THE IRON MAIDEN COVERENDUM: Angel Stage (FINAL!)

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Eliminated:
Kreator - The Number Of The Beast
Sonata Arctica - Die With Your Boots On

Promoted:
Metallica - Remember Tomorrow
Eläkeläiset - Katkaistu humppa

Iced Earth - The Number Of The Beast
Nominated by @Diesel 11 .

--Vs.--

Coheed And Cambria - The Trooper
Nominated by @MrKnickerbocker .

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Iced Earth - Hallowed Be Thy Name
Nominated by @Kalata .

--Vs.--

Eleventh Hour - Alexander The Great
Nominated by Loudwire.
 
Iced Earth’s take on “The Number Of The Beast” is a little too staccato and guitar-forward, the bass gets buried too much during the instrumental parts, and the singing has some weaknesses, but overall it’s a pretty good and mostly faithful cover. The Coheed and Cambria cover has pretty good guitar work, and the “whoah-oh” choruses sound good, but the verse vocals are a little whiny and weird, and there are strange sound effects that pop up during the track that don’t fit. Sorry, @MrKnickerbocker, but in the end I think @Diesel 11 ’s nominee has a slight edge here. Winner: Iced Earth

Iced Earth’s cover of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” tones down the staccato approach and delivers a very faithful rendition of the music. The singer sounds a bit bizarre in the opening section, but musters up a much better performance through most of the rest of the track. Meanwhile, Eleventh Hour’s cover is also very faithful and effective, and the singing is more consistent, but the production is mediocre. Both of these are worthy contenders, but in the end I think it’s easier to tune out production errors than weaknesses in the singing. Sorry, @Kalata, but I’m going with the list nominee here. Winner: Eleventh Hour
 
Voting Iced Earth because I enjoy Schaffer’s take on the riffs and Barlow is truly a god among men. Do I think they nail the songs? No. Do I think they fit Barlow perfectly as a vocalist? No. Do I still get chills when I hear the man belting his ass off on these two tracks? Fuck yeah.
 
I don’t love the music in Coheed’s cover, but I think the vocals are awesome. They break up the monotony of the melodies and add blue notes. Plus I love Coheed.

Eleventh Hour’s cover is serviceable and well done.

I do not think Iced Earth sound good doing covers. I do not think Matt Barlow sounds good singing Bruce material. And I definitely think they chose the two songs that highlight both of those weaknesses more than many others they could have done.
 
I need to catch up on this:

Kreator - The Number Of The Beast
Solid cover, although Mille overdoes the vocals sometimes.

Metallica - Remember Tomorrow
WTF is that beginning of the song? Lars is a shit drummer. I know it's been said million times before, but he is really really bad.

Sonata Arctica - Die With Your Boots On
Tony Kakko is so bad. Shit cover.

Eläkeläiset - Katkaistu Humppa
Took me a while to figure out which song this is, still better than Tony Kakko.

-

Iced Earth obviously gets my vote in both matches. Superb vocals.

Coheed & Cambria - This guy's vocals just don't fit this song. Weird effects in the background aren't helping either.

Eleventh Hour - Feels slower than the original, and the vocals are shit. Maidenfans' cover drags this one through the mud.
 
Still tied in the second match. Someone who didn’t vote, let me know which way you would have voted and I’ll include it!
 
I don't think Iced Earth brought much to NOTB. Nice guitar sound in places, I like their drums, but it could have been anyone doing this cover. There has to be much more potential for a cracking IE Maiden cover*. I had to Google if that was Barlow because his vocal talent was so underused there. By contrast, C&C bring something new to Trooper. I'm not a huge fan of their vocals but have to admit they work brilliantly here. Adds new stylised flair to a song that's been done to death by Maiden live. Beyond death, for that matter. The guitar gallop is a little bit flimsy and half hearted, and there's what sound like some odd and misplaced keyboards in places, but that's my only complaint, really.

*Like IE's Hallowed cover. Much better use of Iced Earth's musical style and Barlow's voice, although it really strikes me that the vocals aren't brilliantly suited to Barlow's technique. He can hit the notes, hold the notes, and power into the vocals, and I'd argue he's better than Bruce on the shorter choppier notes, but the song overall still doesn't allow Barlow to use his voice to its full potential, and that's disappointing. Still, Steve songwriting and all....

I don't mind Eleventh Hour's Alex cover, they do it well, but there's nothing exceptional about it, no twist, no hallmark of another band, it's just another band which happens to be trying to do a carbon copy of a Maiden original. Their production is odd. Sounds like the drummer practising on their own with a recording of the rest of a band in the background. Iced Earth get this one.
 
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Eliminated:
Coheed And Cambria - The Trooper
Iced Earth - Hallowed Be Thy Name

Promoted:
Iced Earth - The Number Of The Beast
Eleventh Hour - Alexander The Great

Ancient - Powerslave
Nominated by @Magnus .

--Vs.--

Ryan Adams - Wasted Years
Nominated by @Lamia020281 and @MrKnickerbocker .

----------------------------​

Iron Savior - Running Free
Nominated by Hande's Blog.

--Vs.--

Arch Enemy - Aces High
Nominated by Loudwire.
 
Eh, that Powerslave cover was terrible, sorry Magnus. You know I don't mind harsh vocals, but these in particular sound really amateurish (to my admittedly untrained ear) and don't fit the track at all.

Also, how do you fuck up the instrumental part of Powerslave? Why the frig would you cut the unison, which is the best part of the track, the album, the 80's Maiden stuff? Seriously, why? Why did they slow it down? (or did they? Am I going crazy?)
 
Super easy round.

The Ancient cover is awful. Terrible extreme vocals, lazy rhythm guitar playing, bad B-horror-movie synths that don’t fit the music, an aborted and botched interlude, and terrible production. Meanwhile, the Ryan Adams cover is a thoughtful and well executed transformation of the original song, and the only weird thing is how it abruptly fades out when it reaches the solo section. Sorry, @Magnus, but MsLamiabocker’s nominee is the clear victor here. Winner: Ryan Adams

This Iron Savior cover works pretty well. Piet Sielck’s voice actually clicks with the Di’anno material, though the absurdly overharmonized power metal guitar stingers and equally overharmonized chorus vocals are silly. Then we have yet another Cookie Monster shitfest, which is downtuned for no particular reason, and is only marginally better than the other extreme cover because the guitars happen to double the original vocal line of the song in this case. I really don’t understand how people can listen to this stuff and think it sounds good. Oh well, easy choice. Winner: Iron Savior
 
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