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

I think I can understand the appeal of this Burzum album — it does create a very particular atmosphere, and the songwriting is pretty good, if a bit slow-paced. The only problem is that all the vocals sound like Grandma trying anal for the first time. If you’re into that, then this album is probably pretty sweet. I, however, am not into that. Sorry, @Magnus, but I have to go with @Perun ’s choice here. Winner: Annihilator

This Skid Row album is solid pretty much all the way through, and Bach sounds great. The best songs on here aren’t quite as good as the best on their debut, but the average song quality is way higher. This Testament album has a lot of cool guitar passages on it, but only so-so singing, and the songwriting isn’t particularly great. This one’s pretty close, but sorry Phootenus, I’m going with @Yax ’s nominee this time. Winner: Skid Row

Can’t really get into Overkill. The vocals are really grating to me, the lyrics are aggressively dumb a lot of the time, and while I can appreciate a lot of the music, I’m not really feeling the songwriting. On the other side we have this decidedly bland Iseditionist Earth album, which has some nice guitar bits, but half good / half terrible vocals, and the chronically weak songwriting I’ve now come to expect from these guys. I really can’t understand the love for this band at all. Forced to choose between two albums that are mediocre to my ears, I guess I’ll pick the one that irritates me less. Sorry, @Dityn DJ James, but I’m going to use my Dominion back door and fraudulently select Lax NightCowler’s choice here. Winner: Iseditionist Earth

This Death album has pretty cool music with pretty uncool vocals. If it had melodic vocals and got rid of the overly spastic drumming in places, I’d probably really enjoy it; but as it stands it’s a nonstarter for me. Sorry, @karljant, but I have to go with Lanaamiaprick 5150’s nominee. Winner: Pearl Jam
 
Diesel 11 said:
As cool as the bass line are, I hate that tone he’s got. Sounds like a bathroom excursion after a late night snack from Taco Bell. It’s actually the weakest link on the album for me, but the rest more than makes up for it.
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Burzum - not keen on the buzz off the guitar, got bored and skipped forward a bit, good head nodding beat around the 3 minute mark, production crystal clear for this type of music as well, it's almost like Orion at that part, I skipped forward again after listening for 3 minutes and it seems like there isn't any major change in vibe for the rest of the track. Vocal bad and ridiculously overlong but otherwise pretty good.

Annihilator - opinion given before

Annihilator with the win, and I just bought a copy too which is something I've been meaning to do for years

Skid Row - An excellent album with a lot of variety and probably the best voice not from the heyday of Heavy Metal. Straight forward metal, surprisingly good power ballads and punky rockers, there isn't a bad track on here.

Testament - opinion given before

Skid Row with the win

Over Kill - I don't have this album (only have Under the Influence), tone and vibe straight away is pretty much the same as Under the Influence.

Iced Earth - opinion given before

Over Kill with the win

Death - pretty much a similar review to my review of their other recent album, not bad at all but not quite what I'm looking for, way more to my tastes than the album or two that appeared at the start of the game

Pearl Jam - opinion given before

Death with the win
 
I'm surprised to see Burzum getting wiped out at this stage, as a non-black metal fan I don't find that any more objectionable than any other black metal that's appeared, it's probably better than most.

Is it just Varg being a cunt? If so, Dissection's homophobic murder is on the same level and didn't get such a backlash, and Vince Neil's drunk driving is on the same level for me too and people only seem to have judged Crue on their music and image.
 
Not super keen on either of the first albums in the matchup but the atmosphere on that Burzum album is unparalleled. Never got super super into Burzum but I like Aske, the debut LP and whatever album Dunkelheit was on.
 
srfc said:
Is it just Varg being a cunt? If so, Dissection's homophobic murder is on the same level and didn't get such a backlash, and Vince Neil's drunk driving is on the same level for me too and people only seem to have judged Crue on their music and image.
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I don’t know who Varg is (is that a Star Wars character?), nor am I familiar with Dissection, but I refuse to judge a band’s music on the extracurricular activities of their members. For example, it’s clear that Jon Schaefer made some pretty poor choices lately, but that doesn’t change the fact that Horror Show and several other Iced Earth albums are great records.
 
The noise that Magnus nominated is good this time. Det Som Engang Var was my favourite song once upon a time. The synths are great, and even the vocals match well with the desperate atmosphere. Cover art goes along very well, it’s a dead body lying on a road in the vast Norwegian forests, forgotten by the world, decaying as careless ravens fly overhead. Burzum really nailed black metal’s visual imagery. Sooner or later, you outgrow the music (unless you’re Magnus), but there is something in there that stays with you for a long time.
 
I really like that Burzum song but I'm not voting for (a band with) a murderer. Did not vote for Emperor either, nor Crue (did the drunken member kill someone?), but Crue sucks anyway imo.

I am voting the same as Spambot.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
I don’t know who Varg is
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Here’s the explanation, but I’ll put it in spoilers in case you don’t actually wanna know, or if this is an sarcastic statement I’m not picking up on:

Varg is one of the pioneers of black metal thanks to his solo outfit Burzum. He was heavily involved in the shit going on in the early days like church burnings and such, which he actually promoted on one of this album covers. He played bass on Mayhem’s debut album too, but then stabbed Euronymous (their guitarist and possibly the most influential musician in black metal history) 23 times, which he claimed was in self-defense. He served fifteen years in prison for it, and today is still making music alongside videos on his YouTube channel where he discusses philosophy... which for him seems to align eerily close to fascist ideology. He’s also gotten in trouble with the law too, and is just overall a shitty human being, but Burzum’s early material is really good and it’s a shame that they’re so interwoven with the idiocy of their creator.
 
Forostar said:
That is terrible. Still not intentional I gather. Very irresponsible with grave consequences, but less .... well.... hateful, less evil.
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Yes, I don't know too much about Varg or Dissection cases, to be honest, I don't want to know about them, but by saying they were on the same level as drink driving I meant on the same level as it would make me uncomfortable supporting the artist, not that they were on the same level of evil.
 
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