Head to Head: Phantom of the Opera

How's about a little Head to Head action. We've all (hopefully) heard the Nightwish version of Andrew Lloyd Weber's iconic showtune Phantom of the Opera.

Well, it looks like Floor Jansen (X-After Forever, ReVamp) and Russell Allen (Symphony X) are following in their footsteps. This video was recorded by fans at a live show Christmas Metal Symphony.

Which is better? You be the judge. To make it fair I'll put the Floor/Russell against the Tarja/Marko live from the End of an Era concert instead of the studio version. Let us know what you think.

Keep in mind the quality if the Floor and Russell version is pretty low so try not to let that sway your decision.













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Accept vs. U.D.O. Who ya got?

The last time I wanted to do one of these technical difficulties ruined it. Hopefully we fair better this time. Alright so in one corner we have Accept version 3.0 with Mark Tornillo on vocals and in the other corner we have U.D.O. with....you guessed it Udo Dirkschneider on vocals. Just like an aging boxing lying to the world that they are retired Accept wanted to give it another go and Udo didn't want to try another failed reunion therefore Wolf and Co. decided to go with an obscure frontman to carry on the legacy. Who made the better career move?
In this corner is Accept with a frontman that looks like a homeless biker. And in this corner Udo who looks like an aging very tall midget. Blood of the Nations vs. Dominator after the jump.

1. Beat the Bastards vs. The Bogeyman: Accept has always been known for their riffs and the intro to Beat the Bastards is no exception. Mark does have a rough edge to his voice. Not quite as rough as UDO but I can see why these guys picked him. Yep this is classic Accept songwriting. Anthemic in a traditional metal way. Mark actually has a range on his vocals. The bogeyman starts very gothic like and slow. Choral humming and piano. Crushing riffs come in. Udo might not miss Accept but he loves the riffs just as much. Kind of a cheesy chorus in the vein of old Judas Priest. Fuck I miss traditional metal like both of these bands. This is very refreshing. Both songs kick ass but Bastards isn't quite as cheesy. Point to Accept.

2. Teutonic Terror vs. Dominator: I've actually seen the video for Teutonic so I'm sort of familiar with this song from the gate.I'm probably going to eat my words on this album because this song is kicking ass too. More on that after this is done. I've always loved the chanting background vocals from Accept and it appears in spots on this tune. A bit on the cheesy side but I enjoyed it. Another punishing riff opens up on the title track for Dominator. Udo can still belt it out for his age. I think this matchup is going to come down to lyrics honestly. Even with Accept being cheesy U.D.O. manages to outdo it on the choruses. No surprise seeing the name of the tracks. Another close one but Teutonic I guess isn't as generic as Dominator. Point to Accept.

3. The Abyss vs. Black and White: Almost 7 minute song for Accept here. Actually all of these songs are long by Accept standards. Whoa! A scream to start out with Mark. And now clean vocals from him. Nice range dude. A more mid tempo song on this one. Save the world song it appears. Ugh. I hate those. Are both of these songs going to be socio-political tunes? It's evident Udo's song is not a cover of Michael Jackson. Udo starts clean singing. Never been a strong suit of his. I like the alternating between slow and kick in the teeth on this track.It reminds of the song 'Dogs on Leads' from Metal Heart. I think I enjoyed UDO's song more. Point to U.D.O.

4. Blood of the Nations vs. Infected: Reeling from all of these riffs from both sides. Accept wants to save the world but then follows up with a song about war and revenge. Make up your mind guys. Very anthemic and I guess patriotic song. Very cheesy Manowar type of song. Industrial sound to start Infected off with. Pretty punishing wall of sound on this track. Not as cheesy as Accept's effort. Point to U.D.O.

5. Shades of Death vs. Heavy Metal Heaven: If I could give points for just the song titles Accept would be winning by a landslide so far. Shades starts very soft and acoustic. Longest song at over 7 minutes. Oooo...keyboards over a crushing riff. Almost symphonic. I'm wondering what Mark's vocals sounded like 20 years ago. It's almost too bad he was stuck with a band called TT Quick. Jesus what a stupid name to a band. No wonder he was stuck in obscurity for so long but I bet his vocals packed a bigger punch.Anyway a very cool song. Udo's side is a typical anthemic song filled with "I'm a god with silver wings" type of lyrics. It's fun for what it is but Accept takes this one. Point for Accept.

6. Locked and Loaded vs. Doom Ride: Fast paced song from Accept. This would be what people would call a filler song. Generic title and nothing too awesome about the track. Udo's side has a better riff and hooks. The chorus is sort of cheesy but overall this is a better song of the two. Point for U.D.O.

7. Time Machine vs. Stillness of Time: This is a bonus track on the U.S. release of Blood of the Nations. Slow tempo intro. Vocals are kind of evil. Then Mark rips into his vocals. Cool catchy chorus though I'm getting tired of both sides including the name of the song in every chorus. Takes a bit away from the overall track. Piano intro on Udo's version of time. Pretty epic intro after the piano interlude. Ah the token track where Udo sings with his gravel vocals very slow. Not a fan of this because he gets this warble in his throat that's annoying. Cool music but compared to the other track this is kind of dull on the vocal parts. Point to Accept.

