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

And 99% of the metal community thinks Firepower is a great record, one of Priest's best, but hey, who cares.

I fail to see why this would have any bearing on my opinion. For the record, I like Firepower, I'm just putting this argument up for debate. What does it matter to my opinion that 99% of the metal community likes something?
 
I fail to see why this would have any bearing on my opinion. For the record, I like Firepower, I'm just putting this argument up for debate. What does it matter to my opinion that 99% of the metal community likes something?
That's the point I was subtly making. I was essentially quoting Foro.
 
I fail to see why this would have any bearing on my opinion. For the record, I like Firepower, I'm just putting this argument up for debate. What does it matter to my opinion that 99% of the metal community likes something?
Yes, let's recall that the point here is to expose people to albums that they might have otherwise missed. Firepower probably doesn't fall into that category, and I'm a little surprised it's beating Awake so handily - but only a little.
 
I love how half of the arguments made for Awake, have primarily (over the last few pages) been saying Judas Priest has made better albums than Firepower... namely Painkiller. That being said if Awake wins is still be happy, I just prefer Firepower as a whole in this moment
 
I'll be voting for Running Wild over Metropolis Pt 2, which just does not interest me. Even though it's probably one of the better Dream Theater albums, and certainly it's the one I'm most familiar with, I do not find it engaging or interesting. They just aren't my jam.
I'll toss a pity vote to Land of the Free, just want to thank @Forostar and @Jer for the nomination. I had a lot of fun with this album and it's definitely one of my GMAC discoveries.
Firepower over Awake, which is the opposite of what I am when I listen to Dream Theater.
While I prefer Brave New World it is a lot closer these days than it used to be. Sympathy vote for Symphony X.
 
EDIT: I posted this when the last thing I saw was Foro's anti-prog feelz and the discussion thereof, this is not a reaction to LC.


Anyway - Scenes from a Memory is one of the most generally accepted and beloved prog metal (and DT) albums. It is an album that intrigues and gets into genre even people who are not prog-metalheads or even metal listeners at all. Heck I personally made several people take interest in metal with this very album. So whatever all the prog-haters say, this is a non-contest. On any normal forum, where the heads would be cooler, it would be leading all the way. I'm saying this in a non-partisan way. It's not my favourite DT album. I dislike how revered it is (I know of others who deserve that more, in my book). But come on, guys. I know and realize some of you are physically incapable of saying anything good about DT, but is there really that many of you?

----

And again - you all know I dislike Bruce very much, his personality and stupid and arrogant banter, his delusions of eloquence and "poetry", his mentally-challenged-mysticism and so on, even his voice in large doses. But Chemical Wedding is an absolutely flabbergasting album - it's not without faults and I'd say it's less interesting and has less to offer than Accident of Birth (with Book of Thel feeling like an inferior retread of the Aquarius waters etc.), but not voting for this one is just silly. And again, I say that as someone who would really love to vote against a Dickinson album.

----

And then we get to the third one. Firepower's not bad, but doesn't deserve the reverence. Doesn't deserve to be this far. And although I dislike Awake in general (though I'm in the minority among DT fans and I kinda warmed up to it throughout time) b(r)and loyalty is a thing. So my vote goes to six o'clock on the Christmas morning MARY JANE!

----


...you know, once again - I am a Symph X fan and I'm probably the only Symph X fan who hasn't discovered them through Iconoclast who dislikes V. I have my reasons (mainly I dislike the long tracks for specific reasons + the interludes and the general flow of the album irritates me), whereas towards BNW I have very strong feelings - it was important for me in my childhood, I heard it from my father, it was one of the first Maiden albums I loved. So I don't really know how to vote, but I'll go with BNW, because it has a personal place in my heart, whereas V doesn't - despite it having some of the best short songs in Symph X discography (Fallen!)
 
I'll toss a pity vote to Land of the Free, just want to thank @Forostar and @Jer for the nomination. I had a lot of fun with this album and it's definitely one of my GMAC discoveries.

Land of the Free is the one Gamma Ray album I think is fully listenable. It has some great moments and Rebellion in Dreamland is probably as good as classic power metal gets. Having said that, it's up against Chemical Wedding. I mean, come on.
 
I love how half of the arguments made for Awake, have primarily (over the last few pages) been saying Judas Priest has made better albums than Firepower... namely Painkiller. That being said if Awake wins is still be happy, I just prefer Firepower as a whole in this moment
Yeah, pretty much! I can promise those albums are coming!
 
I'd say it's less interesting and has less to offer than Accident of Birth (with Book of Thel feeling like an inferior retread of the Aquarius waters etc.), but not voting for this one is just silly. And again, I say that as someone who would really love to vote against a Dickinson album.
I mean, I don't mind throwing out a pity vote when it's an overwhelming favourite. Otherwise, I think most people agree.

Also, concur on Accident of Birth, which I think is the better of the two albums.
 
I fail to see why this would have any bearing on my opinion. For the record, I like Firepower, I'm just putting this argument up for debate. What does it matter to my opinion that 99% of the metal community likes something?

I'll try to play with this as the "contrarian" here. No offence intended.

- Well, your opinion should be based on something (otherwise it's not an opinion, but a whim) and either the thing is cheap and appeals at low instincts and therefore gets mass popularity or it might be actually great and you are wrong. Whether you like it or not is a subjective thing (and completely irrelevant to discussion), whether it's great is not.

- Listening to only things we like doesn't really make us grow in any way. Listening to stuff that is genuinely overall perceived as great might actually change us as people. I spend actually quite a lot of time with stuff that I don't even remotely like, in order to better myself and to educate myself, whether it's music, literature, movies...

- And it matters because you're on a friggin forum - therefore you desire a certain type of communion with people who belong to your "group" or "tribe". If you didn't care about others, why would you do this to yourself? Or are you just shouting in the open void, for the amusement of yourself?


Anyway, love you, Per, and respect you, even when we disagree. <3
 
But is it a modern classic or an instant classic though?
An instant classic! All songs are great (the only no so good song is ''Flame Thrower'', if I have to pick one). I think it's really impressive that they managed to release such a fantastic album so late in their career - I rate it at #3 (right after Painkiller and DOTF). The album contains three of the best Judas Priest songs ever IMO: ''Rising From Ruins'',''Traitros Gate'' and ''No Surrender''.

It's really like a successor to the Painkiller album.... (the only ''not that good'' thing in this whole album is the chorus of ''Metal Meltdown'').
 
I love how half of the arguments made for Awake, have primarily (over the last few pages) been saying Judas Priest has made better albums than Firepower... namely Painkiller. That being said if Awake wins is still be happy, I just prefer Firepower as a whole in this moment
And it doesn’t have to be that way. Awake is a great album on its own merits. Well written, well performed, very well produced. It’s extremely dynamic: light moments like Lifting Shadows and the Rush-esque Innocence Faded mixed with very heavy material such as The Mirror. It’s probably their most “metal” album and, although challenging at times, is a lot more to the point and accessible in the same way.

Firepower is the ultimate “not bad” album. As in, it’s so bland that it’s hard to have any strong feelings for it one way or the other. If a sine wave could be translated to Metal music, this is what it would sound like.
 
Also, I wish we could just vote on each pair as they stand, and not turn half of the matches into, “Well, Firepower is good but Painkiller is better so I won’t vote for it.” That would literally only matter if the match were pitting those two records against each other.
 
Back
Top