I'm surprised that this post has not met any opposition.

I can't defend the first two because I'm not that familiar but "Transilvanian Hunger" rules from beginning to end. Embrace the unholy, hypnotic power of that album!

I personally can't name (or can't think of one right now anyway) that fits the description set out by this thread. "...And Justice For All" comes to mind but it has a few good songs found amongst a bunch of crap ones. For anyone wondering, the other songs are "One" and "Dyers Eve".

Agreed. Bonded by Blood is also probably the worst song on the album.

Has happened to me dozens of times. Immortal-Battles In The North is the only one I can remember though.

Empire Falls from To The Nameless Dead by Primordial.

While I haven't had a situation with an album that's been terrible following the first song here's my take on a similar situation.

At the Heart of Winter. It's a decent, solid album, but not one of my favorites from Immortal. When I heard Withstand the Fall of Time, I was in love with the track, however I couldn't get too into the rest of the album. It still gets regular play though due to my fiance, since that and Sons of Northern Darkness are her favorite two albums from them.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Megadeth's Holy Wars. The song is amazing, the opening riff just grabs your attention. The song is just too awesome to explain in words. And for once, Mustaine's wailing vocals actually suit the music.

I really liked "Uncertain Future" and even thought Anaconda was the best song on the album - although Bludgeon is pretty powerful. But to temper this, I listened to them in the early 90's and not since, so this could be me being nostalgic.

War Ensemble by Slayer. Was not to interested in the rest of Seasons and have not listened to anything they put out since.

And it's all my fault - I just moved, musically, in another direction and needed something a little... more.

Iron Maiden: Virtual XI - "Futureal" springs immediately to mind...

How did you ever doubt that? For shame!

I agree with that, and it put me off the album for a long time until I sat myself down and listened to the whole thing. BbB owns!

But the rest of the album is killer too

Agreed. Again, not because the rest of the album is poor by ANY means, it's all incredible, but the intro is just that step above the rest.

Will probably be flamed to fuck for this, but I found From Mars To Sirius weakens after the opening track, Ocean Planet. However, that track is probably one of my favourite songs of all time, so maybe it's an unfair comparison.

I don't remeber something like that...It doesn't happens that i like just one song in an album...Generally i judge it in is fullness.

This rarely happens to me. I believe if you listen to album long enough, it's going to grow on you and you'll appreciate it certain aspects you didn't pay attention to before. Maybe you are all making hasty judgement. Check out the albums again after you have given your ears a break, try to find aspects you like, and DO NOT go straight for the most familiar song.

Shit.. I misread the OP.

As for great openers and weak albums, Terrorizer's Inevitable.

Yes but this thread is abut great opening songs with the rest of the album being much weaker in comparison. Rust in Peace had Hangar 18 and Tornado of Souls, two songs at least as good as, if not better than the first song.

EDIT: Apparently someone beat me to do this while I was on the phone with a client talking settlement. Stupid clients.

Someone mentioned Kreator's Enemy of God earlier. That's the first one that comes to my mind. I don't mind the rest of the album when I'm listening to it, but offhand, I don't ever remember much about the album other than the opening track.

You're fucking kidding, I was gonna buy that after hearing the title track!

Oh well, I guess I'll still give it a try.

I can see this, but I don't think it weakens...however "Ocean Planet" is a highlight.

One album I thought of was Krisiun's "AssassiNation". The first track, "Bloodcraft", was awesome, and the rest didn't reach the same heights.

Usually, first tracks are really good, and there are rarely any albums where I'll skip track one, even if it's an intro track.

Yeah, that album is a bit dissapointing, though I do like Natural Genocide best off of it. Southern Storm well made up for that album.

The only one I can think of at the moment is "Astral Frost Invocation" from I.C.E.'s Apocalyptic End in White. The rest of the album is pretty good, but still sounds relatively weak when compared to the awesomeness of that first song.

F(r)iend was the song that made me initially think "it's not that bad" about Soundtrack To Your escape (In Flames). Indeed, it's not bad at all. The rest of the album is, though.

Allegiance is easily one of the better tracks off Dimmu Borgir'sDeath Cult Armageddon, despite the silly noises in the intro; the rest of the album mostly bores me to tears, barring some bright spots here and there, most notably Eradication Instincts Defined.

No the whole album sucks from start to finish, and Crawl through Knifes is the only half decent song.

I'm always surprised to see how popular Amon Amarth are around here.

And yes, Cellador are practically made for this thread.

You can feel free to take that back any time to avoid a free decapitation.

I think you need to rethink your definition of music.

Are you trying to say Amon Amarth isn't music??

agreed, the rest of the album is just as good if not better, in fact i think the album kinda rollercoasters in quality from

AWESOME! to MORE AWESOME! to ALMOST AS AWESOME! to.. AWESOME and so forth
i mean really what is this guy smoking HAHA!

But what about the GODLY SOLARFALL?! Honestly that song is epic beyond words.

Most of Pantera's albums are like that imo.

Just go for it, the album is quite solid. If you're a fan of With Odin on Our Side, then you'll enjoy this album. If you disliked that album, then avoid it. I really enjoyed that album, I checked out Twilight of the Thunder God, it's a killer album.

I agree. The more you listen to an album, the more you appreciate it. Unless it's THAT bad! In which case, chances are there aren't any good tracks, and even if there are, the chances of that track being the first are unlikely. I haven't encountered this anyway.

I'm not a big fan of the album, but I remember when I first listened to Vulgar Display Of Power I thought Mouth For War was fucking awesome and then the whole rest of the album was so disappointing.

As for albums which have a brilliant first song the rest totally sucks I have a few

At War's Ordered to kill is by far the best song on the album, but even then it's only a good quality thrash song, not a brilliant one. The res of the album pretty much sucks.

Dream Theaters Glass Prison from 6 degrees of inner turbulence is one of my favourite songs, but the rest of the first disk of the album is ok at best (Misunderstood is god awful by the way) and the second CD is one of the worst I've ever laid ears on.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries - Ghost of Perdition. The first song is the best thing they'd done since MAYH to me, but the rest of the album was horribly boring and generally poor.

I can find quite a lot of albums with first songs which are brilliant and just not touched by anything afterwards, despite the other songs being average/fairly good.

Decristianize, that song is a fucking monster, even after you're bored with the formula the band uses, but really nothing on the album touches it, despite not being horrible to my ears. Icons on the other hand is shit start to finish.

Both of the first two dissection albums open with brilliant songs (Somberlain has two in a row though) and everything else on the albums, while really good just doesn't compare

Anthrax's Fistful of metal, I like the album, it's really fun, but Deathrider is the only one which is just plain awesome not just really fun.

Slayers Christ illisuion of course opens with Flesh Storm, which pretty much owns, but the rest of the album is horribly mediocre.