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

He sounds like a bit of a banker.

Think I missed a round here. I would definitely have voted for CoB and most likely Dark Tranquility.

Skid Row, Slippetyknot, Cannibal Corpse, and also meant to vote for Pantera but somehow clicked on Isis.
 
I don't expect Tomb of the Mutilated to advance, it's not a great album anyway - but Hammer Smashed Face and I Cum Blood do rank very highly among my cherished death metal tracks. The former especially so.
 
The Paul Gilbert stuff sounds pretty good, but the Skid Row debut is just too fun.
I give Slipknot, and the Iowa album generally, a good deal of credit for raw anger and aggression. There may be times when I would turn to Slipknot over Baroness. But not very often. Baroness is one of my favorite bands, and Red gets my vote.
Cannibal Corpse made me laugh, but not enough to give it a vote.
The last matchup is closer -- there is good Pantera and bad Pantera, and this track is bad Pantera. When Phil sings clean, he's quite good. I'll wait to vote for Cowboys or Vulgar Display later. For now, I'll go with Isis. I don't imagine them (or Neurosis or any other so-called "post-metal" act) doing all that well in this game, as they are just too weird and avant-garde, though there is a lot of creativity and variety within each song and album. The vocals can get annoying, I admit, but no more annoying that Phil Anselmo's scream/rap. I notice that, at least for me, YouTube suggests I listen to a Pink Floyd song based on this Isis track. Kinda makes sense. But that's only part of what Isis sounds like, hopefully people do a deeper dive than just this one track.
 
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The Paul Gilbert album has some nice sections, and “Suite Modale” and “The Gargoyle” are pretty cool, but something about the songwriting in general didn’t work for me. The Skid Row album is only 3 great songs with a bunch of filler, but those 3 great songs go a long way. Winner: Skid Row

Aside from a few fleeting sections, this Slipknot album is mostly garbage. Yelly, noisy, samey. No thanks. Baroness wins by default. Winner: Baroness

This Cannibal Corpse album is just comically bad. I think the “singer” managed to get the microphone all the way down into his stomach, given how muffled and curdled the vocals are. The thrash riffing is completely directionless, and the drummer plays like he just snorted an entire brick of cocaine. Meanwhile, Living Colour plays music. Winner: Living Colour

This last match-up is another lose-lose proposition for the listener. I will say that a few of the Pantera deep cuts weren’t that terrible, when Anselmo actually tried to approximate a melody while Dimebag tried to approximate Metallica. Also, the final ballad is pretty OK. But most of the album is crap. The Isis album has bad singing and an odd mixture of styles, but it annoyed me a lot less than Pantera did overall. This Isis album never should have lasted this long in the contest, but I’m forced to vote for it this time. Winner: Isis
 
I enjoyed the Paul Gilbert album a lot, and for a guitar virtuoso, he brings a lot to the table. That was a lot of fun to listen to. But I really am not just a guitar-focused guy. I enjoy them lots, but I want the full package, and Sebastian Bach brings so much to the table as a singer. Skid Row.

So, fun fact about me, I mostly can't stand Slipknot. I am absolutely getting to like this album Baroness.

Cannibal Corpse is like, no. I've listened to lots of their albums and seen them live, and they're just a no for me. Whereas Living Colour remains one of the best funk metal bands ever, and Vivid is their masterpiece.

I....don't like Pantera very much. Isis.
 
Paul Gilbert's album sounds nice. The man is one hell of a musician and that is plain for all to see after a couple of spins. Nevertheless this is your typical "enjoy the experience once" album since, apart from the great hooks and performance, there's not much going on around here regarding memorable song composition. Already gave my two cents about Skid Row's first album and although it's a virtual tie I'll go with Paul Gilbert as a charity vote.

I really think Slipknot is one of the most overrated bands ever in metal. When they came up I immediately disliked Corey Taylor's half screaming half rap metal voice (the melodic tones sound alright though) and the overall pointless juvenile plastic aggressive edge of the band. When the second album (for all accounts) came out I must confess I was a bit more fond of the material. More concise, heavy, a bit less nu-metalesque while featuring an even more amazing drum work than its predecessor. But all the traits I disliked before were still there (although to lesser extent). So yeah... in the nightmare universe of awful music that is nu metal, Iowa has some cool passages and this is material that towers miles above the Coal Chambers and similar acts of the world. But let's face it: that´s a pretty low bar. And in the end Iowa is just a mediocre album with some good moments here and there that was propelled to "masterpiece quality level" by the immensely huge image and marketing machine behind the band. As for Baroness's Red you all know by now I really like it so it's a no brainer when it comes to my pick.

Ahhhhhh... Tomb Of The Mutilated. Now this is the stuff romantic songs are made of eheheheh. Ok... although I really love some brutal death metal stuff the Cannibal Corpse "disease" never infected me (with the only exception being The Bleeding). And yeah... I can see where the appeal came from: shocking over the top and almost comical horror lyrics and aesthetics alongside brutal and well played extreme music. Nevertheless Tomb failed to impress me as the vast majority of Cannibal's catalogue. And while the more than famous Hammer Smashed Face is a great track and so is I Cum Blood (perhaps the band's most hilarious title ever) then it all starts sounding ultra repetitive and boring. So while I understand how this record is ultra appealing... nah! IMO there's always been better ultra brutal stuff out there. On the other hand you all know how much I dig Vivid so Living Color it is.

