GMD Poll: Manilla Road's Discography Ranked

1) Gates of Fire
2) Crystal Logic
3) Open the Gates
4) The Deluge
5) Spiral Castle
6) Mystification
7) Playground of the Damned
8) Out of the Abyss
9) The Courts of Chaos
10) Metal
11) Mark of the Beast (Dreams of Eschaton)
12) Invasion
13) The Blessed Curse
14) Voyager
15) To Kill A King
16) The Circus Maximus
17) Mysterium

still haven't heard ATLANTIS RISING, i should probably buy it given how high it's gonna place here.
 
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1. The Deluge
2. Mystification
3. Gates of Fire
4. Crystal Logic
5. Open the Gates
6. Atlantis Rising
7. Spiral Castle
8. Voyager
9. Invasion

I'm not familiar enough with the rest of the stuff to rank them unfortunately.
 
Here are my rankings:

1. Crystal Logic- A top 10 traditional heavy metal album. Every song is a classic (even the fucking bonus track is great, and that never happens) and the album never gets old.

2. The Deluge- Very well balanced between epic and thrashy passages. A nice, concise concept album with a great flow to it.

3. Open the Gates- Neck and neck with The Deluge. Strong throughout, with killer finish. The Ninth Wave is brilliant metallic impressionism and Witches Brew is a wonderful slow builder.

4. Invasion- Raw and unrefined, but an enjoyable cut of prog-metal in the vein of early Rush. It's creative and dynamic throughout with lots of variety. Street Jammer is a classic.

5. Out of the Abyss- Manilla Road's best thrash material. Lots of strong, memorable moments, but also some captivating softer moments.

6. The Spiral Castle- The best of their post-reunion albums. Strong riffs throughout. The closing track is one of their best cuts.

7. Mysterium- Their most underrated album. They cut down on the bloated tracks from the previous albums and released a dynamic and diverse album that keeps the listener engaged. The Battle of Bonchester Bridge is one of their best tracks and Do What that Will is an excellent slab of Sabbathy doom.

8. Mystification- A bit of a transition album between The Deluge and Out of the Abyss; it has more than enough strong moments, but isn't on par with either one them.

9. Mark of the Beast- Really beautiful atmosphere and melodies on this record. Some of the songs sort of wonder and can feel directionless or dragged out at times, but still a very enjoyable album if listened to at the right place and time.

10. The Court of Chaos- God, the opening track is so good, but a lot of the rest of this feels pretty boilerplate, though still enjoyable. The title track is unique cut that I really enjoy.

11. Atlantis Rising- Really strong riffs and songwriting, enough so that I could make a case for putting this album at 6 or 7, but the overall mix and the production on the vocals are bad, even by Manilla Road standards.

12. The Blessed Curse- The folky stuff on here is really enjoyable and refreshing. There are a few dull songs sung by Bryan Patrick that bring the album down, and All Hallows Eve does not need to be on here twice. Could have been a very good 45-50 minute album, had they chosen to go that direction.

13. The Gates of Fire- Pretty strong, epic Manilla Road. Some of the songs are a little bloated, but overall enjoyable.

14. The Voyager- Similar to The Gates of Fire. Solid, but not spectacular, with some bloated tracks weighing the album down a bit.

15. Metal- While there are some good cuts on this record (Metal, Far Side of the Sun) there are too many experimental misfires.

16. To Kill a King- Doesn't offer anything new and doesn't sound especially inspired. A letdown after the previous two albums brought some exciting new sounds to the table.

17. Playground of the Damned- Doesn’t really offer anything new or exceptional. The inspiration heard on the first few post-reunion albums begins to dissolve into a predictable rut.

18. Circus Maximus- Just a mess with some really long and bad songs (the ones with scat poetry style lyrics are almost insufferable). A few good AOR jams mixed in.
 
