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Track 07 Winner: Calm The Fire

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE "WALK THE SKY" SONGS JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE FRESH IN YOUR MEMORY. PLEASE CONSIDER ALL SONGS AND HOW MUCH YOU LOVED THEM WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THEM. TAKE YOUR TIME VOTING.

Blackbird, easily. Though I'm sad that This Side of Fate won't get nearly as much love as it deserves.

Waters Rising and The Bitter End are pretty good songs, but nowhere near as good as Blackbird and This Side of Fate.

Don't really care for I Know It Hurts or Down To My Last at all...Down To My Last in particular is one of their most overrated songs, IMO.

I don't think this one will be much of a contest. "Blackbird" is and probably will forever be Alter Bridge's defining song. Since then they've arguably written songs that are more epic, more complex, more instrumentally impressive, more emotional, and so forth; but nothing else has quite hit the nail of perfection like "Blackbird".

• Blackbird
• Down To My Last – will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorites off of ODR. An expertly composed song from start to finish: good length, good flow, just a straightforward rocker but not boring. Memorable melodies throughout. A main riff that is somehow rocking yet uplifting. One of Mark's butteriest solos ever.
• This Side Of Fate – objectively a better track than DTML but never quite connected with me enough to justify second place. Still, a fantastic song, especially the bridge crescendo.
• Waters Rising – mediocre AB track for me at first, but has grown on me substantially since seeing Mark perform this one with passion night after night.
• I Know It Hurts – good song, but I was never fanatical about the main riff nor the chorus melody.
• The Bitter End – I can appreciate this song but the cringe factor puts it in last place for me.

Blackbird, move on.

This side of fate
Waters rising
Down to My Last
I know it hurts
The Bitter End

Shame I can't vote for the one with my fave Myles solo, but I'll have to be boring and go for Blackbird.

Gutted I cant vote for IKIH but its got to be Blackbird

Clear-cut winner here with Blackbird, as it's also my favorite AB song and my declarative favorite song of all time.

Then there is a hang-up between Down To My Last and This Side of Fate.

I mentioned in another thread that Down To My Last is the perfect kind of song: not only a good verse and chorus style (with that splendid vocal Myles gives), but also a pre-chorus that is good enough on its own to be a song's chorus, and then BAM! there is still a real chorus thereafter. I also mentioned my favorite Breaking Benjamin song, Breath, does the same thing for me.

This Side of Fate is very neat and one of the epics, again slightly damaged by its own mixing and further worsened by repetitive lyrics with an anticlimactic chorus (but a nice solo to finish it off). I'm torn between the two as they are starkly different songs, but I think I'll give the edge to Down To My Last for its completeness and good sound.

There is a lot of good in I Know It Hurts. I don't know how someone can't like this song, even as a non-rock head. It just feels very accessible, even in its "filler-like" element. It's pretty high up on my list, though not a Top 15 favorite or anything.

The Bitter End is good, but I haven't liked their newer ballads after All Ends Well. Even that one has just a couple of trouble spots, as they inject one too many heavy elements into it and don't just let it be.

I'm not a fan of Waters Rising, though it was a standout in the RAH concert disc as Mark's vocals took to a newer height for me. I'll give it an honorable mention for that.

Blackbird
Down To My Last
This Side Of Fate
I Know It Hurts
The Bitter End
Waters Rising

Blackbird, shockingly. They are historically awesome at Track number 8, though. Love all of these.

This Side of Fate for me.

Blackbird somehow wore off over the years. It seems impossible but I simply listened to it too many times. Even though it's still one of their best songs I chose This Side Of Fate which is basically on the same level as Blackbird, but seems more "fresh" to me.

Blackbird is the best rock song in history for me.

Waters Rising, This Side Of Fate, I Know It Hurts and The Bitter End are all songs I really, really enjoy. Down To My Last is by far the worst song in this set.

Blackbird
Waters Rising
The Bitter End
This Side Of Fate
I Know It Hurts

Down To My Last

I agree with the sentiments so far. Blackbird defines the band more than any other song in their collection. Take the recent Ultimate Guitar poll as a prime example. Some of the luster has worn off over time for me though as I've probably heard the song over 200 times.

I would lump DTML, TSOF, and WR together as close seconds in my estimation. IKIH and TBE fail to excite me.

I enjoy all songs but it has to be Blackbird, my favorite song of all time.

Blackbird
This Side of Fate
Waters Rising
I Know it Hurts
The Bitter End
Down To My Last

This one is obviously a runaway but as others have said, lots of really good material here. The Bitter End has grown on me a lot since WTS released. Down To My Last is one of their best deep cuts, and I Know It Hurts is a top 5 song on AB III. This Side of Fate suffers slightly from lyrical repetition, but other than that it’s a great song. Waters Rising could also potentially win one of these if it was a different number.

The one track that really needs no poll. But curious more to what comes in 2nd place. This side of fate is such a unique and underrated song IMO and has one of Myles best solos too.

Blackbird

Down To My Last
Water Rising
The Bitter End

This Side Of Fate
I Know It Hurts

nildiven wrote:The one track that really needs no poll. But curious more to what comes in 2nd place. This side of fate is such a unique and underrated song IMO and has one of Myles best solos too.

Again, that's unfair to say what is truly second place based on the voting system. You're tallying all first place votes that aren't Blackbird, but aren't accounting for BB voters' #2 songs in any way whatsoever.

Something else will be voted upon, but that doesn't necessarily give it full leeway compared to that of others.

Blackbird by a thousand miles.

Never been a fan of This Side of Fate. It is too damn busy sounding. The only part I remotely enjoy is the bridge where the wall of sound stops.

I’m surprised TSoF is getting a handful of votes. I’m a fan of the song, but to me it sounds like one of those songs that tries to be an ‘epic,’ but instead is just a really good song that falls short of that mark. Both ‘epics’ on TLH feel that way to me. They’re in a tier of their own but definitely far underneath Blackbird, Cry Of Achilles, and Fortress.