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

[Jer]

If I could unilaterally kill one album in this game, it would be So Far So Good So What.

Seriously. This album deserves to die a horrible death. There are at least ten better Megadeth albums.

The fact that it beat The Odyssey and is poised to beat RATM is absolute nonsense.

Megadave earns advancement to the Premiership by knocking out the only Rage Against the Machine album.

G is for growling
L is for led, our Mr. Knickers, to Opeth he’s wed
O, he’s objecting
A, not accepting, that this Megadeth album beat Symph X and Rage
T for your trying
E, you’re ever pure
R is for rage quit, if you’re immature
This spells out “gloater” and that’s just what I’ll be
Cos I’m still in the G.M.A.C.!

 

[LooseCannon]

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1983) How it got here List entries: Metal Rules 7, Metalstorm 27, DigitalDreamDoor 21 Maidenfans Nominators: @Black Wizard, @Cornfed Hick, @Dr Eddie’s Wingman, @Midnight, @Mosh, @Niall Kielt, @Perun, @phantomoftheicarus, @Poto, @srfc, @The Flash
League 2 - Match 17	vs.
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. League 3: Defeated Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse 28-4.

[TR]

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Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power (1992) How it got here List entries: Rolling Stone 10, Loudwire 5, DigitalDreamDoor 22 Maidenfans Nominators: @Ariana, @Magnus, @The Flash, @Yax
League 2 - Match 18	vs.
Judas Priest - Killing Machine / Hell Bent For Leather (1978) How it got here List entries: Metal Rules 29, DigitalDreamDoor 68 Maidenfans Nominators: @Cornfed Hick Previous Rounds: League 3: Defeated Queensrÿche - Empire 19-13.

 

[LooseCannon]

Iron Maiden - Killers (1981) How it got here List entries: Metal Rules 33, DigitalDreamDoor 37 Maidenfans Nominators: @Magnus, @phantomoftheicarus, @srfc
League 2 - Match 19	vs.
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. League 3: Defeated Def Leppard - Pyromania 22-10.

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Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time (1986) How it got here List entries: Metal Rules 26, Metalstorm 30, DigitalDreamDoor 59 Maidenfans Nominators: @Collin, @Dityn DJ James, @Dr Eddie’s Wingman, @FTB, @Kalata, @karljant, @KidInTheDark666, @matic22, @Midnight, @Shmoolikipod, @srfc, @The Dissident, @The Flash
League 2 - Match 20	vs.
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. League 3: Defeated Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry 22-9.

 

[Poto]

I don't think this game is any fun anymore..

When it comes to 80's Maiden I go back and forth between several albums when I have to choose a favourite. At the moment it's probably Piece of Mind, but it's up against my alltime favourite album. So AMOLAD for me.

Priest over Pantera.

The Book of Souls is slightly better than Killers, altough I think Killers is a very strong album. Possibly the best sounding Maiden album, and I feel it's quite consistent. I like to listen to it from start to finish, that's not the case with The Book of Souls. TBOS is still my pick.

Maiden over Iced Earth.

 

[Diesel 11]

As stated before: Piece of Mind feels inconsistent as an album, whereas A Matter of Life and Death - despite having "Out of the Shadows" in its tracklist - is a much better overall album experience, and "For the Greater Good of God" eclipses everthing in POM. Honestly a contender for my Top 5 favorite Maiden songs.

"Walk" is a great song and I've always thought "Fucking Hostile" was hilarious in the best of ways, so I'll go Pantera over Priest. I actually didn't expect @Magnus to be a fan of the record.

Let me say this in the nicest way possible: Killers can go fuck itself, it is the worst Maiden album and only half of it is of any merit returning to outside of discography listens. The production makes it sound like a sleazefest, Di'Anno seems to enjoy warbling for half of it, it is compiled of leftover tracks from the first record that were quite obviously left off then for good reason and should have been left off here. It is the definition of both sophomore slump and being overrated just because it was one of the band's first albums. The Book of Souls, meanwhile, is my pick for Maiden's definitive album - not my favorite mind you, but it defines what I love about the band. The fire, the energy, the pumping rockers and the monumental epics, this record has it all in a 90 minute, two disc package. Fucking awesome. It's proof that even sixteen albums into their career Maiden aren't ready to rest on their laurels, contrary to what their touring schedule seems like. It's one of my Top 4 Maiden albums, and "Empire of the Clouds" remains my favorite of all their songs. All this in my opinion.

