Quick tipp for everyone who's going to see AB in the coming days and doesn't know The Raven Age yet: Listen to their new album before the gig. It's really good, but the sound quality live has been so bad for me on all three concerts that I've been to that I really couldn't dig it that much. I wish I...

The only duel that Words would lose is against Blackbird. Dying Light is a great song and possibly AB's best "epic" since AB III for me, but it's still way behind Words. The other tracks in this battle are among the weakest AB tracks. Words Dying Light Last Of Our Kind The Damage Done Crue...

Track 13 Winner: The Last Hero The Last Blackbird Fortress Remains The Sky III.5 (that name is even more ridiculous than last time.) 01. Cry Of Achilles 02. Isolation 03. Ghost Of Days Gone By 04. Lover 05. Metalingus 06. Broken Wings 07. Calm The Fire 08. Blackbird 09. Show Me A Sign 10. Forever F...

The only real surprise for me is that TLH is in front of Blackbird. AB III being first and Fortress second is exactly the expected result.

Great work, Muffin!

You're not missing out on much if you don't see Raven Age. They have a nice performance and some of the songs they play sound not too bad, but most of them are really similar and pretty mediocre. Definitely better than Shinedown doing 3 of their songs with playback while telling you some fake story ...

The Last Hero is a prime example for a song where the individual parts are better than the song as a whole. But even then, it's probably my least favourite AB "epic". Still a good track, to me not as good as it could've been. Life Must Go On is my winner here because it's a beatiful song. ...

Easily The Last Hero. And it looks like I have to update my album spreadsheet since you're putting Breathe at Track 13, haha. I'll do it when I'm able to, but you may have to revise your rankings it you add to it. :p I don't mind the order being different. You don't have to update it if you ask me....

Track 12 Winner: Fortress The Last Blackbird Fortress Remains The Sky III.5 (that name is even more ridiculous than last time.) 01. Cry Of Achilles 02. Isolation 03. Ghost Of Days Gone By 04. Lover 05. Metalingus 06. Broken Wings 07. Calm The Fire 08. Blackbird 09. Show Me A Sign 10. Forever Fallin...

Winner: Fortress

... and this result is actually really surprising. Last time, Island of Fools won this battle, with Fortress following very closely behind. This year, Island of Fools only got 2 (!) votes. Probably the biggest difference compared to last iteration so far.

Have a look at the review I posted a few weeks ago: http://thealterbridgenation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3721 The clinic this year is very different to those of past years because it's officially a Guitar and Songwriting clinic. At least in Leipzig (where, admittedly, Mark overrun by 30 m...

NBTF simply got a def win last time - this year will be no different.

Just asking out of future reference: are any of the following songs going to be considered for ranking down the line? Solace Cruel Sun On My Way Now Never Born to Follow We Don’t Care At All And not that it would likely change much, but will Breathe still be associated with TLH instead of ODR? I'll...

Island of Fools for me. Best track on TLH. Fortress and Walking on the Sky are both amazing, but for some reason Fortress has always been underappreciated by me (probably because the chorus is a bit too weak for an epic track). Island of Fools is as great as a straight-forward melancholic rock track...

Track 11 Winner: The End Is Here The Last Blackbird Fortress Remains The Sky III.5 (that name is even more ridiculous than last time.) 01. Cry Of Achilles 02. Isolation 03. Ghost Of Days Gone By 04. Lover 05. Metalingus 06. Broken Wings 07. Calm The Fire 08. Blackbird 09. Show Me A Sign 10. Forever...

Winner: The End Is Here

... honourable mention to a respectable performance by Clear Horizon, especially compared to most other WTS tracks.

Are you sure about the song order? Would be a pretty huge deviation from their other sets, e.g. they would've swapped the positions of Metalingus and Ghost.

It's pretty much a tie between Twilight and Clear Horizon for me, and since I think that Twilight is really underrated, it gets my vote. It's got a strong AB III nostalgia vibe for me and has an incredibly strong bridge, including one of the best non-melancholic solos Mark has written so far. All th...

Track 10 Winner: Forever Falling The Last Blackbird Fortress Remains The Sky III.5 (that name is even more ridiculous than last time.) 01. Cry Of Achilles 02. Isolation 03. Ghost Of Days Gone By 04. Lover 05. Metalingus 06. Broken Wings 07. Calm The Fire 08. Blackbird 09. Show Me A Sign 10. Forever...

Winner: Forever Falling

... which is the first Walk The Sky track that has won its battle!