Fates Warning probably should be mentioned. First the fairly significant improvement from Night on Bröcken and then with the departure of John Arch which led to a steep decline. And seeing as Awaken the Guardian is one of the best metal albums ever the follow-up, while not terrible, is a crushing disappointment.

Giant Squid

Metridium Field -> The Ichthyologist

When Aaron Gregory's wife left.. man. So much of the band was her atmospheric textures. Aaron tried to do it himself but the result was.. fucking boring.

That's pretty harsh. Though I agree AJFA was a better album, I wouldn't go as far to say that TBA sounded poppy or pussy.

What exactly is wrong with creating music with a radio format? I think some people only bash it as being commercial well after it was written and successful. What I'm saying is that just being commercial alone doesn't mean that it's not good music.

there was a huge drop in quality between all 3 of Metallica's post Cliff Burton albums. "And Justice For All" was good, but nowhere near what the previous two had been: overall sound was tinny and lacking the heavy crunch of the past two, the bass was too low in the mix, etc. And the songs were, for the most part, too long and convoluted. Good album, but still a huge dropoff after "Puppets." Then we get to the self titled album- they had gotten rid of the over-complicated song structures, but the sound was watered down, lacking in both the agression of the early albums and the distinctive albeit thin and tinny sound of "Justice." It was too overproduced, and the songs were too close to glam/pop metal e.g. "Nothing else matters" Even the "Heavy" songs just weren't as distinctive or powerful as the ones on the first three records.
After that album was "Load-" even more commercial and watered down, but the songwriting was far more tepid.

But if you're talking about Metallica, then the simple truth is, the biggest quality difference between consecutive albums would be between "St. Anger" and "Death Magnetic."

Not "poppy" as in, it reminds me of Rihanna or whoever, just very poppy in comparison to their previous 3 albums... which isn't a good thing, still. "Nothing Else Matters" is almost the textbook definition of a pussy power ballad, barely beaten out by shit like "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", or "Is This Love".

Anyway, when it comes to the question of radio-friendly metal, there's nothing inherently wrong with it; I mean, I like British Steel a lot, and that's pretty radio-friendly. Difference is, it sounds like an effortless, natural, genuine radio-friendly, as if it's the record Priest really wanted to make... while TBA feels way too much like Metallica trying to force themselves too hard to turn radio-friendly. Not surprising, since they sounded so much more natural un-radio-friendly. Not to use that old argument that Bob Rock pushed them too hard to sound commercial, I have no reason to believe the music of TBA wasn't what they genuinely wanted (since I know they were tired of playing the long, complicated songs of Justice live, and wanted something easier to replicate), but something got lost in the translation inbetween intent and final product, so TBA's approach just doesn't sound... right to my ears.

Strange, I've always considered AFJA way better than MoP, at least it feels more of a thrash album and not a terribly disjointed work 'disguised' as a thrash classic with barely half of songs reminiscent of the style. I guess it's the death of Burton which made the difference. In fact, I consider MoP the first misstep Metallica did, with like 3 good songs and filled with garbage.

The S/T it's not a bad album per se, as a standalone album it's good, but hell, it's too obvious that the album was directed by someone else.

I respect your right to an opinion even though I think you couldn't be more wrong about the merits of Gallows Gallery.

Death Angel definitely fits this category. The Ultra-Violence was such an amazingly awesome and vicious piece of thrash metal while the sequel Frolic Through the Park was nothing more than a meandering mess. I have no idea what happened in between those two albums but I feel they recovered exceptionally well in the form of Act III which combines thrash and melody sans the viciousness but still in an extremely satisfactory combination.

I was going to say this. Seventh Son is one of my favorita Maiden albums, while No Prayer is nos so much bad as it is a boring album.

Also, there's a big difference from Skunkworks to Accident of Birth. The first is so much differente from what anyone would expect from Dickinson and not just that, the songs doesn't work. On the other hand Accident of Birth, not only marks the return of the Dickison-Smith collaboration, that ultimately took them back to Maiden, is just a amazing metal album.

