Unpopular Metal Opinions

I really get a lot of enjoyment reading the rym unpopular musical opinions board, especially when posters get ever so indignant as if they have been personally insulted. So I thought it might be fun to start one for The Academy. I'll kick off then:

1. Number of the Beast was a serious let down after the immense Killers.

2. Piece of Mind is the best Maiden album with Bruce Dickinson. Seventh Son.. is pretentious shite.

3. Defenders of the Faith is only the fourth best Priest album.

4. Avant-garde metal is inherently bollocks and is played by artists who wish they weren't playing metal at all!

5. Devin Townsend is the single most overrated metal musician of all time.

6. Ace of Spades is not as good an album as Bomber.

7. Diabolus in Musica is a decent album and is certainly better than Divine Intervention and the 2000s stuff.

8. Post-metal is not metal.

9. Gothic Metal does not equate to doom metal.

10. Anthrax made two of the best thrash albums of the eighties.

11. Machine Head are better than Pantera.

And if none of those get you going - Death were fucking average!!

I stand by every one of these!

This should be fun. Here's my responses:

1. "The Number of The Beast" was the most sophisticated metal album released to the time & a significant step up from the Dianno years which were OK but massively overrated in my opinion. In fact, neither "Iron Maiden" or "Killers" made my NWOBHM top ten list.

2. "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" is the second best heavy metal album of all time behind "Somewhere In Time" in my opinion. I find "Piece Of Mind" to be the weakest of the Dickinson-fronted Maiden albums of the 1980's, mainly due to a dud track & a dodgy production job.

3. "Defenders of the Faith" is the second best Priest studio album behind "Painkiller".

4. Pretty much agree with that.

5. Disagree. He's certainly divisive but his unpredictability, personality, durability & overall talent make him a pretty special member of the Hall.

6. Disagree although there's not much between them. "Overkill" is Motorhead's best studio album for mine.

7. I agree that it's not that bad an album however "Divine Intervention" is massively underrated & is a step up from anything they did afterwards. The only Slayer albums not worth my time are "Undisputed Attitude" & "World Painted Blood".

8. Post-metal is most certainly metal & can in fact be some of the most intense you'll find.

9. Completely agree.

10. Completely agree. I don't think that's an unpopular opinion either.

11. Completed disagree. Pantera were light-years ahead of Machine Head.

12. Couldn't disagree more. Death sit amongst the top three death metal bands of all time.

Here's some of Black Sabbath related ones for ya:

1. Black Sabbath only have one genuinely classic album i.e. "Paranoid".

2. "Cross Purposes" & "Seventh Star" aren't bad records & are significantly better than duds like "Technical Ecstasy" & "Never Say Die!".

3. "Live Evil" is the best Sabbath live album.

4. "Heaven & Hell" is overrated & is actually pretty commercially focused. "Mob Rules" is much better.

5. "Vol. 4" isn't all that it's cracked up to be & is comfortably the weakest of Sabbath's first six. "Dehumanizer" & "Headless Cross" are better records.

OK, I shall likewise respond:

1. Disagree, but you're right - that is an unpopular opinion!

2. Better than Never Say Die maybe, but better than an album that contains Gypsy, You Won't Change Me and Dirty Women? I must strongly object, sir!

3. In all honesty, I don't rate any of Sabbath's live albums anywhere near as much as the Heaven and Hell album Live From Radio City Music Hall.

4. Agree - and Falling off the Edge of the World is the best Dio era Sabbath track.

5. Also agree. It's actually a bit all over the place in my opinion.

And for an added bonus: Ozzy Osborne only made one good album after he left Sabbath and that was Blizzard of Ozz.

Just to correct myself on my own point 3. I meant to write Painkiller, not Defenders of the Faith (that's about number six). I much prefer Sad Wings, Sin After Sin and Stained Class that they put out before they consciously tried to become the biggest metal band in the world and sold out. I'll just illustrate what I mean - on the Stained Class tour they charged about a quid for a programme. On the next tour less than a year later, after Take on the World had been on Top of the Pops, metal was growing in popularity and a load of middle-class kids got their parents to take them to the gig, the cheeky bastards wanted to charge £2.50. I said "fuck off" and never bought another concert programme again. So for being such a bunch of lousy sell-outs I stand by this claim that their best albums were when they cared about the music, not the money and fame and started fleecing their fans.

