John Petrucci competing for Loudwire's Greatest Metal Guitarist.

[Lolzeez]

I kinda find it pathetic that the site extended the deadline just so that Dime has another day to make a comeback.

[Lucien]

I kinda find it pathetic that the site extended the deadline just so that Dime has another day to make a comeback.

See, this is what I find strange.

[TL]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with that.

My problem isn't with Dimebag winning. It's that the site running the poll really seemed to want him to win. They probably weren't expecting Petrucci to do so well against him, so when he did, they extended the time and got the word out to some Dimebag fans.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's an online poll and doesn't really mean anything, but it is a little sketchy.

What i found weird were the descriptions by loudwire. In every round they seemed to bitch about how DT fans were swarming their polls, therefore gaining JP a win he didnt deserve.

For example, in his blurb when he was against Dimebag, it said something along the lines of "Well, Petrucci is good and all, but can't really stand up to a great like Kirk Hammett"... in the round after he beat Kirk Hammett.

[Chino]

I voted for Dimebag anyway. I like JP more in general, but as a straight up metal guitarist I prefer Dimebag.

The fuck.

[CodyWanKenobi]

A dead guy and more than twice the number of people who'll see the Facebook posts, no surprise that Petrucci lost this one. Dead people always get a lot of sympathy, and when considering the cause of death in this case the sympathy will be significant.

Can we please cut these kinds of dismissive and downright disrespectful comments? Dimebag was always considered a great player long before he died, and was in one of the best straight up metal bands of the '90s. He's not just some "dead guy" getting sympathy votes.

Yes this is true, but I think it's safe to say that most people wouldn't be as passionate about him if he were still alive. Same goes for guys like Rhoads and maybe even Hendrix.

[Dark Castle]

A dead guy and more than twice the number of people who'll see the Facebook posts, no surprise that Petrucci lost this one. Dead people always get a lot of sympathy, and when considering the cause of death in this case the sympathy will be significant.

Can we please cut these kinds of dismissive and downright disrespectful comments? Dimebag was always considered a great player long before he died, and was in one of the best straight up metal bands of the '90s. He's not just some "dead guy" getting sympathy votes.

Yes this is true, but I think it's safe to say that most people wouldn't be as passionate about him if he were still alive. Same goes for guys like Rhoads and maybe even Hendrix.

Gotta disagree, Rhoads hadn't even hit his prime, and I feel like Darrell would be the down to earth living legend if he were still alive.

[CodyWanKenobi]

But this keeps happening. The dude from Slayer died last month, and now you're getting people saying "Jeff was the greatest guitar player ever" bla bla bla, when in reality he was a pretty shitty guitar player (both guitar players in Slayer really suck, actually).

The only difference is, that Dime was actually really fuckin good. But I still think JP's playing, writing, and soloing is far superior to Dime's.

[jsem]

But this keeps happening. The dude from Slayer died last month, and now you're getting people saying "Jeff was the greatest guitar player ever" bla bla bla, when in reality he was a pretty shitty guitar player (both guitar players in Slayer really suck, actually).

The only difference is, that Dime was actually really fuckin good. But I still think JP's playing, writing, and soloing is far superior to Dime's.

I fully concur with the above post.

[Dark Castle]

Dude, Jeff Hannemann was not shitty by any means. I'm not even going to claim he was one of the greatest because he's not, Gary Holt is  but Jeff Hannemann  was the guy who wrote most of Slayers material, aka the really really good stuff. Kerry King has always been about sounding like a dying cat.

[CrimsonSunrise]

So, question....  was the other semi final deadline extended?  Were other previous polls extended?  Or is this the only one?  If so...that's VERY suspect.  What's the reason given for the extension?

[bosk1]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with that.

My problem isn't with Dimebag winning. It's that the site running the poll really seemed to want him to win. They probably weren't expecting Petrucci to do so well against him, so when he did, they extended the time and got the word out to some Dimebag fans.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's an online poll and doesn't really mean anything, but it is a little sketchy.

This.  Not sure why Dark Castle and Blob and getting bent out of shape by people pointing it out.  The issue isn't with spamming the poll.  The issue is that the combination of a lot of votes coming out of nowhere and the extension of the poll with no explanation out of nowhere makes it look very much like the guy running the poll rigged it.  That doesn't take anything away from Dime or his fans.  It's just to say that the poll now looks shady because of the conduct of the guy running it.

