all-time favorite metal song (musically)

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:I'll listen to everyone's choices once I get time.

Why didn't I think of this already? I was just fixated on some that I thought were stupid. I'm gonna do this as well...except I don't need to listen to Mirror of Souls.

Yes you do. You need to listen until you recognize it for the masterpiece that it is.

Wait! Someone doesn't like Mirror of Souls? They're out of the herd.

Black Rider wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:I'll listen to everyone's choices once I get time.

Why didn't I think of this already? I was just fixated on some that I thought were stupid. I'm gonna do this as well...except I don't need to listen to Mirror of Souls.

Yes you do. You need to listen until you recognize it for the masterpiece that it is.

Wait! Someone doesn't like Mirror of Souls? They're out of the herd.

It’s gotta be the noetic effects of sin.

Sing it, everybody!

THE MIRROR NEVER LIES!!!!!

Pethead wrote:

Black Rider wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:I'll listen to everyone's choices once I get time.

Why didn't I think of this already? I was just fixated on some that I thought were stupid. I'm gonna do this as well...except I don't need to listen to Mirror of Souls.

Yes you do. You need to listen until you recognize it for the masterpiece that it is.

Wait! Someone doesn't like Mirror of Souls? They're out of the herd.

It’s gotta be the noetic effects of sin.

It's quite something. I thought some songs were objectively better than others before joining the CMR. Songs like I AM over Mirror of Souls. Like Hide in the Fairytale > As The World Bleeds. That hypothesis/theory/viewpoint has been blown out of the water, as both those songs have been mentioned on this thread! Mirror of Souls is literally the ONLY Theocracy song I cannot stand. I have EVERY Theocracy song on my phone EXCEPT mirror of souls. But I have to admit that there are some spirit-filled, intelligent fans out there who really do believe it is not just an OK song or a good song or a great song but THEIR FAVOURITE MUSICAL SONG. I don't want to believe it but I must. 

All right, I guess I'll go with Sympathy "The Shining Ones"




I suppose if there's a separate category for "not Christian" then I take Bolt Thrower "4th Crusade" but I'm pretty sure that was never intended by the op!

Sevenoneself wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Black Rider wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:I'll listen to everyone's choices once I get time.

Why didn't I think of this already? I was just fixated on some that I thought were stupid. I'm gonna do this as well...except I don't need to listen to Mirror of Souls.

Yes you do. You need to listen until you recognize it for the masterpiece that it is.

Wait! Someone doesn't like Mirror of Souls? They're out of the herd.

It’s gotta be the noetic effects of sin.

It's quite something. I thought some songs were objectively better than others before joining the CMR. Songs like I AM over Mirror of Souls. Like Hide in the Fairytale > As The World Bleeds. That hypothesis/theory/viewpoint has been blown out of the water, as both those songs have been mentioned on this thread! Mirror of Souls is literally the ONLY Theocracy song I cannot stand. I have EVERY Theocracy song on my phone EXCEPT mirror of souls. But I have to admit that there are some spirit-filled, intelligent fans out there who really do believe it is not just an OK song or a good song or a great song but THEIR FAVOURITE MUSICAL SONG. I don't want to believe it but I must. 

It’s just that some of us are further along in our sanctification—namely, me—than others.

If I have to:


Mirror, Mirror- Blind Guardian

scottmitchell74 wrote:If I have to:


Mirror, Mirror- Blind Guardian

Great pick!

There are three songs that for me have the pure essence of what metal is.

Tourniquet: Psycho Surgery
Megadeth: Holy Wars
Judas Priest: Painkiller

And I kinda want to lump in Skid Row's Slave to the Grind too.

Holy Wars is perhaps too overlong and contains too much "mellow" stuff to be the ultimate metal song.

My favorite of all of those is Psycho Surgery. It plays like a buzzsaw in a tornado - it's metal to the core. The main riff is one of my all time favorites, and it also contains one of my all time favorite "riff that plays under the solo" riff, the solo also being fantastic.

Only metal heads think Holy Wars has mellow parts. Good choices.

Pethead wrote:Sing it, everybody!

THE MIRROR NEVER LIES!!!!!

