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The Metal Gauntlet - Preview and rules thread.


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Welcome to the Metal Gauntlet: Preview & Rules Thread

 

This is the headquarters for this tournament, but no voting will take place inside this thread. This shall remain open. I will link to it in my sig and the voting threads. This will serve as a place for voters to read the format and rules. This is where you can offer suggestions. It shall also be the place where I update the tournament with each round’s winners.

 

Rules Updated May, 5

 

I present to you all a new style of music tournament. One with added depth and variety. This will be a 3 Stage tournament with different rules for each stage of the game. So just how many bands are we talking about here? Something to the tune of 336 to be exact! Half of which will fade into the abyss after the first round though. So why so many bands when many of which don’t have much chance of winning the whole gauntlet? Well, this tournament is as much a celebration of all things heavy metal as it is a contest. It is a chance for new and veteran listeners alike to discover and delve into various genres of metal.

 

FORMAT

8 Brackets (Divisions) – Each one named after a major genre of metal.

6 Blocks (Groups) – in each bracket. All somewhat related by style and sub-genre.

7 Bands – per block, all of which belonging to the sub-genre of that grouping.

6 Rounds – to set up a final showdown between the 2 bands who can surive the gauntlet

 

I mentioned 3 stages. They have 2 rounds each:

Stage 1 = The 6 Pack Challenge – Type your fav 3 bands of the 6 in the group; Given in a reply

Stage 2 = The 3-Way Dance – vote for your fav ONE band out of 3 in a poll

Stage 3 = 8 Seed Tournament – chose a winner for each head to head match up in a poll

The Finals = TWO BANDS ENTER… ONE BAND LEAVES VICTORIOUS

 

Each block now has 7 bands, but you'll still vote for just three. The follow up round will have blocks of 6 formed from the winners of the first round, within their respective Bracket, but each group will have representation from various blocks within it.

 

Details in the spoilers

 

Stage 1 = THE SEVEN PACK CHALLENGE (2 rounds of this format)

 

Each Bracket has 6 Blocks, each Block has seven Bands. In the first stage YOU will VOTE for THREE of those bands to advance from each block. This will NOT be done as a Poll! You will need to type a quick reply. The bands will be listed 1-6 sort of in order of prominance. But you vote for your personal favorites. You need not base it on legacy, but you can if you want. The second round will feature new blocks of 7 made from the surviving bands. These will be done according to those 1-7 rankings. For this round, the higher seeds will face higher seeds and lower vs lower. You read that correctly. WHY not do it like sports with higher vs lower? Because this is not sports, it’s music and this gives underdogs a fighting chance to last longer. This does mean some lesser known bands may advance easy at first. But the triple threat matches Plus it prevents anyone from getting an easy path to the divisional championship (which can happen in normal 64 seed brackets). See with my system, eventually a lower seeded band will have to rally hard due to the fact that somewhere down the line they will face a high seeded band and can’t avoid that match up forever. Also there is a balance to that system. I will be keeping track of the number of votes for each band in round one. So that will be used to determine second round seedings within each 2nd round block from highest #(most votes to lowest # (least). So getting fewer votes in round 1 will cause that band in round 2 to get ranked beneath bands who got more. In the event that mostly all higher seeds in a given bracket move onward, I will do my best to even out each block to prevent favoritism.

The 1-7 numbers are also there for fast voting though.

 

You can vote quickly by just typing their corresponding #s.

 

Mock Example:

Block = Doomified Extreme Wank Metal

1. Fluffy bunnies of CHAOS

2. Decaying Corpses of Dying Death

3. DeeMuu Boarjeer

4. Merciless Fame

5. Beatallica (this is a real band, look ‘em up)

6. Hipsterocalypse Now

7. Annoy, Annoy, Annoy!

 

Cenacore

1. Word Death

2. Five Knuckle Shuffle Punch

3. Moves of Doom

4. Kung Pow Bitches

5. Pebbles of Fallen Fruit

6. No Sell

7. Attitude Adjustinator

 

You don’t have to type out full names. If you like the first, fourth & last band listed. Just put

Domified Wank Metal = 1, 4, 6

Cenacore = 2, 4, 5

 

I will likely have more than one block in a voting thread. SO PLEASE SEPARATE EACH BLOCK WITH A NEW LINE. IT MAKES IT EASIER TO READ FAST.

 

 

 

Stage 2 = The Three Way Dance (2 rounds of this format)

Triple threat matches done by poll. You vote for ONLY ONE of three bands to advance.

By now we will have close to a normal tourny, but with 72 seeds instead of 64. We have to move quickly through this part to get to the final tournament. The survivors of round 2 will now be ranked 1-9 for each bracket based on how many votes they got in the previous round. Split into 3 contests with each group having a high, mid and low seed.

EXAMPLE: (This is the most fair way I can think of)

Block A = 1, 4, 7

Block B = 2, 6, 8

Block C = 3, 5, 9

Remember the first round of Stage 1 divided our 336 bands in less than half (3 of 7) after round 1. Second round will do the same to those 144 bands. So by Stage 2 here, we’ll be left with 72 bands. The third round (first of this Stage) will div that by 3 and give us 24 bands. Fourth round is our bracket championships as it’s triple threat matches will take that number down to our 8 finalists.

