What are the most overrrated albums in rock history?

I can see where you're coming from, but wouldn't this mean that the same can be said about Defenders of the Faith? Which very intense for a 1984 record.
 
BludBrutha said:
It’s a parody of a Judas Priest album. Everything turned up to eleven to try to stay relevant.
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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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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.
 
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.
 
Interesting picks I'd add Hotel California to the list. It's iconic, sure, but beyond the title track, the rest never really clicked with me.
 
BludBrutha said:
It’s a parody of a Judas Priest album. Everything turned up to eleven to try to stay relevant.
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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.
 
damage_case said:
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.
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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...)
 
Sth2112 said:
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".
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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.

Sth2112 said:
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.
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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.

Sth2112 said:
Pearl jam - Ten
- they did better albums later on. In fact, it is one of their worst.
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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.
 
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