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

Yknow what? I voted Blaze first time around. Now I’ll switch and go with Pearl Jam.

Also Iced Earth. In spite of recent events, the album is still pretty great. Easily their best in 16 years. And perhaps their swan song too..............
 
While I hope that Jon Schaffer (removed to avoid further moderation) during his inevitable prison term for being a fucking seditionist piece of shit, even that penalty isn’t enough to overcome my aversion to extreme vocals. Winner: Iseditionist Earth

Not changing my vote in round 2 either. Winner: Pearl Jam
 
Amon Amarth is a one-trick pony but the only songs I really enjoyed from Incorruptible were the excellent Black Flag, Clear the Way, and an instrumental somewhere in the middle whose name I forget. That was almost enough to give it a vote (Schaffer's current... predicament... has no effect on my choice), but no dice.

Blaze over Pearl Jam because I will never vote for Pearl Jam on a “greatest metal album cup.” That’s like having a “greatest country album cup” and including the Beastie Boys.
 
Looks like Jon Schaffer's recent extracurriculars have influenced voters, but Blaze is only a couple of votes back. Any more votes?!
 
Amon Amarth cuts down Iced Earth to move on to a League 5 matchup against Sabaton, while Pearl Jam stops Blaze to go up against Avantasia.
 
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Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her Embrace (1996)

How it got here

List entries: Metal Kingdom 91
Maidenfans Nominators: @Saapanael
League 5 - Match 1vs.
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Rammstein - Mutter (2001)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Diesel 11, @Dr. Eddie’s Wingman
Previous Rounds:
League 6: Defeated My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans 14-11.
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Metal Church - Metal Church (1984)

How it got here

List entries: Metalstorm 61
Maidenfans Nominators: @Whooten
League 5 - Match 2vs.
Superunknown.jpg

Soundgarden - Superunknown (1994)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Ariana, @Lampwick 43, @mckindog
Previous Rounds:
League 6: Defeated Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire 15-9.
 
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Blaze Bayley - Silicon Messiah (2000)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Diesel 11, @LooseCannon, @Perun, @Shmoolikipod
League 5 - Match 3vs.
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Tool - Fear Inoculum (2019)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Midnight, @The Flash
Previous Rounds:
League 6: Defeated Anthrax - Persistence of Time 13-11.
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Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Collin, @Forostar, @Jer, @mckindog, @Midnight
League 5 - Match 4vs.
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Rush - A Farewell to Kings (1977)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @mckindog, @Midnight
Previous Rounds:
League 6: Defeated Tool - 10,000 Days 13-11.
 
Wow. What a League we just had.
Of 32 survivors from the knockout rounds we've had previously, only 11 made it through this gauntlet to advance to League 5. And this was just the first properly professional league.

I know that they're going to get tougher, but I don't know if 23 knockouts can be repeated. Incredible, incredible times, wow.
 
Mutter is mostly killer, one filler (“Rein, Raus”).

Metal Church’s title track blew my mind first time I heard its riff in my younger days. Gotta give it the vote.

Silicon Messiah is truly a masterful statement from Blaze and his assembly. Jumping from being the singer in Maiden’s “low point” (debatable) to crafting a seriously heavy fucking album. Absolutely great.

Moving Pictures is really well put together and has some great Rush classics.
 
This Cradle Of Filth album has some musical passages that are pretty good, and the spoken word parts are alright, but large stretches of the music are also cacophonous and tiring, and those main vocals are absolutely atrocious. It’s really hard to put up with more than a few minutes at a time of that Gollum-on-helium sound. The Rammstein record isn’t really my cup of tea either, but it’s a pretty good hard rocking industrial album, which is enough in this case. Sorry, @Saapanael, but I have to go with Dr. Elevvie’s Wieselman’s nominee here. Winner: Rammstein

I’m not thrilled with the singer of Metal Church (especially compared to Chris Cornell!), but he’s OK. There are some cool riffs and guitar solos on this album, and some nice calmer sections, but something about it doesn’t quite jell for me — there’s some pervasive awkwardness in the melodic and rhythmic choices here, and the songwriting doesn’t impress me much. But it’s up against a Soundgarden album that has a handful of great songs and then a large majority of material that does absolutely nothing for me. This one’s pretty close, but sorry Lampmcwickianadog 666, I’m going to go with @Whooten ’s choice. Winner: Metal Church

This Blaze album is ridiculously overrated. I’ve never understood the broad acclaim among Maiden fans for this one, as it plods along without much in the way of melodic hooks, and Blaze regularly sings out of key and with bad phrasing. It also pilfers musical bits from other, better albums — the vocal melody in “Ghost In The Machine” borrows heavily from the chorus guitar melody of Gamma Ray’s “Watcher In The Sky”; the title track swipes the vocal melody from Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Disciples Of Hell” and the descending guitar bit from Queensrÿche’s “Spreading The Disease”; “Born As A Stranger” and “The Launch” both rehash the verses of Maiden’s “Man On The Edge” with different lyrics; and the outro of “The Hunger” rips off the outro of Queensrÿche’s “I Don’t Believe In Love”. Some of the songs have cool riffs or nice parts, but none of them are particularly impressive on the whole. Tenth Dimension and Blood & Belief are far better than this. Hell, I think The X Factor is even a little better than this. (It does manage to fare a bit better than Virtual XI, though.) And going up against a typically great Tool record? No contest. Sorry, Loosediesoolikiperun 4, but The Mashflight’s nominee is the clear victor here. Winner: Tool

Moving Pictures is Rush’s second best album in my estimation, with an absolutely stellar first half that unfortunately tapers off in quality after “The Camera Eye”. This is the album that everyone knows, even if they don’t know that they know it already. While A Farewell To Kings is also a great album, it can’t quite stand up to its competitor. Congratusorrylations, mcknightdog, but your identical-two-fifths conjoined sibling mccollinightforojerkindog’s choice takes this one. Winner: Rush - Moving Pictures
 
Cradle of Filth - intro was ok, change to the slow part wasn't great, change to the fast part was a bit better, blast beat part was shite, this is kind of like the Avenged Sevenfold of extreme metal by that I mean it has a bit everything but the kitchen sink thrown in but doesn't really meld the disparate parts in any coherent manner.

Rammstein - Was hoping this was going to be a cover of Danzig in a Deutsch accent. Only joking, I've heard of this. A bit of the Unforgiven off the guitar melody.

Rammstein with the win.

Metal Church - One of the worst band names in metal. Intro is good as is the main riff, vocal kind of like Dio trying to do an impression of King Diamond. Decent melody part but the swapping solos part is a bit shite, mainly the groove of it.

Soundgarden - opinion given before

Metal Church with the win.

Blaze - A surprisingly great record when this came out, I and many I guess were expecting him to disappear up his own arse (which to be fair he did when he let this original band fall apart) especially after assembling a band of nobodies. The tracks are for the most part brilliant, Born as a Stranger, the title track, The Hunger are all excellent and Stare at the Sun is the best thing his solo bands have ever done. Evolution and Reach for the Horizon are a bit on the weak side though.

Tool - intro sounds like heart shaped box. Opinion given before

Blaze with the win

Rush - Two Rush albums that I actually own, and two pretty great albums as well. Moving Pictures is the far more coherent and balanced work though. Red Barchetta is the best track they ever done (at least as far as my limited Rush knowledge goes :lol: )
 
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