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

This one is narrow city, with two matches tied through ten votes and the biggest lead being four for H&H over Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Yikes!
 
I'll also go for Dream Theater, because I listen to that album far more and it has way more replay value for me. Both of these are highly influential albums, but Sabbath is clearly moreso as far as helping to create the genre. If Sabbath wins, it will be deserved. Either of these will lose to Chemical Wedding, so, it kinda doesn't matter.

The one with the singer. And Adrian Smith.

Dio. Definitely Dio Sabbath.
Night Prowler said:
Black Sabbath with Ozzy > Black Sabbath with anyone else. Always and forever, there I said it. Don't @ me.
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Brave New World
 
The eliteness of Hallowed and Beast + Martin Birch elevates Number of the Beast over a very good Brave New World that is a tad flabby in the mid-section.

Only tough match here. Heaven and Hell and Chemical Wedding are absolute monsters. Paranoid is overrated but only in the sense of “all-time greats” and more exciting than DT
 
First match was the hardest. I went with Dream Theater only because the album means more to me and I voted for Black Sabbath in the third pairing.
 
Well, Paranoid is a major improvement over most of the other Ozzy-era Sabbath we’ve encountered in the GMAC so far. “War Pigs”, “Paranoid”, and “Iron Man” are all pretty great, but the rest is a bit lackluster. There’s a nice section in the middle of “Electric Funeral”, and “Hand Of Doom” has some interesting parts, but “Fairies Wear Boots” retreads a lot of little guitar melodies from earlier tracks, and the other stuff is pretty boring. Up against one of Dream Theater’s best albums, this isn’t much of a contest on the merits. Sorry, Dr Cornfeddie’s Haxmaticnightman, but Blaacollinael WizzidentInTheFlashnight’s choice is superior. Winner: Dream Theater

This King Diamond album didn’t grab me quite as much as a couple of the other ones in the GMAC. While there’s definitely a lot of cool guitar work here, the music feels more derivative, like a melange of early Queensrÿche, Maiden, and Helloween, without as many progressive elements as the later albums. King Diamond also seems to careen back and forth between growly half-spoken parts and absurdly high notes in a way that feels more disorienting than on the other albums. There’s still a lot of very good material here, but it didn’t blow me away. And, of course, The Chemical Wedding did, so I think we all knew where this was heading. Sorry, Whiesel5.5, but your almost-great-great-great nephew MrDiesarlDocJer Mooseolliniana’s FTBlinkalotoxman’s nominee takes this one. Winner: Bruce Dickinson

Heaven And Hell is a significant step up in songwriting for Black Sabbath, and Dio pretty much kills it on this record. I’m not in love with the album, but it’s never boring; and there’s some cool nuanced stuff on offer here, especially the title track. While Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is one of the better Ozzy-era albums, I think it’s just outclassed here. Sorry, Karloshfed Sick, but The Poshmatidenterbocker’s Moosefed YixinFTBogman’s choice is always better. Always. Winner: Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell

The Number Of The Beast is half amazing and half good, with the exception of “Gangland”, which kind of stinks. Brave New World is 40% great or better, and the rest is just OK to good. Both albums feature Beckett thievery, so that part’s a wash. While this is a pretty close match-up, The Number Of The Beast has higher highs making up a larger percentage of the album, and most of its weaker songs are still a shade better than Brave New World’s weaker songs — so, sorry LooseCollinfed HickalatidInTheDieselmaticoftheicarus MrSrfaxnighterFTBocker, but Corkaloto Whickomoftheissrfmaxic22/9’s nominee takes yours to the gallows pole. Winner: Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
 
Seriously though, third match may have been the hardest. My favorite Ozzy era Sabbath vs my favorite Dio era Sabbath. The good song to bad song ratio is pretty equal, there are two or three songs on each that I could do without, but every other song is an instant Sabbath classic. Both are worthy to win this game. Ultimately I go for Ozzy, mostly to root for the underdog. But man, what a heavy album. I will happily root for Heaven and Hell to win this whole thing if it comes to that though.
 
Brave New World and Number of the Beast are very much two sides of the same coin. Both were huge albums for the band, both laid the foundation of things to come, and both are dwarfed by what came later.

