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

Candlemass snuffs out this W.A.S.P. album. The still-debated-style of metalers are back in League 2.
Death gets past Rainbow by one vote. The final Rainbow album will be in the Premiership.
Tool also wins a one-vote race against Iron Maiden, who have lots left, don't worry Maidenfans. I promise your Cup dreams didn't rest on the shoulders of The Final Frontier.
Megadave goes on past Bathory without too much difficulty. I'm happy to announce their next challenger is Rage Against the Machine.
 
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Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)

How it got here
List entries: DigitalDreamDoor 55, Metal Kingdom 41
Maidenfans Nominators: @The Flash
League 3 - Match 17vs.
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Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death (2006)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Ariana, @Dityn DJ James, @Dr. Eddie’s Wingman, @Kalata, @KidInTheDark666, @LooseCannon, @matic22, @Mosh, @Perun, @Poto, @srfc, @The Dissident, @The Flash
Previous Rounds:
League 5: Defeated Crimson Glory - Transcendence 23-5.
League 4: Defeated Running Wild - Port Royal 26-7.
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Judas Priest - Killing Machine / Hell Bent For Leather (1978)

How it got here
List entries: Metal Rules 29, DigitalDreamDoor 68
Maidenfans Nominators: @Cornfed Hick
League 3 - Match 18vs.
Queensryche_-_Empire_cover.jpg

Queensrÿche - Empire (1990)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Yax, @Collin
Previous Rounds:
League 7: Defeated Amorphis - Tales From the Thousand Lakes 13-10.
League 6: Defeated Devin Townsend - Addicted 18-7.
League 5: Defeated Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape 16-11.
League 4: Defeated Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth 17-16.
 
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Def Leppard - Pyromania (1983)

How it got here
List entries: Rolling Stone 52, Metal Rules 47
Maidenfans Nominators: @Kalata
League 3 - Match 19vs.
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Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Collin, @LooseCannon, @matic22, @Shmoolikipod, @srfc, @The Dissident, @Travis The Dragon
Previous Rounds:
League 5: Defeated Opeth - Watershed 19-8.
League 4: Defeated Bathory - Hammerheart 23-10.
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Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry (1984)

How it got here
List entries: Rolling Stone 76, Metal Rules 42
Maidenfans Nominators: @matic22
League 3 - Match 20vs.
Iced_Earth_-_1991_-_Night_of_the_Stormrider_%28original%29.jpg

Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider (1991)

How it got here
List entries: Metalstorm 76
Maidenfans Nominators: @Black Wizard, @Forostar
Previous Rounds:
League 4: Defeated Sodom - Agent Orange 17-15.
 
Emperor - The production is too indecipherable for me to give this a fair listen.

Iron Maiden - opinion given before

Iron Maiden with the win

Judas Priest - My copy is Killing Machine so doesn't have the Green Manalishi. Solid enough Priest album, but Take on the World, Burning Up and Evil Fantasies are a bit shit.

Queensryche - opinion given before

Much of a muchness on this one, Priest with the win as the big hitters of Hell Bent for Leather, Delivering the Goods, Rock Forever and Running Wild appeal to me more than the two or three hits on Empire.

Def Leppard - The best Leppard album, but only a rare enough listen for me, it's at that sweet spot for Leppard where they are starting to get that polish but still have a bit of Metal, Photograph is a great hit and Rock of Ages is silly fun, Die Hard the Hunter is towards the less commercial end of the spectrum

Iron Maiden - opinion given before

Iron Maiden with the win

Twisted Sister - A fun enough album, not a huge amount of substance to it. The title track is their best song, two big enough hits in the sample track and I Wanna Rock, The Price is a good commercial track, Burn in Hell, Horror-Teria and S.M.F are solid enough Don't Let Me Down has an N.W.O.B.H.M. feel, while The Beast is largely forgettable.

Iced Earth - Music is pretty good, vocal and lyrics are real metal-by-numbers, definitely more to my tastes than some of their albums that appeared in the earlier rounds of the game.

Twisted Sister with the win, it's not a great album artistically but it is good fun.
 
That first round is rough. Emperor deserves better.

I doubt Iced Earth is going to lose to Twisted Sister.
 
Iron Maiden
Queensryche
Def Leppard while The Book Of Souls is objectively a better album, I reach for Pyromania more, and I expect this to lose
Iced Earth
 
srfc said:
two or three hits on Empire.
Click to expand...
Empire
Another Rainy Night
Silent Lucidity
Best I Can
Jet City Woman

The others are pretty much fillers. Also, what the hell is that Iced Earth album doing here? It's bad, I would rather hear Blaze singing Tool than hear Night of the Stormrider ever again.
 
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Mosh said:
I doubt Iced Earth is going to lose to Twisted Sister.
Click to expand...
I'd be surprised if they don't. The classic metal fans have dominated this game more than I expected them too, so I'm already bracing myself for Stormrider's defeat. Maybe the cheesiness of Sister's image will hurt them, though. IDK. Guess we'll find out in two days.

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Emperor is one of the handful of black metal bands I enjoy. In the Nightside Eclipse is a classic and anywhere else would easily defeat A Matter of Life and Death. And I do like AMOLAD, but I'm also tired of seeing Maiden destroy so many other albums that are actually pretty great and more important to the metal discussion.

Killing Machine is a so-so album no matter what name it's under. Empire has the hits, yeah, but they're some fucking great hits.

The Book of Souls is one of four Maiden albums I'd consider voting for. But I already voted against The X Factor, which is a Top 10 album for me, so once again, Maiden will not be the recipient of my vote. Even though I love them. Def Leppard were a pretty important band for Young Diesel and with his memory in mind I'll give Pyromania the vote. Again, it's got the hits, and they rock.

