BotB results: RUN

For the June 1 Battle of The Bands I gave some advice to all the Dads, Grads, and Grooms out there struggling their way out of the comfortable norms and into new roles of responsibility. Change is not easy, and it seems to hit men hardest in June.

My advice was to RUN LIKE HELL (Pink Floyd, Off The Wall album). Many artists have covered this song in varying genre's from cello to heavy metal; but since Off The Wall is listed as heavy metal, I pitted two heavy metal bands against each other for the cover: all girl KITTIE against MASTERCASTLE (only the lead vocalist is a female).



Both of these artists were new to me - I gave up listening to heavy rock a long time ago, and basically only listen when someone brings a group to my attention (normally through my kids) or I hear it in passing (radio, out partying). Ya'll know I like heavy metal rock, but maybe you did not know I'm not entirely a fan of "growling" and "screaming" through a song. At least, not through MOST of the song. So with the first few notes of Kittie's version, I almost did not post it at all. But it seemed unfair to post a cello or all disco version against Mastercastle - which I instantly liked.

To be fair in my personal listening (last night, since this post is live on 6/7) and to not judge a band by just one song, I listened to several songs by Kittie. I went to Utube and found the full album SPIT by Kittie, and listened to it while prepping and cooking dinner. Steak, Alfredo pasta (Knorr pasta sides, no way I'd cook that from scratch), green salad. They were alright, I likely would not go out of my way to turn off the album, but I wasn't impressed much either. Most of the songs had the same heavy chords and screeching.

The Oracle album was next on the autoplay, so I let it play as I sat down with my food. Trust me, not dinner music! I skipped past many minutes, and finally had to go find the Oracle album, see the titles, and play the songs individually.

I love Morgan Lander's vocal range. Brackish was their first hit song, and has none of the signature growling. Give Morgan her props, she rivals Epica's Mark Jansen for metal growling; but dang can she hold a clean note when she wants to and give competition to Mastlecastle's Giorgia Gueglio. Safe and Pink Lemonade were the only songs on the Oracle album I listened to entirely. Completely shows off the band's talents.






As you can guess, my vote goes to Mastercastle. I honestly did not expect Kittie to fare well in this match up. But I was pleasantly surprised that they went neck and neck through most of the voting. With all this write-up you're probably thinking Kittie won the battle. Final tally was Kittie 10, Mastercastle 12 (13 with my vote).

Yes, I did spend too much time on this music post (procrastination queen!). And I did spend as much time listening to Mastercastle songs (on the day of the BotB post) as I did Kittie. More, in fact, with a glass of wine and a bag of microwave popcorn (before my microwave died), and the volume turned up way too loud on the head phones for a gal over 50. I'm thinking my new favorite song for a while will be Mastercastle's THE CASTLE from the Enfer album. If you are into gift giving send me a download for the complete album. *winks*




Yeah, I could write an epic fantasy (short) story to this. Thank you to all my IWSG commenters (and Gary) for your support, encouragement, and mostly, advice on plotting and research.