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

I prefer AC/DC to Dream Theater. Sue me.

...but Opeth 100% deserve the win over Back in Black. Still Life is a really strong album.

I was just listening to Lightning to the Nations last night. It’s not good. Iced Earth.

Fuck it, Slayer.
 
This Dream Theater album is solid, and has some great musical parts, but I’m not sure the persistent hints of nu-metal and grunge are a good fit for their sound. “Tough” LaBrie shows up here on occasion too, and that’s not a good sound for him either. Up against one of the two great AC/DC records in their discography, this is an easy choice. Sorry, MrSpamoolampwickInTheDarkerFTBocker709, but I’m going with @Niall Kielt ’s Maiden-killer here. Winner: AC/DC

This Opeth album has great music, but half the vocals are unacceptable to me. While Brian Johnson’s voice is certainly an acquired taste, for whatever reason it doesn’t get on my nerves, and it fits the material on this AC/DC album perfectly. And remember when I said AC/DC had two great albums? Well, this is the other one. In fact, every song on here is great. Super memorable vocal lines, great songwriting, great performances. One all-time classic song after another. “Hell’s Bells”, “Shoot To Thrill”, the title track, and “You Shook Me All Night Long” would be enough to slay most competitors, but the deep cuts are all great too. Opeth’s music is obviously more complex, but Back In Black simply kicks ass from start to finish. No wonder I nominated it! Sorry, The MidfightknighterPoolickollinker, but Dr. Jerrie’srfc Wingmckindogman’s nominee takes this one. Winner: AC/DC

This Diamond Head album is OK, and has some good songs on it, but it mostly reminds me of how much better Metallica’s many covers of these songs are. While I’m not thrilled with Burnt Offerings either, it seems to be a half step up from most of the other Iseditionist Earth fare in the GMAC to date, and I’d probably rather listen to it than to the entirety of its competitor. Going to risk being sued by Smartmatic and go for Permofrost’s choice here. Winner: Iseditionist Earth

Never got into Slayer. Weak, out of tune vocals and directionless soloing. Compared to one of Rush’s best albums it’s just no contest. Easy call for @Midnight ’s nominee. Winner: Rush
 
Dream Theatre - Another album that I actually have that didn't stand up to the scrutiny of one listen, riff not bad (was better when Sabbath originally played it), chorus brings back memories, they must have played this when opening for Maiden in 05. This track isn't bad at all, still overlong, there's a solid 3 and a half min pop song hidden in there among the 7 and a half mins of noodling.

AC/DC - opinion given before

AC/DC with the win

AC/DC - Generally a bigger fan of the Bon era, but musically this is the strongest set of tracks they ever brought out and given the Mutt Lange sheen they sound fantastic as well. Plus you've got Brian Johnson screaming blue murder all over the album, in what must have been one of the toughest gigs anyone has ever got. Blaze still whinges about the toughness of his gig, but at least Bruce hadn't croaked! You've got a load of live staples obviously in Hells Bells, Shoot to Thrill, the title track and You Shook Me All Night Long. But the rest of the tracks are all great too. The only let down as such is while the Bon Scott lyrics were generally just as sleazy, there was often a humour element and a bit of self-deprecation whereas they now are just single entendres.

Opeth - opinion given before

AC/DC with the win

Diamond Head - A fantastic album that I might have nominated if I had a bit more spaces. We all should be familiar enough with the songs given Metallica have released covers of over half the album (and covered a fifth track live as well). The 4 Metallica are all great as we know, but the rest are too, although Sucking My Love might be a "euphemism" that even AC/DC would have blushed at.

Iced Earth - Opinion given before

Diamond Head with the win

Slayer - another one I would have nominated on an expanded list. In many ways, the songs on here are stronger as individual tracks than Reign in Blood but Reign is the more cohesive collection. It's really only Cleanse the Soul that isn't up to too much. Outside of the well known classics, Live Undead, Behind the Crooked Cross, Ghosts of War, Read Between the Lies and Spill the Blood are all great, and the cover of Dissident Agressor cuts muster as well. I actually got to see them play Chemical Warfare/Ghosts of War live as well.