Ozzy's Diary of a Madman to Bark at the Moon. Diary is, in my opinion, the best Ozzy album. Randy was at his best. The problem with BATM is that it didin't stuck to people's mind. I mean, who can remember any song from that album, besides the title track. Not even Ozzy does.

I liked The Ichthyologist quite a lot, Mormon Island or whatever it was it totally unbearable, but I found the rest pretty fun. Definitely cut back on the lengthy atmospheric sections, but I thought it rocked out enough and I liked all the sludging parts. Cenobites on the other hand zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Funeral Mist:
Salvation - One of the best orthodox black metal releases ever. Great riffs, drumming and a general atmosphere I've never felt in any other album, plus, Mortuus never sounded as good again.

Maranatha - Uninspired, horrible song structures, Necomorbus's drumming is very missed here. Mortuus seems to be totally focused on Marduk....

I'll use Judas Priest for both.

Improvement: Rocka Rolla followed by Sad Wings of Destiny

Worsening: Painkiller followed by Jugulator

I can understand why people hate Maranatha, but, speaking as someone who is listening to it right now, I love it. It's definitely a huge change in style though, I tend to listen to Salvation when I'm in the mood for no-nonsense black-metal which is a bit more twisted than the norm, and Maranatha when I want something truly chimeric and unnerving.

Of course everyone has different opinions, but I had listened to Sigh for some time before this release....the lack of any harsh vocals was a dissapointment or any aggressive riffs at all. Sure they are still experimenting on GG, but they sound closer to 70s prog rock than anything else. Perhaps if they released it under another name, I would have appreciated it more

As far as Fates Warning go, I just don't like how they went from varied, hard hitting progressive metal on Perfect Symmetry to watered down radio friendly poop on Parallels. The latter isn't terrible and I wouldn't mind hearing it as background music, but sure doesn't have anything on the former. (Or any 80's Fates Warning album for that matter.)

I actually really like Rocka Rolla. It's in my top three Priest albums (along with Sad Wings and Sin After Sin).

Metallica with Ride the Lightning and then Master of Puppets; which I consider the first in their downward spiral. It was strenuously long compared to their first two and was loaded with filler. Don't get me wrong though. It's a decent album but so vastly different it hardly sounds like the same band.

Grave New World is probably the worst follow up and one of the worst albums ever.

Dark Angel's We Have Arrived wasn't bad but I feel like it was very bland sounding production and then they released Darkness Descends which is one of the quintessential thrash albums.

Judas Priest:
Defenders of the Faith to Turbo

Iron Maiden:
IMO Fear of the Dark to The X Factor is the biggest dip, though Fear of the Dark is far from their best overall.

Immortal's Blizzard Beasts and At The Heart of Winter. Blizzard Beasts is a furious album, pushing Immortal's speed, heaviness, and atmosphere to their extremes. It's tight, cohesive, and comes across to me as technically impressive for black metal. I'm not surprised that Demonaz acquired tendinitis shortly after recording this album. And then comes ATHoW... The change in guitar playing is night and day to me and represents a point where Immortal's guitar-work took a different direction. It doesn't take long to realize that Abbath's guitar playing not nearly as impressive, and the faster dissonant whirlwind-riffs that were present in previous albums are gone, and have been replaced with mostly mid-paced melodic thrash riffs with some dissonant chords thrown in.

Perhaps At The Heart of Winter isn't the worst album, because it isn't. It's just Blizzard Beasts is a lot more tight and interesting, and hinted at a very promising new sound for Immortal. ATToW is awfully meandering and weak-sounding in comparison.

Don't get me wrong, I can listen to the thing. And do, occasionally. But it drags so hard. So, so hard. It's not even in the same solar system as Metridium Field for me.

I tried $100: The Album ("C notes", geddit?), gave up, and immediately forgot everything I'd heard.

It really sucks when a band you loved so dearly goes so bad. The Squid was my first favorite metal band.