As I’ve thought through my vote, I’ve come to regret going for BNW. Mostly because I would rather listen to NOTB’s fillers than those of the opponent. When BNW is weak, it’s some of Maiden’s weakest material. At its worst, Number of the Beast is well produced above average NWOBHM, which I quite like.
 
Mosh said:
At its worst, Number of the Beast is well produced above average NWOBHM, which I quite like.
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I think this is a really good point. NWOBHM was really changing - for such an influential genre, I think it only had like...three, four years in its apex form? Some bands were softening, some were getting faster, some were just gone...Number of the Beast kinda put an exclamation point on the whole time period, especially for Maiden. They weren't NWOBHM anymore, they were something far bigger.
 
I like both Maiden albums about as much. Including Total Eclipse would increase the level of The Number of the Beast in my book of souls.

Here my probable rating order of the songs.

01. Brave New World 10/10
02. Hallowed Be Thy Name 10/10
03. Ghost of the Navigator 10/10
04. Dream of Mirrors 9/10
05. 22 Acacia Avenue 9/10
06. Children of the Damned 9/10
07. Total Eclipse 9/10
08. Blood Brothers 8/10
09. The Mercenary 8/10
10. The Nomad 8/10 (for a long time I've always liked this more than the above 5, maybe even 6 songs, but the theft decreased my appreciation)
11. Gangland 8/10
12. The Wicker Man 8/10
13. The Number of the Beast 8/10
14. The Prisoner 7/10
15. Invaders 7/10
16. Out of the Silent Planet 7/10
17. The Fallen Angel 7/10
18. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate 7/10
19. Run to the Hills 7/10
 
Only hard choice as far as I'm concerned was the 2nd matchup. The remainder was pretty obvious:

Black Sabbath
Bruce Dickinson
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
The Number Of The Beast
 
Black Sabbath - Rat Salad is the only blip here and it's nice and quick. Everything else are metal classics. I'm a bit bored of Iron Man but there's no arguing with the quality, and Electric Funeral is weaker than the rest. War Pigs is another genuine contender for all-time greatest Metal track, Paranoid is a brilliant pop single that doesn't sacrifice the metal, Planet Caravan is a stoner masterpiece, Hand of Doom brings the heaviness and Fairies Wear Boots is groovy. Those songs all practically invented sub genres.

Dream Theatre - Average stuff, singer can't convey any real emotion which is the major draw back

Paranoid with the win

King Diamond - A great album as a whole, the title track and The Family Ghost are the picks of the tracks.

Bruce Dickinson - A collection of songs losely strung together around the ideas of alchemy and the works of William Blake, while experimenting with guitar sounds, it could easily have gone tits up. But the songs were great. And the concept stacks up too, I probably prefer the songs of AOB but the concept creates a vibe of unity that makes it feel like a stronger album overall. The harmony section in the Tower is classic, the Book of Thel is his best solo track, the title track has the classic "and all the lighthouses..." vocal part, The Alchemist is a brilliant track although I wonder if the reprieve of the title track chorus doesn't overshadow the rest of the track unfairly, fuck it it's all good, Machine Men is the only thing even approaching a weaker track

Bruce Dickinson with the win

Black Sabbath - I was debating nominating Heaven and Hell, and I felt ultimately if Sabbath are being represented then it should be by Ozzy Osbourne, but it's toss a coin as to whether this or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is better. I think Heaven and Hell has the better exectued songs and of course the production of Martin Birch is the best in the business. But they try far more new things on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and that is probably more deserving of praise.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath with the win

Iron Maiden - Both albums have 6 absolute classic Maiden tracks on them. The 6 absolute classics on The Number of the Beast are the 6 highest standard classics Maiden have ever busted out on a single album, with the Number of the Beast being my all-time favourite track and the pinnacle achievement of human evolution and existence. Hallowed is obviously the quintessential Maiden song, and Run to the Hills, Children of the Damned, Prisoner and 22 Acacia Avenue, fuckin hell I'm mentioning them as almost also ran classics when most metal bands would give a bollock to have written even one of them. The Number of the Beast has 2 fillers and Brave New World has 4. Gangland and Invaders are only filler in the context of the other tracks, they would absolutely contribute more to BNW than the 4 fillers it has combined. The only flaws on The Number of the Beast are "invaders! do de diddle doo" and the dated lyrics of 22 Acacia Avenue. It's not my favourite metal album but if it wins this it will be fair and square. I have a bad feeling that the FOMO millennials will vote for the album they were around for however.

