Disappointing albums you've purchased...

In today's internet age, you rarely have to buy an album without hearing samples first, so you get burned less. Back in the day, I would drop all kinds of money on CDs based on their covers, and would often be greatly disappointed. Still happens occasionally.

Some of these albums weren't bad...they just didn't live up to, or match their covers:

Back when I was head over heals in love with power metal, I bought this, based on the cover. I was sorely disappointed, and still think it is one of the worst metal albums I've purchased:



This album is a good album. But it wasn't what I expected. I was expecting a seriously sleazy, glammy record. Or like W.A.S.P. or something. After my initial shock, I grew to love the album, but I still don't think the cover matches the hand-clapping, stomping 70s glam style music:



And this album is not bad. The music is pretty good, but I do not like the vocalist...he pretty much ruins it. Though, in my eyes, it would be hard for any music to live up to the awesomeness of this cover:

I'm always surprised how much success I had back then on blind purchases just based on the album art. Some of my all time favorites were found that way.

My problem today is listening to samples, thinking it sounds great, buying, and then when listening to the whole album not feeling it like I did with the clips. I've since tried to always play four or five songs in their entirety before buying.

I was disappointed in Wrathchild's The Biz Suxx. Luckily got it for a bargain price.

Raven's "Glow". Ugh

Pantera's Great Southern Trendkill. Not sure what I was expecting but I did not like it at all. I didn't keep it very long.


Also Metallica's Load. I had heard one of the tunes on the radio and thought that maybe that one was just the song written as a single for radio play but the rest are just as weak.

Metallica - Load - Terrible.
Megadeth - Risk - WTF???
Testament - Demonic - I wanted something more like Low.

Some of the RISK albums i bought were dispointing, i expected them to be a lot better. I agree with GLOW by RAVEN, their worse album. Also WAR TO END ALL WARS by YNGWIE MALMSTEEN was disappointing. About WRATHCHILD UK, i always loved their albums. They are back today in 2012 with a new singer and they released a new album thats not bad (STAKKATAKKTWO).

In Flames - Sounds of a Playground Fading (ok, not great, but not bad)
Christopher Titus - Neverlution (Not funny at all)
Machine Head - Supercharger (I was expecting something more like the Blackening... Not this)
Sonata Arctica - Unia & Winterhearts Guild. (Ummmmm... )
Teramaze - Anhedonia

The Gates of Slumber rule. The band members, however, are total dickbags.

jettafiend wrote:

Machine Head - Supercharger (I was expecting something more like the Blackening... Not this)

Apparently that was a recent purchase? Some good songs on that one, but basically that's a band bending to label pressure to be relevant. By far their worst album.

I'll be honest, I wasn't impressed at all with the new Kreator. I've tried numerous times to listen to it since I bought it but it just hasn't clicked right like their other albums. To me it feels so similar to their last three that nothing really draws me to it over the other ones

That's probably the only album I can think of in any recent history

The worst album I ever bought was probably Nightrage's "Descent into Chaos" or Battlore's "The Last Alliance". I did not care for them at all.

On the other hand, my two best blind purchases were Dark Tranquillity's "The Gallery" and Dismember's "The God That Never Was". The former made me sink deeply into a state of melancholy while the latter tore my face off and force fed it to me.

Eyesore wrote:

jettafiend wrote:

Machine Head - Supercharger (I was expecting something more like the Blackening... Not this)

Apparently that was a recent purchase? Some good songs on that one, but basically that's a band bending to label pressure to be relevant. By far their worst album.

About 6 months ago from a thriftstore. Same trip netted 3 Arch Enemy, 4 BLS, The Union Underground, PM5K, and some other random stuff. All-in-all the only thing that sucked was the Machine Head album.

I will say that Arch Enemy is AWESOME! Having never heard them before as I am not a fan of death metal, I was very pleasantly surprised.

2 fairly recent purches come to mind...

Slash - Apocalyptic Love
Grand Magus - The Hunt

I think maybe I set my expectations too high for both albums as I really enjoyed everything else I've heard from both. But both albums have failed to click with me thusfar. I'll revisit both albums before the end of the year, so maybe something will grab me on another go-round.

