It's also my favorite, by far. But I enjoy bits and pieces of Nihility. And I guess my unpopular opinion regarding Decapitated's early material, is that The Negation is their second best album. I know that some people find it to be a little too similar to stuff like Vader and Deicide, but that never bothered me.

Meshuggah wishes they had ever made songs as good as "Day 69" & "Post Organic", yo.

I mean, I think it's a good record, it's just that the songwriting's just a bit too same-y across the album for me to say it's their best; they definitely got better at that as they went, if you ask me.

As if they suck….

This is a fair approach IMO

While I disagree about Maiden (I think BNW, DOD, and AMOLD are great) I agree with your larger point which is I think that some bands had albums that were SO influential and towered so high above everything else (think Metallica's first 3 or 4 depending how you look at it) that their dip in quality is essentially inconsequential. After you release a Ride the Lightning or a Piece of Mind which is also preceded by and followed by another classic album that dip in later years is easily overlooked.

So Iron Maiden released
Iron Maiden
Killers
The Number…
Piece of Mind
Powerslave
Somewhere…
Seven Son

All masterpieces or miliar stones that have made heavy metal popular and respected…

Than we have maybe two bad/mediocre albums

And another 6,7 at least good(but I dare you to say that from BNW to Senjutzu they have a shitty album)

So how can be call overrated or worse?

We need have a sense of proportion …

Unleashed in the East is a wonderfully wild piece of old heavy metal, but it doesn't make the early Priest albums irrelevant.

Those old studio works have real flow and emotional catharsis - one thing to the next and all of them just getting into these great narratives between all the songs, the heavy stuff, the bluesy ballads, all of it.

"Victim of Changes" and "Exciter" are great on Unleashed, but both are still really vital pieces of work on the studio albums too, albeit slightly less ferocious...

Same thing goes for Motorhead's No Sleep Til Hammersmith - it's awesome to hear a great live band, but it doesn't really fully replace the full album experience and there's not really a whole world of difference in the quality at the end of the day.

Irrilevant no but sounds ten times faster and better….

Luckily I don’t listened Unleashed before the studio albums….

The main reason I like Unleashed is the much more savage guitar tone. Though honestly I find that the version of Diamonds in Rust on SaS is nearly unlistenable for me after hearing so much more energetic and ripping versions. But for me that is an album that was really let down by the studio production and recording.

I dunno - I've been playing both Unleashed and Sad Wings and like both about the same really.

Death, Marduk, Bolt Thrower, Vader and, so far, Mgla



Well for me it's totally the opposite; I don't like Sabbath with Ozzy all that much but those first four albums are so foundational and revolutionary that I think they are beyond objective criticism.

The Ripper,Tyrant and Genocide seem thrash songs compared to Saf Wings….

I don't really think so. Just sounds like good live versions to me. The album holds up really well on its own as a cohesive piece, too.

I agree. Not to take anything away from the studio cuts but I find all the takes on Unleashed to be superior. They had gone further down the road in terms of guitar tones, speed, and intensity and all those benefit from it. To me 70's Priest is peak Priest and Unleashed was the pinnacle of the band IMO.

I love Sad Wings but I know many people that have listened Unleashed in the east before studio a,bums that dislike and are disappointed by first three albums in comparison …

Exciter is a great song on Stained Class but on Unleashed is simply one of best songs ever written in history of music…

Bolt Thrower I agree, but they didn’t have a 40 year career.

Marduk is not a band I’m a huge fan of so I can’t say.

Vader I love, but for me between Revelations to Morbid Reich the put out albums that were good, but a decent drop off compared to what is around them.

Mgla sure, but they have only been around for a short while in comparison.

My comment should have had the qualifier of having released 10+ Albums or something.

For me Stained Class is the one out of the S trilogy that stands up with Unleashed for the most part.

we are talking about absolute masterpieces,so every opinions is right…

Ps
Immolation 30 years of pure class

For at least a decade, I have considered Unleashed in the East to be the single greatest heavy metal release in history, and I have never heard anything that would make me reconsider that opinion. That might be an unpopular opinion, I suppose.

The truly terrifying thing is that it could have been even better, if it had Beyond the Realms of Death and White Heat Red Hot, or perhaps had their setlists been a little different and included something like Dissident Aggressor, Saints in Hell, or Stained Class.

Not a big fan of Evil Fantasies, though.

