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

I'm going to try to commit myself to listening to 3 songs from every album from here out, But I'm not going to subject myself to the punishment if the choice will be painfully obvious based on just the posted songs.
Yep, same. Also liked @Confeos’s approach of listening to the album opener as well, so I’ll be doing that, the posted song, and another (unless the song posted is the opener).
 
OK, boomer.
Hilarious, since I’m on the young end of Gen X, but whatever. Shitty vocals are niche. This shouldn’t be news to anyone. Enjoy them if you like. You do you.
Primal Rock Rebellion doesn't have "extreme" vocals, btw.
Please, educate me on how they’re not. No, really. I would enjoy a dissertation on the various flavors of shit vocals and what counts as “extreme” and what doesn’t.
 
Deafheaven - As I've said before I'm not a Deafheaven fan. But I respect their work and originality and would pick 'em any day of the week over some Dark Funeral trve kult BS wanna be crap.

Children Of Bodom - IMO this was the last decent album by COB (although nothing too special). Heavens Gate's is also enjoyable but little more than that.

Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black is one hell of an album. I think Nevermore is a band that got really underrated in their beginnings , both this album and their debut. They also got overrated in their last two efforts so fair enough. As for No More Tears Ozzy has recorded way better albums like Blizzard, Madman or Sin (not to mention the stuff he did with Sabbath).

Persefone - Two bands I know little about and although Kverlertak sounds like a lot of fun I'll go with the tad bit more challenging sound of the prog metal band.
 
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Deafhaven fares a lot better with New Bermuda than it did with Sunbather — more coherent for sure. But I have to give the edge to Gorgoroth here, because the music grabs me more, despite the low-rent production. Winner: Gorgoroth

I had never heard Heaven’s Gate before, and this album is pretty solid throughout. Good songwriting and music, good vocals, so-so production. But despite the black metal vocals, I’m going to have to give this one to Children Of Bodom for their way more infectious music and songwriting. Winner: Children Of Bodom

Nevermore offers meatier music in this matchup, but something about the vocals rubs me the wrong way, and the songs don’t particularly stand out from each other. Plus that multi-minute dead air in “Forever” is kind of unforgivable. Ozzy’s songs are simpler, and some are filler, but overall the album is more memorable — so I’ll have to give it the edge here. It was a close one, though. Winner: Ozzy Osbourne

Kverlertak vs. Persefone is an interesting matchup because I don’t really like the vocals in either band. Kverlertak is more consistent in their delivery, but their music is more straightforward. Persefone is proggier and has more range, but the vocals seem more out of place with the atmospheric synths, and the album is less cohesive. Winner: Kverlertak
 
Accept. They are pretty generic sounding, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I actually wouldn't be opposed to digging deeper into them in the future.

I might have gave them a bit of stick earlier in the thread, but balls to the wall is a really brilliant heavy metal album
 
Deafhaven - musically, far, far better than that last album, and I might have been rushing to check out the whole album if they had an actual singer, the gothesque bit sounds great and when the heavier guitar kicked in it was much better than I'd been expecting, bit of a Bruce solo vibe from the riff. The Beatles breakdown is great too. I can't understand why they have those vocals.

Gorgoroth - Enjoyed the opening riff, and the vocals although not my taste were acceptable, then the next section spolied it totally with the rhythm. When the rhythm changed again it wasn't too bad, not a million miles away from what I'd listen to, like if Slayer played that section I'd be on board as the rhythm would be groovier and the vocals more palatable. As with Black Metal in general, it just seems like an affectation and a gimmick, there's something that could have been enjoyable there and they deliberately ruin it with weird rhythms.

Deafhaven wins.

Heaven's Gate. - ok, sounds like a second rate Queensryche recording with a limited budget, bass sounds like an 8 bit computer game. Also, can't believe this came out in 1996, seems like it's about 8 years too late for a potential audience.

Children of Bodom - musically ok, bar the double bass which was totally cliche, synth breakdown and vocals not my cup of tea. (The video stops playing when the song is clearly not over for me, anyone else getting that?)

Really can't give a shit who wins this match up, neither terrible, neither having anything of any interest for me. I'll go with Heaven's Gate as they are a bad version of a band I might like, whereas I'd never like a band with that much unnecessary double bass, synth/keyboards and put on vocals.

Nevermore - opens ok, double bass adds nothing but distraction to the riff, vocals not awful but not great either. Sounds like something I'd like if there was stronger hooks and better song writing.

Ozzy - First album in the entire game so far that I own. Last great Ozzy record, not as good as the Randy Rhoades albums but never the less, a load of Ozzy classics, Mama I'm coming Home, No More Tears, Desire etc. Really benefits from the Lemmy collaboration, although I really could do without the lyrics to Mr. Tinkertrain :facepalm:

Easy win for Ozzy

Kvelertak - I like this, maybe tone down the vocals a bit, but first band so far that I have not been familiar with that has got the head nodding, and I'll check out more stuff definitely. Ticks a lot of my boxes.

Persefone - no interest into listening to this sterile overproduced computer game music after enjoying Kvelertak, and the vocals are laughable. Why do these vocalists try and make every word sound like it begins with W?

Easy Win for Kvelertak
 
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I'm going to try to commit myself to listening to 3 songs from every album from here out, But I'm not going to subject myself to the punishment if the choice will be painfully obvious based on just the posted songs.

