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

This Nevermore album is a mixed bag. Some of the guitar work and songwriting is really strong, but there’s also some brain dead rhythm guitar and mediocre songwriting moments mixed in. The vocals weave around between good and questionable, and by the end the album winds up feeling a bit samey, but most of it is pretty interesting and well executed. My previous comments on the Led Zeppelin album hold — there are a small handful of great songs but a ton of filler on this one. Gotta go with consistency here. Winner: Nevermore

Tony MacAlpine is great. While I was aware of him before, I hadn’t really taken the time to listen to any of his albums, and I’m a fool for waiting this long to get around to it. This guy hits my neoclassical G-spot, and it’s shocking to listen to this album from 1987 and hear such a clear musical template for power metal — arguably even more so than Helloween’s Keeper I from the same year. I’m not saying that MacAlpine directly influenced the development of power metal, but boy was he ahead of the curve in that particular direction. And then the Rainbow debut. As I said last time, there are a number of cool parts, but no particularly awesome songs, and there’s a lot of filler here. This one isn’t even close for me. Winner: Tony MacAlpine

This Vektor album has some cool hi-octane riffage, but then the Gollum vocals start and just never end. Sorry, can’t do it. Edguy takes it by default. Winner: Edguy

This Warlord album has some cool guitar work, but it’s also very raw and the songwriting isn’t particularly refined. I think I read that this album was recorded live in one take — if that’s true, it’s pretty impressive. Meanwhile the WASP album, while not great, is still consistently solid, and higher caliber overall than the Warlord material. Winner: WASP
 
Nevermore - OK I guess

Led Zeppelin - Opinion given before

Led Zeppelin with the win

Tony McAlpine - not bad but doesn't do anything for me

Rainbow - Opinion given before

Rainbow with the win, Martin Birch RIP

Vektor - Production sounds nice for such a recent album, vocals bad though and the music is too busy during the verse

Edguy - inoffensive

Don't care about this one, Vektor get the vote as this Edguy style stuff is ten a penny in this game whereas at least Vektor has some originality

Warlord - b level cliche metal

W.A.S.P. - opinion given before, love the hammond breakdown in the intro on the title track:edmetal:

W.A.S.P. with the win
 
Nevermore is just a band I can´t get into. Tried it several times though. Of the 3 classics I´d take Sab and Purple over Zep any day. Led Zeppelin wins by default.

Tony MacAlpine was a nice discovery on this GMAC. I allready ordered an album. This Rainbow album is good but not great.

Vektor is...:turd:
Edguy is :okok:

I never liked Lawless´ voice. I´d rather listen to a swarm of wasps than to a W.A.S.P. album. Warlord won´t win with this badly produced mediocre metal but they get a sympathy vote.
 
Nevermore - because they have some OK material otherwise and aren't Led Zeppelin.

Rainbow - because it's awesome and also isn't instrumental guitar wankery.

Vektor - because it's an inventive exciting album, although a bit overwhelming, I'll admit it; I actually don't hate this Edguy album, @Black Wizard, but it's really nothing new.

W.A.S.P. - because I never heard Warlord and I heard some W.A.S.P.

Also, I'll take "Gollum vocals" over "Cookie-monster vocals" as the latter is such a boomer term.
 
Night Prowler said:
Also, I'll take "Gollum vocals" over "Cookie-monster vocals" as the latter is such a boomer term.
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Well, those are two different things. Cookie Monster vocals sound like the Cookie Monster. Gollum vocals sound like Gollum.

And people under 30 really need to stop calling everyone over 30 a “boomer”, since that’s just a sign of ignorance. The youngest boomers are already over 55 years old. And plenty of Gen-Xers who grew up on metal can’t stand the absurd extreme vocals that populate large branches of the metal family tree these days. (Yes, plenty of people like them too, but it’s not as if dislike of extreme vocals is some bizarre niche oddity among people who are younger than boomers.)
 
