GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1981

[Phylactery]

Welcome to Hell would have probably been my number 1 pick fwiw.

 

[no country for old wainds]

3) Mob Rules by Black Sabbath
A rumble of thunder, I'm suddenly under your spell...

""Over and Over" off of Mob Rules might be my favorite song with Dio singing, like, ever." - @Master_Yoda77

"Mob Rules is far more consistent and its high are as high, if not higher than Heaven and Hell. Other than the ambient track, basically every song knocks it out of the park. It's cohesive yet dynamic and has a very well constructed emotional arc for a popular metal album." - @crimsonfloyd

"The rest of the album may be prime (I count E5150/The Sign of the Southern Cross as one song, before anyone goes "BUT WHAT ABOUT E5150 LOL???"), but Turn up the Night and Voodoo are borderline unlistenable." - @The Butt

"Mob Rules is a fucking classic .... it just isn't as good as the album that came out a year before it.

The Sign of the Southern Cross, Falling of the Edge of the World and The Mob Rules are all top notch tracks. I can listen to those first two tracks all fucking day." - @TechnicalBarbarity

Chosen by:
crimsonfloyd (#1)
TechnicalBarbarity (#1)
Baroque (#2)
RedinTheSky (#2)
Master_Yoda77 (#2)
Atomic Tide (#3)
Bloopy (#4)
CASSETTEISGOD (#5)
Krow (#6)
RadicalThrasher (#6)
Slammed (#8)
Talos of Atmora (#9)
HamburgerBoy (#10)
H.P. Lovecraft (N/A)
TOTAL: 89.5 POINTS

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Wow, I must have been drunk as a skunk when I made that post about Venom, but yeah. Fuck them now. Triggered bullshit. Too bad the new Venom Inc songs are terrible because they were pretty good live.

Also, Cirith Ungol number 1.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

"Ozzy's Randy Rhoads era albums are up there with, or even surpass the best Black Sabbath albums" - @Baroque, just now

 

[no country for old wainds]

2) Frost & Fire by Cirith Ungol
I just want a little fire!

"I love the part in Cirith Ungol's "Frost and Fire" from 1:09-2:37 during the extended instrumental break. All of the instrumentalists take turns playing the end of main melody and then that soulful guitar solo is just incredible. When I heard this, I knew that there was no turning back." - @Elric of Melniboné

"Both Slough Feg and Cirith Ungol are actually pretty overrated imo, don't get me wrong, they are both great and I own several albums by both bands but especially in circles that don't listen to alot of traditional heavy metal (I'm talking mainly about in crowd trad-doom fans now I guess) they are sometimes hailed as the be all end all of traditional metal. I dunno but I know alot of bands that I consider vastly superior." - @Vilden

"Have any of you shitheads ever even listened to Frost And Fire? Compare that to any of the heaviest Zeppelin, note the incredible similarities, and discover that Cirith Ungol rocks more. " - @Jean-Pierre

"My favorite Cirith Ungol album is probably Frost and Fire. EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE EDGE OF A KNIFE MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THEY MEAN BY REAL LIFE" - @mutantllama

Chosen by:
CASSETTEISGOD (#1)
Master_Yoda77 (#1)
Krow (#1)
Talos of Atmora (#2)
RedinTheSky (#3)
Vegard Pompey (#3)
no country for old wainds (#4)
Serjeant Grumbles (#5)
RadicalThrasher (#5)
crimsonfloyd (#5)
HamburgerBoy (#6)
Slayed Necros (#6)
H.P. Lovecraft (N/A)
TOTAL: 95.5 POINTS

1) Killers by Iron Maiden
Please take me away, so far away...

