Song Wars 15: Nothing Else Matters Vs November Rain

Riddle101

In the last song wars thread, Jeremy beat Rooster. For this one i've gone with rock ballads Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and November Rain by Guns N' Roses. I've wanted to do a thread with Guns N' Roses for a while now. But I wanted two songs that are comparable. Nothing Else Else Matters and November Rain were released in the same year of 1991. Nothing Else Matters was the 8th song on the Black Album while November Rain was the 10th on Use Your Illusions 1.

Both songs are similar in that they are slow and soft with nice rhythm to them. They are both hugely successful if not a bit overplayed. Another thing to note, is that both songs have been played with orchestras, but that's just a little bit of trivia.

My choice goes to Nothing Else Matters. It's one of my favorite songs, and it just really beautiful to me. It's a song that i've requested being played at my funeral so naturally it's my pick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSLUOPymZ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0McfH-hweQ

guinnessdrinker

Both bring back memories of school, I was in first year of secondary school when these songs came out and they were constantly on MTV at the time.

For me though Nothing Else Matters stands the test of time better though. Not to say November Rain is dated or anything but I just don't think it is on quite the same level as the Metallica classic.

GLaDOS

Never really liked Nothing Else Matters, not a huge GNR fan at all but went for November Rain for that reason.

lord lucan

Whilst i've heard NEM live more times than i care to remember,it gets my vote. I've always thought NR was too overblown and far too long.

Malice

November Rain easily for me. I've always felt Nothing Else Matters is a boring song. Bar the solo it just plods along not doing very much. November Rain on the other hand has two great solos and that epic ending.

Lawrence1895

The Metallica song is a bit better, but GnR made a pretty decent video clip :cool:

guinnessdrinker

Whilst I do like NR in some ways I feel it's a little Meatloafesque in its overblown production.

Nailz

I'm not a fan of either song to be honest, but "November Rain" is one of those songs that is inclined to get on your nerves rather heavily after a while, the majority of the 4 hour track is Axel Rose wankology.

Mental Mickey

Nailz wrote: »

I'm not a fan of either song to be honest, but "November Rain" is one of those songs that is inclined to get on your nerves rather heavily after a while, the majority of the 4 hour track is Axel Rose wankology.

LOL. Nothing Else Matters all the way for me. Metallica's first attempt at a rock ballad and they nailed it.

Anyway, I always preferred "Estranged" over "November Rain" - similar in length, but far simpler, and straightforward.

Max Power1

November rain imo.
Im probably more of a 'Tallica fan than GNR (especially the new GNR anyway lol) but just between these two songs its Axl & Co all the way

RayCon

Neither

Malice

Wow, I didn't think over 76% of the voters could be wrong but there you go .

Rothko

I think both bands have a lot of songs that are far better but I prefer Nothing Else Matters

ush

November Rain for me. The whole Guns n Roses circus had gotten to the epic rock opera stage. Completely lacking in self-awareness.

Metallica had a more studied approach. Figuring out how to make hits. A Bon Jovi producer. Kind of cynical approach.

Max Power1

Malice wrote: »

Wow, I didn't think over 76% of the voters could be wrong but there you go .

Well they are wrong but hey, nothing else matters


[/gets coat]

Malice

Yeah, I never cared for what they know

/Also gets coat.

Tigger

Mental Mickey wrote: »

LOL. Nothing Else Matters all the way for me. Metallica's first attempt at a rock ballad and they nailed It

could be argued that it's the 4th ballad
Certainly not the first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7C90sLh5Ok

nyarlothothep

November Rain sounds like an epic ballad but assembled in a factory made of epic ballad pieces. It has no inspiration to it, it's a mechanically produced epic and Axl's piano skills are rudimentary, which undermines the epic status of the song in comparison to songs like Bohemian Rhapsody. In its defence however I like the excess of it. We need an excess of this kind of pomp rock to make up for its utter lack in todays Calvinist musical landscape.