And Somewhere in Time is a pretty great record that suffers slightly in the vocal department but only very minutely in the songwriting. It's a really cool album and the better of the two here. Still, Night of the Stormrider is my pick because we still have a lot of Maiden left and not a whole lot of Iced Earth.

 

[Cornfed Hick]

It appears that Diesel's taste and mine are.....different.

 

[The Dissident]

A Matter Of Life And Death is the best of the reunion albums for me personally, and is a contender for the best Maiden album as a whole. It easily beats POM which for me is overratted and only gets the praise because it was released in the 80s... it is good just not as good.

Hell Bent For Leather I have yet to get into Pantera and Judas Priest really begins to hit their commercial point here while still being true to the 70s style

The Book Of Souls is far superior to Killers, If Eternity Should Fail and Empire Of The Clouds on their own could beat any song on the bands 2nd effort.

Somewhere In Time is my favourite Maiden record, against an incredibly strong album by Iced Earth, this is the closest match of all 4 and the only other contender which would beat Stormrider in this round for me is AMOLAD

 

[karljant]

Two great Maiden albums for starts. AMOLAD is an hell of an achievement: late career highlight, not a single bad song, a somewhat overall eerie ambiance mainly focused in long, prog like metal epics. It delivers some exceptionally great tunes like The Legacy, These Colors Don't Run, Benjamin Breeg, Thousand Suns as well as the masterpiece that is For The Greater Good Of God. As for POM it has Quest For Fire as a major down point. But near perfect tunes like Where Eagles Dare, Revelations, Still Life and To Tame A Land more than compensate it. Plus there are these two prime short cuts in The Trooper and Flight Of Icarus. Let there be no doubt: this is a record that shows Maiden amidst a flawless spree of records releasing classic after classic. And if AMOLAD may deserve more reverence for managing to turn back the clock, it's slightly below Maiden's prime era so this one goes to Piece Of Mind.

As everyone knows Vulgar Display Of Power is a metal classic. Nevertheless I think it's not devoid of somewhat poor and even cringe passages. I don't get how Walk is a fan favorite. It features some boring riff, dumb chorus ("Re-Spect-Walk"... seriously?) and is an immediate skip in my play list, Live In A Hole is uninspired at best, No Good - Attack The Radical is kinda meh despite its well built anti-racist rant (and the chorus is horrible). There's the also a group of merely ok songs that seem to miss something: Regular People's lyrical content is also corny as hell but the song is fine. And while enjoying Fucking Hostile it's a bit straight forward and even goofy for my taste. Hell... even This Love gets to be a bit boring at times despite its psychotic atmosphere and aggressive bursts.
But then there's the GOOD STUFF... and when it comes to THESE SONGS Vulgar Display is no longer a merely a bonehead/ bad ass/ bully metal album full of testosterone to smash beer cans on your head. Oh no no no!!!! If you want to go down that path it's something you show a 10 year old and he immediately grows dense facial air and rips a 50 Ltr bin in two with his bare hands. Mouth For War is simply a monster of a song where groove and heaviness combine in an almost perfect mesh of aggression as Darrel's razor sharp riffs rip to shreds everything that dares to cross its way. When it comes to stupid dense heaviness and intensity A New Level is second to none, showing a band possessed, obsessed with musical anger. Speaking of which Rise is another blur of furious riffage and groovy hooks that assault your senses in a way no one's prepared to deal with. By Demons Be Driven... oh man! I lack words to describe how brutal this song is and how stellar the riffs sound. And then there's Hollow... and boy, after a snarling, muscle flexing record taking this emotional description of loss in the chin really catches you off guard. The melodic part is really melancholic and sad, portraying perfectly the sense of grief and loss and the final stretch does the same when it comes to anger and revolt. Absolutely stunning way to end an album.
So yeah... Vulgar Display of Power has some goofy/ weak parts here and there and other ones that were over hyped. But when it hits the target it hits with the force of a freight train full of napalm. I believe it encapsulated what the early 90's metal scene was asking for and no wonder it became an instant classic. Killing Machine is also an uneven record: while featuring some ridiculously great tunes (one of them being my favorite by the band) its low points are even lower than the ones in Vulgar Display Of Power so this one goes to Pantera.