I sang it but it was Queensryche.

Xid wrote:

Pethead wrote:Sing it, everybody!

THE MIRROR NEVER LIES!!!!!

I sang it but it was Queensryche.

Also acceptable.

There is too much to even try to pick an absolute favorite!  It's too hard!

Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
Duh...heavy metal is born
BONUS, doom metal

crucifyd wrote:Wake Up Dead by Megadeth

its the perfect metal tune in every regard.
guitar tone, drums, vocals, you name it...save for the lyrics

When my band added a second guitarist we were making a list of songs to cover.  Me and the other guitarist got some paper and sat by ourselves to make our list of the best thrash songs we could play.  When we came back and compared lists we both had this song on our list.

I love how unorthodox the structure of the song is (it doesn't even have a repeating chorus!), yet it's still so memorable which is what repetition is supposed to create anyway.  The solos (especially Mustaine's) are so catchy as well. 

I recently read an interview with the guitarist from Exodus and he said in the early days Mustaine WAS Metallica, and he considers him to be the godfather of thrash metal, which is something that Scott Ian also said.  You can just tell that he was a leader (if not THE leader) by his early songwriting.

Fates Warning - "The Sorceress"

Temple of Blood wrote:

crucifyd wrote:Wake Up Dead by Megadeth

its the perfect metal tune in every regard.
guitar tone, drums, vocals, you name it...save for the lyrics

When my band added a second guitarist we were making a list of songs to cover.  Me and the other guitarist got some paper and sat by ourselves to make our list of the best thrash songs we could play.  When we came back and compared lists we both had this song on our list.

I love how unorthodox the structure of the song is (it doesn't even have a repeating chorus!), yet it's still so memorable which is what repetition is supposed to create anyway.  The solos (especially Mustaine's) are so catchy as well. 

I recently read an interview with the guitarist from Exodus and he said in the early days Mustaine WAS Metallica, and he considers him to be the godfather of thrash metal, which is something that Scott Ian also said.  You can just tell that he was a leader (if not THE leader) by his early songwriting.

This interview with Rick Hunolt has that quote about Mustaine being The Godfather of thrash. Listen at the 31:28 mark. (Warning) some bad language. 

Metaloman/Pacto de Sangre wrote:Fates Warning - "The Sorceress"

This is one of my favorite all-time albums.  The vocals are outstanding.  I think the music itself could be better though, and they improved their music writing on the next 2 albums IMHO.

Sevenoneself wrote:I'm so indecisive I'll never post if I overthink this. 

TQT: Phantom Limb

I like the music to this one a lot more than Theodicy on Trial, especially that tasty drumming.  Musically the main riff is in some pretty well-worn territory but all the riffs work together.  The shouted chord-bang part of Theodicy on Trial is just local band amateur hour IMHO although I enjoy most of the rest of the song.

Grindboy wrote:All right, I guess I'll go with Sympathy "The Shining Ones"




I suppose if there's a separate category for "not Christian" then I take Bolt Thrower "4th Crusade" but I'm pretty sure that was never intended by the op!

I'm not really into that guitar melody at all personally.  I'd take Oblation, Metanoia, Drop Dead, or some of Mortification's stuff over this although they are not as fast.

Airola wrote:There are three songs that for me have the pure essence of what metal is.

Tourniquet: Psycho Surgery
Megadeth: Holy Wars
Judas Priest: Painkiller

And I kinda want to lump in Skid Row's Slave to the Grind too.

Holy Wars is perhaps too overlong and contains too much "mellow" stuff to be the ultimate metal song.

My favorite of all of those is Psycho Surgery. It plays like a buzzsaw in a tornado - it's metal to the core. The main riff is one of my all time favorites, and it also contains one of my all time favorite "riff that plays under the solo" riff, the solo also being fantastic.

The main riff on PS is awesome, all those changes that sound like classical thrash and yet unlike any other neo-classical metal band.  The chorus vocally is just not that great though IMHO, and is out of key.  The rest of the music is really impressive though.  It's hard for me to listen to a song with a bad chorus very often.

"Slave to the Grind", while being heavy for Skid Row, to me musically is only slightly above average.  Not even close to Painkiller IMHO.