8. Kill the Pain vs. Devil's Rendezvous: Accept's turn at a slow ballady intro. Almost like a Italian folk song. Nice solo. Yeah Mark is a pretty competent vocalist as evident on the softer passages. It's been a long time since I heard a ballad this good. Udo ruins it by laughing at the beginning of his song. Kind of a boogie woogie song of all things. Is this a German folk song or a cover? It's different I'll give it that. I wasn't expecting this. I'm torn because this song is cool in it's own right. I'll give a point to Udo for this because it's unique and fun.

9. Rolling Thunder vs. Pleasure in the Dark Room: The generic song titles from Accept seem to lead to filler songs. This isn't bad but nothing amazing either. Time to see if Udo's song is the token song about his weird sex fetishes. Go listen to old Accept songs to see what I mean. Vocoder with reverb on the vocals. Hmmm...this song is not fantastic either. By now if it doesn't stand out and makes me have to think of which I enjoy better then its a tie.

10. Pandemic vs. Speed Demon: Pretty rockin' beginning to pandemic. The lyrics are not talking about bird disease. Oh, this is a anthem about heavy metal. I was wondering when Accept would chime in with one of these. It's not as cheesy as a lot of these are. Udo's song on the otherhand is a gneric filler tune with a cheesy chorus. they might as well have done a new take on the Speed Racer theme. Point to Accept.

11. New World Comin' vs. Whispers in the Dark: Geesh another meh song. It doesn't suck but it doesn't wow me. Kind of bluesy in a way. Piano intro on Udo's album. Udo's clean vocals are actually pretty good here surprisingly enough. whoa then they ramp it up and make the first part heavy. Pretty cool. Point to U.D.O.

Well Accept's album had two more tracks then U.D.O.s so let's tabulate the score. 5-5-1. So we have a tie in every possible way.Let's go back and check Accept's remaining tracks.

12. No Shelter: This tune is standard fare by now. a fast paced rocker with the standard build of songs in this vein. I probably enjoy this better due to not having to alternate with another album. Still it's not really amazing but pretty standard.

13. Bucket Full of Hate: Cool title. Music box at the beginning. That means a kick in the teeth is coming. Yep...fast tempo song full of riff. Tempo slows for the vocals. Ok guys...you don't have to chant the chorus every time the singer says it. I know its a signature move but some of these songs are better without it. Song is not as good as it could have been.

So the moral of this story is that even if Udo had come back and these are the songs that were written it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference, the same as if wolf hoffman and crew went to Udos side with his songs. These guys are about as even as you can get. I am pleasantly surprised by the Accept performance. Mark Tornillo can definitely sing and has a better range then Udo. Not a bad intro so it'll be interesting to see what these guys do in the future. Let's see what the album sales are like in the first week to see if I truly eat crow from an earlier article.

And now Video time. Here is a video from each side to get an idea of what I was listening to.

Order of the Black vs. Scream. Who ya got?

Well, I had gotten halfway through both releases on this head to head and for some reason the draft did not save so I could continue with this today. That pretty much fucking sucks because I really don't feel like going back over this thing again. I even verified that the draft was being saved last night too. Oh well, I guess technical difficulties are bound to happen, I just wish it would have hit an article with less work put into it.

Let's just say the record was 5-2-1 in favor of Black Label Society by the time the post crashed. Here are my impressions of each album after the jump.

Order of the Black: It's a Black Label Society cd pure and simple. It's straight forward southern tinged metal and if you liked the previous albums you'll find good stuff on here. Otherwise if you're bored with BLS already this won't fix it. Zakk continues to put about 3 songs too many on his albums as they start sounding familiar. There are some good catchy punishing tunes with one treading on stoner metal territory. I think the sobriety shows though because his playing is cleaner across the board though I could have done without three of the five overly sappy ballads on here. The pinched harmonics are obviously back and in one track more then ever. I honestly think it's a habit he can't break. It's a good solid album with Zakk Wylde's stamp on it and I think he's doing fine without having to worry about Ozzy's camp as well.

Scream: With the exception of two tracks this album is boring. Ozzy is using vocoder effects too much and the messages in the songs are the same tired shit he does every time. We get it...mankind is violent and you're having epiphanies all the time. A couple of the songs were just embarassing in their lyrics like in the opening track "Let it die". Gus G. is a good technical player but there is no feeling. Some of the tracks you could tell it has Zakk's writing all over it because it was the same guitar tone. At this point I don't think it matters who is on guitar because Ozzy honestly should have stayed retired years ago. There is no creative juices anymore.This album is for diehards and fanboys only. Anybody new to Ozzy is not going to like this.

I'll listen to more of these albums and get a more complete idea of them later but at 15 and 13 tracks respectively and I got over halfway with these impressions, something tells me my opinions aren't going to change much. Zakk got the better end of this deal as far as artistic merits go. Again I apologize for not having this laid out the way I wanted to with a track by track breakdown like last time but it couldn't be helped. Next time I'll paste the text in wordpad instead of relying on blogger to save my work like it's supposed too.