 

[karljant]

The Book Of Souls has its moments and shows that Maiden still has gas in its tank. Is it a top notch Maiden album? Not quite IMO and it even features some same old story songs and WTF compositions. But there are also some truly great tracks and if it's true the majority of the good songs are within the band's safe zone (If Eternity Should Fail, The Red And The Black or the gorgeous title track) it also presents us something really new in Empire Of The Clouds, a 18 plus minute Rock Opera with piano and a billion of twists and turns. And either you like it or not (I'm not a particular fan of it) fact is it shows how the band is still able to bring new elements to its already vastly rich legacy. But Maiden's sophomore is a powerhouse. Even if you don't like the more immediate rockers like Innocent Exile, Another Life, Drifter or the semi acoustic awesomeness of Prodigal Son (I personally love them all) you have some of the most furious stuff the band has ever made in the title track, Murders In The Rue Morgue, Purgatory as well as the classic bluesy Wrathchild and the stunning instrumental in Genghis Khan. A unique Maiden record and I really don't understand some of the hate it gets (and really don't want to). Killers... and it's not even close.

Iced Earth's second record is pretty good even for a non fan like me. But it has one problem in this round. It's going against my favorite Maiden album and one of Heavy Metal's finest hours: a record without a single weak link made by a band at the top of their game while bringing some new stuff to their sound. Somewhere In Time is as unique as perfect. Iron Maiden.

 

[LooseCannon]

I didn't make any moves to the randomness, so the Maiden on Maiden violence is not intentional. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to see it.

 

[LooseCannon]

The Premiership Spotify Playlist
The Premiership Youtube Playlist

Say what you will about the game, but that's a pretty damn strong top 32.

 

[Jer]

Piece Of Mind is a pretty great album. “Where Eagles Dare”, “Revelations”, and “The Trooper” are fantastic, and “Die With Your Boots On” and “Sun And Steel” are great. That said, the studio version of “Flight Of Icarus” doesn’t come off quite as well as its better live renditions, and “Still Life” is good but a bit overrated. And then we have the not so hot “Quest For Fire” and the ridiculously overrated, horribly phrased rote exercise known as “To Tame A Land”. That’s a fair number of blemishes to offset the highlights. Compare that to A Matter Of Life And Death, which to me is clearly the best reunion-era album, and the only one that reaches heights similar to those of their best classic work. "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns", "The Longest Day", "Out Of The Shadows", "The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg", and "For The Greater Good Of God" are all excellent. "Different World" and "Lord Of Light" are both great, "These Colours Don't Run" flirts with greatness, and "The Pilgrim" and "The Legacy" are both solidly good. Blow for blow, it's pretty clear who the victor is here. Sorry, Dr. Floshiniall’s PotunoftheMidwickarusrfingman, but your roughly-half-sibling The Dissidarkalannun Dotoriana’s Floshrfmaticman13’s nominee comes out on top. Winner: Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death

God, Pantera sucks so bad. The riffs are C-list Metallica wannabe material, Phil Anselmo mostly just snarls and barks, and the songwriting is simplistic to nonexistent. Occasionally Anselmo remembers how to sing and it works pretty well, like the beginnings of "This Love" and "Hollow", but he always falls back on bad habits before too long. I honestly don't like any of these songs from start to finish, and stuff like "Walk" is so awful that it's just an insult to the listener. I don't understand the appeal of these guys at all. Sorry, Flaxy Anus, but @Cornfed Hick 's choice takes this by default. Winner: Judas Priest

Killers is an underrated lower-middle tier Maiden album that sounds really good and packs a punch with great tracks like “Wrathchild” and “Prodigal Son” and a solid second tier of “Murders In The Rue Morgue”, “Another Life”, the title track, “Twilight Zone”, and “Purgatory”. The rest of the album is merely OK, but this is still a good record overall. Meanwhile, The Book Of Souls is, in my view, the second best reunion-era album and it succeeds on its consistency — about half the album is solidly good and the other half is great to excellent. The title track and “Empire Of The Clouds” are the standouts, but “If Eternity Should Fail”, “The Red And The Black”, and “When The River Runs Deep” are all great too, which puts the album in the upper middle tier of Maiden records for me. Thus, the choice is clear — sorry, Magnumofthesrficus, but Trissimatic The ShmoosrfCalgon’s nominee is better. Winner: Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

This last match is...well, come on now, I think the answer here is pretty obvious. Sorry, Wacko Fliszar, but The Karljatashdent ShmoolikillinTheDarkyn FTBeddie’s Midmatsrficman1986’s choice is timeless, kind of like the length of Jon Schaffer’s federal detention. Winner: Iron Maiden

 

[MindRuler]

Although I had ranked POM as my 4th favourite Maiden album I still voted AMOLAD. Listened to it yesterday. Flawless album.

 

[DJ James]

first matchup is super tough, my favorite Maiden album vs my 2nd favorite. Wow. Piece of Mind wins in the end.

