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

[LooseCannon]

Because of the cover or because you personally hate the music therein?

The cover. It's yikes.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

You could have used the alternative "safe" cover



...though unfortunately it looks way too much like they are looking at the original cover. Or at least I can't help the association.

 

[Mosh]

Going Symphony X but don’t sleep on Love At First Sting. The last hurrah for the classic hard rock sound of Scorpions. It’s not Lovedrive or even Blackout, but it has some great stuff.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Okay, I'll do it differently this time - the first two pairs I'm not sure about, because honestly I feel like all four albums are worthy enough to proceed... so I'm going to wait and read what you guys write about them. Convince me, if you're a fan. I'll let myself be swayed by the most intriguing sells I come across.

Might even use it again sometime in the future. It's not dishonest, I'll just let myself be convinced about the qualities that can be found in the music.

So... YOU DECIDE!

 

[Forostar]

Hope you weigh in your own taste for material as well Judas! :--)

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Hope you weigh in your own taste for material as well Judas! :--)

Well, the decision will still be mine and I won't go against my feelings... but honestly, I believe that yes, you can be convinced to like something and to notice particular strengths or weaknesses if the person is question is doing a good job. Happened to me many times in the past.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

 

[Diesel 11]

Resurrection has some good songs, but I don’t think it’s the classic people said it was at the time, and that’s proven by how little it seems to be remembered now. “The One You Love to Hate” is awesome, though.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Halford is more to my liking than Bathory.

Second match is interesting for me, as I see both albums as hugely influential moments by bands that I only kind-of appreciate. In their respective genres, I think both are equally good albums. I'm basing my vote here on the influence of these records and, southern and cringey or not, I enjoy what Pantera did for the genre more than Tool. The amount of bands or songs that sound like knock-off Lateralus is staggeringly boring, whereas the southern/groove metal trend that Pantera helped to popularize is much more entertaining to me (even if I don't really care for most of those bands).

Faith No More killed too many good albums and I will vote against them every time. Helloween, I guess.

Symphony X.

 

[Jer]

This is a very easy round with the exception of the final match.

Hadn’t spent much time with this Halford album before, and it’s very solid with a number of great parts. I knew this was a Roy Z. collaboration, and it has Roy’s trademarks all over it, but with a punchier Priest-like attack on the riffs. Lots of good stuff here, though “Hell’s Last Survivor” and the title track really stood out to me on first listen. “Cyber World” is pretty cringey, and can go in the infamous “subject matter people should probably avoid” bucket along with Rush’s “Virtuality”. The duet with Bruce on “The One You Love To Hate” was unfortunately nothing special, and didn’t offer much separation between their voices or anything too interesting going on, but it’s not bad. Meanwhile, this Bathory album has pretty cool riffage and songwriting, but bad production, bad vocals, and not very good soloing. So, sorry @Magnus, but I have to go with mcYambox’s nominee here. Winner: Halford

Hmm...a consistently great Tool album vs. what I can only charitably call the least annoying shouty Pantera album. An easy win for Midwicht 2112’s choice. Winner: Tool

Angel Dust wasn’t the album I was expecting after The Real Thing, and I didn’t take to most of it right away; but once I let it sink in I really appreciated its variety, and Patton sounded much better singing in his natural register. Some of this stuff is absolutely bonkers, like “Be Aggressive” melding pipe organ, cheerleader chants, and wah-laden funk with completely filthy lyrics, or the country-twinged stream-of-consciousness rant “RV”; but there’s also much more digestible material like “Land Of Sunshine”, “Midlife Crisis”, and “A Small Victory”. This is arguably Faith No More’s best album (though I’m slightly more partial to King For A Day...), and I’m glad it was nominated. Compared to a very uneven early Helloween album, there’s not much to think about here. Sorry, Kolostata, but srfmatic92’s nominee takes this one. Winner: Faith No More