For the record, this is easily the best Sabbath live recording I've heard:

If it had of been released as a live album I would have regarded it is a genuine classic.

"Voodoo" is my favourite Dio-fronted Sabbath track & one of my all-time favourites for the heavy metal subgenre overall.

I think all of Ozzy's 80's & 90's solo releases are worth listening to (mainly for the guitarists) but none are essential. "Diary Of A Madman" is the best of them in my opinion as it's a little less commercially focused & a bit darker than "Blizzard Of Ozz".

I might put together a list of Priest-related opinions next because I think you'll find some of my thoughts to be quite shocking. ;)

For the record, I am never shocked by other people's opinions... only by the fact that they don't realise they are wrong!!

Daniel has already had a shot at your unpopular opinions (which are entirely valid for you to have), so I won't do the same. I'll simply say that I only agree with the same points that Daniel did, so perhaps 4, 9 and 10 are not as unpopular as you think.

Oh, and yes, your final Death comment does make me bite. You might as well have said that Metallica and Slayer have never made a good album. So well done there! 

I really get a lot of enjoyment reading the rym unpopular musical opinions board, especially when posters get ever so indignant as if they have been personally insulted. So I thought it might be fun to start one for The Academy. I'll kick off then:

1. Number of the Beast was a serious let down after the immense Killers.

2. Piece of Mind is the best Maiden album with Bruce Dickinson. Seventh Son.. is pretentious shite.

3. Defenders of the Faith is only the fourth best Priest album.

4. Avant-garde metal is inherently bollocks and is played by artists who wish they weren't playing metal at all!

5. Devin Townsend is the single most overrated metal musician of all time.

6. Ace of Spades is not as good an album as Bomber.

7. Diabolus in Musica is a decent album and is certainly better than Divine Intervention and the 2000s stuff.

8. Post-metal is not metal.

9. Gothic Metal does not equate to doom metal.

10. Anthrax made two of the best thrash albums of the eighties.

11. Machine Head are better than Pantera.

And if none of those get you going - Death were fucking average!!

I stand by every one of these!

For my responses, a few of them are what I actually think and the others are based on whether you're "right or wrong".

1. Oh really?? Number of the Beast was the first album with Bruce Dickinson and helped propel the band into success, despite some speed-bumps of controversy.

2. Piece of Mind continues the successful Bruce Dickinson era, but Seventh Son is more progressive. You seem to be quite selective in Iron Maiden's classic 80s era, Sonny.

3. Ok then... It would be interesting to hear what your top 3 are.

4. I don't think so. Maudlin of the Well sound like they were having fun with their metal, though their last one had no metal at all.

5. Are you serious?! Devin Townsend is one of the most talented progressive metal musicians of all time! And I just got interested in his music after listening to Terria.

6. Ace of Spades is kind of the Number of the Beast of Motorhead, propelling the band into success. With that, I'm interested to hear what you think of Iron Fist.

7. Divine Intervention is no Reign of Blood, but it's another popular album. But their next album (besides that cover album) Diabolus in Musica began their dreaded nu metal.

8. What!? Yes it is! Bands like Rosetta have heavily intense music, though that band wasn't accepted into the Metal Archives. You really don't like the Infinite genres, do you?

9. For most of those bands maybe, but some bands equate the two genres like Ava Inferi, Draconian, and Type O Negative.

10. Well that depends, are you gonna say Among the Living isn't as good as the two surrounding albums? Please correct me if I'm wrong...

11. I've listened to a few Machine Head albums. Though Pantera is more famous, Machine Head is probably better for me since I like my groove modern (except Catharsis).

12. Death? What do you know about Death? All I know is, they're more than just "f***ing average", inspiring many bands like Children of Bodom (see the reference there?).