Scar Symmetry vs. Solution .45. Who Ya Got?

Awhile back I did a review of Scar Symmetry's new album "Dark Matter Dimensions" and gave it a "meh' rating. I've come to enjoy it more as time has gone by but guess what? Christian Alvestam finally got past his ADD and released an album with his new band Solution .45. This was the first project announced back in 2008 and with his 5 billion other side projects it was thought that .45 would be the one to get released. And verily it came to pass. So I listened to this thing and figured instead of just doing a bland old review or even a real time review of it, why not stack these two albums together and see who made the better career move. Christian for leaving or Scar Symmetry for having to hire two vocalist to replace him. So without further ado I bring you Track by track,Head to Head.

Track 1 The Iconoclast vs. The Close Beyond:The Iconoclast is a uneven mix of melodic death and power metal. I can see it being a hit with the FFDP set since it even has a breakdown in the middle. The Close Beyond starts out like a Disturbed song on speed. Alot of groove in this first track.I'm not seeing any difference from Alvestam Symmetry. The Close Beyond is less poppy but not by much. The growls are more brutal in The Close Beyond.
Point goes to Solution .45.

Track 2 The Consciousness Eaters vs.Gravitational Lensing: Eaters has a more brutal rhythm section this track. The vocals are hitting more traditional metal elements. Lensing is a straight split between brutal and clean voxs. This track is the least memorable of any of them so far. I feel like I've heard this before.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry.

Track 3 Noumenon and Phenomenon vs. Through the Night Kingdomed Gates. Goddammit with the long song titles. I'm a blogger but that doesn't mean I want to type that much. Phenom's turn to be an unmemorable track. The effort to be melodic on the vocals is pretty average. Gates starts pretty soft but hits this riff at the start that's pretty bad ass reminiscent of latter day Testament. The clean vocals sort of take the steam out of it though.
Point goes to Solution .45.

Track 4 Ascension chamber vs. For Aeon's Past:Chamber is a pretty damn good track. Probably the best one on the album so far.Almost epic in nature. Aeon's is going for 80 percent brutal and 20 percent clean. It's got a heavy groove but overall not really outstanding.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 5 Mechanical Soul Cybernetics vs. Lethean Tears: Ok...Mechanical starts with a psychotic mind fuck. Defiantly the most original track from either albums.This track is frenetic on every level including the vocals. Tears on the other hand brings it all down quite a bit with a ballad. Almost butt rock level but this band has more talent then Winger or Firehouse ever did. Both tracks bring a change of pace but for enjoyment factor
Point goes to Solution .45

Track 6 Non Human Era vs. Bladed Vaults: After that last track from .45 Era does a wake the fuck up call with a brutal vocal barrage. I'm pretty sure I've heard the clean vocal phrasing on this track on a Symmetry song in the past. Vaults is more brutal between the two tracks. Neither of them are really wowing me but finally the pattern is broken.
Point for Solution .45

Track 7 Dark Matter Dimensions vs. Wirethrone: Dimensions is hitting the speedy brutal factor here. Nothing fantastic here. Wirethrone is more memorable of the two with an even mix of soft and brutal passages. It's actually one of the better tracks on .45's album.
Point for Solution .45

Track 8 Sculptor Void vs. On Embred Fields Adjust: Void I think is my favorite track on this album. I think. By now these cd's are starting to blend together. Unremarkable track from .45.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 9 A Parenthesis in Eternity vs. Into Shadow: Eternity starts with a good ballady intro then goes all formulaic with speed riffs and unremarkable clean vox over the top.Shadow starts off with a slower heavy groove riff with orchestration.I think for the music alone I like Shadow better.
Point goes to Solution .45

Track 10 Frequency shifter vs. Clandestiny Now: A 3 minute song against a 16 minute song. Christ. The epic length better be worth it. Frequency is a solid little track.The first 3 minutes of clandestiny is pretty standard fare thus far. I'll be looking for tempo changes and shifts and how interesting this monster is going to be as it progresses. 6 minutes in and I can already tell this is longer then it needs to be. By about 10 minutes.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Track 11 Radiant Stain vs. Spirit Side Dreaming: Kick ass intro for Radiant Stain.Pretty solid track by Symmetry.Little bit of effects before the chorus. Spirit starts off out the gate with brutal. Delves into standard Symmetry/.45 style of song.
Point goes to Scar Symmetry

Holy crap that was tiring. Well it was close but it looks like the edge goes to Solution .45 at 6-5. What I find funny is that if SS and Alvestam had just taken 5 or 6 of their best songs respectively and slapped them on one cd this would have been a pretty kick ass album. Neither side really did anything different from previous works except for a 16 minute snoozefest and a trippy hardcore song. Alvestam's vocals seem to have deteriorated a bit on this release but it's still on par with what two guys are doing at the other camp. Word of caution, there is a version of this album floating around with trance remixes of some of the tracks. It's fucking horrible. Oh and I still hate the name Solution .45. I'm going to leave this now with the new Symmetry video for Iconoclast and the trailer for Aeons Past.