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

Cracktheskye.jpg

Mastodon - Crack the Skye (2009)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Collin, @Shmoolikipod
League 7 - Match 31vs.
Amorphis_-_Skyforger.JPG

Amorphis - Skyforger (2009)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Spambot
Previous Rounds:
League 10: Defeated Primordial - Spirit the Earth Aflame 16-11.
League 9: Defeated Powerwolf - The Sacrifice of Sin 15-6.
League 8: Defeated Sabbat - History of a Time to Come 15-13.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gojira_magma_artwork.jpg

Gojira - Magma (2016)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Ariana, @phantomoftheicarus
League 7 - Match 32vs.
Rush_Hemispheres.jpg

Rush - Hemispheres (1978)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Midnight
Previous Rounds:
League 10: Defeated Rush - Permanent Waves 15-11.
League 9: Defeated Rosetta - Wake/Lift 19-3.
League 8: Defeated The Michael Schenker Group - The Michael Schenker Group 19-8.
 
Last edited:
Diesel 11 said:
And that’s all I can think of at the moment. It’s not that there’s a lot wrong with this album, it’s just so boring. There was no need to stretch out the same plodding song type across two hours. No need. There is no fire here, it’s a band out of their comfort zone and failing to push themselves in the way they needed to be pushed. “War” sounds like something I would’ve come up with when I was 10. “Death” has a cool concept and a cool doomy vibe and then makes you wish you were listening to actual doom metal cuz this is legit meh. “New Beginnings” is so fucking saccharine, truly bad. And the lyrics just aren’t very good. Maybe if they were more satirical, which is the impression that I get from “Prophecy”, or more... yknow what, never mind, this is Priest I’m talking about. They are not great lyricists and were never gonna pull off this concept anyway. There is just so much that needs to be overhauled here. Not good.

Compared to Firepower? I’m gonna come out and say it: Firepower is the best Priest album ever. There is no song on that album that doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks and grab you in a headlock. Even a weaker song like “Flame Thrower” still packs a punch. The sound of that record is the best they’ve ever had. The riffs are monumental. Halford sounds better than he has in nearly twenty years. For the first time in forever the band has actually had fire in their souls. This isn’t just a recapture of the Painkiller era. This is a reinvention of Judas Priest as a band. Finally they are back to writing the music that they write better than everyone else. I respect their attempts to broaden their horizons, but massive concept records aren’t what Priest excel at. They excel at writing catchy metal songs with big riffs and over the top vocals. And this record is that perfectly distilled into just under sixty minutes. Nearly flawless.
Click to expand...
I wholeheartedly agree with all of this, 100%. I might still like Painkiller slightly more, but it also probably depends on the day. Firepower is a towering achievement, not only for a band this later in their career, but any metal band. It absolutely rules.

The only reason Nostradamus isn't unanimously considered the worst Priest album of all time is because there's nothing outright terrible on it. Plus the Ripper years exist. Plus the late 80's exist. Plus Point of Entry exists. All of those records have fucking bad songs on them that stand out more than anything on Nostradamus, but the latter is just so excruciatingly bloated and dull. As with Virtual XI (and half of Maiden's records, honestly), it belongs nowhere near the top of any metal album discussion.

Speaking of bland, shite albums, no one nominated Opeth's Heritage, did they?
 
GMAC support ticket: Mastodon video is wrong, Hemispheres kill list is incorrect (Deep Purple knocked out Mekong Delta, not Rush)
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I wholeheartedly agree with all of this, 100%. I might still like Painkiller slightly more, but it also probably depends on the day. Firepower is a towering achievement, not only for a band this later in their career, but any metal band. It absolutely rules.
Click to expand...
The fact that they were able to come up with 14 awesome songs of that magnitude, of that caliber, just phenomenal. And it just never lets up. I know you don’t like “Flame Thrower” that much, and to me it’s probably my least favorite on the album, but it’s fun and got some chunky riffs and lit vibes. Probably the hardest-hitting song on the whole album is “Traitors Gate”, like Jesus Christ it’s so heavy and so fiery and you keep thinking the instrumental section is over and then they throw in some more helpings of riffage. And even “Sea Of Red”, which starts out like an acoustic ballad and then they hit you with the electricity again and it finishes like the other songs. Ugh. It’s such a great record, up there with my favorites overall.