[Jaffa]

This.  Not sure why Dark Castle and Blob and getting bent out of shape by people pointing it out.  The issue isn't with spamming the poll.  The issue is that the combination of a lot of votes coming out of nowhere and the extension of the poll with no explanation out of nowhere makes it look very much like the guy running the poll rigged it.  That doesn't take anything away from Dime or his fans.  It's just to say that the poll now looks shady because of the conduct of the guy running it.

Well, as for a lot of votes coming out of nowhere, the exact same thing happened for Petrucci earlier in the round.  What's so weird about Dimebag gaining ~3% in a few hours when Petrucci gained ~20% in less than a day? 

Extending the poll an extra day is a little odd, I'll admit.  But they extended the other semi-final match as well, so I see no reason to assume that Petrucci was singled out.   

[Meatrose]

Well, as for a lot of votes coming out of nowhere, the exact same thing happened for Petrucci earlier in the round.  What's so weird about Dimebag gaining ~3% in a few hours when Petrucci gained ~20% in less than a day? 

Extending the poll an extra day is a little odd, I'll admit.  But they extended the other semi-final match as well, so I see no reason to assume that Petrucci was singled out.

Well, the difference is that Pantera made their fans aware of the poll from the very beginning which is why they managed to reach more than 70% of the votes back then. Petrucci's come-back was initiated the very moment DT made their fans aware of the poll. That's why his sudden climb wasn't weird at all if you ask me.

Sure, had the poll ended when it was supposed to end (without being extended without any announcement or explanation) Petrucci would have won. Then again, the first day of the poll DT fans were barely voting at all because the band didn't announce it on Twitter or Facebook (I'm guessing they were focused on the release of the single). We knew about the poll but the vast majority of the DT fans out there didn't. John would have won comfortably if DT's fanbase had been voting the way we voted for Images and Words vs Master of Puppets. Someone mentioned the fact that Pantera has twice the amount of followers compared to DT. Well, Metallica has almost 32 million followers (compared to DT's 3,2) and we still managed to beat them.

[Dellers]

Well, as for a lot of votes coming out of nowhere, the exact same thing happened for Petrucci earlier in the round.  What's so weird about Dimebag gaining ~3% in a few hours when Petrucci gained ~20% in less than a day? 

Extending the poll an extra day is a little odd, I'll admit.  But they extended the other semi-final match as well, so I see no reason to assume that Petrucci was singled out.

It's not weird in itself, since boosts usually show up after someone posts the link on a FB page. It does however seem weird since Petrucci was in fact leading up to the point where they extended the voting time (based on my memory, don't take my word for it), and then suddenly Dimebag happened to bump up to 52% overnight and pretty much stayed there until the poll finished. I don't really understand these polls anyway, on another one on a different site one artist suddenly went from 40 to 50% in an hour or two with no advertising, where the artist in question had been at 40% for several days. I checked every social media site that particular artist was on (and the homepage etc.), and there wasn't any advertising. It just seems a little bit off to me. I'm pretty sure there are logical explanations floating around somewhere, though, random events usually happen.

[Laich21DT]

Well, the fact that the poll was extended, seemingly so Dime could win, is total bullshit. Also, I think that there's no doubt that Dime and Hannemann got a few more votes due the fact that they're deceased. The difference is that I feel that Dime benefited from this less in this poll than Hannemann.

I'm also kind of WTF about Adam Jones being in the final round. Love Tool and all, and he's a great riff writer, but really? In the finals for best metal guitarist? That just doesn't make sense to me at all. Dimebag Darrell definitely will receive my vote(s) in the final round.

[Meatrose]

Well, it's not like we can blame them for having passed away. They were both talented musicians that would have been able to add to their musical legacies if they'd have lived on. That's not the issue some of us have with the way things played out and I think that most of us here are not trying to belittle their accomplishments. The issue here is that this poll has been handled in a very weird way. The way the poll was extended without any kind of announcement or explanation, especially when combined with the fact they always have some kind of need to point out that whenever DT wins it's thanks to their fanatic fanbase, leads some of us to believe that they don't want DT to win.

[TheGreatPretender]

It's called "Not Dead Yet: The Story of Jason Becker".

Jason is a friend of mine and he's changed my life in such a good way. Like I said, he's a wonderful human being.

I checked out the documentary. And wow... Dang, is all I can say.