Blizzard Beasts is criminally underrated.

The album that would have an 89% average on MA if not for one negative review is criminally underrated? Seems pretty well respected to me. In fact, it was the first Immortal album I'd heard because at the time it had the highest average here.

Well, there are many people who see Blizzard Beasts as one of their weakest and At the Heart of Winter as a return to form. The post by t1337Dude is the first time I see it the other way around.

Not on MA, on the "internets"

As a guy who tends to stay more near death, thrash, power, and trad metal, I genuinely thought that both Blizzard Beasts and At the Heart of Winter were considered among their best. This is why I don't often talk about black metal

Slayer

Divine Intervention followed by Diabolus In Musica. DI was the last thrash album Slayer did before adding in the nu-metal on DiM. I head Stain of Mind and thought it Mansonish vocals over Korn or something. Really disappointing. Divine wasn't great but it was pretty good and the followed up with their worst album.

In regards to Immortal, it's a significant style change, regardless of quality (both very solid albums), from the intricate, moody, violent yet melodic black metal of 'Blizzard Beasts' to the more upbeat traditional heavy metal with black metal vocals and thrash influences of 'At the Heart of Winter'.

Nile from "Those Whom The Gods Detest" to "At the Gate of Sethu"

I am still shocked by how incredibly terrible the newer album sounds. I'm not a Nile fiend, but I do like the band, and I thought the album to sound, feel, and just be overall a severe downgrade from their last three. VOMIT.

I'd go with Ithycock after the amazing Annihilation of the Wicked myself. Best album they've done followed by the worst.

I was not a big fan of that album myself, I just find their last one to fester in some serious poop.

This, absolutely. Going from something which bodily deposits Cthulhu in your living room to a bunch of soulless dsbm reject riffs is just fucking disgusting.

Probably my second favorite after Pure Holocaust for the first 4 LPs. Haven't delved into the later stuff yet so I can't comment on it. What I like about BB is the thick guitar sound...quite a contrast to a lot of BM-ish albums and very unique sounding to my ears. Great stuff.

I'm tempted to say Behexen and their semi-stinker My Soul For His Glory. While it wasn't a terrible album, it's unmemorable and unimaginative, and most of all it lacks the incredible hatred, darkness and aggression that made the preceding full-length so great. At this point it looks like they never recovered from the degradation (Nightside Emanations is rather dull).

Their split with Satanic Warmaster is pretty good though, short as it is.

With regards to Immortal: Blizzard Beasts and At the Heart of Winter are both cool albums. But Damned in Black is where they started getting lazy, so the drop off in quality between AtHoW and DiB is certainly noticeable. I guess they put more effort in on Sons of Northern Darkness... but who cares?

The two are really one album split in half. Most of the Sad Wings material was written for Rocka Rolla but was rejected by the label and Priest hastily came up with some filler. The non-filler songs on that album, like "Run of the Mill", are very good.

Twisted Sister from ''Under The Blade'' (-) to ''You Can't Stop Rock & Roll'' (+)

The first album to me is very boring, and this because of the quality of the sound. Is very raw and dirty, compared to the next album or with the classic ''Stay Hungry''. All the songs sounds the same and the music is not really bad, is very Hard Rock-ish but the quality is really a garbage, totally unmemorable. I can't remember even a riif of that album. It was completely worthless, and this coming from a big fan of everything that gets labeled as Glam Rock/Metal, everything.

''You Can't Stop Rock & Roll'' for the other way, is fantastic, the beginning of the classic sound of all the time, a very good work.

It's on the same level as My Soul, essentially. There seemed to be some attempt to bring back the melodic elements from Rituale/Horna split, but the magic is missing. The SW song is very cool though.

Deicide Stench of Redemption to Till Death Do Us Part. IMO, I think they went from their best album to worst. Everything about Till Death feels boring/filler. In Glens recent interviews, it's obviously just a filler album, like In Torment In Hell.