 

 

 

Stage 3 = 8 Seed Tournament (2 rounds of this format)

This is the mini-tournament of ONE on ONE matches. These are the first mano y mano battles in the whole gauntlet. This is the only traditional section of it as well. Each participant is technically the winner & champion of their divisional bracket. This Elite 8 will be a nice and concise way to finish the gauntlet.

 

 

NOTE Please read before criticizing any content:

 

Even though the bands in each division will be linked by style; the title of said bracket is meant to be more of a Divisional Name than a definitive genre. I want to fit in as many sub-genres as possible and the reality is that they don’t all neatly fit into the 8 brackets. SO KEEP THAT IN MIND PLEASE! For example, the Industrial sub-genre is found in my Progressive Metal bracket as one of the 6 blocks. (the Industrial block is now in Fringe, but the point stands). This does NOT mean I think Industrial is part of Prog Metal. This is just the only place I could find it a home in the brackets. My name is not Sam Dunn and this is not a Metal Tree, nor am I being paid to get these genres 100% right if it were one. Think of each division as a collection of loosely connected musical stylings, not as necessarily all part of one greater whole, even though some of my divisions do have that quality. Thrash being one of them. Each block in thrash is… well… thrashy.

 

 

Duuuuude, okay, so how long is this gonna take?

2 months and 1 week by my calculations. I did some maths and I gather it will take a month to get to round 2. From there another month to get to the final 8 bands. And a week to crown a champion in a mini tournament.

 

I NEED HELP DECIDING THE FOLLOWING:

I want to get two full divisions done per week for that first round. I need help deciding on how many blocks to group into one voting thread.

 

 

2 threads of 3 blocks each

Pros = least front page spammy

Cons = I won’t embed videos. Instead I’ll have to post YT links because 18 vids embeded will bog it down for everyone. Plus voting could get confusing. And voters could feel overwhelmed.

 

3 threads of 2 blocks

Pros = seems like a good compromise between two extremes.

Conts = Still probably better to post YT links than embedding.

 

6 threads, one for each block

Pros = most personalized experience. And embedding will be a non-issue.

Cons = Could be harder for voters to keep track of & if mods consider this spam I won’t do this.

 

 

The first round in the Triple Threat Stage will feature 3 matches per thread as a poll.

The final rounds - Elite 8 tourny will be just like any other music tournament we've had here.

 

F.A.Q. – Tournament style

1. Why is this so complicated? – I don’t think it is when you think about it. It just takes some explaining because this is a new format. I came up with this on my own. Has there been a similar format for some other type of tournament? Perhaps, I’ve never seen one though.

2. Why so many bands? – Includes more people’s favorites that way.

3. Yeah, but most of the more obscure bands won’t win – True, but any victory is a win for their fans and it gives them more exposure, even just here at CAWs, it’s something.

4. Why the triple threat matches instead of 1 vs 1? – So we aren’t still doing this in 2013.

5. Are the numbered rankings too influencing? – Letters could replace them if everyone thinks that is for the best.

6. This gauntlet is okay, but instead you should do it my way! – Better have solid reasoning, but even then, I’m probably going to keep my original, general format.

 

Spoiler Tags are used only to negate the shock & awe effect of a massive wall of text. Please read the contents of all spoilers before asking a question as it’s answer may lay therein.

 

Also, I want to give a thanks to Assault Driver, Crazy Moon, Nemesis Nosferatu, Hellhammer, Fried, Mustacio and .Prophet for making suggestions that have dramatically improved my tournament brackets.

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Reserved space (this is unknownsold13r BTW)

 

RESULTS

 

Updated: 9/21

Genre block titles are not just underlined, those are all links to their respective voting threads. Check em out to see results, comments and listen to some tunes. :cool:

 

THRASH

 

Bay Area Thrash

1. Metallica & 1. Megadeth

3. Slayer

 

No surprises here. The big 3 of American thrash Reign in the blood of their adversaries. In not every bracket do I feel that the 3 biggest bands are neccessarily the 3 best of the bunch and should win, but in this case, I'd say there was Justice for all. So far, so good, so what...

 

East Coast Thrash

1. Anthrax

2. Overkill

3. Nuclear Assault

 

The 4th of the big 4 and the mighty Overkill move on, also Nuclear Assault (a sixth seed) charges ahead into the next round.

 

Teutonic (Gerrman)

1. Kreator

2. Sodom

3. Coroner

 

2 of the big 3 of German Thrash advance, along with the technical stylings of Coroner.

 

Groove

1. Pantera

2. Lamb of God

3. Sepultura

 

Pantera is so far the only sure winner. Lamb of God got 6 votes in the tiebreaker and Machine Head got four with Sepultura dismissed with only three votes.

 

Crossover & New Wave of Thrash

1. Corrosion of Conformity & 1. Suicidal Tendencies

3. Municiple Waste & Stormtroopers of Death

 

MW and SOD will be a future tiebreaker that I almost forgot about.

 

New Wave of Thrash

1. Warbringer

2. Toxic Holocaust & 2. Lazarus A.D.

 

Not a typical 1,2,3 block at all. #4 and #5 advance.

