Best Album Ever Survivor: Somewhere In Time wins

Vote for your least favourite album

  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
I wonder why people vote for Black Sabbath's Vol. 4 in this stage. Protecting other albums? If it survives this round, I hope people will reconsider the quality of the record.

Wheels of Confusion starts with Iommi's mesmerizing lead and then it gets kind of monotone but it develops into something really nice. The last third is golden with that melodic organ.

Tomorrow's Dream, Supernaut and St Vitus are groovy riff feasts.
Changes and especially Snowblind are haunting. Cornucopia is a great combination of doom and stoner rock before the terms even existed. Laguna Sunrise is a very relaxed and beautiful instrumental. All this leads to the mighty Under the Sun. Its threatening intro must have been an enormous influence on Candlemass. When Ozzy comes in the rhythm and guitars are so awesome, that even the biggest haters of rock should be moved. Then the fast part with its typical drum breaks and later that kick ass solo. And what a dramatic end. Excellent.

This album has so much.
 
Forostar said:
:down:
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Let me guess: you rated those albums higher than Who's Next or Zeppelin IV.

<<checks>>

Yep. Funny.

Look, all the albums on this list are great. I very much like Sad Wings, AoB and Sabbath v.4. They are undeniably classics (well, at least Sad Wings and Vol. 4 are, and AoB is very good). But the notion that they are even remotely in the same league as, let alone better than, Who's Next or Sticky Fingers or Zeppelin IV is...well, it's just silly. Imagine someone telling you that Ratt's Out of the Cellar (an enjoyable album) is better than Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind. You'd think he suffered a head injury as a child, right? That's roughly equivalent to what I'm seeing in this poll.
 
Classic or not, I do not like music as one dimensional as presented on IV. Apart from that super hit (which I like), the album is a collection of enormously repetitive jam sessions. The same riffs go on and on. For me, listening to this means fighting the Battle of Everbore.

This is by far the dullest and most monotone album on the list. Also the most "opposite-to-Maiden"-record.
The whining of Plant doesn't make it better.

Who's Next I like much more but I prefer other albums.
 
Whilst the game is called "best album", it is done by voting for your least FAVOURITE. Favouritism has nothing to do with "better", how do you define better any way?

Personally I'd take the Bruce/Priest stuff over those albums any day. It's simply a matter of different tastes and different opinions.
 
And colored by the fact that we are on a Maiden board not to forget...Everyone here loves the Bruce albums, everyone loves Maiden, and we're divided on the rest. But the Bruce albums are gonna go far here no doubt because of that :)

It is like, if this was a Trivium board Ascendancy or The Crusade would be the best albums ever and wipe the floor with Zeppelin, Bruce, The Who, Sabbath etc. It is natural.
 
Forostar said:
Classic or not, I do not like music as one dimensional as presented on IV. Apart from that super hit (which I like), the album is a collection of enormously repetitive jam sessions. The same riffs go on and on. For me, listening to this means fighting the Battle of Everbore.

This is by far the dullest and most monotone album on the list. Also the most "opposite-to-Maiden"-record.
The whining of Plant doesn't make it better.

Who's Next I like much more but I prefer other albums.
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I realize your "monotone" refers to within individual songs. I don't agree, but I also have strongly point out how varied the songwriting is - no two songs sound alike at all. I also get that heavy, blues-based rock is not your thing. But dull is the last word that should apply to such powerful, unrestrained music.

That said, the true injustice is Who's Next - amazing songs, amazing performances.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
And colored by the fact that we are on a Maiden board not to forget...Everyone here loves the Bruce albums, everyone loves Maiden, and we're divided on the rest. But the Bruce albums are gonna go far here no doubt because of that :)

It is like, if this was a Trivium board Ascendancy or The Crusade would be the best albums ever and wipe the floor with Zeppelin, Bruce, The Who, Sabbath etc. It is natural.
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Hence why I don't think there's a reason to be mad about. If it's natural that Maiden and Bruce albums will do better, why bother to promote other stuff to beat them ? Now, if we were forced to join this forum, that'd mean something, but we joined because we liked Maiden.

I think Bruce albums, especially Chemical Wedding, should get recognition anyway. They're incredibly underrated apart from this forum.
 
Mckindog, I don't find the songs that different from each other. The repetitiveness is such a dominant aspect, that it is the leitmotif of the album. Also, Plant often sings in the same tone, attributing to the monotoneness. And Page sticks to the same few chords most of the time.
mckindog said:
I realize your "monotone" refers to within individual songs. I don't agree,
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But even we disagree about how monotone it is: you do agree with the amount of repetitiveness within most individual songs?
______no5 said:
Opposite to Maiden?? What that's supposed to mean??
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All other albums in this list have more in common with the variety, style, adventure and changes within songs that Maiden have brought us.
 
