What are the most overrrated albums in rock history?

Ready to get flamed, grilled and anything inbetween:

The Who - Tommy
Some good songs but very irritating parts to enjoy as a whole. The millions "Tommy can you hear me?" don´t help either.
And now we´re talking about The Who, I can´t explain (pun intended) why I don´t like the most of their material either. Baba O Reily is the only song I´d listen to voluntarely. The rest of Who´s Next is just plain boring.

Slayer- Reign In Blood
Sounds like one song chopped to pieces.
Barely any variation inbetween the songs.
Some cool midtempo chug parts but that doesn´t make a classic album. Bad vocals, unmelodic solo´s,... nah I´ll skip ´em. Same as for The Who I find Slayer very bland and boring. And yes I had 5 (!) of their albums in my collection.

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
And you may add The Wall and Wish You Were Here too. Nope, not my thing. And yes, the same goes as for the previous mentioned bands: boring to my ears.

Led Zeppelin: same story. Plant and Page never amazed me apart from the fast part of Stairway.

Enough blasphemy for one day I guess. :lol:
 
Last edited:
Metallica - s/t (Black Album) - I've never understood why this album has such a high profile. It's okay, easy listening, but not a 'super album' that towers over everything else.

AC/DC - Back in black - Same as Metallica's s/t one. Nice songs and some of them are outstanding, but IMO other albums are more complete, have fewer hits, but the overall quality is stronger.

Judas Priest - Screaming for vengeance - It's their most plastic sound album; the songwriting is ok but for this album a more powerfull drummer would have been necessary.

Deep Purple - Perfect strangers - The impact of the fact that they reunited was bigger than the quality of the songs.
 
Overrated album for me means that a popular album that is hailed by fans and critics, but not something I nescessarily don’t hold so high. So by looking through my CD collection, I tried to find some overrated albums. That was hard, because it does not mean the albums are bad or weak, just not so strong as others in their discography.

Black sabbath - Paranoid
- Alot worse than Master of reality and most of their 70’s albums.

Blind guardian - Nightfall in middle earth/A night at the opera
- I have never got why Nightfall is such a classic. It is a great album, but Somewhere far beyond and Imaginations through the orher side is far better. Many fans love A night at the opera, but I think it honestly is a chaotic album.

Children of bodom - Hatebreeder
- my first Bodom album, it is a classic, but I really think almost all their other albums are better.

Death - Human
- Same as with Blind guardian. Good album but they have better ones.

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone darkness triumpath
- again good, but the three next ones are much better than this one.

Dream theater - Systematic chaos
- I remember people on the IMBB or MFU or wherever worshipped this album. I really think it is maybe their worst album.

Helloween - The time of the oath
- also a critical favorite and the highlight for Deris era fans. I like it, but in my ears a litte weaker than Master of the rings and Better than raw.

Iron maiden - Brave new world
- If I have to pick a overrated Maiden album, it is this one. It’s solid, safe sounding and some legendary moments, but it is not a reinvetion of the wheel or anything.

Judas priest - Reedemer of souls
- again a popular album among fans. Maybe it was delightful to hear something new and good after the failed Nostradamus project, but it is very average.

Michael Jackson - Bad
- He had a pretty solid discography. Bad is good (:bigsmile: ) , but it have a few weaker moments and not the best material.

King’s X - Gretchen goes to nebraska
- great album by a great band, but piss poor production ruins it. They did better both before and after.

Kiss - Destroyer
- Destroyer is very different from the three before and what came after. Many fans and critics liked it, but I just think it worked partly.
Led zeppelin - Physical graffitti
- hard to pick a overrated album by zeppelin. If one is, then it is PG. First disc is excellent, but number two is clearly b-side material for the most part.

Megadeth - The system has failed, endgame
- Two albums hailed by their fans as the coming of Christ. The system has failed is basically a Mustaine solo album, a few things work, but lot of bland stuff to. Endgame is good, but not that good.

Metallica - Death magnetic
- just like Endgame: by many hailed as a return to their old self, but reality is "oh, just a new Metallica album". And the "groundbreaking" loud mastering, jesus…

Nine inch nails - The fragile
- after a masterpiece like The downward spiral, Trent wanted to blow the album out of the water with The fragile. But reality is bloated, poor songs that leads nowhere.

Pearl jam - Ten
- they did better albums later on. In fact, it is one of their worst.

Pink floyd - Momentary lapse of reason, division bell
- Nice albums, but they are not really Pink floyd.

Porcupine tree - Up the downstair, closure/continuation
- the first one hailed as a masterpiece ( it really isn’t). The latter hailed as a welcome return of form. I think it is very dissapointing compared to the long time it took to gather together.

Radiohead - Amnesiac, hail to the thief
- a band that is a critics favorite. I think these two fails a bit compared to the good reviews they got. The stuff they did before is way better.
The rolling stones - Exile on main street
- another classic band and album, that do not live up to the other classics in the discography.

Sepultura - Morbid visions
- Hailed by many as their best album. I really do think it sound like a demo and a amateur band. They certainly did way better later on.

Slash - s/t
- I expected a modern classic when this album and all the guest were announced. And of course some of it works very well, but others don’t. Also a weak production ruins it.

Stratovarius - Elements part 1
- a band that was hard to find overrated albums by, but I picked this one. Great expectations and promises of a grand album that blew the others of the water by both the band and critics, it was a album with way too high singing on some songs, weird concepts from a ill man and dissapointing song material.