So it looks like you're quite selective when it comes to classic albums from bands like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Slayer, and possibly Judas Priest and Anthrax. You also seem to think Devin Townsend, Pantera, and Death are overrated despite being masters of their respective genres. And you dislike genres like avant-garde metal, post-metal, and gothic metal. Your opinions might not be similar to what others tend to believe (which is kind of the point of this thread), and we might not see eye-to-eye on many things, but like I said in one of my threads, respecting what people think is key!

Here are a few of my own unpopular opinions that come to mind...

1. Opeth's Morningrise is the worst of their first 6 albums.

2. Pestilence's Spheres is their best work (or at least on par with Testimony of the Ancients).

3. Dimmu Borgir were at one point a really great band.

4. Everything Hellhammer ever released was fairly shit.

5. The Sound of Perseverance is Death's worst album

Here are some of my own:

1. The Crusade was a thrashy letdown after Trivium's killer metalcore breakthrough Ascendancy.

2. In Waves is the best Trivium album, Silence in the Snow is just scream-less classic metal sh*t.

3. The Sin and the Sentence is my 4th favorite Trivium album and What the Dead Men Say is #3.

4. Grindcore is just eardrum-piercing noise, and you can't claim you can survive listening to that noise for 24 hours without me thinking that's bullsh*t.

5. The standard gory death metal is overrated, melodic death metal deserves more attention.

6. DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown is good, but not as much as the incredible Inhuman Rampage.

7. Extreme Power Metal is DragonForce's epic comeback after the rest of the Marc Hudson era.

8. Who on earth agreed with Kawaii metal being a thing? It's just girly anime music metalized. But I can't p*ss on Babymetal's "Road of Resistance", DragonForce is in there!

9. Why are trance metal and trancecore not equated to each other?! They connect like a puzzle!

10. Voivod's 80s era is as awesome as what people think of other thrash bands from that decade.

11. Lamb of God is better than Machine Head, by far.

12. If Woods of Ypres founder David Gold wasn't killed and the band kept going, I'm pretty sure by now they would discard all of their black metal for just pure gothic/doom.

I don't know if many of you would agree with most of my opinions, but I would like to hear what you think!

1. Opeth's Morningrise is the worst of their first 6 albums.

Orchid is my least favorite of their initial metal era. Morningrise is a more improved beast!

So it looks like you're quite selective when it comes to classic albums from bands like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Slayer, and possibly Judas Priest and Anthrax. You also seem to think Devin Townsend, Pantera, and Death are overrated despite being masters of their respective genres. And you dislike genres like avant-garde metal, post-metal, and gothic metal. Your opinions might not be similar to what others tend to believe (which is kind of the point of this thread), and we might not see eye-to-eye on many things, but like I said in one of my threads, respecting what people think is key!

Hey, what can I say, I'm just a flawed individual!

Here are a few of my own unpopular opinions that come to mind...

1. Opeth's Morningrise is the worst of their first 6 albums.

2. Pestilence's Spheres is their best work (or at least on par with Testimony of the Ancients).

3. Dimmu Borgir were at one point a really great band.

4. Everything Hellhammer ever released was fairly shit.

5. The Sound of Perseverance is Death's worst album

1. I agree with Andi on this. "Orchid" wasn't the finished article yet as far as I'm concerned & (despite quite liking it) I've never seen it as being on the same level as the rest of Opeth's extreme metal phase.

2. I can see where you're coming from but I'd go with "Testimony Of The Ancients" personally. Interestingly, the consensus seems to be "Consuming Impulse" these days.

3. I agree but possibly not for the exact same period. I've got 2001-2003. What about you?

4. I agree that the "Death Fiend" & "Triumph Of Death" demos are pretty ordinary but "Satanic Rites" & "Apocalyptic Raids" are definitely worth a listen even if they aren't the classics they're often made out to be in black metal circles & aren't on the same level as Celtic Frost.

5. I'd actually take "The Sound Of Perseverance" over the first three Death records but there are no right answers when it comes to that band. They had arguably the most consistent back catalogue in extreme metal.

4. Grindcore is just eardrum-piercing noise, and you can't claim you can survive listening to that noise for 24 hours without me thinking that's bullsh*t.