Andy wrote:

The worst album I ever bought was probably Nightrage's "Descent into Chaos" or Battlore's "The Last Alliance". I did not care for them at all.

I bought a Battlelore album, I forget which one, around 2004 or so. It was terrible. I listened to it maybe twice, and promptly sold it.

Testament-Low
The title track is just so good, none of the other songs really reach that height for me.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Andy wrote:

The worst album I ever bought was probably Nightrage's "Descent into Chaos" or Battlore's "The Last Alliance". I did not care for them at all.

I bought a Battlelore album, I forget which one, around 2004 or so. It was terrible. I listened to it maybe twice, and promptly sold it.

Battlelore is brilliant, you turds!

Eyesore wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Andy wrote:

The worst album I ever bought was probably Nightrage's "Descent into Chaos" or Battlore's "The Last Alliance". I did not care for them at all.

I bought a Battlelore album, I forget which one, around 2004 or so. It was terrible. I listened to it maybe twice, and promptly sold it.

Battlelore is brilliant, you turds!

I love 2003's "Sword's Song" but otherwise they suffer from a an extreme sense of inconsistency. Which sucks because I really do dig that album, A LOT, but have no taste for anything else as I find it horrifically mediocre, uninspired, and derivative.

Too many to name, but one specific one that stands out is SYL's "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing".

It had Devin (who I loved from that VAI album) and Hoglan (who I loved on everything) on it and it didn't have a single moment of music that I enjoyed. Saw em live years later and it solidifed my opinion that even great musicians can make terrible bands.

My latest disappointing purchase was Ministry's "Relapse" album. I read how it was almost a return to the Psalm 69 days. No it's not; it's just more screaming from Al and co. I know Ministry is not noted for being "melodic" but I just hear more sense of melody on albums like "Psalm 69", "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste" and "Land of Rape & Honey" than anything Ministry has produced in nearly a decade.

Motley Crue - Generation Swine

That came out when I lived down in Tampa in 96-97 and I was craving ANYTHING that did not smell like patchouli or coco-butter or where the singer had to wear a red baseball cap. Pretty sure I still have never heard more than half of the songs on there to this day.

tohostudios wrote:

My latest disappointing purchase was Ministry's "Relapse" album. I read how it was almost a return to the Psalm 69 days. No it's not; it's just more screaming from Al and co. I know Ministry is not noted for being "melodic" but I just hear more sense of melody on albums like "Psalm 69", "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste" and "Land of Rape & Honey" than anything Ministry has produced in nearly a decade.

Ya gotta crank this one way loud, Toho. It makes all the difference. Personally, I love it.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Too many to name, but one specific one that stands out is SYL's "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing".

It had Devin (who I loved from that VAI album) and Hoglan (who I loved on everything) on it and it didn't have a single moment of music that I enjoyed. Saw em live years later and it solidifed my opinion that even great musicians can make terrible bands.

Hoglan wasn't on the album. Most of the drumming is actually a drum machine. Either way, it's not the best album. I have fond memories of it because I bought it while in basic training, on town pass down in San Antonio. I bought that album, Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children, and Life Of Agony's Ugly, all on tape.

In tech school, those are the three albums I listened to for basically the entire time, as I had no convenient way to buy additional music. So yeah, surely the weakest of Devin's output, but it has a special place in my heart. Haha.

The majority of the rest of SYL's catalog, however, is just bad-ass.

I thought Hoglan was on at least a few tracks, but I couldn't tell.

These days I generally try to hear an entire album prior to purchasing it, there are probably less than 10 bands I would automatically purchase without hearing a note.

Because of that I'm having a hard time remembering what the last album I was really let down by.

Possibly the Hisingin Blues album by Graveyard, not that it was terrible, I was just disappointed because I had seen them live twice the year before and the album didn't even come close to capturing the energy of their shows.

Hammerfall - Infected
Sonata Arctica - Unia and the last one