Rush - opinion given before

Slayer with the win

The good guys are going to lose all these matches aren't they? :lol:
 
Saapanael said:
Train of Thought should be the most accessible album to metal fans who aren’t necessarily DT fans. It’s raw and heavy, just a damn good album to headbang to.
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It was an album that had to grow on me,
I even disliked it at first because of the nu metal elements. Now it´s definitely Top 5 DT for me.
 
Dream Theater and Opeth over AC/DC any time, any place. If you’ve heard one AC/DC song, you’ve heard them all, while DT and Opeth are much more diverse and layered in their sound. Absolutely no comparison here.

Burnt Offerings is an underrated Iced Earth album, and Diamond Head never did anything for me. Also, while I can appreciate some of Slayer’s tunes for what they are, they don’t hold a candle to Rush.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Dream Theater and Opeth over AC/DC any time, any place. If you’ve heard one AC/DC song, you’ve heard them all, while DT and Opeth are much more diverse and layered in their sound. Absolutely no comparison here.
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True. The former have never crafted anything anything close to the hooks present in the most obscure track off back in black, nor the grooves, nor the passion.

Saying too many AC/DC songs sound the same is fair. Implying Hells Bells is a rejig of Rock’n’Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution or Touch Too Much is more than spouting a lazy cliche, it’s demonstrably wrong. Millions of people can identify You Shook Me or Highway to Hell from the first chord. Same with Back in Black. None of them mistake one for the other.

Opeth is a fantastic genre band and DT a fabulous collection of musicians looking for new ways to hone their musical chops. Back in Black is a locked in machine giving every fibre of energy it has in the service of truly memorable songs that will live forever.

Absolutely no comparison.
 
@mckindog

I respectfully disagree about Dream Theater never crafting the “hooks” or “grooves” of AC/DC. I have absolutely nothing against the latter; they’re a fun-time rock band that’s perfect for road trips and parties, and they’re difficult to dislike. But I need more depth to my music every once in a while, and bands like Dream Theater and Opeth have more layers.

This Dream Theater album is more straightforward than their proggiest of stuff, and there are hooks galore. They’re not the same type of hooks you’d find in AC/DC songs, but they’re there. Still Life has hooks, too, like the chorus of Godhead’s Lament or the verse riff in Moonlapse Vertigo or the ending of Face of Melinda or like four parts in Serenity Painted Death.

Both of these bands also groove in ways that AC/DC does not. That’s not a knock on them, but rather just an observation.
 
I like AC/DC, Opeth, and Dream Theater for different reasons. Comparing them is somewhat silly, but makes sense given the context, and they’re all great bands. To say Dream Theater and Opeth don’t groove or have hooks is ludicrous. They just don’t groove like AC/DC, which is fine, that’s not what they’re going for.
 
^ Nor am I surprised that the few albums I actually like in the League 2 matchups have mostly ended up paired against each other.
Hell Awaits vs. Walls of Jericho, Welcome to Hell vs. Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Death vs. Merciful Fate...
#ScrewTheRandomNumberGenerator
#RodAndThePopeNotBlamedForOnce
 
Mosh said:
I like AC/DC, Opeth, and Dream Theater for different reasons. Comparing them is somewhat silly, but makes sense given the context, and they’re all great bands. To say Dream Theater and Opeth don’t groove or have hooks is ludicrous. They just don’t groove like AC/DC, which is fine, that’s not what they’re going for.
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How are you defining hooks?

I'm looking at it as memorable rhythms and melodies that grab people's attention and stick. Everything in music is very much taste-based, but you can partially quantify hooks by gauging a band's popularity, just like you can partially measure technique by degree of difficulty or complexity.

I respect the hell out of Dream Theatre and I respect and like Opeth, but under the above premise, I don't think it's any more of a stretch to say Back in Black has more/stronger hooks than Still Life than it is to say Train of Thought has better musicianship than Highway to Hell.
 
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