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

Be’Lakor for me, but not by much. Having never heard of either of these bands before, I kinda like them both. The latter sounds like Opeth’s first few albums but with better production and more keyboards, so they’re my pick.

I’ve never been a fan of thrash, and Megadeth is less thrashy here. Even this middle-of-the-pack album is better to me than paint-by-numbers thrash. Yes, I know Megadeth used to be much thrashier, but they were always pretty technical too. Megadeth for the win.

Alter Bridge, easily.

Judas Priest, very easily. Van Halen is going to have to be pitted against something really bad to get my vote. Nothing against the man or his playing, but his songs do nothing for me.
 
I'm trying to think of a comparison but it would be more like Virtual XI beating Wheels of Steel, two bands from the same genre, a weak later album from the better band beating the classic album from the also-ran band.
 
Jer said:
Depends on how you define weak. I mean, yeah, it’s better than Risk and Super Collider and The World Needs A Hero, and it might barely squeak past Thirteen and Cryptic Writings, but that’s it. If it’s not a bottom-third album from them, then it’s right on the edge of being one.
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I actually far prefer Risk and CW. First two songs on UA are pretty great, the rest is bunk.
 
Like I said, I think it’s middle of the pack. On par with most of the later ‘90s stuff and easily better than Risk, Supercollider, and Thirteen. Probably better than TWNAH but not better than Cryptic.

Their best in a long time is The System Has Failed. Everyone praises Dystopia but other than the first few songs (particularly the title track and Fatal Illusion) I don’t think it’s that great.
 
Jer said:
Depends on how you define weak.
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It is definitely thoroughly incapable of wrestling a bear, that's for sure.

Other than that, the single most horrible thing about that album is that David couldn't contain himself and had to remind us of his limited grasp of the French language for the second time, for some reason. Cristina Scabbia notwithstanding.
 
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As I said before Be'Lakor are great at what they do. But Focus? Dear friends this record is historical. Nothing even came close at the time outside the box and technical wise as this weird yet amazing band (the nearest thing I can remind of is Nocturnus' debut and even that is way less adventurous than this classic). Featuring an elite group of musicians the mix of prog, jazz featuring some death metal sparkles here and there with that Vocoder modulated voice, Focus is simply a masterpiece. How Could I?, Textures, Veil Of Maya and especially The Eagle Nature show us Paul Masvidal alongside both late Sean Reinert and Sean Malone's rhythmic section opening new venues in that transcend by far metal's landscape. The only reason I left this masterpiece out was because I even like Traced In Air a tad bit more (and as I said before I decided to nominate just a single record per band). Easy pick: Cynic.

Don't get me wrong. United Abominations is a good record and I believe it's a bit more balanced than The Legacy. And that's normal, since this is Dave Mustaine 11th studio effort. But when you have songs like Over The Wall, Apocalyptic City, Burnt Offerings, Do Or Die or First Strike Is Deadly I believe it's hard not to vote Testament.

I sometimes wonder the number of metal acts that wouldn't even exist (or if they did they wouldn't sound like they do for sure) if it wasn't for Dimension Hatross and both its predecessor and following record (Killing Technology and Nothingface, respectively). All technical thrashy prog acts like Coroner, Meshuggah, Aghora, Vektor, Mekong Delta, Watchtower, Sadus, Atheist and even Cynic just to name a few. Hell, even superstars that seem to have nothing to do with these guys are fans (Dave Grohl, Bruce Dickinson, Jason Newsted or Lemmy). The great late Dennis D'Amour (aka Piggy) multi chromatic and dissonant guitar playing was this album's linchpin. Simply put this dude was a genius that could play a multitude of genres while giving it a unique sounding. On that regard the band was really lucky to get Martyr's daniel Morgan (a confess disciple of Piggy's playing style) and still manages to release great albums. It's debatable what's the band's best record (since they have really diverse sounding records) but I picked this one (could as well be Phobos or Killing Technology). It still offer some thrashy aftertaste bathed in early Pink Floyd psychedelic tones and complex structures with Belanger wacky yet lunatic sounding voice and Langevin's superb drumming contributing to this beauty of an album. Tribal Convictions and Chaosmongers are without doubt the more conventional of the lot and that says a lot about the record. My favorites are both Brain Scan and Psychic Vacuum alongside with the aforementioned. The opener is the only subpar one IMO. Other than that the remainder of this crazy sci-fi concept album is as daring as refreshing. Not suited for Short attention spaned people or la la la metal lovers. To all others dig deep into Voivod's rich catalogue and I'm sure you'll find something you truly love.

Van Halen's debut is arguably the band's best record... at least I regard it as so. Ain't Talkin' About Love, Eruption, On Fire or Atomic Punk really show what the great late Eddie in particular and the boys came to deliver. And although not being a fan, the playing quality of some of these songs are indeed off the charts. I imagine, on its release, how many guitar players this record demotivated yet at the same time how many kids it inspired to play guitar. But I gotta keep it real: Sinner? Dissident Aggressor? Let Us Prey/Call For The Priest? Diamonds And Rust? Man... this is one of 70's Priest best albums. And although Van Halen's also undeniably a classic Sin After Sin is an album that still blows my mind to this very day so I must go with Judas Priest.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Like I said, I think it’s middle of the pack. On par with most of the later ‘90s stuff and easily better than Risk, Supercollider, and Thirteen. Probably better than TWNAH but not better than Cryptic.

Their best in a long time is The System Has Failed. Everyone praises Dystopia but other than the first few songs (particularly the title track and Fatal Illusion) I don’t think it’s that great.
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Agree with the gist of everything, especially the bold part. I wouldn't put it quite on a par with the later 90's unless you only mean Risk.
 
Not really a fan of either one in the first match. I'll give the vote to Be'Lakor for having the better music.

I like Megadeth much more than Testament, but between these two albums I have to give it to The Legacy. Testament.

Alter Bridge. Easily.

Judas Priest. Easily.
 
Although three of the matches were really close, all four incumbents held on.
Be'Lakor ends Cynic's run. We'll see how they do against Ratt.
Megadave squeaks past Testament. They're still alive in Match 22.
Alter Bridge gets a narrow win over Voivod's only GMAC entrant. It's Entombed in League 4.
Judas Priest crushes Van Halen. They're around in Match 29, as well as the tiebreaker from the previous set of matches.
 
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