 

DEATH

 

USA Death

1. Obituary

2. Death

3. Autopsy

 

Surprised that Death didn't take the #1 spot, only missed it by 1 vote though.

 

Euro Death

1. Carcass & 1. Vader

3. Bolt Thrower

 

First place tie between two very heavy hitters with Bolt Thrower not far behind.

 

Brutal Death

1. Suffocation & 1. Hate Eternal

3. Ulcerate

 

Not surprised by Suff, a little surprised by Eternal. Expected FGA or Dying Fetus to snag the second and third spots... Expected wrong.

 

Technical Death

1. Atheist & 1. Obscura & 1. Gorguts

 

Yes this round seriously had an epic 3way tie for first place! What makes that even more insane is the fact that it was a very strong division top to bottom. Assault Driver even voted for like every band and I couldn't even argue with that, so I let it stand. :D

 

Gothenburg

1. Arch Enemy & 1. In Flames

3. ????

 

There was a very tight race for first place here between the first 5 bands listed. At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and Scar Symmetry are all tied up and the breaker is up right now in the Folk metal bracket.

 

Melodeath

1. Amon Amarth

2. Amorphis

3. Insomnium

 

It may not happen often, but this bracket played out exactly how I voted for these bands. Also they were not the top 3 listed. AA was in fact listed #1, but Amorphis was 3 and Insom was 5.

 

HEAVY

 

Pioneering Metal

1. Black Sabbath

2. Rainbow

3. ????

 

Sabbath crushed all. Deep Purple and Scorpions are still involved in a tiebreaker in the currently still open black metal bracket.

 

Classic Heavy Metal

1. Judas Priest

2. Mercyful Fate

3. Accept

 

Priest beat Fate by just one point. Accept slid in ahead of Anvil and Running Wild.

 

New Wave Of British Heavy Metal

1. Motorhead

2. Iron Maiden

3. Diamond Head

 

Motorhead even beat Maiden. In fact I'm pretty sure that Motorhead has got more votes than any other band in the tournament to date! Lemmy really must be God.

 

Glam Metal

1. Def Leppard

2. Motley Crue

3. Twisted Sister

 

Modern Traditional Metal

1. Holy Grail

2. White Wizzard & 2. Steelwing

 

Retro style rules the day with a second place tie in this open round in which every band got at least one vote.

 

Rock Infused Metal

1. Lacuna Coil

2. Black Label Society

3. Volbeat

 

Another block where the third place spot was wide open. Volbeat counted all the assholes in the room and decided they were indeed not alone as they moved into the advancing spot.

 

PROG

 

Classic Prog Rock

1. King Crimson & 1. Rush

3. Yes

 

Again every band got at least one vote of confidence here. Two clear winners in the Mighty King Crimson and the equally Mighty Rush. Yes nabbed the bronze here.

 

Definitive Prog Metal

1. Dream Theater

2. Symphony X

3. Queensryche

 

Rather clear cut first place winner. After that it was a closer contest for the second and third places. I was however the only voter for one of my fav prog bands, that being the tragically underrated Anubis Gate!

 

Progressive Modern Metal / Djent

1. Protest the Hero

2. Between the Buried and Me

3. Periphery

 

More than one vote for every band. Tight race... and also the first incident of the #1 ranked band not advancing. Meshuggah may have influenced every band in this group, but they also sound quite different than the new school of prog/tech/math/whatever metal.

 

Alternative Prog Rock

1. Tool

2. Porcupine Tree

3. Giant Squid

 

No surprise for the number one spot here. I figured PT would advance too, but they did even better than I expected, only falling by one point to Tool. Then the Mighty Giant Squid garnished overwhelming support to claim the final advancing spot despite being ranked last on paper. Go Go Squid Powah!

 

Progressive Death

1. Opeth & 1. Nevermore

3. Gojira

 

Opeth mad the cut of course, but if they didn't I may have just had to fold up the entire gauntlet. This is a band who is seriously leading all metal into the future despite not going mainstream. Opeth has achieved about as much success as physically possible without making a mainstream radio hit. Nevermore got the same amount of votes though. And Gojira even came close. I was rooting for Edge of Sanity to advance, but alas it wasn't in the cards.

 

Gothic / Symphonic Metal

1. Type O Negative & 1. Septic Flesh

3. Hollenthon

 

Interesting block with two distinctly differing styles. The most recognizable band Type O was expected, but after that it was anybody's game. The Epic, symphonic driven death metal outfit Hollenthon joins the 7th place club of bands who were listed last yet gained the votes to advance.

 

BLACK

 

First Wave Black Metal

1. Bathory

2. Venom

3. Sabbat

 

This bracket is still open, but hasn't had new votes in a bit, this is how it's shaping up now.

 

Second Wave (Norwegian) Black Metal

1. Darkthrone

2. Mayhem

3. Tied between Burzum and Immortal

 

Again, you can still vote in this bracket!

 

FOLK

??????????? Brackets are up now!

 

NOTE:

This tournament is all about showcasing a little bit of everything. Most of the bands are well enough known. I do understand that for some metal fans, that metal is all about discovering underground artists with kvlt status and few but dedicated followers. But it’s hard to make a tournament that focuses on that and keeps the majority of people happy, so the landmark bands are the focus of this gauntlet.

