Is there any one metal album that we can all agree is an absolute classic?

[Elric of Melniboné]

Messiah's vocals are godly. And compositionally I prefer some of the songs on Nightfall also.

Messiah is a good singer but he tends to overextend his vibrato, which is kind of annoying to me. Johan has a much more distinctive voice and is an amazing vocalist in his own right.

 

[Phylactery]

Epicus Doomicus blows Nightfall out of the fucking water.

EDM is better but not by as much as you're suggesting. Nightfall really began to grow on me this past few years.

Messiah's vocals are too melodramatic at times I think. I definitely prefer Johan on the whole.

 

[Talos of Atmora]

I honestly can't pick between Johann's bleakness and Messiah's operatic badassery. I just can't.

 

[Krow]

EDM is better but not by as much as you're suggesting.

EDM is probably in my top 20 metal albums ever so I'd tend to agree with him.

 

[Sirjack]

Sad Wings of Destiny
Ride the Lightning
Seven Churches
Bonded By Blood
Altars of Madness

or wait are you just talking Trad Metal or Metal in general?

l mean Realm of Chaos
Under the Influence
Schizophrenia
Blizzard of Oz
Symphonies of Sickness
Left Hand Path
Piece of Mind
etc
All classic metal albums in my mind

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Nightfall has inferior songwriting to EDM. Even the songs that are basically perfect (like Samarithan) pale slightly due to simpler verse/chorus arrangements. Nightfall could have been performed during the exact same sessions as the first album and it would have brought it from an 8/10 album to a 9/10 album, but it still wouldn't reach it with no Black Stone Wielder or A Sorcerer's Pledge.

 

[The Ozzman]

Cowboys from Hell

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Cowboys from Hell

 

[Satanstoenail]

Reign in Blood surely

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Reign in Blood surely

I've already seen people here saying Slayer isn't that good so I doubt it.

 

[Sirjack]

i'd put RIB and SoH up there for sure

 

[Satanstoenail]

Most people here think SoH is shit for some reason.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

It's not bad, but I'm still not sure how anyone could listen to it and not notice the obvious fact that Araya was beginning to lose the ability to do the vocals that he did on earlier albums and that there is noticeable strain on his voice.

 

[Sirjack]

lve never agreed with that train of thought. Araya sounds killer here. maturing along with the band, There was no call for a repeat of his Angel of Death etc vocal.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Just because his vocals aren't as harsh as previous albums doesn't mean they're strained. Quite the opposite actually. He went more harsh again on SitA so I don't think there were any problems around then apart from him losing the ability to do the high screams.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

You can hear the sound of vocal strain in someone's voice. You do know that, right?

His vocals on Seasons in the Abyss are also much less extreme than on the first three albums.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

To further elaborate on this, Araya has all of the classic signs of someone who has strained his vocal cords. His abrupt loss of vocal range and shift to less aggressive vocals make it pretty obvious. You can also hear a certain roughness and uneven quality on South of Heaven that is indicative of vocal strain.

He used to utilize one of the most common techniques that causes vocal cord damage, which is using what is obviously self-taught vocal belting to hit high notes. Generally, this is an inadvisable technique but many singers do it anyway. I think that Chris Cornell from Soundgarden is the most famous example of someone who did this and suffered vocal damage. He used the same technique.

 

[Sirjack]

And..? As said, there's no call for screams on SoH like on RIB, i'm not defending the guys vocal dexterity but l think his voice is killer on SoH and SitA. Maybe it's strained? *shrug* His vocals sit perfectly with those albums imo.

 

[Satanstoenail]

The band have said in many interviews that they took the foot off the pedal and went for a more refined approach on SoH because they knew that RiB was untoppable in terms of aggression. Part of this was the less harsh and more 'sung' vocals. It has nothing to do with him having trouble hitting the high screams anymore as they were an extremely minimal part of his vocal delivery anyway.

Plenty of singers that scream in the really high register lose the ability to do so as they get older. Robert Plant would be the most notable example I think of.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Where did I state that the album direction was because of his voice?

I made a statement about his performance on the album. The fact that the album mostly works with his newer vocal style is a nice thing, but his vocals on that album are pretty bad by his previous standards. It's pretty obvious since his voice went down almost overnight.

Robert Plant's voice changed from Physical Graffiti onward anyway because he had vocal surgery.