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

Cornfed Hick said:
“No Remorse” I presume? That thing is awesome. It would’ve gone far.
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It's great. If we were putting compilation albums on the list, it would have done well, but come the fuck on, compilation albums. And I know it has original content, but someone can go a Greatest Metal Compilation Albums Cup and we'll see how it does.
 
Power Trip defeats Katatonia, who are eliminated from GMAC contention. Power Trip faces Amputated next.
Death's deep GMAC run continues, this time knocking off Bullet For My Valentine with no difficult. BFMV is gone, so Death's next challenge will be Atlantean Kodex.
Grand Magus can't quite stop Megadave. That's it for Grand Magus. Between the Buried and Me will try to stop Megadave next.
Finally, Primordial trounces Possessed, eliminating them. Next up is Buckethead.
 
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Lacrimosa - Stille (1997)

How it got here
List entries: Metal Kingdom 48
Maidenfans Nominators: n/a
League 13 - Match 5vs.
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Danzig - Danzig (1988)

How it got here
List entries: Rolling Stone 23
Maidenfans Nominators: n/a
Previous Rounds:
League 14: Defeated Bewitched - At the Gates of Hell 18-2.
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Opeth - Orchid (1995)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Forostar
League 13 - Match 6vs.
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Children of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll (2003)

How it got here
List entries: Metal Kingdom 98
Previous Rounds:
League 18: Defeated Heavens Gate - Planet Earth 12-11.
League 17: Defeated Ophelia - 당신의 환상을 동정하라 16-7.
League 16: Defeated Anorexia Nervosa - Drudenhaus 14-3.
League 15: Defeated Bathory - Bathory 11-8.
League 14: Defeated Inhumano - Torturas De Almas Oscuras 12-8.
 
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Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas - Mariner (2016)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @karljant
League 13 - Match 7vs.
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Nirvana - In Utero (1993)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Ariana
Previous Rounds:
League 14: Defeated Spiritual Beggars - Ad Astra 13-9.
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Accept - Blind Rage (2014)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @Kalata
League 13 - Match 8vs.
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Strapping Young Lad - City (1997)

How it got here
List entries: n/a
Maidenfans Nominators: @karljant
Previous Rounds:
League 14: Defeated Dark Tranquility - Fiction 14-8.
 
I like this Lacrimosa album more than the previous one in the GMAC, but the lead male vocal still strikes me as flaccid and odd, and the whole affair is a bit slower than I’d like. There are some interesting things going on here musically, and I like the dual male/female vocal dynamic. Meanwhile the Danzig album is big, dumb rock with one great song, a couple of pretty good ones, and a lot of filler. I’m going to go with the more interesting option here. Winner: Lacrimosa

The music on the Opeth album is an appealing mix of Gothenburg death, Maiden worship, and some nice classically influenced bits, wrapped up in long, progressive tracks. Unfortunately, most of the vocals are a glass gargling, nails-on-a-chalkboard shitfest. The few parts with clean vocals give you a taste of what this album could have been, and I would have liked that version of the album a whole lot better. The Children Of Bodom album has similar pros and cons — terrible vocals (though not quite as terrible as Opeth’s) with pretty interesting music. I can’t really get excited about either one of these, but I’m tired of voting for this Children Of Bodom album over and over again, and at least the Opeth album has a couple of instrumentals and clean vocal sections. I look forward to voting this one out in the future, but for now I’ll throw @Forostar a bone. Winner: Opeth

There’s a lot of cool stuff going on musically with Mariner, and I’m totally OK with Julie Christmas’s vocals, even when she gets screamy, because she never completely falls off the melody wagon. Unfortunately the male lead vocals are more of this sandpaper-on-the-eardrums glass gargling shit, and it completely ruins every song they appear in. “The Wreck Of S.S. Needle” and most of “Approaching Transition” give a hint of what this album could have been without the terrible extreme vocals, and just like with Opeth, I would have vastly preferred that alternate version of the album if it existed. I’m not real big on In Utero, but listening to it doesn’t make me want to take an icepick to my ears, so it wins by default. Sorry, @karljant . And sorry to @Ariana as well, since we now have something in common. :ninja: Winner: Nirvana

