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

mckindog said:
Holy Diver is certainly a candidate for my favourite album ever.
Strong and varied songwriting, great sound and album sequencing, deep, well-performed (Campbell is on fire) and the best singer in the history of the genre.
Not sure how you could have improved it.
Click to expand...
Leave it to @mckindog to bring sanity to the discussion. We've never met, but I think we'd get along. :ok:
 
I’m being Captain Obvious here but it’s impossible to feel any camaraderie in this game. When you vote for JP over Opeth, you’re a bastard for supporting old farts. When you vote Opeth over JP, you’re a bastard for not supporting a legendary classic. When you go for the probable underdog in Helloween against Dio, you’re not worshipping the best singer in metal. When you vote Dio, a power metal fan will get pissed at you. All logical, perhaps, but I’m still a little disappointed that people won’t tire of pointing out what a scumbag you are for voting for anything at all.
 
I don't think anyone is a scumbag for having different taste than me. To wit: my wife often exhibits poor taste in music, yet I do not believe she is a scumbag. Indeed, most people in the world do not care for the music that we on this forum like, yet we are not scumbags. (Well, I mean, not ALL of us, some of you may be scumbags for completely different reasons, like you kick dogs or something, but that's not the point, whatever). Also, I find good-natured ribbing to be among the highest forms of camaraderie.
 
I'm of the firm belief that every piece of music that has ever been made has the potential to be a person's all-time favorite. Even the ones that I think are trash and ought to be torched from existence (Death Magnetic *cough*). People had to take the time to record it and release it so there must be someone out there who feels the same way about it as they did when it was made.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
My heart's not really in the game anymore, but

Helloween, because of Dio's cover art and because about a third of the tracks do nothing for me, whereas with Helloween I mostly enjoy pretty much all the tracks at least somewhat. Dr. Stein might be stupid, but it's memorable and it's fun, which I can't say about Gypsy...

...wait, what?

View attachment 14368

Heh, anyway, one of the worst tracks either of them ever wrote. :ninja:

---

#noJP. Because of the unbridled adoration, because of Opeth and because I think I'll pick the band without any nonces, thank you very much. Wait, there's Alan Moore on the drums on Sad Wings instead? Didn't he write Lost Girls? Well, as I was saying...

:ninja:
Click to expand...

Is it just me, or are a majority of your votes have more to do with the trappings around the music, or your perception of the fans of that music, than how the music itself speaks to you?

(Please don't take that as a shot, but my (mis?)perception of your posts is that you vote against things far more often than for them.)
 
Last edited:
First of all, I definitely have stated my preference for a lot of stuff many times over. Even when it was someone I have serious problems with (Dickinson), I actually voted for it repeatedly, because I recognized the greatness and the beauty and I supported it against lesser albums. So I actually rooted for and supported a lot of stuff here, many times over. Not being just negative, IMHO.

However, as of now I'm pissed that a so-so Priest album kicked out Opeth, a band that's completely on a different level in... well, everything. Except for the "pioneer" quality, in which case Sabbath should be winning against Priest, 'cause they're older.

Yes, in case my favourites and the stuff I find to be genuinely great gets eliminated early and it all gets down to predictable lowest common denominators (oh, wow, the only DT album that proceeded was Images and Words? Don't you say!) I tend to go against what annoys me the most, because in general, these all are, like, good albums. Some are even great. But I don't feel the need to vote for something.

Now, for example, for AMOLAD in any round I'd vote aggressively. For Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Sabotage, for Winter Thrice (which nobody even thought about nominating) or any Opeth album. For Persistence of Time. For various Pain of Salvation albums. For Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Maybe even for some of the early speed metal that combines thrash with power metal, like Tales from the Twilight World or Walls of Jericho. For albums of inherent inner quality, voice, uniqueness or for those that actually transcend that metal paradigm (or why in a "greatest album jazz cup" like this albums like The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady or A Love Supreme or even Mahavishnu Orchestra should win and why I would vote against, dunno, Kind of Blue, much as I like that record).

