MindRuler
Ancient Mariner
Be prepared to get flamed by the Hell Patrol!
What are the most overrrated albums in rock history?
- Thread starter Dick Brucinson
- Start date
FearOfTheLark
Trooper
From the back of this. I don't agree with it being the most overrated but I do find songs about being metal or in a metal band etc. to be a bit much and it's almost spinal tap like
BludBrutha
Ancient Mariner
It’s a parody of a Judas Priest album. Everything turned up to eleven to try to stay relevant.
BludBrutha
Ancient Mariner
No.
WildRanger
Nomad
Painkiller was by far their heaviest and most aggressive album to date. It terms of heaviness and aggressiveness, none of Iron Maiden albums comes close to Painkiller. I'd easily take Painkiller over three acclaimed Priest albums from the 80's anytime, which sound a bit commercial by comparison. For me Painkiller is the definition of a pure, enormous, unfiltered heavy metal energy.
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Edington
Last Son of The Miracle
There is a natural evolution from Turbo -> Ram it Down -> Painkiller. Ram it Down has some of the commercial sounds and sillier lyrics of Turbo (makes sense given they were intended to be a double-album) but is much heavier, and Painkiller is just expanding on that evolution.
The intensity is likely more a response to what was going on around them at the time, not so much trying to stay relevant. The changing musical landscape, Ram it Down being poorly received*, the accusations of subliminal messaging (I always thought that's what "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" was written about, though I think the trial itself was after Painkiller was recorded) and Halford's personal issues would all have weighed on the band and made them want to write a darker, heavier album.
*Depending on whether it was poorly received on release or has just been retrospectively rated badly.
The intensity is likely more a response to what was going on around them at the time, not so much trying to stay relevant. The changing musical landscape, Ram it Down being poorly received*, the accusations of subliminal messaging (I always thought that's what "Between the Hammer and the Anvil" was written about, though I think the trial itself was after Painkiller was recorded) and Halford's personal issues would all have weighed on the band and made them want to write a darker, heavier album.
*Depending on whether it was poorly received on release or has just been retrospectively rated badly.
BludBrutha
Ancient Mariner
Ram It Down was poorly received.
It wasn't a fan favorite, but IMO it was the sign of what was to come. If you take a look at the title track or Heavy Metal (Glenn's solo), you'll see that Ram it Down was more or less a sneak peek at their future work. The Mercenaries of Metal tour was by far the most aggressive incarnation of Judas Priest in their golden era. Even some older tracks, such as Sinner and Beyond the Realms of Death sounded much different from their studio versions. I think that the New Haven concert is their best live release. It's raw, and it shows how energetic the 1988 gigs were. Considering all these facts, I think that an album like Painkiller just had to be made. It was the natural direction they were following at the time. And yeah, Painkiller was recorded before the trial; the album's premiere even got delayed for a few months.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Painkiller is absolutely not overrated, but songs about "being metal" are.
Eddie's Uncle
Educated Fool
It's totally okay not to like that album, and yes, it is every cliché turned to the max. But calling it a parody attempt to stay relevant is a very odd assessment. I'd say Turbo was much more of a calculated move to be hip by distorting their own style. Same with Demolition.
karljant
Ancient Mariner
Absolutely: IMO it's perhaps the most overhyped Metal album of all time. I'll go even further saying half of the record seriously gets under my skin and I'd rather listen to the filler farm that is "Load" (yet it features half a dozen superb tracks) or even the awful snare, production, song structure and at times cringe of most songs from "St. Anger" than this overproduced yet hollow and insalubrious release. IMO, when you have what to my ears is the whiny "The Unforgiven", the IMO limp 'Thrash-meets-AOR' of "Sad But True", a cheap "Metallicazation" of "Kashmir" on "Wherever I May Roam", the arguably boring "Nothing Else Matters" or IMO uninspired material like "Holier Than Thou", the album's value is seriously compromised, no matter how good the other tracks are. Plus, to be fair, apart from the impressive "The Struggle Within" and "The God That Failed", I think all other remaining songs are merely good. And it's not because this was a huge success sales wise. There are other albums that sold zillions I consider to be masterpieces (Wish You Were Here, Zeppelin IV, Aenima, Fear Inoculum, Lateralus, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, The Joshua Tree, Kid A, Love, Beautiful Garbage, etc...)
karljant
Ancient Mariner
Yeah... I mean, I like the opening track, Broken Beat and Scarred, Cyanide and Suicide & Redemption. Apart from that, not that I consider the songs to be bad, but everything is truly predictable. I think this is another case of a band folding to the fan base that got pissed with a couple of daring albums (Load and St. Anger in this case) by recovering a portion of their initial edge, yet in a light and tamed form. While in some tracks it truly works in others it sounds forced, IMO. Now comparing this to Endgame or TSHF is, in my opinion, blasphemous. But to each his own.
As a huge Sepultura fan I consider "Morbid Visions" to be god awful (it's at the bottom of my Sep rank tied with "Nation" and what keeps it from being solo dead last is "Troops of Doom". And you don't even need to compare it to later albums: IMO their debut "Bestial Devastation" is much, much better than this crap: The title track, "Warriors of Death" and especially "Necromancer" are leagues above almost everything in "Morbid Visions". Now, to say it's hailed by many as their best album... I don't know where you got that stat from. Normally most polls and reviews place Beneath The Remains, Arise and Chaos AD (and sometimes even Schizophrenia) as fan favorites.
I concur. I prefer "VS" and "Vitalogy" by a fair margin. Now, IMO it's far from being one of their worst or even a bad album.
PS: Paranoid, Amnesiac, Human, The Fragile, The Divion Bell and the aforementioned TSHF and Endgame? Ok, I know it all comes to a matter of taste, but damn, I couldn't disagree more! Plus, The Division Bell is far from being a fan favorite.
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
For me sepultura roots. Until chaos they were great. Not a big fan of morbid visions.