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

Hammerfall - I think this video choice highlights the flaw in my strategy of only listening to the videos. If I wasn't familiar with the band and only heard the video I would have turned it off straight away, and I presume I have been equally harsh with some of the other bands. However, Glory to the Brave is an album I own and I've been aware of since it was out as I've a mate who's a big fan. I think they are a relatively one trick pony but it's harmless fun, and they manage what a lot of their peers can't and that's have some hooks, the Dragon Lies Bleeding, Hammerfall, Steel Meets Steel and Stone Cold are as good as anyone from this genre can manage.

Burzum - can't take this shit seriously, hiss hiss hiss

Hammerfall easy win

Suffocation - lasted til the "yeearrgghhh"

Boowahl - there must be some kind of mistake here, the video even says "classic kpop", there's loads of 70's hard rock that I would have nominated if they met the criteria which they didn't, but they are far closer to the criteria than this. I'm not having a go at you Loose Cannon, I accept your reasoning for inclusion outlined above, it's the spoofers at Metal Kingdom who have lost their minds

Suffocation get's it by virtue of being a metal album.

Dark Angel - I had this album and tried to get into it loads of times, but the sound is just too shit for me.

High on Fire - this sounds even worse than the Dark Angel album, and I suspect where Dark Angel sounds bad it's most likely to have been down to lack of budget, this High on Fire stuff sounds like purposely trying to sound shit and I have no time for such contrived bullshit

Dark Angel with the win, as I think there is something I could like if it had been recorded better.

Morbid Angel - overpowering drums, can't hear anything else

Alcest - not bad until the jar of wasps guitar came in

Alcest with the win as it's more to my tastes but I like neither tracks
 
Such a shame that Heaven's Gate lost. Mandrake wasn't bad but I seriously can't sit through an entire album of this bombastic style.
 
Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave vs. Burzum - Filosofem

I made my feelings about Hammerfall's style known in their previous appearance. This one isn't different in that regard, the first track was enough to put me off. Holy moly, what a mess. Those vocals belong in a Disney soundtrack or a kindergarten song and that key change in the middle - it's like they're trying to be as cheesy as possible. I only lasted three tracks. Filosofem is not my favorite from Burzum, I think it's a step back from Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. "Dunkelheit" alone takes a giant dump over Glory to the Brave, though. Overlong ambient track aside, this is a very easy vote.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten vs. Boohwal - II: Remember

Suffocation has some truly atrocious vocals. Reminiscent of Chris Barnes on Tomb of the Mutilated. Obviously, the band's sound itself is reminiscent of that album, being Cannibal Corpse's contemporaries. It suffers from similar problems - not very memorable, mostly a fast-paced low-frequency blur of sound. It doesn't have a "Hammer Smashed Face" to save it, either. As for II: Remember, how on earth did this land on a heavy metal albums list? Has more in common with George Michael than it does with heavy metal except for the solos. Nice vocals, but it's not very noteworthy and it's not metal, so Suffocation takes it by default.

Dark Angel - Darkness Descends vs. High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings

Darkness Descends is a bit all over the place - quite sloppy. Stylistically it sounds like a mix of Megadeth and Slayer, but doesn't quite have the songwriting chops. Gene Hoglan murders in on the drums on his studio debut, but the rest of the band isn't quite up to his level, I feel like. Blessed Black Wings as an interesting one. The sludge metal sound rarely ever appeals to me, not a big fan of the likes of Mastodon and Lamb of God. This one is a bit tiresome as well, but the rough production and some of the riffs are pretty cool. The vocals aren't so much. It's a close call, but I found the latter more interesting.

Morbid Angel - Covenant vs. Alcest - Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde

Covenant is okay. Not up there with Morbid Angel's very best, though still very listenable. The grinding, slow-to-mid tempo death metal Morbid Angel perfected in their next record, Domination, doesn't quite get there on this one. I've heard three Alcest albums in full, but Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde wasn't one of them. I have heard the two albums that came out after this one, Écailles de Lune and Les Voyages de l'Âme. The latter features them perfecting the sound displayed on Souvenirs. This is still very good though, I'll probably listen to the entire album when I'm less busy.
 