"moar liek Fillers, amirite?" - @The Ozzman

"Killers is excellent all the way through excluding Twilight Zone (which is a bonus track and thus doesn't count). How anyone can value Somewhere in Time (where they suddenly decided that repeating a chorus a thousand times to the seven minute mark makes a song progressive) over it is beyond me... ...The only important thing is in realizing that Killers and Piece of Mind are masterpieces of the metal artform and if neither makes your top 3 or so, you should go back to your Agalloch albums." - @HamburgerBoy

"Killers is the worst pre-Blaze record. By far. Save a few tracks, it's about as engaging as filling out tax forms." - @crimsonfloyd

"s/t Iron Maiden is more consistent, but when Killers is good (Genghis Khan, Murders in the Rue Morgue)its better." - @EternalMetal

"Despite the fact that I do not listen to maiden much. I have this thing for Killers. If you do not like it you're gay." - @CF87

Chosen by:
Slayed Necros (#1)
Atomic Tide (#1)
RedinTheSky (#1)
RadicalThrasher (#1)
no country for old wainds (#1)
Talos of Atmora (#1)
HamburgerBoy (#1)
Serjeant Grumbles (#2)
CASSETTEISGOD (#3)
Krow (#4)
Vegard Pompey (#4)
Bloopy (#6)
TechnicalBarbarity (#6)
Master_Yoda77 (#8)
H.P. Lovecraft (N/A)
TOTAL: 119.5 POINTS

 

[Phylactery]

Surprised Frost and Fire did so well. I don't like it nearly as much as King of the Dead.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i don't like it as much as One Foot in Hell either, but this is a far weaker year i suppose. i thought it'd be fourth behind sabbath and venom.

 

[CiG]

"Basically Venom influenced the first few Bathory albums, but the first Bathory record makes all Venom obsolete." - @crimsonfloyd

Side A of At War with Satan demolishes the first Bathory album alone.
20 minutes of British superiority released in the same year that Euronymous was pretending to not rip off Venom.

 

[Phylactery]

I fucking love early Venom, but they didn't record anything as great as Under the Sign of the Black Mark. But yeah, that comment seems to be rather misguided since the first Bathory is basically pure Venom worship.

 

[CiG]

Under the Sign of the Black Mark is the very moment Bathory surpassed Venom, claiming it happened before that is just pretentious faggotry in my opinion.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

I don't know what ya'll talkin bout, but Bathory is definitely Venom's best album.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

I think it's rather close. Bathory were definitely already evolving in some ways by The Return and completely fleshed out their sound into another entity entirely by Under the Sign of the Black Mark.

I still think I slightly prefer Venom. Their first two albums are perfection in my book.

 

[CiG]

My favourite Venom album is At War with Satan. Fucking worship that thing.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

It's definitely good but the tracks following the title-track don't really compare. I still need to properly check out Possessed.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

.. yeah, also my favorite from them. First Bathory album is better though imo.

edit: Possessed is good too, just not as good their first three. It was the first Venom album i bought.

 

[CiG]

It's definitely good but the tracks following the title-track don't really compare.

Yeah agreed, though still quite good in my opinion.

It probably should have just been a Godly one-track EP.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Silly me, I could have sworn Mob Rules was listed as 2nd at one point. Great list though.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Side A of At War with Satan demolishes the first Bathory album alone.
20 minutes of British superiority released in the same year that Euronymous was pretending to not rip off Venom.

Never listened to At War With Satan. First two albums are too mediocre to inspire me to go further in their discography.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I prefer Stand Up (And Be Counted) to the title track. Just barely, both are great of course, but that one is such an awesome anthem. Probably my second favorite Venom song behind Witching Hour. Genocide is some sweet thrashy stuff too. Even though the album is top-heavy with that immortal epic, the "fillers" or whatever are on average stronger than the songs on the first two albums. It's just a more mature, better-written album.

 

[CiG]

Never listened to At War With Satan. First two albums are too mediocre to inspire me to go further in their discography.

Yet Bathory, a literal rip-off of Venom's early material, was so not-mediocre that it rendered Venom as a musical entity obsolete upon release?

C'mon now...