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

Ulver's album is from 1995 actually, recorded in late 1994.
Garm must have been 18 then.
Good to see two albums with him in the same round.
 
There are far better Death albums. Rainbow's debut is, for me, their second best. The band is unique and groovy,. Ulver I've never heard before, they sound refreshing, unlike Priest on Nostradamus. Borknagar on the other hand does nothing for me, while Maiden's worst of efforts contains stuff like Lightning Strikes Twice, so no surprise there. And Mekong Delta is more to my tasting than Wasp.
 
Voted for Death and Mekong Delta on the merit of their albums simply sounding better to my ears.

Voted for the Ulver and Borknagar albums on the merit of them not being Nostradamus or Virtual XI.
 
Oh boy, it's round 28 time. You know what that means! The time to mourn the souls "The Headless Children" has claimed:

:dead:
Savatage - Edge of Thorns.
Warlord - And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun.
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi.
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill.
Fear Factory - Obsolete.
@LooseCannon - Playlist Links in the Main Post.
:dead:
 
Easy votes this round too. Ulver was slightly monotonous. When Nostradamus came up earlier on this Cup, I actually once started listening to the whole album, haven't done that too many times (although I do have a playlist waiting). When I had heard a few songs, YouTube got mixed up and I didn't remember which songs I had listened to. :) Anyways, this is an interesting album, and I will return to it later.

Death still not quite my thing, neither is this Rainbow album really, but I think I'd rather have rainbow than death.

Sometimes it's hard to be me: I get to see a lot of my favourite songs and albums on "worst of" lists. Virtual XI is definitely one of them. The album means a lot to me, and I genuinely love the songs. Lovely melodies, interesting song topics, and although Blaze is not technically a brilliant singer, I like his tone of voice and how he performs here. I really, really like all the songs except Don't Look to the Eyes... And how about The Angel and the Gambler? I think the ingredients are there, just would have needed a bit of editing! ;) This time the opponent was Borknagar, but there was no way I could not vote for Virtual XI.

Mekong Delta sounded really interesting, I may well listen to the whole album. WASP by now is pretty familiar to me, and not as good as its opponent.
 
Magnus said:
Ulver's album is from 1995 actually, recorded in late 1994.
Garm must have been 18 then.
Good to see two albums with him in the same round.
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Corrected.

Saapanael said:
Hey, Magnus’ albums actually stand a chance in this round.
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Magnus's albums have won lots. Not all of them, of course, but he's nominated some notable contenders, like Game Over and Dreamweaver.
 
We’ve got 3 classic Metal acts represented this round and none of them deserve to progress. Never mind that they are some of the respective artists’ weakest albums, but they are up against really high quality competition.
 
LooseCannon said:
Magnus's albums have won lots. Not all of them, of course, but he's nominated some notable contenders, like Game Over and Dreamweaver.
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Yup, it’s just that usually when I see an album nominated by Magnus, it’s matched up against something that I consider stronger, even though I’d like some black metal to advance.
 
Jer said:
I have a nominee up in the next round, and this time it’s Wanderer On The Edge Of Time from German prog metallers Mekong Delta.

This is a really eclectic album with classical guitar tracks, grinding instrumentals, and elements of Dream Theater, 70s Genesis, progressive thrash, and more. The tracks blend and cut into each other as a series of connected vignettes, so listening to an individual track or two can’t really give you a representative picture of the album — it’s best consumed as a whole, from start to finish (sadly I couldn’t find an uninterrupted full album link on YouTube). I shared more detailed thoughts in the random album reviews thread if anyone is interested.

The sample track I chose for this round is “The 5th Element (Le Bateleur) // Movement 2”, which has more of a Dream Theater feel to it, and some awesome extended soloing toward the end. If you’d like something thrashier, try “The Apocalypt - World In Shards (La Maison Dieu) // Movement 3”. If you want some sitar and a more digestible song structure, try “King With Broken Crown (Le Diable) // Movement 4”. If you want a taste of the instrumentals on offer, try “Intro - Concert Guitar” or “Ouverture”. But really, like I said before, this album is best consumed as a whole.

It’s up against W.A.S.P.’s The Headless Children, which is a solid album, but nothing great. The songwriting and musicianship of the Mekong Delta album are on a completely different level, IMO, though the odd time signatures and varied styles throughout the album may make it a bit less immediate for a new listener.