5. The standard gory death metal is overrated, melodic death metal deserves more attention.

9. Why are trance metal and trancecore not equated to each other?! They connect like a puzzle!

10. Voivod's 80s era is as awesome as what people think of other thrash bands from that decade.

Quoted shadowdoom9

4. I disagree. Grindcore can be thoroughly exhilarating when done well.

5. I disagree. Old school death metal is infinitely more appealing than the vast majority of melodeath in my opinion. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I've never heard a melodeath release that I regard as a legitimate classic.

9. I'd argue that a lot of trancecore isn't actually metal whereas I don't generally dispute the claims of trance metal which can actually be pretty heavy even though it's coated in cheese.

10. That's hardly an unpopular opinion Andi. Albums like "Killing Technology", "Dimension Hatross" & "Nothingface" are very highly regarded. And by the way....  Voivod never have & never will be a thrash metal band.

I like these spicy hot takes! Here's some of mine:

• Slayer's Reign in Blood is shit. I never cared for Slayer, and even though Seasons in the Abyss is a classic in every sense of the word, most people excuse this album's awful production as part of the charm. It's not.
• Anthrax were (and still are) the best of the big four. But since were on the topic...
• Testament are the best thrash band that came out of the eighties, with the best overall discography of any of the big four, and should have been apart of the big four instead of that meandering solo shit show that is Dave Mustaine's Megadeth.
• Pantera fans are the worst fans in all of metal. Their idolization of this band as a deity who are incapable of critique is honestly terrifying and my favour with the band has deteriorated greatly because of it since the passing of Dimebag.
• Emperor's best album was Prometheus
• Ænima is still Tool's worst album. Even after having Fear Inoculum for over a year.
• Opeth's progressive rock pivot of the 2010s is not as bad as you initially thought.

That's all I got for now. If this thread keeps up and I see some more spicy hot takes, I may update.

5. The standard gory death metal is overrated, melodic death metal deserves more attention.

I don't think old school classic death metal is overrated, I just think it's garbage!

I'd go so far as to say that I've never heard a melodeath release that I regard as a legitimate classic.

Voivod never have & never will be a thrash metal band.

Not even At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul? That's THE melodeath classic!

I've never heard a lot of people besides you say Voivod isn't thrash metal at all. #6 on your list, Daniel!

• Opeth's progressive rock pivot of the 2010s is not as bad as you initially thought.

True but it's not the best either. The 1998-2007 era (except Damnation) is the pinnacle of their career!

Here's some Metallica-related opinions I hold:

1. I'm certainly not saying that I find it to be an enjoyable experience but I'd actually take the "Lulu" collaboration with Lou Reed over "St. Anger", "Load", "Reload" or "Death Magnetic" which I just regard as being nothing more than musical masturbation. The first disk is utterly disgraceful but the second is actually pretty decent if you give it a chance & at least they tried something different instead of chasing further commercial success or presenting poor replications of past glories.

2. Despite the common consensus, "Kill 'Em All" is actually the LEAST thrash metal of Metallica's first four albums. At least half of the tracklisting is made up of traditional heavy metal & speed metal numbers in my opinion.

3. I have no problem with the production on "...And Justice For All". In fact, it's their heaviest, classiest, angriest, thrashiest, most complex & best overall album.

4. Cliff Burton's contribution to Metallica's classic releases is overstated. Yes he was a great bassist but the legendary status he seems to have built up since his death is over the top. He provided good support for the two primary song-writers & taught them a bit of musical theory along the way but he wasn't the primary ingredient in what made Metallica special. It was there before he joined the band & was still there afterwards too.

5. There's nothing wrong with Lars' drumming on the classic Metallica albums.

6. "Creeping Death" actually has a pretty commercial sounding chorus & (even though I really like it) I don't think it's stood the test of time as well as the rest of the album. It's a bit overrated in my opinion.

7. "The Black Album" is actually a pretty solid heavy metal album & doesn't deserve the flack it gets in underground metal circles.

