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

In Flames - saw these live a few times in support slots and wasn't impressed, this track is pretty good bar the vocals, but they aren't as bad vocals as a lot of the similar bands that have been in the game

Gamma Ray - Acoustic strumming in the verse sounds good, solo good

Both tracks are good musically but with vocals not really my cup of tea for different reasons but not awful either, tough choice, I haven't got time to listen to all of both albums so I checked a few quick snippets from both albums on youtube and decided Gamma Ray are more like what I usually listen to

Negura Bunget - not for me

Amorphis - good musically, bad vocals

Amorphis has more to offer me

Nirvana - when I was getting into music this album was out, I had it on a c90 with the first Maiden album on side 1 and Nevermind on side 2. It was the lead single Smells Like Teen Spirit that piqued my interest but bar Come As You Are none of the other tracks did anything for me, if anything I was hostile towards them. I think those 2 tracks still hold up as decent tracks, even if I am unlikely to want to listen to them anymore

Black Sabbath - Cozy Powell is great, all these modern drummers who want to try and steal the show by making as much noise as possible should listen to Cozy to see how a drummer actually steals the show. Good riffs from Iommi but the guitar sound is a bit scooped for my tastes, good vocals

Black Sabbath with the win

Alter Bridge - Not bad but very over produced

Savatage - opinion given before

Savatage with the win
 
mckindog said:
Random observation: That Nirvana song is far more metal to my ears than at least half of the power metal acts we’ve been exposed to in this game. Genre definitions are odd beasts.
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Grunge was definitely treated as a subgenre of Metal at the time it was out by metal fans and the metal press at the time. I didn't particularly like it myself, but if "grunge" doesn't count then why does "nu-metal" which has an even more tenuous connection to metal?
 
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My Nirvana comment was mostly tongue in cheek although I do think grunge is at least Metal adjacent (with many bands being Metal in all but name). I think Nirvana has more in common with punk and alt rock, but at that point it's pretty heavy hair splitting.

Nu Metal has Metal in the name, but McDonalds also advertises itself as food.
 
Ariana’s Alter Bridge song reinforces my earlier impressions of the band: well-crafted, well-performed, enjoyable songs that are well within my wheelhouse, but lacking that special something that sends me to the record store.

Savatage is cheesy as hell, but they fully embrace the fact, and I can too. The combination of classical metal playing and production with the Broadway-drama songwriting hits some of the same buttons for me that Maiden does. Two worthy offerings. Savatage gets my vote.
 
Gamma Ray is great but In Flames (period Jester Race/Whoracle) is better! Whoracle is an album I played to death when it was released. Saw them live on Graspop that year in one of the marquees: amazingly good gig!

I voted Amorphis the last time, but now I just have to vote for Negura Bunget! There's a lot going on in this song and surprisingly good things! So no bone-throwing at @Magnus this time but a wellmade choice.

Nevermind was a special record for me. I remember the summer I spent riding on my bicycle just playing Bleach and Nevermind on my walkman.
Yeah, I admit I was a grungy teen...but! I'm going to vote here for one of the most underrated vocalists of all time: Mr. Tony Martin, 2d best singer of Black Sabbath. Sorry, Mr. Cobain.

Sorry too, @The Dissident for not even listening to Alter Bridge but my bias towards Gutter Ballet forced me to vote for Savatage.
 
Mosh said:
My Nirvana comment was mostly tongue in cheek although I do think grunge is at least Metal adjacent (with many bands being Metal in all but name). I think Nirvana has more in common with punk and alt rock, but at that point it's pretty heavy hair splitting.

Nu Metal has Metal in the name, but McDonalds also advertises itself as food.
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Google offers a pretty broad definition of metal:
“a type of highly amplified harsh-sounding rock music with a strong beat, characteristically using violent or fantastic imagery”

The Wikipedia article is actually quite interesting:

Heavy metal music - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Ariana said:
I know you have explained how you choose songs to represent the albums, but Clear Horizon is not even in the top half of Walk the Sky. I would recommend two other songs that better showcase Walk the Sky:


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I chose Clear Horizon as for me it is one of my top 3 songs on the album, the other two being these two. Which I'm pretty sure I listed for my alternative picks.
 
