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

I don't mind Avenged Sevenfold too much as bubblegum easy listening metal goes, however, I preferred Power Trip's overall sound and consistency. Avenged Sevenfold have some good songs, albeit with hum along choruses, but they drift into lighter-waving emotional stuff a few times too many on this album for my liking.

I prefer Satyricon's more recent stuff to this, although I do think they're one of the best sounding black metal bands of all in their earlier material. The decent production helps, you can actually hear instruments, but their songs, even the earlier ones, seem to have a bit more structure to them that some black metal too. In a lot of other matches I'd have picked Satyricon by a mile, Sadly they're up against The Course of Empire, which is a belter. Plus all Maidedanfans mods have a vested interest in this. Atlantean Kodex.

Megadeth. I've really persevered with AC/DC, and while I don't dislike them, I just don't want to listen to a lot of them.

Ziltoid is pretty listenable stuff, preferable to a lot a Devin Townsend stuff I've heard, even if I don't find it very exciting. Crime Slunk Scene isn't one of Buckethead's most inviting albums.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
As your post showed as an alert and I wasn't sure which thread did I click, at first I thought you were talking about this one


then this came to mind


and only then did I realize you were talking about A7X...
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Haha, I guess it's not the most original of titles.
 
Avenged Sevenfold... the perfect example of how great musicians (and particularly this line up with Portnoy!) can make feeble music as feeble can get. Really... this is the epitome of chewing gum pop pseudo metal. Before everything let me address one point: besides Portnoy (obviously!) every single guy in this band is a more than crafty performer. And what's more irritating is that I'm 100% sure these guys are way, but way more capable composers than this crap can mislead you to conclude. This can be easily noticed in guitar solos, brief passages and details. But they chose to limit themselves to this sell out trash simply because they know it sells big time. It's so obvious they might as well mention it in every album inner notes. And it's a pity... one can only guess what quality musicians like these could produce if they had in their minds more than dollar signs. Easy win for Power Trip.

Satyricon again... *sigh*! No thanks. Give me the epic-and-cohesive-while-not-sounding-corny heavy metal by Atlantean Kodex.

I'm far from being a AC/DC fan and this album is, generally speaking, what you'd expect from these guys. Now if you're a fan yourself that's great, since the majority of songs here sound 100% typical AC/DC but with a little extra punch. For other people like me it sounds like little more than another record from these dudes. But truth be told alongside the superb title track (monster of a song!), the heavy and bluesy Inject The Venom and the slow addictive groove of Spellbound are my favorite cuts here. That being said I'm much more into the already somehow mature (if compared with other thrash debuts) first Megadeth album.

Finally we have a really good Buckethead record going against a special Devin project: a puppet inspired sci-fi comedy concept album. And although being special I must confess that musically speaking is one of my least favorite albums by Mr. Townsend. Sure it's another funny based record lke the Death Metal gone Pop Punk band in Punky Bruster. I mean I find Bruster's story simply hilarious but Ziltoid's concept is also really funny as well (although there are some of Townsend's personal demons being exorcised in a funny way in the form of this awkwardly comical alien). There are some cool cuts here like the ZTO/By Your Command opening combo, Color Your World or my favorite by far: Hyperdrive (that would later be re recorded in Addicted in a improved fashion). Other than the music that suports the narrative sounds merely like light SYL meets DTB with a considerable lack of depth. So yeah.... really amusing concept and gags made in a really strange context with some hilarious side notes (like the fact that when Dev shaved his ridiculous hair, he picked it up glued it to the puppet in a similar way he used it... that's really the man's hair!) but when it comes to the music itself it's just a tad bit below what a big Townsend fan like me expect to listen to. Nevertheless I'll admit my Devin bias and go with Ziltoid The Omniscient.
 
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Ziltoid, he comes! This is the first of three Devin albums I nominated. I think this is his most fun album, just for how dumb the story is, although the "concept" bit is closer to SSOASS than to Operation: Mindcrime imo.

It's heavier than his other stuff, (well, excluding Strapping Young Lad...), the example song "Hyperdrive" is not representative of the album at all. If you want that, I'll suggest "By Your Command": It's silly, big, and quite progressive. On the simper metal side you have "Planet Smasher" and "Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!".
My favourite song though must be the ultra emotional closing ballad "The Greys".

It's a very emotional album in general.
 
I think I just fundamentally don’t like Avenged Sevenfold. The singer goes back and forth between a thin and whiny sound with cheesy vocal harmonies and a fake bro-yelling sound that comes off like something he practiced in the mirror when he was 10. The music is a soulless ransom note cobbled together from bits of Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Blink-182 without any hint of originality. While there are some nice bits and pieces, I wind up wanting to skip past every song before I reach the end. And then we have Power Trip, with some pretty good riffage but even worse vocals. This is a lose-lose situation, but a choice has to be made — so, sorry @Whooten, but I’m going to hold my nose and vote for @KidInTheDark666 ’s nominee because it’s more melodic and I find it slightly less annoying. Winner: Avenged Sevenfold

