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

Candlemass over W.A.S.P., easily. Honestly, there wasn't much appealing about the latter.

I would never have imagined voting against an album featuring Ritchie Blackmore at the top of his game, let alone a Rainbow-album, but Symbolic really is Chuck Shuldiner's magnum opus. Amazing songwriting, amazing riffs, and those drums... man. Sound- and performancewise, some of the best drums ever recorded. Death it is.

Not very familiar with Tool - I don't think I've ever heard a full song by them until now, but I do like what I'm hearing here. I'm not blown away - the vocals seem a bit weak, but there is some decent riffing going on. The Final Frontier, on the other hand, is what I consider the weakest release from Maiden post-2000. I'm gonna toss the vote for Tool in this one.

I mainly know Bathory for their later, Nordic-themed albums, and, after delving into Under the Sign of the Black Mark, I can say I definitely prefer Quorthon doing his viking bit. So Far, So Good... So What? was my first ever Megadeth-album, and one of the reasons it took me while to get into them - there's just something about it I don't really like, it's so unmemorable. Did it seriously beat The Odyssey? Ridiculous. Alright, I'm voting for Bathory.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I really meant it in the way that someone surprised that such a classic like MC are losing might imply that the person being surprised come from "America" (the US, Canada)... which sure, Whooten indeed does.
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I was just a little surprised by the fact an album that, if not defined an entire genre, was at least a tent pole for an entire scene that took over music in America for almost a decade. It was originally released before The Number of the Beast, for historical context. And to lose to Alter Bridge, which I think of as a generic heavy rock band that had pop appeal--certainly nothing groundbreaking or scene-defining--was a bit of a surprise.

I would wager that the few people on here who voted for To Fast For Love are also bigger than average fans of IM/Killers, which are more akin to early Crue's style than post-SIT Maiden. I would never call myself a Crue fan (I like the first two albums well enough) and I did see them in concert on the Girls, Girls, Girls Tour because a good friend was a huge fan of theirs.

Finally, serious question, are Alter Bridge more popular in Europe than in the States or is it about the same?
 
Whooten said:
Finally, serious question, are Alter Bridge more popular in Europe than in the States or is it about the same?
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Alter Bridge do seem to be much more popular in Europe based on things like where they're billed on festivals. For example, this was a festival lineup in the U.S. that was scheduled for 2020, (it didn't end up happening for obvious reasons) and you can see how far back they're listed, whereas if this same lineup happened in a festival in Europe, they would probably be one of the headliners.

ST20-Official-Admat-1-768x1187.jpg
 
I dunno, personally I wouldn't have heard of Alter Bridge if it wasn't for Edge's theme song. Spotify statistics suggest that South America is their biggest market, unsurprisingly.
 
Collin said:
change your vote
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And LC said:
o5m0tebtcll21.jpg
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Oh, blame me being behind the times once again.

I keep thinking how Stephen King picked his nom de plume Richard Bachman because of them... but that's not really recent, now, is it?

Okay, my bad. Should have probably picked another band, like the Steve Miller Band (or are those unknown already too?). Or Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show? Would have also avoided all the Canadian shenanigans then.

At least we all understand one another now and thank you for the responses.
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I blame you for not taking my post as intended, a self-deprecating joke based on the most crucial element of the Canadian national identity: that we aren’t Americans and we think the rest of the world is too self-absorbed to notice or care.

And I thank you for reinforcing the stereotype.
I’m just joking you again, you hoser, let’s go get a beer.

(You Romanians are all the same.)
 