If you're not already familiar with Ozzy, the three others I suggested would be a good start, especially the title track.
 
Deafheaven - New Bermuda vs Gorgoroth - Antichrist

There isn’t a whole lot of black metal that I can get into, and unfortunately Gorgoroth just sounds like typical not-very-interesting black metal to me. Deafheaven impressed me more this time than they did in the round prior. I’ll admit I wasn’t fully paying attention last round and might have missed something; this time I was very impressed by all of the melodies woven into the songs I heard from this record. I also really dug the vocalist. I don’t know if I’d be able to listen to this album and keep the full focus, but I could definitely see myself returning to it when in need of some background music.

—————

Heavens Gate - Planet Earth vs Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll

What a matchup. Very hard to choose one over the other. I went in expecting an easy win for COB who I’d heard before, but Heavens Gate really came swinging in a totally humble sort of way. Where Bodom is all about the break-your-neck-in-the-whiplash speed, which is great, Heavens Gate is just a straightforward metal-with-prog-influence band. The song “Animal” in particular was just great. I think I’m voting for them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if COB ended up winning and I’m okay with either.

—————

Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black vs Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Another tough round. No More Tears is a powerhouse of an album, but Nevermore had some really cool cuts and I loved the singer. I think I’ll go for them, but again, I’d be happy with either of them winning.

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Kvelertak - Meir vs Persefone - Aathma

Kvelertak had a cool approach to their stuff, Persefone meaning was all out proggy death metal. Both are fine but not set to be faves. Going for Persefone just for the PRO O O O O OG.

EDIT: actually ended up listening to a lot more than I expected to. Some really cool stuff in this round.
 
Wingman is the most generic forum member then.
Lol, by no means Wingman is generic himself. But I do admit that I had sometimes thought that his metal taste indeed embraces broadly known bands and popular records in the not too extreme genres.

I thought that and it's now proven by stats although he is a mathematician himself so I should be careful. *Runs in opposite direction from Oslo*. ;--)
 
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Can I withhold a vote or do I have to vote for one in each matchup?
I mean I'd prefer you to vote in each matchup. You don't need to have a qualified opinion or anything. This is a metal form of a football tournament, sometimes stuff happens for silly reasons.
 
Kvelertak has recently become one of my favorite bands, notwithstanding the screeching vocals, so it wins over what sounds like a decent prog metal album. Meir just rocks harder.

I enjoyed both the Heaven’s Gate and Children of Bodom tracks more than I thought I would. Both are reasonably melodic, though CoB was heavier. I dunno, I liked the Heaven’s Gate track a little better, though it sounds a little dated.

Wasn’t too impressed by the others in this group.

Ozzy has much better albums than No More Tears. The Nevermore track wasn’t great but sounded better than this.

I loathe Deafheaven, as I mentioned, but their track sounded better than the Gorgoroth track, which was repetitive and stoopid.
 
Kvelertak - I like this, maybe tone down the vocals a bit, but first band so far that I have not been familiar with that has got the head nodding, and I'll check out more stuff definitely. Ticks a lot of my boxes.
:okok: Get on board! Kvelertak are great!
 
I still don't like Deafheaven. I saw Gaahl with Gaahls Wyrd and he played some Gorgoroth songs which I liked, so Gorgoroth it is. Heavens Gate sounds shit, I don't like this Children Of Bodom album that much, but it's certainly better than the opponent. Nevermore's Dreaming Neon Black is probably the best album in the game so far. Easy vote over Ozzy. I don't like Kvelertak whereas Persefone is a solid prog band.
 
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black is one hell of an album. I think Nevermore is a band that got really underrated in their beginnings , both this album and their debut.

Much like Warrell Dane's other band, Santuary. A great band that arrived on the scene a couple years too late.
 
Deafheaven vs Gorgoroth -- the only matchup in this round in which there is actually competition by two good albums. I'm going with Gorgoroth, but I enjoyed the Deafheaven one a lot.
Heavens Gate vs Children of Bodom -- The CoB album is from the bands latter, lesser years, but still well above Heavens Gate. I appreciate the obscurity and cheesiness of Heavens Gate, but I can't by any stretch say it's a good album or band.
Nevermore vs Ozzy - It takes a band like Nevermore to make Ozzy win by default. What a fucking snoozefest. I tried very, very hard in the olden days to like Nevermore and Sanctuary, but I simply never could. Nevermore is the sort of music I have no problem falling asleep to.
Kverlertak vs Persefone -- Neither is really good, but I'm going with Kverlertak because they have some nice guitars here and there.
 
Deafhaven gets my vote for having the far more interesting album on a musical standpoint. I couldn't make it through 2 songs of Gorgoroth.

Heavens Gate was pleasantly surprising! Based on the cover I was expecting something terrible, but truly enjoyed it. Really cool guitar playing. Bodom, meh. Don't like the vocals at all. The music is fine.

Going with Nevermore over Ozzy because Nevermore does not sound like Ozzy.

I get what Kverlertak are trying to do, but boy is not for me. Fucking obnoxious vocals. Persefone is light years better musically and the vocals are easier to digest.
 
My prior familiarity level on this round is almost non-existent. Might take a while, hopefully time doesn't expire before I can get to voting.
 
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