Probably half of this Satyricon album sounds like a bunch of tweeners snuck into their dad’s garage and started banging on his instruments as loud and fast as they could while one of them tried to sound evil on the mic. In other words, pointless noise. The other half has some useful moments, but there’s no getting past the bad parts. Sorry, @Saapanael, but I must unenthusiastically vote for @Perun ’s nominee again, as it wins by default. Winner: Atlantean Kodex

This AC/DC album has more fire than most of their later albums. The title track is great, and “I Put The Finger On You”, “Evil Walks”, and “Spellbound” are all good stuff. Lots of filler, though, and in the end it can’t compare to the two killer albums that preceded it. Meanwhile, the Megadeth album also has its flaws (most notably “Loved To Deth”), but most of it is really good or great. Sorry, @mckindog, but I think the list nominee was stronger here. Winner: Megadeth

This Devin Townsend album isn’t really working for me. I don’t find it funny at all, just silly. Some of the music is cool, like “Hyperdrive”, “N9”, and “The Greys”, but I don’t think I’m the target audience for this record. Meanwhile, the Buckethead album is pretty cool and varied, and a consistently enjoyable listen. Sorry, @Shmoolikipod, but I have to go with @Diesel 11 ’s choice here. Winner: Buckethead
 
The Townsend album is charming and I reluctantly voted for it, maybe it was Devin bias because Crime Slunk Scene might be a superior album, but I find myself listening to Ziltoid more. Very difficult decision.

Some background on the album for those listening and enjoying it: this was a real watershed moment in Dev's career. He had just disbanded Strapping Young Lad (remember City? It got shalacked in an earlier round) and had exited the music industry to raise his kid. Ziltoid was kind of a transition between the Strapping Young Lad/early Devin period and what he would do later with Devin Townsend Project.

The album was entirely self recorded and produced. The drums are programmed by a program called EZ Drummer and all the other instruments and vocals are performed by Townsend (with some exceptions) and he also did the mixing on his Mac laptop. This is fairly common now, but in 2007, when the album was made, this was much more novel. It definitely sounds like a self produced album, but it's still very impressively made and sounds better than a lot of professionally made albums. It's a true solo album in every sense of the word.

The concept is pretty silly, but I think it is really well executed. He really drives the puppet metaphor home by the end and, unlike a lot of rock operas, it doesn't meander too much. The music is also really genuinely well made and a few of the songs stand among some his best work, particularly Hyperdrive (a much superior version exists with Anneke Van Giersbergen on vocals), Colour Your World, By Your Command, and Solar Winds.

If you like the heavy melodic stylings of the album, you might enjoy some of the later Strapping Young Lad stuff, particularly The New Black. Physicist is much more raw and aggressive but has some melodic moments. Addicted is probably Dev's catchiest album and my favorite of the ones mentioned. I would avoid the sequel, Dark Matters, at all costs. Possibly Dev's weakest album. The companion album, Sky Blue, is pretty good though but super poppy.
 
This is my Halloween vote, started to listening to the tracks at 8AM Saturday. :p

Avenged Sevenfold had some really nice melodies, even if the sound may not be entirely my thing.
Power Trip was too powerful for me.

Satyricon video was perfect fit for Halloween. Without this Cup, I never would have seen anything like it. (I mean in an interested way, not a negative way. :) ) However, the music's not really my cup of tea. Atlantean Codex was better.

AC/DC against Megadeth? Ridiculously easy choice.

Really like the Buckethead album, so voted for it. Devin Townsend has an interesting-sounding idea for an album, but the example song sounded surprisingly generic.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
I respectfully disagree—not that later albums follow this blueprint, they often do, but that “For Those” does too. Evil Walks and Night of the Long Knives are standouts.
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Yeah, I was a bit harsh in that summation which I thought would be softened by "the other tracks are more solid than what's on a lot of later albums", what I really meant was from FTATR onwards, with the odd exception, if you go to an AC/DC gig you know if any track off such and such an album will be played live it will be the obvious hit from the album.

The riff from Let's Get it Up is great as well, the words maybe not so much :lol:
 
JudasMyGuide said:
As your post showed as an alert and I wasn't sure which thread did I click, at first I thought you were talking about this one


then this came to mind


and only then did I realize you were talking about A7X...
Click to expand...

I thought he meant Paradise City but he didn't know that Paradise City was the name of the song.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Killing Is My Business was a lion among sheep in the lower leagues. I'm not surprised it made it this far and wouldn't be surprised if it managed to win a few more too.
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Agreed. It's a kind of lowest common denominator as most of us at least would be familiar with Megadeth, and it's faced up against some niche bands.

The only "hits" it has faced have been Evanescence, which was never getting many votes on here, and Demanufacture, which was a good win for KIMB to be fair.

It looks like it will beat FTATR this round, which is another good win, but not surprising given the demographic on here, I'd expect Rust in Peace to beat Back in Black on here, which would be a huge upset on most other forums.
 
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srfc said:
It looks like it will beat FTATR this round, which is another good win, but not surprising given the demographic on here, I'd expect Rust in Peace to beat Back in Black on here, which would be a huge upset on most other forums.
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Eh, I think that Megadeth album has the benefit of not being played into the ground by every 45 year old classic rock radio DJ
 
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