Hammerfall. That Burzum record sounds like actual garbage. And no, I do not care if it's intentional. And no, it does not make the music better.

I do not really love what I'm hearing from Boohwal, but it's fine. Suffocation is not my thing.

High on Fire has more groove, despite being a little rough of a listening experience. Hoglan's a great drummer, but Dark Angel is also not my thing.

Alcest had me from the first guitar strum, far more interesting than the incredibly poorly recorded Morbid Angel album.
 
Really? *sigh*... Our first contest has the gift of making me go with Hammerfall for anything positive for the first time in my life. That because I simply find Burzum and all the Low-Fi Trve Cult BS thing absolutely impossible to bare. So here's one more disgrace to join the vast ranks of awful things this genre does to people: in this case forcing me to vote for the cheese fest that is Hammerfall. :p

Then ... eeehhhrrr... What is this Boowahl thing??? Are you people trolling me? Not only do I have to put up with the Pseudo Metal Disney OSTs, Trve Cults BS and other masquerades of the world but now I must listen to a borderline Boys Band? Who will follow? Wham? Backstreet Boys? Really... this can only be a joke. Suffocation's album is regarded as one of the inspiring albums of the Slam Death Metal genre. Not my type of thing but it features some interesting compositions and is really well played.

Well at last we have ourselves a decent duel. High On Fire is a tough as nails act: solid, relentless and heavy as bricks without being over the top. This album in particular reminds me of what a second wave Entombed would do if they were more into Sludge. Nevertheless there were 3 albums that shook the metal scenario in the mid 80's based on intensity, speed and brutality in volumes like never before: Reign In Blood, Speak English Or Die and Darkness Descends. It's true that Dark Angel here suffer from what I call the "thrash album debut syndrome" being a bit derivative and sloppy. But songs like the title track, Black Prophecies or Death Is Certain are uncanny displays of brutality.

Finally a curious clash. Alcest's sound is a really well crafted, intelligent and well performed mix of genres. These guys always managed to make interesting records and they started from the get go as part of the atmospheric BM french scene. Their debut is really beautiful and reveals what would later be confirmed: a promising and ever growing career. Covenant is simply put the best selling Death Metal album of all times. I think it's a nice record (nowhere as good as Blessed Are The Sick) that tends to be overrated. But then it features three songs that are absolute beasts: Rapture, Pain Divine and especially Sworn To The Black. Now this is a virtual tie but in the end I'll go with the most influential album and give it to Morbid Angel.
 
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Hammerfall put together a completely respectable if totally stock metal album. Enjoyable stuff, although:
Cornfed Hick said:
That Hammerfall video is the exact opposite of cool.
Click to expand...
^This! :lol:

I'm not anti-extreme/black/growly metal by any means, but don't get the hype around Burzum, and would rather listen to something that doesn't resemble one dimensional white noise with some arty ambient interludes. Makes Mayhem sound like extremely catchy pop. That wasn't the murder motive, was it?

Suffocation also sound like extremely catchy pop after Filosofem. Boohwal actually *is* pop by the sounds of things. I preferred the heavier option of the two. Suffocation it is.

Nice riffage, energy and twiddly guitars from Dark Angel. Pretty much no variety throughout the album, but I guess that comes with the genre, same rhythm or practically the same rhythm over and over. Found High on Fire really nondescript, though, and wasn't keen on the vocals, sound painful.

Morbid Angel are okay, rough around the edges, but have some decent sounding guitars, and thank goodness, the rhythm does change up from time to time. Alcest are bit of melodic and ambient relief after the last two. Possibly a bit too chilled verging on middle-of-the-road, but a pleasant collection of songs.
 
Not sure if it helps, but the title track of Blessed Black Wings is a very good example of what High On Fire are capable of.

 
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