Nothing Else Matters by contrast, is a song which has that special element of inspiration. It combines elements of Spaghetti Western soundtracks with the opening string section which perfectly compliments Hetfields lonesome ranger/frontier gunslinger persona. The atmosphere is great. The solo is perfectly placed and breathes the emotional yearning/pain of the song, it excellently utilises the blues to this end, what could be a better style of music apart from spanish classical for conveying such drama than the blues? And it uses a bit of spanish classical/mexican elements in the beginning and ending. Its epicness is more enjoyable as it's like this epic Spaghetti Western metal soundtrack. It's more imaginative, it doesn't feel assembled, it couldn't be much more from the heart.

zcorpian88

Definitely Nothing Else Matters, just a great tune and have heard it at every Metallica concert I've been to (4 concerts) Always thought GNR were a very overrated, overplayed band on most music channels, and Axl is a complete douche to fans that paid to see the band like the Dublin incident 2 years ago when half the crowd left, a lot of them I would imagine to be a new generation of fans that got into them recently and didn't have the money to stay in Dublin overnight. Plus November Rain is played way more than Nothing Else Matters by my count anyway, over the last 10 years I have had Kerrang in my house, literally every time I switch on the station November Rain is on. No exaggeration.

120_Minutes

Nothing else matters, because Kirk doesn't play a single note on it!

Motley Crue

I hate the fact that I had to choose between these two songs. Really this decision made me actually sit down and listen to these tracks and really think which one was better.

In the end I went with November Rain because, as an orchestration and a musical piece, there was a lot more time and effort put into the composure of that song then Nothing Else Matters.

Plus, the different sections and arrangements of November Rain make it a somewhat 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for Axl Rose - a personal magnum opus, if you will...and for me, Nothing Else Matters is a great great track, but it's nowhere near the sheer scale and comprehension of November Rain.

I just hope that posters here aren't letting their personal feelings of Axl cloud their judgement when making their decision. I would have thought it would be a lot tighter then that at the top.

On another note, it also irritates me how this song isn't played live properly by Metallica anymore IMO, it seems as if the arrangement has been constantly tweaked and changed - I could have sworn that this year, during the set where the Black Album was performed in it's entirety that they've almost sped it up and made it heavier.

nyarlothothep

Motley Crue wrote: »

I hate the fact that I had to choose between these two songs. Really this decision made me actually sit down and listen to these tracks and really think which one was better.

In the end I went with November Rain because, as an orchestration and a musical piece, there was a lot more time and effort put into the composure of that song then Nothing Else Matters.

Plus, the different sections and arrangements of November Rain make it a somewhat 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for Axl Rose - a personal magnum opus, if you will...and for me, Nothing Else Matters is a great great track, but it's nowhere near the sheer scale and comprehension of November Rain.

I just hope that posters here aren't letting their personal feelings of Axl cloud their judgement when making their decision. I would have thought it would be a lot tighter then that at the top.

On another note, it also irritates me how this song isn't played live properly by Metallica anymore IMO, it seems as if the arrangement has been constantly tweaked and changed - I could have sworn that this year, during the set where the Black Album was performed in it's entirety that they've almost sped it up and made it heavier.

I saw their performance at Download on the tv, they raced through Enter Sandman, the distinct impression I got was, quick come on lets get through the song, collect paycheck. I suppose that's what happens after playing the same material for over 20 years. They're still competent live though.

Mental Mickey

Motley Crue wrote: »

I hate the fact that I had to choose between these two songs. Really this decision made me actually sit down and listen to these tracks and really think which one was better.

In the end I went with November Rain because, as an orchestration and a musical piece, there was a lot more time and effort put into the composure of that song then Nothing Else Matters.

Plus, the different sections and arrangements of November Rain make it a somewhat 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for Axl Rose - a personal magnum opus, if you will...and for me, Nothing Else Matters is a great great track, but it's nowhere near the sheer scale and comprehension of November Rain.

I just hope that posters here aren't letting their personal feelings of Axl cloud their judgement when making their decision. I would have thought it would be a lot tighter then that at the top.

On another note, it also irritates me how this song isn't played live properly by Metallica anymore IMO, it seems as if the arrangement has been constantly tweaked and changed - I could have sworn that this year, during the set where the Black Album was performed in it's entirety that they've almost sped it up and made it heavier.

How can you speed up a ballad and make it heavier?? Doesn't make sense

Malice

Mental Mickey wrote: »

How can you speed up a ballad and make it heavier??

