Just remembered one of my favourite scenes from Metallica's Some Kind of Monster documentary - "Metllica... only been together twenty years and can't even spell our name" (probably not perfect quote, from memory) - and was thinking, what are some of your favourite moments/songs/anything of any band's worst years?

Additional example: I think Cold Lake is a really fucking cool album title, always liked it a lot. Unfortunately, as we know, that's the album's only redeeming value.

I don't know... The comical value of the album cannot be underestimated. The number of laughs Cherry Orchards, Juice Like Wine and especially Dance Sleazy have evoked is pretty high.

Do Bruce Dickinson's solo albums while Maiden was wallowing in mediocrity with Blaze count?

Well, Skunkworks and even Balls to Picasso - if you put aside a select few songs - are not much better than what Maiden did with Blaze, putting aside the fact that I really like a select few songs off of The X-Factor as well.

What about *Procreation Of The Wicked riff*... TEASE ME!!! I laughed out loud for real when I first heard that and most times afterwards as well.

Well sure, but Chemical Wedding and Accident of Birth are near flawless, and Tyranny of Souls is almost as good.

As much as everything after South of Heaven sucks, I really love the one minute or so of "let's show off what our new drummer can do" that starts off Divine Intervention (before going into stock beats exclusively.)

I thought the cover art for Illud Divinum Insanus was pretty cool. But eh, it's nothing special.

Believe in Nothing is a pretty cool title for an album but that's also Paradise Lost's worst release.

Like many Cradle of Filth listeners, I consider Thornography their worst full-length. Yet it has possibly their best intro track, Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan.

OK, maybe part of the reason I like that track is its trademark COF wordy, tongue-in-cheek pretentious title. But even if they'd just called it "Intro," I think it sounds great. At 1:40 it's just the right length, and it really does pump you up to hear the album. Too bad the following hour of material is uneven, at best.

I think even the band agrees it's their worst album. The song "Gone" from that album is awesome though. It technically was a B-side, but it's on some versions of the album as a bonus track. Easily the best song from those sessions and one of my all time favorite songs from the band.

While we're talking about Iron Maiden, I'm pretty vocal with my abject hatred of everything after Fear of the Dark (yes, including Bruce's reunion), but "Futureal" is a fucking awesome song. The Blaze era is almost comically awful to me, and he was quite possibly the worst choice in the universe to front Iron Maiden, but they somehow completely nailed this song. There are a couple other songs from their post-1992 era that I like (like Paschendale and, oddly enough, about half of The Red and the Black), but Futureal is the one that stands out. Even if you consider Fear of the Dark to be part of those dark ages, which you could very easily do, it's hard to argue the classic status of the title track and Be Quick or Be Dead.

I was specifically referring to Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding though. I'd basically forgotten those other albums even existed. He definitely needed Smitty to remind him how to write good songs again.

That + Rise of the Pentagram, which is a solid full-length instrumental on all counts.

Thought of another obvious one. Every Running Wild fan on the planet agrees that their current stuff and last couple albums before the initial retirement were crappy, though the exact line when it starts is different for all (some say Black Hand Inn was the last good one, I personally go as far as Victory), but tucked away on Rogues en Vogue, which for a long time was their final album, one of the absolute best post-BHI songs was hidden as a bonus track.



Libertalia! WHOA-HO-HO-HO!!

The intro track to Sinister's Creative Killings is a similar case, again, probably their worst album. That, and Savage or Grace make up a dark period. It's a good thing after that they pulled finger, did a lineup shuffle and came out with Afterburner, one of their best albums.

Nightwish's Dark Passion Play is an atrocity that single-handedly contains almost all of the band's worst songs...and it also has "The Poet and the Pendulum," "The Escapist," and "The Islander," which are all out-fuckin'-standing tracks in general, let alone compared to their peers.

Seventh Star is definitely my least favorite album with the Black Sabbath stamp on it, but the title track is awesome.

Despite St. Anger being a vomit inducing album on the whole, I've always liked Frantic.

There are some highlights in Black Sabbath's output after 1982. Born Again, despite a dire mix and worse cover art, is actually not a bad record with a couple of absolute classics on it in 'Disturbing The Priest' and the title track. I'll agree that the title song of Seventh Star is great as well. The Martin era albums occasionally turn up a decent song - 'The Shining' and 'Headless Cross', even 'Get A Grip' off Forbidden - but in general it's just the cover art that stands out from those times [I love the artwork for 'Tyr'].

Obviously when I say 'post 1982' Sabbath I mean the Gillan, Hughes and Martin albums released prior to the reunion in 1997. Dehumanizer was a return to form from the wilderness when Dio came back for a bit, then he left again and there were a couple more years of Martin dreck.


Metallica's Death Magnetic is mediocre with the exception of 'The Day That Never Comes' which has some of the most intense riffage they've done in the last 25 years. Also Lulu has one OK song ['Iced Honey']. Nothing redeeming about St. Anger as a record, but Some Kind Of Monster is compulsive viewing, in an 'oh my' way.


Turbo and Ram It Down are the two worst JP albums, but there are a handful of OK/good songs there ['Out In The Cold' and 'Blood Red Skies' which would be a Priest classic if it wasn't for the drum machine]. Also there is some comedy value in the TV commercials the band made for Turbo at the time.

