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

Match one presents us two great records and pretty distinct ones. By my previews review you can easily come to the conclusion that it is one of my favorite Death Metal albums (and my #1 of the band's catalogue along with World Demise). Kyuss is also one of my favorite Stoner bands and, although Blues is really cool, it's not even my favorite (that being the tremendous And The Circus Leaves Town). So I'll give Obituary the win on this one.

Steele against Steele? Mmmm curious draw. Already listened to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I before and had some mixed feelings. some parts sound really good while some others seem to lack something. Invictus is a bit less original (up Manowar's alley) but I think Virgin Steele is a bit more comfortable when they get a bit more "metalized". So Invictus takes it by a thread.

srfc said:
Kamelot - This is like if someone wrote a parody of heavy metal, I can't believe that a band actually peddle this stuff in earnest, but then again they call themselves Kamelot with a K so it's a classic case of nominative determinism.
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Ahahahahahahah another one that left me in tears and I pretty much subscribe the opinion. Now.. regarding Mr. Lawless and company (a band I know since my pre-teens), The Last Command is quite a two faced record. First let me point out these guys left out the best song from this album's sessions: Savage is simply put one of the band's best songs ever (glad they included it in the remixed version). Then there´s some really cool stuff here: Wild Child, Fistful Of Diamonds, the title track or the excellent Widow Maker are good examples. Then there's some Ok material (like Ballcrusher and Blind In Texas... good fun R n'R but that's it. All the rest is half baked Heavy Metal with some sparkles of glam rock. The first tree albums Lawless crafted have a common trait: the great songs are reaaaaally great but the fillers are reaaaaaally meh (and in a considerable number in each one of these albums). Of course then came The Headless Children and he took things to another level. Nevertheless cool record an obvious vote for the obnoxious WASP.

Malmsteen's first four records were extremely influential, regardless if you like the guy and/ or his music. I'm far from being a Neo Classical Metal virtuoso fan but those albums are way more than that. To add up to Yngwie's undeniable mastery, the compositions are song oriented and some are really good when compared with the remainder of the genre. Curiously enough Marching Out and Trilogy caught my attention way more back in the day but nevertheless Rising Force is an obvious classic. Nevertheless The Real Thing is also a pivotal album I regard higher so I'll go once again with Faith No More.
 
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This Kyuss album is pretty high quality stoner rock. Not really my thing, but it beats the shit out of death metal. Winner: Kyuss

Invictus is a lot cheesier and more impenetrable than The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell, Part I. Both albums have a lot of meat to them and merit further listens, but the latter is more appealing to me after limited exposure. Winner: Virgin Steele - The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell, Part I

This W.A.S.P. album is a collection of OK but not great cock rock with an effective singer. Nothing in particular stands out. Meanwhile, the Kamelot album is a bit cheesy and derivative, but when it’s good it’s way better than the W.A.S.P. album, and it’s never particularly bad. Not a great album by any stretch, but it’s enough to win this match. Winner: Kamelot

This last match-up is the toughest of this round. The Yngwie album is such an important touchstone in terms of technique and style — all neoclassical power metal spawns from it in some form, and it shows a level of finesse that Yngwie rarely recaptured later on. The lyrics on the two vocal tracks are aggressively dumb and sell Jeff Scott Soto short, but he’ll make up for it on the next album Marching Out (which I nominated for this contest). Still, most of this is great, timeless stuff. The Faith No More album is also mostly great, with a number of classic tracks, though it also has some filler like “Underwater Love”, and the “War Pigs” cover, and “Woodpecker From Mars”. It’s a tough call, but I don’t think the Yngwie album has any filler in the end, and its couple of sore spots can’t tarnish its overall importance. Winner: Yngwie
 
Whooten said:
That would be King For a Day...Fool For a Lifetime
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Agreed, although there is some good stuff on that album, it's the very of it's time mid 90's, for want of a better term, nu-metal tinges that ruin it for me.

I'd rank them

Angel Dust
The Real Thing
Sol Invictus
Introduce Yourself
Album of the Year (tied with We Care a Lot if that counts as a real album)
King for a Day
 
