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

Mostly historic battles, which is really not my thing. Especially WWII.

And yeah, they describe it mostly like a fifth-grader would.

And when they don't, they sing about the gloooorious metal! In other bands' words, no less

("Riding on this crazy train
I'm going paranoid
Watch me lose my mind
And break the law
It's close to midnight and
He's barking at the moon
The rainbow in the dark is shining")

Feel enticed yet?
 
This sounds absolutely fucking awful on so many levels. I really worry about every forum member on here who genuinely thinks this band is something worth wasting their time listening to. They're a parody, right? Please tell me it's all for laughs.
 
Says the fan of the autistic graphomaniac guitarist with a bucket on his head and 4000 albums, but okay.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that if you use words like "macho bullshit" unironically, you probably won't be the target audience of neither Sabaton nor Primordial nor Manowar nor ...

My honest opinion? Like Brigs say, they're mostly something like a "party band", though I hate the idea. I find them somewhat fun and catchy and yes, sometimes the sentiments they try to get across get through to me. But both in "fun power metal" and in "macho bullshit" category I have other bands which trample Sabaton into dust. Still give them a spin from time to time, not sure why especially in winter, but maybe it's because I remember the winter songs / WWII campaigns / Call of Duty 1 & 2 levels more. Or because I first heard Sabaton in winter. (Same with Nightwish, by the way)

Also, they're not a "parody", but they are all for laughs. I think they call it post-modernism now. Or "liking something ironically", for the younger generation.
 
Sabaton are pretty much the most popular metal band here (after Metallica) among non-metal fans. Their energy and lyrical topics seem to appeal to masses. Oh, and their songs are fucking fantastic too.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
This sounds absolutely fucking awful on so many levels. I really worry about every forum member on here who genuinely thinks this band is something worth wasting their time listening to. They're a parody, right? Please tell me it's all for laughs.
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Look, I like serious metal a lot. Sabaton is silly and cheesy. They're not a parody. They're just over the top and a little ridiculous. In the end, it's not so much "for laughs" but it is certainly about having fun. I am well aware that it's a sophomoric take on the subjects in question - the exception being the Carolus Rex album, where it's a lot deeper and a serious, thorough analysis of something that is unheralded outside of the band's home country. But sophomoric can sure be a lot of fun, and if it drives someone who isn't well versed in the subject matter to pick up a book or watch a documentary on the subject, then that's a good thing.

Lots of bands are good because they write interesting music. But Sabaton isn't necessarily good because the music is interesting, but because their experience is fun. And maybe it's not fun for you, and that's fair. I don't want you listening lots to music you don't enjoy, aside from the usual "try it before you hate it" theme that is essentially the core of this game. But I find the band tons of fun, and I don't think that's anything to worry about at all.
 
Yay Soen! :yey:

I found them last year, when my sister and I went to a prog metal festival (headlined by Dream Theater). They actually put the best performance there imho :)

They seem prone to copycat accusations, specifically Tool and Opeth, but I think only some songs from the debut Cognitive sounds similar to calm Tool, and after Collin's Toolvivor I felt this way even less.

So, Tellurian... I could have chose any of their albums, to be honest. But I decided on Tellurian, because it's easily their most varied album. (perhaps not a wise decision due to the nature of the game.) Even though some of it is a little proggy, it's generally not very much a hard listen. The vocals are clean and impactful, see: the outro to Tabula Rasa (the example song), and the chorus to Ennui.

I like to couple these two songs with Kuraman as the primary Soen sound, because the rest of the songs (besides beautiful ballad The Words, which is akin to "Lucidity" from Lykaia for example) are more unique to this particular album. A little mix of quiet and loud, with tasty riffs and quite perfect drum-work imo: Not stealing the show like in Mastodon, but not Seven Nation Army. It's decorated just enough to be it's own thing and not just a support to the song.

We also have Koniskas, a more mellow song with my favourite chorus on the album. Some very emotionally powerful stuff in here. And also a bombastic ending after an odd breakdown.

And the other 3 tracks are: Pluton, which is possibly the most riff focused song here. And the closing two epics Void and The Other's Fall. Void is a great contender for my favourite Soen song, the verses are so cool and I personally love the lyrics. The Other's Fall is maybe the weirdest of the bunch with a creepy middle part.

While I'm on the topic I want to say that 2 epics to close the album is great and underused. Only here and in Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine I've seen this yet.
 
Temple of the Dog - not my cup of tea, vocal excellent however

System of a Down - not my cup of tea either, vocal pretty good too except for some shite parts

Temple of the Dog with the win

Sabaton - Keys, overproduction, euro OTT delivery, lots of things that I don't like.