Jer said:
And people under 30 really need to stop calling everyone over 30 a “boomer”, since that’s just a sign of ignorance. The youngest boomers are already over 55 years old. And plenty of Gen-Xers who grew up on metal can’t stand the absurd extreme vocals that populate large branches of the metal family tree these days. (Yes, plenty of people like them too, but it’s not as if dislike of extreme vocals is some bizarre niche oddity among people who are younger than boomers.)
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OK, boomer.

:D
 
Night Prowler said:
I actually don't hate this Edguy album, @Black Wizard, but it's really nothing new.
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I don't believe you, and I also don't buy the "it's nothing new" criticism. Is you're going to be consistent with that then we should see you voting against every single Slayer and Motorhead album apart from the one from each band that they spent the rest of their respective careers repeating again and again for 30+ years.

Edguy only have one worthwhile album anyway, as far as I know, and it's not this one. The rest I've heard from them is all quite generic and repetitive, or dumb and puerile e.g. 'Lavatory Love Machine'. :facepalm:
 
Tough round. Warlord vs W.A.S.P. is a hard decision for me. I'm going with W.A.S.P. if only the Warlord album proper doesn't reach the level of the debut EP. If that was here, it would smash everything, though.
 
Black Wizard said:
you're going to be consistent
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OYY4VcP.gif


I'm also starting to think I like Edguy more than you do. Which album of theirs do you even like?
 
Night Prowler said:
I'm also starting to think I like Edguy more than you do. Which album of theirs do you even like?
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'The Savage Poetry'. It's a very good album and perhaps one of the great Power Metal album, the rest of their discography doesn't live up that though. I listened to a compilation they released a couple of years ago with some new songs. That was pretty good but it didn't motivate me to listen to the rest of their discography. There are definitely highlights scattered around their discography, even some of the puerile stuff, but they seem to be quite mediocre outside of 'The Savage Poetry'.

Don't big up Edguy too much though, or the facade will drop and people will see you as the Tobias Sammet lover you truly are. Perun will be ashamed of you.
 
About 10 or more years ago, I binged the Edguy discography.

The actual debut album is quite primitive but cool. Kingdom of Madness is meh. Vain Glory Opera is great. Theater of Salvation is meh. The Savage Poetry is mostly a great re-recording although maybe a bit too bombast in parts compared to the original. Mandrake is meh. Hellfire Club is great and that sound suits them the most IMO. Rocket Ride, Tinnitus Sanctus and Age of the Joker have some OK songs but are mostly forgettable. I didn't listen to Space Police.

And Tobi's vocals are the weakest part of Edguy.
 
The first one is tough, because I don't really like either band. Nevermore is too rough for me though, and I kind of liked Zeppelin's example song, so I'll choose that one.

Tony MacAlpine song sounds dated somehow, and isn't really going anywhere. The Rainbow song is quite nice, easy choice there.

Vektor has some nice melodies mixed in, but the get-well-soon type of vocals are distracting. The Edguy song actually had some really nice bits. I didn't have the lyrics video on this time, but from what I heard, the story sounded interesting. This I might imagine listening to again!

WASP was one of the bands I absolutely hated when I was 7. Had someone told me then that I would one day vote them, I wouldn't have believed. I don't think I'd listen to them at home, but I couldn't really grasp Warlord either. Sounded a bit too amateurish perhaps.

If the review doesn't make much sense, it's because I'm slightly tired. Don't know if it makes any more sense when I'm well rested though.
 
Jer said:
And people under 30 really need to stop calling everyone over 30 a “boomer”, since that’s just a sign of ignorance. The youngest boomers are already over 55 years old.
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It's just a meme. Most people using that term don't actually think you are a boomer. Just the current way of ridiculing the out-of-touch old man. Boomers being really old is the reason why the meme works. It's similar to how "millennial" is used to refer to younger generations in general. You are right on it being inaccurate and I'm with you on that being a bit annoying, but accuracy isn't what people are going for, it's meant to be humorous.
 
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