I think for some reason Forostar got off on the wrong foot with Zeppelin and is just shutting off now when Zeppelin comes on... :D

You don't even tap your feet and bop your head just a little to Rock and Roll or When The Levee Breaks? Its fucking impossible not to...
 
The latter did make me move a bit yeah (one of the better songs!), but the former, no way. Can't see the excellence in it. Old fart rock. *shakes head*

Now if it had two or even one (just one for God's sake) other part(s), then it would have been better already.
 
Forostar said:
Mckindog, I don't find the songs that different from each other. The repetitiveness is such a dominant aspect, that it is the leitmotif of the album. Also, Plant often sings in the same tone, attributing to the monotoneness. And Page sticks to the same few chords most of the time.

But even we disagree about how monotone it is: you do agree with the amount of repetitiveness within most individual songs?
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I do. Take Black Dog, for example, definitely repetitive. But the punch of Plant's naked voice and the counterpunch of the band blasting through is hardly monotone — it's a dramatic one-two.
And the riff may be repeated, but it's hardly a three note pattern — it rises, falls, lurches and staggers. Different elements of the band come in to support it at different times.

Black Dog and Misty Mountain are mid-tempo rockers, RocknRoll (especially by that era's standards) is a full-on speed rocker. Evermore and California are folky, Four Sticks gritty blues that veers in to psychedelia, Levee epic sludgy heavy blues and Stairway is plain epic.

I think it has a lot of variety from song to song. And the intensity, the swagger, is unmistakeable. The band just gives it on every note.
 
Kill Devil Hill said:
"One-dimensional" is the last word I'd use to describe IV.
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That's exactly what I thought when I read Forostar's post, which is just post hoc rationalization. Look, it's okay if you don't like it (though it speaks ill of your taste)*, but this particular critique is nonsense. That album is about as diverse as it gets. Ironically, at the time of its release some critics thought Zeppelin was too complex and self-indulgent. I mean, the apocalyptic drum beat on Levee has been repeatedly sampled by hip-hop acts, most famously by the Beastie Boys. Compare that to the jazzy percussion on Four Sticks -- couldn't be more different. Rock and Roll followed by Battle of Evermore? Going to California followed by When the Levee Breaks?? Major shifts in tempo and mood. And one of the things that makes Stairway so epic is how it builds slowly from medieval folk to rousing metal. While some songs do repeat riffs (what legendary riff ISN'T repeated?) the band includes varying themes and bridges that mix things up and keep the songs interesting. And Plant does not sing in a monotone. He just doesn't. Lots of emotion and variation in his vocal performance.

I think the real issue is that people believe Zeppelin is overplayed -- and it is. The first time I heard Led Zeppelin IV, I was blown away, but after hearing it for approximately 2,000 times, I often skip it in iTunes in favor of something that sounds fresher to my ears. But, I get that way with Iron Maiden sometimes too. That doesn't mean it isn't awesome.

I'm not surprised that Bruce's solo albums are getting inordinate attention on this forum. And, while I think Accident of Birth is uneven, I am not voting against Chemical Wedding because it is great. Maybe it should even be regarded as a classic -- though generally it is not. Led Zeppelin IV is. Who's Next is. And rightly so. And, to Flash's comment, if the people on the Trivium board can't recognize that, then they are just as misguided as this bunch.

* Not an edit: That parenthetical was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Foro has pretty good taste in music, this particular insanity notwithstanding. :p

EDIT: As an example of Foro's good taste in music, he's voting against Dream Theater!:cheers:
 
Really when someone calls IV 'one dimensional' I wonder if they actually listened to it and paid attention. Or if they just wrote it off before even hearing it. IV isn't my favorite album, but it is very diverse. Then you have the followup Houses of the Holy, which is even more diverse!!
 
Mosh said:
Really when someone calls IV 'one dimensional' I wonder if they actually listened to it and paid attention. Or if they just wrote it off before even hearing it. IV isn't my favorite album, but it is very diverse. Then you have the followup Houses of the Holy, which is even more diverse!!
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Oh yeah. Then after that a double album of different styles in Physical Graffiti! Also in my mind, their last great work.
 
Physical Graffiti's first disc is excellent. I'm not familiar enough with the second. I'm not sure if I'd call it as diverse as the previous two albums.
 
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