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

LooseCannon said:
And so we make it to the finals.

The Round of 32 will be run with two matches at a time, two days each.

After everything, here are the bands who made it to the finals!

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Master of Reality, Paranoid
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth, Chemical Wedding
Dio - Holy Diver
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. II
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death, Brave New World, Powerslave, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Somewhere in Time
Judas Priest - British Steel, Defenders of the Faith, Painkiller, Sad Wings of Destiny, Screaming For Vengeance, Sin After Sin, Stained Class
Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying, Rust in Peace
Metallica - Master of Puppets, Metallica, Ride the Lightning
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Slayer - Reign in Blood, Seasons in the Abyss

What are your thoughts on the top 32? Anything terribly surprising? Who are your favourites?
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Classic metal bias!

10/32 albums were released after the 80's and only 3/32 in this century, and 2 of those 3 are Maiden. Blackwater Park is the only non-Maiden album from this century to make the list, and also the only album with growls... You guys really need to expand your musical horizons.
 
The reason why Judas Priest has more albums in the top 32 than Iron Maiden is more random chance. There were four instances of Maiden on Maiden violence in the general GMAC, but Priest, due to top seeding, has not yet had any. I suspect that will soon change.

Regardless, while we celebrate the top 32, this isn't about making it to the bracket. Instead, this is about winning the prize. We shall see.
 
srfc said:
Yeah a lot of what I like is from before my time, I fell out of love with contemporary metal in the nu-metal era, and as a replacement got into a lot of 70s bands, classic rock and even re-evaluated hair metal which I had previously laughed at.
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I went looking back in the last 10 to 20 years. In the 1990s, when focusing on metal: I was definitely more interested in new music, apart from Maiden, Sabbath, Priest and a few German metal bands.
 
Powerslave and Puppets, both very easily. Peace Sells and AOB are good albums, but making it this far is a stretch and their opponents here are all-time classics.
 
LooseCannon said:
And so we make it to the finals.

The Round of 32 will be run with two matches at a time, two days each.

After everything, here are the bands who made it to the finals!

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Master of Reality, Paranoid
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth, Chemical Wedding
Dio - Holy Diver
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. II
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death, Brave New World, Powerslave, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Somewhere in Time
Judas Priest - British Steel, Defenders of the Faith, Painkiller, Sad Wings of Destiny, Screaming For Vengeance, Sin After Sin, Stained Class
Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying, Rust in Peace
Metallica - Master of Puppets, Metallica, Ride the Lightning
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Slayer - Reign in Blood, Seasons in the Abyss

What are your thoughts on the top 32? Anything terribly surprising? Who are your favourites?
Click to expand...
Favorites for me are:

Heaven and Hell
Images & Words
BNW & SSOASS
Painkiller
Rust in Peace
Master of Puppets
and
THE.
SUN.
SETS.
FOREVER.
OVER...

BLACKWATER PARK!
 
I'm hoping for Seventh Son to win, Sad Wings to place high.

Rest are all great, and anywhere in that list is an honour. The 3 I'm not hugely fond of, I own both Keepers 2 and Images and Words and while not being a huge fan of either sub genre they come from, even I can see that they are landmarks within those genres. Opeth are quite obviously again massive within their subgenre, and I have been impressed by a lot of what featured by them if also frustrated that there was enough of my dislikes also featuring, for them ultimately not to click with me.
 
What I love about Maiden is how much “deeper” their music is in comparison to their peers. I don’t listen to Judas Priest to hear musings on life, religion, war, etc. Maiden go the extra mile while being packed with brilliant musicians and that’s what makes them my favorite band. With that said, my favorite Maiden album isn’t actually all that deep. It does have powerful statements about man’s power being worthless in the face of his death (“Powerslave”) and how war is romanticized in our society (“2 Minutes to Midnight”), but the other six songs aren’t all that deep. What they do do is showcase 1) the band’s abilities as storytellers, and 2) the band’s knack for blasting on all cylinders.

Powerslave just never lets up. “Aces High” flies out of the gate with a speed and ferocity unmatched in the discography. You really feel you’re in the midst of the Battle of Britain, twisting and turning with the ace. “Flash of the Blade” and “The Duellist” are both simple but really weave the stories they want to tell before your eyes (and they’re two of the best guitar songs in the band’s career). “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is, of course, one of the greatest metal songs ever written, and “Losfer Words” and “Back in the Village” don’t really say a lot but make up for it with fiery performances. The album flows like a motherfucker and sounds pristine, Bruce gives the performance of a life and everyone is at the height of their game. It’s not wonder they changed directions after this album, there was no way they could top it.

Peace Sells has some Megadeth classics, but I don’t think there are any I’d pick over the songs from Powerslave.

—————————

Unlike Judas, I love most of what Bruce stands for, definitely in his solo career. It’s just poetry, dude. His fascination with the mystic and his wordplays to craft experiences that would be great for academic-style analyses make him one of my favorite artists for sure. Accident of Birth is definitely among my favorite albums, but has some weaker moments compared to The Chemical Wedding. “Omega” and “Welcome to the Pit” don’t do as much for me as the others.

Meanwhile, Master of Puppets is the Powerslave of thrash metal. Every song adds something to the experience, and they’re all great. “Disposable Heroes” is the best of the bunch, really throwing you into the heart of the battlefield, and is probably my favorite song from them overall. The rest are all great too, dealing with a lot of interestingly complex topics with both aggression and restraint, and it solidified Metallica’s place in music history.

Both worthy opponents but I’ve got to give this one to Master of Puppets.
 
It’s interesting to me how a lot of the comments about preferences revolves around which album is more overrated. Come on folks, these are all gold standard Metal albums. My problem for the last few rounds of this game is trying to figure out which of the two albums in each pair are more enjoyable. No bad or overrated albums here imo.
 
Voted for Megadeth and Bruce. Megadeth because I knew Powerslave is killing it and AoB because I think it's a better metal album ;)

AoB may not have Master of Puppets, Battery or Sanitarium or Disposable Heroes on it. However it has Omega, Arc of Space and Man of Sorrows. Dickinson and the bunch managed to draw a lot of different shades yet it's a 100% metal record without anything standing out as being commercial or intentionally soft. Metallica never quite managed to cover that spectrum on a single record. There is entire range of heavy metals and hard rocks lying in between Freak and Omega's middle section, yet they're both done with the same sound in the same album sessions.
 
I am surprised to see so much more Metallica love than for one of if not the most popular album(s) by Bruce, who by far had the most popular career of Maiden members.
 
Master of Puppets is just really damn good. Don’t worry, it’ll lose to Powerslave next round anyway.
 
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