Night of the Stormrider, easily. It's a truly ripping album with some of Schaffer's best riffs. Twisted Sister is probably the most boring hair band of them all. And like, I really enjoy hair metal. It's absolute cheese obviously, but man, playing Hair Nation used to be a lot of fun for me. Actually helped me through my grandpa's declining health and eventually death. But Twisted Sister just don't do anything more than make me change the station. "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" are passable, and the rest are just snoozeworthy.

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KidInTheDark666 said:
Empire
Another Rainy Night
Silent Lucidity
Best I Can
Jet City Woman

The others are pretty much fillers.
Click to expand...
I actually like most of the songs on Empire, including the bonus tracks "Last Time in Paris" and "Scarborough Fair". Also, "Anybody Listening?" is a pretty beautiful closing song. Man, it's been a while since I heard the album, I honestly might spin it today.
 
Diesel 11 said:
I'd be surprised if they don't. The classic metal fans have dominated this game more than I expected them too, so I'm already bracing myself for Stormrider's defeat. Maybe the cheesiness of Sister's image will hurt them, though. IDK. Guess we'll find out in two days.
Click to expand...
Iced Earth is a classic metal band and is far more popular on here than Twisted Sister. Wasp just got thrashed by Candlemass, I imagine a similar result here.
 
Once again quality is high on the first matchup. I am a huge fan of later Emperor releases and to be honest In The Nightside Eclipse is far from being my type of Emperor. But even then it was notorious these guys were built different. For starts the absolutely immersive wall of sound Ihsahn and company build is unique: a mix of great keyboard orchestrations dueling rapid fire Black Metal riffage with great guitar harmonies in between. Just check Majesty Of The Nightsky and how the blistering BM riffage seems to float upon the keyboards before unfolding into a truly delicious guitar melody, how Cosmic Keys To My Creations & Time's almost Thrash Metal beginning easily transforms itself into another operatic blast beat filled symphony or how simple yet well polished is the structure and arrangements on Towards The Pantheon. And speaking of arrangements I Am The Black Wizards reveals how much attention these young guys gave to all details on this regard. Closing the album Inno A Satana is easily the best song here: great guitar melodies, orchestrations, choirs... it's like the band saying "we're upping our game on the next release". And in some versions you have two bonus tracks: the first being a stunning cover of Bathory's A Fine Day To Die and the second Mercyful Fate's Gipsy featuring the King himself. What I don't like in Emperor's debut is it still much rooted for my taste into 2nd wave BM typology, a style I simply dont appreciate (although being more than that), Ihsahn's impulse to go "aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhh" too many times and how back in the mix his voice was placed (and bloated in reverb). So there you go: is this a record I overall enjoy? Not quite... but I recognize its value and was absolutely necessary since it planted many of the seeds of what later would flourish into records like IX Equilibrium or Prometheus. And I simply love A Matter Of Life And Death so I'll give this one to Iron Maiden easily. But if it was Prometheus instead of ITNE the story would be quite different.

Empire is a really cool album as I stated before. Best I Can and Silent Lucidity are great radio hits, Della Brown and The Thin Line are truly well constructed and the title track alongside the last two songs are really, really good stuff! And while the rest is quite forgettable, overall its quality is undeniable. Killing Machine also has its ups and downs and that's why it's my least favorite album from their 70's era (besides Rocka Rolla, of course). This is the record the band completely got rid of their epic flavor that gave us hymns such as Beyond The Realms Of Death, Dreamer Deceiver, Sinner, Exciter, Let Us Pray/ Call For The Priest, Genocide, amog others and headed towards a more direct Heavy Rock approach. And while doing so they made some truly poppy tunes and forgettable songs. Tracks such as Evening Star, Burnin' Up, Rock Forever or the title track just don't do it for me, sorry! They sound simplistic, lack the energy or pomp the previous records had. Take On The The World starts nicely sounding like some sort of We Will Rock You on steroids but is tarnished by an awful chorus. Still - while modifying their sound - the band also developed a new sense of grit and heaviness and here is where this album truly shines. The relentless pace of The Wicker M.... errr... sorry... Running Wild is pure adrenaline, Delivering The Goods' chorus breakdown is truly bone crushing, the wickedness of Evil Fantasies' riff is as basic as addictive not to mention the excellent rework the band made on Fleetwood Mac's Green Manalishi, almost reclaiming the song as their own. All these tracks along with the beautiful Before The Dawn really make a strong record out of this... but the ultimate standout here is Hell Bent For Leather. Let's just say that in a catalogue full of classics I simply love, Hell Bent For Leather is without doubt my favorite song. Killing Machine like Empire is a bit uneven but I believe the standouts (especially Hell Bent For Leather) are better overall. With that in mind this one goes to Judas Priest.

Never liked anything from Def Leppard. IMO one of the most overrated bands out there. Iron Maiden wins this easily.

Besides their absolutely hilarious clips, I'd rather starve to death than listening to anything from Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry. Iced Earth.
 
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Hell Bent For Leather is actually my favorite 70s Priest album but there's so much their stuff in this game that I thought Empire deserves the vote.
 
karljant said:
Empire is a really cool album as I stated before. Best I Can and Silent Lucidity are great radio hits, Della Brown and The Thin Line are truly well constructed and the title track alongside the last two songs are really, really good stuff! And while the rest is quite forgettable
Click to expand...
Jet City Woman quite forgettable???? :oops:
Really sad to see Empire losing to a halfbaked fillerfest.
karljant said:
Def Leppard. IMO one of the most overrated bands out there.
Click to expand...
I can think of a dozen bands that are way more overrated than Def Leppard. Won´t mention them to avoid hassles though but yeah some bands that genuinely praised and loved here.
IRYO though. :)
 
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