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

Damn, the two best albums here against each other, tough.
I'd happily vote Hear Nothing Say Nothing See Nothing against lots and lots of the stuff that has appeared so far, but Tales... is a special album for me.
Savatage, and one for Opeth and one against them, so Amorphis end up getting a second vote they don't deserve at all actually.
 
LooseCannon said:
I mean, since all of the albums in that list are going to be in the "new album" slot, they cannot by definition face each other.


Which albums are you calling as great?
Click to expand...
The Stage, Octavarium, Elements pt.1 (assuming that the album featured in the game is actually pt.1), Endgame, Apex. 10,000 Days is also pretty decent and A Change of Seasons is a great EP.
 
LooseCannon said:
I mean, since all of the albums in that list are going to be in the "new album" slot, they cannot by definition face each other.
Click to expand...
Yes, of course :facepalm:
KidInTheDark666 said:
The Stage, Octavarium, Elements pt.1 (assuming that the album featured in the game is actually pt.1), Endgame, Apex. 10,000 Days is also pretty decent and A Change of Seasons is a great EP.
Click to expand...
You were absolutely right. Completely different albums indeed.
 
I truly hope Second Life Syndrome will get a fair shake here.

Riverside is kind of like Porcupine Tree in that they're a prog band who kind of straddle the line of metal. This album definitely has enough metal elements to qualify, which is partly why I decided to go with Artificial Smile as the preview song. That, and I felt like it might be a little more accessible than the epics. Although the title track, which is over 15 minutes long, is magnificent and I highly recommend giving it a listen.
 
Opeth - the chillax sections are pretty good, the heavy sections are decent as well bar some sections of drum overkill and bad vocals. Also, practically every song from them that has appeared in the game has the same template, long running time and a patchwork of disparate sections changing quite frequently. Frustrating stuff as it's not a million miles away from something I'd really like.

Amorphis - Pretty ok, verse could do with a groovier beat

Amorphis with the win

Discharge - not for me

Amorphis - opinion given before

Amorphis with the win

Ozzy Osbourne - Another album that I might have to revisit at some stage, from memories, the title track is great and A Shot in the Dark is an absolute classic, the rest is fairly average as far as I remember but it must be donkey's years since I played it

Opeth - opinion given before

Ozzy with the win

Riverside - riff ok, vocal sounds real smarmy, the music isn't bad but I'm not warming to the singer

Savatage - opinion given before

Savatage with the win (I like this album but they've got a lot of charity wins from me, some much better albums have bitten the dust after only one round)
 
Mikael Akerfeldt has one of the most thoroughly annoying extreme vocal sounds I’ve ever heard, and thanks to the GMAC I’ve had the misfortune of hearing quite a few of them by now. Whenever he gets started on that shit I immediately want to skip to the next track. It’s a giant steaming turd on top of an otherwise tasty entree, and I don’t understand the appeal of this at all. The middle section of the album where he abandons this for clean vocals and an instrumental is great, but the rest is almost completely ruined. The Amorphis album has a much higher percentage of clean vocals, and the extreme vocals on that album aren’t quite as awful as Akerfeldt’s, so my choice here is clear. Sorry, @The Flash, but I have to go with @Night Prowler ‘s nominee here. Winner: Amorphis

This Discharge album is a bunch of samey lo-fi punk that doesn’t really hold my interest. The Amorphis album, while having crappy extreme vocals, still has significantly more appealing music. Sorry, @phantomoftheicarus, but @Forostar ’s choice is preferable to me here. Winner: Amorphis

This Ozzy album has great riffs and solos, but the songwriting is mostly bland. “Shot In The Dark” is the only killer track here, though there are nice moments peppered throughout. Then we have this problematic Opeth album, where half of it is brilliant and the other half is glass-gargling bullshit. Would I rather listen to something decent all the way through with a few high points, or something half excellent and half ruined? Sorry, @Dityn DJ James, but I guess I’m leaning toward the higher highs of @The Flash ’s nominee in this case. Winner: Opeth

This Riverside album is pretty cool prog rock with heavier parts. The title track, “Artificial Smile”, “Reality Dream III” and “Before” stood out the most to me on first listen, and I’ll probably circle around to this again at some point if it doesn’t make it to the next round. I’m not a fan of Gutter Ballet, and I’m kind of tired of seeing it here instead of other, better Savatage albums, so this is an easy pick for @Lampwick 43 ’s nominee. Winner: Riverside
 
Jer said:
Mikael Akerfeldt has one of the most thoroughly annoying extreme vocal sounds I’ve ever heard, and thanks to the GMAC I’ve had the misfortune of hearing quite a few of them by now. Whenever he gets started on that shit I immediately want to skip to the next track. It’s a giant steaming turd on top of an otherwise tasty entree, and I don’t understand the appeal of this at all. The middle section of the album where he abandons this for clean vocals and an instrumental is great, but the rest is almost completely ruined.
Click to expand...
Do you like harsh vocals at all? If so, what singers do you think have good harsh voices?