TZ75 wrote:This thread has set off my OCD!  


This is it! It doesn’t get any better for me than Randy Rhoads and classic Ozzy. I love this song! 

I sing this one in my cover band but am not really a huge fan.  It's OK.  It's all about how annoyed Ozzy got that Sharon trusted psychics.    

I greatly prefer Believer or the title track over this one.  Or, on other albums "Bark at the Moon" is an all-time classic in my book.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Grindboy wrote:All right, I guess I'll go with Sympathy "The Shining Ones"




I suppose if there's a separate category for "not Christian" then I take Bolt Thrower "4th Crusade" but I'm pretty sure that was never intended by the op!

I'm not really into that guitar melody at all personally.  I'd take Oblation, Metanoia, Drop Dead, or some of Mortification's stuff over this although they are not as fast.

At least somewhat I like all of those bands you mention, but you're right that they don't carry the speed of Sympathy. What I love the most is the combination of brutality and melody (which, clearly, is more of a hit with me than it is with you). This one in particular is so much to take in, coming with rage and fury and time signature stuff that it's hard to take in, and then it comes with the melody that you can really sink your teeth into. Switches up again for the bridge, nice solo and perfect finish. . . ah!

Temple of Blood wrote:

Airola wrote:There are three songs that for me have the pure essence of what metal is.

Tourniquet: Psycho Surgery
Megadeth: Holy Wars
Judas Priest: Painkiller

And I kinda want to lump in Skid Row's Slave to the Grind too.

Holy Wars is perhaps too overlong and contains too much "mellow" stuff to be the ultimate metal song.

My favorite of all of those is Psycho Surgery. It plays like a buzzsaw in a tornado - it's metal to the core. The main riff is one of my all time favorites, and it also contains one of my all time favorite "riff that plays under the solo" riff, the solo also being fantastic.

The main riff on PS is awesome, all those changes that sound like classical thrash and yet unlike any other neo-classical metal band.  The chorus vocally is just not that great though IMHO, and is out of key.  The rest of the music is really impressive though.  It's hard for me to listen to a song with a bad chorus very often.

"Slave to the Grind", while being heavy for Skid Row, to me musically is only slightly above average.  Not even close to Painkiller IMHO.

Slave to the Grind has a special place in my heart because in the mid-90's I watched Headbanger's Ball and later Superock on MTV, and most of the time I was really disappointed in what they played. It was all Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and stuff like that. I remember recording some music videos on VHS whenever they played something even remotely good. One day Slave to the Grind aired (I hadn't heard it before) and first of all what got me excited was that they had double bass drums on the drum kit, and for a 13-year-old me that was a big thing to see especially as most of what was playing on MTV was grunge and alternative metal. So the sight of those drums alone made it stand out from the rest.

And then the main riff kicked in and it was a magical moment. That to me is still perhaps the best groove metal riff ever made. The song itself was a lot faster than what the grunge and alternative bands offered for me. It's got a drive that goes uninterrupted from the beginning to the end, and the bridge and chorus melodies are catchy with great vocal performance.

I was later rather disappointed that Skid Row didn't have any other songs like that even though a song like Quicksand Jesus is a 5/5 for me.

The song isn't even near to Psycho Surgery, Holy Wars or Painkiller, that's for sure. But for me it has the special essence of metal from the groovier side of the genre. It helps greatly that the groove doesn't take any of the speed away, which to me was a problem with Pantera.

While it's not as good of a song as those other three songs, I feel that all four songs have the most shining examples of certain type of metal riffs, and the drive in each song shows a special sense of hunger (Holy Wars being the exception in that the song could be shorter and have more focus on speed and aggression and sharp guitar onslaught, which the opening of the song is an exceptional example of).

Sevenoneself wrote:Dream Theater War Inside My Head/The Test That Stumped Them All.

I can't really get into post-Kevin Moore Dream Theater aside from a handful of songs:  Raw Dog, A Change of Seasons (co-written by KM), As I Am, The Enemy Inside.  I don't like Jordan Rudess' style or 7 string guitar.  But I am a HUGE fan of the first few albums, even the debut which many dismiss.