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

I wasn't very familiar with Marilyn Manson. Turns out this is one of the bands whose music I don't understand.
Power Trip wasn't my favorite either, but that style at least is more understandable to me.

I really don't like Therapy? Atlantean Codex perhaps wasn't my cup of tea, but I like it better. So, Therapy? No thanks, I don't need it, and I'm also against actual psychotherapy being recommended to all kinds of mild everyday problems and slightly tricky personality traits. :) (Lighter counceling and even self-help can go a long way.)

Dimmu Borgir: I kind of like the music, the vocals not so much. I could have voted for them, but Megadeth is such a formidable enemy.

Hypocrisy had some nice chords, but I didn't like it too much. The vocals sounded like something out of a horror movie.
I always get happy when I see Buckethead is competing. I don't usually like instrumentals, but with this stuff, I don't really miss vocals. And the name of the example song was really enticing.
 
MindRuler said:
BucketBorgir sounds like something you order in a Norwegian snackbar.
Click to expand...
Dimmu Borgir is Icelandic, isn't it? Or does Norwegian have the same words? Well, whatever it is, I have a piece of advice: if you want to order sausage on a Norwegian gas station, do it in Swedish rather than English. I nearly couldn't get my sausage, until I tried in Swedish. :bigsmile:

Edit: Another piece of advice: After a Maiden concert, the local gas station in Norway has a very long queue to buy sausages. :D
 
Neither of the first pair is my thing. The Manson song is well-crafted, catchy and interesting, but not my cup of tea. Power Trip worked until the yelling started. Not particularly original, but it strikes me as more honest.
 
Lamia020281 said:
I really don't like Therapy? Atlantean Codex perhaps wasn't my cup of tea, but I like it better. So, Therapy? No thanks, I don't need it, and I'm also against actual psychotherapy being recommended to all kinds of mild everyday problems and slightly tricky personality traits. :) (Lighter counceling and even self-help can go a long way.)
Click to expand...
You do realize that Therapy? has nothing to do with therapy, right? You don't like Kodex but vote for them because of Therapy's name. It would be like voting against Rush because you don't like rush hour, against Korn because you prefer peas, or against Pantera because you're a dog person.
 
Ariana said:
You do realize that Therapy? has nothing to do with therapy, right? You don't like Kodex but vote for them because of Therapy's name.
Click to expand...
I was kidding. I mean, I don't like Therapy?'s music, and that's why I didn't vote for them. The stuff about psychotherapy wasn't connected to my opinion on the band, should probably check the level of fun in my humour.

I've noticed I don't always share your taste in music, my loss I'm sure. I've tried to balance between being polite and expressing my opinion on albums that are important to people, but it's hard and I don't always succeed. But no hard feelings, I hope.
 
I have lots of time for bands that meld punk and pop and metal elements and I enjoyed the Therapy? track.

Codex straddles that line thoroughly trampled by over-earnest power metallers and their songs seem way longer than they need to be. But they understand dynamics are a thing in music and they trip that switch in me that is a sucker for epic feel.

Both bands seem worthy of more time, but based on the two samples, Codex gets my vote.
 
There are some elements of the music I like, but I just can’t take the lyrics and the vocal delivery of Dimmu Borgir seriously. Megadeth isn’t something I take seriously either, but it’s fun, not cringey. This draw continues to be a walk in the park for a B-list album.
 
You know, if I was a really gifted guitar player making music strictly to please myself, it would probably sound a lot like Buckethead. It is really self-indulgent, but in a way that works for me.

The Hypocrisy song has some nice raw guitars and a good composition and melody, but it’s wasted by the vocal.
 
Lamia020281 said:
I was kidding. I mean, I don't like Therapy?'s music, and that's why I didn't vote for them. The stuff about psychotherapy wasn't connected to my opinion on the band, should probably check the level of fun in my humour.

I've noticed I don't always share your taste in music, my loss I'm sure. I've tried to balance between being polite and expressing my opinion on albums that are important to people, but it's hard and I don't always succeed. But no hard feelings, I hope.
Click to expand...
I wasn't 100% serious either. No two MaidenFans' taste of music overlaps entirely and that's cool. No hard feelings, of course.
 
Marilyn Manson's music isn't a style I can really get into, even though I will listen to the odd MM song here and there. So by default I'm going for Power Trip, it's okay if unexceptional.

Now I liked Troublegum lots when it came out, so I 'm getting all nostalgic about this. That said, The Course of Empire was a recent impulse buy as a result of this game, and I've been listening to it a lot, it's a keeper. Atlantean Kodex. Sad for Therapy? though, that album is more deserving than some of the other recent competitors IMO.

Going to throw in my lot with Dimmu Borgir here. I've been voting for Megadeth for ages and it's refreshing to hear something darker again. A consistent album and pretty easy listening as black metal goes. Or does that perception just creep up on you when you listen to a lot of growly stuff?

Was feeling the same way heading into the fourth pairing. Buckethead does have some catchy little moments and really nice guitar, though, which can pull you in. It's a little more interesting than Hypocrisy here.
 