This first match-up is between two albums I actually own. After surprisingly enjoying In Flames’ The Jester Race, I bought Whoracle sight unseen when it was new. Unfortunately the extreme vocals were a lot higher in the mix on Whoracle, which closed the loophole that had allowed me to get into the previous album. The music itself is mostly great, and the death metal cover of Depeche Mode’s “Everything Counts” is hilarious, but the vocals put a huge damper on my enjoyment, even though they’re on the more tolerable end of the extreme spectrum for me. Meanwhile Sigh No More is weaker Gamma Ray (though this round’s sample song “The Spirit” is excellent), but even weaker Gamma Ray can take down many worthy opponents. Sorry, @Black Wizard , but @Forostar ’s choice wins the day here. Winner: Gamma Ray

This Negura Bunget album is quite the musical journey — it’s got a little bit of everything in it, wrapped around a black metal base, and it manages to incorporate those disparate elements pretty fluidly. This is another one of those albums where I’m not sure that I enjoyed it, but I definitely appreciated it. Cool cover art, too. The Amorphis album has strong music and generally tolerable extreme vocals, and I probably liked it a bit more than the Negura Bunget album, but perhaps appreciated it a bit less, if that makes sense. This one’s really close, but I’m going to tip in the direction of originality here. Sorry, @Forostar , but I’m going to go with @Magnus ‘s choice this time. Winner: Negura Bunget

I’ve never been much of a Nirvana fan, but over the years with some distance I’ve come to appreciate more of their work. Nevermind has a number of strong songs on it, along with some filler. Meanwhile, this Black Sabbath album is pretty tepid and forgettable, unlike the earlier Martin Sabbath albums. It’s fine, but nothing special IMO. Sorry again, @Forostar , but I’m going to go with @Travis The Dragon ’s choice here. Winner: Nirvana

I’d never listened to Alter Bridge before, and it’s a mixed bag. Myles Kennedy is a great singer, but I’m not a huge fan of the sound of his voice. The songwriting quality is up and down on this album, though they do make some interesting melodic and harmonic choices at times (and some cheesy ones at others). I can understand how someone could like this band a lot, but I don’t think I’m their target audience. On the other hand, this Savatage album takes itself way too seriously and just isn’t very good in the end, so I will unenthusiastically go for @The Dissident ‘s choice here. Winner: Alter Bridge
 
First pairing is a really great one. As I said before Sigh No More is a really good record in a genre that I think the majority of bands are BS but when it's done properly can offers us some really amazing records. It's not far from the quality of best Helloween, Running Wild and Blind Guardian albums but still a bit below. One can see a common trait on the bands I mentioned: they're practically the ones that defined the genre and that helps a lot. That takes us to the other record and Whoracle is in my opinion the best album from one of the 3 bands that definitely defined Melodic Death Metal once and for all (along with Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates). I mean their sophomore (The Jester Race) was already an off the charts record but Whoracle is just ridiculously great. For a start there are the first 3 songs on the album: Jotun, Food For The Gods and Gyroscope. Each one with its own vibe and every single one absolutely flawless. Next comes Dialogue With The Stars that works as a wonderful instrumental bridge for the second third of the album. The Hive threads more common Melo Death paths but still is really interesting while Jester Script Transfigured relies way more on ambiance and more subtle harmonies. Adrenaline kicks back at its fullest with Morphing Into Primal and IMO the weakest links here are the following two tunes. For the final stretch we're offered a curious twist on Depeche Mode's Everything Counts while the folky title track closes the album in a masterful way.
If I was given more 10 brackets in my list this record would sure be there since it is one of those albums that epitomizes a musical genre at its best and that's something reserved for a strict elite of musicians. It's sad to compare what In Flames once were with what they are nowadays. But as far as I'm concerned Whoracle is almost an automatic win for me.

Then we are once again blessed with two great albums curiously both mingling metal with folk but, since the genre of metal and folk influences are so distinct all similitudes are purely illusive. Negura Bunget is a unique mesh of Gypsy Folk, Black Metal, Avantgard and Prog. I'm not the greatest fan of their early works (I enjoy way more their later work namely Tau and Zi) but nevertheless OM already features a lot of the aspects that these guys would explore even deeper in those albums. And make no mistake: if you're looking for something absurdly heterogeneous while maintaining a strong blueprint that doesn't restrain the band's range by any means this is the stuff for you. The sequence that begins with Primul Om, passes through the amazing Cunoasterea Tacuta until it explodes in the kaleidoscope of hues of Inarborat is simply unique. De Piatra is perhaps the most straight forward metal cut of the record with some cool riffing in its middle and Hora Suarelui's dreamlike folky soundscapes is another highlight. So as you can notice I really enjoy both albums and it's a virtual tie but I believe I'll give Amorphis the edge since it's the band's best record while the Romanians have at least 3 albums I prefer to Om.

Thirdly the well known Nevermind, Nirvana's most successful release and perhaps the one that fits the best the "metal" genre. Here the Seattle band really exaggerated on the Beatles meets Sabbath recipe. Not a metal record by any means but still corrosive and bittersweet at the same time. Overall it's a really accessible, well crafted yet full of energy album and it seems it was destined to become a success. On the other hand we have a solid Tony Martin era record with some highlights (Anno Mundi and Jerusalem are two great examples) and although it's obvious it doesn't bear its adversary's importance in rock music (unlike the band itself) I'll vote for Black Sabbath because a) it's Sabbath b) it's a fairly good record c) it's 100% metal and this is a metal contest.

Last and least two bands who's music say nothing to me. Flip the coin... Alter Bridge.
 
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