 

Final request is that you all please vote in every division, even the genres you are not that enthused about. You may just discover something cool. Or at the least it gives you a chance to play spoiler. Plus you can broaden your horizons.

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The Metal Gauntlet

 

8 Brackets: Thrash / Death / Black / Doom / Heavy / Power / Progressive /Fringe

 

THRASH METAL

 

Bay Area Thrash

 

1. Metallica

2. Megadeth

3. Slayer

4. Testament

5. Exodus

6. Death Angel

7. Heathen

 

 

East Coast Thrash

 

1. Overkill

2. Anthrax

3. Voivod (Eastern Canada)

4. Whiplash

5. Prong

6. Nuclear Assault

7. Anacrusis

 

 

Teutonic Thrash

 

1. Kreator

2. Coroner (Swiss)

3. Sodom

4. Tankard

5. Destruction

6. Holy Moses

7. Dew-Scented

 

 

New Wave of Thrash

 

1. Warbringer

2. Vektor

3. Havok

4. Toxic Holocaust

5. Lazarus A.D.

6. Gama Bomb

7. Bonded by Blood

 

 

Groove Thrash / Core

 

1. Pantera

2. Exhorder

3. Machine Head

4. Sepultura (Brazil)

5. Lamb of God

6. Biohazard

7. MX (Brazil)

 

 

Crossover Thrash

 

1. Corrosion of Conformity

2. Cro-Mags

3. D.R.I.

4. Suicidal Tendencies

5. Stormtroopers of Death

6. Municipal Waste

7. Cryptic Slaugther

 

 

Death

 

Traditional American Death

 

1. Death

2. Can Corpse

3. Obituary

4. Immolation

5. Morbid Angel

6. Possessed

7. Autopsy

 

 

European Death

 

1. Entombed

2. Carcass

3. Bolt Thrower

4. Vader

5. Hail of Bullets

6. Hypocrisy

7. Unleashed

 

 

Brutal Death

 

1. Suffocation

2. Hate Eternal

3. Dying Fetus

4. Ulcerate

5. Fleshgod Apocalypse

6. Vile

7. Scarab

 

 

Gothenburg Style

 

1. Dark Tranquility

2. At The Gates

3. Arch Enemy

4. In Flames (Lunar Strain through Clayman)

5. Scar Symmetry (with Christian Alvestam)

6. Soilwork

7. In Mourning

 

 

Melodeath

 

1. Amon Amarth

2. Barren Earth

3. Amorphis

4. Mors Principum Est.

5. Insomnium

6. Disarmonia Mundi

7. Be'lakor (Australia)

 

 

Technical Death

 

1. Atheist

2. Origin

3. Obscura

4. NILE

5. Decrepit Birth

6. Gorguts

7. Gorod

 

 

Black And Folk

 

First Wave Black

 

1. Bathory

2. Hellhammer

3. Venom

4. Samael

5. Root

6. Sacrofago (Brazil)

7. Tormenter

 

 

Second Wave Black

 

1. Immortal

2. Darkthrone

3. Mayhem

4. Emperor

5. Burzum

6. Satyricon

7. Behemoth

 

 

Third Wave Black / Symphonic

 

1. Dimmu Borgir

2. Skeletonwitch

3. Crimson Moonlight

4. Wolves in the Throne Room

5. ChthoniC

6. Anaal Nathrakh

7. Lemuria

 

 

Avant-garde / Progressive

 

1. Celtic Frost

2. Enslaved

3. Arcturus

4. Ved Buens Ende

5. Unexpect

6. Sigh (Japan)

7. Lunatic Gods

 

 

Atmospheric Metal

 

1. Agalloch

2. Moonspell

3. Cormorant

4. Alcest

5. Falkenbach

6. Tiamat

7. Woods of Ypres

 

 

Folk Metal

 

1. Wintersun

2. Eluveitie

3. Finntroll

4. Ensiferum

5. Korpiklaani

6. Tursias

7. Equilibrium

 

 

DOOM

 

Classic Doom, Psychedelic Doom

 

1. Candlemass

2. Trouble

3. Pentagram

4. Cathedral

5. Cirith Ungol

6. St. Vitus

7. Solitude Aeturnus

 

 

Funeral Doom

 

1. Ahab

2. Shape of Despair

3. Esoteric

4. Winter

5. Thergothon

6. Colosseum

7. Skepticism

 

 

Modern Gothic Doom

 

1. Paradise Lost

2. Katatonia

3. My Dying Bride

4. Anathema

5. Lacrimus Profundere

6. Lake of Tears

7. Sentenced The Black League

 

 

Sludge

 

1. Mastodon

2.The Ocean

3. Crowbar

4. Cult of Luna

5. Acid Bath

6. Ghost Brigade

7. Baroness

 

 

Stoner

 

1. Electric Wizard

2. High on Fire

3. Red Fang

4. Orange Goblin

5. Kyuss

6. Kylesa

7. Monster Magnet

 

 

Drone

 

1. Isis

2. Neurosis

3. Earth

4. Monolithe

5. Sunn O)))

6. Pelican

7. Tombs

 

