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

Like @JudasMyGuide I can't get the whole Iced Earth thing (with the exception of a couple of albums and this one isn't one of them). Leviathan by Mastodon is simply genial.

Oh man I like both albums the same but Overkill is more iconic. Nevertheless I'll go with Soundgarden since I believe they're losing this one bad. *

Post Tales Blind Guardian simply bores me with some exceptions (despite that I still consider their latest stuff to be good quality material... just not for me). As I said before Fear Inoculum is my favorite record of the last decade and one of the best things I heard coming out of Rock's domains so yeah: Tool.

This Savatage record is Ok-ish but overall it's been done before and several times better. Moving Pictures, despite its fame, is not included on the strict albums I like from the Canadian trio but it brings to the table more than its rival, forcing me to give my vote to Rush.

* Then I saw the results... wow...
 
This Iseditionist Earth album is much like the others. Nice dynamics and guitar work, but obviously derivative of Metallica and Iron Maiden. Barlow sounds good half the time and terrible the other half of the time. Most of the vocal melodies are unmemorable. The raw musical materials are pretty good, but the songwriting to stitch them together generally isn’t. I will say that this album has at least a couple of well-written songs, though — “Watching Over Me” (the best IE song I’ve heard to date) and “Consequences”. Like some others have said, I don’t really understand the love some people have for this band — it seems like they can’t really pull it all together for more than the occasional song here and there. Most of their stuff sounds like pretty polished but ultimately unfinished demos. Not bad, but nothing to get even remotely excited about. Luckily for them, they’re up against an incredibly overrated Mastodon album with bad production, bad singing, and weak songwriting across the board, so this is an easy choice for FartianaBoozeCannon’s nominee. Winner: Iseditionist Earth

Motörhead is like the biker version of AC/DC — most of their songs are simple and sound too much alike, but that slightly varying song they play is a pretty good one. Overkill isn’t as good of an album as 1916, but it has its charms and is enjoyable enough to listen to. It’s up against an extremely uneven Soundgarden album that has a handful of great songs swimming in a sea of extremely tedious ones. While the Soundgarden album has much higher highs, it also has much lower lows, and I would rather listen to its competitor if forced to hear the entire album. Sorry, mckianampdog 4321, but I have to go with Spityn DJ Jambot’s choice here. Winner: Motörhead

This Blind Guardian album is the first one of theirs that I ever bought, and it’s probably the one I like the best out of their mainline studio albums (I think the softer versions of their studio tracks on The Forgotten Tales are actually where they shine the most). That said, the band has never fully clicked with me, and this album is no exception. The songwriting’s a little disjointed at times, some parts are overly histrionic, and I’m not sure there’s a single song on here that I can say I unconditionally enjoy from start to finish. The Tool album doesn’t have any of these issues — it may meander a bit in places, but the songs are almost always cohesive and thoughtful and interesting. So, sorry FTBvis The BlaseCanard, but I have to go with Midnis The Draght’s nominee this time. (And since one of you is 1/4 Travis and the other is 1/2 Travis, I guess it’s a nephew/uncle relationship...?) Winner: Tool

This Savatage album is surprisingly good. Great riffs and strong songwriting (with the exception of the insipid “White Witch”). I’m not too keen on the over-the-top singer, who often sounds like the worst kind of hair metal caricature; but this is otherwise really good, and something I’ll certainly come back to. Unfortunately it walked out in front of the freight train known as Moving Pictures, one of the very best albums from one of the very best hard rock bands that ever existed. Sorry, Nityn DJ Jakies, but Forojellin Mcknightdog’s choice wins the day here. Winner: Rush
 
Last edited:
From this league on, we can really talk that these are the greatest metal album. I voted in the last round, maybe missed a round or two, but I got to admit I was a bit underwhelmed by the candidates.

This being said, there is a situation that started to bug me. I really try to distance myself from the splitting the hair of the genres, even on a larger scale, but it always bothered me when somebody nonchalantly puts AD/DC into metal genre. FFS, that band has at least 22 songs that have the word "rock" within in. Alas, the same can be said for Motorhead who started their gigs with Lemmy saying "We're Motorhead, and we play rock 'n' roll!" but there is a huge difference between AC/DC sound and Motorhead sound. So, from now on, I've decided to give extra attention to the albums that end up against the bands I love, but aren't necessarily "metal" (AC/DC, Rush, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam). This tournament is called "Greatest metal album cup" and I'm going to consider the genre from now on. So, unless those metal albums don't end up in the "never-going-to-listen-again" category, I'm going to vote for them instead of rocky-cocky, grungy-spongy and/or proggy-foggy albums.