But these are not those albums. And Judas Priest has the most albums up there, even stuff that's really filler-y, like Vengeance, Class or especially British Steel. These albums should have been left in the lower tiers long time ago. Heck, it's completely not my cup of tea, but I'd actually welcome a Darkthrone record somewhere up here instead of another meandering Priest album again (those guys and quality control...).

Yes, the hysterics to which JP, Dio, Rush get their most rabid fans annoys me. The incessant bootlicking about how flawless and awesome they are. Taken in context, they are awesome. They are even unique. They are however hardly flawless. I realize that I actually am more offended by the overratedness of something actually good than something bad or mediocre. I really love both Sgt. Pepper and What's Going On? and I find both to be great, but seeing both as #1 in those Rolling Stone lists, both for dubious and fishy reasons... well, irks me.

I'm annoyed that "Oh, DIO!" meant eliminating all the actually intriguing, personal, original latter-day Ozzy albums that have 100x the spark, the inventiveness, the melodicity, the riffs etc.
Don't want to support it. The albums are often rather equal (in the latter pairing here, anyway). I'm voting against what annoys me more.

Actually no, the same goes for the first pairing as well, sorry, but these are, like, B+ albums at most. If these were the best metal had to offer, well, I wouldn't even lament not being a metalhead at all.

Again, it should be a legit way of voting.

If you want to be annoyed at me for that, feel free to do so.
 
I legitimately consider Stained Class to be one of the greatest metal albums of all time, and while I am sympathetic to arguments over Blackwater Park, and sure, it belongs here in the top 32, I'm hard pressed to put it in the top 16 personally. If it had won, I'd have said, fair cop. And as it was a 1 vote difference, then well, there you go.

Priest got a pass due to the format of the game in a lot of ways, so we will just have to see how they narrow out. The position between 32-appx 9 do not really matter, they're going to be based on who gets in where, which was all random and intentionally so.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
First of all, I definitely have stated my preference for a lot of stuff many times over. Even when it was someone I have serious problems with (Dickinson), I actually voted for it repeatedly, because I recognized the greatness and the beauty and I supported it against lesser albums. So I actually rooted for and supported a lot of stuff here, many times over. Not being just negative, IMHO.

However, as of now I'm pissed that a so-so Priest album kicked out Opeth, a band that's completely on a different level in... well, everything. Except for the "pioneer" quality, in which case Sabbath should be winning against Priest, 'cause they're older.

Yes, in case my favourites and the stuff I find to be genuinely great gets eliminated early and it all gets down to predictable lowest common denominators (oh, wow, the only DT album that proceeded was Images and Words? Don't you say!) I tend to go against what annoys me the most, because in general, these all are, like, good albums. Some are even great. But I don't feel the need to vote for something.

Now, for example, for AMOLAD in any round I'd vote aggressively. For Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Sabotage, for Winter Thrice (which nobody even thought about nominating) or any Opeth album. For Persistence of Time. For various Pain of Salvation albums. For Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. Maybe even for some of the early speed metal that combines thrash with power metal, like Tales from the Twilight World or Walls of Jericho. For albums of inherent inner quality, voice, uniqueness or for those that actually transcend that metal paradigm (or why in a "greatest album jazz cup" like this albums like The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady or A Love Supreme or even Mahavishnu Orchestra should win and why I would vote against, dunno, Kind of Blue, much as I like that record).

But these are not those albums. And Judas Priest has the most albums up there, even stuff that's really filler-y, like Vengeance, Class or especially British Steel. These albums should have been left in the lower tiers long time ago. Heck, it's completely not my cup of tea, but I'd actually welcome a Darkthrone record somewhere up here instead of another meandering Priest album again (those guys and quality control...).