MrKnickerbocker said:
The only reason Nostradamus isn't unanimously considered the worst Priest album of all time is because there's nothing outright terrible on it. Plus the Ripper years exist. Plus the late 80's exist. Plus Point of Entry exists. All of those records have fucking bad songs on them that stand out more than anything on Nostradamus, but the latter is just so excruciatingly bloated and dull. As with Virtual XI (and half of Maiden's records, honestly), it belongs nowhere near the top of any metal album discussion.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I’m always interested in hearing albums most fans dislike. On occasion you find albums that are actually much better than they’re given credit for being, like TXF and VXI for Maiden, or Load for Metallica. But Nostradamus and Jugulator are just not good. Haven’t heard Demolition in a while so that one may also be down there. At some point I’m gonna give Priest a true discography binge and iron out my thoughts on them as a whole.
 
Saxon - Biff singing in a very lightweight Euro metal style, not sure what the drummer is doing during the chorus, the chorus is quite hooky but I can't focus on the hook because of what the drums are doing. Otherwise no complaints, decent Saxon style meat and potatoes Heavy Metal. Outro change to a 90's-groove style riff is interesting, it even has a bit of the vibe of the outro of Wake Up Dead.

Iron Maiden - opinion given before

Iron Maiden with the win

Anthrax - Probably my favourite Anthrax album, the hits on Among the Living are better but Spreading the Disease is a higher standard overall, obviously well known tracks like A.I.R and Armed and Dangerous are great, you also have the classic hidden gem Medusa, and you can't beat Gung-Ho

Tremonti - pretty inoffensive, like a singer songwriter track given a full band production

Anthrax with the win

Mastodon - video link is wrong, so I just went to youtube and clicked the shortest song. Not bad, the stuff on the other 2 recent albums was better, maybe I just picked a weak track.

Amorphis - The half time chorus doesn't work for me, otherwise not bad

Not sure who to vote for here, Amorphis has sections that are more my cup of tea

Gojira - no interest in this stuff

Rush - opinion given before

Rush with the win
 
Unleashed the Beast (1997) is by far the best Saxon album. The majority of the guitar work and choruses are really cool. Great hooks. And what a solos. Goosebumps during Cut Out the Disease and Circle of Light! :shred:

 
I intensely dislike Saxon. Maiden it is.

I don't care for Anthrax, and Tremonti is cool, I guess.

Crack The Skye is one of the best albums of the 21st century. Shame Skyforger has to go against it.

Magma is shit. Don't care for Hemispheres, but can't bring myself to vote for the pile of shit that is Magma. Sellout crap.
 
LooseCannon said:
By the way, League 6 Matchups now live.
Click to expand...
Tool vs Anthrax
Rush vs Tool
Pantera vs Scorpions
Megadeth vs Rush
Judas Priest vs Atlantean Kodex
Iron Maiden vs Queensryche
Slayer vs Iron Maiden
Dream Theater vs Deep Purple X2
Linkin Park vs Opeth
and most likely also:
Iron Maiden vs Blaze Bayley
Anthrax vs Ghost
Rush vs Rush

What an amazing league!
 
