FINAL POWER RANKING
- Dream Theater - Train of Thought +1
- Iron Maiden - Dance of Death -1
- Evanescence - Fallen =
- Children of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll +7
- Gojira - The Link -1
- Anthrax - We've Come For You All +6
- Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen +6
- Devin Townsend - Accelerated Evolution +6
- Swallow the Sun - The Morning Never Came -4
- Human Fortress - Defenders of the Crown -6
- Nevermore - Enemies of Reality -2
- Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild +2
- Moonspell - The Antidote -6
- Live - Birds of Pray -6
- Queensryche - Tribe =
We have our first ranking where the top seeded album didn't finish first! On one hand, I'm not surprised that Dance of Death was the album to fall, but I'm also somewhat surprised that a Maiden album didn't finish first. I'm curious if this will happen again, although I feel on this forum that Dream Theater is one of the few bands that could topple Maiden and even then it was really close despite Train of Thought being one of DT's more popular albums against one of Maiden's least popular albums.
The biggest winners were Anthrax, Children of Bodom, Avenged Sevenfold, and Devin Townsend. Wait a second, is this still Maidenfans? In all seriousness, I actually really liked the Children of Bodom album! They're a band I always avoided for a variety of reasons, but having listened to the vast majority of albums on the list, as many as I possibly could, Hate Crew Deathroll was one of the most unique albums in an otherwise kinda bland year. I also maintain that A7X, similarly, despite the serious incongruence with this forum's general tastes, were one of the more unique/interesting bands to come out of that scene and I think of Waking the Fallen as a diamond in the rough. Honestly, I didn't think they had any chance of doing anything in this game and I'm curious how the more Maiden-inspired followup, City of Evil, performs in 2005 (I expect not well, but we'll see!). Devin Townsend has a respectable performance and expected given a few superfans on here.
The biggest losers are Human Fortress, Moonspell, and Live. If
@chaosapiant would vote in these, maybe Moonspell would have had a chance. I'm not sure that there are any huge surprises here, Human Fortress almost seemed like it might hold on a bit but ultimately I think this would have performed better in a Cheesevivor. Live and Queensryche seemed to get punished for leaning a little too much into the alt-rock (dare I say Butt Rock?) side of the spectrum.