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

The first 30 seconds of Amputated are quite enyoable. But all of a sudden the fun part collapses into noise and is that vocalist really imitating a squealing pig? At times I can enyoy death metal but when it lacks melody and features singing swines? No, thanks @Diesel 11 . The vocals of Powertrip aren´t my thing either but compared to the first dong (@Jer :p ) it was a feast to my ears.

I voted in the previous rounds for Death but after hearing The Course Of Empire, I really want to hear more of Atlantean Kodex. Fantastic song, @Perun !

Between The Buried And Me has nice parts, especially the clean melodic section in the middle of the song. But the vocals are as always a huge turnoff. Sorry, @Mosh :(
So it´s going to be an easy vote for Megadave and his 4 Hor... I mean Mechanix. Megadeth with the win.

This Primordial song seems to drag on forever, at least I gave this band a try. Before I joined this forum I never heard a single song of Buckethead. Thanks to @CriedWhenBrucieLeft I found out about this brilliant guitarplayer. I´m definitely going to dive deeper into the man´s discography. Nice pick, @Diesel 11
 
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Power Trip, because I need any given brutal death band to be something special and Amputated aren't
Atlantean Kodex because doomy dooms of doom trump latter-day gargling Schuldiner with the Death complexity ramped up to self-parody any time of the day
Megadeth, because BTBAM have possibly the most off-putting vocalist ever - I've tried to get into them many times over, but I just couldn't
and Primordial, who should win this fucking game altogether (especially with To the Nameless Dead, but this one ain't no slouch either)
 
Amputated - this is the worst thing that has been in the game yet

Power Trip - I listened to the whole album after the last round. It's a decent listen but there's no real dynamics to the album, i reckon it's an album I might go back to on spotify occasionally but there wasn't enough on it to have me looking to buy it. I have to say that out of all the thrash revivalists that there has been in the last few years, the Municipal Waste's etc. of this world, it's miles ahead of them.

Power Trip with the win

Atlantean Kodex - This is a name I've seen on forums for a good while but never heard any music by. Intro sounds ok Tull/Greensleeves-esque. Don't like the guitar tone when it kicks in but otherwise it's good, vocals good way better than the average European OTT delivery. Guitar melodies nice. Gear shift chorus change at the end is my pet hate though :mad::lol: I'll check out the whole album

Death - opinion given before

Atlantean Codex with the win

Between the Buried and Me - no thanks

Megadeth - opinion given before

Megadeth with the win

Buckethead - nothing wrong with it per se, but I don't want to listen to this type of music for enjoyment

Primordial - opinion given in the last round, I think I may have checked out this song before, the name at least is familiar to me

Primordial with the win
 
Regarding the first clash I'm far from being a brutal Death Metal (or Gore Grind) fan with pig squealing vocals. Perhaps that's just because I'm an old geezer that saw both the genres flourish with its classic brutal yet bouncy instrumentals and roaring vocals (as in the Terrorizers, Brutal Truths, Entombeds and Bolt Throwers of the world). Therefore... nah! I find little interest in Amputated. So I'll give it easily to Power Trip as a tribute to the sadly gone Riley.

Then I'm presented with a novelty: Atlantean Kodex. Never heard of these dudes before and man... this is a really interesting, smartly built and refreshing set of revivalism! More importantly it proves that nowadays Heavy Metal can be much more than plastic or sterile copycats of 80's masters and that alone is almost unique in these modern times. These guys make a really tasty cook with lots of diverse ingredients: some Sabbathesque Doom metal, way less cheesy Power/Heavy like Manowar, and even a Viking Metal taste a la Blood On Ice come immediately to mind. Songs like Lion Of Chaldea, the absolutely epic A Secret Byzantium or the powerful He Who Walks Behind The Years (my favorite from the lot) are a testimony to that. To sum it up: really good album and I'll surely dig into their work. Many thanks to Perun for introducing me to AK but Sound Of Perseverance is such an amazing record I have to go with Death again.

