DIS vs DAT - Genre vs Genre - The Pit Edition
Inspired by Chris Van Ettan splitting hairs over which genre an album from a different clan has (thrash or speed metal, death metal or grindcore, power metal or trad metal and sludge vs. stoner vs. doom), I decided to continue the DIS vs DAT activity with an interesting twist; instead of voting on which album has the greater edge, we do it with genres from one of the clans instead. Single-genre clans (like The Gateway and The Sphere) would be divided into hidden subgenres that some of us have heard of but are never listed in the site (for example, alternative metal vs nu metal, industrial metal vs neue Deutsche härte). This should be a nice interesting challenge for Chris and other members of the site. Got two or three albums from a different genre in the same clan and same release year but can't decide which one has the greater edge? Share them here!
Let's starts off with two Pit albums released in 1985. I haven't listened to any of these albums myself, so this is up to listeners of these albums to decide. Which one of these albums with a different genre has the greater edge? Choose one and explain the reason!
Speed metal:
Thrash metal:
Celtic Frost get this one but not by as much as most people would probably think for an old school thrasher like myself. I actually rate both of these releases at 4/5 as they're both very strong but I don't regard either as sitting among the greatest releases in my life. "To Mega Therion" is just a slightly more consistent record than "Skeptics Apocalypse" in my opinion. It has a greater quantity of highlight tracks.
Update due to Daniel's vote:
Skeptics Apocalypse - 0
To Mega Therion - 1
I might give both releases a listen myself to vote which one I think is greater, but not right now because I'm still doing The Fallen Gothic Metal Modern Era challenge and plan on doing another one of my own extra credit review challenges afterwards. I'll be able to listen to and review those two Pit releases in...two weeks, maybe?
I've just listened to and reviewed both of those 1985 Pit albums, and I consider them both great strong 4.5/5 classics that were important turning points in the development of their respective genres back then. But the one I prefer is... Skeptics Apocalypse! Yeah, I prefer Agent Steel's debut which pleasantly brings back a few flashbacks to the late 80s speedy power metal I used to listen to. Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion may fit in as thrash metal but is known for influencing extreme genres like death metal and black metal and that doesn't suit my anti-blasphemous interests. So yeah, Skeptics Apocalypse it is for me!
Skeptics Apocalypse - 1
To Mega Therion - 1
I've not even heard the Agent Steel album... and I don't need to.
To Mega Therion tops nearly everything so that's where my vote goes!
(In the interests of fairness I will check out Skeptics Apocalypse, but I hope it's better than the title!)
Update due to Sonny's vote:
Skeptics Apocalypse - 1
To Mega Therion - 2
Since it's been almost 6 months and no further activity has been made in this thread, I'm gonna end it here and declare the winner of part 1, which is... Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion, two to one!! So for part 2, let's take Celtic Frost further into the tournament and pair it up with a different album from a subgenre I'm more familiar with. That's right, we're gonna do unlisted thrash metal subgenres for this round! However, I'm not gonna start part 2 just yet because (spoilers) the other release I have in mind is a Voivod album and I'm waiting for the results of a new different DIS vs DAT thread involving Voivod and another band. For more info and to vote in that thread, it's in this link: https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/591