This W.A.S.P. album is really unremarkable hair metal, with Blackie Lawless’s typically overwrought vocal delivery, cringeworthy lyrics, and no particularly memorable songs. There are some minor vocal hooks here and there, and a strong solo or two, but nothing seems to fully come together. There are so many albums from 1984 that are so much better than this, even in the exact same genre (I should know, I nominated two of them and they were both eliminated already!), that it’s hard for me to see the appeal. Compare this to a genre-defining classic that still holds up today and it’s an easy decision. Sorry, @Niall Kielt, but Tarljis The Magnon’s nominee wins this one. Winner: Candlemass

The music on this Death album is complex and interesting, and I can see how someone could really appreciate and enjoy this record. Prior to the GMAC I would have said the vocals were terrible, but at this point after everything else I’ve heard I only find them to be moderately annoying. Unfortunately, that’s an ongoing, ever-present annoyance, and for me that’s a boat anchor around the neck of the album. Given the choice, I would rather listen to this Rainbow album instead. Sorry, @Saapanael, but I have to go with the list nominee here. Winner: Rainbow

This Tool album is consistently hypnotic and interesting, like most of their catalog. Meanwhile, this Iron Maiden album is really uneven despite its highlights, and has no business getting this far into the game. Invisible hand willing, I think it’s time for Captain Keenan to ask “what does God need with a starship?” Sorry, @Collin, but @Lampwick 43 ‘s choice ought to be the end of your franchise. Winner: Tool

This Bathory album is mostly a disaster when it comes to production, songwriting, and vocal performance. Most of it literally sounds like noise to me, though I did like the pipe organ in “Woman Of Dark Desires”, and “Enter The Eternal Fire” had a strong groove and came the closest to being an enjoyable song for me. But going up against my personal favorite Megadeth album it doesn’t stand a chance. Sorry, @Dityn DJ James, but own-nominee bias wins the day here. Though I’d still vote this way even if it wasn’t my nominee. Winner: Megadeth
 
Okay, so

I have already spewn enough bile regarding WASP and hair metal and typical 80s bands already, I won't prolong the hostilities or come up with yet another thinly veiled hints at venereal diseases and I'll simply say that I am very much a doom metal band whereas WASP in particular is not my cup of tea. Candlemass it is, for the doomy dooms of doom! (though the title is atrocious - I hope we all agree upon that)

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Jer said:
The music on this Death album is complex and interesting, and I can see how someone could really appreciate and enjoy this record. Prior to the GMAC I would have said the vocals were terrible, but at this point after everything else I’ve heard I only find them to be moderately annoying. Unfortunately, that’s an ongoing, ever-present annoyance, and for me that’s a boat anchor around the neck of the album. Given the choice, I would rather listen to this Rainbow album instead. Sorry, @Saapanael, but I have to go with the list nominee here. Winner: Rainbow
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For what it's worth, Symbolic was my first extreme metal album* (along with Atheist's Unquestionable Presence, which is still one of the most unique metal experiences for me) and I absolutely loved it, although I hated the sound of the vocals on both albums. In fact, you could say that the vocals are the only monotonous thing on the record... and I found that definitely fascinating. In the end it was probably the album and band to open the door to extreme metal for me (I then read something about the - relative - technicality and Egyptian themes of Nile and tried them out, experimented with some deathrash bands etc.)

I'm - by golly! - not opening up the vocals debate again, just trying to get as close to your position as possible.


*I don't count when I discovered Cannibal Corpse in high school and played the first album a few times to shock and creep out myself and other people, I was also fascinated by the cover. But I found it to be just a curiosity, monotonous and insane and I couldn't understand how someone might actually listen to that.


So that said, I must vote for the more intriguing albums here - LLRnR is my least favourite Rainbow album (and, like probably my third least favourite Dio-fronted album overal, at least going by memory) and Death's Symbolic gave me a lot and the magic didn't evaporate.

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I have said many times over that I genuinely love TFF, especially its second half and I think the amount of bashing it gets around here is ridiculous... but Tool, although I'm not particularly in the mood for them now, brought the better album (...probably.) Voting for and on behalf of all the nerds that have ever had their head held down the toilet!

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Finally, a strong Bathory album of my less favourite period of theirs or my less favourite Deth album of one of the strongest period of theirs? I think I'll go with the former, seems more objective.
 
Whooten said:
Finally, serious question, are Alter Bridge more popular in Europe than in the States or is it about the same?
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They played Wembley for their third album tour, in the US they play theatres, in Canada, well they haven't played in the West since Blackbird IIRC.
 
Okay, I believe you. Nonetheless checks a lot of the boxes I dislike about hair metal, so I'm not changing my original post.
 
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