Controversial opinions on metal

The only correct answer

That is probably my second favorite. From purely a creative standpoint, The Great Southern Trendkill is the best. If you like underwhelming albums with a few good songs, then Far Beyond Driven is the best. Vulgar Display of Power is the heaviest. Cowboys from Hell has the most mystique.

Another controversial opinion:

"Erblicket" and "Rundgang" made Filosofem. Pardon my laziness in failing to spell out the entire songs.
 
I'd say Cowboys is more 50/50 thrash/non-thrash, but anyone that says Pantera has never played thrash metal is a try-hard.
 
Far Beyond Driven is the best Pantera album by far. And both TGST and Vulgar are better albums than Cowboys From Hell ... which is thrash outside of 2-3 tracks.

Far Beyond Driven was killed by Becoming. I love the album, but that song annoys the hell out of me. Most people denigrate Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills but I actually like that one.

Cowboys of Hell is pretty much pure groove metal IMO. Cemetery Gates is kind of a glam metal ballad holdover, and Shattered is more speed metal, but other than that, I'd say it's pretty much a pure groove metal album.

Yes, Trendkill is certainly better than Cowboys from Hell, but I can't say I am much of a fan of Vulgar Dispaly of Power. It has some fucking awesome numbers, and it is arguably the definitive Pantera's album. It has some filler in it, however, notably Rise. The reason I like The Great Southern Trendkill so much more is because it is devoid of filler. So far, no one has brought up Reinventing the Steel. That is a great one as well.
 
I never got around to listening to Redeemer of Souls before the Priest thread, so that album aside, and keeping things at roughly the same length as Virtual XI...

Prophecy
Take on the World
Bullet Train
Decapitate
Night Comes Down
Parental Guidance
Living Bad Dreams
Love You to Death
Monsters of Rock
Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith

OK that would still be pretty fucking bad if only because half the songs would be arena rock, but whatever, I think I'd still pick it over Virtual XI. There isn't a single song as bad as Lightning Strikes Twice, The Educated Fool, or Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, even if Futureal is better than most/all of those songs.
 
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As of @crimsonfloyd's Iron Maiden thread, I'm questioning whether I still think Judas Priest are more consistent than Iron Maiden.

I don't think that's very controversial. Sure, some of Maiden's post-80s albums are rather bloated and have their filler, but there's very few flat out bad songs. The only album that I find straight up unenjoyable is X Factor (I've only heard Virtual XI once so I withhold comment on that one for the moment) and even then, it's mostly just boring, not offensive.

Contrast that with Priest who have the two terrible Ripper Owens albums, the neverending snoozefest that is Nostradamus, and then a number of albums (Point of Entry, Turbo, Ram it Down) with tracks that are so bad they are virtually unlistenable. Granted, two of those those albums have some great songs too, but Maiden rarely, if ever, hits the lows "Johny B. Good" "Parental Guidance" or "All the Way."
 
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So it's happened that we've already done all four the years containing the first four Metallica albums. I've come to the conclusion that Ride the Lightning is the weakest of the first four Metallica albums, though it is still an A- album with numerous masterpieces on it.
 
No, it's the strongest by far. "Escape" being then only weak point. And even then it's tolerable. MoP is the weakest. Plodding and dull and not very memorable.
 
No, it's the strongest by far. "Escape" being then only weak point. And even then it's tolerable. MoP is the weakest. Plodding and dull and not very memorable.

WTF? Plodding and dull? I could see the case for The Thing that Should Not Be and Welcome Home, but the rest of the album is driven. And Escape is easily the worst song of the first four albums. The only one that is lower than a 8/10 (I'd give it a 6/10).
 
Never heard that one. Alex Jones is fucking amazing. Info Creepin is better though, I legitimately get chills listening to it (YOU DON'T SELL WHISKY TO A GOD)