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

Listening to Stargazer now reminded me of an episode of extremely annoying "there's this melody playing in my head but I can't remember which song it is".

I had been playing guitar and sat there playing the first riff of the song over and over. I could not for my life remember which song it was, though. For some reason I was convinced it was from a Led Zep song and at one point I listened to the first few seconds of every single Led Zep song I didn't know by heart.

The next time i heard Stargazer ... :facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

Oh, and by the way, I'm voting Powerslave and Rising. I'd probably vote Rust in Peace over most of the remaining albums in the game, but over Powerslave? No.

PS: What is the English expression for when you are sure you know something, you know it is in your memory somewhere, but you just can't find it? In Norwegian we call it jernteppe (iron curtain) but I have never seen that expression used for this purpose in English.
 
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Yep, even if you really hated everything else (and what a silly person would that be), the title track and ROTAM alone are absolutely sublime 21 minutes over Rust in Peace's great 39 (without Dawn Patrol), so I'd still go with that.
 
Man, so many “Dawn Patrol” disses. I still think it’s a great piece of music and fits the album perfectly. The bassline is great, it’s got a really nice groove and the drums are right in step with them. Obviously it’s not a very serious song but they strike the right line that keeps things fun without it ever seeming stupid. Mustaine’s mocking attempt at a British accent fits so well, you kind of get launched right into the story that is fully told by the time the song ends. It’s so compact and one of the reasons I find the album so great. The original is the better version overall, but I like the sprinkling of distorted guitar that pops up at intervals in the 2004 [butcher cut]. I’ve just always loved this song, it’s got a really distinct mood and fits the album super well. A bit of a calming down from the fire of “Tornado” before the grand finale in “Polaris”.

If I were to rate the songs on the album, it would probably look like this:

Holy Wars... The Punishment Due - 10/10
Hangar 18 - 10/10*
Take No Prisoners - 10/10
Five Magics - 9/10
Poison Was the Cure - 6/10
Lucretia - 10/10***
Tornado of Souls - 10/10**
Dawn Patrol - 10/10
Rust in Peace... Polaris - 8/10

It’s a tough first match because both albums are on fire, but I’d give every song on Powerslave a 10/10 without thinking about it, so there you have it. RIP would kill every remaining album here though, bar maybe RTL which is on the same level of quality IMO.

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*Featuring the all-time greatest guitar duel.
**Featuring the all-time greatest guitar solo.
***Featuring a contender for a spot in the all-time greatest guitar solos Top 10.
 
In the first matchup - easy vote for the better album, which is Powerslave (not only with the songs, but especially as a whole piece).

In the second matchup - Rising has the better songs.
 
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