Mike Patton is literally joke-singing his way through tRT. How can anyone possibly consider this superior to KfaD? And Spruance doesn't strike me as a guy with a nu-metal bone in his body. It's not the non-JimMartin guitarist changing the tone/feel, it's the absence of Roddy Bottum. The KfaD hate here is genuinely baffling.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
The KfaD hate here is genuinely baffling.
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Not hate, Digging the Grave, What a Day, Gentle Art of Making Enemies are all great, there's probably more I'd like too but it's a while since I listened to it, it's Ugly in the Morning/Cuckoo for Caca type stuff with the Jonathan Davis vocals I don't like.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
The KfaD hate here is genuinely baffling.
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I don't consider KFAD to be one of the band's top releases but it is still a great album. IMO It's by no means worst than Sol Invictus or We Care A Lot but it's far from being the band's best album. Ricochet, Evidence, Ugly In The Morning, Take This Bottle and Just a Man are pretty great songs and The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies, Cuckoo For Caca, Digging The Grave and King For A Day are real blasters. But overall I consider it to be a step down regarding the two previous albums. It's not hate because I love the album. But there are levels to this regarding one's taste. Mine is 1) The Real Thing, 2) Angel Dust, 3) Album Of The Year, 4) King For A Day... 5) Introduce Yourself, 6) We Care A Lot and 7) Sol Invictus with 1 and 2 being really almost a tie as well as 4 and 5.
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Mike Patton is literally joke-singing his way through tRT. (...)How can anyone possibly consider this superior to KfaD?
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Don't know if he's joke singing but I agree on the point that Patton's approach is really odd when taking in account the subsequent albums. But you're asking how is TRT it better than KFAD? Easy: an album's quality is not resumed to the vocal performance (and although it's far from being Mike's best performance by no means compromises the album). Not to mention two things: just listen to those songs in Live At The Brixton Academy and check the stuff they left out: Surprise you're Dead (amaaaaaazing) and Underwater Love? Simply put IMO TRT is FNM's only album that hasn't got a single filler. So, IMO (and bare in mind i really like KFAD) It's not just better than it: it's not even in the same league!
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
And Spruance doesn't strike me as a guy with a nu-metal bone in his body (...) it's the absence of Roddy Bottum.
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Agreed. FNM influenced nu-metal but were never influenced by it when it became a thing. IMO the main difference regarding previous albums is that the guitars in heavier songs in KFAD have a way more hardcore punk edge to it . Furthermore (as you pointed out correctly) in many passages the keyboards are simply absent.
srfc said:
tied with We Care a Lot if that counts as a real album
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Why shouldn't it count? Just because they re recorded the title track in the following album? Plus it simply features two of my favorite FNM songs (As The Worm Turns and the aforementioned We Care A Lot)
srfc said:
Morning/Cuckoo for Caca type stuff with the Jonathan Davis vocals
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Patton was doing that kind of vocals for a some time already (Jizzlobber and Malpractice are the most blatant examples). Not to mention that saying "Mike Patton wit the Jonathan Davis vocals" is as accurate as saying "Rob Halford with the Ralph Sheepers vocals".
 
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karljant said:
Patton was doing that kind of vocals for a some time already (Jizzlobber and Malpractice are the most blatant examples). Not to mention that saying "Mike Patton wit the Jonathan Davis vocals" is as accurate as saying "Rob Halford with the Ralph Sheepers vocals".
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:lol: I knew someone would pick up on that as soon as I wrote it! But you got the point though, you knew the sections I was talking about.
 
Hmm, Kyuss is not bad for stoner rock. It's not exactly my thing, but it's not bad. I don't hate Obituary either, which is certainly a lot more metal than Kyuss, but I do hate Obituary's vocals. Still, they are a lot more interesting to me, Kyuss just becomes a meandering blah blah blah so quickly. I'll pick Obituary but I'm not pleased about it.

Virgin Steele wins the second matchup. Oh you want more detail? Invictus is perhaps a little more accessible but Marriage is better.

This third matchup is incredibly hard for me. Kamelot has long been a band I've enjoyed, and I think they're a little better than some people here are giving them credit for. W.A.S.P. shows up with a true anthem though. I'll vote Kamelot understanding that they won't win.

Yngwie. I'm not a huge Faith No More fan, and that extends to these specific offerings.
 
LooseCannon said:
Kyuss just becomes a meandering blah blah blah so quickly.
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That's exactly how I felt about it when I checked out the rest of the album, I got about 4 songs in and realised I wasn't really paying attention anymore. It's still not bad, I wouldn't turn it off if a track came up on a playlist, but it's just not my thing, it seems, for an album.
 
LooseCannon said:
Kamelot has long been a band I've enjoyed, and I think they're a little better than some people here are giving them credit for.
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Yeah, in fairness, sometimes when it's an album that's up against something I know beforehand I'm going to be voting for, i.e. a band I already like, then the temptation is to just write a one liner that makes me laugh rather than an honest assessment. Kamelot aren't really that worse than any of the power metal bands in the game, probably better than some of them in fairness, it's just the cheesy name is such an open goal for a snarky comment.
 
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