Death - Not great but much better than their pretentious other album from the game

Death with the win

Star One - Voice decent good power on the sustained notes, music ok but could do with a hook, Pink Floyd section great

Nuclear Assault - Was this track played in the last round? (I possibly voluntarily listened to it after the last round) The hooky chorus part is a bit shite but the rest of the track is good.

Not hugely impressed by either but I'll go with Nuclear Assault

Soen - Never heard of these, production sounds ok, track ok as well

Sabbat - Production not great obviously and arrangement a bit all over the shop for me, but I love Walkyier's delivery

Sabbat with the win


Weakest round for a good while
 
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JudasMyGuide said:
Says the fan of the autistic graphomaniac guitarist with a bucket on his head and 4000 albums, but okay.
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Are you using “autistic” in reference to its etymological origin in meaning “of the self”, to point out how self-indulgent Buckethead is; are you throwing it out there because Brian Carroll’s mannerisms and personality seem to suggest that he’s on the spectrum; or are you just throwing autistic in there as an easy, fifth grader way to add further insult?

I became a fan of Buckethead and Sabaton around the same time and for completely different reasons. Sabaton fit my palette for liking big bombastic music, and I loved their energy and their affinity for historical lyrics. They brought up a lot of events that I’d never heard of and got me to do some more research on my own. And, on occasion, their music went deeper than you’d expect. Like LC said, Carolus Rex goes a long way to showing that they’re not just a party band, and songs like “Wehrmacht” can, if not dive into all the details, at least get you thinking about the points they make.

Buckethead, on the other hand, just really helped me appreciate guitar more than I already did. His versatility, going from pure noodling to more structured songs, all in a variety of different genres, really got me hooked, and when he starts hitting you with that emotion... goddamn.
 
SOAD's album is merely ok as I stated before (too much filler for my likes). I would probably not allow Temple Of The Dog to enter this contest since they're a (really good) 100% rock project. But hey... who am I to go against the majority. And since we already had appearances from way more "outside the metal center of gravity stuff" (like Wish You Were Here and some Korean boys band) I will stop beating this dead horse and find them electable. By doing so, TOTD is living proof that super bands can only either work out really bad or really good. In this case it's the later. Some of the early 90's Seattle scene finest (Soundgarden and Peral Jam) made this mix of Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and even some of Zeppelin's folk side really shines as a tribute for Andrew Wood's passing. The more rumbling Pushin' Forward Back, Reach Down or Your Savior save the album from being a bit too uni dimensional in its sonic anatomy, delivering some seriously high quality rocking. But it's spine chilling calmer takes like Wooden Jesus, Four Walled World or the highly acclaimed Hunger Strike that truly bear the soul of this great and beautiful album. Yeah... with that much quality Temple Of The Dog is my pick hands down.

Then Sabaton follows... And if it was for me it would be Sabatoff because this crap is absolute cheese & cringe at its worst. Simply awful. Already gave my opinion about Scream Bloody Gore so it's an easy win for Death.

Following I'm presented with a novelty: Star One. The song starts and I kinda like it: "some Tony Martin era kinda doomy Sabbath meets prog metal and yup... it's enjoyable!" (curious enough TM sings in one song here). Then a really familiar voice kicks in: "wait... isn't this... Swano?" And now you're forcing me to google it to find what this thing is while I'm still listening to it and still liking it. "Ah! It's one of Arjen's many projects. Some interesting guests here and a concept album about Sci Fi movies. Ok... looks nice enough. Let's give it an overview". And I must confess although not being an Arjen fan this is a really well conceived record with some cool highlights here and there the Damian dude really can sing and the guy from Symphony X also delivers the goods (their voices are a bit similar but hey... it works and it seems there's room from everyone). Floor Jansen does her part with stainless efficiency and she sounds especially great when contrasting with Swano's variety of mid and lower frequency vocalizations. Arjen's arrangements regarding synth effects is also interesting to say the least and, in a larger point of view, so does the whole of the record. the only downside are a handful of forced chorus but apart from that nothing to point at negatively. So, besides It All Ends Here I really liked the chugging of Earth That Was, the uptempo heaviness recovering some 70's metal traits of Human See Human Do, the swinging between prog and almost goth metal in Two Plus Two Equals Five. Arjen's solo singing Last Day is also really appealing and the album closes with a really cool Sabbathesque tune sang by ... WTF? Tony Martin? Now this is foreshadowing at its best! So while not considering to be nothing out of this world I think that Victims Of Modern Age really has some exciting and interesting passages while working finely as a whole. And that doesn't surprises me the least since Arjen's the mastermind behind whole thing and although I'm not quite a fan of his work it's plaint to see through his reportoire this guy is a crafted composer to say the least. In sum: although not being my cup of tea entirely I liked Star One... and liked it enough to vote for it. To say the truth it was a virtual tie with Nuclear Assault's Game Over... but perhaps due to the novelty effect I took Arjen and company's side. And then I fucked up and clicked in the wrong square. Sorry Night Prowler for messing it up (assured angry faced emoji incoming) but if you convince LooseCanon to invalidate my own goal I'll rectify it. If not Game Over is also ok so at least I didn't vote for some crappy album.