Wanderer On The Edge Of Time is probably my favorite album of the 2010s, and I hope you like it too.
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Lost track from MD since the 90's but from what I've heard from this album so far they're really different... and for worst IMO. Everything these dudes did in their early days had that Voivod/ Mordred Prog Thrash feel to it while bearing a truly unique sound. From Erich Zaan to Kaleidoscope there wasn't a single miss album for these guys (and even the infamous debut with Chuck Norris on the cover had some really cool passages although being a bit raw). What I listen here is little more than symphonic prog metal with lots of Dream Theater influences. From times to times there's still a breeze from their past (like in The Apokalipt) but that's it. Not that it's bad... but nowhere near their early stuff IMO.

P.S. : Hey! with this comment I've already did the majority of the review for the album... Copy / Paste FTW! :)
 
Well If it isn't Ulver's debut and man do I love Ulver! These guys are crafted musicians that proved throughout their long end eclectic career they could play almost everything and completely change their sonic outfit genre literally from album to album. Of course when Bergtatt came out they were still puppies (pun intended) and strongly rooted in Black Metal. And let me tell you one thing: although Ulver are absolute musical chameleons there is one genre I think they never were good playing... and that's precisely traditional uptempo Black Metal! And as far as I'm concerned their debut just reinforces that thought. When Ulver go blast beat and screeching vocal they sound sloppy, generic at best and boring. And truth be told there's a considerable amount of it here. But when they bathe their sound in Nordic folk and go mid tempo man does this sound magical no matter how amateurish the mix and performance is! And the first chapter is the best example of what Ulver delivers when going that route. One year later they would go even further releasing the absurdly beautiful Kveldssanger, a record 100% composed of folklore anthems. So yup... while not being my favorite album from the band (far from it... my favorites are the aforementioned Kveldssanger, Blood Inside and especially the superb War Of The Roses, none of them being metal albums) there's already something absolutely unique on Bergtatt's sound and the feeling it was still a metamorphose in its very beginning. Nostradamus surely is incomparably more competent at various aspects except two: originality and composition wit. Plus I can easily remind right now of more than a dozen of Priest albums better than this one and many of them will surely appear throughout this game. And that is enough for Ulver to get my vote.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Friggin' Leprosy! Thank you @phantomoftheicarus !I would nominate this one but decided to pick only 1 album per band and wouldn't be honest with myself if I'd pick this one over Individual. Nevertheless this is one hell of a record and an absolute classic. So while many people discuss to this very day if the first Death Metal record was Scream Bloody Gore or Seven Churches I never had the slightest doubt about this matter: none of them. And that's because both albums were still very Thrash sounding (and while being so why not pulling Bestial Devastation to the talk?). Nah... for me Leprosy is really the first purely Death Metal record ever released. And the concrete brutality of the first notes of the title track are a new kind of monster never spotted before! What a behemoth of a song: the pace changes, the guitar licks, everything here is what Chuck presented us on the band's debut yet on heavy steroids and painted in darker colors. Born Dead continues the onslaught and one can be sure the opening track's impact was no fluke. But it's only when it comes to Left To Die and Pull The Plug that the band really confirm that this is a record for the ages when it comes to defining a genre and its quality standards. And up to the very last note of Choke On It intensity and songwriting brilliance are assured for all extreme metal lovers. To sum it up this album is the epitome of classic record, period. Rainbow's debut is also a good record and somehow of a groundbreaker in a way lesser way (and even less when compared with its successor). And for that reason and many more my vote obviously goes to Death.

Virtual XI is second to last on my Iron Maiden ranking. That being said... is it a bad record? Unlike many others answer mine is negative. Sure it features some really facepalm worth moments like those silly repetitions on feeble tracks such as the pointless structure of DLTTEOAS or the already tainted by his excessive duration and annoying "The Who's Won't Be Fooled Again meets Van Halen's Jump" keyboards in TAATG. Sure it features some absolutely mediocre melodies like When Two World's Collide' chorus and bridge. And yeah... I also think Blaze's vocal melodies are worst than the previous album (the criminally underrated The X Factor). And once again sure... I also concur songs like Como Estais Amigos and Lightning Strikes Twice have a really strong base that that wasn't pushed to its full potential (but even so they're pretty decent tunes). The problem here is the great legacy Maiden by 1998 had already amassed and how high had they put the bar and that kinda backfired. On the brighter side, with the exception of the ultra repetitive first single, Virtual XI at its worst moments isn't that awful like and on the highlights still hides a really interesting gem in The Educated Fool and offers us two really strong track in Futureal and The Clansman (the latter played live in various following tours). So while many 90's and 2000's Heavy Metal bands would give their skin to compose something similar to the best songs from this record in general Virtual XI pales when compared with almost the remainder of the band's catalogue. So again and since there are 14 Maiden albums I prefer to this one and being aware I'll have to deal with the majority (if not the totality) of them, I'll go with Borknagar.