 

Heavy Metal

 

Pioneering Metal / Proto-metal

 

1. Black Sabbath (this is the ONLY other place I can justify placing them)

2. Rainbow

3. Deep Purple

4. Nazareth

5. The Scorpians

6. Blue Cheer

7. Sir Lord Baltimore

 

 

Classic Heavy Metal

 

1. Judas Priest

2. Mercyful Fate

3. Accept

4. Metal Church

5. Anvil

6. Deliverance

7. Dream Evil

 

 

NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal)

 

1. Iron Maiden

2. Motorhead

3. Diamond Head

4. Saxon

5. Raven

6. Girlschool

7. Tygers of Pan Tang

 

 

Modern Traditional Metal (reworked)

 

1. Holy Grail

2. White Wizzard

3. Huntress

4. Cauldron

5. Wolf

6. Steelwing

7. Icarus Witch

 

 

Rock Infused Metal

 

1. Black Label Society

2. Armored Saint (modern)

3. Ghost

4. Lacuna Coil

5. Airborn

6. Volbeat

7. Texas Hippie Coalition

 

 

Glam/Hair Metal

 

1. Def Leppard

2. Poison

3. Motley Crue

4. Stryper

5. Ratt

6. Winger

7. Dokken

 

 

POWER Metal

 

Power Pioneers

 

1. Manilla Road

2. Helloween

3. Iced Earth

4. MANOWAR

5. Jag Panzer

6. Viscious Rumors

7. Savage Grace

 

 

Fantasy / Storytelling

 

1. Blind Guardian

2. Rhapsody of Fire

3. Sabaton

4. Hammerfall

5. Falconer

6. Iron Savior

7. Elvenking

 

 

Neo-Classical / Virtuosity

 

1. Yngwie Malmsteen

2. Stratovarius

3. Angra

4. Sonata Arctica

5. Nocturnal Rites

6. X (Japan)

7. Primal Fear

 

 

Modern Epic

 

1. Kamelot

2. Evergrey

3. Dragonforce

4. Charred Walls of the Damned

5. Raintime

6. Dark Empire

7. Seven Kingdoms

 

 

Symphonic

 

1. Epica

2. Nightwish

3. Sirenia

4. Avantasia

5. BattleLore

6. Within Temptation

7. Tristania

 

 

Bodomic (Extreme Power)

 

1. Children of Bodom

2. Kalmah

3. Norther

4. Blackguard

5. Immortal Souls

6. Eternal Tears of Sorrow

7. Euphoreon (these guys I just found are from Middle Earth aka New Zealand, so I guess this is for Ewok, hehe

 

 

Progressive

 

Classic Proressiv Rock / Early Prog Metal

 

1. Genesis

2. Rush

3. King Crimson

4. YES

5. Savatage

6. Watchtower

7. Fates Warning

 

 

Proressive Metal

 

1. Dream Theatre

2. Queensryche

3. Pain of Salvation

4. Symphony X

5. Anubis Gate

6. Masterplan

7. Pagan's Mind

 

 

Alternative Prog Rock

 

1. Tool

2. Porcupine Tree

3. Communic

4. Fair to Midland

5. Guilt Machine

6. Green Carnation

7. Giant Squid

 

 

Progressive Death / Experimental

 

1. Opeth

2. Nevermore

3. Novembre

4. Wolverine

5. Edge of Sanity

6. Cynic

7. Persefone

 

 

Symphonic Death And Gothic Metal

 

1. Type O Negative - gothic

2. Therion - gothic

3. Septicflesh - symphonic

4. Theatres des Vampires - gothic

5. Haggard - symphonic

6. Elis - gothic

7. Hollenthon - symphonic

 

 

Progressive, Modern Metal / Djent

 

1. Meshuggah

2. Between the Buried and Me

3. Protest the Hero

4. Animals as Leaders

5. Periphery

6. SikTh

7. Tesseract

 

 

The Fringe

 

Grunge & Hardcore

 

1. The Melvins

2. Alice in Chains

3. Hatebreed

4. Soundgarden

5. Helmet

6. Converge

7. Sworn Enemy

 

 

Nu Metal

 

1. Korn

2. the deftones

3. Slipknot

4. Faith No More

5. System of a Down

6. Primer 55

7. Coal Chamber

 

 

Alternative Metal

 

1. Godsmack

2. Disturbed

3. Sevendust

4. Payable on Death (P.O.D.)

5. Priestess

6. FLAW

7. The Gazette (Japan)

 

 

Industrial Heavy Metal

 

1. Ministry

2. Fear Factory

3. Strapping Young Lad

4. Static X

5. Earth Crisis

6. Threat Signal

7. Sybreed

 

 

Metalcore

 

1. Shadowsfall

2. Killswitch Engage

3. As I Lay Dying

4. Becoming the Archetype

5. Underoath

6. Demon Hunter

7. The Agonist

 

 

Pop Metal

 

1. Trivium

2. Avenged Sevenfold

3. In This Moment

4. Bullet for my Valentine

5. Five Finger Death Punch

6. Black Tide

7. Make Me Famous

 

 

The 7th band edition is a W.I.P. I'll edit the first post later to reflect the change. When voting begins voters will still chose just 3 of the 7, just now they have an extra choice. I also eliminated the Rapcore genre and moved Industrial Metal to the Fringe bracket.

