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

One must admit there are bands that make out of groove their absolute build. It's not only a part of what the band has to offer: IT IS BASICALLY THE BAND. And I cannot remind of better examples than AC/DC and The Ramones when it comes to this. I mean it's almost automatic to any rock fan to start nodding to the simple yet engaging 4 by 4 when someone blasts a song of these two bands even if you're not actually a fan.
That being said (and unlike other records) I think Highway To Hell is that record that relies a lot in the hits. And even those are not the best examples of their systematic yet engaging recipe. Yeah, there's If You Want Blood (You Got It) and Walk All Over You (two high octane rockers that truly make justice to the effect AC/DC's music have on the majority of rock lovers) but the when it comes to the remainder (title track included) I feel like they did far better before and in following records.
On the other hand Train Of Thought is one of those 2000's DT records I fancy. A bit more simplistic than its predecessor (but not as good IMO) this is perhaps the album where the band took a little less prog and a little more metal to their compositions. The first four songs are mainly strong and well penned. And while As I Am and Endless Sacrifice are kinda predictable and featuring somehow obvious melodies and dynamics, This Dying soul and especially Honor Thy Father are truly intense. Stream Of Consciousness can be mistaken by an excuse for the band to indulge in wanking workshop and while there are passages that blatantly are such it's also true other sections are great. Just check the initial progression/ riff. Or the crescendo that starts bass n' drums alone roughly at the middle of the track and the way it climbs towards the aforementioned first riff of the song. In The Name Of God follows the main trend of the record: heavy and engaging riffs - with some interesting instrumental passages - but I truly dislike the chorus and this somewhat compromises the song. But in the end I'm not gonna lie... although I'm not your typical Dream Theater fan my favorite album from this couple is clearly Train Of Thought.

Now see what I wrote about the lack of "AC/DC mojo" in Highway To Hell? Back In Black is a totally different story. The hits sound muscular, compelling and truly survived the test of time through severe overplaying. Plus it's the first record after the death of Bon Scott who's voice the majority of people (me included) preferred to the new added Brian Johnson... and still it's a classic by any measure conceivable. Hells Bells, Rock N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, Shoot To Thrill, Giving A Dog A Bone and the title track are like acoustic anchors made of pure Rock N' Roll that simply leave no choice to even the most indifferent to AC/DC rocker to stomp their feet and nod their head before they can even notice it.
But then there's Still Life... and The Godhead Lament to Serenity Painted Death sequence. So yeah... maximum respect for the great record Back In Black is but I'll easily go with Opeth.

Lightning For The Nations is easily one of the best late 70's Heavy Metal releases and one of the most influential and pivotal records in heavy music for the following years. The Prince, Helpless, It's Electric or the title track are solid and powerful as concrete yet bringing lots of smart and well placed licks and details. Underrated as hell, I imagine if someone would give these guys a fraction of the credit they deserve if it wasn't for Metallica. Yes, because although being a classic alongside any other release NWOBHM during that period there's still lots of credit due to this band and this excellent record in particular. So going against a merely decent album by Iced Earth this one goes easily to Diamond Head.

What can a band do after releasing a juggernaut like Reign In Blood? Did you ever tried to even imagine the dilema of these guys when starting to sketch South Of Heaven? Try to beat the damn thing in aggression and intensity? To equal it would be unthinkable and match it would be almost impossible. So there's part of the reason why I consider South Of Heaven to be the band's best record after Reign In Blood. The way these dudes took their foot off the gas but still sounded intense, dark and eerie is absolutely mind blowing. Plus there's a maturation regarding the compositions that in no way possible compromise the essence. I can't recall of an album that was that less fast and heavy being as well accepted by its fanbase (and take in account back in the day these were already some of the most extreme fanbases in metal).
The title track brings the typical guitar harmonies started in songs like Black Magic and perfected throughout the ages (till they aged like a fine wine in Raining Blood) to a slow, heavy and dire ambiance. This track also marks somewhat of a shift in the lyrics: instead of being almost solely focused in the devil, gore and stuff like that this is another department where the boys approached things in a more diverse and smarter fashion. South Of Heaven at first seems like a description of hell or something alike when in truth it portrays our planet and our race. Silent Scream and its abortion related theme is yet another good example of the truly down to earth issues this album brings to the table. And while being a truly fast song it's more contained, focused... less chaotic but more focused. Other examples of this truly masterful way that the band pulled out while expressing their message music and lyrics wise is the brutal combo of Mandatory Suicide and Ghost Of War, two openly anti-war themes that dissect its horrors in a (dare I say) more political andd social fashion. One does it through the prespective of the soldier sent to die in the front line while the other achieves it exposing the traumatized minds of the surviving. Behind The Crooked Cross explores the same matter when war is justified by religion. Speaking of which there's also the bashing of tele evangelists and their falsity, manipulation greed on Read Between The Lines.
Of course there's still space for some horror in Live Undead and some satanic like corny stuff in Cleanse The Soul as well as a superb Priest cover that fits perfectly the album's ambiance. Spill The Blood soothing yet sinister cryptic message and harmonies closes one of metal's highest points of the 80's. So what we have here is a classic on every aspect and a record that had everything to fail after its predecessor but came out to be a major success. And, at the risk of comparing apples to oranges (something we must do in this game), while Hemispheres is also a classic I think Slayer's South Of Heaven is on another level when it comes to metal history.
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
Damn. Karma's a bitch.