This Accept album is much like the last one in the GMAC — serviceable, by-the-numbers hard rock with some power metal flourishes. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table at all, and the vocalist isn’t great, but it’s competently executed and enjoyable to listen to. Meanwhile, the Strapping Young Lad album is interesting, and definitely brings some new ideas to the table, but it’s not very enjoyable to listen to. Sorry @karljant , but I’m going to go with @Kalata ’s guilty pleasure this time. Winner: Accept
 
LooseCannon said:
Attention: There is a correction to the GMAC tree

I incorrectly entered Led Zep IV twice in my tabulations. As a result Zep will not be entering in League 13. It has been replaced by Lacrimosa - Stille, which should have been in League 15ish but I fucked that league up and missed a couple of albums. This is the only outstanding nomination as I corrected the other by disallowing the fucking compliation Motorhead album that Rolling Stone put on their list.

Mistakes happen. Clearly Led Zep paid off The MA (Metal Association).
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And they're not even a Heavy Metal band! :mad: I think all Led Zeppelin albums should be disqualified from the tournament as a result. (They shouldn't have even been included in the first place...)
LooseCannon said:
Death's deep GMAC run continues, this time knocking off Bullet For My Valentine with no difficult. BFMV is gone
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Good. No more Emo bands in this tournament I hope.


LooseCannon said:
Death's next challenge will be Atlantean Kodex
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Black Wizard said:
Bands who make long, plodding music do seem to appeal to Perun and I expect we'll be seeing a couple of albums from another such band later in this tournament.
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I told you guys that I'm a fucking Wizard.
 
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I liked the Lacrimosa song the most, the one by Danzig was too generic and dated...and was no Mother.

I sincerely hope Opeth shreds the Bodom Kids to pieces.

Cult Of Luna facing Cobain... No contest for me. Listening to my favorite track of In Utero again, brings back great youth memories. Nirvana!

SYL was a waste of my time. Accept is much much much much much more enyoable.
 
Lacrimosa - literal clown music, really scrapping the barrel to come up with a gimmick

Danzig - opinion given before

Danzig with the win

Opeth - Obviously a very well known band but I've never listened to them before. Musically interesting, vocals awful, reminds me of Satan's Fall or Halloween in terms of length and structure, guitars sound good especially the clean tone stuff but the bass is very amateurish sounding, I let the whole 11 mins play which is pretty much a thumbs up and I might check out more as I could probably cope with the awful vocals if there is as little of them as there is in this track

Children of Bodom - opinion given before

Opeth with the win.

Cult of Luna - tempo is a turn off straight away, skipped forward to hear the vocals, not for me

Nirvana - I'm not a fan of Nirvana as mentioned previously, I kind of liked this track when it was out though

Nirvana with the win

Accept - Head nodding but this kind of lyric is really cliche at this stage, it even references Denim and Leather which was the same idea lyrically from 30 years previously, Made in Hell by Halford or Back in the Day by Megadeth is the same thing but better songs. No name drop for Maiden is an insult as well :lol: (I don't get the reference here " The guillotine come crashing down and heads rolled in the streets ", is that referring to some band?)

Strapping Young Lad - ripping off the riff from Raining Blood is not a good start, overproduced,

Accept with the win
 
What a curious round this was. Lots of long, melancholy songs, and cookie monsters to balance them off. It was very difficult to make choices. If my votes seem off, I blame the Youtube medical ads. Yeast infection cream seems to be necessary just now for people who listen to metal, and the ear wax removal picture was so disturbing I had to decrease window size to avoid seeing it. :confused:

Lacrimosa sounded like a funfair, but was so melancholy it was oppressing. The tempo was very slow. Danzig was groovy, although too simple for my taste. Chose that anyway.

I've seen Opeth open for Maiden once, unfortunately they didn't make an impression on me. Based on what I'd seen there, I could expect the song would be very long, so I found something else to do while listening. I can understand why people like this stuff, seeems good quality and many ingredients. My thing, however, it isn't. And neither is Bodom. Couldn't make up my mind, dice said Bodom.