 

Edit May/22 - Switched Glam Metal and Metalcore.

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As you guys can see, I need help filling in several bands. Especially in the black metal section. I just don't listen to much of that genre. But I know we have people here who do, so I need help with those brackets. And I need help deciding between a few with ? beside the name in a bunch of sections here.

 

Keep in mind that although it is a huge tournament, it will cut the total number of bands in half after round 1 and cut that # in half after round two. Then they'll get cut down by 2/3 the next two rounds. So by the end of 6 overall rounds we will have just 2 left standing from 288 that we started with.

 

This is sort of an experiment. I will stick with this. I can't promise everything will be updated 100% on time. I do have to travel out of town for business sometimes and I don't have a laptop or ipad and stuff. But I will finish what I started. I think it can be done in a little over 2 months. 3 max. It will be something to check in with for the Spring.

 

Personally I'm going to be spending less time in the general chat section, since its always the same old BS there sometimes. This will be my hobby on this site for a little while.

 

I'll let people get a feel for the rules and the tourny brackets for a few days before I post the first match as this is a lot to take in. But I know many of you get bored on this site and I figured this would be an interesting project.

 

Hehe I think I broke CAWs. I got a wave of COMMUNITY MESSAGES. :lol:

 

Looks like I need to fix the brackets. I had cool fonts that captured the essence of each genre... some of them worked on the forum and some did not. Fudged a spoiler too I see.

 

I wish I had my own website, I would love to do this Metal Gauntlet on a larger scale. I was half tempted to post this up on the forums over at metalstorm or metalarchives. But honestly, there are so damn many kvlt hipsters that flock to those forums that they would have much more fun scrutinizing my brackets under the most petty of microscopes than actually voting in it and enjoying this thing.

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Cool, and thanks. I just hope enough people vote to make it worthwhile.

 

We do have a lot of good, knowledgeable music fans here on CAWs. And on the flip side, most of us are here primarily for wrestling, video games, making CAWS, gen chat, etc... So since the entire forum isn't based around metal, we don't have the guys who absolutely hate every band that has a shred of fame or notability to them.

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Thanks Crazy Moon!

 

Also, I just want to give everyone a head's up that these brackets are not final yet. I want to hear some input before I kick this gauntlet off!

 

I need help to fill in a few brackets, especially in the black metal section. One of those blocks is all ???? right now, because I haven't decided what the genre should be. My initial thought was Symphonic black, but I have a feeling that most of the more prominent bands who fit that description would probably just end up in second or third wave anyway. I was leaning toward blackened death. I realize that is usually more death than black. But my death bracket is full and I'm really happy with the way it is now and I have an open slot in the black bracket.

 

That is where I need help the most, but I'll take suggestions for other sections as well. I'm pretty happy with the way much of this whole thing is set up. I also can't please everyone and I don't want to take forever to get going. But anywhere you see a ? I'm totally cool with substitutions for the most part. Overall I think my Heavy Metal division is complete but has quite a few question marks. Doom and Death and Power all look real solid to me. I actually think The Fringe (random collection of genres and bands that are debate-ably even metal at all) is complete as well. Thrash (especially the East Coast block) could perhaps use some reworking. Black needs help. Progressive looks good to me, but perhaps could benefit from a second look.

 

 

I would like to hear from anyone, but especially from the following forum goers if they get a chance:

 

Hellhammer, Fried, Assault Driver, Sacrilegium, Anti-Saint, Poe Ohlin, Misatouki, Nemesis Nosferatu, Highlight, FP Venom, Mendosuke, Ewok, Vickshow, Stacio, Generations, TRIC, FO20 King, iSlash, Barry White Driver, and my boy Radom if he is still around,

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Aren't Iron Maiden technically NWOBHM?

 

Anyway, I think having so many blocks will detract some people from participating, especially since I doubt everyone has going to have heard stuff in each block. I like my metal, but I haven't even heard of a good 1/3 of the bands. How do you plan to go about that?

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I'll thoroughly look into this later, but was it really necessary to make a 2nd account?

 

I probably won't ever use the Doombot account beyond this thread. The only reason I made it was so I could break from my original post. I thought that having the full bracket up there with the rules in the first post would just be too overwhelming. Plus I didn't know if we have like a line limit for posts and was honestly concerned about exceeding one if we did.

 

I kind of forgot that making alt accounts was sorta frowned on here for whatever reason. Many forums, half the users have a list of alternate accounts, often ones they aren't up front about too.

 

Aren't Iron Maiden technically NWOBHM?

 

Anyway, I think having so many blocks will detract some people from participating, especially since I doubt everyone has going to have heard stuff in each block. I like my metal, but I haven't even heard of a good 1/3 of the bands. How do you plan to go about that?

 

Yes Maiden did begin as part of NWOBHM. Putting them and Priest in the same block though pretty much kills the chances of the other NWOBHM groups except for just one. But I suppose I could switch Maiden and Priest all together, that would actually work quite well. Thanks.