Steven Wilson - Grace for drowning
- the man with a weird discography. After a great debut, this twisted album came out, and I think it failed on most aspects. No single material, overlong jazzy pieces, and general failed experiements. He did far better afterwards
 
Sth2112 said:
Sepultura - Morbid visions
- Hailed by many as their best album.
Click to expand...
Really? Never seen it at number 1 on any list tbh.
As far as I know most people put either Arise or Beneath The Remains on top. And then we still have Chaos AD and Roots but they´re alot weaker than the other 2 but still much better than Morbid Visions. And what about Schizophrenia?
 
MindRuler said:
Really? Never seen it at number 1 on any list tbh.
As far as I know most people put either Arise or Beneath The Remains on top. And then we still have Chaos AD and Roots but they´re alot weaker than the other 2 but still much better than Morbid Visions. And what about Schizophrenia?
Click to expand...
Well, it’s mostly just tr00 people who puts it at the top. I have some friends that like Morbid the best :blink: many people like those albums you mentioned, myself as well
 
I don’t quite get the lack of love for Sabbath’s Paranoid album. To me, it’s their Black Album—and without a trace of negative sentiment. A great album, through and through.
*
Sepultura’s best, in my opinion, are: Beneath the Remains, Arise, and Chaos A.D.
 
Sth2112 said:
Slash - s/t
- I expected a modern classic when this album and all the guest were announced. And of course some of it works very well, but others don’t. Also a weak production ruins it.
Click to expand...

I'm of a similar opinion, but overrated? It almost seems underrated to me, in that most people have seem to have forgotten that he started with this album before carrying on with Myles and the Conspirators. I wish he'd do another album* with guests, the self-titled might be inconsistent in quality but I like that it's more varied, I find his albums with Myles a bit one-note.

*Of original material, I know he has a blues album featuring guests.
 
Tool - every album
At the Gates - every album
Guns N Roses - Appetite (good album, but not as great as they say)
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper, Beatles
Metallica - Master of Puppets (good album, but neither their best, nor in thrash metal top 20)
System of a Down - everything
Nirvana - Nevermind
Led Zeppelin - the first 4 albums
Mayhem - Deathcrush
 
(What's the Story) Morning Glory if we're going to class Oasis as rock rather than indie.

This is the point that critics started giving them legend status, declaring them the new Beatles etc, but this was just their second studio album, and already sounding like they were regurgitating their previous work
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jer
Brigantium said:
(What's the Story) Morning Glory if we're going to class Oasis as rock rather than indie.

This is the point that critics started giving them legend status, declaring them the new Beatles etc, but this was just their second studio album, and already sounding like they were regurgitating their previous work
Click to expand...
I love Oasis and I will die on that hill. They have some shit albums (pretty much just Heathen Chemistry and half of SOTSOG), but I will never say they are overrated.

Coincidentally, I also think 50% of The Beatles material is trash, so, take my opinion very lightly.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I love Oasis and I will die on that hill. They have some shit albums (pretty much just Heathen Chemistry and half of SOTSOG), but I will never say they are overrated.

Coincidentally, I also think 50% of The Beatles material is trash, so, take my opinion very lightly.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if they don't get the same hype in the US. I'm not a fan of them in general, but out of all the many, many indie bands and especially those in the Manchester scene, I could never work out why Oasis in particular were lauded as being near instant legends. To me they sound unexceptional, yet they were hailed from early on as being a standout act.

Disclaimer - I'm not a diehard Beatles fan either, but can understand better how they became such a big name
 
Brigantium said:
I'm wondering if they don't get the same hype in the US. I'm not a fan of them in general, but out of all the many, many indie bands and especially those in the Manchester scene, I could never work out why Oasis in particular were lauded as being near instant legends. To me they sound unexceptional, yet they were hailed from early on as being a standout act.

Disclaimer - I'm not a diehard Beatles fan either, but can understand better how they became such a big name
Click to expand...
Oasis were about the same level of popularity in the US as in the UK. For a few years in the mid-90s, I lived in the UK and visited back to the US often enough. I heard about the same amount of Oasis on both sides of the pond.

Edit: they’re still retrospectively recognized here as a popular 90s act but are given no more reverence than say The Cranberries, Spin Doctors, or Jewel. They’re more of a 90s nostalgia thing rather than being in the position the Beatles or even Pink Floyd enjoy as classic rock.
 
Last edited:
Brigantium said:
I'm wondering if they don't get the same hype in the US. I'm not a fan of them in general, but out of all the many, many indie bands and especially those in the Manchester scene, I could never work out why Oasis in particular were lauded as being near instant legends. To me they sound unexceptional, yet they were hailed from early on as being a standout act.
Click to expand...
I can only imagine it was very different in the UK. Oasis were certainly never glorified as musical heroes over here, but they were still incredibly popular.
 
Brigantium said:
I'm wondering if they don't get the same hype in the US. I'm not a fan of them in general, but out of all the many, many indie bands and especially those in the Manchester scene, I could never work out why Oasis in particular were lauded as being near instant legends. To me they sound unexceptional, yet they were hailed from early on as being a standout act.
Click to expand...

Could it have been drummed up by the media's whole "Oasis vs. Blur" thing? Or those two obnoxious pricks garnering media attention and increasing the band's popularity? I'm just spitballing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top