Sad Wings Of Destiny feels like a museum exhibit rather than a rager, but goddamn if it isn't the best museum exhibit ever.

19 years.

Immolation formed in 1986,Dawn of Possession is from 1991

We are in 2024 how can be 19 years????

1988 - 2007 is 19 years of class recorded output.

Guess my weird take on Vader is that my favorite album by them is "The Beast".

I liked Vader the most when they were experimenting a bit. "The Sea Came in at Last" is such a great blast of speed and Gothic-isms...also, it was Daray's introduction to the band, he delivered a glorious performance.

No way you kidding me..

I can give 1991 -2010(Majesty and Decay cough cough!!!)
19 years if I’m not wrong

I didn't want to leave the demos out. Some people prefer the guitar sound on those.

"hype sticker is pasted on shrink wrap" "splatter record is not splattered the way i thought it would have been" worst > "it is not splatter it's marbled" "I prefer green sparkles melted blue and gold leaf with chocolate iridescence and a little addition of cocaine" "this record is doomed trash because the corner is slightly bent, I can't play it"

burn them collectors, pure industrial byproducts (let me know any medieval manuscript who will throw a book because cover got some stain? right, so "collecting" is an industrial artefact, and this attitude is us having inflated records)

also, no need for technically perfect sound if music is soso and no need to fill a double album for that, no more need for a "perfect audiophile" record filled with most ugly demos you found under your bed

"Sounds compressed compared to lossless digital. Lacking in bass and high-end definition and clarity. Looks pretty though.
"Get this! DR11 -0.54 dB -13.26 dB 4:40 01 (...blablabla)"

F Y

I like having options to buy releases.

If there is a audiophile demo please link me.

yes metal is a music with a strong speech about rebellion but two feet into capitalism, right?

Kreator is going to change the world by revolution... and sell another double live album

ahaha >> "only music matter" ahahah > "keep underground"

we need a costume now, musicroom, barbecue, audiophile, luxury croisiere, all of that to claim how rebel we are

Every revolution in long term became conservation

Going back to Priest, I think some of you are misunderstanding Empy's point, which is a point I've been making for a while now.

No one is saying there is anything wrong with preferring Unleashed, or thinking Unleashed is the greatest metal album of all time. The problem comes when you feel this makes their early studio recordings, like Sad Wings, IRRELEVANT.

Unleashed doesn't even have Dreamer Deceiver. If you really believe "you don't need Sad Wings because the versions on Unleashed in the East are better," You are TRULEY missing out on one of the greatest metal ballads of all time. Another Priest classic from Sad Wings not found on Unleashed is Island of Domination. Totally underrated deep cut, one of my all time favorite Priest songs.

Yeah exactly this. Those songs on Sad Wings are really essential to it, along with the softer interludes that make it all really work as an album. There's something great about an album that all fits together as a cohesive whole, with ebbs and flows, an arc.

I don't think it sounds like "a museum relic" either, sounds like really great early metal. I really enjoy that whole 70s sound. Always rejected the idea that it's obsolete just because production values and tempos got more intense later.

Well Unleashed doesn't have Saints in Hell or the Stained Class title track or Call for the Priest or Raw Deal either. It's all down to opinions but I find it a shallow way of seeing it to be really disappointed in those albums because of the live one.

I'd have to say that is my least favorite. Actually when it came out I kind of lost interest in them until Morbid. In the past few years I finally went back and picked up all the albums I had skipped like Necropolis. Litany is still by far my favorite by them.

This is true, though Island of Domination is my least favorite on that album. Its okay to me but not much more.

Well I'm a "capitalist" and like buying releases that I want to. People always whine and cry about bands like Maiden putting out 500 live albums...just don't buy them. Obviously people do.

Not sure what you are upset about to be honest.

Yeah, and whie I prefer the "bite" that the guitars have on Unleashed, there is nothing wrong with the sound of Sad Wings. I personally love 70's rock production, I just think it got better for metal at the end of the decade. I love 70's drum sounds.

Same here.
The analog recordings of the 70s remain the highwater mark for sonic quality, IMO. That clarity, breath, 'space', and overall level of dynamics has sadly been (mostly) eradicated in the modern era.

As for "Unleashed", I tend to prefer its versions of "Victim", "The Ripper" and "Diamonds and Rust". But I tend to prefer the other songs' studio counterparts (especially "Exciter" & "Manalishi").