This last match is rough, as both albums are great. This Scorpions album has amazing, all-time classic riffs and vocal lines on display in seminal songs like “Rock You Like A Hurricane” and “Big City Nights”, and a legitimate contender for all-time greatest metal ballad in “Still Loving You”. But the deep cuts are no slouches either — the rifftastic “Bad Boys Running Wild” and “Coming Home”, the sweet vocal harmonies of “I’m Leaving You” and “As Soon As The Good Times Roll”, and the epic and melancholy “Crossfire”. When the weakest song on the record is the punchy, driving “Same Thrill”, you know you’ve got a great album on your hands. Meanwhile, this Symphony X album has a lot of great instrumental work and intricate songwriting, and it certainly deserves to be here. I’ve voted for it myself many times. But even ignoring own-nominee bias, I find the Scorpions album to be more viscerally appealing to me — it’s more natural and gut level than the very cerebral and calculated approach of Symphony X, but it achieves that while still being consistently impressive musically. And for that reason I must say sorry to @Lampwick 43, but Fotober’s choice comes out on top here. Winner: Scorpions

 

[SixesAlltheway]

Resurrection has some good songs, but I don’t think it’s the classic people said it was at the time, and that’s proven by how little it seems to be remembered now. “The One You Love to Hate” is awesome, though.

Like Maiden's Brave New World, Resurrection arrived at just the right time to bring back classic heavy metal for the 2000´s. And the people/fans were totally on board for the ride at the time, but while still a solid album I agree with Diesel here, it's not a classic. Gotta vote for Bathory.

Pantera over Tool

One of the better Helloween albums but love Angel Dust so Faith No More

Symphony X is a talented band but they can't write a 3 min catchy rock song/ballad like the Scorpions can!

 

[mckindog]

Like Maiden's Brave New World, Resurrection arrived at just the right time to bring back classic heavy metal for the 2000´s. And the people/fans were totally on board for the ride at the time, but while still a solid album I agree with Diesel here, it's not a classic.

This seems to be a common take for a number of what I consider the best albums post 2000.

To me Resurrection is the best thing Halford ever did post-Painkiller - great melodies, fantastic riffing and the epitome of the Roy Z sound.

 

[srfc]

Halford - Resurrection is a great record, ultimately leading to the reunion we all wanted.

Bathory - opinion given before

Halford with the win

Tool - I don't have an interest in this type of music

Pantera - opinion given before

Pantera with the win

Faith No More - I didn't get this album when it was released, at the time the lead single Midlife Crisis seemed a bit too far removed from what I was into so I never checked out the whole album. Can't remember why I ever went back to it, it must have just been going cheap. But this time it clicked. I went with A Small Victory as the lead clip as it's just a great pop song, as is Everything's Ruined and Midlife Criss, then you have heavy stuff like Caffeine, Malpractice and Jizzlobber. You've got bizarre stuff like R.V. and the cover of the theme tune from Midnight Cowboy. It's really the most off the wall yet somehow also coherent album that I own.

Helloween - opinion given before

Faith No More with the win

Scorpions - video won't play, I don't have the record but am familiar with a lot of it as there's some of their biggest hits on it and I also have World Wide Live.

Symphony X - opinion given before

Scorpions with the win.

 

[SixesAlltheway]

This seems to be a common take for a number of what I consider the best albums post 2000.

To me Resurrection is the best thing Halford ever did post-Painkiller - great melodies, fantastic riffing and the epitome of the Roy Z sound.

I think it's just the fact that the competition around that time was not that tough perhaps because classic heavy metal had been buried for so long in the 90s. Anyways, strong album.

 

[mckindog]

I think it's just the fact that the competition around that time was not that tough perhaps because classic heavy metal had been buried for so long in the 90s. Anyways, strong album.

I think it is a fair take and have to admit it “lost love returns” probably factors into my personal feelings.
But 20 years later, my affection for this one hasn’t dropped.

 

[Ariana]

Convince me, if you're a fan.

So... Cowboys from Hell.
This is not my personal favourite Pantera album, but the only reason it's not at the top is Vulgar Display of Power, which was my first contact with the band and it blew me away so much that I cannot recover 25+ years later. If you grew up in the 90's, it was impossible to remain impassive to Pantera. I didn't understand anything about the music back then and I had no idea what that was, but I knew it was incomparable to anything I had heard up to that point. So my love for Pantera began. They were utterly uncompromising, aggressive and very, very cool. They could also sound gentle, anguished, desperate, harsh, out-of-control. And they were all top-notch musicians, which I only discovered later. I may have known nothing about playing the guitar, but I knew enough to feel Dime's guitar talking to me.
I heard Cowboys from Hell sometime later and it was dazzling. Cemetary Gates is the song that sticks out the most, of course - it was so rich, so layered, that I struggled to take it all in. It's still among the best metal songs ever. But it wasn't just that. I remember playing Domination for hours at a time, re-winding the breakdown section hundreds of times - it was so sick! Thanks to MTV, I also saw the live video of Domination and my jaw dropped.