I’m genuinely curious as Mikael Akerfeldt is the first harsh vocalist I ever liked and I still consider him to be the gold standard. He has great diction. He doesn’t do that annoying whistle shriek thing. His power is unrivalled. His harsh vocals are like a percussive instrument, not a razor blade.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Do you like harsh vocals at all?
Click to expand...
Nope, I generally hate them with a passion. I’ve never heard a piece of music with harsh vocals in it that couldn’t have been improved by either removing them or replacing them with melodic vocals. Over the years I have encountered a handful of examples where the extreme vocals were so low in the mix as to become percussion, or so whispered or otherwise muffled that they became inoffensive — but I’ve never heard any that I’ve genuinely liked.

MrKnickerbocker said:
I’m genuinely curious as Mikael Akerfeldt is the first harsh vocalist I ever liked and I still consider him to be the gold standard. He has great diction. He doesn’t do that annoying whistle shriek thing. His power is unrivalled. His harsh vocals are like a percussive instrument, not a razor blade.
Click to expand...
He’s like a power sander taken directly to my eardrums. Absolutely atrocious.

The extreme vocals I’ve been able to tolerate are on In Flames’ The Jester Race, where they’re hiding way under the guitars, and Aegonia’s The Forgotten Song, where they’re more like a husky whisper. And honestly, the pig squealing on the Amputated album from the GMAC didn’t bother me much, either.

I was also able to tolerate Mikee Goodman’s vocals on Primal Rock Rebellion’s Awoken Broken, but I was informed by a connoisseur that those belong to some other category of crappy vocals, and aren’t technically extreme.
 
As someone who doesn't like harsh vocals either, the first bands that come to mind for me with harsh vocals I can tolerate the most would be like Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, early Avenged Sevenfold and All That Remains. Children of Bodom and Persefone have been a couple of bands from the GMAC that you could add in, too.

That's not to say that I like all those bands a ton, but they all employ vocals that are at least tolerable to me.

I'm really not a fan of the harsh vocals in Opeth, but the rest of the music is usually good enough to make up for it.
 
The Ultimate Sin is probably the most underrated heavy metal album I know. I think it easily outclasses his first three with tight songwriting, PHENOMENAL playing from every member (especially Jake E Lee), and an unparalleled atmosphere.

I mean come on, it's fantasy tinged hair metal, what's not to like. Fool Like You, Shot in the Dark, and the title track feature some of the greatest guitar work ever featured on an Ozzy album. Special props to Fool Like You, my 2nd favorite Ozzy song behind Waiting For Darkness, for having one of the BEST opening guitar passages I've ever heard in a metal track. Jake E Lee's tone and presence just KILLS on this album. I'm just so hooked to his playing and his tone. He immediately captures my attention on this album and never lets go. Great album through and through, other standout tracks include Secret Loser, Never, Thank God For the Bomb, and Killer of Giants.
 
The first match was really close. I decided to go with Amorphis.

Don't really care all that much about either album in the second match. I guess I'll go with Amorphis again.

The Ozzy album really didn't impress me. I'll give the vote to Opeth here.

And Riverside! come on, this album rules. And it'd be a shame to have Gutter Ballet knock out a superior album yet again. :rolleyes:



 
Magnus said:
Damn, the two best albums here against each other, tough.
I'd happily vote Hear Nothing Say Nothing See Nothing against lots and lots of the stuff that has appeared so far, but Tales... is a special album for me.
Click to expand...
Yup... Same opinion here. Although I have a soft spot for The Ultimate Sin also (and I'm not even a Ozzy solo career fan).
 
Well... coming next: Tool's 10000 Days, Annihilator's Alice In Hell, Bathory's The Return, Megadeth's Endgame, At The Gates' At War With Reality, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, and two of my nominees: Sabbat's debut and Realm Of Chaos by (as someone said it before) Bolt Motherfucking Thrower.

This thing's stacked! :ok:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top