This Saxon album has consistently strong guitar work, though it doesn’t really stand out stylistically from other NWOBHM bands of its vintage. The vocals are a bit weird, kind of halfway between a high-pitched hair metal belter and Bon Scott, and the vocal harmonies and little vocal ad libs are pretty cringey. The melodic lines are a mixed bag — about half are memorable and half aren’t. So, solid but uneven overall. And that’s about the same overall feeling I have about Dance Of Death, which has a lot of OK-to-good material on it, with a couple of outliers in both directions. And the Iron Maiden album has noticeably muddy production that was only partially rectified by its remaster. Not thrilled with either album here, and I could go either way on this, but given the run a shit album like Virtual XI is currently on in this game, I think fair-minded folk need to start practicing affirmative action in the GMAC and break ties in favor of the visiting team, since the home field advantage for Maiden albums is apparently pretty absurd. So, sorry @Black Wizard, but to oppose Maiden bias I must go with mcKalatadog’s nominee here. Winner: Saxon

Here’s another Anthrax album, and it has the same pros and cons as most of their other albums I’ve heard in the GMAC — low rent production, weak songwriting, cringey group vocals, but some nice guitar passages peppered throughout. Don’t know why they’re held in similar esteem to Megadeth and Metallica by a lot of people, since they consistently sound minor league to me. Sorry, Black Whooten, but @Ariana ’s choice easily outclasses this album. Winner: Tremonti

This third match is the hardest one of the round for me. The Mastodon album is pretty cool proggy stoner rock (a weird musical marriage, frankly) with consistently interesting music and less consistent vocals. I think one of the singers is pretty good, but the other two have deficits (drifting out of tune, or getting too screamy). Still, a cool album overall that I should spend some more time with. It’s up against a strong, mostly clean-vocalled Amorphis album with a lot of folk-infused melodies. I still hate the growls when they show up, but the rest of the music here is great. So, in both cases we have great music and mostly good vocals with some issues. I’d be fine with either of these albums progressing, but forced to choose, I think I’d tip in the direction of more anthemic songwriting. Sorry, Shmoolikollin, but I’m going with @Spambot ’s nominee here. Winner: Amorphis

I was prepared for a “hahahahaha, Rush” comment here, but this Gojira album isn’t 100% screaming, and a lot of the screaming that remains actually hits some musical notes, so it’s at least a step in the right direction. I think “Silvera” is actually a legitimately good song, and “Low Lands” is also pretty good. The middle of the album where the vocals stay clean (the title track and “Pray”) is unfortunately kind of boring, and the instrumentals don’t really grab me, and “The Shooting Star” is a forgettable detour into stoner territory; so there isn’t much scaffolding to hold this one up, but I didn’t totally hate it. Too bad it stepped out onto the freeway right in front of the Rush tour bus. Sorry, phantomoftheArianacus, but *splat!* Midnight’s choice takes this one easily. Winner: Rush
 
@Jer:

For reference, Oblivion is the best example to differentiate Mastodon's singers.

From 00:30, Brann (drummer) sings. That's actually the first time he sang on a song for Mastodon (he didn't sing at all on the first 3 albums). He took on a way more prominent role as a singer after this album. He's probably the best singer out of them all, in terms of range and accessibility, and by far the best at singing live.

From 00:50, Troy (bassist) sings. Troy doesn't have much of a voice, and struggles with harsh vocals that he used on the first few albums, but he can hold his own on the clean stuff. Got better with age in concert, but still nothing to write home about.

From 01:12, Brent (lead guitarist) sings. He is my favorite singer in the band because he pretty much gets the coolest parts on each album and is also the best at ballads. Sure his voice does seem a bit whiny in places, but his vocals seem to come from the heart the most and he is definitely the most unique voice in the band. However, he is horrible live, but in his defense, it just might be that he can't play and sing at the same time. Also, he used to drink a lot. He's been decent in the past few years, but still, way weaker than Brann and Troy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jer
It seems I have to vote against my own nominee... DOD is such an underrated album and I like it a lot.
 
Saxon is a band I seriously give major props due to its contribution while defining metal in the late 70's but fact is I never liked their sound the slightest. And while I also think DOD has no place on a "Greatest Metal Album Ever" contest and I would love to go against the maiden bias on this game, fact is it's in my top 10 Maiden chart and features some damn great songs (Montsegur, Face In The Sand, Rainmaker, No More Lies, Dance Of Death, Paschendale...). So I have no choice but to vote for Iron Maiden.