Yes, the hysterics to which JP, Dio, Rush get their most rabid fans annoys me. The incessant bootlicking about how flawless and awesome they are. Taken in context, they are awesome. They are even unique. They are however hardly flawless. I realize that I actually am more offended by the overratedness of something actually good than something bad or mediocre. I really love both Sgt. Pepper and What's Going On? and I find both to be great, but seeing both as #1 in those Rolling Stone lists, both for dubious and fishy reasons... well, irks me.

I'm annoyed that "Oh, DIO!" meant eliminating all the actually intriguing, personal, original latter-day Ozzy albums that have 100x the spark, the inventiveness, the melodicity, the riffs etc.
Don't want to support it. The albums are often rather equal (in the latter pairing here, anyway). I'm voting against what annoys me more.

Actually no, the same goes for the first pairing as well, sorry, but these are, like, B+ albums at most. If these were the best metal had to offer, well, I wouldn't even lament not being a metalhead at all.

Again, it should be a legit way of voting.

If you want to be annoyed at me for that, feel free to do so.
Click to expand...

You coulda just said 'yes.' :D
 
JudasMyGuide said:
But these are not those albums. And Judas Priest has the most albums up there, even stuff that's really filler-y, like Vengeance, Class or especially British Steel. These albums should have been left in the lower tiers long time ago.
Click to expand...
0*d7RxoADwCv_Ht8-Z.jpg
:D

I really, really, REALLY love British Steel (and SFV too). I think British Steel is the embodiment of heavy metal. The individual songs might not all be amongst my favorite Priest tunes, which is where I can lean towards your thinking, but as a collective body of work, it's a giant.
 
Last edited:
IRYO.

If someone wants to expose themselves to the one-note helium chorus of Metal Gods (that sounds anything but like metal gods) that makes the rather great track fizzle out completely (seriously, the verse and the pre-chorus are awesome)

or to the one-note... well, entirety of YDHTBOTBW (man, and those... eh, "mentally challenged" lyrics to boot), and sure if it isn't the longest track

or to GRINDEEEEEER LOOOOOKIN FAH MEEEEEEAT // WANTS YOUUUU TO EEEEEEAT ( :facepalm: )
How come you're always such a fussy young man?
Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran
Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?
So eat it, just eat it
...
You better listen, better do what you're told
You haven't even touched your tuna casserole
You better chow down or it's gonna get cold
So eat it
I don't care if you're full

or to whatever the frig United is (hey, I know! it's We Are the Champions for the bikers! For the muzhiks! YOU, οἱ πολλοί are the champions!)

or "hey-we-need-another-track-let's-throw-something-together" of Steeler (and doesn't Halford actually sing off-key there around the second minute?)

who am I to stop them?

And sure, Breaking the Law, Rapid Fire, Living After Midnight and the unjustly forgotten The Rage are all great. I just wish they'd make a one superior album out of pretty much every two albums they ever put out.

And it was actually the very first Priest album I ever heard, when I was about 6 years old, so the nostalgia should work. It doesn't.
 
It's not just about my preference. If albums I disliked, but were at least unpredictable won (like, dunno, Immortal), I'd be happy about that.

Also, I like some of the "generic, general" albums myself.

It's more of the combination of the two. The overrepresentation of certain bands, the popular opinion stacked against others... some predictable "general knowledge" in what albums are worthy and which are not. That kinda stuff.

And I'm not in a crisis, I just don't really care much anymore, because now it's whether Powerslave or Screaming for Vengeance are gonna be first or second etc. Even Puppets winning, which I see as unlikely, would be ... kinda bittersweet, much as it would be fair and good.

And I love Powerslave very much. But the war it's fighting is kinda losing my interest.

Sorry.

But yeah, I'll keep voting and I'll keep voting against as much as for. And sure, I admit, if I cared for more albums in the top ranks, my sentiments would be different.

P. S. - also take this as (obviously) a non-metalhead voting in a GMAC. That might also be the problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top