 

[DJ James]

Say what you will about the game, but that's a pretty damn strong top 32.

yep, thats about par for the course in greatest metal albums of all time. Paranoid by Black Sabbath, gonna be hard voting against that one. That's one of my all time favorite metal albums of all time now. Damn. Damn damn damn. This game is getting hard!

 

[Forostar]

I know that when playing, rating an album, we can say it is about flow, feel, unison, style, production, playing, singing, vibe, energy etc. But it is also about songs. Units that have their own moments of shining. Even within these songs there are moments which are peaks, making albums better. Same goes for lows making them less good. This is my order of songs from these albums. Next to other reasons, POM does better for me as an album.

01. The Trooper 10/10
02. To Tame a Land 10/10
03. Brighter than a Thousand Suns 10/10
04. Lord of Light 9/10
05. Die With Your Boots On 9/10
06. Flight of Icarus 9/10
07. Quest for Fire 9/10
08. These Colours Don't Run 9/10
09. The Pilgrim 9/10
10. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg 9/10
11. Still Life 8/10
12. Where Eagles Dare 8/10
13. For the Greater Good of God 8/10
14. The Legacy 8/10
15. Sun and Steel 7/10
16. Out of the Shadows 7/10
17. The Longest Day 7/10
18. Revelations 7/10
19. Different World 7/10

 

[srfc]

Piece of Mind - The first Maiden album I had. No need for too much detail, Quest for Fire has dodgy lyrics and vocal histrionics and Sun and Steel has not much wrong with it but it's not quite at the level of the other tracks which are all 10/10

AMOLAD - opinion given before

Piece of Mind with the win

Pantera - Another album from the early days of my metal listening. I still own it and listen to it occasionally, it holds up pretty well although I'm not certain how much the nostalgia factor plays a part in that. I used to love it back in the day, and the riff is good but Walk hasn't held up and is ultimately dog shit.

Judas Priest - opinion given before

Judas Priest with the win

Killers - Maybe the best sounding Maiden album, quite a lot of top tier Maiden tracks as well, Wrathchild, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Prodigal Son, Killers and Purgatory. The rest aren't bad but they were obviously struggling for lyrics, with 2 instrumentals and quite a lot of repeated verses.

The Book of Souls - opinion given before

The Book of Souls with the win

Somewhere in Time - The second-least good album of the 80's from Maiden and the most overrated in their career, but it's still great. Caught Somewhere in Time, Wasted Years, Heaven Can Wait and Stranger in a Strange Land are all 10/10. Sea of Madness and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner are pretty good but lose some marks for the lyrics, SOM for the Boyzone style rhymes of the chorus and Loneliness for the preposterousness of the subject matter for a Heavy Metal song (some say they are meant as a metaphor for touring, they could be, but I think Steve wouldn't be that subtle on purpose). Alexander loses a lot of marks for the lyrics, but is otherwise great. Deja-Vu is absolutely piss poor and the worst track from the 80's, although it has a nice harmony section in the middle.

Iced Earth - opinion given before

Somewhere in Time with the win

 

[srfc]

G is for growling
L is for led, our Mr. Knickers, to Opeth he’s wed
O, he’s objecting
A, not accepting, that this Megadeth album beat Symph X and Rage
T for your trying
E, you’re ever pure
R is for rage quit, if you’re immature
This spells out “gloater” and that’s just what I’ll be
Cos I’m still in the G.M.A.C.!

Let me ask you something, I've been reading a lot in the newspapers and the magazines about the first Rage Against the Machine album, and I was reading one article in particular about an organisation, you might have heard of them before, called the G.M.A.C., and I read that they said that they think So Far So Good... So What is a better album than the first Rage Against the Machine album.

Now this is coming from an organisation called "Maidenfans", now I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like some sort of goddamn bunch of internet nerds if you ask me. Well this is for that whole bunch because they can suck me, suck me, eat me raw!

 

[Forostar]

If I die before I wake, pray LC my vote to take:
POM, Priest, Killers, SIT.

Vote mr. @Magnus
This is not the phase of not voting, not that it ever was.

 

[Saapanael]

Okay okay, AMOLAD is great and all but it’s no fuckin’ POM. And TBOS is a great modern metal production but lacks half the energy of Killers. Well, maybe I shouldn’t expect anything else from people who adore Bruce’s solo career so much. It’s one hallelujah chorus after another, with great instrumentals underneath.

Sorry, a little more critical than usual. But I’ve wanted to say it for a while. Bruce’s solo career kinda sucks, with some amazing pearls here and there.