[Syzzle]

Loudwire is obviously very biased when it comes to running these polls. They will try to belittle every victory DT and Tool have by saying it's only because of their fans that they won, but the instant one of the bigger named metal bands wins it's because of how great they were, and not that they posted on their facebook just as much as DT or Tool did. I'm not sure why they even put DT on these polls at this point.

[Mister Gold]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with that.

My problem isn't with Dimebag winning. It's that the site running the poll really seemed to want him to win. They probably weren't expecting Petrucci to do so well against him, so when he did, they extended the time and got the word out to some Dimebag fans.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's an online poll and doesn't really mean anything, but it is a little sketchy.

This.  Not sure why Dark Castle and Blob and getting bent out of shape by people pointing it out.  The issue isn't with spamming the poll.  The issue is that the combination of a lot of votes coming out of nowhere and the extension of the poll with no explanation out of nowhere makes it look very much like the guy running the poll rigged it.  That doesn't take anything away from Dime or his fans.  It's just to say that the poll now looks shady because of the conduct of the guy running it.

Exactly. I'm not a big Pantera fan or anything, but I've always held major respect for Dimebag as a guitarist. For the record, JP isn't my favorite guitarist in the world, nor is DT my favorite band. But between the two of them, I do prefer JP. Maybe I'm just wearing rose-tinted glasses, but there was a really off vibe with that poll and how this was all handled. I really got the impression that the writer held a pretty strong bias for Dime.

[BlobVanDam]

For example, in his blurb when he was against Dimebag, it said something along the lines of "Well, Petrucci is good and all, but can't really stand up to a great like Kirk Hammett"... in the round after he beat Kirk Hammett.

That's not how I took that quote. I read it as basically saying Petrucci is a god-like player, but he's up against one of the most well known guitarists from one of the biggest metal bands of all time. I didn't take it as a dig at Petrucci at all.

It is a shame they extended the poll seemingly arbitrarily, but at the end of the day, Dimebag still won it fair and square. It's not like DT fans were barred from voting, and both bands posted it on their FB several times, and both around the same time at the end of the poll there. It's not some big anti-DT conspiracy that the more influential and popular guitarist/band won an internet poll. I had hoped JP could win it too, but Dimebag got more votes this time. It's just an internet poll.

[aprilethereal]

What i found weird were the descriptions by loudwire. In every round they seemed to bitch about how DT fans were swarming their polls, therefore gaining JP a win he didnt deserve.

For example, in his blurb when he was against Dimebag, it said something along the lines of "Well, Petrucci is good and all, but can't really stand up to a great like Kirk Hammett"... in the round after he beat Kirk Hammett.

But this keeps happening. The dude from Slayer died last month, and now you're getting people saying "Jeff was the greatest guitar player ever" bla bla bla, when in reality he was a pretty shitty guitar player (both guitar players in Slayer really suck, actually).

The only difference is, that Dime was actually really fuckin good. But I still think JP's playing, writing, and soloing is far superior to Dime's.

I'm also kind of WTF about Adam Jones being in the final round. Love Tool and all, and he's a great riff writer, but really? In the finals for best metal guitarist? That just doesn't make sense to me at all. Dimebag Darrell definitely will receive my vote(s) in the final round.

I agree with all of you guys. And this is why I feel this poll is absolutely ridiculous.

[CodyWanKenobi]

Whatever, I always hated these 'popularity contests' anyway. It just bothers me when things are corrupt, like the person running it having a bias.

[TheGreatPretender]

It doesn't matter anyway. We all know who's the best:

[CodyWanKenobi]

Yes, yes he is. The master. 

[TheGreatPretender]

Nay... The god:

[Lolzeez]

 

[Lucien]

I love that picture so much.

[Dark Castle]

It doesn't matter anyway. We all know who's the best:

FTFY

[aprilethereal]

Chuck is impressive and all, but he doesn't beat the Petruccinator

[Jaffa]

Not really sure whether or not this is worth its own thread, so I'll just put it here.

Avenged Sevenfold's 'Hail To the King' has been dominating the 'cage match' polls on Loudwire.  Their latest opponent is Dream Theater's 'The Enemy Inside', and we're getting steamrolled.

https://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-vs-dream-theater-cage-match/

I doubt we'll be able to pull out a victory, but let's see if we can close that gap a bit, shall we?

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I have heard neither song, so I must abstain.

[CodyWanKenobi]

That new avenged track is seriously horrible.

[bosk1]

Looks like we're done here.