.
FullMoon was actually on my shortlist for the game. It has the exact je ne sais quoi I listen to 00s power metal for - nostalgia, childhood, happiness, afternoon sun, family trips half forgotten, Lord of the Rings in theatres, schoolmates playing DnD...

But the thing that really takes me over the hump is those two things I have already mentioned

I mean, it really sounds like
"She should not lock the open door
(RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY)"

the chorus is made of these hyperactive puppies that keep running into the boles of the trees, tripping over their still slightly too big paws.

And, as is one of my mottos, it seems, "you say it like it's a bad thing".

+ that little thing, that one, tiny, teeny little touch, with how Tony shifts the vocal melody to connect the first and the second part of the second verse - "We gotta make the love compLETE tonight" - it's such a small fucking thing, but it's just so cute and playful.

-------

I'm definitely not the target audience for Beastie Boys, though I think I see why people may like it. Still, the vocals are way too obnoxious and brings to my mind's eye this skinny, pale, acne-infested teenager in a vest that lives in a caravan and slaps his pregnant teenage wife around.

I genuinely didn't know this is what early Eminem/Slim must have been an obvious parody/pastiche of.

The sentenced song doesn't sound too special for me, but at least it's solid metal and I'll gladly support @Magnus 's candidate (in vain hope he'll support some power metal one of these days as well )

-------

Killed by Death is so catchy and has such a hilariously stupid title I would actually picked it if it weren't put against the pinnacle of



-------

Now, I realise what I said. I know fully well that

Nightwish are fucking Nightwish And no, I don't mean Anette sleeping with Tarja, though I'd probably watch that too. And go to confession later.

and Tarjawish at that. But Blind Guardian are another band from my top 5, with a song from a much better album, that perfectly encapsulates its literary inspiration

You see, I've already written this when talking about my nomination from this very album - besides NIME being quite possibly the pinnacle of BG's work in general - despite it having some idiosyncracies and despite it signalling the shift in their sound they would completely undergo (so I get when people criticise this album as well, because it was a harbinger of sorts), my personal enjoyment of Nightfall has increased thousandfold with the last re-read of The Silmarillion.

I mean,

"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."

And I'm sorry, but the already cool and catchy and everything song (I love the intro already, especially those guitar ostinatos after 0:13) becomes something much grander when it becomes an accompaniment to Fingolfin channeling his inner Oromë and riding to challenge the Satan himself.

It must come as no surprise that my vote goes to the Guardian.

And Mogoth came, indeed.

 

[srfc]

Suicidal
Annihilator
Metallica
Beastie Boys
Motorhead
Nightwish

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Mirror Mirror is meh, but I just can't take Suicidal seriously.

I'm a very big Nightwish fan, but Imaginaerum is one of my least favorite albums. Alison Hell is just rad.

THINGIE

Sentenced are playing metal, even though Sabotage is a much better and more fun song.

Immortal has terrible vocals, but the instrumental is superb. Motorhead is Motorhead. Meh.

I can't believe I'm voting against Marko, but Time Stands Still is just undeniable. The Siren is a good song, but Nightwish have many better.

 

[LooseCannon]

I don't know how Suicidal Tendencies will laugh tomorrow, they might need to look into a mirror, mirror to figure it out. Guns 'n Roses. Annihilator has tucked down Alison Hell to give her storytime on how they beat the crap out of Nightwish. The fullmoon has risen over Metallica's thing that should not be. Sentenced has been sabotaged by Beastie Boys, destroying their harvester that harvests the fields of blood. At the heart of winter, Motörhead has been killed by death by Immortal. Time has stood still for this Blind Guardian win.

---

Part II, Round 5, Matches 73-78
​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 73​	Dennis Stratton Division​
Atlantean Kodex - Sol Invictus	vs.​	Hell - Blasphemy and the Master​
@Perun	Nominators​	@srfc​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +11	Record​	0-2-0, 0 pts, -22​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 74​	Can I Play With Madness? Division​
Vintersorg - Vidmarkens Förtrollande Stämmor	vs.​	Megadeth - Into the Lungs of Hell (original version)​
@JudasMyGuide	Nominators​	@Jer​
0-1-0, 0 pts, -10	Record​	2-0-0, 4 pts, +14​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 75​	Brave New World Division​
Dark Moor - Maid of Orleans (Hall of Olden Dreams version)	vs.​	Rhapsody of Fire - Knightrider of Doom (Power of the Dragonflame version)​
@JudasMyGuide	Nominators​	@JudasMyGuide​
0-1-0, 0 pts, -9	Record​	1-1-0, 2 pts, -8​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 76​	Ghost of the Navigator Division​
Pantera - Fucking Hostile	vs.​	Angra - Carry On​
Popoff 500	Nominators​	@Black Bart​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +7	Record​	1-1-0, 2 pts, -10​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 77​	Hallowed Be Thy Name Division​
Symphony X - Egypt	vs.​	Dio - Stand Up and Shout​
@Diesel 11	Nominators​	Popoff 500​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +3	Record​	1-1-0, 2 pts, -10​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