Finally we have Soen's sophomore. Soen in theory has everything for me to like them. Martin Lopez and Steve DiGiorgio is as good as a rhythmic section can get. And some songs are really interesting, really well played Prog Rock with some heavier hues. But, as in Cognitive Ekelof's voice remains too similar to Maynard James Keenan's. So, no matter how much I love what the rest of the dudes are doing, an alternative prog metal band with vocals (and sometimes even the guitars) featuring such a similar voice to Tool's frontman inevitably drags the monolithic shadow cast by the Californian colossus anywhere it tries to go within the aforementioned genre. It's a pity, since there are some really cool stuff here. On the other hand we have the absolutely magnificent and unique Dreamweaver so for me it's Sabbat all the way.
 
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Temple Of The Dog isn’t really my thing, but “Hunger Strike” is cool and Chris Cornell is a great singer. On the other hand, System Of A Down completely turns me off every time Tankian loses his shit, which happens in almost every song. Sorry @Saapanael, but I have to go with @Lampwick 43 ’s choice here. Winner: Temple Of The Dog

Hadn’t really sat down and listened to Sabaton before, just a few clips here and there. It’s consistently catchy for sure, but it’s also incredibly derivative, and the singing is mediocre and clearly from a non-native speaker, and their standard synth tone seems really cheesy and out of place. I’ve heard people describe latter-era Powerwolf as a cheap knockoff of Sabaton before, but between the two I’d have to say that Sabaton is the one that comes off sounding cheap. They’re like power metal junk food — enjoyable enough in the moment, but then you feel a little sick and guilty afterward. Luckily for them they’re up against the weaker of the two Death albums we’ve encountered so far in the GMAC, and from my perspective there’s a lot more appeal to what Sabaton is offering than what Death is bringing to the table here, so I will go with @KidInTheDark666 ‘s nominee this time. Winner: Sabaton

Never heard this Star One album before, but it’s pretty sweet. Sort of a downtuned, muscular counterpart to Luca Turilli’s Prophet Of The Last Eclipse, in a sense. I really like the music, and the singing’s consistently good. The songwriting is the only area where I’m not sure I’m totally sold, but I’ll need to listen to it some more to make up my mind on that. Meanwhile, the Nuclear Assault album is good low-rent fun, but it’s not really operating on the same level here. Sorry @Magnus, but I have to go with @Night Prowler ’s choice on this one. Winner: Star One

This last match-up is the toughest one. I really liked what I heard from Soen — sweet, classy prog metal with distinctively calm vocals and nice variety. Everything was consistently interesting. If there’s any criticism it’s that the songs never fully take flight — they get to a good place and consistently deliver, but nothing knocks it out of the park. The Sabbat album has pretty terrible production and Walkyier’s vocals have some rough patches throughout, but the album also has a lot of memorable moments, both musically and lyrically. This one’s on the razor’s edge, but in the end I have to tip in the direction of fire and authenticity. Sorry @Shmoolikipod, but I have to go with @Magnus ‘s nominee here. Winner: Sabbat
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Sabaton are pretty much the most popular metal band here (after Metallica) among non-metal fans.
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Let’s not forget where @KidInTheDark666 actually lives.

NclZF9.jpg

Suddenly it all makes sense!
 
Jer said:
the singing is mediocre and clearly from a non-native speaker, and their standard synth tone seems really cheesy and out of place.
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I mean yeah, but I think Joakim is in the same boat as Dave Mustaine: it’s less about the talent and more about how he uses his voice. And for the record I think Joakim is a more talented singer than Dave, lol. He’s got a big booming tone that helps bring out that punch that Sabaton are aiming for, even if technically he’s not that skillful. As far as the non-native singer thing goes, yeah, but that’s another reason I like him. He incorporates his Swedish-isms into his singing, rather than just singing and making mistakes in pronunciation. He runs with it. It sets him apart from other European power metal bands where the singer has a hard time pronouncing the words and does nothing to help it. Joakim makes it fun and gives you great moments like his pronunciation of “buried”.
 
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