And to wrap things up a kinda copy/ paste plus editing exercise. Lost track of Mekong Delta since the 90's. From what I remember back in the day, everything these dudes released in their early catalogue had that Voivod/ Mordred Prog Thrash feel to it while bearing a truly unique sound... and a really good one too. From Erich Zaan to Kaleidoscope there wasn't a single miss album for these guys (and even the infamous debut with Chuck Norris on the cover had some really cool passages although being a bit raw). So after listening to Wanderer In The Edge Of Time you can easily guess I found myself a bit confuse. Is this the same band? Well they dove even deeper into prog metal intricate waters but what I've listened to here is almost plain Symphonic Prog Metal with lots of Dream Theater influences. And truth be told: toooooo many Dream Theater influences for my taste, making them lose their identity (something that's really important for me to enjoy a band). From times to times there's still a breeze from their heavier past (like in The Apokalipt, Mistaken Truth or the instrumental Intermezzo) but that's it. Not that this is a bad album - far from it. It's superbly well played and complete but let's not fool ourselves: during most of the tracks we know which fountain these guys were drinking from and fact is they never left the site and ended up taking a bath in it washing all traces that distinguished them from others. And that won't make it against The Headless Children so I'll vote for WASP.
 
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I had already listened to Ulver’s second album, "Kveldssanger", and wasn’t thoroughly impressed going into this. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised – "Bergtatt" is absolutely brilliant. So atmospheric, and perfectly blending the black metal sound with cleaner elements. Is it the same vocalist doing the clean and harsh singing?
I really don’t mind "Nostradamus" that much – I just wish they would’ve cut out most of the interludes and unnecessary bloat, so we’d end up with a decent single disc album. Is it better than their other reunion-stuff? No. Is it better than "Bergtatt"? Also, no. Voting for Ulver.

I’m more into the later Death-stuff, "Symbolic" and "The Sound of Perseverance", but "Leprosy" is a solid, albeit less focused release. Some of the songs, like “Pull the Plug”, are signs of greater things to come, and all in all it’s enjoyable. However, Rainbow’s debut is an all-time classic, one of the best albums ever made in my opinion, and against the genius Blackmore/Dio-combination even Schuldiner has to fold. So, Rainbow gets my vote.

So, here are a few subjective statements by yours truly: "Virtual XI" isn’t Maiden’s best album. It isn’t their worst, either. Most importantly, it’s overall a fine album by my favourite band that isn’t my go-to record when I’m in Maiden-mood, but one I do spin from time to time. So how does it fare against Borknagar, who I’m now giving a listen for the first time? Not that well, actually. "The Olden Domain" is once again very atmospheric black metal, this time with a symphonic twist, mixing clean and harsh vocals (though it isn’t quite as good as the Ulver-album). Honestly, it comes down to this: Maiden has made a number of albums worthy of being named the greatest metal album of all time – "Virtual XI" isn’t one of them. Is "The Olden Domain" then? Probably not, but I liked it, and thus Borknagar gets my vote here.

Mekong Delta was good. I wasn’t blown away, but I can definitely appreciate the musicianship here, and the songwriting was decent too. My only complaint is that it, at times, felt too “calculated”, which is the main reason I tend to not enjoy Dream Theater as much as I probably should. I won’t go as far as calling it a lack of soul, but it’s missing that special, elusive thing that really would make it resonate deep within me.
And finally, W.A.S.P. brings us classic 80’s metal, with everything that entails. Good, silly fun that I enjoyed (almost) every second of. I really want to vote for Mekong Delta, but I have to go with the album that did the most for me in this pairing, so W.A.S.P. it is.
 
I foresaw a difficult battle for Judas Priest, and my prediction came true. They were victorious and Ulver is gone, so it's Whitesnake next.
Rainbow shines over Death. Death returns in League 3.
Iron Maiden rides the bias pony, perhaps, to victory over Borknagar, ending the latter's minnow run and GMAC experience. They'll next see Ensiferum.
Mekong Delta beats W.A.S.P. in what I can only describe as an upset. Perhaps they impressed many voters, perhaps some W.A.S.P. fatigue. We'll see the insect-named band again in League 3.
 
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