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

The first match-up is pretty brutal — Iron Maiden’s second-best album vs. Metallica’s very best album. Both records are truly excellent, so any outcome here would be understandable. I had to go back and re-listen to both of these to be sure how I felt. Powerslave’s weaknesses are a bit nitpicky — the weak doubling of the guitar melody for the vocal line on the verses of “Aces High”, the good but unremarkable instrumental “Losfer Words”, and the weak chorus of “Back In The Village” are the main chinks in its armor. I’m actually a big fan of “Flash Of The Blade” and “The Duellists”, unlike some others, so those weren’t problems for me. Then you consider Master Of Puppets, and its weaknesses are...well, there aren’t many. “Disposable Heroes” maybe gets a little repetitive, and the vocal lines on “Leper Messiah” are a little one-dimensional. Outside of that, my god the riffs and solos are so consistently great here, and the nuance and dynamics in the songwriting are just stunning. Powerslave shows this sort of finesse on maybe half the album, while Master Of Puppets shows it on literally every track. And those big, epic guitar harmonies that show up multiple times on the Metallica album are just killer. Again, both albums are excellent — that’s why I nominated both of them. But in the end there must be a victor, so congratusorrylations Diesyn DJer Jollinfed Srfickie’s The Midmatic DissaapannonFTBlashman, but I have to go with MrHickjerFTBieser PotomoftheFlashDragonus’s Whorianaxsrfmaticnightman’s choice here. Winner: Metallica

The second match-up is much easier. Rust In Peace is 2/3 masterpiece and 1/3 not quite, while British Steel just isn’t very impressive at all outside of a couple of tracks. Sorry, Yakindotic86, but Dieskarl FTBlacknight’s Whoozardflashaapiallinaxman’s nominee takes no prisoners and isn’t taking any of your shit. Winner: Megadeth
 
Feel almost bad voting for Puppets because Powerslave is a really great album (Top 3 Maiden for me)and it contains some of my favourite Maiden songs ever with title track and ROTAM but Puppets is Metallica´s finest hour and I won't take many albums over it (Maybe only SIT and Operation:Mindcrime)
 
Powerslave dips into a valley midway through, while Puppets is consistent throughout. The highs on both are comparable, but Puppets has no filler to my ears, so it gets my vote.

Rust in Peace destroys almost everything Priest has ever done. It’s an assault, while Priest is a whimper - and I like quite a bit of Priest’s stuff.
 
Puppets is better overall, even though it pains me to vote against Powerslave (but not too much cause it’s obviously gonna win).

Rust should either win the whole thing or place in the top 3. Easy vote against another 50/50 Priest record.
 
As I said before, I'm not a big fan of Master Of Puppets as a whole album. Powerslave on the other hand is a fantastic album..., not to mention that it contains four of the best heavy metal songs of all time.

British Steel is one of the best albums of Priest imo (with a lot of classics for the band and every song is good-to-great). I like it more than its opponent (which also has classics like Hangar 18 and Tornado Of Souls) - as a whole piece too.
 
MindRuler said:
It´s probably coincidence the Slave faces the Master...
And Rust meets Steel...
Click to expand...
Sounds like lyrics from a Manowar album. But Manowar is nowhere near being in the top 16.

Just a reminder that @Perun nominated this album:

ManowarIntogloryride.jpg
 
Finally decided to vote Powerslave. It’s just a perfect metal album. So is MoP, but I’d rather hear Maiden’s record overall. And it’s winning anyway so I don’t really have any qualms.

And obviously Rust in Peace.
 
Sad to see Master Of Puppets go when a number of far lesser albums remain in the GMAC, but at least it fell to a worthy opponent.
 
Indeed, Iron Maiden defeats Metallica soundly, while Megadave melts down British Steel into slag with two firm wins.

Quarter-Final matchup set:

Iron Maiden - Powerslave vs. Megadeth - Rust in Peace
 
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Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)

How it got here
List entries: Rolling Stone 43, Metal Rules 39, Metalstorm 86, DigitalDreamDoor 32
Maidenfans Nominators: @Cornfed Hick, @LooseCannon, @Perun
Previous Rounds:
League 1: Defeated Black Sabbath - Mob Rules 20-15.
Round of 32: Defeated Opeth - Blackwater Park 17-16.
Round of 16 - Match 3vs.
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Rainbow - Rising (1976)

How it got here
List entries: Rolling Stone 48, Loudwire 20, Metalstorm 6, DigitalDreamDoor 17
Maidenfans Nominators: @Cornfed Hick, @Midnight, @MrKnickerbocker, @Niall Kielt, @Poto, @Shmoolikipod, @srfc, @The Dissident, @Yax
Previous Rounds:
League 1: Defeated Alter Bridge - Blackbird 31-3.
Round of 32: Defeated Judas Priest - Sin After Sin 22-11.
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Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. II (1988)

How it got here
List entries: Metal Rules 28, DigitalDreamDoor 43, Metal Kingdom 6
Maidenfans Nominators: @KidInTheDark666, @Poto
Previous Rounds:
League 2: Defeated Death - Symbolic 20-11.
League 1: Defeated Metallica - Kill ‘Em All 22-15.
Round of 32: Defeated Dio - Holy Diver 16-15.
Round of 16 - Match 4vs.
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Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)

How it got here
List entries: Loudwire 18, Metal Rules 38, Metalstorm 41, DigitalDreamDoor 9
Maidenfans Nominators: @srfc, @The Flash
Previous Rounds:
League 1: Defeated Guns ‘n Roses - Appetite For Destruction 19-18.
Round of 32: Defeated Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath 21-10.
 
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