Group Stage - Round 5	Match 78​	Wasted Years Division​
Manowar - Hail and Kill	vs.​	Anthrax - Medusa​
Popoff 500	Nominators​	@The Dissident​
1-0-0, 2 pts, +1	Record​	0-2-0, 0 pts, -20​
Youtube | Spotify | Amazon	Links​	Youtube | Spotify | Amazon​

 

[Diesel 11]

Absolutely voting “Fucking Hostile” over one of the power metal songs of all time. “Fucking Hostile” is such a tight package of unbridled aggression and it’s awesome. Every time it comes on it’s like I’m hearing it for the first time.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

I'm not the biggest fan of Atlantean Kodex around here, but listening to them is very pleasant, which I can't say for the Hell track, which is mostly because of the vocals, but man, is this kinda obnoxious or what?

-----

Call it a nominator's bias, but I'm definitely voting for the Vikings on longboats in the next pairing. The melody is just so enticing, infectious, powerful.

"Likt ärbar falk som skrämts på flykt"

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Ah, so it's my song against my other song. Well, all things considered, there's always TURILLI. I realise it might not be for everyone, but even then you could - and should - consider that TURILLI. Yes, I know, I know, but still, if I should look at it from another angle, then, indeed, TURILLI. The TURILLI, as much as TURILLI, let alone the fact about TURILLI, I think that's quite great.
I mean, I'm a one-woman man, I really love my wife and my eyes seldom stray, but were I to fail and betray her trust, it wouldn't be just some random woman, it would have to be TURILLI.

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Fucking Hostile is really catchy, it is undoubtedly the most fun off Vulgar Display of Power and it has certain charm... but I really feel like I'm 14 again when I'm listening to it. I mean, there's a certain puer adulescens aeternus quality to Anselmo, now, isn't it?
Angra are not in my top 10, but they're really high among my bands anyway and I'll always give edge to the idealism of Matos over the nihilism of Anselmo. You should, too.

-----

Not a contest, really. I'm not a huge fan of Egypt in particular, I mean, how could you tell?

As for the opposing song, I have said it time and again that I am not a fan of Symph X's V - the short songs are among my favourite by them (Fallen itself is probably in my top 5, maybe even top 3), but the epics really don't work for me this time around - Communion and the Oracle has always felt to me like as if Seventh Wonder have decided to do a meandering rehash of The Accolade and Rediscovery also hardly belongs among my favourites, sorry, I just can't help it; I won't be explaining it here, it would take a longer section and 1. it's besides the point, 2. I'm already drowning you with irrelevant asides enough.
(however, combine me not being too charmed by the epics with the fact that with the various interludes and instrumentals that might be excused for pertaining to the "concept", but hardly thrill me on their own and you'll understand why this album being presented as the pinnacle of Symph X irritates me quite a bit)

In a way, Egypt is probably the best of these (or at least it has the best ratio of "sections I genuinely like" and "length") , but still, the vocals in the "five align - find the key" pre-chorus part are just... wack and one of my least favourite moments in the entire Symph X discography and I can't quite get behind Allen's pathetic (meaning of pathos, not pitiful here) delivery in the chorus. The instrumental part is quite good (and elevates the song quite a bit), but still,

but it still wins over the absolutely pedestrian opener that is Stand Up and Shout. I mean, Dio can do so much better. This reminds me of ... the Motley Crue album, with the cringiest title ever - Shout at the Devil. I mean, what? You're going to shout at the Devil? Now, I mean, if I were the Devil, I'd certainly be all scared and withered from the terrible shouting. Let alone if you stand up for it. Yeah, the song's music fits accordingly.

Symph X, quite easily.

-----

Fun fact - us Czechs we don't have a similarly multi-faceted word of the meaning of "hail" in our repertoir - in fact the only similar word that we come across is the one our neighbours did use a lot, once upon a time. You know, when the trains were on time and Mr Heydrich played the violin...

So, when I first heard this Manowar song as a wee little child, I was flabbergasted. What? How could they let them? HAIL AND KILL? What??? Aren't they... afraid of being considered the fans of a certain failed painter with a specific mustache? In other words, I was wondering if I should hail a cab or



and, you know, if what people tell me about the US nowadays is true, then I should follow the example of the Simpson's Kent Brockman, saying "And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords" and get in touch with my inner Varg, anyway, Filosofem is a really good album and ...

(nah, it's just Manowar are more fun, that's all. Still, I wish both songs could win.)

 

[Shmoolikipod]

Spoiler: not interesting

This guy is using one of his left hands to call a waiter, but why is he extending his pinky? And honestly, his thumb doesn't seem relaxed in the right-handed gestures either.

View attachment 41657

Sol Invictus
Swedish?
Power of the Dragonflame Version
Pantera
Atlantis
Medusa