THE IRON MAIDEN COVERENDUM: Angel Stage (FINAL!)

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Eliminated:
DJ Yahel ft. Tammy - Fear Of The Dark
Zwan - The Number Of The Beast

Promoted:
Iced Earth - Transylvania
Opeth - Remember Tomorrow

Dream Theater - To Tame A Land
Nominated by @MindRuler , @MrKnickerbocker , and Loudwire.

--Vs.--

Tyr - Where Eagles Dare
Nominated by @MrKnickerbocker and @Night Prowler .

--------------------​

Lord Belial - The Trooper
Nominated by @Magnus and Loudwire.

--Vs.--

Mägo de Oz - Strange World
Nominated by Hande's Blog.
 
The Dream Theater track is a mostly great cover of a mediocre Maiden song. I liked the addition of the sitar sounds, and LaBrie sounded surprisingly faithful on the lower notes, though he whined off into his typical enunciation-free delivery on the higher ones. The Tyr cover was also pretty strong, though the vocals were a bit odd. They went in their own direction during the long middle interlude, but I thought it worked. Both of these were worthwhile, but I think the level of craftsmanship was higher on the Dream Theater cover. Winner: Dream Theater

The Lord Belial cover is a hilariously annoying farce. The lead guitars play the straight men to the laughable meth head drums and Gollum-with-laryngitis vocals. It’s like every instrument is playing a different version of the song at the same time, and of course the production sucks too. No thanks. The Mägo de Oz cover started off sounding like it was going to bust into Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” before revealing its true self. The vocals are heavily accented and the whole thing is a little overwrought, but when the folk elements came in later and sounded strangely familiar, it was neat to realize that they’d worked in the end of “The Prophecy” as well, before confirming it on the acoustic guitar at the end. Despite its flaws, this is a no-brainer win for the lighter track. Sorry, @Magnus. Winner: Mägo de Oz
 
James LaBrie does a nasty cat impression at 1:40 but he is clearly the weakest link in my own nominated song. Instrumental part however is top notch. I prefer the beefy Tyr version of Where Eagles Dare.

The vocals of Lord Belial ruin the whole song, sorry @Magnus. I´m going for the folky Mago De Oz.
 
Dream Theater's Queen and Rainbow covers on that album have some of LaBrie's best vocals ever so it's interesting how he doesn't sound that strong on To Tame A Land.
 
It never fails to amaze me how shit James LaBrie is while surrounding by actually great musicians. His voice is just bad. When he’s able to hold the notes he’s okay, but all the build up to it was cringe. The rest of the band really did a great job with this one. Made it more “exotic” for lack of a better word. Not a Portnoy fan but he really did some cool bits here that I really really liked.

But Tyr, while their vocalist didn’t blow me away, really pulled together a cover that I enjoyed a bit more. I loved the artistic liberties they took with the instrumental section, it was great. Also some cool drum bits here too, but that might just be down to how complex the original song is.

I’m getting tired of Trooper covers. Lord Belial’s was so incredibly shit I didn’t even finish it. And that’s not just “black metal bad yadda yadda”, because I’ve enjoyed several black metal covers in this game already and I’m not at all adverse to the genre. It’s down to the fact that Lord Belial are just plain shit.

Now Mägo de Oz, on the other hand, really just laid down a great interpretation of Strange World that I wasn’t expecting. The vocalist may not be great, and the transitions were a little choppy, but it sounded fresh and inventive. That folk metal piece towards the end was fun, if unnecessary, and I liked how they tied in the outro to The Prophecy as well. Much better than Lord Belial.
 
Dream Theater: It's been years since I've listened to To Tame a Land. It may have the worst Maiden lyrics in my opinion. The lyrics were the same here, but what a very nice version musically! I liked it a lot!
Tyr: Not bad at all, but D.Theater just was better.

Lord Belial: Cool band name, and I think the version fit the original song.
Mägo de Oz: The beginning was beautiful and fit the song, maybe a bit long version with all kinds of sounds that I'm not sure were necessary.
 
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