I guess I'll go preemptively punch two holes in my wall for the rage I'm going to feel when both of these reunion albums get squashed by their "classic era" lessers.
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I don’t know, Killers seems to not be very popular around here, and I honestly don’t know which way the POM/AMOLAD match will turn, since AMOLAD is justly admired here. Either match could go either way.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I guess I'll go preemptively punch two holes in my wall for the rage I'm going to feel when both of these reunion albums get squashed by their "classic era" lessers.
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I swear to god, I thought we'd already beaten the shit out of Killers earlier, but it was only VXI. AMOLAD and TBOS are way better than their classic era rivals. I know that everyone loves to champion POM, but to me it's one of their most inconsistent records. AMOLAD has weaker lows, but also higher highs, IMO, and the album experience is way more fluid. Also, having "For the Greater Good of God" in its tracklist instantly tosses it the win.

And TBOS vs Killers. "Empire of the Clouds" alone would be enough to send it into the history books, but every single song on that album is good, and the majority are truly excellent. It's a resounding success for a band as old as Iron Maiden and a Top 5 record from them for me. Killers remains stuffed to the brim with leftovers that should've remained on the cutting floor. /rant
 
Niall Kielt said:
Am I the only one who thinks Dream Theatre suck serious balls? Like, all those sections highlighted by Judas, I think they all sound like shit. I do not get those guys at all. In fact, even the band members names annoy me. And their album covers. That band make my skin crawl.
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I was pretty indifferent to them before the games started, but 10 albums being nominated kind of had the opposite to desired effect on me! :lol:
 
MindRuler said:
Sun and Steel and Quest For Fire might be less than the rest but are still great songs.
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I actually like every single song on POM. The issue is that the GREAT songs eclipse the merely good ones. Let me outline it:

GREAT - good

WHERE EAGLES DARE
REVELATIONS
FLIGHT OF ICARUS
die with your boots on
THE TROOPER
STILL LIFE
quest for fire
sun and steel
to tame a land

I think a big reason POM doesn't connect with me as much as, for instance, Powerslave or SiT, is because it overloads the really great songs at the front, and leaves the back half with merely solid songs. "To Tame a Land" is good, but it also feels like a "Hallowed" retread. Meanwhile on other records, they start great and end great, leaving any potentially weaker moments for the middle. This is obviously just how I feel about it, but it's a key reason why I find POM too inconsistent to be up there with Maiden's best.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Damn. Karma's a bitch.

I guess I'll go preemptively punch two holes in my wall for the rage I'm going to feel when both of these reunion albums get squashed by their "classic era" lessers.
Click to expand...
I'll gladly consider Killers over The Book of Souls (or vice versa). Honestly, it's not an easy choice. Neither is anywhere near being among my top Maiden records.

AMOLAD vs PoM isn't going to be difficult though.
 
Niall Kielt said:
Am I the only one who thinks Dream Theatre suck serious balls? Like, all those sections highlighted by Judas, I think they all sound like shit. I do not get those guys at all. In fact, even the band members names annoy me. And their album covers. That band make my skin crawl.
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Dream Theatre suck balls, Dream Theater don’t. We’ve been over this. :facepalm:
 
I could accept POM beating TBOS, and might even agree if it weren't for EOTC. But if fecking Killers beats it....woof.

And, since I guess I'm in a shit-stirring mood, re: the Dream Theater & Opeth vs. AC/DC matches we currently have going. No one can argue that these AC/DC albums are absolute stone cold classics (especially Back In Black). Back In Black could justifiably win a game like this
if the game was called the Greatest Classic Rock Album Cup. But since this is a metal game, Dream Theater and Opeth have incredibly superior outings here. :devil2:
 
Collin said:
What we have here is 20 people that didn’t bother to listen to Still Life by Opeth.
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I mean, to be fair, it has growls, Collin. Growls! They don't sound good! At all! And the songs are SO LONG.

But you gimme a screeching cat shredding it's vocal chords over a tight E-A-D chord progression and the simplest boom-bap you ever heard for only 3 minutes at a time and mmmmmmmmmm-mmmmm baby you got a stew goin'!
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I mean, to be fair, it has growls, Collin. Growls! They don't sound good! At all! And the songs are SO LONG.

But you gimme a screeching cat shredding it's vocal chords over a tight E-A-D chord progression and the simplest boom-bap you ever heard for only 3 minutes at a time and mmmmmmmmmm-mmmmm baby you got a stew goin'!
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See? I knew you’d figure it out if you thought about it long enough. There might still be time to change your votes if you ask Loosey politely.
 
Diesel 11 said:
I actually like every single song on POM. The issue is that the GREAT songs eclipse the merely good ones. Let me outline it:

GREAT - good

WHERE EAGLES DARE
REVELATIONS
FLIGHT OF ICARUS
die with your boots on
THE TROOPER
STILL LIFE
quest for fire
sun and steel
to tame a land

I think a big reason POM doesn't connect with me as much as, for instance, Powerslave or SiT, is because it overloads the really great songs at the front, and leaves the back half with merely solid songs. "To Tame a Land" is good, but it also feels like a "Hallowed" retread. Meanwhile on other records, they start great and end great, leaving any potentially weaker moments for the middle. This is obviously just how I feel about it, but it's a key reason why I find POM too inconsistent to be up there with Maiden's best.
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Fair enough. :)
 
Jer said:
I don’t know, Killers seems to not be very popular around here, and I honestly don’t know which way the POM/AMOLAD match will turn, since AMOLAD is justly admired here. Either match could go either way.
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I'm sure Killers will be destroyed.
By people who'll then play Empire of the Clouds several times in succession, in triumph.
 
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