Even beging the worst it has some great songs like "Mouth" or " Faded" .

This is what I have seen on the archives about this:

"The band are generally dissatisfied with this album, as seen on their (auto)biographical DVD "Over the Madness". Part of this stems from the fact that they were in the recording studio one member at a time, at the behest of the label.".

Curious...

Iced Earth is a pretty cool name, too bad about the band...

Okay we all know how Def Leppard went, but in going through all their discography when looking into them just to get it out of the way, I found the gem of "Bad Actress" off of...ugh..."Songs from the Sparkle Lounge". Still commercial, but rocking, fun stuff, with actual guitar action and solos and stuff!

And the final track of Master's Hammer's Slagry is a pretty great black metal track after the rest of the weird, musically confused album.

You didn't seriously listen to that album to the end...

Im sure you can find SOME redeeming tracks from their discography.

It's been a while, but I, for one, have done so a few times. It used to be one of my favourite get really drunk and then put it on so people can say "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!!!?" albums.

Morgoth's Feel Sorry for the Fanatic. They're not Killing Joke by any means and this album is largely boring and kind of misguided. But the song "last laugh" rules in my opinion. Not surprised it was a single.

The mid 90s for Kreator. Outcast is pretty poor overall, but I've always liked the production. Everything's nice and clear, it has a good, heavy guitar tone and powerful drums. I find Cause for Conflict to be a bit messy and directionless, but there's still some decent riffs to be found.

The thing I don't get about Outcast is how you can get Tommy from Coroner on guitar and then not make use of his skills at all! Where are all the mad solos and riffs? I remember a friend telling me how excited he was when the album was about to come out. "prepare for some amazing guitarwork!" he said. Man, wasn't that a letdown. hahah

If we're talking about Fear Of the Dark and onward, I'll second this and add songs like Fear Is The Key, Judas Be My Guide, Sign of the Cross and my personal favorite song from the Blaze era, and maybe my favorite from 90's Maiden, The Clansman. Sure, Bruce sang it better on Rock In Rio, but the album version is no slouch either. Unfortunately it would set the groundwork for a lot of latter-day Maiden, with the overlong acoustic intros, but as a standalone track The Clansman fucking rules.

Those two songs, Under Huntress Moon, Dirge Inferno, and Tonight in Flames are the takeaway tracks from the main album. The bonus track The Snake Eyed and the Venomous rules too. Everything else is almost entirely disposable, especially that dogshit cover of Temptation.

I've always found it funny that when Thornography came out it was supposedly hailed as the most guitar oriented album since their early days, which on paper sounds great if you've always hated the cheesy keyboards, but ended up being a disaster. I guess I can understand why Paul Allender was just out of steam by the time they recorded this album, what with all the attention Nymphetamine got and the long touring afterwards. But I suppose that's probably no good excuse for the riffs being phoned in. Aside from that though, I still like the song Lovesick For Mina. It's certainly far from their best work, but part of it is nostalgic value, as it was one of the first songs I ever listened to from them.

Hating the cheesy keyboards of Cradle of Filth is like hating the twin guitar harmonies of Iron Maiden. Is it a valid opinion? Sure. But it's kind of missing the point!

Which is precisely what I don't understand about the hatred of Cradle of Filth in general. Some are expecting another norwegian black metal clone, and they were never trying to be. It's like judging a fish on its ability to climb trees.

The main thing that always keeps me from enjoying CoF as much as I want are Dani's vocals, and that's why I can only listen to them every once in a while. Sometimes he sounds pretty fitting and good but a lot of times I can't stand some of the stuff he does. Overall I like the bands earlier albums. I do enjoy Dusk and Her Embrace musically, especially Funeral In Carpathia which is a really badass song. I really dig the Castlevania-metal vibe they have going on.

It's like hating the narration in Bal-Sagoth! I don't mind some CoF but they're definitely a "once in a blue moon" band for me. They were obviously good at that style but it's just... much too much for me. I like it small doses, though, as I'm not usually one for stuff that's just so overblown (the same could actually be said for Bal-Sagoth here, too).

I guess another one here would be the great tracks on Sodom's Masquerade in Blood. The album is sloppy and breaks their 10 years of great albums/EPs before that. There are some great tracks there, however, like the title track and 'Fields of Honour' (which is Sodom at their most Tank-esque).

Yeh like the whole of Stormrider and Burnt Offerings

Yeah I'm a huge nerd and love Bal-Sagoth so much so that doesn't apply to me in particular but I know what you mean. Speaking of CoF and all that, I just made a post in the "bands with one full length" thread you might like, since it's on that topic.

by that time period however coroner themselves already showed that they werent that intro neoclassical shredding anymore.


From the worst by some margin Dismember album comes one of their best more melodic oriented songs.

True enough. But Coroner had already broken up by then so it was possible to think of Grin as a sort of fluke, or the dying gasp of the band. And the last tracks recorded for their s/t compilation hinted at a new psychedelic sort of direction, too.

BTW I rather like Grin these days, but oh boy that was far from the case in the late 90s when I first heard it...

I'm of the opinion that the only Iced Earth album with nothing--absolutely NOTHING--of value is Plagues of Babylon. Fucking awesome cover art, fucking trash everything else.

Night of the Stormrider was always such a boring album. Most IE albums had like a few good songs and then a bunch of really lame stuff.