Cult of Luna has a very cool name, but I'm sorry to say this was one of my least favourites on this Cup. Really melancholic, and I couldn't fit the music, covid monster and girl with a poppy voice together into a coherent entity in my head. Nirvana I like, so that was an easy choice.

Didn't dislike Accept, didn't like it either. I couldn't quite grasp the idea behind the lyrics, but then I didn't have a lyrics video so I may have missed something crucial. Strapping Young Lad was tough going. Had no idea who to vote, according to dice I chose Accept.
 
Midnight said:
Opeth's the reason I started listening to growls.
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Same here.

This is also the reason why I firmly believe growls are an acquired taste. Older members with a good memory will recognize that I was in the "growls suck" camp for my first few years on this forum, later discovered Opeth, and gradually came to enjoy growls.
 
Easy round starting with the Gothic corniness of Lacrimosa facing Glen and company when he presented us with some cool cuts. Obviously Danzig.

Secondly it's even easier: it's about damned time to send this half baked COB album off the board. In all honesty it took me a while to enjoy Orchid in its plenitude (and to a certain extent the band's sophomore) but nowadays it's pretty clear to me: although they sound a bit odd regarding the next step in the band's musical direction I put them right below the "golden era" of their "metal" stretch (that being Still Life and Blackwater Park). In truth songs such as the really well picked The Twilight Is My Robe or The Apostle In Triumph are concrete solid signs regarding how special this band would be: amazing composition skill and a certain refreshing feel to it. Orchid's indeed a really good record and if this board gives COB the victory over Opeth something fishy is going on. :p

Then we have In Utero going against what I consider to be the second best album of the 2010's (only surpassed by Tool's Fear Inoculum which I didn't feature in my list since I really struggle to call Tool a metal band for a long time now). And first of let me say I understand the absolute estrangement this album may cause to a more traditional rock listener. It even took a while to a die hard fan of this iconic post metal band as I am to understand how immensely huge of a monument this thing is. Mariner is a 2001 - Space Odyssey strongly influenced concept album (especially regarding its transcendental ending) and either in songs that are chaotic (like Chevron or The Wreck Of S. S. Needle) or in other more melodic ones (like A Greater Call or the immensely calm and soothing Approaching Transition) or even through the sum of all parts in Cygnus, Mariner is far from being an easy listening album. Like the movie itself its narrative is slow, relies strongly in lengthy landscapes and momento building till it erupts in peaks of greatness. Regarding the record's uniqueness COL already have a strongly distinct blueprint regarding their sound but Julie's off the charts performance gave it an even more awesome and unique flavor. So with that in mind I can really understand how people relate way more to Nirvana but in my case it's an easy pick: Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas.

So we reach our final clash and if I can really understand the estrangement my previous pick causes, the only reason I can think of for picking a middle of the chart album by Accept miles away from the glory days of Restless And Wild, Balls To The Wall or Metal Heart over City is people's eardrums being too sensible to the absolute onslaught of this Devin Townsend spawning or really not being into that kind of sound. Other than that City is a classic in its genre and regarding that almost unparalleled in intensity, genius, musicality, heaviness, execution, speed, originality (are people really criticizing Dev's insertion of a brief similar riff from other band when Maiden did the same several times - and BTW both bands are immensely original nonetheless) and an uncanny control over chaos mixed with great composition skill. All written and produced by a 24 years old young Devin Townsend, simply put one of the most acclaimed stand alone musical genius of its generation. Easily SYL.
 
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Jer said:
The music on the Opeth album is an appealing mix of Gothenburg death
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Mikael (singer-guitarist-songwriter of Opeth) famously doesn't really care for Gothenburg death so this is a funny take. It's really more of a black metal influence here, no?
 
The Flash said:
Mikael (singer-guitarist-songwriter of Opeth) famously doesn't really care for Gothenburg death so this is a funny take. It's really more of a black metal influence here, no?
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There are quite a few musical parts that remind me of In Flames’ The Jester Race and Blaze Bayley’s backing band from The Man Who Would Not Die and Promise And Terror, which are both Gothenburg death style, unless I’m missing something. Perhaps there’s some subtle classification difference I don’t understand, since I’m not a connoisseur of either style.
 
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