Finally I also won't repeat myself on how i love Oceanic. But this time it has found a really fierce competitor. I knew Pantera with Cowboys From Hell and liked them a lot from the get go. Then Vulgar came along and loved it even more. Unlike many people I always disliked Walk and This Love (find them boring and uninspired) but man... songs like Mouth For War, Rise and Hollow were way heavier, really unique and amazing stuff. Comes '94 and I remember as it was today: I bought this on tape the day it came out (still have it) went home and hit the play button. What I heard was one of the most corrosive, in your face, let's-throw-riffs-that-hurt-like-bricks-to-your-eardrums that I ever experienced. Strength Beyond Strength's hardcore edge opens the album in a masterful fashion destroying everything (that breakdown in the middle is absolutely crushing). On Becoming Darrel's whammy riffage continues the onslaught and 5 Minutes Alone and I'm Broken are two examples of amazing groove infused heaviness reinvented for the 90's. Then things come to an alt with the WTF moment that is Good Friends and the somehow boring Hard Lines. After that the whole damn thing gets a whole different ambiance. Comes the absurdly heavy Slaughtered (perhaps the heaviest track on the record) and another brutal display in the form of Use My Third Arm. Now the following tracks see the band dwelling into more intimate, obscure and tense stuff, especially on the lyrical side. 25 Years, Shedding Skin and Throes Of Rejection are the first songs where Anselmo really spills his guts about some of his (many) ghosts, a trait that would be even more prominent in the following record. As a closer the band offer us tan awesome version of Planet Caravan. So to sum it up Far Beyond Driven was, for many years, my favorite Pantera album (some years ago it became TGST). Nowadays I rarely pick it up and only listen to Pantera far between. Don't get me wrong: while still liking the band tons and thinking they're one of metal's most incredible units when it came to compose heavy songs, my love for this genre of music really decreased substantially with time. But make no mistake: Far Beyond Driven was an album that defined an era and was the most daring evolution the band went through since they dropped their heavy/speed metal songs on Power Metal to a heavier and more unique sound in Cowboys From Hell. This is classic as classic can be (and definitely the heaviest thing to ever reach the BB #1 ... still wonder how to this very day!). And while curiously I listen more to Isis's Oceanic nowadays I obviously give Pantera my vote for all the reasons above.
 
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I don't imagine them (or Neurosis or any other so-called "post-metal" act) doing all that well in this game, as they are just too weird and avant-garde, though there is a lot of creativity and variety within each song and album
Yup... As a big fan of some of the bands that kinda fall in that category I also think the regular rock/metal fan tends to get confused with some of those acts and how far they're willing to push the boundaries of conventional composing.
And the reference to Pink Floyd (mainly their first records that rank among my favorites) is absolutely fitting. Tracks like a Saucerful Of Secrets, Set The Controls To The Heart Of The Sun, Sisyphus, Echoes Part 2 or Careful With That Axe Eugene have a lot in common with some landscapes explored by those bands and the most traditional music fan reaction on these songs is also normally a huge "WTF?".
Nevertheless I nominated two "post metal" records: Rosetta's Wake/Lift (perhaps the vocals will turn you off on this one although they're way back in the mix) and Cult Of Luna's Mariner (here the main singing is made by the unique voice of Julie Christmas, while there are some screaming going on).
 
I'm not a fan of Nirvana, bar a couple of their catchier singles I'm pretty hostile towards them, but there is definitely a place for them in this competition. Probably more so than one or two of my nominations! :lol:
 
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Not surprised at Tomb of the Mutilated's performance, I hated that album at first listen. Now I enjoy it a good bit. Definitely not in my top 5 Cannibal Corpse albums though. I have such a strong love/hate relationship with Cannibal Corpse. Eaten Back to Life is amazing, then the dip in quality on Butchered at Birth is abysmal. That album sucks. I think they've been on a roll here with their past few releases though, Red Before Black is awesome.
 
I didn't really like any of the newcomers, only Pantera vs Isis was difficult. Far Beyond Driven is probably my least favourite Pantera but I still chose it.
 
Not surprised at Tomb of the Mutilated's performance, I hated that album at first listen. Now I enjoy it a good bit. Definitely not in my top 5 Cannibal Corpse albums though. I have such a strong love/hate relationship with Cannibal Corpse. Eaten Back to Life is amazing, then the dip in quality on Butchered at Birth is abysmal. That album sucks. I think they've been on a roll here with their past few releases though, Red Before Black is awesome.
No The Bleeding??? :eek:
 
Wait, did I say it was metal?
I don't mind Nirvana in the game at all, I like them, may very well vote for them at some point. But I have a vague recollection that, to be nominated, an album had to be listed in Encyclopaedia Metallicum or some such reference point? Whatever. No biggie. I'd rather listen to In Utero than Cannibal Corpse.
 
But I have a vague recollection that, to be nominated, an album had to be listed in Encyclopaedia Metallicum or some such reference point?
Yeah, but it had some pretty weird omissions when you got near hair metal and hard rock, and I think some of the artists in the magazine lists weren’t even in there, so I think LC instituted an “I know it when I see it” standard. Looking at the nominees it’s really more of a heavy music album cup than an explicitly heavy metal one, and bands like Nirvana and Rush and Ministry certainly fall under that larger umbrella.
 
Albums that barely fit the "metal" moniker start with a distinct disadvantage for me. I will vote out an album that I really love if I don't think it's metal for the sake of integrity for the game. As much as I love Rush, for example, I think it'd be pretty weird to see them win a "greatest metal album cup".
 
I don't think that Nirvana is metal but man... we already had a near K Pop record in this game. If they made it Nirvana is more than electable.
I myself let out bands that are easily above the majority of the list I gave just because I thought they weren't metal per se. Albums like Tool's Fear Inoculum, Alice In Chains' self titled, Led Zeppelin's II or Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. But I believe that's a personal choice and if people think Nirvana fits nicely in the metal genre, it's ok for me.
 
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