I'd go so far as to say that I've never heard a melodeath release that I regard as a legitimate classic.

Voivod never have & never will be a thrash metal band.

Not even At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul? That's THE melodeath classic!

I've never heard a lot of people besides you say Voivod isn't thrash metal at all. #6 on your list, Daniel!

No, not even "Slaughter Of The Soul" which I regard as the finest melodeath release I've ever heard.

And with regards to Voivod, Ben & I have often pondered as to why no one has questioned their thrash credentials before because it's always seemed like a stretch to both of us. In fact, since I started advertising my opinions on this topic I've received a general agreement from most people I've spoken to so I stand by my position on that. You don't agree?

Of course the 80s albums by Voivod have been either speed metal or progressive metal, but I say there's a great significant amount of thrash in their first 4 albums. In fact, they're part of the Canadian Big 4 of thrash, together with Sacrifice, Razor, and Annihilator, so why dethrone such an honor? However, there is one album that I object to one other genre label-slapped on, and that is Phobos with the Sphere clan and industrial metal tag! See my submission here: https://metal.academy/forum/28/thread/589

Here are my general ones

1. Lyrics matter. Bad lyrics ruin good stuff for me, and they always equate into a rating unless I don't understand the language (even then I will translate if possible). Bad lyrics are no different than bad guitar to me. 

2. I don't care about impact or historical significance or anything like that. I listen to music in a vacuum. And thus...

3. 70's metal, in general, is not that great. It's only revered because it came first. Basically one riff and a guitar solo away from Hard Rock. There was almost no innovation for the first decade, whereas the 80's saw a massive explosion in subgenres, technique, delivery, etc. There is not a single 70's metal album I consider a masterpiece, with Judas Priest's Sin After Sin being my favorite, but nowhere near my top.

4. Atmosphere, mood, emotion, delivery > technical skill, prowess, wankery, complexity 

5. Doom Metal is one of my favorite genres, but 80's Doom is really bland. Even Cadlemass is not among my favorite Doom artists. I feel 80's Doom had not yet captured the - as I mention above - atmosphere and mood that it gained in the 90's that made it a truly melancholic genre rather than just a lethargic and boring one.

Here are more specific ones

1. All In Flames albums are great, and their dive into Alternative Metal still makes them one of the most innovative bands ever. One day people will realize these guys basically perfected Pop Metal and once the stigma for that dies I believe they will get the credit they deserve.

2. Since I see the name being thrown around... Thrash Voivod > Prog Voivod

3. Most underground Thrash is better than any of the Big 4 barring Slayer. The other 3 were pretty much Thrash lite and that's probably why they got popular. (I still love them, just love my dark underground Thrash more).

4. St. Anger is not that bad? Not great, but... 

I hear no thrash metal in Voivod either. As for never hearing anyone else say that Voivod don't play thrash, well the debut just had thrash metal removed from it after easily passing through the Hall of Judgement.

I like these spicy hot takes! Here's some of mine:

• Slayer's Reign in Blood is shit. I never cared for Slayer, and even though Seasons in the Abyss is a classic in every sense of the word, most people excuse this album's awful production as part of the charm. It's not.
• Anthrax were (and still are) the best of the big four. But since were on the topic...
• Testament are the best thrash band that came out of the eighties, with the best overall discography of any of the big four, and should have been apart of the big four instead of that meandering solo shit show that is Dave Mustaine's Megadeth.
• Pantera fans are the worst fans in all of metal. Their idolization of this band as a deity who are incapable of critique is honestly terrifying and my favour with the band has deteriorated greatly because of it since the passing of Dimebag.
• Emperor's best album was Prometheus
• Ænima is still Tool's worst album. Even after having Fear Inoculum for over a year.
• Opeth's progressive rock pivot of the 2010s is not as bad as you initially thought.

That's all I got for now. If this thread keeps up and I see some more spicy hot takes, I may update.

Reign in Blood is shit!? That's more than unpopular. It's blasphemy! Which makes it perfect for this thread.

I think the big 4 for me would be Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, then Anthrax. I'd put Testament above Anthrax, and possibly Megadeth too.