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

First match-up is the toughest, because Luca Turilli hits my neoclassical G-spot, pompous cheese and all, but I fucking hate Fabio Lione. Meanwhile, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is a pretty solid hard rock album with a few classics. Great music with a bad singer vs. good music with an OK singer. Sorry Luca, but as I mentioned before, I nominated one of your solo albums for later in the game, and I’ll make my stand for you there. Lione sucks. Winner: AC/DC

My brother used to work for the music publishing company that signed Marilyn Manson, so I’d heard the demo of this album before it ever got finished and released. I didn’t understand what people saw in it then, and I still don’t now. Manson sucks. He’s like a sad arranged marriage of Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie without the appealing parts of either one. Meanwhile, the Death album has great music with kind of crappy vocals, but I find myself voting for it yet again. Winner: Death

This Helmet album commits the cardinal sin of being boring as fuck. The single “Unsung” is the only decent thing on here, and the rest is samey, low-rent dreck. The arsenal of Megadeth obliterates the competition here. Winner: Megadeth

Sleep is an aptly named band. This album is...fine. It’s inoffensive. I don’t remember a single note of it after the fact. Van Halen II, while not their best effort, still has lots of memorable, well executed hard rock on it. Winner: Van Halen
 
Match 1:
Turilli/Lione and AC/DC turned out to be very similar listening experiences. Both albums start out well, but get boring to listen to after a while. And neither is hardly a contender for the best metal album of all time – I’m absolutely baffled that Metal Kingdom placed “Zero Gravity” so high on their list. I mean, really? On the other hand, AC/DC has yet to give me a true wow-moment (and I know they’ve done a lot better than “Dirty Deeds”), so my vote goes to Turilli/Lione for at least having interesting music.


Match 2:
Marylin Manson has always been a joke. Not as bad as I expected, but still one of the worst entries in the game so far. Death is incredible as always, and they absolutely (spirit) crush the opposition here.


Match 3:
Helmet is too simplistic for my taste, I guess. The songs kinda blur together for me, not leaving much of an impact. Megadeth’s debut offers so much more in terms of interesting compositions, great performances and overall feel. So of course Megadeth wins.


Match 4:
Sleep had a doomy vibe that sounded promising as first, but never quite took off the way I hoped it would. They remind me a great deal of Reverend Bizarre, one of my favourite doom metal bands, but Sleep is obviously leaning closer to stoner metal. Van Halen’s album still is one of their lesser efforts. Tough decision, but since I know Van Halen has a number of better records in their discography, I’m voting for Sleep in this particular matchup.
 
AC/DC wasn't too interesting but Zero Gravity is (yet another) over the top power metal, so I'm going with AC/DC.

Manson is very stripped down, Death absolutely destroys this one

Helmet is ultra boring, easy Megadeth.

I'm losing sleep over the thought of losing Sleep. :D
 
AC/DC easily takes the first match, despite Malcolm's tin can guitar tone. Rhapsody is bland, average power metal. Can someone actually explain WTF Rhapsody is to me in like two sentences? Why are they sometimes "Of Fire"? Why do they sometimes have some an egotistical Italian name in front of the band name?

Still don't like Chuck's screams, but Death easily beats out a weak album by a mostly weak Manson. Bonus points for Richard Christy.

Killing is one of my least favorite Megadeth albums, but it's still better than Helmet (who sound like they really, really wanted to be Pantera in the 90s).

Sleep is boring, but it is not Van Halen and thus it gets my vote.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
AC/DC easily takes the first match, despite Malcolm's tin can guitar tone. Rhapsody is bland, average power metal. Can someone actually explain WTF Rhapsody is to me in like two sentences? Why are they sometimes "Of Fire"? Why do they sometimes have some egotistical Italian name in front of the band name?
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Rhapsody was the name of the original band, later they changed their name to Rhapsody of Fire. Rhapsody of Fire still exists, while some of the former (the most important) members formed this Turilli/Lione Rhapsody.

Also, this album is drastically different from the usual Rhapsody album. You could almost say that it sounds more like Dream Theater than the classic cheesefest-Rhapsody.
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
AC/DC easily takes the first match, despite Malcolm's tin can guitar tone. Rhapsody is bland, average power metal. Can someone actually explain WTF Rhapsody is to me in like two sentences? Why are they sometimes "Of Fire"? Why do they sometimes have some an egotistical Italian name in front of the band name?
Click to expand...
The members of Rhapsody believe they have formed the greatest thing ever, and when they split, they each made their own versions in order to continue the overarching Rhapsody story in their own way. It is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.
 
The initial riff of Rhapsody track sounded familiar, like it was used for opening of a sports highlight show, or something. I liked it better than the track Iistened to earlier in the game, but the same criticisms (earnest, Pompous, overwrought) still apply.

Dirty Deeds is among the lesser AC/DC albums, but it has attitude in spades, a great simplistic rhythm guitar bedrock and Bon Scott at the heights of his cheek. The match-up really highlights the primary character of each band and I will take the smoke pit sass of the Aussies over the flummery of the competition every time.
 
Never had time for Manson, found him to be more about image than music - contrived and pandering to a 14-year-old’s notion of dark. The track here fits my bias.

Death continues to be a band I would like if not for the vocal. They get my vote here.
 
I like the Pantera-esque groove of the Helmet song. Vocals and melodies were pedestrian.
The Megadeth was a lot more fun. Megadeth wins.
 
The Sleep track opened well. And then it went on and on and on with that same feel and they stretched it out to the point of ridiculousness. It was like a sound check test, where the engineer kept saying “again.” It strikes me how the variety seems to drop the more modern these albums are. It’s like the best of the early bands tried a whole bunch of different textures across their albums and some of those that came in their wake took a specific element and milked it to the nth degree.

The last round reminded me how well-rounded and varied Van Halen ll was. And fun. Easy winner.
 
I wont get time to listen before closure but have heard one album in each round and have heard bits and pieces of the other bands.

ACDC
Manson
Megageth
Van Halen

Havent listened to that Manson album in over 20 years but I liked it back then and Death actually annoy me.
 
Pretty easy round for me. I didn’t hate Helmet as much as some, but no contest against Megadeth (though it is not my favorite album of theirs). Closest call was Sleep vs. Van Halen, but I think Van Halen II is an underrated gem and wins my vote because I like the much higher energy level.

P.S. I’m curious, for anyone who was previously familiar with the Sleep record, did you know it as “Jerusalem” or as “Dopesmoker”? (It’s the latter for me.)
 
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One of the pairings is close, so I'm pitching in. I got bored as fuck by Sleep after 5 seconds so I've voted for Van Halen.

Megadave and Death also get my votes plus, surprisingly, Turallo/Lione Rhapsody over AC/DC. Not that it makes a difference of course, but it's just another AC/DC album of the same old, same old. The Fake Rhapsody album is ridiculous but sort of OK. I will probably vote in favour of other AC/DC albums later on.

The best version of 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' is by The Lounge Kittens:

 
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