 

Also, part of the point of this is to expose people to new stuff. I mean a contest is great, but what does winning it really mean? Does a band (especially a big one) know or care about winning online polls on a wrestling forum? The whole point of these tournaments if for our own entertainment. I will provide YT links during the first rounds and later on start embedding when we hit a point in which embedding won't be overwhelming. I'm NOT going to post links to other metal related sites. But it ain't hard for people to find more info if they look. Sometimes all they need to get going is a name and a song from YT and that much I can provide when a given block comes up for voting.

 

I think if people give it a chance, they will find new stuff that they dig.

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One particular sub-genre that I have a love for is Gothic Metal. In fact; now that I think of it, I don't think I have ever posted a band from that genre (aside from Cradle of Filth) in the regular metal thread, which may come as a surpirse to anyone who likes the styles that I normally post. One band that I really like is Theatres Des Vampires.

 

According to Metal Archives:

Theatres Des Vampires started as a melodic black metal band, with vampire-themed lyrics, but on the second and the third album, they added more melodic/gothic elements to their music, becoming an extreme gothic metal band with their Suicide Vampire album. On the next two albums, Nightbreed Of Macabria and Pleasure And Pain they dropped almost all their extreme metal influences shifting to gothic metal/deathrock. Three years later, on Anima Noir, they started to play industrial/electronic gothic metal, highly influenced by EBM, darkwave, deathrock and industrial.

... Yup that's my style right there!

 

 

Other notable bands:

Mandragora Scream

Elis

Tristania

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Okay cool. I'm not real familiar with that stuff, though I know what darkwave is.

 

I think Tristania is actually on the list, in the symphonic section.

 

Not sure which genre this would go in, but I do have that one block open under black.

Some suggestions I put were Symphonic black, blackened death and Gothic metal

I don't know which it will end up being though. But that is a good suggestion.

 

I'm not a COF fan at all... but if Theatres des Vampires and those other bands have different style vocals than Dani's then I might like them. Either way, others may like them.

Oh here is a question you might know. What exactly does Suomi mean? I see that used as a genre description for bands like HIM and Charon that I figured to be gothic bands. Is it the same thing or no?

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So the point of this topic is not exactly to get people to vote, but discover new Metal Bands? If that's the case, I could easily take that post of all of those brackets, and make it the first page on the already existing Metal Thread. I kinda agree with iSlash, it's too detailed for alot of people to want to participate in.

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. What exactly does Suomi mean? I see that used as a genre description for bands like HIM and Charon that I figured to be gothic bands. Is it the same thing or no?

 

I think Suomi is just the Finns word for Finland. I know Impaled Nazarene had a record with Suomi in its title around 1994. In the metal context I think it means just metal from Finland.

 

I'll have to have a closer look at this topic when I'm on my PC but one thing that stands out for me is Watain grouped under "first wave". They didn't start until very late 90's.

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So the point of this topic is not exactly to get people to vote, but discover new Metal Bands? If that's the case, I could easily take that post of all of those brackets, and make it the first page on the already existing Metal Thread. I kinda agree with iSlash, it's too detailed for alot of people to want to participate in.

 

It's not the ONLY point. I did say part of the point. Perhaps I should have put that in bold or something.

 

A BIG part of the point is for people to vote. The discovering new stuff is hopefully a welcome by product. I'm not back peddling on that either, I was using the finding new music as an added incentive, perhaps I overemphasized it a bit, but the main goal was always intended to be voting in a tournament for our own entertainment. The Rock Madness was fun to vote in. I think that for those of us who kept up with that tournament that we all enjoyed the voting process. Seeing who beats who, debating over bands, good stuff. But the thing is with the Rock tourny, unless someone has been living under the biggest friggin ROCK imaginable, then they should have been familiar with like 99% of those bands. Who hasn't heard of Jimi Hendrix or the Rolling Stones? Even the newer bands like the White Stripes are household names across the planet by now.

 

Now in the hip-hop ho down, every MC may have been familiar to those who listen to a lot of rap, but certainly not everyone. I had no clue who a dude named RA the Rugged Man was, but I liked the song posted and am considerably more interested in him now than most rap. So right there, even with just 64 rappers, some of us were discovering new artists. I'm sure Barry White Driver didn't set up the tournament solely for that purpose though. And honestly, this Gauntlet isn't all about that either, but I think it is a neat aspect of the process.

 

Alas...

Perhaps this Gauntlet idea is too ambitious for this forum though. :sigh: But I know this sort of thing can definitely work in the right environment. But that environment might be like if the Web designer of a metal site hosted it on the front page and had some GUI voting system or what not. Kind of like how IGN and some gaming sites have those March Madness style battles between like video game characters and what have you.

But I don't know anyone personally that runs such a music site and I don't have any programming skills myself. I knew this tournament idea might have been too overwhelming from the get go, but I'm not a casual person, once I think of something I have to try it.

 

What do you guys think? Should I continue to attempt this? Scrap it all together and say f*ck it? Try something similar, but SLIM IT DOWN first? Just do a regular 64 band tournament? The problem is that if I do the 64 tourny, there is no way in hell that it will please everyone. For instance, Fufu you can't expect a band like Manowar to be in a 64 bracket as anything but a joke. No offense, I'm just being realistic. Because other people will be like WTF sold13r... you apparently know of like a million metal bands and yet... that made your top 64?