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1. Voyager
2. Gates of Fire
3. The Courts of Chaos
4. Crystal Logic
4. Spiral Castle
5. Gates of Fire
6. Mark of the Beast
7. The Deluge
8. Mystification
9. Atlantis Rising
10. Playground of the Damned
11. Invasion
12. Out of the Abyss
13. Metal
14. Mysterium
15. Circus Maximus

You have Gates of Fire on your list twice. Where did you mean to put it?
 
(cage of mirrors #1)

if i liked that song as much as other people seem to i'd probably have the album higher. the B is pretty meh IMO, everything on the A is better aside from maybe 'defender'

gates of fire #1 what the fuck

playground that high!?

there isn't really much between the top four for me in fairness, but that one holds together best for me as an album experience, casts that slow burning spell. the appeal is probably closer to BM or rev biz or something at times, not surprising hbb hates it.

playground is a 7/10 album for me. possibly their darkest record or close enough, and 'art of war', 'into the maelstrom', 'abattoir de la mort' etc are quality tunes. i don't really care for proggy nor thrashy manilla road much so it doesn't have to be great to beat a lot of these albums.
 
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You have Gates of Fire on your list twice. Where did you mean to put it?

he probably meant to type open the gates for one of them. but which?!

1. Crystal Logic- A top 10 traditional heavy metal album. Every song is a classic (even the fucking bonus track is great, and that never happens) and the album never gets old.

if any classic trad album has an obvious shitty filler song it's that one lol
 
Bonus tracks shouldn't even judged relative to non-bonus tracks wrt fillerishness.

Title track and Dreams of Eschaton are both worse than it anyways.
 
'flaming metal system' is cool (whether it really fits properly is another question) but i'm not counting bonus tracks for these rankings. i meant 'feeling free again' if that really isn't obvious to people lol. 'heavy metal to the world' is also a clunker on OtG, i usually skip these songs.
 
The album is a 10 without Flaming Metal System, and a 10 with it as well. Doesn’t change where I would rank it.

he probably meant to type open the gates for one of them. but which?

Probably. There’s no way to tell so I’m just gonna give Gates of Fire the average of the two scores.

if any classic trad album has an obvious shitty filler song it's that one lol

Feeling Free Again?
 
#18 To Kill a King (2017)

TKAK.jpg


Average points per vote: 2.68/18

To Kill a King isn't their worst album, but it is kind of dull.

Also, you have Voyager on there twice.

first album of theirs i didn't even want to make it through
 
#16 Mysterium (2013)

mysterium.jpg


Average points per vote: 3.86/18

Mysterium isn't fucking weak, maybe compared to their albums that are universally praised but holy shit if you think Mysterium is weak compared to Playground of the Damned, The Blessed Curse or To Kill a King I really don't know what to say to you. Fix your fucking ears.

The title track alone...

oh fuck off with all the butthurt. It's by far the weakest Manilla Road album i've heard and it wouldn't even crack my top 10 for that year. Most people that love the band didn't even give much of a shit about that album either.
 
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#15 Playground of the Damned (2011)

playgroundofthedamned.jpg


Average points per vote: 4.62/18

Manilla Road-Playground Of The Damned
Despite my disliking of the drum production this is a fucking fantastic album.Sounds alot better on a crappy stereo system,on my home sound system it's very noticable.

I enjoyed Playground of the Damned quite a bit and still spin it on a somewhat regular basis, although I can see how it's a transition album.
 
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#13 Invasion (1980)

Invasion.jpg


Average points per vote: 7.48/18

Here's one: Virgin Steele is better than Manilla Road

I've bought several Virgin Steele CDs and i can firmly say i was disappointed by every single one. Manilla Road by far. IM A STREET JAMMER.

the closing epic on INVASION is pretty awesome iirc. the rest is like hawkwind worship or something. oh i remember 'street jammer' kinda reminds me of the fall lol

It sounds overwhelmingly obvious that they were still finding their sound on it, the songs aren't bad just mediocre and forgettable, even if "The Empire" is one of the best songs they ever recorded.
 
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