Without having heard the live version I'd say they just increased the song tempo and turned on a distortion pedal for the chorus.

ShooterSF

Mental Mickey wrote: »

Anyway, I always preferred "Estranged" over "November Rain" - similar in length, but far simpler, and straightforward.

+1 to this. Much more moving song!

thegreengoblin

If it was this version of November Rain it would get my vote. A far superior version to the overblown pomp that ended up on the album.

Elrollo

Nothing Else Matters gets my vote, classy tune!

Max Power1

thegreengoblin wrote: »

If it was this version of November Rain it would get my vote. A far superior version to the overblown pomp that ended up on the album.

Good version, better than the album version arguably. Except for the lack of the guitar solos. Makes it an Axl song rather than a GNR song imo

nyarlothothep

I think the album version is more interesting in that there is more stuff happening. The acoustic version sounds like a Damien Rice ballad or something to that effect, I just can't get over the singer songwriter aspect to it. The video I might add is excellent in being so pompous, we'll never see the likes of it again I think in a rock band, seeing that grandiose overblown music is unfortunately unfashionable these days thanks in part to the garage rock revival, indie and punk.

Motley Crue

Mental Mickey wrote: »

How can you speed up a ballad and make it heavier?? Doesn't make sense

Malice wrote: »

Without having heard the live version I'd say they just increased the song tempo and turned on a distortion pedal for the chorus.

Well, take a listen for yourselves....first the version from 1991....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDA2n17Kkhc

Now from 2003

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YwrVjVsDc

Now from 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Had7EeqbrYM

stateofflux

Mental Mickey wrote: »

LOL. Nothing Else Matters all the way for me. Metallica's first attempt at a rock ballad and they nailed it.

Anyway, I always preferred "Estranged" over "November Rain" - similar in length, but far simpler, and straightforward.

+1 , nothing else matters is a perfect song with no fat on it, the other is serious cheese with a half daycent solo at the end

Mental Mickey

stateofflux wrote: »

+1 , nothing else matters is a perfect song with no fat on it, the other is serious cheese with a half daycent solo at the end

Cheeeeeeeeeese:D. The guitar playing on "Estranged"(all done by Slash), is beautiful.

He even gets a special "Thank You" note in the booklet liner notes from Axl!!!!!!:eek:

thegreengoblin

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I think the album version is more interesting in that there is more stuff happening. The acoustic version sounds like a Damien Rice ballad or something to that effect, I just can't get over the singer songwriter aspect to it. The video I might add is excellent in being so pompous, we'll never see the likes of it again I think in a rock band, seeing that grandiose overblown music is unfortunately unfashionable these days thanks in part to the garage rock revival, indie and punk.

I don't get the singer/songwriter aspect to it at all. I just think it's a far more emotional rendition than the album version. I get a real sense of loss and desolation about it whereas when I hear the album version I hear layered, synthesised music which lessens the impact for me. But then again I had a bootleg of the acoustic version on tape for a year or so before Use Your Illusion came out, I suppose I had been listening to that for so long that anything else was going to sound inferior. But I do absolutely love Slash's solos on the album version!

There was also a piano only version which was on the same bootleg. This probably would have been the purest version of the song seeing as Axl wrote it on the piano. It's nearly ten minutes long too! Some cool pics in the video below also.

buck65

Atari Jaguar...please

Napper Hawkins

Horrible ****e from two horrible bands but hey, each to their own.

At a push...NEM. Because fuk Axl Rose. Seriously.

Motley Crue

Napper Hawkins wrote: »

Horrible ****e from two horrible bands but hey, each to their own.

Thanks for destroying everything I believe in under two sentences

Napper Hawkins

Motley Crue wrote: »

Thanks for destroying everything I believe in under two sentences

Ha ha! Ah I'm sorry! In fairness, I'd be lying if I said I didn't like any of their songs. Metallica anyway, could never get into g'n'r, never understood the appeal. If anything it's the supposed contempt axl, James and Lars seem to have for their fans.

The fans put them where they are, you'd think they'd be a bit nicer about it.

Mickey H

November Rain FTW. Epic song. NEM, excellent song IMO, but G'n'R win this one for me.