I've said it before: I still don't get what's so great about Leviathan. On the other hand, Something Wicked is one of my favorite IE albums so Iced Earth gets the vote.

I completely forgot that I nomineed Overkill, but when I looked at the tracklist again, I remembered why. Motorhead. At the moment, it looks like it's going out but I hope that Ace of Spades will get much further.

Imaginations is my favorite BG album. I know it's highly regarded (even BG are currently celebrating its 25th anniversary) but I always got the feeling it's overshadowed by Nightfall in Middle-Earth. On the other hand, I wasn't impressed with Fear Inocolum (I probably need to listen to it soon again) so Blind Guardian it is.

What I was saying earlier, I love late 70s/early 80s Rush, but I can imagine myself listening to a couple of songs from Hall of the Mountain King I just heard so Savatage gets my vote.
 
I picked: Iced Earth, Motörhead, Blind Guardian, and Rush.
A great Iced Earth album, an iconic Motörhead album, one of the best Blind Guardian albums, and one of the best Rush albums that directly informs the prog metal waves of the late 80s and 90s. Yep, great music here.
 
Iced Earth successfully overthrows the government Mastodon, removing them from power the GMAC. Their next obstacle is Megadave.
Soundgarden stomps on Motörhead, who are down to just their Premiership affiliate entry.
Blind Guardian stops this Tool album's run fairly definitively. But Tool is up in Match 6 with a far more famous album, and we'll see how that goes shortly.
Savatage is dumped from the GMAC by Rush. They'll move on to face Death in the next League.
 
Halford_Resurrection.jpg

Halford - Resurrection (2000)

How it got here

List entries: Metal Rules 54, Metalstorm 83
Maidenfans Nominators: @mckindog, @Spambot, @Yax
League 3 - Match 5vs.
Blood_fire_death.jpg

Bathory - Blood Fire Death (1988)

How it got here

List entries: DigitalDreamDoor 29
Maidenfans Nominators: @Magnus
Previous Rounds:
League 4: Defeated Van Halen - Fair Warning 14-13.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tool_-_Lateralus.jpg

Tool - Lateralus (2001)

How it got here

List entries: Loudwire 11, DigitalDreamDoor 89
Maidenfans Nominators: @Lampwick 43, @Midnight
League 3 - Match 6vs.
CowboysFromHell.jpg

Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (1990)

How it got here

List entries: Metal Rules 85, DigitalDreamDoor 53
Maidenfans Nominators: n/a
Previous Rounds:
League 6: Defeated Scorpions - Lovedrive 16-9.
League 5: Defeated Behemoth - The Satanist 23-6.
League 4: Defeated Deep Purple - In Rock 15-13.
 
Faith_no_more_angel_dust.jpg

Faith No More - Angel Dust (1995)

How it got here

List entries: Rolling Stone 65, DigitalDreamDoor 65
Maidenfans Nominators: @matic22, @srfc
League 3 - Match 7vs.
HelloweenWallsofjericho.jpg

Helloween - Walls of Jericho (1985)

How it got here

List entries: DigitalDreamDoor 71
Maidenfans Nominators: @Forostar, @Kalata
Previous Rounds:
League 4: Defeated Sabaton - Carolus Rex 15-12.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The_Scorpions_LatFS.jpg

Scorpions - Love at First Sting (1984)

How it got here

List entries: Metal Rules 94, Metalstorm 87
Maidenfans Nominators: @FTB, @Jer, @Poto
League 3 - Match 8vs.
SymphonyXTheDivineWingsOfTragedy.jpg

Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy (1997)

How it got here

List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Lampwick 43
Previous Rounds:
League 12: Defeated Accept - Blind Rage 17-5.
League 11: Defeated Haken - Affinity 14-5.
League 10: Defeated Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa 16-7.
League 9: Defeated Primordial - To the Nameless Dead 15-9.
League 8: Defeated Queensrÿche - Queensrÿche 16-14.
League 7: Defeated In Flames - Battles 23-5.
League 6: Defeated Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood 17-7.
League 5: Defeated Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious 16-14.
League 4: Defeated Sepultura - Chaos AD 15-12.
 
Definitely will be voting for Helloween and Symphony X (I love Scorpions, but mostly their 70's catalogue), I'll have to think about the rest.
 
Back
Top