The Number of the Beast with the win
 
Paranoid (War Pigs, Planet Caravan, Paranoid, Iron Man, Fairies wear boots on, …epic and classic stuff, even the guys of DT would choose Paranoid except the keyboard player)
Chemical Wedding (I like Abigail, but I love Chemical Wedding from start to finish, it's a masterpiece, Modern Heavy Metal sound album with amazing songs and Bruce singing so good…)
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Along with Sabotage is my Sabbath's favorite album with Ozzy, I adore Heaven and Hell but Bloody Sabbath is epic and very creative stuff, from the title song of the album to National Acrobat, Sabbra Caddabra, Killing yourself to live)
The Number of the Beast (I love brave New World but we're talking of the album which changed Heavy Metal forever, I love every song on this album even invaders and I always defended Gangland, I think is a f***ing great song, Two absolute different eras from the same band which marked a change for Heavy Metal, Brave New World is the renaissance of this music after the down time of the 90's)
 
I won't deny that at least influence-wise and, well, generally from an objective point of view Paranoid is probably better than both the debut and Master of Reality. On the other hand, just personally, I can't fucking stand it. War Pigs is just this boring slog of a song, I'd say it grinds the momentum to a half, but it's the first track, so you could rather say the album crashes on takeoff, I guess. Hand of Doom is similarly boring and pointless, Planet Caravan is kinda cool, but after repeated listens feels seriously gimmicky and redundant. Iron Man has a cool riff, but is really easy to overplay. Rat Salad - again, completely useless. So you get Funeral, the title track and Fairies (and the overal style of the latter is done better on the later albums, methinks). That's certainly not enough, historical importance be damned.

On the other hand SFAM has a great flow from start to finish - it has some missteps (less Mariah Carey, please; the first part of the album before A Fatal Tragedy is somewhat bland), but overall it's just awesome. A Fatal Tragedy segueing into Beyond This Life is one of my favourite one-two punches in metal history, Dance shows that even with gimmicky wankery you can get something really coherent, intriguing... and actually catchy and melodic. You get the gospel feelings of Spirit with beautiful Oldfield-like guitar solo by 'Trucci...
Seriously, something for everyone. Absolutely no contest.

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No. Like I said before - I might dislike Bruce in general and AOB is better, but King Diamond is just ridiculous. Give me the belting egomaniac with delusions of eloquence over angry Smurf any time of the day.

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Ah, SBS is probably going to lose, although it's the more well-written, more thought-through, more personal and original album, whereas HaH is mostly just Rainbath - which approach would get more consistent on Dio's first solo records. But the latter's gonna win. Oh, well, if it must be...

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Of all the Maiden albums, none I hate as much as TNOTB. The title track alone is the most unmelodic, unmemorable, banal chugging and posturing that unfortunately got written in history as, you know, one of the first singles with Bruce. Apart from Hallowed and Prisoner, I rarely return to the album at all (Avenue is just chaotic mess, Children of the Damned is a blatant rip-off of Children of the Sea and even if it wasn't, Remember Tomorrow did that soft-hard ballad thing much more intriguingly and efficiently, Run to the Hills is great on the first 50 listens and never after, Invaders is... just ridiculous). Everything would be better on PoM thousand times over.

My feelings towards BNW might have grown colder over time, but in general it still has absolutely wonderful moments (Navigator, Fallen Angel, Dream of Mirrors, Silent Planet, the title track, even) and is a product of a mature band that already knows what to do. Again, no contest.
 
Dream Theater, easily. I don’t care how influential this Ozzy Sabbath album is; I don’t ever get the urge to listen to his voice. LaBrie is far from my favorite singer, either, but they’re no comparison. I also prefer DT’s music by far.

Bruce. No comparison.

Dio Sabbath. I will always pick Dio over Ozzy. The music is far more interesting with him, too, in my opinion. It was less plodding.

Brave New World. This was my first Maiden album, and while it has a few weaker tracks, half of Beast is actual filler to me. In fact, I think it is by far their weakest Bruce-Adrian ‘80s album.
 
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