I’ve already shared my thoughts on Marilyn Manson. This was his “I really liked The Downward Spiral” album. Too bad he still sucks. While the vocals on the Power Trip album are a major turnoff, the music and songwriting are much better. Sorry, @Diesel 11, but @Whooten ’s nominee takes this one. Winner: Power Trip

This second match-up is probably the toughest one this round. Both albums are pretty solid, but flawed. The Therapy? album is a pretty successful mix of pop, punk, and metal, but the vocals are amateurish and the songwriting never fully impresses. There are some pretty great sections to a number of the songs, though. The Atlantean Kodex album checks a number of boxes for good epic metal, but again, the songwriting never fully impresses, and there’s some weird tuning issue with the rhythm guitars vs. the lead guitars. I could really go either way here, but I guess @Perun ‘s choice leans slightly more toward my tastes. Sorry, @Ariana. Winner: Atlantean Kodex

The music on the Dimmu Borgir album is consistently good to great, but fuck those black metal vocals. Sorry, @Saapanael, but bad vocals beat shit vocals any day of the week. Plus, the Megadeth album is also generally good to great, so it’s a fair fight. Winner: Megadeth

The Hypocrisy album is another one with consistently good to great music, but whatever those vocals are trying to be is not good at all. I guess it‘s probably black metal vocals, in which case I’ve certainly heard worse than these, but these are still bad. I did like the shift to clean vocals for the last couple of tracks, though. Meanwhile, the Buckethead album is a solid set of noodly guitar instrumentals. Sorry, @Night Prowler, but @Diesel 11 ‘s nominee has yours outclassed here. Winner: Buckethead
 
We start with the break into the mainstream by 90's shock rock prince Mr. Manson's... and what can I say? Everything you listen here is a well wrapped caricatured copy of Trent Reznor's second record (Broken), his mentor and company owner of his first releases, who profited a brutal amount of cash by Manson simply mimicking the sound of Nine Inch Nails (with the difference that Broken was really shocking and way more authentic). So this was one hell of a deal for both parts: Manson rose to stardom and Reznor collected another pool full of dollars that allowed his by then lazy ass to make absolutely nothing for 4 more years. Later in his career Marylin Manson would manage to develop a more detached sound from this absolute copy (to be fair immediately after with a way more interesting Mechanical Animals). Ah!... something about the record other then "Go listen to NIN's Broken", right? Apart from perhaps Angel With The Scabbed Wings, the answer is nothing (curiously enough the name of Reznor's record company LOL). Power Trip by miles.

Always liked Therapy? and curiously enough Troublegum was the first album I listened from these guys back in the day and my favorite one also. But calling them metal... come on! I don't want to beat a dead horse but these Irishmen sort of alternative punk rock is a bit out of their element here. Knifes is really edgy (no pun intended) and perhaps the only approach to metal here having a Body Count feel to it. Screamager is simply gorgeous with its vicious melody, intentionally sounding innocent teenage angst lyrics and man... the rhythm section here simply kills. Hellbelly's refrain is as simple as catchy and the band makes one hell of a curve ball on Joy Division's Isolation with awesome results. Other than that I think Nowhere is really crappy while the rest of the songs oscillate between really interesting and energetic and meh! Overall a really cool album but not for this game so I'll give my vote to an equally good Atlantean Kodex album.

More Dimmu Burger? No, please!Just no! Megadeth!

Finally we have a really cool Buckethead album I praised before going against a Death Metal big name. Apart from the amazing The Fourth Dimension was never a fan of Mr. Tagtgren's main project and to be honest I kinda lost track of them after that release. So I had to listen to this Abducted thing and I was positively surprised. After a brief intro Roswell 1947 storms in with pomp and power letting its guitar harmonies resound while Tagtgren's harsh screams create an absolutely horror movie ambiance. Killing Art is a bit more into kinda boring meat and potatoes Death Metal (still with some cool passages) but then The Arrival Of Demons Pt 2 recovers the mood the opener introduced adding even more ambiance to it and man this sounds sweet. Buried's mid tempo relentless stomp already reveals traces of Tagtgren's side project to be - Pain - even if clad in a Death Metal vest while Abducted is a flashback to a time when Black/ Death metal was the thing. The alternation between slow paced, ambiance filled with mellow guitars, mid tempo grinding tracks and rapid fire savage Death Metal continues throughout the record (Paradox, Point Of No Return and Carved Up are really great tracks and each one represents each different vibe perfectly) until the last two songs. Here the band goes to a clean vocal much more calmer approach way departed from what we listened to before. So while not being as good as The Fourth Dimension, Abducted is still one hell of an album that brings some exciting new stuff regarding its predecessor here and there. And while Crime Slunk Scene is also really cool, I'll give this one to Hypocrisy.
 
Last edited:
Sure it was. That explains why the album’s recording was so dysfunctional, why Manson had to use drugs to keep himself sturdy through a lot of mental pain, and why Reznor and Manson had such a shitload of creative differences that they never worked together again. Just a “get-rich-quick” scheme. Sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top