GREATEST METAL ALBUM CUP - Winner: Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son!

^ Personal attack, defamation, contemptuously and arrogantly suggesting my country is too fringe and backward to have developed the proper quota of
:censored:
vegans yet, and no bold.
Should I continue?
 
25 voters! Wow, great result for a weekend, thanks to everyone!

Skid Row hangs on in a tight race against Sons of Apollo, winning in the last few hours. We'll see Sons of Apollo again in League 11.
After being behind for most of the match, Death pulls ahead to win by a single point, knocking Baroness out of the GMAC. Next for Death is Corrosion of Conformity.
Living Colour holds on to trump Angra. We'll find out if Angra can stick around when we get to Match 19.
Pantera wins the only dominant victory, scraping their knuckles on the way to beat Tony MacAlpine. The virtuoso returns in Match 26.
 
Led_Zeppelin_-_Led_Zeppelin_II.jpg

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II (1969)

How it got here

List entries: Metalstorm 24
Maidenfans Nominators: n/a
League 14 - Match 13vs.
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Rage - Black in Mind (1995)

How it got here

List entries: Metalstorm 72
Previous Rounds:
League 17: Defeated Body Count - Body Count 10-7.
League 16: Defeated The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity 17-5.
League 15: Defeated Heavenly - Virus 13-4.
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Black Sabbath - The Eternal Idol (1987)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Forostar
League 14 - Match 14vs.
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Riot - Thundersteel (1988)

How it got here

List entries: Metalstorm 26
League 15: Defeated Down - NOLA 11-6.
 
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Death Angel - Act III (1990)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Whooten
League 14 - Match 15vs.
The_House_of_Atreus_Act_I.jpg

Virgin Steele - The House of Atreus Act I (1999)

How it got here

List entries: Metalstorm 94
Previous Rounds:
League 17: Defeated Aria - Игра С Огнём 15-3.
League 16: Defeated Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment 2 12(ET)-11.
League 15: Defeated Rhapsody - Power of the Dragonflame 12-5.
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Sepultura_-_Roots.jpg

Sepultura - Roots (1996)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Spambot
League 15 - Match 16vs.
Helloween_-_7_Sinners.jpg

Helloween - 7 Sinners (2010)

How it got here

List entries: Metal Kingdom 84
Previous Rounds:
League 17: Defeated Heavenly - Dust to Dust 14-4.
League 16: Defeated Godflesh - Streetcleaner 15-7.
League 15: Defeated Paul Gilbert - Fuzz Universe 10-8.
 
This first match-up is way closer than it ought to be. Led Zeppelin II is another Zep album with a small number of all-time classics and a bunch of filler. The Rage album is more consistent, but never reaches the heights of the best stuff on the Led Zeppelin album, and the whole affair just has a low rent feel that I have a hard time getting behind. Winner: Led Zeppelin

Hadn’t heard this Black Sabbath album before, and it’s good stuff. Consistently strong songwriting and performances. While the Riot album has a lot of appeal, it’s not as refined and well-rounded as the Sabbath album. Good call, @Forostar . Winner: Black Sabbath

The Death Angel album is a very solid thrash offering with above average vocals for a thrash band. It also has a few lighter tracks that come off well. The Virgin Steele album is perhaps more ambitious, but the poor synth orchestration gets on my nerves more every time I hear it, and the vocal performance is up and down. This one’s pretty close, but I think I’ll throw @Whooten a bone. Winner: Death Angel

I like the use of native instrumentation on the Sepultura album, but I just can’t deal with the vocals. Sorry, @Spambot . Helloween takes it by default. Winner: Helloween
 
Led Zeppelin - another great Zep album, only Living Loving Maid is rubbish, the rest is pretty great even the drum solo in Moby Dick

Rage - this is produced pretty good and some interesting ideas musically, singer ain't great though

Led Zeppelin
with the win

Black Sabbath - I'm only familiar with Ozzy,Dio and Gillan Sabbath, typically good Iommi riff, singer technically good but you might be as well listening to Bonnie Tyler in terms of edge. Really, really missing Geezer Butler. Solo is good.

Riot - Pretty good

Black Sabbath with the win, I could listen to either album no problem but I doubt I'd be rushing back to play them again on a regular basis, quality of the Iommi riff is levels above anything else in the tracks.

Death Angel - An album I have, although they are a band who I only picked up albums by them years after their heyday and wouldn't consider myself an expert on by any means. This track is good, and I'm going to give the whole album a re-listen today to refresh my memory but I think there's enough here already to win this

Virgin Steele - opinion given a few times

Death Angel with the win

Sepultura - not a huge fan of these but I really like Beneath the Remains, Arise and even Chaos A.D. This album is total garbage, embarrassing, scene jumping, insincere, money grabbing, vomit.

Helloween - not great but they got a lucky draw

Helloween with the win
 
Death Angel - An album I have, although they are a band who I only picked up albums by them years after their heyday and wouldn't consider myself an expert on by any means. This track is good, and I'm going to give the whole album a re-listen today to refresh my memory but I think there's enough here already to win this

A Room With a View is not very representative of Death Angel at all. This (their third) album was a departure from their much more thrasher sound on previous and later albums, but they did have a couple more ballad-y types on this album. They were going for a commercial success here. If you do check out the full album, stay until the last track "Falling Asleep," which was clearly an inspiration for Enter Sandman.
 