The whole album takes you on a wild ride, with so many changes of gears that it's impossible to get bored. There's something for everyone there, but it's all unmistakeably Pantera. Like this gem, for example.

 

[Saapanael]

My earliest memory of Pantera is that their singer jumps around like a monkey.

 

[karljant]

Fingers crossed.

Forget about it... Unfortunately it will lose.

 

[karljant]

Resurrection vs Blood Fire Death. Now that's quality. And don't get me wrong: Resurrection is one hell of an album. The title track, Made In Hell, Slow Down, the One You Love To Hate and Silent Screams (recovered from the Two sessions) are excellent tracks. If you don't have this album take my advice: buy the remastered version since it features two bonus tracks that are easily among the albums' highlights: Sad Wings Of Destiny and the superb Hell's last Survivor. This is unapologetic in your face old school heavy metal showing all the young bloods how it's done. However there are a couple of fillers here and there and even some stinkers (Cyberworld, Locked And Loaded) that kinda downgrade a bit an overall great record. Also what Halford brings to the table, although being really good, is not on the same level of Priest's best albums (I know that's asking a lot but it's going against one of the best records in its genre) while not diverging slightly from his former band's style. Blood Fire Death on the other hand is an absolutely revolutionary and intense record so this one goes to Bathory.

We all know Cowboys From Hell was a huge game changer that shaped metal in the 90's filled with truly great tunes. But Lateralus is simply put a near perfect record. While maintaining its identity the band made an absolute upgrade and revolution on their structure. Intricate, imaginative, intense, this masterpiece wanders through twists and turns of diverse sonic landscapes that somehow mingle perfectly. This mixture of alternative, progressive and psychedelic rock is a truly unique voyage. And if it's true that there are some truly sublime highlights (The Grudge, The Patient, Schism, Lateralus, Triad) fact is there's not a single weak song here. Only con is that I don't consider it a metal album per se. Other than that Lateralus is a monster, one of the best records I've ever heard. This is a huge masterpiece that propelled an already great band to even higher heights. Tool.

 

[JudasMyGuide]

So... Cowboys from Hell.
This is not my personal favourite Pantera album, but the only reason it's not at the top is Vulgar Display of Power, which was my first contact with the band and it blew me away so much that I cannot recover 25+ years later. If you grew up in the 90's, it was impossible to remain impassive to Pantera. I didn't understand anything about the music back then and I had no idea what that was, but I knew it was incomparable to anything I had heard up to that point. So my love for Pantera began. They were utterly uncompromising, aggressive and very, very cool. They could also sound gentle, anguished, desperate, harsh, out-of-control. And they were all top-notch musicians, which I only discovered later. I may have known nothing about playing the guitar, but I knew enough to feel Dime's guitar talking to me.
I heard Cowboys from Hell sometime later and it was dazzling. Cemetary Gates is the song that sticks out the most, of course - it was so rich, so layered, that I struggled to take it all in. It's still among the best metal songs ever. But it wasn't just that. I remember playing Domination for hours at a time, re-winding the breakdown section hundreds of times - it was so sick! Thanks to MTV, I also saw the live video of Domination and my jaw dropped.

The whole album takes you on a wild ride, with so many changes of gears that it's impossible to get bored. There's something for everyone there, but it's all unmistakeably Pantera. Like this gem, for example.

Now, that's some darn good quality material.

If I never heard the album before, I would now be really champing at the bit to become a fan. It's actually what Daniel Green did for me with Wheel of Time. I would like to be a fan of something that raises this type of emotions.

Add

Second match is interesting for me, as I see both albums as hugely influential moments by bands that I only kind-of appreciate. In their respective genres, I think both are equally good albums. I'm basing my vote here on the influence of these records and, southern and cringey or not, I enjoy what Pantera did for the genre more than Tool. The amount of bands or songs that sound like knock-off Lateralus is staggeringly boring, whereas the southern/groove metal trend that Pantera helped to popularize is much more entertaining to me (even if I don't really care for most of those bands).

and it will take a serious effort from a Tool fan to sway me the other way.

Also, Cemetery Gates is just sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

But it's not over until it's over! However, thanks, Ariana!