Most Epic Rock Songs Ever (Revised)

This is the compendium of the most epic rock and metal songs ever! No other lists matter. This is the list.

Note: For all of you idiots out there, epic does not necessarily mean badass or cool, or some other quality found in a "good" song. Epic is grand is scope -- it is a song that takes you on a journey.

Legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple; Rainbow).

His bands make two appearances on this list.

20) Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas
19) You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth by Meat Loaf 
18) Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf 
17) I'd Do Anything For Love by Meat Loaf
16) Love, Reign O'er Me by The Who

15) Baba O'Riley by The Who (suggestion made by Eric Sedler)

14) Paradise City by Guns 'N' Roses (suggestion made by Dan Blum and Eric Sedler)
13) One by Metallica
12) Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
11) Fade to Black by Metallica
10) Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden
9) Civil War by Guns 'N' Roses
8) Mistreated by Ritchie Blackmore/Rainbow
7) Estranged by Guns 'N' Roses
6) Victim of Changes by Judas Priest
5) 2112 by Rush

2112 (The Opening)

As the song is 20+ minutes I just posted the opening part here.

It would have been higher if it played like one song, but instead

it plays more like 5-6 linked songs.

4) Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

Stairway to Heaven

It would have a higher score if it's build-up was shorter.

3) Child in Time by Deep Purple

Child in Time

Epic epic song, it has a good build up and nice crescendo.
It would have beat November Rain if Ian Gillan's voice
was less squealy.

2) November Rain by Guns 'N' Roses

November Rain

Beautiful/weird music video, and epic Slash playing on guitar.
Perfect mix of vocals and piano.

1) Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Free Bird

The studio version is better (with the organ). Only organ beats piano,

just like rock beats scissors, just like the North beat the south.

Most Mentions
1) Guns 'N' Roses (with 4 songs)
2) Meat Loaf (with 3)
3) Ritchie Blackmore (with 2 (1 in Deep Purple, 1 in Rainbow))
4) The Who (with 2)
5) Metallica (with 2)

If you think your list is better -- don't care -- suck it.

Notable Mentions: 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson), The Ballad of Billy the Kid (Billy Joel), Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden), Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath), Rainbow in the Dark (Dio), Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meat Loaf), Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin), The End (The Doors).

Greatest Heavy Metal Singers (Readjusted)

Before I kick off into a treatise on the greatest heavy metal singers, I wanted to quickly note that I have successfully got back my old blog posts. I have moved them over to this blog. The only thing is that the videos didn't keep the original formatting I gave them when the HTML was saved, so they are slightly larger than the content column in the middle of the page. No worries, it's just an aesthetic matter. Now on to the fun stuff.

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Greatest Metal Singers of All Time


This is all made up from my own personal favorites, not based on real music knowledge, haha. With that said, there are two factors which make an awesome metal voice. One is the epic-ness of the voice, and second is the badass-ness. A combination of these two factors gives the singer a higher score on my list. Some singers are better at being epic, and others are better at being badass. You can have some people who are so damn epic, but have no badassness,  that their epic quality alone carries them to a high spot on the list. You can also have the opposite, where the badassness puts them high on the list.

How do I rate them? What's my methodology? Duh, I make it up. The max score a person can get is 100%, this can be made of a combination of the two factors, or one alone. It is nearly impossible to get 100% by one of those factors alone, because then your voice probably isn't metal -- it's probably [insert a music genre which is known for epic singers] or hardcore (which isn't heavy metal, let's get that straight from the outset).

So here is the list. The list will start at the top with the least-best and work its way up to the best, by cumulative score. Note: these percentages reflect the singer's voice, not their persona.

22) Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). 15% Badass; 0% Epic; -300% Sounds retarded. -285% total.
21) David St. Hubbins (Spinal Tap). 20% Badass; 10% Epic. 30% total.
20) Sabastian Bach (Skid Row). 30% Epic; 10% Badass. 40% total.
19) Brian Johnson (AC/DC). 40% Badass; 5% Epic; -5% Annoying. 40% total.
18) Geoff Tate (Queensryche). 40% Epic; 0% Badass. 40% total.
17) Phil Anselmo (Pantera). 40% Badass; 2% Epic. 42% total.
16) Tim "Ripper" Owens (Judas Priest/ Iced Earth). 33% Epic; 10% Badass. 43% total.
15) James Hetfield (Metallica). 32% Badass; 7% Epic; +5% Rah!. 44% total.
14) Till Lindemann (Rammstein). 40% Badass; 10% Epic. 50% total.
13) Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin). 45% Epic; 5% Badass. 50% total.
12) Bon Scott (AC/DC). 55% Epic; 30% Badass. 55% total.
11) Matt Barlow (Iced Earth). 30% Epic; 30% Badass. 60% total.
10) Freddie Mercury (Queen). 60% Epic; 0% Badass. 60% total. (not metal -- but so damn good)
9) Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses). 50% Epic; 10% Badass. 60% total.
8) Geddy Lee (RUSH). 60% Epic; 0% Badass. 60% total.
7) Meat Loaf (Meat Loaf). 65% Epic; 0% Badass. 65% total. (quasi-metal)
6) Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath). 55% Epic; 10% Badass. 65% total.


5) Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden). 40% Epic; 25% Badass. 65% total.

Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)

4) Ian Gillan (Deep Purple). 60% Epic; 10% Badass. 70% total.

Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)

3) Rob Halford (Judas Priest). 70% Epic; 5% Badass. 75% total.

Rob Halford (Judas Priest)

2) Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian). 80% Epic; 10% Badass. 90% total.

Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian)

1) Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven and Hell). 250,000,000% Badass; 4,035,000% Badass. 254,035,000% EPIC AWESOME total.

Ronnie James Dio

(his epic singing kicks in around 1:45)

Ronnie James Dio recently died of stomach cancer. So sad. He was and forever will be, the man (even though he was like four feet tall, his voice was about 9 million feet tall).

Yours truly, 

-dWis