Led Zeppelin II is by far the better album of those two. Rage isn't bad at all, but really no contest here.
Tony Martin is a very underrated vocalist and so is this Sabbath album. But Thundersteel is a personal favorite so I just had to vote for Riot here.
Virgin Steele has better albums than this one, Death Angel wins.
I only like the Beneath The Remains/Arise era of Sepultura. I'm more a Kiske-fanatic than a Deris one but still my vote goes to Helloweeen.
 
A Room With a View is not very representative of Death Angel at all. This (their third) album was a departure from their much more thrasher sound on previous and later albums, but they did have a couple more ballad-y types on this album. They were going for a commercial success here. If you do check out the full album, stay until the last track "Falling Asleep," which was clearly an inspiration for Enter Sandman.

Yeah I have The Ultra-Violence which I got first and have listened to much more than the other albums I have from them (Act III and The Art of Dying), I've liked the other two albums but I just haven't listened to them enough yet, too many albums and too little time, but I've got Act III out to give it a spin this evening.
 
Just listened to all of Act III, I reckon probably the first time I've actually played the CD on a hifi any other time I listened to it was likely to have been on an mp3 in the car.

It was an enjoyable listen, while I like the no nonsense thrash of the Ultra-violence, this album may just have a bit more about it. Some of the grooves remind of Suicidal Tendencies circa How Will I Laugh Tomorrow. The rhythm guitar sound is fanatastic, gain turned down and the mids up, it must have really gone against the grain in 1990.
 
Like I said before this album by Rage is surely a cool listening but it stumbled into simple put one of the best records ever made. Besides being possibly my favorite album by the band, Zepp II is ridiculously flawless and diversified. From the folk of Ramble On to the Blues infused hard rock of Whole Lotta Love and Living Loving Maid, passing through the out of this world display of drumming skill in Moby Dick and the heavier chug of Heartbreaker this is simply put a masterpiece. I wouldn't say it's a Heavy Metal album... but since it was accepted Led Zeppelin II gets my vote for sure.

Already said my part about the Riot album. On the other hand we have Tony Martin's debut as vocal man of non other than the band that created the genre. And sure this is not one of Sabbath's best albums but man... it is still really amazing material and sounds huge! Furthermore The Eternal Idol broke a spree of two lackluster records (Born Again and Seventh Star) where the band seemed completely discombobulated and began a really interesting run of three records with Iommi managing to maintain a somewhat stable line up. The whole thing starts with the catchy yet anthemic The Shinning where Iommi shows why he is THE Heavy Metal guitar man and Martin reveals his somewhat Dio like vocal registry (yet with a really own take), all embedded in a mystical keyboards layer. Glory Ride and Ancient Warrior follow the same recipe while songs as Nightmare and the title track are heavy as bricks doom clad stompers, something Iommi hasn't tried since Ronnie James Dio's debut title track. In sum The Eternal Idol is a great Black Sabbath album. Is it as good as their classics? IMO it isn't but it surely goes along side by side those gems without seeming out of place. And for that alone it gets my vote easily.

The third clash is a really interesting one. I won't say once again how cool the Virgin Steele album sounds. And I'll be fair... Although I'm a huge Thrash fan Death Angel was never one of my favorite bands in the genre. But the 3rd album from these by then still real young men was a giant leap. Sure one can spot the influences from older acts like Anthrax or bay area eldest ones like Metallica and especially Testament. But they know how to draw a distinct line between influence and plagiarism and never took the later. That happens because there's a certain funk undertone in songs like Stagnant and Discontinued and speaking of that they can take a note or two from Suicidal Tendencies to bring more muscle into compositions like Disturbing The Peace, EX TC or The Organisation. So I think I'll give it to Death Angel this time, although it's only by a thread.

Finally... uff...here we go. As I said before 7 Sinners is simply a snoozefest of an album from a band once great. And as an alternative what am I left with? None other the album where one of my favorite metal bands jumped into the full of crap bandwagon that is nu metal. Of course not everything here is bad: the recurring feature of traditional instruments sounds really cool and is one of the few elements that save this record from being absolute crap. It conveys kind of a experimental/ out of the box feel to something that in its absence would simply sound like an heavier version of Korn's debut released 2 years prior with tribal drum patterns. Tracks like Ratamahata or Born Stubborn are good examples of how Roots could be way more interesting and less of a "Kornisation" process. On the other hand the somewhat borrowed main riff of Black Sabbath's Symptom Of The Universe in Spit also sounds pretty ok. But IMO the best song of the lot is by far Roots Bloody Roots a track that mingles in equal parts the spirit of Refuse Resist, traditional Brazilian rhythms and nu metal groove. This song's punch is really something and if the remainder of the less experimental tracks were delivered with this much oomph perhaps one could turn a blind eye to the nu metal mediocrity that is displayed throughout the majority of Roots. Make no mistake: I really dislike this album. In all honesty it's on the tail section of my Sepultura rank (yes! Even taking in account the mediocre albums the band made during the following years). And it took 10 years for the band to launch something seemingly decent afterwards. Nevertheless much thanks to the opener along with the other 3 tracks I mentioned and taking in account the nullity that is 7 Sinners I'm forced to vote for Sepultura.
 
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