Controversial opinions on metal

[Avigrus]

Agent Orange and Rust In Peace are the greatest thrash albums IMO.

Personally, i reckon "Merciless - The Awakening" is one of the best - probably my favourite thrash album.

 

[siavash]

Sonata Arctica sold out with Stones Grow Her Name (yes, I should change my avatar).

Floor Jansen is better than Tarja and Anette.

I actually enjoy CoB's newer albums, albeit not as much as Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper.

Blind Guardian's interludes between every song really piss me off.

Daniel Heiman is the greatest singer alive and Lost Horizon was the greatest power metal band ever.

 

[Dak]

RTL> all other Metallica thrash.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

RTL> all other Metallica thrash.

That is the least controversial "Metallica album X > all other Metallica" opinion you could have.

 

[Dak]

I know. I'm disagreeing with the wrong person on the interwebs who said MoP.

 

[matt schrauben]

Sonata Arctica sold out with Stones Grow Her Name (yes, I should change my avatar).

What? How? That album was more or less just a mix of The Days of Greys with their older style thrown in. It was awesome. I don't know what's so "sell out" about it.

Also, the term "sold out" is bullshit. It's mostly just used by people who don't like the direction a band is going.

 

[Eligos]

I agree, selling out doesn't really happen as often as people whine about it in underground music.

 

[siavash]

This isn't selling out? The same band that wrote White Pearl, Black Oceans, Gravenimage, and Caleb?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Unia was already a pop album, so who cares?

 

[Baroque]

Megadeth is one of the best thrash bands so far, but partially only due to their longevity. Side by side on individual songs, a lot of other thrash bands have better material (with the exception of a handful of gems).

Death Magnetic was a pretty good album.

So was Endgame.

 

[matt schrauben]

This isn't selling out? The same band that wrote White Pearl, Black Oceans, Gravenimage, and Caleb?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5uepWrCgdU

No. It isn't. And don't single out one song, listen to the whole album. The album is well crafted, well written, and in line with any of the songs you mentioned above. Why is this sudden selling out? It's catchy and fun. And what is Sonata Arctica known for? Writing songs that are catchy and fun. I don't see the problem here.

 

[matt schrauben]

Unia was already a pop album, so who cares?

Totally wrong. To that point in time, Unia was by far their most progressive album, especially in its use of unconventional song structures. You clearly haven't listened to the album if you think it was a pop album. Did all you hear was the single "Paid in Full"? That single was a horrible representation of that album.

Here is a better example:

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Ok, 'pop' was probably the wrong word, but it was a drastic shift away from power metal into symphonic Disney rock, no matter the budget they had to hire an orchestral arranger and choir. I'll admit that I've listened to the album no more than once and that I don't really care about the band at all, but I know there are songs other than the single of similar quality...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQskbM-ArU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DskA14mVvrM

 

[CF87]

I don't listen to as much thrash as I did at one point. Some stuff I still occationally listen too.

Sadus-a vision of misery.
Old Metallica.
Destruction-eternal devastation.
Old Slayer.
Sodom-Agent Orange
Testament.

I feel like this stuff is pretty essential. Besides the great riffs and songs these bands have, the have some killer lead players. Frank Blackfire from Sodom deserves more appreciation, love his solo's on Agent Orange. And on Kreator, they're not bad, but a lot of their stuff just sounds like rehashed Slayer riffs to me. And they do not have the songwriting skills that Slayer had at one point.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Favorite solos on Agent Orange? I've seen a lot of people cite them as a major highlight of the album but they've always sounded as generic to me as everything else on that album. And if you're including Pleasure to Kill in the category of "rehashed Slayer riffs", the Sodom album suffers far worse from over-inspiration. Honestly one of the worst thrash albums I know of.

EDIT: I think I've repeated this controversial opinion before in this thread, but the top-tier thrash bands (Megadeth and Wilkens-era Destruction aside) often fell short of the best of the lower-tier bands (see: Forbidden, Coroner, Annihilator, Realm) lead-wise. Of course, thrash can often get by with mediocrity in that department provided the riffs or intensity are there.

 

[Dak]

What about Protector and Sacrifice?

 

[EffigyForgotten]

I don't think anyone can make a better solo then ANY solo from Rust in Peace. Seriously.

 

[Dak]

If only Mustaine had found someone else to do vocals.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Persecution Mania shits all over Agent Orange.

Sodom dont really have any great solos, and its not just them, a lot of TM bands don't, its just not that imoprtant in terms of thrash.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Mustaines not that bad.

I always thought he sounded pretty good on the third track here( 8:06 mark) ...