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

Also an easy round.

First we have Avenged Sevenfold going against Led Zeppelin II. Really?

Secondly Wish You Were Here is one of my favorite albums ever made and way better than The Eternal Idol. But since it has ZERO to do with metal or hard rock my vote goes to Black Sabbath.

Thirdly Bloodbound is generic modern power metal at best. Easy vote for Virgin Steele.

Finally I'm not really into the first softer era of Porcupine Tree albums. While being arguable if this is metal or not (I don't think so) In Absentia sounds too derivative from Pink Floyd with some bits of Rush and fails to impress me the least (unlike PF or Rush). Of course things were about to change with the release of their following 3 excellent records. But In Absentia curiously is for me what its title suggests: absent of everything. And although Roots bears a crapload of defects it also features at least one great track and that's one more than its adversary here as far as I'm concerned. So despite being far from an album I enjoy I'll have to vote for Sepultura.
 
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Lampwick 43 said:
I'm going to jump in right now before people start whining that Porcupine Tree isn't metal. I'm in agreement that the band itself probably doesn't qualify as metal overall
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IMO their last three albums surely do qualify for the game (while not being metal per se). In Absentia IMO not so much but as you mentioned there are some sections that are a bit relatable to the genre so although it's a bit of a stretch I think it's ok. Anyway it's way more "metalish" than Wish You Were Here.
 
Avenged Sevenfold was really rough going, and the vocalist had an annoying singing style. But I voted for them anyway, and let Zeppelin ramble on.

When I was young, I once had a crush on a guy whose favorite band was Pink Floyd. I can sort of see why.

The Bloodbound video was so captivating I almost forgot to listen to the song.

Now this was a tricky one. I didn't like the sound of Porcupine Tree at all, but Sepultura is rather rough too. Decided to choose the more energetic one.
 
Avenged Sevenfold - Aware of these, saw them open for Maiden, but they wouldn't be a band I'd rush out and buy an album of, intro good, noisy part with the screechy korn riff is awful though, verse inoffensive, production not to my tastes, there's a lot of sections that seem like various different flavour of the month cliches slapped together, like one minute sounds like Marilyn Manson then next a melodic vocal, then some good guitar melodies or chord progression, really all over the place.

Led Zeppelin - opinion given before, good choice of track

Led Zeppelin with the win

Pink Floyd - I'm not the biggest Floyd fan in the world, only have 4 albums ( and I don't listen to Meddle too often), but this is a great record. Flawless even. Played the whole track even though I know it inside out, just for enjoyment.

Black Sabbath - An album I don't have. Intro good, you knew it was building up to a great riff and as usual Iommi doesn't disappoint. Vocal good but not great, bass doesn't sound great but the bassline is really good, change to the Sentinel/Ain't Talkin' Bout Love style riff doesn't really work, solo tasty, Iommi's solos in the 80's a lot better than his 70's heyday

I like Sabbath a lot more than Floyd but it's not a fair fight in this round, Floyd with the win

Bloodbound - Never heard of this, intro a bit Maiden (Fortunes of War ish), sounds good, decent vocal, not keen on the drums in the change but the melody is nice, production real artificial sounding, melody/solo part good, lyrics cliche, not the most original track in the world but a good bit better than most of the euro metal that's been in the game, I suspect they have 1 main influence, a band we are all familiar with.

Virgin Steele - opinion given a few times

Bloodbound with the win, Maiden worship trumps Manowar worship

Porcupine Tree - A name I've seen mentioned on forums for years but never listened to. Riff wasn't what I was expecting to kick in, nice groove and sound. Change totally weird to britpop verse and chorus but not bad (not great either), Rush breakdown doesn't work for me, but also is somehow too short :lol:

Sepultura - Opinion given before, atrocious, they even lift the rhythm from Korn's big hit at 0.58 :lol: Shameless

Porcupine Tree with the win
 
LooseCannon said:
Thanks for sharing @Magnus!
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Glad you liked it. :ok:
They were one of my top bands in the early nineties, before I got more and more interested in death and then black metal.
I think their second, Survive, the The Plague EP, and Something Wicked (minus Dan Lilker but I really like it nevertheless) might be worth checking out as well. @karljant seems to prefer Handle With Care to everything else and yeah, it's a decent album. Their 21st century reunions stuff didn't impress me too much though.

As for Sabbat, if you still have the patience to read on, it took me some time to get into them. I got a tape with the two albums after seeing a photo of the band at Stonehenge in a 1989 Italian metal magazine my dad had brought me, being interested in Europe's pagan past even at that age; music was certainly not what I had expected, and kinda made Slayer sound like a very, very melodic band.
Somewhat later, I saw a song from their The End Of The Beginning (Live in East Berlin) video on TV, and then it suddenly clicked for me. I still think they were one of the most original, and one of the greatest, thrash bands ever, while sounding very differently compared to American thrash.
Sorry for getting carried away :)
 
Magnus said:
They were one of my top bands in the early nineties, before I got more and more interested in death and then black metal.
I think their second, Survive, the The Plague EP, and Something Wicked (minus Dan Lilker but I really like it nevertheless) might be worth checking out as well. @karljant seems to prefer Handle With Care to everything else and yeah, it's a decent album. Their 21st century reunions stuff didn't impress me too much though.

As for Sabbat, if you still have the patience to read on, it took me some time to get into them. I got a tape with the two albums after seeing a photo of the band at Stonehenge in a 1989 Italian metal magazine my dad had brought me, being interested in Europe's pagan past even at that age; music was certainly not what I had expected, and kinda made Slayer sound like a very, very melodic band.
Somewhat later, I saw a song from their The End Of The Beginning (Live in East Berlin) video on TV, and then it suddenly clicked for me. I still think they were one of the most original, and one of the greatest, thrash bands ever, while sounding very differently compared to American thrash.
Sorry for getting carried away :)
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Don't know why you put any of this in spoilers - opinions and stories like this are why I started the GMAC.
 
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