Then there's BTBAM's Colors and these guys are real genius at what they do. The myriad of tempos, swings and genres these dudes can fit in a single track is almost uncanny. They sound like some sort of Technical Prog Death Metal meets Math Core, kind of what early Opeth would play if they were into Deathcore. Nevertheless I think they're a bit too much over the top on their structural chaotic complexity for my taste. Not that it is a shot at the band... it's just my personal feel when I listen to it and I can't deny the estrangement their sound has on me. I'm sure that's the only thing that kinda turns me off while listening to BTBAM because let's be serious: everything else here screams quality all around. On the other hand Killing Is My Business clicks really fine so once again I'll stick with Megadeth.

Finally Buckethead proves once again a guitar virtuoso record can be much more than a bunch boring arpeggios and technical show off just for the sake of it. This thing kicks in with one of my favorite tracks from the man in King James (is it about the bible or LBJ himself?). The groovy Gory Head Stomp 2006 follows with its absolutely simple basis and infectious funky interludes. Mad Monster Party is a heavy as bricks yet comical intelligent composition. Then the whole album goes completely bonkers. From Col Austin vs Col Sanders to Slunk Parade we're presented with a myriad of chaotic time signature catchy tunes in an experimental kaleidoscope of different shapes showing how original the KFC masked guitar genius can be. When it comes to guitar oriented records Buckethead is undeniably unique and Crime Slunk Scene is surely one of his best efforts. But if you paid attention to my early notes regarding Where Greater Men Have Fallen you'll easily understand I also think it's an awesome record from an unique band and truth be told like it even more than its adversary on this clash. So my vote goes to Primordial.
 
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I haven't heard that Atlantean Codex album, could give Death a run for their money, going by their past record. This'll be this afternoon's during-work music
 
MindRuler said:
So it´s going to be an easy vote for Megadave and his 4 Hor... I mean Mechanix.
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I'm sure you know that Mechanix was the original and The Four Horsemen was Metallica's adaptation after Dave left the band. :)

P.S: : I prefer the more speeded up straight to your face take of The Mechanix (both in Metallica and Megadeth's version)
 
karljant said:
I'm sure you know that Mechanix was the original and The Four Horsemen was Metallica's adaptation after Dave left the band. :)

P.S: : I prefer the more speeded up straight to your face take of The Mechanix (both in Metallica and Megadeth's version)
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I´m indeed aware about Mr. Mustaine´s short time in Metallica, and that Mechanix was earlier than its adaptation. :)
 
Me: ”What the fuck is this shit? It sounds like a herd of pigs chowing down at the most disgusting slaughterhouse imaginable! What? That’s what it’s supposed to sound like? Umm...OK?”

Power Trip was pretty rote metal riffing and grooving with a general absence of melody. So, obviously an easy winner.
 
Atlantean Codex had a lot of the elements I like in my music, including Its sonic palette, some good melodies and an epic scope. I’d rather listen to this than a majority of the new music I’ve been exposed to in this game. Where it failed was in its musical storytelling. This song lacked the roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys, tensions and release that music of this nature needs. It was more “this happened, then this happened and then this happened...” with everything given the same weight.

Death is technically and compositionally interesting, melodically lacking and... oh you‘ve heard this before? Music I respect more than I enjoy. After surviving so long mostly by facing off against a lot of crap, can it finally be time for this album to go?
 
I wonder if exposure bias plays a role in the Kodex - Death battle.
 
Between the Buried and Me song reminded me of Blue Oyster Cult’s Monsters, with tHe bone-jarring shifts between metal and completely foreign elements. Loved the creativity these guys showed. That said, it sounded more like music for musicians than more accessible populist content.

Which is a good word to segue to Megadeth. This album doesn’t stand up to the competition in terms of pushing the envelope but it’s raw, authentic and fun. It gets my vote.
 
Perun said:
I wonder if exposure bias plays a role in the Kodex - Death battle.
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And death (small d) bias. Schuldiner is to the extreme metal crowd what Dio is to the mainstream one.

For me it's actually the opposite - I never liked the last album anyways (though I otherwise like Death a lot) and yeah, Kodex is kinda new, so there's the novelty factor for me... possibly.
 
Primordial really does fit the name: its easy to picture it as a massive apatosaurus ponderously lurching its way across a prehistoric swamp. It’s got atmosphere and I will repeat what I said about an earlier offering: it does what it sets out to do well. it doesn’t really strike any kind of emotional chord with me though.

The Buckethead “song“ does. I like the chordal/rhythmic pattern that dominates it and he’s milking that sucker for all that it’s worth.
 
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