While their debut was a somewhat approach to Anvil and Exciter's speed metal (a really immature one and eve cringe worth at times), Spreading The Disease is where 'Thrax really bring down the door. Either by fast as hell moshing gospels, full of groove bastards (like AIR, SSC Stand Or Fall and Gung Ho) or Thrash infused heavy metal anthems (Medusa, Lone Justice and Madhouse) this amazing album shows a band that's ready to take the world by storm (and they sure did). Comparing that with over produced millenial la la la metal should be a crime itself. Anthrax.

As an early Mastodon fan, Crack The Skye was an album that really disappointed me when it came out. The band straight forward changed their complex, wild and multi faced for a more predictable type of prog metal. Not that this is a bad album. Divinations, The Baron and the title track are good songs and Oblivion also has its charm. But it's not even comparable to the absolute intricate behemoth that is Remission, the epic monster of Leviathan and the ingenious diversity of Blood Mountain. plus all these albums, while being all different had some common and unique traits when distinguishing the band from the rest of the pack while Crack The Skye sounded much more generic in its morphology. Yet 3 good songs are better than none and if this Mastodon album shrinks when compared with their first records Amorphis simply disappears.

Magma is a curious album and shows how much of a breath of fresh air these guys are in a period where the vast majority of bands either go down the experimental/ avant-garde route or end up sounding boring and pre-fabricated (no matter how underground or mainstream they are). So fact is the Frenchmen went way softer on this one and much more accessible. Shooting Star's Killing Joke meets Devin Townsend with Sabbath undertones shows us Duplantier bringing a clean vocal facet to the band (much similar to Jaz Coleman from the aforementioned KJ) and while being much more tamed this thing is really beautiful. Don't get it twisted: while some other songs kinda go down the same road as the opening song (such as Low Lands and Magma - this one with some Godflesh traits) you still have your dose of slow grinding brutality on The Cell, Stranded ad Only Pain, featuring lots of machine gun like bass drum hertas and their signature harmonic guitar scrapes. But even on the superb Silvera or Pray there is something new breathing in a much less claustrophobic and lighter soundscape than Magma's predecessors. So yeah... these guys managed to pull it: a somewhat accessible "mainstream" metal album that sounds unique most of the time without reinventing the wheel. And to do so it takes composition skill. Speaking of which Rush's Hemispheres is a cool record with some good songs and although I'm not a fan, far from be to disrespect what Geddy and the boys achieved with albums like this and 2112 and how unapologetic they were while bringing their own stuff to the table. And that's exactly what Gojira are doing some decades later in metal and since I prefer them, they get my vote.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Tool vs Anthrax
Rush vs Tool
Pantera vs Scorpions
Megadeth vs Rush
Judas Priest vs Atlantean Kodex
Iron Maiden vs Queensryche
Slayer vs Iron Maiden
Dream Theater vs Deep Purple X2
Linkin Park vs Opeth
and most likely also:
Iron Maiden vs Blaze Bayley
Anthrax vs Ghost
Rush vs Rush

What an amazing league!
Click to expand...
Yup... and so much blasphemy about to be done :P (curiously enough I gonna vote against one of my nominees)
 
Something that is key to remember is that League 7 is the last time single nomination albums will come up. So we get these albums that one person likes and wants considered that generally wouldn't be anywhere near a Top Metal Album list. That's really what's been duking it out over the last few leagues, knifing each other to slowly create a list of true dark horse candidates.

That is to say, the setup doesn't much matter, it's leagues 6, 5, and 4 that will really whittle down these dark horses to determine which is worthy or not. Leagues 3, 2 and 1 are the true elite of albums, all with multiple list entries and most with multiple nominations from Maidenfans members. That is to say, if you took the 96 albums of Leagues 3, 2, and 1 and said "These are the 96 best metal albums of all time" very, very few people would argue that contention.
 
At least I can take solace in the fact that if Virtual XI manages to squeak through the tiebreaker, it’s going to be up against Firepower next. Even Maiden bias has its limits...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top