 

I'll leave this in you guys hands. It's not a big deal either way, but just know I only made this thing because I thought it would be something interesting for this section of the forums.

 

. What exactly does Suomi mean? I see that used as a genre description for bands like HIM and Charon that I figured to be gothic bands. Is it the same thing or no?

 

I think Suomi is just the Finns word for Finland. I know Impaled Nazarene had a record with Suomi in its title around 1994. In the metal context I think it means just metal from Finland.

 

I'll have to have a closer look at this topic when I'm on my PC but one thing that stands out for me is Watain grouped under "first wave". They didn't start until very late 90's.

 

Okay cool, never knew what Suomi meant.

 

You would know better than I would about the second part. I didn't know when Watain started, I just sort of went on assumption there. Which is why I wasn't about to go live with this tourny before previewing it by the forum.

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See how it plays out, but I intend to take some of this, and intergrate it into the Metal thread, when it's run it's course (you'll be credited) , but it's a good way to see what kind of bands we talk about from the very first page.

 

That's cool, you can put it in the metal thread if you want. I don't really care about being credited or whatever. All I really did was make a list of bands, it's not like I Created A Wrestler (in that case I would want credit for that). :D

 

So...

Alright I guess I'll see how it plays out. Also, I'm not like upset at you or islash for questioning this. I already felt like I might have created a monster when I sat there and looked at my word document. But I figured it was sitting there on the page, I might as well post it here and follow through.

 

At first I thought, I could speed this up by having people just pick 2 bands instead of 3. But that screws up the math down the line. Sure they could only pick one band from each block of 6... and I think for a few groups it might be interesting. But the amount of wide open contests would be maybe 3 or 4 blocks of the 36! And in a few cases, a winner might as well be crowned before it begins. Nobody is going to be Priest in that heavy metal grouping for instance if only one band emerges from each in round one.

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Well All That Remains was metalcore, but they glossed up their sound a bit with some of their newer releases. That's sort of splitting hairs though as it's a band that I honestly don't think would go real far no matter what block they were in.

 

C'mon Assault, you have a lot of knowledge when it comes to metal, I was kinda hoping you could help me out some with that one empty bracket I have up there.

 

And the stuff I need help with overall is tougher calls than where to put All that Remains.

Such as:

Is Biohazard truly crossover thrash? I wasn't sure. So I just randomly worked that into a conversation that was about music already with a fellow metalhead buddy. He seemed to think they were. I thought of them as more just kind of straight metal but with some hardcore style lyrics and themes.

 

Where is Down (supergroup)??? Kidding, you have a respectable amount of bands already. Hell, I think even Alter Bridge is considered progressive metal in some places.

 

Do you plan on wrapping this up by 2014? :P

 

Oh lol, I remember the Supergroup discussions we had. :lol:

 

And I hope that I can wrap this up before 2014... though I'm about to check up on my family lineage, just to make sure it was not my ancestors who built the Titanic, otherwise we might have a pattern developing here. I think I may have outdone myself.

 

Plus, it just has to finish before 2014, because there isn't going to be a 2014 or a 2013. Dick Clark died, which means the Mayans were right, because no one else can count us down to the new year. :shifty:

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Just some more general thoughts about the BM bracket and more

 

First wave; I agree with Bathory (formed 1983), Hellhammer (formed 1982). Venom I don't really class as BM, maybe NWOBM or Speed Metal, it just so happens they've got a record that named a genre. I think Celtic Frost could be moved to a different bracket. By 1987 they were already writing more avant-garde/progressive material. I love Mercyful Fate but I can't really classify them as BM. I think they're HM but with a more evil twist than a lot of their contemporaries.

 

Some bands not mentioned that maybe could fit:

Sarcófago from Brazil (formed 1985 featuring the original singer of Sepultura - "If you are a false don't entry!").

Root from the Czech Republic (formed 1987. They sort of bridge the gap between first and second wave)

Tormentor from Hungary (formed 1986)

Samael (from 1987)

 

Second wave looks about right to me. I'd probably fit Emperor there instead of Gorgoroth who were kind of substandard to me. I'd probably try to fit Ildjarn in there maybe instead of Enslaved, Enslaved would fit for me more Progressive/Viking, especially after Frost, but I think that's more, and as is with most of this post, just personal opinion I guess.

 

edit: Thinking about it further it does seem heavy on the Norwegian stuff when in reality there was a lot of stuff, different to the Norwegian stuff but still BM, that was around then that was just as interesting like: Beherit, Master's Hammer.

 

Third wave:

I think Dimmu Borgir should be in the Symphonic bracket with Cradle of Filth etc. I was into the first few Sigh records but I think they're so far gone now into the Avant-garde realm.

 

Funeral Doom:

I'd love to see Thergothon there. And maybe Skepticism.

 

Proto-Metal:

Sir Lord Baltimore

"back in 1971, Mike Saunders reviewing the 1970 SLB release Kingdom Come for Cream Magazine said, "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal ticks in the book."

.

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